In my house we have a membership to the zoo and go about every other week or so. The trips are something to do and quite unmemorable. This summer I will get to take a trip to a zoo that will be a memorable day for me and an UNFORGETTABLE day for the children that let me go with them.
Most of the children in the village of Busega, Uganda have never gone further than the village limits or to the villages neighboring them. Their view of the country they live is poverty and suffering everywhere they walk. In the last couple of years, some of the children of the village have started to attend a local school and gain an education. I wonder what they think of this education and what they will do with it. How can they dream and imagine beyond their current circumstances if they never see it with their own eyes.
Pastor Samuel, from Return Ministries, and I have been planning a trip for some of the children while I am visiting them. We will be taking the kids about an hour away from their village to Uganda Wildlife Education Center. A day to see the beauty of the country God has placed them in, to see the beautiful animals that inhabit their homeland, to be kids, and most importantly to start launching some dreams withing them.
This past year has been spent trying to meet some physical needs for these children in the way of food and clothing, but when I am there in person I have another need I would like to address. I have been reading a book about poverty, and it described the greatest needs being of the psychological and social kind. While these children live everyday feeling left out from the rest of society, on this zoo day they will simply be another group of children in awe of the animals and having a picnic lunch together. This would be nothing to my children at home...this will be everything to these children in Uganda.
I'm not going with a missions group to Uganda this year, I am going there on my own. However, I will never be alone. I will be well taken care of by Pastor Samuel and his wife Sarah. Going on my own has some great advantages, but one of the disadvantages is funding an outing like this with a team of one. We have priced it out and with the cost of admission, bus rental, adult supervision, and a simple lunch it comes out to be roughly $20/kid. $20 for a day they will NEVER forget! We set a goal of 30 kids hoping I can raise enough to fill that bus. That comes to $600 and I have already had some wonderful donors that have covered half of that!!! We are $300 away from all 30 kids going. We can take as many kids as we get sponsored to go, but I am really hoping to at least get these last 15 kids covered.
If you would like to sponsor a kid for this unforgettable day, simply hit the Paypal button on the top of this page and put in the comment "Zoo Day". Just $20/kid
I can't imagine how spectacular the pictures from this day will be!!!
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Sunday, May 26, 2013
Packing 101
As I prepare for my missions trip this summer, I have to pace myself because I get so excited that I just want to pack my bags and get on a plane! However, there is still a bit of planning to be done before the fun can begin. Speaking of packing bags, that will be the hardest part for me. We are allowed 2 fifty pound bags to check and one will be filled with dresses headed to Uganda from In My Mother's Honor while the other one will be filled with things for the ministries we will work with in Ethiopia and gifts for some kids over there sent from sponsors here in the states. Where will my two weeks worth of clothes and things be packed? Those will be in my carry on and a backpack. Okay, I know if my dad just read this while drinking coffee, that coffee has now been spit all over the computer and I'm sorry about that.
These trips are all about being stretched. Stretched emotionally, spiritually, physically, and evidently I am going to working on my traveling skills A TON this year. Let me share a little story with you. Twelve years ago (today in fact) Neil and I were married. We headed out on our glamorous honeymoon to Jamaica with all five pieces of our new luggage for our one week vacation. When we arrived in Jamaica, several Jamaicans laughed at us asking if all that luggage was for us. We didn't get the joke...now I do. How silly we must have looked. What an embarrassing display of Americanism we were.
The years have changed me a lot and I will be so glad to show up in Africa with four pieces of luggage and having almost none of it be for me. So when you see pictures this summer and I'm in the same outfit again...and again, you will smile at all the growth that is happening in me.
These trips are all about being stretched. Stretched emotionally, spiritually, physically, and evidently I am going to working on my traveling skills A TON this year. Let me share a little story with you. Twelve years ago (today in fact) Neil and I were married. We headed out on our glamorous honeymoon to Jamaica with all five pieces of our new luggage for our one week vacation. When we arrived in Jamaica, several Jamaicans laughed at us asking if all that luggage was for us. We didn't get the joke...now I do. How silly we must have looked. What an embarrassing display of Americanism we were.
The years have changed me a lot and I will be so glad to show up in Africa with four pieces of luggage and having almost none of it be for me. So when you see pictures this summer and I'm in the same outfit again...and again, you will smile at all the growth that is happening in me.
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
The Gavel is Down and the Numbers are in!
I am seriously blown away by the results from the online auction for my missions trip this summer!
First let me talk a little bit about the auction. Without awesome donations of auction items from Abbadabba Bags, The Painted Piano, Family Christian Bookstore, In My Mother's Honor, Starbucks, and Jump City this would not have been as much fun. I loved seeing the chatter between bidders and I'm really going to miss seeing that tomorrow on my facebook feed. I saw bidders that were new friends, old friends, lots of family members far away, in-laws of my family members, friends of friends, and even an old co-worker of my sister's. This reached way beyond what I ever could have dreamed. I no longer felt alone in this. Watching the bids was greater support for my soul than any amount of money could ever have been.
If you had asked me how fundraising was going this time last week, I would have said that I really wasn't sure how I was going to get to this seemingly insurmountable goal. Not only did I have the expenses with the Visiting Orphans team, but also for my work in Uganda. It is with great joy that I share these numbers with you tonight.
My numbers are still a little rough until they purchase our tickets this week or next, but this is a close guess.
Last week I was approximately $1600 short
In my wildest dreams I hoped to raise $500 from the auction
In reality, you all donated $1306!!!!!!!!
Now I am approximately $300 short. Wow!!!
If any of you bid, didn't win, but still wanted to donate, please feel free to hit the donate button on this page :)
Anything raised above my trip costs will go to a project I'm working on in Uganda. The pastor at Return Ministries and I are working on a field trip for about 30 kids while I am there. These children live in a beautiful country and most have never seen past their small village. Our goal is to show them a bit of the beauty God has blessed them with. We are going to take them to a zoo/safari park about an hour away. It will be a carefree day of play and seeing the most amazing animals. My goal is that they would stop seeing all these Americans coming to visit them and dream of someday going to America thinking that is their only hope. For many of them, this may never be an option. I want them to see the beauty around them and start to dream of a better life within their country. The cost is $20 per kid which includes the bus rental, lunch, and pass to the park. We will take as many kids as we can afford to, but our beginning goal is 30 kids. If that is something that you are interested in supporting, just put "Uganda safari" in the memo line when you hit the donate button on this page.
The generous hearts that are obviously all around me have me in tears tonight. I always knew I was going to Africa, but now I can really say, "I'M GOING TO AFRICA"!!!
Thank you
First let me talk a little bit about the auction. Without awesome donations of auction items from Abbadabba Bags, The Painted Piano, Family Christian Bookstore, In My Mother's Honor, Starbucks, and Jump City this would not have been as much fun. I loved seeing the chatter between bidders and I'm really going to miss seeing that tomorrow on my facebook feed. I saw bidders that were new friends, old friends, lots of family members far away, in-laws of my family members, friends of friends, and even an old co-worker of my sister's. This reached way beyond what I ever could have dreamed. I no longer felt alone in this. Watching the bids was greater support for my soul than any amount of money could ever have been.
If you had asked me how fundraising was going this time last week, I would have said that I really wasn't sure how I was going to get to this seemingly insurmountable goal. Not only did I have the expenses with the Visiting Orphans team, but also for my work in Uganda. It is with great joy that I share these numbers with you tonight.
My numbers are still a little rough until they purchase our tickets this week or next, but this is a close guess.
Last week I was approximately $1600 short
In my wildest dreams I hoped to raise $500 from the auction
In reality, you all donated $1306!!!!!!!!
Now I am approximately $300 short. Wow!!!
If any of you bid, didn't win, but still wanted to donate, please feel free to hit the donate button on this page :)
Anything raised above my trip costs will go to a project I'm working on in Uganda. The pastor at Return Ministries and I are working on a field trip for about 30 kids while I am there. These children live in a beautiful country and most have never seen past their small village. Our goal is to show them a bit of the beauty God has blessed them with. We are going to take them to a zoo/safari park about an hour away. It will be a carefree day of play and seeing the most amazing animals. My goal is that they would stop seeing all these Americans coming to visit them and dream of someday going to America thinking that is their only hope. For many of them, this may never be an option. I want them to see the beauty around them and start to dream of a better life within their country. The cost is $20 per kid which includes the bus rental, lunch, and pass to the park. We will take as many kids as we can afford to, but our beginning goal is 30 kids. If that is something that you are interested in supporting, just put "Uganda safari" in the memo line when you hit the donate button on this page.
The generous hearts that are obviously all around me have me in tears tonight. I always knew I was going to Africa, but now I can really say, "I'M GOING TO AFRICA"!!!
Thank you
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)