Call for Support

Trust. For some individuals it might be easy to trust. For some trust is hard, it is something that has never been there. Some people on this earth have broken or used that trust in hurtful ways. I want to share with you someone who you can trust with EVERYTHING. He is loving, caring, a provider, compassionate, giving, healing, a creator, in control and worthy to be praised. He knows everything about us. He LOVES us unconditionally. He is God. 

After listening to a sermon by David Platt this morning I was challenged to write down different attributes of God. I wanted to share some awesome things about our great Lord! 

HE is:
1. God is faithful- Matthew 6:34
2. Jesus is worthy of praise- Matthew 8:1-4
3. Jesus is trustworthy- Matthew 8:23-27 and Genesis 6:9-9:29
4. God is our Father- Matthew 6:9
5. God is our provider- Matthew 6:11 and 32
6. Jesus is a disciple caller- Matthew 4:18
7. God is a creator- Genesis 9:6
8. God loves all nations- Genesis 12:1
9. God is compassionate- Matthew 10:36
10. God is in control- Genesis 11
11. Jesus is a healer- Matthew 9:35

I am writing to you all because I trust that God will provide. That he will provide prayer warriors. That he will provide love. That he will provide guidance. That he will provide.

After being here for four months the Lord has placed certain individuals on my heart. I have so much love for people here and the ways that the Lord is moving in this place. Recently it was brought to my attention that one of my dear friends, Isaac, wanted to go to Senior 5 and Senior 6, and then on to school to be an engineer, but does not have enough money to attended school. Here in Uganda schools are not free like in America and every term the family has to pay school fees. As the child moves up in school the school fees increase and become harder for families to provide. With this being said a lot of students do not finish out High School. I want this to be different for him. He has dreams and aspirations to help others. In my first conversation with him, he told me, "I want to become an engineer and then after I work for a couple of years and get on my feet I want to use the money that I make to help others go to school." Knowing that he has such a loving heart and he wants to help others, makes me want to help him more. He lost his mother years ago and his father has not been seen in years because he could not provide school fees for his three sons. So currently they are staying with his grandmother along with four other children. His grandmother has such a huge heart to help others that even though she struggles to provide for herself and her grandsons she also has taken in other orphans. Hearing their situation, praying and trusting I am wanting to help pay for his school fees. Now I cannot pay this all by myself, but I am trusting and praying that God will provide, because He is loving, caring, a provider, compassionate, giving, healing, a creator, in control and worthy to be praised. Isaac will be attending St. Joseph of Nazareth High School starting March 16th. The first term costs 917,000 Uganda shillings which is equivalent to $367. This is for his tuition fees and for his school uniforms. Every term (there are three terms in a year) after is 700,000 Uganda Shillings, which about $280. Knowing some awesome people in my life his first term and dorm items have been paid for, but as for his second and third term  for this year we still need to raise almost $600.

Please prayerfully consider helping this awesome, God loving man and my dear friend finish out his schooling. Please feel free to contact me with ANY questions. 

If you are wanting to make a contribution towards his school fees you can go to, trueimpactministries.com and then click on "Donate" tab up on the top and pay by credit card make sure you indicate Kizza Isaac 

or you can send a check to: 

True Impact Ministries
17310 Cornerstone Dr.
Parker, CO 80134

with Kizza Isaac in the memo. 

Isaac is on the right, in all blue playing soccer. 

Thank you all for your love, support and prayers.
Nicole

The Superbowl!

If you are going to read one blog post I encourage you to read THIS blog.

Yesterday was Superbowl Sunday! A big day for Americans; chips, dip, beer, pizza, countless celebrations and of course football. With halftime shows that are talked up and the imfamous Superbowl adds. If any of you know me I LOVE sports and I especially LOVE watching football! So needless to say I was excited,  even though Sarah and I were in Uganda we were going to find a way to watch the Superbowl. We planned out our night for at least a week. The Superbowl was to start at 2:30am Monday morning, so we both set numerous alarms, researched how we were going to watch it...we called countless hotels to see if they had FOX American channel, Googled ways to watch it on the internet, bought Mountain Dew and chapati...all I can say was we were set. 

Set for what?

Set to watch football?

Set to watch countless adds that cost millions of dollars to make and for air time?

Set to watch a game where the players get paid millions?

Set to watch people cheering on the game knowing they paid hundreds of dollars for ONE ticket?

Set to watch a halftime performance where the  performance it self cost millions to put on? 

I was not set…I had not thought about any of those questions. 

I am sitting here in a country where I am surrounded by people who live on two dollars a day. Where teachers get paid 80 dollars a month, where farms can go weeks with only selling a few crops, where children go hungry because their families do not have the funds to feed them, where children do not go to school because school fees are too costly, where people fall sick and cannot seek medical help because it costs too much, where people cannot pay rent because they lost their job, so now they live under a bush and honestly, the list goes on and on. 

My mind and heart was not ready for the countless questions I would have about why as Americans we spend SO much money on ONE game, ONE night when there are so many people struggling to survive one day, to eat one meal, to have a roof over their head, to get medical attention and yet Americans spend Millions on just ONE night. 

What if we saved the money and put it to a greater use? What if we invested in people who really need the money? What if corporations would not put up the fifth add for that one beer and instead they donated the money to those in need? What if we served others above ourselves? What would the Lord do? Would He spend millions on ONE night so others down the street or halfway around the world would go with out food and education? What does God call us to do? let me tell you a little story...

According to Matthew 25:31-46. The Lord calls us to give food to those who are hungry, give something to drink to those who are thirsty, cloth those who need clothes, look after those who are sick and visit those in prison. 

Are we doing what He is calling us to do? 

I want to challenge you, what if instead of spending money on somethings that we don't need and we help someone? What if you went to the local food shelf and donated food or volunteered your time? What if we went to our elderly neighbors and shoveled their driveway...for free? What if God is calling you to something greater, something more permanent, something more rewarding...What if He is calling you to sponsor a child so they can eat food, go to school and change their family cycle of living in poverty, WHAT IF? 

We are all blessed with different gifts and talents, I want to challenge you to take a look at where you are investing you gifts and talents? Are they for God's glory and purpose?! We are not called to live for things on this earth (material things) we are called to live for heavenly things (eternal life with the Lord). Please prayerfully consider any way that God may be calling you to serve this year.  We have tons of children that are still awaiting sponsors... if you would like anymore information on how to get connected with sponsoring please send me an email. I would love to hear from you!

With love from Uganda, 

Nicole

First Week of Teaching

This past week has been one of the best weeks and one of the most tiring weeks I have had in a long time. It marked the start of the school year here in Njeru, which is just outside of Jinja. Not only did it mark the first day of school this year, but it also marked the first day that Greater Love Nursery and Primary School would be open to children learning and praising God. It was awesome to be a part of the first day of the school opening. Everything was so new to everyone, the students, teachers and all other supporting staff. With this though came a couple of challenges. A little background, Sarah and I get a ride on the school bus with all the children from the Hoffman home and also some of the children from within the community…meaning we have around 70 people on a 20 passenger bus. Needless to say, we are packed like sardines.  The first challenge was that school was supposed to start at 7:30am but the children and I did not arrive to school until 8:40am on the bus. Needless to say we were just a little late…African time right?? The next problem was that the children were supposed to have break from 10:30-11am, but there morning tea was not done until 11am, so break ended up being from 10:30-11:30…whoops. After that we started teaching and about an hour before lunch it just starts to down pour. Now most of the time this would have no affect on teaching, but you literally cannot teach while it is raining because they have tin roofs. It becomes so loud inside that even yelling and shouting to the person next to you will not work. So we had to just sit and wait for the rain to pass so we could continue to teach. Its crazy to think that rain would have such a massive effect on the children's learning. Good thing though is that it only rains for about 30 minutes normally and not every day during the dry season. We got home that first evening around 6pm, and I was exhausted. By day number three teaching I came home and feel asleep at 7pm…I was tired. The typical school day is supposed to be from 7:30-5pm, but we have never left the school sooner than 5:30pm.  Can you say one long school day?! Some interesting reasons why it is so long is because they do not have any printers or worksheets, every "worksheet" or "homework sheet" we want the students to do we have to write the problems on the blackboard and then the students have to copy that into the exercise books. To give homework it will take at least 30 minutes for the students to write the problems down, so when you only have a 40 minute teaching period this can be difficult to get any teaching done. This is one reason why school is long and never gets out on time. Even with the "challenges" I have faced with teaching at a new school, I have throughly enjoyed the first week. I love being able to get to know my students and how the school system runs here in Uganda.

Morning Prayer during school assembly

Teaching away on the first day of classes

Some of the highlights of the week were:
1. Getting 48 beautiful and unique hugs every morning and evening.
2. Attending my first African wedding.
3. Hearing that one of the children from Another Hope Children's Ministries officially gets to go home TODAY with her adoptive family. Praise the Lord!
4. Sarah playing the guitar while we worship with the children every evening. (For those of you who might not know I am currently with a good friend from the states and we are teaching at the same school)
5. Making a birthday video with the children for one of my good friends. SO MUCH FUN!
6. Making Chapati for dinner with the mommy's on Sunday after church

Chapati making!

7. Seeing the faces of the children when they got there new sandals…complete joy!

All 48 children received a new pair of sandals

New sandals!

I love being here at The Michelle and Julia Hoffman Memorial Children's Home and volunteering at Greater Love Nursery and Primary School. There is so much joy and laughter from the children that when I am around the children I cannot help, but be joyful! Sarah has also been keeping a blog of her time here in Uganda so feel free to check it out at, http://www.fuzzytravel.com/elbingse/

With love from Uganda,
Nicole

Radiating Joy!

Hello Everyone!

It is so crazy to think it has been over a month since the last time I updated anyone on what the Lord is doing in my life…sorry. So many experiences and changes have happened over the last month. I feel like the only way to give you a glimpse into the last month of my life is to explain nine different beautiful and wonderful experiences I have had. Also, I will explain more at the end of this blog, but I feel you all need to know that the Lord has opened up an amazing door where I have the opportunity to teach at a school called Greater Love Nursery and Primary School. The sad thing is that the school is about two hours from Another Hope Children's Ministries, so this past Thursday, the 16th of January, was my last day at Another Hope. I am currently staying at an orphanage called The Hoffman Home in Jinja. For now though I will explain to you all that the Lord has done over the past month at Another Hope and at the end I will explain all about this new chapter here in Jinja.

1. Soccer! As many of you know I love sports. I love to play sports and I love to watch sports. I just love sports. What some of you might not have known was that I never used to enjoy to watch or play soccer. Over the past month and a half I can now proudly say that I thoroughly enjoy watching soccer. The big boys at Another Hope play in a league with the other members within our village and they face other villages in a competition where the winner receives a goat! This was one of my favorite parts to my week, I got the opportunity to go out in the village and just love on the children while we watch our boys play soccer. Some days we would bring sweets with us and give them to some of the children near us, lets just say that they were extremely happy! It was awesome to watch the boys use their gifts and talents that the Lord gave them while having fun doing it!

2. Movies! I get the awesome opportunity to watch a movie every night with the children. We set up the projector in the dining room and twenty of us gather around the screen to watch the movie. There was one night though, Christmas Eve, when Prea (a volunteer from Australia/South Africa) and I were wrapping presents for the children when 11:57pm hit, Wasswa (one of the older boys) came into our room and said "the cinema is ready." Not knowing what he meant we ventured out to the dining room only to find the children were not there. We walked outside to then find the boys had set up the projector, along with their bed sheets to make a massive screen to watch the movie. The BEST part of this was that as we were sitting and watching the movie you would just look up and see the beautiful stars that the Lord created. Knowing that we got to spend the first two hours of Christmas day watching a movie under the stars with some of the children was amazing. I could not have thought of a better way to start Christmas Day than that.

3. The Well! Everyday the children would have to make about three trips to the well. They would use this water to cook, bathe, clean and drink. It was about a fifteen minute walk which normally ended up taking an hour round trip because we got so distracted by so many different things. There would be days where we would race to the well, have water fights, play board games, learn how to make bubbles from plants and all of these were on the way to the well. I feel extremely blessed to have seen how conscious you have to be with the water you have, every bit of water you use at the house was carried from the well. From flushing the toilet, to bathing, to cleaning, to cooking, all that water had to be fetched from the well. The Lord continues to amaze me in all that he is teaching me. Each bit of water is so precious, and the thought that the well is only a fifteen minute walk, I can see His work in my life by Him showing me that the simplest things in life are the most incredible blessings.

4. Prayer! Prayer time is one of my favorite times in the day! This is a time where the children, myself and any other volunteers would gather together to worship our good Lord. We would sing praises in English and Luganda. I also got the awesome opportunity to share a little devotion every evening. Sometimes we picked a book of the Bible and go through it together, otherwise some nights the children and I would study something different or unique that the Lord had placed on our hearts. It was one of my favorite experience to be able to grow in our Lord together! 

5. Kampala Markets! Seriously I have never seen anything like these markets. They are dirty, disgusting and packed with a lot of people, but I love them. Being able to walk around outside and be able to find everything from food, to clothes, to crafts and pretty much anything else you can think of. The only thing is that there are no aisle markers, nothing to indicate where to find what you need. I could be lost for days in the market if I went by myself.  As you walk down the dirt filled, sewage infested, people yelling "lakumi, lakumi, lakumi" (which means 1000 USH) streets I cannot help but get lost in the thought of how blessed I am. In America I am able to walk into a supermarket with aisle markers, clean floors, and set prices to find all the items I need. Sometimes we as humans get so caught up in our daily lives we don't think about how good we have it. The Lord is continually teaching me about how much we take things like the supermarket for granted. To have all the food we need under one roof, with clearly marked ailes…we are blessed to have that. Each and every one of us in America is blessed.

6. Brick making! Everyday for the past week I have been helping the older boys make bricks. They have to make about 6000 bricks by hand for the fencing around the perimeter of Another Hope. They are able to make about 200 in a day. These boys are extremely hard working with such servant hearts. I loved spending time with them laughing and goofing around while making bricks.

7. Chapati! Chapatis are one of my new favorite foods. I have had the awesome opportunity to make them for Christmas in the Community (which was the weekend before Christmas) and for Christmas day. Elvis, Issac (both older boys at Another Hope), Prea (the volunteer from Australia/South Africa) and myself woke up at 4:30am to start the Chapati making for Christmas in the Community so they were ready by 9am when we had to leave. I seriously enjoyed every minute of making them with these wonderful individuals. 

8.Painting! Over the past month and a half Prea, Wasswa, Elvis and I (aka the Art Team) painted the babies playroom , the dining room and one of the babies room. In the babies playroom we painted the alphabet and numbers up to 20 across the top of the wall. Then in the middle of one wall we painted a tree and we made the leaves out of the children's handprints with their names in the middle. This was one of my favorite projects we did. To be able to spend time with those three individuals would just bring a smile to my face no matter the mood I was in. Also we were able to start a mini mural in the dining room with a couple of the disney princesses. All of these projects turned out great thanks to some amazing artists!

9. LOVE! Always love. Sometimes its hard to love, sometimes it means to give up the protection of your heart. One thing that is not lacking in the children at Another Hope is love! Their love for the Lord is contagious and their love for each other is so beautiful to see. They are one big family. They always watch out for one another and listen to their  'brothers or sisters' if they need someone to just listen! I seriously love the children at Another Hope with all of my heart! They have became like family to me!

This past Thursday I moved from Kkona to Jinja. Its crazy to think how everything just fell into place. I miss everyone at Another Hope so much, but I felt called by the Lord to teach at a new Christian school here in Jinja called Greater Love. School starts on Monday, where I will be teaching P4 and P5 mathematics. These classes will have students ranging from 8-12 years old. I feel completely blessed to have the opportunity to teach these children. For the duration of my stay I will be staying at an orphanage called The Hoffman Home, which is sponsored by True Impact Ministries. They just opened up this home in December and there are currently 49 children ranging from five to twelve years old. They have so much love joy and laughter inside them it brings me so much joy. Over the past month 18 children here have committed their lives to Christ. I get chills every time I think of the work the Lord is doing in this place and in the lives of the children here! I am overjoyed to walk with them in the beginning of their faith journey with the Lord. The Hoffman House is situated about a five minutes from the Nile river and about ten minutes from the city center in Jinja. Over the past three days I can already see some of the awesome things the Lord is doing here. His presence is felt. I enjoy waking up every morning and receiving 49 hugs from His 49 beautiful children! I love them all so much! All the children here at the Hoffman House will also be attending the new school Greater Love, so not only do I get to love on them at home, but I get to love on them at school. I cannot even begin to describe the excitement I have for my last eight weeks in Uganda! 

With love from Uganda,

Nicole