Another Reason To SMILE !

There are many reasons for me to smile everyday .... but this news will keep me smiling for years to come : 

Words can not express how happy I am. One small yet important life has been saved! Praise the Lord. Miki Paul, who I had the pleasure of spending many hours with in a small isolated orphanage room has been blessed with a family who loves him. During my time in Uganda many of you know of my dear friend Melissa who recently adopted Lola. While in Uganda I spent a lot of time with Lola and her roommate Miki Paul. The mammas at the orphanage often talked badly about Miki Paul expressing that they felt there was no hope for him because he was HIV positive. But God has a much bigger hope and plan for him. He has been adopted and has been blessed with a family. He was already special because of all of the missionaries who loved him and have been praying for him. But now, he has a family and is able to live a healthy and safe life. 

Here is a link to the family's blog. Read more about Mik Paul/Levi here :

http://www.lovewithrecklessabandonment.blogspot.com

Knoy 2012

Dear Friends, 
Help the country that is so dear to my heart. Help the country that my close friends call HOME. The world does not know about the wars in Uganda because America did not care. America knows more about the entertainment world than it does about the children who are in pain, who are scared, and who worried for their lives. FINALLY it looks like America is caring. PLEASE PLEASE DO NOT LOOSE HEART. Joseph Knoy needs to be stopped. Without stopping him, he will continue to do the unthinkable to the people and the children of Uganda as well as other East African countries. 


Please watch this short film and learn about what is really going on on the other side of the globe while you are safe in your home watching TV. 

TAKE ACTION! 
If you can not buy something to visibly show your support from the website. You still can take action. 
You can write letters to the government. 
You can change your facebook picture. 
You can simply TALK ABOUT IT! 
Raise awareness any way that you possibly can!


We wouldn't let this happen in America - so how can we turn our eyes at it now? 

NOW THAT WE HAVE SEEN, WE ARE RESPONSIBLE TO CHANGE IT. 

BE HUMAN. MAKE A DIFFERENCE. TALK ABOUT IT. SHARE IT. CARE ABOUT IT. 

KONY 2012

Now That I Have SEEN, I am responsible !

Hey Friends! Please take one moment to listen to this beautiful yet eye-opening song ! 

Brooke Fraser - Albertine 

 

Now that I have seen, I am responsible

Faith without deeds is dead

Now that I have held you in my own arms, I cannot let go till you are...

I am on a plane across a distant sea

But I carry you in me

and the dust on, the dust on, the dust on my feet.

For 9 months I was across a distant sea on a plane in Uganda, Africa. I held children and people with the very hands that I am typing with today. I showed my faith through my deeds. Yet now that I am home, I am responsible to tell the world, to tell my family and friends, to even tell strangers, about what I have seen. 

Here are just a few pictures of the children that I have held in my own arms. The children that I am responsible for. The children that I want to tell of their stories :

Each one of these children above hold a special place in my heart. Some of them live in a village called Zirobwe, some live in the city of Kampala, and some live in orphanages. The children who live in the Uganda, have a harder life than anyone I have ever met. 

Village children have to walk miles multiple times each day to fetch HEAVY containers of water. They are expected to work on the farms with their parents. And most of them NEVER get a chance to go to school. They live in small houses or huts that are smaller than the average American bathroom - with their WHOLE family. They are exposed to many different disease yet are not able to receive proper medical attention.

City children are often left unattended, hungry, and unloved by families. Some children have great families who love them, yet they are still hungry, sick, and living in poverty. 

The children that are so dear to my heart simply needed love. They are happy children. They are loving and compassionate. 

Therefore, now that I have seen these children. Now that I am held them in my own arms. I am responsible to love them, to pray for them, and to tell the world about them. 

Yet... as most of you already know -I saw more than just children while I was in Uganda ! I also taught English.


Teaching English was such an amazing experience! I loved every second of it. My students were so ready to learn. They were so eager to understand the language of English. With each day that I went into the classroom to teach the Reading & Writing class, I was filled with joy. I was so happy that I was able to come in, teach these students, and leave knowing that I was not only teaching.... but I was also sharing my faith to them through my actions. 
For the 3 months that I taught my students, I was able to build relationships, get to know about the culture of where each student came from, and to spread simply the LOVE of Christ Jesus to them. The students openly knew that I was a Christ follower. Yet, I did not have to preach to them for them to see the joy, happiness, and completeness that I have in my life from simply following God. 
By the end of my 3 months with my students. I was able to see smiles as students did assignments correctly. I was able to have FUN teaching students from all over the world. I was able to teach them how to understand what they were reading and not just read what was on the page. But most of all... I was able to work alongside a group of wonderful Christian leaders and show the love of God through our actions as well as leadership.

"Dear friends, do you think you'll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, "Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!" and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where does that get you? Isn't it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?

I can already hear one of you agreeing by saying, "Sounds good. You take care of the faith department, I'll handle the works department."

Not so fast. You can no more show me your works apart from your faith than I can show you my faith apart from my works. Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove."

James 2:14-18 (The Message)

I will tell the WORLD. I will tell them where I've been

MAKE A DIFFERENCE !

BUY COFFEE :-) 

https://www.justlovecoffee.com/bringlolahome

 If you by coffee from this website, you can help SAVE a child's life.

Lola & I 

I have talked about Lola in my past blog post. She is a little girl that my friend Melissa is in the process of adopting. With each day that Lola is still here in the orphanage, she gets worse. There are not enough people who love her here. There is not enough medical help that she needs. I visit her as often as I can. But that is not enough. She needs to be home with Melissa and she needs love every second of the day. 

She has cerebral palsy as well as epilepsy. She needs to be somewhere that she will get the attention that she needs. That is NOT here in Uganda. As of now, she is left alone with no physical therapy. One day Lola will walk, talk, learn, play and HAVE A LIFE. But until she is home in America, those things will not happen.

Me, Lola, Hilary 

Christmas is just around the corner - Buy a gift that will make a difference ! 

Teaching Brings Joy To My Heat

I never know how much teaching could bring me joy,But it sure does. I wish I had a picture of my class to show you but… instead maybe I can give you a visual.

 I have a class of 20 students on a good day and about 13 on a slow day. My class is a garage that was once turned into a classroom. I have 2 long rows of desks.

My first row is always filled with all of my Somalian girls. They are all beautiful young teenaged ladies and they are always so colorful with their scarves and long dresses.

My second row always has my 2 Somalian teenaged boys in the back right corner who always get their work done fast in hopes that I will give them a break so that they can go play football (soccer) for five minutes. Which, I have found out that if I talk about football at any point of my class, they pay attention 100%.  

Then the rest of the back row is filled with the one Somalian girls who just sits in class with a smile because her English is very bad. I just mastered the Alphabet with her. Yet, on the good days, the back row is also filled with my Eritrean, Congolese, Rwandan, and Sudanese students.

Recently I have had two older Eritrean male students sit in the back of my class. They are my best students. When I ask the class to write a few sentences on a topic, most students will give me 2 or 3 sentences, but those two always give me at least a page.

My favorite part of my class is when I correct their work. Every single student is excited to hand me his or her work to check. As I check their work, they all sit there eagerly. Often times I have to ask them what they meant to write since it is so off base. But recently, they have had very little mistakes. Sure, there is a misspelled word here and there, but for the most part it all makes sense.

But my favorite parts are the smiles that I get when I tell them good job, or the hands that go up when I ask if someone wants to read something aloud, or simply the fact that I have to dismiss them two or three times before them leave because they want to stay and learn more.

Teaching has definitely been a blessing. I love It ! 

Change In Plans

So I may have thought that Charlotte's Wed was and easy read for my students, yet I was wrong. My students level of reading is just a bit lower than I had expected. They also can not grasp the fact that animals can talk, and if they can understand that, they don’t understand that there is a little girl who can hear then as well as understand the animals.

So I have gone onto different plan. I found a Magic Tree House book here in Uganda. I remember reading Magic Tree House books when I was learning how to read as a young kid. Magic Tree House is a series about a brother and a sister who go all around the world through their Magic Tree House to solve puzzles or riddles.

The book that I have chosen for my class is about Africa and the lions that they run into. So far, my students are enjoying it. The book has 10 chapters. Each class we read one chapter together as a class. We are now on chapter five. My goal from reading this book with them was to work on their reading comprehension. I told my class that there is no point to knowing how to read if you do not understand and remember what you read. Therefore, in my class, the students read the chapter once together as a class. Then I read it aloud for them. After that, I answer any questions they have. Most of their questions are about what different words mean. After I answer their questions, they answer questions that I make up about the chapter. So far we are successful. :-)

I have also picked up teaching a computer class. I teach basic computer skills to a small class of about 6 students twice a week. I teach them things such as how to save and open a Word Document, make a list with bullets, chancing fonts and sizes of their text, and copying and pasting texts. Before I too over teaching this class, they had just got past learning how to turn the computer on and basic typing skills. So it has been fun and quite an easy class to teach.

 I am not only a Reading and Writing English teacher, now I am also a computer teacher. :-) 

Want to know more????

Refuge and Hope

^ The organization I am working with.

The Center of Hope

^ Where I am teaching.