I need your help...

... to get back to them...

To show these little ones the love of Christ...

I need your help to go tell these imprisoned young people that there is hope...

... that they are not forgotten.

Please.  If you can donate any amount toward my trip, you can make a tax-deductible donation to Visiting Orphans.  

Just go to www.visitingorphans.org and click the 'donate' tab.  Where it says 'Gift Designation' select my trip OCTOBER 12-24, 2011 KENYA/UGANDA TRIP.  Then where it asks if you would like to designate this donation to a specific team member, please select 'yes' and enter my name:  Allison Fuller.

I really feel like God wants me on this trip.  Too many things have worked themselves out.  I just need to raise the rest of the money.  Anything you can give, I will greatly appreciate.

Thank you so much!!

Edited to add:

Oh and I still have some necklaces if you are interested.  Let me know.  They are beautiful!

An Update

Thank you to all of you that have donated and/or bought necklaces for my trip.  The necklaces are going faster than I thought they could.  I love it!  I love that it is bringing me closer to getting back to Africa, but I also love that I'm raising money for an organization I believe in.

A week ago, Visiting Orphans purchased a van for Return Children's Home.  Now they will be able to transport children to school and to the hospital.  They will also be able to transport teams (like us) to generate income for their ministry.  Visiting Orphans does amazing things for orphan ministries all over the world.

I've still got a long way to go in the fundraising department before I'm able to completely fund this trip, but if God wants me on this October team He will find a way to get me there.

The original reason I did not think this could possibly happen was that I don't have the vacation time at work.  Just yesterday that just worked itself all out.  Unbelievable really.  I'm still kind-of feeling like it can't be real.  The way that my work schedule works, I was able to swap some shifts with (amazing) willing co-workers.  And... the plant manager made a couple of arrangements, so work no longer stands in the way.  God is good.

Please pray that I not try to force anything to happen that isn't God's plan.  I really believe that if I'm supposed to go, I will.  To go is hard.  To stay is hard.  When I think about taking another trip like I just took, I get tired.  It is an exhausting trip.  Emotionally, physically, and spiritually draining.

I'm ready to go.

Thank you for your support!

Lots and Lots of Beads (Edited to add more pictures)

Look for details in my post from yesterday, and check back tomorrow for more colors!

Giving Life To Widows and Orphans

I met many beautiful women in Uganda.  There was a group of Karamojong women, all of them single and most were AIDS widows, that I spent some time with that didn't even know how many children they were raising.  They said there were "too many to count" when referring to how many children they had there.  Each of them were raising their own children, and most of them were trying to raise someone else's that had died.

There are groups like this all over the country.  Trying desperately to do the best that they can with what they have which is often times pretty much not a whole lot.  When I say they "don't have a whole lot", I don't mean that they have a low paying job and their kids don't have a change of clothes or toys.  I mean they have no job at all.  I mean their kids don't have any clothes, or what they have are rags.  Or clean water.  The only water they have sometimes kills them.  And their babies.  There homes are made of mud and trash.

But these women I met have great talent.  They are amazingly talented.  Everywhere we went we met women that had something to sell.  They don't beg for you to give them something.  They spend countless hours making beautiful things to sell so that they can feed their families.  I can't even remember all of the things I saw that women made there.  They weave gorgeous baskets out of banana leaves.  They make amazing rugs out of other plant leaves and carve little animals out of wood.  

And... they make beads out of paper.

We visited one ministry that teaches women to make this jewelry so that they may leave their lives of prostitution and still be able to make money to feed their children.  While they do this, they get to hear about Jesus.

These beads are made out of paper from magazines.  Some are made of paper that they make from acacia trees.  They are beautiful.  

Would you like to have some for yourself?  You would?  Awesome!

I have lots of them.  In every color you can think of and many multi-colored strands.  Seriously, they are so pretty.  I will add more pictures as soon as I can take some.

For a $20 (tax-deductible) donation to Visiting Orphans, you can choose a paper bead necklace.  Or 5 or 10 for $20 each.  :-)  Part of the donation will go toward the cost of my trip, and the other part goes toward the AWESOME  things Visiting Orphans does to help widows and orphans all over the world.

If you want some beads, please comment here with your contact info or email me at allie1111@me.com.  If you are local, I can come by and show you what I've got.  If you see something in the pictures that you like, let me know!!

If you are not interested in jewelry but you still would like to help, you can make a tax-deductible donation toward my trip at www.visitingorphans.org.  Just click the 'donate' tab, then choose my trip from the drop-down menu.  OCTOBER 12-24, 2011  Then choose 'yes' that you would like to specify a specific team member, and enter my name.  ALLISON FULLER

Thank You All!!

Living James 1:27

Dear Friends,

Since arriving back home from Africa, I have been processing everything I experienced.  It has been difficult to deal with some of what I saw on my trip.  Thank you all for reading here and working through it with me.  The trip was hard.  Uganda and Kenya are hard places.  There are millions of God's precious people there without the resources to take care of themselves.  Many of them are children.  Hungry children.  Hungry for food and clean water, but also hungry for love and someone that cares.  Hope. 

I have an opportunity to go back.  Soon.  It is important, I feel, to go back to the very places I visited before.  Those children need to know that I have not forgotten them.  I love them.  I think about and pray for them every day.  The next trip with Visiting Orphans  (the only one until next summer) that will visit the places I need to go is October 12-24, 2011.  I feel God leading me back there. 

When I decided to take my first trip to Africa, many team members raised support for their trip while I felt like paying for it myself was what God wanted me to do.  A large sacrifice that I needed to make.  This time, however, I will need to raise the financial support to go.  Soon.  I don't have much time since plane tickets must be purchased ahead of time.  The trip costs approximately $3400.  This includes all of my logding, translators, transportation and food.  The only thing it doesn't include are the donations that we will need to take to the orphanages.

Please pray.  God can do this.  $2000 to purchase plane tickets is due by August 13th.  That's just 5 days away (there's a chance I may have a little more time than that).  I've paid $500, and that's all I have right now.

I am writing to ask you to partner with me on this trip by praying, encouraging and financially supporting me.  Please pray that our team will have unity and that our travels will be safe and we'll remain healthy.  Pray also that God will teach me more about Himself and especially pray that we'll be able to communicate God's love to the children we meet.

If you feel led to help me financially make this trip happen, you can make a donation (all donations are tax-deductible) at http://www.visitingorphans.org/.  After selecting the 'donate' tab, please select the OCTOBER 12-24, 2011 trip from the drop-down menu.  Then when you have an opportunity to name a specific team member, please click 'yes' and enter my name.

Thank you for considering being a part of my support team. If you need to contact me, please

email me: allie1111@me.com.

Yours in Christ,

Allison

More Beautiful Photos

As others from our team are slowly adding photos to our photo sharing site, I am finding some that I need to show you.

Such a cutie!

These women were so excited that we had come to visit with them.

So sweet.

We saw many homes like this.

Baking bread to sell and make money to feed their families.

Balloons were a HUGE hit!!

Look at this sweet face.

They loved that we were there to love on them and their children.

Precious kiddos not so sure of the white people.

When they figured out we had TONS of silly bands, they warmed up to us.  :-)

I miss them.

Billions

Americans spend $705 billion a year on entertainment and recreation,

$65 billion on jewelry,

$31 billion on pets,

and $13 billion on cosmetic surgery.

 

Billions. 

Richard Stearns says in his book, The Hole in Our Gospel, that "we don't believe we are wealthy, so we don't see it as our responsibility to help the poor.  We are deceived." 

Did you know that if you make $50,000 per year you are wealthier than 99 percent of the world?  

Statistics taken from The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns.


Photos taken from this article: http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/07/famine-in-east-africa/100115/