Celebration

This Sunday was an unforgettable day for our family.  I am not going to say anything about it.  I will let Broderick tell you...

 

 

 



As a mom, this is the one thing I have prayed for both of my children....that they would choose to follow Jesus, make Him Lord of their life and then proclaim Him to the nations.  What a blessing to witness this moment with so many loved ones surrounding us!

 

Broderick will be sharing his testimony with the school in Uganda on our trip.  We are so excited for him to start sharing his story and what God is doing in his life.

FAQs (part 2)

Why go when you could just give?

Great question.  Another one that Rob and I have discussed many times over.  There are multiple answers to this question. Let's break this down...

Yes, we could just give the money and not use it to travel to Africa.  However, making deposits into the lives of the children living at Ebenezer is priceless.  Loving those kids and giving them one on one attention they don't always get is worth every penny we spend to visit them.  There is nothing comparable to spending time with our sponsor child, Evelyn.  A price tag can not be put on getting to see her, hold her, talk to her, love her and watch her play with my kids.

 

 

Not only do we get to see Evelyn and deposit love into her life we get to see all the other children and people we love....



Also, because we have a partnership with Ebenezer and the director and staff we need to build those relationships.  We have projects going on, like building a school that sometimes requires a person being on the ground.  It helps being there in real life to check in on things, have conversations and discuss plans.  They are literally on the other side of the world and it is not always best to communicate everything through Facebook and email.

Another thing, God always works in big ways in our lives while we are there.  Not only our lives, but in the lives of people around us.  I so much enjoy watching what we now call the "ripple effect" take place in the lives of people around us.  Just last night we had a delivery guy in our house and he said, "so you go to Africa a lot?" (If you come to my house, it's pretty obvious!)  Well, thank you God that was an open door to share the gospel and talk about the work you are doing in Uganda. 

Do you see what I mean?  God lives in a place where the streets are made of gold and the gates are pearl, he is not hindered by the cost of the trip.  I am not saying we can do whatever we want with our money, he commands us to be good stewards.  Do not read that wrong.  What I am saying is, that He has work to be done and it cost money to get there and to get it done.  He will provide the money to get us there and the money to do the work.

*****If you notice in the right hand side bar there is now a "Fundraising" button.  If you would like to give financially to our trip you can click on the picture or for a mobile device click here and it will take you directly to the donating site.  Also right under that is a "Follow by email" button.  Just enter your email address in and you will get an email every time I update the blog.*****

FAQs

Why do you raise support for a mission trip?

The truth is, I have asked myself this question a few times. Rob and I have had many conversations, leading up to this trip, on whether or not we would raise support.  Let me do my best to explain why we, personally, will be raising support for this trip.

When we went to Mexico and Africa as a family we did not specifically ask people for money.  We tried to be semi-creative in raising some money to of set the cost of taking a family over seas. Before Mexico we did a garage sale and God provided a little over $1000 from selling our junk and other peoples junk.  The funny thing is, people would come and just give us money without buying anything or would pay way more than they needed to for what they were buying. 

When we went to Africa the kids did the Change4Change fundraiser and God provided $1500!  We did not know at the time we started that fundraiser that the money would go to building a house.  Because honestly, we never expected to get even close to that much money!  Oh ye of little faith...yup, that's me.  One of these days I will get it.
We had people give us their tax returns and ask how they could help.
After our church did the anthologies story someone contacted me and wanted to send us money for our next trip.  We didn't even have a trip planned or know if we were going to be going back!

From all that, we learned that people want to be involved.

Rob and I believe that all Christians are "called" to missions.  The Bible says, "Go into all nations and make disciples."  That is a command for every believer.  We know and understand that not all people can physically go.  Getting involved in missions can look different for each person.  We have come to realize that if we don't allow God to use other people to support us we are not allowing them to "go to all nations".   When I say support, I am not just referring to financial support.  One of the sweetest blessings we received while in Africa was not financial at all.  Our house church wrote us letters and cards and the children drew pictures for us to open while we were gone.  That is more important than any money.  (Don't get me wrong...we need the money, so we can get there, so we can read the letters in Africa! HA!) Being away for even just 2 weeks can get lonely.  Knowing people are praying for us and thinking about us does so much good for the soul.

Already this week I have received multiply emails, texts, and calls of people excited about supporting us and getting involved! People covering us in prayer.  People donating financially. People with fundraising ideas. People offering their time. People encouraging us with their words.  It has been such a blessing to see God already at work.  I am so thankful for this little network of supporters God has put around us!

A few tangible ways you can support us right now:

Print this picture (or any picture) of our family, hang it somewhere you will see it often, and cover us daily with prayer. We covet prayers while leading up to a trip.  The enemy attacks always, but I feel it as a mission trip approaches.  We need your prayers to resist his temptation and evil schemes.  Specific prayer right now would be that we follow God's leading while planning the details of our time in Africa.

Financially.  Send me an email robnamy2000@gmail.com or Facebook message me for details on how to do this.

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