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!!!
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