Celebrating Our First Birthday!

Happy New Year!!! I had such a great time with family and friends over the holidays. I flew back to Uganda on New Year’s Eve and arrived back at 10:45pm on Jan 1. As soon as I arrived I hit the ground running but before we get into that I wanted to do a year review for those of you who were not able to come to our In Community Thanksgiving.

For the past year I have been serving at Restoration Gateway, an orphanage/school/hospital/agriculture project in Northern Uganda. While I was here I did a mirage of activities. I organized and managed the donation room that we use to keep our kids clothed. I also worked in the baby home just helping the mamas love our six babies. I also taught in both the primary and secondary school. It was a good year but also a hard year at times. So often I would find myself scraping to find work, which is a great problem, RG currently employs about 300 people and have reached a point that they don’t really need long term missionaries right now.

I also was able to work with another organization, Roots to Fruits, to help write curriculum that is Ugandan curriculum with a Christian worldview. I wrote English curriculum for 4th and 5thgrade and then I wrote the science curriculum for 5th grade as well. It was a nice challenge and was so great to use my university degree in a fun way. In September, the curriculum was finished and printed. It was so cool to see my name in a curriculum book!!! I felt quite accomplished.

An unexpected work I was able to begin was working with WEND. WEND was started by Jolly Okot, who was kidnapped by the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) when she was 19 and was forced to serve in their “army” for several years. After escaping she began working with the children who had also escaped doing dance therapy and was nominated for a Nobel peace prize in 2002.

Not long after that she met three filmmakers who had come to Gulu and she showed them the night commute that the children in surrounding villages would make to come to town to stay in safety from the LRA kidnappings, and that was the beginning of Invisible Children. After working with Invisible Children for many years she started WEND, which employs women who were either forced brides of the commanders of the LRA or child soldiers. They make beautiful bags and accessories. She also makes sure that all of the women’s children are able to go to school through sponsors, if sponsors are not available she pays their school fees herself! Can I just say I LOVE THIS WOMAN!!! She is just amazing in every sense of the word!!! I so enjoyed helping spread the word about WEND and taking groups to their workshop to see the ladies in action.

When I began my time in Uganda one of my biggest concerns was community. I was concerned I would feel alone as I lived alone and work where I live. God answered this prayer in many different and surprising ways. Over the summer one of our interns, Tori, became a great friend. We had the privilege of living together for three months and I feel as if I have known her forever now. She was just what I needed after a few hard months of loneliness. I also became friends with several great people in Kampala. In April, I met a young man named Herbart, who came on a missions trip with his church from Kampala. While they were here we talked a few times but I thought nothing of it. We exchanged phone numbers so if I was in Kampala we could meet up and he could help me find my way around. Over the next few weeks we began texting consistently and I took a trip to Kampala and spent some time with him in person. We began dating and I can honestly say I never saw it coming! It has been amazing to see how God’s plans are better than our plans. My parents were able to visit in October and spend ten days with Herbart and both gave their stamp of approval and support.

After a lot of prayer, I have decided that my time at Restoration Gateway has come to an end. As I said before RG has great workers who are able to keep RG running. I am always very conscious that In Community has been blessed with supporters who choose to sacrifice their desires in order to support In Community. I always want to be a good steward with the money we are given. I feel that my time and In Community's finances can be better used in Kampala. So, beginning February 1st I will be living in Kampala. In Community will be partnering with three schools to provide teacher training as well as helping with some physical resources the schools need. I will also be starting a children’s ministry at Rock Ministries Church, a local church that has a large population of children. It is my hope that with a few months your donations will go directly to the ministries I am partnering with and less to support my living expenses. This will work because I have just been hired by VIP Kid, an online teaching program that allows teachers to teach English to kids in china over the internet. Once I am in Kampala and able to begin teaching I am hopeful that VIP Kid will be able to support my living expenses and the donations will be able to go straight to the programs we are supporting.

So now back to 2019, I arrived late January 1st, the next day Herbart and I along with seven of our friends went to a “party”. After driving for about two hours I was blindfolded and led out of the car. After a few unstable steps, the blindfolded was removed and I discovered we were at the Equator. We took some pictures with all of our friends and then Herbert turned around and got down on one knee and asked me to marry him! We are so excited for the next chapter of our life. We have a plan but we hold it loosely as we see time and time again that God’s plans are so much greater than our plans. After an exciting day, we turned around the next day and found an apartment for me to rent when I move to Kampala. I also bought a car and had some service work for that too. It has been a very exciting new year and I know that it is not slowing down any time soon.