Upcoming Mission Trip!

It's official!

In November, I will be traveling on a Visiting Orphans mission team from Mt. Pulaski Christian Church in Mt Pulaski, Illinois to orphanages in Uganda and Ethiopia in Africa. Uganda: The land of the Mountain Gorillas...Uganda shares it's Eastern border with Kenya and it's Western frontier is the Democratic Republic of Congo. Uganda has faced many tragedies since it's independence but now has one of the fasting growing economies on the continent. Of the 2 million known orphans in Uganda in 2003, an estimated 940,000 were orphaned due to AIDS. Ethiopia: The third most populous country in Africa, Ethiopia is among the world’s oldest Christian nations, and the only African state that was never colonized. Divided by the great Rift Valley, this land, which is twice the size of Texas, has an orphan crisis. UNICEF estimates that one in ten Ethiopian children, about 4.6 million, are orphans. We will be able to minister to some of these children in a very humble and powerful way by simply going to the orphanages where they live and offering a helping hand.

I am very excited for many reasons.
1) I will get the chance to travel with my Aunt Tori and cousin Allison who are also part
of the mission team.
2) I have had a longing to return to Africa ever since my 2012 trip to the Riley Mother
Baby Hospital in Kenya.
3) I love kids and can not wait to be the Hands of Feet of Jesus in the orphanages we
will visit.
4) To make a difference in the lives of a few children who make up these numbers: 2
million orphans in Uganda and 4.6 million orphans in Ethiopia.
5) I'm also excited to bring awareness to those who are not able to travel.
6) To live out James 1:27 - "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless
is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from
being polluted by the world."
7) There are tons of others reasons that I can not wait for this trip!

Trip details - We will be in Africa for about two weeks. We will travel to Kampala, Uganda for one week where we will work with the children of Return Ministries. The children here are all from the surrounding neighborhood where it is very poor and many of the children's needs are unmet. Return and its leader, Pastor Samuel, are reaching the neighborhood by connecting with children and feeding them. We will get an opportunity to sing with the children, lead songs for them, play with them, teach them and serve them meals. We will also get a glimpse of life in the villages and attempt to give them hope, love, and comfort by our presence alone. We will end our time in Uganda at Dwelling Places, which is a ministry that rescues street children from newborn to 12yrs of age. Their goal is to teach them, rehabilitate them and to help get them back into homes including helping the families they come from so they can provide for their children. In Ethiopia we will spend time in the capitol of Addis Ababa working in the community of Korah. Korah is a poor community adjacent to the city dump. The majority of our focus will be partnering with Project 61. P61 is a ministry that VIsiting Orphans partners with in Ethiopia. They provide feeding programs, child sponsorships, educational opportunities and long-term solutions to the residents of Korah.


There is a powerful video on the Visiting Orphans website if you are interested in learning more. Just copy and paste this website to see the video:

http://www.visitingorphans.org/video/14/visiting-orphans.mp4


Thank you so much in advance for your prayers and support. Pending WiFi availability, I plan to blog the whole time I am there to share this experience with all who want to be a part of it!!