Christmas in Uganda

Passing out the boxes!!

Edith unloading the boxes

Sweet Maureen

Tony showing off his bag

Moses the OT with his medical supplies for the community outreach center

I received news from Edith on Thursday that 11 of the 13 Christmas boxes arrived in Uganda!! These boxes were covered in prayer before they were shipped and prayers have continued to insure their safe arrival so I am overjoyed to share this news!! Please continue to pray for the 2 remaining boxes to arrive, we trust that the Lord will provide their safe arrival soon. Once again I want to thank Trinity United Methodist for their generous donation to make these gifts and their shipping costs possible! Enjoy the pictures of the kids and staff celebrating their Christmas gifts!!

Merry Christmas!!

I wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas from Our Hope International!! I pray you have been able to spend the day celebrating God's perfect gift of his son, Jesus Christ, with your family and friends. It is a miracle that God sent his son to live among us, identify with us and then give his life for our salvation. Jesus' gift of life is the reason we have been able to accomplish so much this year through Our Hope International. It has brought me such joy to be able to bless the kids at Home of Hope with Christmas gifts and give the staff a "Christmas bonus". All of this has been possible through bead sales and generous donations from friends, family and Trinity United Methodist Church. I can't say THANK YOU enough!!!
We are still praying the boxes arrive safely in Uganda, hopefully by the New Year. Edith, the kids and staff at Home of Hope celebrated Christmas by having a Jesus birthday party and I am posting some of the pictures from that party, ENJOY!!

Christmas is on it's way!

Kayla and I successfully got all 12 boxes shipped to the kids at Home of Hope! Praise the Lord for the finances to cover the shipping and the many lessons learned along the way. I also want to give a shout out to the awesome girl at the Trussville post office who had wisdom and patience to get everything taken care of. God has truly met every one of our needs along the way. Say a prayer that all 12 of the boxes make it to Uganda!! Merry Christmas~

Pure Thankfulness~

As we come to the end of a month of Thanks I want to express a huge THANK YOU to all of our sponsors, old and new. As of this month we have 8 kids sponsored to go to school and one child at Home of Hope with a personal sponsor! God has brought in new sponsors who have a heart for these children and that has been a huge encouragement to Edith and myself. I love getting to send her emails of all the good things happening here, that has to be one of the best parts of running Our Hope!
We are still looking for a sponsor for Edith's son Francis to attend school again in January. If you are interested please email me and I can give you more information on the costs. 
I also want to say thank you to everyone at work who helped donate, pack boxes and write up customs slips so we could get the Christmas boxes shipped!! Needless to say Kayla and I learned a lot about international shipping and how complicated that process can be. Please pray all 12 of the boxes arrive in Uganda and no one decides to help themselves to some toys along the way. In talking to Edith tonight she mentioned she was worried about getting the kids new clothes and I was able to tell her God took care of it, they are on the way! I am ultimately thankful to my gracious heavenly father who meets all our needs as we faithfully follow His lead. Lord give me strength to continue to follow......

This picture includes sweet Francis in the yellow shirt next to Kayla. He is so willing to help with the children at Home of Hope!

Project Christmas

After bragging on how God has continued to provide for Our Hope in my last post, we were blessed with the largest donation Our Hope has ever received! The Lil' Lambs ministry at Trinity United Methodist Church donated $5,000.00 from their semi-annual consignment sale!!! Lil' Lambs organizes the sale and a portion of the proceeds goes to a ministry of their choosing. My co-worker, Ingrid Kellen, is involved in Lil' Lambs and she inquired about Our Hope and our current financial needs. After a vote we were the ministry of choice and I was brought to tears when Ingrid presented me with the check!

We are now in the process of putting together Christmas bags to surprise the kids at Home of Hope. Kayla, who went with our team in April, has been a huge help in pulling this project together. God has provided above and beyond for them through finding $1 sale racks at Wal-mart, awesome Bible coloring books at the Dollar Tree and donations from friends. Thank you to everyone who has donated and prayed for this project!

I wish we were going to be there to see these kids enjoy Christmas for the first time but I am requesting pictures from Edith!! Our prayer is the kids feel God's love through tangible gifts of love that lead them to know Christ.

One of my favorite verses has come to mind so many times over the past two weeks, " Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us." Psalm 62:8. God has once again answered our need above and beyond my desires, praise be to His name alone! 

The Lord Always Provides

 The Lord has continued to remind me over the past two weeks of His word "Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act." Psalm 37:5. Every time I have wondered how God would meet our needs and continue to raise support He has answered with more opportunities and wonderful people to serve. These past two weeks have proved to be no different!
This is a picture from our bead sale at UAB Highlands two weeks ago. We were blessed to make close to $200 dollars that we can put towards the many needs at Home of Hope. Thank you to everyone who came and supported us! The Lord has provided another opportunity to sell beads this Saturday, the 10th, at the arts and crafts fair at my Grandmother's church, Community Bible Church. I want to go ahead and thank my wonderful mom, sister and grandmother for helping me make this happen this weekend!! So if you are around the south side of Atlanta this weekend come visit us at Community Bible in Stockbridge, Ga from 9 to 3 and get a start on your Christmas shopping!

Beads for Sale!!

In order to raise funds for Our Hope we sell handmade paper beads made by the beautiful woman of Uganda. We have colorful bracelets, necklaces and earrings for sale!! We sell them year round but we also take opportunities to set up booths at craft fairs around Birmingham.

This Friday, October 26th, we will have a table at the UAB Highlands Craft Fair from 7 to 4! We hosted a table at this fair last year and it was a great success and we are praying for the same this year. Thank you to everyone who has bought beads in the past to show your support!

My mom and I will be selling all day down at UAB Highlands so if you are free come on down and visit us!! You can get a jump start on Christmas gifts for your friends and family!!

This is how you say Thank you Ugandan style!!

On our last trip to serve at Home of Hope in April of 2012 we were able to take goodie bags for the hardworking staff at Home of Hope. Southeastern Freight generously donated reusable bags and some precious friends filled them with basic hygiene items and a few treats. Needless to say the gifts were welcomed with open arms and they were extremely grateful for everything they received. This is just one of the many reasons I have grown to love the precious people of Uganda. They truly understand that the Lord will meet all your needs like he states in Matthew 6:30-34.
   ^"So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

By responding to Psalm 67 we are able to play a part in advancing the Kingdom and meeting the needs of our brother and sisters in Christ. This Psalm has become my prayer and my reason for moving forward with Our Hope International. May the Lord use Our Hope to make His saving power known among all nations!!

"May God be gracious to us and bless us
    and make his face to shine upon us,   
 that your way may be known on earth,
    your saving power among all nations.
Let the peoples praise you, O God;
    let all the peoples praise you!

 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy,
    for you judge the peoples with equity
    and guide the nations upon earth.

Let the peoples praise you, O God;
    let all the peoples praise you!

 The earth has yielded its increase;
    God, our God, shall bless us. God shall bless us;
    let all the ends of the earth fear him!"

Enjoy watching a little Ugandan celebration with Edith leading the BIG "thank you"!

Our Hope International has a Blog!!!

So this is my first official post on the new blog!! I am so excited to have a place to share all that God is doing both here in the states and in Uganda through Our Hope. To start off I want to thank all of my friends and family who have supported us, prayed for us and made generous donations over the past 2 years. Thanks to y'all we have been able to sponsor four children from Home of Hope and one child from the community to go to Mt. Zion Primary school. In addition, we have been able to make several crucial donations to Home of Hope that have helped pay the rent, give them clean water, provide medical treatment, pay the OT's salary, buy much needed food and purchase land in Bugembe where we plan to build later. We were also able to take our first team to serve at Home of Hope and the Bugembe community in April 2012! Plans for the 2013 trip are underway.....

I plan on sharing more of Our Hope's story on here each week. As well as, new updates on how you can get involved in serving the beautiful people of Uganda with the love of Christ!

Sooooo save this blog site, check in weekly and share it with your friends!!!
 
In the Faithful One,
Jenny

Here are some new pictures of the kids at school!! They are learning so much and enjoying each day!

                                                                       Little Peter

                                                                       Big Peter

                                                   Louise (from the community outreach)