The Budget

I don't really have much new news to share however we are trying to compile a budget which is harder than I had thought it would be:) We basically are trying to figure out how much it will cost us to get over there and then how much it will cost to live there so we can start raising support. Plane tickets alone for our family will cost us $15,000-$20,000! That is quite a lot! We are also working on our housing situation there and are looking at a couple options.
As we walk this journey it is amazing to see God's hand in it all. We had a meeting a couple weeks ago with all the people who will be going with us. We also got to talk to a man who lived there for a couple years. What a blessing that was. Very exciting to have these resources! We have also gotten to hear stories from other missionaries that have lived in the area. What a gift this has been. Praise GOD!!
I am so thankful for all of you who have prayed for us and are praying for us, it means so much to us.
If you are interested in knowing more about Karamoja here are a couple links that will give you more info:
http://www.karamoja.com/index.html
http://ocodi-karamoja.com/background-karamoja/

The second website has some good info about the way of life for the Karamajoan people. 80% of the people in Karamoja are illiterate. My homeschooling skills of teaching reading might just come in handy :)

Hugs,

Michaela

Video from Matt

This is a video made by Matt Chandler who is a pastor of a church in the Dallas area. We have podcasted him for about 3 years now and he has taught us a lot. He recently found out he has a tumor and here is a video taken before his surgery. He is doing ok, but they found the tumor was malignant. His response is amazing and hopeful. Click on this link to watch it. It is worth it. It is only about 5 minutes long. Video from Matt
Please pray for him and you can check out his updates on www.thevillagechurch.net.

A Great Reminder



Kotido Uganda

Here is a map of Uganda. We will be in the town of Kotido. It doesn't show Karamoja but it is basically the Kotido and Moroto area.

A big thing you could be praying for us about is for our house to sell. We have had renters in our house for over a year and they would like to buy it but can not get financing. Please pray that they can get financed. That is huge right now. Thanks for your prayers!!!

Michaela

Here it Goes

The 3 adoption opportunities that came and went were somewhat heart breaking, but at the same time we praised God because He answered a prayer. During this whole process we were on our knees a lot praying what God wanted us to do. God has given us such a heart and burden for orphans but it seems like we kept hitting road blocks.

Meanwhile my husband is growing a burden for the people in Karamoja in Northern Uganda. He told me about this and I was excited and scared all at the same time. Just for background sake, I didn't think my husband would ever want to leave the country and not because of safety but because his passion has been for at risk youth. So we prayed about this hard, wondering, and then it both hit us. God is calling us to Karamoja. To help the people there. To show them the love of Jesus. Babies are dying because of minor things that they shouldn't die of. With that we are making plans to move their permanently. As you can guess to do something like this takes a lot of prayer support and financial support (we are working out the details of all of this). We will be helping the orphanage there and have plans to open a baby orphanage to help the helpless and dying babies. Of course another main goal is spreading the Gospel through these avenues as well as church planting. Within that we know once we get there we will adopt a baby or two (or 3, 4...who knows really). So the purpose of this blog remains the same but with a twist. We will be bringing our next child home and who knows maybe even you will bring your next child home from Karamoja Uganda (I would love that).


I know some of you are reading this and thinking we are crazy. It's true. We are crazy for the sake of Jesus and showing others His salvation, and abundant life. We have also prayed a lot over this and read all kinds of scripture. My flesh would like to just do something else maybe a little more comfortable. I remember that fear can keep us from doing what God wants us to do. Reading "Don't Waste Your Life" by John Piper has been such a blessing during this time. If you have not read it, I highly recommend it. It is all about following God whole heartedly and not wasting your life on other things.


There you have it....how one crazy road led to another crazy road. Not how I expected it, but thankful that He leads.

Continuing to Walk by Faith (even if it is baby steps),

Michaela

P.S. Here is a video you can watch. It was made to raise awareness for the Orphanage Shalom Uganda. It shows of the faces of people from Karamoja.

Update

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted anything on our blog. A lot has happened however a lot of it we could not share because we didn't know what the outcome would be and we did not want to take you on our roller coaster. We have been through 3 situations of adoption and all of them have come and gone. To those of you who have been through adoption are not surprised by this, and to those of you who have not; this is how adoption can go (but not always). It has been somewhat hard, but we can see God's fingerprints over the whole situation and we see how He is leading us, and guiding us and it has been very comforting so we thank you very much for your prayers. They mean so much to us. I would like to share with you the road we are taking now but because we have not been able to share all of our plans with our family it will have to wait for a little bit (hopefully not long). It does entail bringing our next child home however it is not quite the road I was exactly expecting. I ask that during this time you just pray that what we tell our family will be accepted and they will have peace about it. Thanks for your prayers and I hope to share soon.

Michaela