In the summer of 2010, I was asked to be the blogger of
Project Hope Worldwide, a non-profit organization began by three people at our church. PHW was about to open an orphanage in Lira, Uganda and needed someone to write about their new journey. I was captivated right away by what I learned about the plight of orphans in Uganda and it ignited a passion in my heart like I had never had before.
Then in September 2010, I was asked to go to Uganda with four other people to visit the project. The orphanage would be opening soon and they wanted me to see it for my eyes and get the stories of the children that would soon be moving in. To be clear, I had been touched by the plight of orphans, but I had absolutely NO desire to travel to Africa. I thought it was something neat other people did, but it was NOT for me. It was too far away, there was too much risk, and I just didn't want to travel there. But, after praying about it and after I received confirmation from my husband that I should go, I reluctantly said "yes" - and that's to put it nicely.
I was terrified to go. I cried and and worried about it all the time. But I knew God wanted me to go so I could not say no. Three months later I found myself
on a plane to Uganda. I admit, I did not love it at first. In fact, I didn't even realize until about a month after I was home how amazing the trip was and I even began to long to go back. I did go back in
June of 2012 and my husband, Steve, went in the
summer of 2011. In December of 2011, our family felt the call to adopt from Uganda and we lived there for two months while we received legal guardianship for our son in the
spring of 2013.
If you would have told me in the fall of 2010 that I'd be leading a group of friends on a missions trip to Uganda someday, I would have told you you were out of your mind. Funny how God orchestrates events and brings people together according to His will and purpose. This has definitely been a huge life lesson for me in that God doesn't always call the qualified and He equips those that are called. So this blog is dedicated to my fourth trip to Uganda with five amazing women. We are all so thankful for the support and prayers we have received over the past year in preparation for this trip. It was truly life-changing and we are all deep in prayer with how we can continue to serve God with our talents and abilities and tie in all we experienced in Uganda.
Here's the breakdown of our daily schedule - click on the link to see what we did that day...
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