Day 7 – Ethiopian Adventures and the Fistula Hospital

We woke up way too early today, had breakfast and split into two groups. Most of the group went to the bank and shopping at the “post office” (a market for tourists). Kari, Veet, Joe and Carrie , Dee Dee and I went to search for (my BFF Kari’s Daughter) Zoie’s birth mom. It was quite an exciting adventure! We first stopped at the police station where they thought she was dropped off. We found that it was not the right one. Next we went to a clinic where Zoie’s mom had taken her for her vaccinations. We spent several hours trying to research to see if maybe Zoie was born there. We did find her name on the vaccination records, but not on the birth records. The doctors and midwives were so friendly and helpful. After that dead end, we went to the area where the vaccination report listed their address (they don’t have actual addresses in most of Ethiopia, just districts). We found her old neighborhood, and drove around for a while. Eventually we went to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. This is where women in trouble go to find help. We got out of the van to take pictures and were suddenly surrounded by people wondering what the “Ferenge” (white people) were doing in their neighborhood. There were several older boys (probably 20-25 years old) who came over to talk to me. I tried to explain what we were doing, and then showed them the photo album of our family. As we were leaving they asked to have their photo taken. I will post that later. Unfortunately, the church, was a dead end for the search, but Kari loved seeing the neighborhood where Zoie’s birth mom lived. We are still praying that we will find her before we leave. And if not now, maybe when Kari (and I??) return in Feb.
We stopped at a bank to change money, then went to visit the Fistula Hospital. We were able to give each of these ladies a bag with several gifts (candy, a bead cross necklace, fingernail polish and other goodies). They were so excited. When we walked back by at the end, we could see the ladies clutching their precious bags to their chests. If you have not seen the movie “A Walk to Beautiful” you need to watch it. It explains this place better than I could. These women have been rejected by their husbands, their friends and their families after miscarrying babies and developing a fistula which makes them smell bad. These women are treated like yesterday’s garbage. The fact that the people at this hospital can not only heal them physically but make them feel whole again is amazing!!
After fistula hospital, we went to Kaldi’s for coffee. I had a Pepsi instead (I wanted a Carmel Macchiato, but they were out of carmel). It started raining just as we left. We went back to the Guest House for the night, had our showers and crashed.

Day 6 – Goodbye Uganda, Hello Ethiopia

We started our day early after a late night packing our things. We had a light breakfast at 7:30am and finished packing and putting everything in the back of the truck.
At about 9:30 we started teaching Sunday School. We split into groups and Veet, Kari Hamilton and I taught the Jr High aged kids. We started with the Name Game, and the kids loved it. We started our lesson on the Fruits of the Spirit and handed out Jolly Rancher candies for them to eat while we taught. We found out they already knew about the Fruits of the Spirit and had the entire verse with the reference memorized!! Oh well!
At 10:30 we ate a quick brunch then said our goodbyes to our new friends. We were on the road by 11:00 for the 3 hour ride to Entebbe Airport.
By the time we reached Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, it was late and we didn’t get to bed until after midnight.
The Guest House where we are staying is so nice!! We are still staying bunk style with three to a room and one bathroom for every 9 people, but at least we have consistent hot water and don’t have to worry about enormous beetles running through your shower!!
So happy to be in Ethiopia! But, really would love a morning to sleep in!!!

Day 5, Our Last Day in Beautiful Uganda

I have a confession to make. When I found out about this trip, I was SO excited to go back to Ethiopia. I had no idea what Uganda would be like, but thought I could make the best of it while I waited for week 2 to Ethiopia. I tell you, I have fallen in love with this country and it’s children. We visited 3 orphanages, 1 baby cottage and a feeding program. All three of the orphanages planned a concert for our welcome. Tonight at Canaan’s Children’s Home, which has been our home for five days, we received another amazing gift. The children performed for over an hour, singing “You are welcome here”, “God bless our visitors” and telling us over and over again how much they loved us. Pastor Isaac told us that our group was different than any other group that has been here. He even got pretty emotional talking about our leaving. I really hope to come back here someday.
This experience in Jinja has really been the adventure I was hoping for. Today we made the 10 minute walk from Canaan’s Children’s home to the place where Katie Davis does her Amazima ministry. We were walking through some of the poorest parts of Uganda. Walking!!! On one side of the street you would see children in rags yelling “Hello Muzungu!!” On the other side of the street would be more children in rags…if they weren’t yelling at us, they were running to us with open arms! They would grab whatever hand was available and walk with us for about a mile before turning around, saying “Bye, bye Muzungu” and going home. There were chickens and their chicks just walking along the road, an occasional cow, ladies washing clothes in old tin tubs – bent in half at the waist, peanuts drying in the sun, old men and women with no teeth, staring as we walked by. Oh, and by the way, this is no nice paved road. There are parts of this orange dirt road that are so washed out there is only 3-4 feet of usable road available for the Boda-bodas (motorcycle taxis which are Everywhere!! Several of our team rented a boda-boda for the trip to Katie’s…but I was too scared!!). I don’t have the words to describe the sights and smells I saw the 4 times I went up and down that road today. Poverty as real as it gets. And you can’t believe how many children there were!! We read yesterday that 47% of Ugandans want to use birth control but can’t afford it. Wow.
So, I finally met Katie Davis. If you have not read her blog, you Must!! Just Google Kisses From Katie. You will be amazed at her story. We had probably 240 kids at the feeding ministry today. We met and interviewed Pastor Patrick and Katie. I may post these later, but I know they will be on my friend Kari’s blog – My Crazy Adoption. Katie was what I was expecting…just a great girl who is being the hands and feet of Jesus. What I wasn’t expecting was the blessing of meeting her staff! Pastor Patrick and his brother just broke my heart with their love for these poverty stricken children. They are amazing men.
We hugged and held hands and played with the kids for the morning. At about 12:00 they started their Bible Study. They have a great leader, who reminded me of every other great Children’s Pastor I have known. He told the story of Gideon with the kids’ interaction and play acting. It was great!
At 1, the kids got in a very orderly line by age, and each got one hardboiled egg to eat while they waited for lunch. Again, they got into their orderly lines and each got a plate with chicken, beans and rice. When they left that afternoon, they each received a bag with rice, beans, (something else) and soap for their families. This happens every Saturday. They still need sponsors – as do most of the kids in each of the programs I have visited this trip. If God is asking you to do something about any of these stories – please let me know. I can help you sponsor a child and I guarantee all the money will go to the children. I have met and fallen in love with these leaders and have full confidence in their integrity. Many of them have given up comfortable lives of their own to care for these fatherless children.
This evening we went to King Fisher Resort (the same place we went to visit the Nile) for dinner. We invited Pastor Isaac, his wife Rebecca, Pastor Patrick, the 4 staff ladies who cleaned our rooms and did our laundry, and our Muslim Bus Driver- Abus (yes, he drove the bus and his name was A-bus – ha!!!). I don’t think Rebecca and Isaac had been out for dinner for 2 years!! Rebecca is always cooking for the children at Canaan’s!! You should have seen the kids’ faces when we pulled out of the compound with their “Mama and Father”! They seemed Very concerned!!! Dinner was great, but not as good as Rebecca’s cooking!
When we were driving from the restaurant back home at dusk, I just tried to take everything in. My last night in Uganda. What an amazing country and amazing people. I tried to memorize the smells, the sights, and the touch of the rainy season air. Again, I really hope I can come back to Canaan’s again someday.
We came back to the compound, dropped off our things, then met in the outdoor chapel where the kids, once again, had prepared our farewell concert. What an incredible time. Some of the children were already crying about our departure. We told them we may be leaving, but they will always be in our hearts.
We head out in the morning for Ethiopia. I am so excited to see my kids’ home country again, but am sad to leave all my new friends and this country that has changed my heart forever.

Day 4 – Canaan’s and Amani Baby Cottage

First of all, did you know that Uganda has bats? There were LOTS and lots of bats, big bats, and little bats. They are not just nocturnal, we have seen them out in huge groups (flocks? Herds? Gaggles? What do you call a group of bats?) even in the middle of the day. I can hear them squeaking outside my window right now!!
OK, so day four. We had breakfast at 9, then headed to the bank to exchange more money if needed. There is a very large bridge and dam in Jinja that not long ago, a group of terrorists tried to bomb. They took pics of the bridge then sent the pics to their leaders to plan the attack. The plan was thwarted, but from that point on no photos were allowed on the bridge. There are armed guards on each side plus video cameras that can see inside the vehicles that drive by. We were told by Pastor Isaac to put all cameras away about a block before the bridge. One of our team members had his camera on the seat between him and another person. Our bus was stopped by that armed guard and we were accused of taking pictures!! Pretty scary. But, our hero Pastor Isaac insisted “No!!!” several times, and they eventually let us go. Definitely an exciting event!!
Next, we went to the market and an internet café. It was 2000 shillings per hour to use the internet. That is less than $1.00 for an hour of internet!! There were 28 of us there, plus several other “Muzungus” and only 8 computers so I only got on for 10 minutes to update my status and send Shane a note. The rest of the time I spent sitting at a table with Pastor Isaac talking about my family and our dreams for the future and hearing this very wise man speak.
His testimony is more than incredible. In the 1990s, during Sadaam Hussein’s reign, he was shot by the Muslims along with 25 other Christian pastors and assumed dead. He was shot in his arm instead of his heart and thrown into a pile of other bodies in the forest. His miraculous story of survival during Christian persecution is just amazing. What a hero. I hope to bring home a brochure with his story to share with you.
After the internet café, we went for too short a time to Amani Baby Cottage. This is a home for children from birth to 5 years old. The facility was spotless!! We arrived while the kids were eating lunch and they were SOOO cute! We started in the toddler room and every time someone would pull out a camera they would say “cheeeeeeeeeese!” You could tell these kids were loved by their nannies and felt safe and secure. There were an adorable set of 5 month old twin girls, Mary and Martha, whose mother died of malaria 5 days after they were born. They were so beautiful!! I also learned that international adoption in Uganda is becoming more and more of a possibility. Laws are changing and these babies may soon have a chance to go from loving orphanages to loving homes!! By the way, I have a picture of the hundreds of baby things on the line outside. If I ever complain about laundry again, just show me that picture!! Unbelievable.
On a side note, it is really amazing the differences in each of the orphan homes we have visited. You can tell the difference between those who live in the loving orphanages, and the kids who are just from the communities attending school there. There is love and respect given by the kids who have seen love and respect modeled to them. Even between the loving orphanages there is truly a different spirit in each! All good, but so very different.
After heading back to Canaan’s for lunch (did I mention we got to live at this orphanage for 5 days!!) we split into several groups. Some went back to the Baby Cottage, some stayed to rest, others went with the big boys to play soccer with one of their new soccer balls and the rest of us went to town again and back to the internet café. I was smart enough to bring my laptop this time and was able to spend 45 minutes updating my blog. We saw Katie from Amazima at the internet café and it felt like I was seeing a celebrity!! We did not get to go to Amazima tonight, but we will be helping with her feeding ministry tomorrow.
We came back to the orphanage for a while in the afternoon and had a ball making balloon hats for the kids, blowing bubbles and just hugging on whatever child happened to be closest to us. At one point we sprayed them all with silly string. I don’t think they got it = ha!! Kari asked me to go with her to make a couple of videos for her blog and we walked to a few different locations to get the shots. As we finished it was time for the younger kids to head to bed (ages 4-10 or so). We carried and walked the kids to their dorm and they began their evening “prayers”. I asked if I could videotape this and they agreed. Instead of the circle of prayer with heads bowed, they started singing….and singing and singing and singing!! I have the video, and you must watch it! What a great way to end your day!!
We ate dinner then split up into groups. We will be running Sunday School on Sunday and we each had a team for a certain age group. I am with the jr high age groups and we plan to talk about the fruits of the spirit (the others had the idea too, I wasn’t just copying the Colombia team!!!) We talked for a bit, but will come up with the rest of the plan tomorrow evening.
It is almost midnight and I need to get some sleep. I have gone to sleep with the sounds of the Muslim mosque (which sounds more like a dance club) in the distance and the occasional squeaking of bats. And awake each morning to the sound of children chanting their lessons right outside my window. “Good morning, teacher how are you…good morning teacher how are you?...” also the ABC’s and sometimes things I just can’t make out. An incredible alarm clock to hear happy children outside your window! Good night everyone!! Love to you all!!!

Day 3 – Canaan’s Children’s Home

We started today with a wonderful breakfast of eggs, toast and fruit. The pineapple here is amazing!!
Today was to be a bit more relaxing. Most of the team went to the different ages at school to just hang out and teach a little lesson. We did have the option to nap – and I took advantage of that!! I felt completely exhausted and with several of the team members feeling ill, I knew I needed to take some time to relax. I took a 3 hour nap with the sounds of Ugandan children chanting their abc’s and other lessons in the background. It was wonderful and I felt SO much better afterwards!!
After lunch, we handed out some of our silly band bracelets. It was absolute chaos! We learned our lesson to be more organized next time. We tried to give one to each child – but they were sneaky!! Each team member was surrounded by at least 20 kids with their hands in our faces. They were saying Muzungu, Muzungu!!! Or when they really wanted me to think they loved me “Auntie, Auntie!” – Ha!!! Once they had one bracelet, they would hide that hand behind their backs and hold out the other one. Some kids had like 10 bracelets, when others had none!! What a mess!
Next we piled into our van (like sardines) and headed to the mouth of the Nile for a boat ride. It was only a one hour tour and much too short, but a great adventure!! No hippos or alligators, but we did see a molten iguana and according to our tour guide, if a man was stung by it’s tail, he would become impotent and “wouldn’t like girls anymore”. We also saw several monkeys leaping around. One with a baby attached to it’s tummy! After the boat ride we had a great prayer time in small groups.
We headed back to Canaan’s and just spent a couple of hours with the kids. We learned about one 3 year old boy at the school who had been raped and infected with HIV. Kari held him for a while and he looked at her and said “I am sad” and one tear slid down his cheek. She prayed over him with tears of her own. Such horrible stories – and each of these kids has one.
There are another group from America here and it was so fun to see all the Muzungus playing with the children. Pastor Isaac said when he saw us playing soccer and Little Sally Walker and jump rope and Duck, Duck Goose with the kids – black and white together, he said he felt like he was looking at heaven!!
Well, I need to get ready for the day. Can’t wait to meet Katie at Amazima today!!!

Day 2 – July 19, 2010 – Return Ministries

We each had our precious 5 hours of sleep, then went to breakfast. Pastor Samuel from Return Ministries met us and had a great devotional with us as we finished eating. He taught us that being an orphan is not about being without a father or needing food or needing an education, it is about the heart. Orphans have a lot of pain…you can’t just minister to their physical needs, you must minister to the heart.
After breakfast the 28 of us plus the driver and Pastor Samuel piled up into the van and went into town. Our first stop took us to the bank to change money into Ugandan Shillings. The exchange rate was 2200 shillings to 1 US dollar. It took us a LONG time to get through the line, but we finally made it back to the van and headed to Return Ministries.
We arrived at the center and as we pulled up we heard the sound of 200 children cheering . It was a bit overwhelming! We came into the compound and hugged lots of children…and heard several little ones crying. We were supposed to be there at 1:00. It was now almost 3:00 and the kids had been waiting on us to eat!!! The little ones were so hungry! We marched into a covered area where the kids sang 3 songs to welcome us. I do have video of that!! We then helped serve the children their food. Once the kids had their food we filled our plates. They served beef, beans, rice, potatoes and some strange dish that looked like purple refried beans that was made of nuts. I had the beans, rice and potatoes and they were WONDERFUL!! For the next 4 hours we just had mass chaos with the kids. Some of our group painted fingernails, others held babies, all of us were touched, hugged, drooled on, sneezed on and peed on and were just loved by the kids. We left there around 5:00 with our hearts full…but just exhausted.
We had received a phone call that our luggage had arrived. After arriving at the airport, we were stopped by a police blockade and we each had to step out of the van to be patted down. There was an African Leader conference, so security was really tight. After lots of paperwork and organization by Judson, we were finally able to go in to retrieve our luggage. Praise the Lord, every bag was there! All the donations were going to be able to be delivered to the orphans!!
We returned to the hotel for a late dinner and decided we would try to be a bit more organized the next day. We were going back to Return Ministries, and knew there would probably be even more kids the second day. Instead of the same chaos we decided to split the kids into age groups and work with them in that setting. It worked great. Since we had all of our donations back, we were able to give each kid a coloring book and I was busy working on balloon animals for them all. The kids had a blast and so did we. When we left, we felt so blessed by the kids. They just loved us! We headed out to the next orphanage, Our Father’s House, at around 2:00. We were all pretty exhausted and I know I was not looking forward to having to exert the energy needed for another group of orphans. We arrived less than 20 minutes later and were welcomed by Rebecca , a young American girl who had been working and building this ministry since 2007. We only met 10 kids and were welcomed into their home. They asked us to sit in the living room and we were served fresh passion fruit juice and incredible fresh pineapple. It was just what we needed to energize us again. Our Father’s House has 12 children, but the school has over 200 students. We followed Rebecca down an old dirt road…shanties and trash and chickens all around us. We turned a corner and went down a hill. I really cannot even begin to describe what happened next. It was more moving and amazing than any words can express. Even the video doesn’t express the emotion of that moment.
These children were SO excited to meet us. They had planned for months and we were their first group of American visitors. As we turned that corner, we heard voices singing. They were singing a song welcoming us to Africa. I turned on my flip camera just before we turned the corner, expecting to see a group of kids, choir style, singing as we approached. I was wrong. All two hundred kids were lined on each side of the road. We had to walk down a road paved with the voices of angels. They sang, smiled, reached out their hands as we walked between them. Again, my words just do not express how beautiful that moment was.
We entered the church and the children followed us inside. I say church. It was 4 wooden posts, roofed with corrugated tin, walls made of sticks with a concrete stage in the front. The children sang again…so beautifully. When a couple of the girls sang a duet, with the choir behind them, singing about their mother and father dying, but having the love of Jesus in their hearts, I lost it. It was so moving to hear these kids singing about their difficult lives, with such joy in their circumstances because of their Savior, Jesus. They also sang a song that ended with all of the children simultaneously bowing their heads and praying quietly…but loud enough to hear. Whispers of 200 orphans praying is a pretty powerful thing indeed.
We had to leave sooner than we wanted and they all wished us farewell by trying to get on the bus with us and running for over a mile behind us. Several of our team were asked by the kids to please, please sponsor them so they could continue to go to school. It was heartbreaking. If anyone is interested in sponsoring one of these kids, PLEASE let me know. I have all the information and I have seen the school and met the leaders. Every cent would go to the kids and not into some administrators pocket.
Needless to say, we felt mentally, emotionally, spiritually and physically exhausted by this point. We now had a 3 hour drive to Jinja to Canaan Children’s Home. It was a great time to just decompress and think about the 2 days (2 days! SO much happened in those 2 days). We had a very exciting trip to a gas station restroom without western style toilets (just a little porcelain hole in the ground – us girls were very entertaining to the attendant as we tried to demonstrate how to do your business without getting your clothes wet). OH side note! If you are ever in Uganda and need to use the restroom, you just tell them you need to make a “Short Call” if you have to go #1 or “Long call” for #2. We joked that if you were going to need to be in the restroom for a long amount of time, you were making an “International Call” – ha!!
Finally we made it to Canaan’s Children’s Home in Jinja. There are over 400 Children here. Once again we had a King’s welcome. We could barely get off the bus we were so crowded by children. They all wanted a hug as we disembarked…so it took us a while to finally get to our rooms. I was proud I could use the 2 phrases I had learned the day before. I will spell it out phonetically in case you ever need to use them. “How are you?” is “Oleo-‘tia” and they respond “Jindi” which means I am fine. They really loved hearing this “Muzungu” (White American) use their language. BTW: Every time our bus would drive through a village and the children would see us through the windows, they would yell “Muzungu!!!” and wave. One little boy, maybe 3 years old yelled “Hello Muzungu!!!” So funny!!
Right now it is ten minutes after 11pm and I still need to shower. I had 5 hrs of sleep the first night and 6 hrs the next. Hoping to get a full 8 hrs tonight. Tomorrow, 400 kids to love on!!

Day 1, July 18, 2010 – The Journey

After a fantastic birthday date with Shane on Saturday and a great gift of a hotel room by Geoff R, my adventure to Africa began. We arrived at the airport in Wichita at 5:00 am. There was a bit of confusion because they did not see my ticket reservation number. After a quick call to the travel agent, everything was ready to go. I had my tickets to Dulles in Washington DC in hand and my bags checked all the way to Entebbe, Uganda.
The first two legs of the flight were uneventful (well, other than the guy a few rows in front of me getting sick…nice). I arrived in DC at 11:30am and began my 9 hour layover wait. Not long after lunch I saw a few others wearing our team tshirt. As the team trickled in we began learning a bit about each other. It was fun to hear the different stories that brought each of us to this team.
Around 5:30, we wanted to start getting our boarding passes, so asked the attendant at Ethiopian Airlines if we could begin. He asked us to bring all the boarding passes so he could check us in as a group. It was so nice to be able to skip the LONG line. He was amazing. Although some people had not been able to check bags all the way, like I had, he said he would change and re-tag each of the bags so we would not have to deal with re-checking bags at Addis. He also gave Kari and I bulkhead seating – woo hoo!!!
We were in airplanes for 26 hours total, with a short layover in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It was a good, but LONG trip…and where we were sitting it was VERY cold. We arrived in Entebbe, Uganda tired, but excited to be there and ready to get to the hotel. Unfortunately, half of our bags (28 suitcases) were missing!!! We finally made it to the hotel at 4:00 am. Neither of my bags had made it. Luckily my Daddy taught me to always have all of my necessities in my carry on. So, I had most of my toiletries, 3 outfits, make-up, camera and flip video camera – plus my laptop and some snacks. I was ready!! Finally we made it to sleep around 5:00am…with a 10:00 am wake up call – blech!!!

Last Chance to Donate!!

And then there were 2!

Two days 'til Africa!!

I just wanted to thank everyone for their donations!! My bags are stuffed full! I have:

12 soccer balls
10 ball pumps
20 pump needles
25 bottles of fingernail polish
400 bracelets
60 toy cars
12 bottles of children's tylenol
kids clothing
lots of flip flops
hard candy
box of latex-free gloves
Chocolate for the nannies

I even have a little room left for my stuff - ha!

Thank you so much for your generosity! The kids will love it!

4 Days and Counting!!

Well, I leave on Sunday! Shane got home safely from Colombia on Tuesday. We have 5 days together, then I'm off to Africa!

As the trip gets closer, I am excited, nervous and ready to go! A few things you can be praying for our team.

1. Health and safety for all of us. We will all be taking malaria pills which have the tendency to make your stomach upset. We will also be eating a lot of new foods and if you know me, you know my stomach is a little weird anyway. BUT...I do enjoy Ethiopian food, so that is a plus!! Also pray for safety. If you heard the news about the bombing in Uganda during the World Cup finals, you know that it can be dangerous in Uganda. We will be spending some time at an orphanage in the city where the bombings took place, however we are on the other side of the city and there are no travel advisories at this time. I know God is in control and trust in Him for safety...and even if we are not safe, I trust Him anyway.

2. Unity for our group. We are 31 people, most of whom have never met. There will be a variety of personalities and sometimes personalities clash. I just pray that we will become a close knit group with the Holy Spirit leading us as we go.

3. And most importantly that we will be open to the spirit to do whatever it is we each individually need to do to make a life-long impact on the kids (and adults) that we will be ministering to. Be praying that the Holy Spirit will be working on us and the kids now, preparing all of us for what he wants to teach us.

I will be taking my computer with me to Africa, but I understand internet service is far from dependable and even if we make it to an internet cafe, 31 people are a LOT for a little internet cafe to handle. I will post when I can, but if you don't hear from me for a while, PLEASE keep praying and I will post whenever I can!!

Thanks for following me!

Donations Needed!

Less than one month until I go to Africa!

I am gathering the last of my donations.  I still need just a few things.  I am collecting soccer balls (size 5) and pumps to take to the orpanages.  Also, I need lots and lots of fingernail polish (and small containers of polish remover) to paint the little girls' fingernails and for the ladies at the fistula hospital (see link).  If you want to donate, you can purchase these things and drop them off at my house, or you can donate at my Chip In site (scroll down a few pages on the blog) and I will purchase them myself.

 I do also have L and XL tshirts left for $25.  Let me know if you want one of them!

Thanks for your support and prayers!  Can't wait to be blogging from Africa!!

Randi

Kisses From Katie - Amazima Ministries (click here)

Today's blog has been a favorite of mine for several months.  This is the incredible story of an incredible girl.  Katie felt like she needed to go on a mission trip when she was 16 years old.  She looked online and found an orphanage in Uganda to visit over her spring break.  Her parents thought she was crazy, but consented to let her go.  While there, the orphanage asked her to come back after graduation to teach kindergarten for one year.  She went home, but left her heart in Uganda.  She went back to teach for a year...and ended up staying.  She has now adopted 12 girls!! in Uganda and is working to help a very poor region learn to support itself.  Katie is not even 25 years old and is one of the people I am most excited to meet on my trip.

Warning...even I cry when I read her beautiful posts.  She challenges me every time I read.

Enjoy!!

Simply Love Shirts - only 8 left!!

If you want a Simply Love t-shirt, here is your last chance!!  I am sold out of Small and Medium.  I only have three Large and five XL left.  These would make great Father's Day gifts! 

The shirts are unisex slim fit and are super soft.  They are $25 each, and I will pay for the shipping!  Proceeds go to my July trip to Ethiopia (the birthplace of three of my kids) and Uganda.

Thanks and God Bless!!

61 days until Africa!! (Click here for Korah link)

I got my itinerary for my Africa trip today!  I am so excited about this...and my heart is also breaking as I read the stories of the places and people we will visit.  I am planning to provide you one link per day over the next week to show some of the places I will be serving.

The first is called Korah.  This is a dump that was originally a leper colony.  Now, I have a vision what a dump looks like (I had several "adventures" at the dump with my dad as a child. When he was working construction, he would unload his trash while I looked for treasures).  This dump in Ethiopia is much different than my experience.  They estimate 120,000 people live in this dump, fighting each other for rotten food each day.  120,000 people!!! That blows my mind.  Many of these are orphans.  The ministry we will be helping offers lunch, a Sunday school lesson and a craft to many of these children.  They are also trying to raise money for beds so the children will not have to sleep on trash.  Wow.  I can't even imagine what it will be like to be there.

Take a look at this link and pray today for this ministry.  Pray that all they need will be provided.  I also ask that you pray for our team...that our one day of ministry will really make an impact for the Kingdom of God.

Blessings!!
Randi

Drum Roll Please...

And.....I have raised all the money I need to get to Africa!!! Woo Hoo!

Thanks to all of you who donated!!  But, don't stop now!  If you wanted to buy a shirt and just haven't had a chance yet, I still have several left and all the money donated now goes directly to the orphanages I will visit (I will either buy supplies here and bring them with me or find out what they need when I get there).  

Thank you all again for your donations!  I can't wait to see what God will teach me when I arrive.  I am praying that we will really impact these kids for a lifetime, not just for a day...because I know my life will be changed by meeting them!!

Simply Love Shirts are in!!

Well, it took a little longer than I had hoped, but the Simply Love shirts have arrived.  If you ordered one, they will ship out first thing in the morning (packaged them this afternoon and made it to the post office at 4:05...5 minutes too late).

I do have some extras if you have not yet ordered one.  I only have one Large left, but have plenty of XL, Med, and Small.  They are $25 each, you can send me a check or pay with the Chip-In button on my blog.

Keep praying for my team and the kids we will be serving.  Pray specifically for health for the team, safe travel and financial success in our fundraising.

Love you all!!

Randi

Great News!!!

I came home from Catalyst Conference in L.A. to a great surprise!  Actually several surprises.  I had my check from working at the Titanic Pigeon Forge grand opening, plus several checks from some of you!!  I now only have $1200 left to raise for my trip to Africa!  I have all that I need for my first payment.  The second is due in June.

If you have been thinking about donating or buying at t-shirt, do it soon!!  I still have a few tshirts left.

Please be praying now for our trip.  I am so excited to get to minister to these kids, and I can't wait to see what lessons God has for me when I am there.  I am praying that we won't just be a group of people that will be in and out for a day, I want our visit to really impact these  kids.

Again, thank you all SOO much for your prayers and support.

Randi

Catalyst Conference

Hey everyone, just want you to know that Shane and I are at the Catalyst Leadership conference in Los Angeles this week.  My first set of shirts should be at my house when I get home on Sunday.  I will be shipping them on Monday and Tuesday.  If you still want a shirt, but didn't pre-order, no worries!  I have extras - just pay with the Chip-In button (or send a check) and message or email the size you would like, and it will be sent this week.


  Keep praying for our trip this July!  Thanks for your support!

Fundraising Update

As of today I am 1/3 of my way to my fund-raising goal.  Yipee!!!  Thanks to each of you who have donated.  I have ordered the t-shirts, but I did order a few extras.  Let me know if you still want one!!

God Bless You!!