What Now??

I dont know about the rest of the world but when i get home from an amazing life changing missions trip and i wake up in my american dream im left wondering. . .what now? The last few days i've spent quiet a bit of time recovering and relax and wait to see how God wants me to move in Durango. Last january God really laid it on my heart to have a single moms ministry where we could help make ends meet with single moms and release some of the burdens of life by just simply offering our open hands. So when i got back from Uganda i was really torn to not fall back into my american christianity and become an everyday christ follower that walks in my faith not only when i'm out in the mission field but when i'm here in Durango. SoOo . . . all you women who have free time to partner with me can help me kick off what is going to hopefully be a growing ministry!! First of all i need everyone to pray for these mamas and if you feel God tugging on your heart to help with one their needs there will be a few ways to do that!!


Passion For Compassion - Meeting Mamas Needs
Super Mom #1 Valerie is a single mama that has a daughter that is almost one!! She wants to have a birthday party for her little one in August and needs supplies!! (i.e. streamers, cake, balloons, presents, clothes (16 months - 20 months), food for her family (i.e. chips, salsa, party snacks). Currently she is unemployed and new to Durango she is currently looking for a job and has a hard time making ends meet. In her free time she volunteers around town. Let's help this Mama have the perfect birthday for her little girl!!


As new Mamas are found I will update this and as God glory is shown i will share the stories on here as well!!! Not only are we kicking of Meeting Mamas Needs we are going to start helping at manna soup kitchen hopefully twice a month so we need 6-8 volunteers to help with that on tuesday mornings from 9am-12pm

Im Home . . . Here Some Luganda Words I Learned :)

tulabagane + encha = see you tomorrow 


wasuze-ota = how'd you sleep?


bulungi = good 


webale nyo = thank you very much


gyani = who are you? (when talking to children)


bakuyita-ani = who are you called? (said bauk we tan a)


oyagala = do you like?


olina emyaaka emeeka? = how old are you?


Im home and i miss Uganda so so much!! I miss getting up and looking forward to going down to sanyu babies home. I miss my Rafael. And his sweet sweet smile. Thank you to all of you who supported me on this adventure that changed my life!!! Love you. Love africa.

The Beautiful Nile+ Love Bug Down On One Knee=Perfect Engagement :)

Okay so here how the cookie crumbled :) Not quiet sure why that reference popped in my head but it did!

So two days ago we went to Redeemer House which is a BEAUTIFUL home that house both boys and girl and we threw them a party just to show Jesus love and our love for them! It was out in jinja which is about two hours + outside of kampala, uganda the whole drive there was amazing i got the best seat so i got to really read and just have some much needed alone time with God. (P.s.- the sunrise here right now is absolutely amazing this morning (6:54am)) Anyway once we get there we honk at the front gate and as we drive in i get to see the most beautiful house i have seen thus far!! There is about sixteen children here many who have lost their parents to AIDS and or we abandon. So we pull in and the house mamas cut up some fruit for us as well as made us pancakes :) yum yum and actually the first time i have seen pancakes in Africa. So we eat and then we get to just relax and play with the kiddos!! I get into face painting and come up with a pretty sweet face painting idea if i must say so myself SPIDERMAN thanks to my never ending supply of bandaids that i am currently sporting in Uganda that i got two christmas ago :) So i painted probably ten spidermans and they loved it and i did too!! Most of the children speak Luganda which my next blog will teach you all the words i have learn!! So we threw them a party and gave them some goodies and a special prize it broke my heart when i saw these little eyes peaking threw the brick wall that stood probably ten feet high. These two sets of eyes and these little hands poking threw. . . So i did what any normal person would do, I STOLE THEM SOME CANDY!! They loved it and there little eyes lit up as i passed tootsie rolls through to them. . . then little cars then some beanie babies hehehe. I love that i will never know their story or where they are hurting but i know for those few moments i made their day so much sweeter :) Okay so leaving there we were headed to the NILE woohoo!!! As we drove through this village you could start to see the break in the bank where the river was and it was oh so beautiful!!! As we parked i was filled with excitement and i so badly wanted to run down the hill toward those rushing waters!! (which by the way i did not want to go in them because im pretty sure alligators live in them, sketch) Alei ran with me and got down there and just amazed a the beautiful wonder God himself created. Hug rushing waters. There was this little African man that was saying for 1000 shillings, which is $5 he would swim through it with just a watering can, a yellow plastic one. So here i am taking pictures of this crazy man and i turn around and jesse says, "i just gotta do it now" im looking at him like 'huh' and he gets down on one knee and and shakingly says, "will you marry me?!?!" and of course i said YES and the whole team got pictures of him proposing in front of the Nile river!!! Yay God, thanks for blessing me with such a romantic!!! So as soon as i get home ill put up the photos on here!!

Prayer Request of the Day: Pray for John Paul he is a little baby at Sanyu babies home and he is probably almost two and has HIV and he is really really sick and i just held him last night and God really broke my heart for this little boy that is going through such harsh pain without doing anything to deserve it. . .

Oasis Orphanage

“I’m Joshua too can you take me home and love me like your Joshua?” –Little Joshua at the orphanage we went to said this to April today. Broke her heart and mine too.

Today was my favorite day so far we drove about 20 minutes away from where we were staying as we turn off the main road we drove up a hill that look like a four wheeling hill that we would go jeeping on. As we got closer to the top we could begin to hear screams of joy coming and children of all ages, as they begun to flood out of this little metal door that lined their property, screaming and jumping for joy at the fact that we cared so much to give a whole day just to serve at their orphanage, we felt thankful for the opportunity. As I open the door hands embraced my waste as they expressed their joy through huge hugs and smiles at one point I begun to lose my balance because of the amount of children holding on to me and loving on me. My eyes teared up as I realize that I have never been in a place of such desperation that I yelled because I was so filled with joy that someone out there in this world cared about me. I’m pretty sure all 66 pairs of arm that belong to the little ones were around me at some point in time today. As we headed through these doors love filled there air like I have never know before, singing soon also filled the air as they expressed their appreciation for us coming to see them. They sang songs of the Lord and how good he is. I couldn’t help but be moved at the fact that they literally have nothing no shoes, torn clothing, dirty drinking water, flies everywhere but God was there surrounding these little ones which he loves so so dearly with his joy, love, and mercy. As the tour began Pastor Robert took us in the first room of the girls home there were six beds, two stacks of three beds, there was a little girl Rachel that was on the bottom bunk in the room Pastor Robert told she was 16 years old and was lame. She lost both her parent to AIDS and she also is HIV+ now and got a cold that spread to her lungs and now has pneumonia so she doesn’t have much longer so I ask that everyone who is reading this pray for Rachel pray for healing, comfort, and peace as she goes down this road that she has done nothing to deserve. After going in this room we went into the next small room that had two bed each slept three to four girls, mind you there is drywall on the ceiling that has never been painted and is seeping the smell of mold through it the walls are light orange and are so covered with dirt and filth that they are black in places from where hands have touched it. There are spiders and webs in the corners of the ceiling and mice, as jesse found out living in corners. (I’ll update more later tonight) We are now leaving to go to A perfect Injustice to throw some street boys a PARTAY!!!!!   

Thursday Thoughts . . .

Im back at Namirebre Guest House while everyone else is going to sange boys home to build a kitchen. We didn't want to push my luck with feeling crummy and put me into the sun today so im here being mama to the sick. Savannah was up all night puking and has a fever currently and Allei feels the sickness coming on. Yesterday we, meaning the team, went shopping at an african village but i could handle the temperature  changes so i had to park myself in a coffee shop and keep putting cold fluids into my body. I handled it until about one-thirty when i finally go our taxi to take me home and i went to bed for the day around two-pm. I love the hospitality/culture here when i told some of the workers i was sick they said, "im so sorry for you." and they say when you get here "You are most welcome" i just love it!! I wish we cared this much about strangers in america. So yesterday we got to go to the Hope house that Abby Tracy started where she took women who were prostitutes and gave them means to make money by creating necklaces, earrings, bracelets, that they could then sell to feed their children. Most of the women if not all had more than three children and were single and many of them were HIV positive. And through Abby they are getting to know Christ and see how much he truly values them!!! The song Give Me Your Eyes by Brandon Heath comes to mind every time i see the hurt and joy in these women's eyes God loves and values them just as much as he does you and i yet we look at them differently because they weren't blessed with our lifestyle?! It breaks my heart. Right now i can here the babies crying from sanyu babies home and it breaks my heart that i cant go down there because i have no one to walk down peace hill with. Oh it hurts to hear them hurt. Please pray for the babies. If i could take them all home i would. 

Tuesday Tuesday Tuesday . . .

(Tuesday Before Getting Sick)

So I got my first real night of sleep in Uganda!! I’m so excited to be here serving Christ.  Today we went to the village where they, David and Abby, are building their new boys home. Right now they “house” sixteen street boys, as well as, supporting four boys through boarding school. There house is made out of bricks that were hand made and made out of an orange red colored rock there was  We got in a line a tossed bricks for a bit then took a break and just enjoyed the beautiful view!! There are avocado trees that surround the property as well as mango and coffee trees! If you ask me they live pretty close to heaven here. I was sitting in the morning on one of our breaks and chatting with David about what it is like here and if I could buy a mango from the ladies in the house next door he walked with me over to the ask them and she said I could just have one! So i parked my butt in the dirt and sat down for a mango rinsing lesson and the second i did the mama of that house ran inside to get a mat that she made for me to sit on, how sweet. So David showed me how to rinse them and that apparently you can just bite into the peal and eat it. It was so incredible juicy and it tasted like the most amazing juicy peach I had ever had. . . except it was a mango!! Yum yum. The lady living there was so sweet she saw that I had sticky hands and ran over and lent me some of her water to rinse them and soap to wash them. Keep in mind this water is water that they walked miles for and carried on there bikes shoulders and heads to bring back to there home. How fortunate are we that we can crawl out of bed walk ten feet to turn on an endless supply of water, drinking water for that matter. 

African Flu?? Okay :)

So i have spent the last twenty-four hours yacking and hurting. I woke up tuesday night at 12:10am puking and couldn't sleep all night. I had a bit of a fever too. Poor ladies that i was sleeping with were trying to help me the best they could but all i really wanted was my mama. Then i thought of all those little babies down at Sanyu that don't have a mama when they get sick. When there little bodies just need someone to hold them and rub their back they don't have that. Goodness it breaks my heart. So who wants to bring some african babies home???? I DO I DO :) So i got some medicine yesterday and passed out for 18hours straight and i now feel like a new person :) Please pray for health on our team!! Savannah and Allei are sick now and they are both under 18 so im guessing they really miss their mamas!!

5:19am? Yes Please God :)

(Monday)

Goodness what a crazy couple of days traveling! I am overjoyed to be in Uganda right now. This morning God woke me up at 5:19am and suggested :) i spend sometime in his word. I argued a bit in my mind and then eventually settled on if God wanted me to read he would place a certain book and chapter on my heart. . . and he did! So i felt as if i was suppose to read in Luke and then chapter six was laid on my heart as well. So here i am near 5:30am pulling my bible and notebook under my malaria net which by the way makes me feel like im a five year old princess :) thinking of ways to turn on my light without waking up emma. The second i turn my light on she rolls over and says, "we're in africa!" and im like im so sorry i woke you up! And she is clueless to what im talking about because we are both so excited to go to see the orphan babies, we chat for a bit and then i move my stuff into the bathroom in the dark with my head lap to spend some time with God. As im sitting there reading i begin to humble myself as i come across Luke 6:37 which is a verse that reminds me of my buddy Daniel and im reminded of how he wanted to go to mexico and africa and do missions work and here i am living out his dream, which has now become mine now too =) After my devotion we got up and had breakfast outside with the most beautiful view i think i have ever seen!! Once we were done we walked down "peace" hill, which is actually the most dangerous hill in uganda, to the sanyu babies home to help out the house mamas with the morning duties. There are about 6-8 house mamas there at a time and 48 under three babies, ten are newborns, 25 1-2 year olds and 14ish 2-3 year olds just waiting for someones heart to break for the orphans. Mine did. You do the math, breaks my heart that there aren't enough mamas. I found myself in the newborn babies room where in reality you can only hold one newborn at a time because they need so much support. so i found myself wishing i had a deformed arm or two or ten so i could hold more babies. I fallen in love with a few babies here so i want everyone to pray for all of them and a few in particular. . . Jeremiah he is about 2 and adorable, Rafael which is jesse favorite and he is about one, and Dominic who is 9/10 months. . . And SPECIAL prayers for Daniella she is around 9 months and she is literally just skin and bones, she has a hard time eating meaning she barely eats anything. So please pray for her!! She needs it so bad. 

Africa Here We Come. . .

(Thursday) Jesse and I are on our way to Albq. Right now enjoying some quality time in the car. Okay so we got blessed with ALL of our Africa money and three dollars to spare. . . God is so so good!! We got to stop at the Saunders household and I got to give big hugs to my little “best friend” Elizabeth. Elizabeth was so cute on Sunday she told me that when she grows up she just wants to be a mama J it makes me smile hearing that out of a five year old. She also told me that she want to adopt one from Africa, one from china, and one from Uganda! Then when jesse and I were chatting I introduced them and Elizabeth turns to him with a slightly puzzled look and says, “Isn’t Jesse a girls name?” hehehe she cracks me up! It was very cool to pull up and see all their “little children of the world” as the jesus loves the little children song would say, playing out front. Goodness I can’t wait to have my own yard filled with little children of the world and they all be brothers and sisters. Jesse says, “Oh my goodness you’re so outrageous!” I told him my mom could just move to Durango and we could live with her and just adopt a million children J I think the idea is growing on him!

Pretty sure if I could I would bring home some of my little buddies from Palomas, Mexico. Our last trip to Mexico was really good we, patty, Joanne, and I got down there a day earlier to help put together bags for the fiesta on Saturday!! Goodness we made over 640 bags!! Some for mamas some for dad and some para los ninos(for the children)  Jesse and Nick drove down a day later and we got to set up for the fiesta and bag up food to give away. Before I go to Mexico each time I pray that God would break my heart for what breaks his. . . This time I got to help with the dropping off of food at the houses of the sponsor children (Side Note: There are a list of thirty or so children that need people from the states to sponsor them so they can further there education and their parents cant afford it, so if you are interested let me know for the whole year it cost $120 for the youngins and $220 for the older ones. The best part of sponsoring them is you could come down and see your child a few times a year and buy them a Christmas and birthday present that they wouldn’t have normally received without out your sponsorship. Plus you get to better their future )

Africa Here We Come . . .

So in exactly one day, twenty hours, and twenty one minutes we will be boarding the plane for Uganda, Africa!! I can't wait!! I'm so overly joyed to get over there and love on some orphans :) While we are there we are helping build a boys home with A Perfect Injustice and also showing Christ love while we are there!!