Dear friends and family,
It has been one year since we left the U.S. to serve in Uganda; full of unforgettable, life-changing experiences and trying challenges. Our time has taught us so much about the Ugandan culture, ourselves, and the countless blessings that God has and continues to shower upon our lives. We have realized – as others had warned – that it takes a full year to get familiar with a culture and to know where we best fit in. We have tried our best to make ourselves useful this past year, and we know that the lessons learned will make our second year all the more fruitful.
Recapping the year, we have been involved in assessing the needs in the communities that Embrace Uganda (EU) supports; completing the construction of a church and latrine in the Eastern village of Koreng that the community hopes to use for vocational training, pastor conferences, hosting volunteers, etc.; distributing funding for scholarships and teachers’ salaries; hosting teams of volunteers from the U.S.; acting as mediators, transferring information and funds, between EU and its Ugandan partners; beginning preparations for the construction of Hope Again Medical Center in Kaihura; and providing computer training, information management solutions, and the like for our partner organization Bringing Hope to the Family (BHTF). Despite the many activities, much of our time in Uganda during the last year has been spent building relationships: with our Ugandan partners, the children, and the communities that we serve together with EU and its supporters. It is this network of relationships that we have enjoyed the most, as well as being able to share our experiences, and the stories of our new-found friends, with all of you in other parts of the world.
Our days are rarely short of challenges, especially facing the realities of abject poverty. Nonetheless, our work here has unquestionably been the most rewarding experience of our lives and will be hard to top. We count ourselves blessed to be in Uganda facilitating and being witnesses to the work of God and so many of His faithful. Your support, prayers, and encouragement have kept us going and made our work in Uganda possible. For this opportunity, we are eternally grateful to you.
This coming year is exciting for us, as we will spend another year in Uganda, but this time with the perspective and the lessons of the past year. Our tasks for the next year will include: coordinating the construction of the building for the Hope Again Medical Center (which is now underway); continuing to act as mediators between EU and its Ugandan partners; continuing to build the capacity of BHTF (through computer training, information management, strengthening the structures of their income-generating projects, etc); establishing clear systems of accountability between EU and its partners; and hosting more teams of volunteers from the U.S. Our hope is that by the end of our two-year commitment, ending in early 2011, our role with BHTF will be completed and we will have helped empower the BHTF staff to continue their unending effort to help the people of Kaihura and surrounding communities.
We write you to thank you for your support in the past year and to ask for your continued support in the year to come. After evaluating the status of our funding thus far, we have found that we need to raise approximately US$6,000.00 to complete our two-year commitment in Uganda and help us resettle back in the U.S. next year. Our reason for asking for increased support is two-fold. Firstly, we hope to increase our monthly financial support after having realized during the past year that what we had estimated was indeed a very tight budget. Secondly, a few of our sponsors, due to uncontrollable financial pressures in their own lives, have not been able to support us to the level that they had hoped. To those of you that fall into this category please know that we understand the situation, are grateful for your intentions, and we often pray for your financial well-being.
We ask for your prayers, and if it is in your heart to sponsor someone, we could definitely use it. Whether you would like to support us with a one-time gift or monthly contributions, you can do so through the donation page at www.embraceuganda.org or by making a check payable to Embrace Uganda at P.O. Box 742, Wake Forest, NC, 27588 – note AJ & Ana Mission Support in the subject line. If you have any questions, please contact us.
We are grateful to all of you that have so diligently supported us, whether financially or in prayer. Your support has constantly given us rejuvenating comfort and strength. We know that God’s body is at work, impacting one life at a time. We surely would not be here if not for each of you.
Thank you!
Until next time . . . much love and many blessings . . . AJ & Ana
