Many Mansions of Christ International: Do Something.........Please

Many Mansions of Christ International: Do Something.........Please: There’s a song I love on Christian radio that has a story behind it about a college aged girl who went to Uganda on a missio...

Do Something.........Please

There’s a song I love on Christian radio that has a story behind it about a college aged girl who went to Uganda on a mission trip and ended up staying because she saw a need and felt God’s calling on her life to do something about it. Hence the name of the song. If you would like to see her story and hear the song here is the link to Matthew West’s website.

http://matthewwest.com/the-stories/the-story-do-something/

The Lyrics they are here: 

Matthew West-Do Something

"Do Something"

I woke up this morning

Saw a world full of trouble now

Thought, how’d we ever get so far down

How’s it ever gonna turn around

So I turned my eyes to Heaven

I thought, “God, why don’t You do something?”

Well, I just couldn’t bear the thought of

People living in poverty

Children sold into slavery

The thought disgusted me

So, I shook my fist at Heaven

Said, “God, why don’t You do something?”

He said, “I did, I created you”

(chorus) If not us, then who

If not me and you

Right now, it’s time for us to do something

If not now, then when

Will we see an end

To all this pain

It’s not enough to do nothing

It’s time for us to do something

I’m so tired of talking

About how we are God’s hands and feet

But it’s easier to say than to be

Live like angels of apathy who tell ourselves

It’s alright, “somebody else will do something”

Well, I don’t know about you

But I’m sick and tired of life with no desire

I don’t want a flame, I want a fire

I wanna be the one who stands up and says,

“I’m gonna do something”

                                                                     Chorus

We are the salt of the earth

We are a city on a hill (shine shine, shine shine)

But we’re never gonna change the world

By standing still

No we won’t stand still

No we won’t stand still

No we won’t stand still

If not us, then who

If not me and you

Right now, it’s time for us to do something

If not now, then when

Will we see an end

To all this pain

It’s not enough to do nothing

It’s time for us to do something [x3]

All my life I have seen and had a deep compassion in my heart for those in the world who were less fortunate or suffering. As a child my mother would tell me to finish all the food on my plate “because there are starving children in Africa”. I would dutifully eat every last morsel. Or she would make me stay there till I did. I felt bad for those hungry kids because right before supper time I would be soooooo hungry and my mom would NOT give in to my dramatic pleas for a snack to tide me over. It would “ruin my appetite” she said. Of course she was right.  I would have left something on my plate for the sake of the African children if I were allowed to though. But how would we get what was left all the way to Africa? And ewe! would they even want it by the time it arrived there? I actually pondered this stuff as a kid. 

I was educated in Catholic schools most of my school years and from an early age I attended Catechism classes every Monday night (7pm sharp- some things ya never forget). We learned about caring for others. We cleaned houses owned by the elderly in our church. We organized street clean up days. We studied handouts about mission work in the world and caring for the sick. (I became a nurse in 1990). In school we would have in-services where we would gather in the musty basement of the school, sit cross-legged on the floor and watch hours (it seemed) of reel-to-reel movies of Mother Theresa caring for the Lepers in Bangladesh. I understood human suffering at 6 years old. It’s the age I remember feeling compassion in my heart. I didn’t understand what Leprosy was until later but even at a young age I knew it was my duty to also DO SOMETHING.

Now I am older. I still eat everything off my plate, much to my defeat in ‘successful dieting’.  (Thanks a lot mom!) I spent 17 years as a Licensed Practical Nurse. Most of those years I worked in Geriatric nursing but later as a Hospice Nurse. In those years, I was diagnosed with 2 autoimmune diseases, each of which there is no known cause and no known cure. First it was Rheumatoid Arthritis and then 10 years later Systemic Lupus. I worked for years as a nurse who relieved the suffering of others WHILE I was suffering myself. In 2004 I was diagnosed Stage 3 Lupus Nephritis (kidney failure). I was forced to give up my beloved career helping others. I didn’t know it then but God had way better plans for me. 

In the first years of not working it was difficult and lonely. I was a full time sick person. It was my ‘job’ now to get to all my doctor and physical therapy appointments (I had SEVEN specialists caring for me altogether) and to keep track of 18 medications a day and several injections a month. The pharmacists knew me well. In between all that I was pretty much in bed. Both diseases cause extreme fatigue and excruciating joint and muscle pain.

I would spend most my time watching television or being online. I would read and study my Bible, something as a working mother, wife and nurse I admit I didn’t have time to do but I missed. God gave me all the time in the world now. I became a member at a Christian website and started meeting people from all over the world. I had seen on the news the suffering of people in other countries, but now I was actually talking to the very people who lived it. My compassionate nature was once again sparked. I needed to DO SOMETHING.

I met my first Ugandan in 2009, 5 years into my new career as a full time sick person. He was a young man working in an internet café who was an orphan and also had Polio since age 6. He was the most sincere, humble, respectful person I’d met. He was good and kind and though struggling to survive himself told me that one day he wanted to help poor children from his village. I thought to myself, “but you ARE the poor child from your village!” He saw it differently. He had a job. No decent shoes, or a bed, but he was thankful he had a job. I bought him shoes and a bed and an Internet Cafe of his own. I did more for others there and in neighboring Kenya as I could. 

It is now 2014. Since then, I have met so many people around the world. A lot in under-developed  and oppressed nations. The Internet has made the world not so big anymore. I feel the pain and fear in the words written to me by my friends around the world on my Facebook messenger or Christian websites.  I see the news stories almost as soon as they happen; Rape being used as weapon of war in the Congo; Corrupted and ruthless dictators (North Korea); People fighting for freedom from tyranny and dying in the streets (Libya, Egypt, Ukraine, Ivory Coast). My heart cries. There are SO many stories of suffering. So many battles of need. So many inhumane injustices uncorrected. HIV/AIDS (period) Sooooo, sooooo many orphans. Children working all day in brick-making yards, sold into slavery for a $100 debt made to a cruel man by the parents before they were born. The needs in the world are overwhelming. Which brings me back to Matthew West’s song and the girl who stayed to help in Uganda.

“If not me and you, then who? If not now, then when?” In all my years of Catechism classes, Mother Theresa documentaries and reading my Bible did I ever think that it was all up to just God.  I knew as a Christian and a human being that it was up to ME. I am grateful for so many who know this too and give money or time and efforts to help our fellow men, women and children in the world. But I say to anyone who may be reading, that if you see something wrong in this world, you can react. Don’t think ‘I can never do enough so I just wont do anything’. “It’s not enough to do nothing” Matthew sings. Or ‘how can I trust my money to a person or organization when I don’t REALLY know they are legit’. Find out if they are. Please have discernment not apathy.

Mother Theresa said “If you cannot feed the masses, feed just one”. Please. If only everyone fed just one. There are 7 billion people on our planet. It produces enough food to feed all 7 billion. There are 2.6 million children who DIE every year from hunger related illnesses. Please. We are never going to change the world by standing still. I want to always be one who stands up and says I can do something. No matter how little I have to share, I still have more than someone else. In 2013, even with 2 incurable diseases and not much extra money after my plane ticket cost, I had the privilege to go to Uganda East Africa. I saw. I went. I helped. I am going back.

            PLEASE......... IT’S TIME........ DO SOMETHING.........

No we won’t stand still

No we won’t stand still

No we won’t stand still

If not us, then who

If not me and you

Right now, it’s time for us to do something

If not now, then when

Will we see an end

To all this pain

It’s not enough to do nothing

It’s time for us to do something

                                            

Note: If anyone wants to do something and is not sure where or how, I can recommend a list of organizations, churches and individuals in various countries ( Kenya, Uganda, Pakistan, DRC, Ghana, Burundi and India) that I have known personally and can verify they are doing great things to help others! 

Thanks!

Cheryl Derby- Co-founder and Co-director of Many Mansions of Christ International-Uganda

Many Mansions of Christ International: Flowers in Uganda

Many Mansions of Christ International: Flowers in Uganda: Mother Theresa- "How can there be too many children? That is like saying there are too many flowers" Number of orphans in Uganda...

Flowers in Uganda

Mother Theresa- "How can there be too many children? That is like saying there are too many flowers"

Number of orphans in Uganda-2,500,000

That's a lot of flowers!

Before I went to Uganda for the first time in September 2013, I used to worry about how would I deal with what I saw there. Especially the kids. I'm a big softy when it comes to kids. I'm a kid magnet; the one at any gathering with the most kids near me. I couldn't imagine what 2.5 million orphans looked like. I've seen those TV commercials. You know the ones.....Was I ready for it?

I was sure that I wanted to go. Also very sure that all my years spent in Catholic school watching movies of Mother Theresa caring for lepers in Bangladesh had sparked a compassion in me to help people somewhere in the world. Uganda happened to choose me first.

I had known several Ugandans a full five years before going and knew some of the harsh realities of life there.  The median monthly wage is 56,000 Uganda Shillings, about $23. The total fertility rate per woman-6.2 children. Infant morality rate-54 per 1000 live births. Even more sad, the under 5 mortality, 90 per 1000. Mostly due to TREATABLE diseases like Malaria and Typhoid, and from symptoms of Pneumonia, Diarrhea and Malnutrition.

Some sobering facts worldwide about child survival:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_survival

HIV/AIDS. 7.2 % of Uganda's population is living with HIV. (UNAIDS 2012). Not only have children lost one or both parents to this killer but many are born infected themselves. Sadly I could not find a single statistic on how many children in Uganda are HIV positive. Some flowers grow un-noticed in villages.

 Having known about Uganda before going, I thought I knew some of what I would experience once there. However very soon into my stay my worst fears turned into pleasant surprises. My first experiences with the "flowers" came when we walked to town. The young children, not yet school aged, would spot me and run closer for a better view and shout "hi Muzungu!" I couldn't believe how anything so tiny could even speak a big word like muzungu. I think they're taught it very early on in their lingustic careers. Most were dressed in torn dirty clothes but wearing huge smiles.

I think teachers must have resented me because if we walked past a school with younger aged kids they would see me and all leave their desks and run to doorway to hang out of it calling hi muzungu! But if I could thank these teachers I would because the little bit older kids would ask me in perfect English "how aaah you?" and give me clear "I'm fine's" when I returned the question. I appreciated that!

Almost immediately I realized the sheer number of kids. Early in the morning I could hear them before I saw them. They would walk past my house on their way to school, marching happily by in their colorful uniforms: each school having their own colors. What a beautiful garden of flowers!

We visited kids at their homes and schools and they visited us at our home. At school they're well mannered and polite and at their homes happy and carefree. These kids have daily chores to do but have plenty of play time too when out of school. Having a muzungu come visit is a big deal. At my first home visit the kids wanted to hold my hands, trying to rub the white off me. When they came to our Saturday Bible studies, they were happy, attentive and involved.

One of the two flowers I know who is HIV positive attends our Bible study. He is a happy, loving, well adjusted child. Not at all like the way the TV commercials portray. As he sat on my lap, content to just be there, I thought about his situation. About his future in this difficult country. But instead of trying to figure out a solution I just simply lived in that moment. There is much to learn from the vitality, grace and courage of the people here.

I've been told I've not yet seen "real poverty" in Uganda. I'm going back soon and this time will go deep into the village. I kind of already know the beautiful bouquets I'll find there. I've realized that this muzungu who thought she was going to Uganda to help people was instead helped herself. I learned that amidst the weeds of poverty and disease in this land of stark contrasts between joy and sorrow, hardships and happiness,  filth and beauty, lies a future of beautiful, grand flowers able to make this world brighter. They don't need me to save them, just to be the voice that could get them the 'water' they need.

If you'd like to make a donation to MMOCI-Uganda please see the donations page at http://manymansions11.wix.com/many-mansions-11

MMOCI End of year-2013-Final report

END OF YEAR 2013 REPORT FROM THE DIRECTOR MMOCI




Dear  Friends,

Thank the lord God for protecting you from 2013 to 2014.

This report contains the activities done in the year 2013, the challenges and the future plans.

ACTIVITIES

In the month of June, MMOCI members conducted a meeting in which the organization was officially formulated together with the constitution.
Board members were also elected and registration as an NGO commenced. Various local leaders were consulted and they recommended MMOCI for registration.

In July a needs assesment was carried out around Mityana Town council and in Soroti. We realised there were so many kids who were not reached by both the government and other NGOs. We first identified about five children to start with. Some had health complications, some abandoned and some in absolute poverty.Their profiles were documented and attached to MMOCI website and linked to MMOCI facebook page for potential financial sponsors.

In August two houses were rented, one for the crisis centre and the other for the office/residential dwelling for MMOCI  Directors.
The crisis centre house until now was used short-term by vulnerable youth who may have had no where otherwise to sleep.

In September 2013 MMOCI board received Cheryl Derby, funding partner and co-director of MMOCI from the United States. During her time she contributed alot to the advancement of the organizaton. She was able to meet the board and the volunteers, met suffering children and helped them financially and spiritually, helped with paper work and especially with creating the website and facebook page. Even though she was let down many times with her health, she was very strong and bold to complete her objectives here.

October was a month of business and alot was achieved. The beds and cribs were purchased for the crisis centre, water drums were also purchased and food and supplies for the centre. We also repaired a bicycle for transport purposes.
On the 9th October, we celebrated Uganda Independence Day together with Cheryl Derby, the board members and other youth. In mid October we also visited various schools to evangelise children and also made visits in some homes with vulnerable children.

Bible studies were also started in the month of October. Children still convene every Saturday at the MMOCI offices for Bible learning.

We also contributed partial tuition fees to a vulnerable student in Busitema University and again at the end of October is when we initated a program of feeding some hungry kids and youth who visited the MMOCI centre  weekly.

November is when we completed all the government requirements and successfully filed our papers with the NGO Board for the certificate of registration as an international NGO.

In early December, MMOCI partner and Co Director Cheryl Derby was in preparations to travel back to the States and she left Uganda on the 9th December 2013.

On December 21st, MMOCI held a Kid's Christmas party and it was attended by over 23 children. They were fed, entertained and evangelised.


CHALLENGES

Transport was and is still a challenge, we dont have any car to take us around for the ministry.
Sickness let us down too especially Cheryl Derby who was down many times
Lack of funds; in total we received around $800 for the year and yet we had alot to do.


FUTURE PLANS


We really need around $3000 to initiate income generating projects like poultry and livestock projects so that we can boost up the organization and fund our own activities. Also for transportation in 2014.

We can generate around $10,000 annually from the above mentioned projects. Therefore we call upon support from any partners, friends, or well wishers to contribute something small to this start up capital. Remember, anything can do something, including $5 or $10! Profits from income-generating projects will go toward improving the lives of these suffering children with education fees, accomodation, clothing and food. It will also help cover and maintain administrative costs like housing and necessities of staff and volunteers.

2013 was the year of MMOCI birth and hence alot was achieved alongside a few challenges. I'd like to take this opportunity to appreciate all those who donated at least something to help the organization take a step forward. May God bless Brian Derby and his family, Michelle, Nanette, Rick, Marcia and Colleen for their gifts. Also God bless and thanks to those who were willing to give their time for the organization in any way they did. We also thank all those who gave us 825 likes on Facebook! Your 'like' is a voice to a suffering child and if each member contributed just $5, can you imagine that it would be more than $4000!

God bless you all and welcome to 2014!

Okumu Stephen

Co Director  MMOCI

Rest, recuperation, reflections and regrouping.......missionary life in Uganda

Happy new year everyone!

Well, a few things have changed since the last post. I got very sick in November and by the end of the month had to make a heartwrenching decision. I had planned on extending my visa three more months however my body made other plans. I lost 50 pounds in about 60 days due to illness. As I lay awake in bed one night feeling dreadfully awful from my second go round with Malaria, starving, completely dehydrated, weak, nauseous, and with a pounding headache, fever and chills, I prayed to God and asked Him what I should do?

First let me say, for the sake of anyone reading this who is considering long-term missionary work, Africa is not for the faint of heart. Its tough. Its a different way of living than an average convenient, neat and tidy western life. Its difficult. You may think you're healthy, strong (mentally and physically) and capable, like I did but it will challenge you. It will change you. And hopefully like me, you will fall in love with it and still want to be there!

 Food there is not like what you're used to. Just about everyone can alter their diet for a short amount of time. It can even be exciting to try new things and eat like the locals. For awhile. There is an abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables in Uganda and they're reasonably priced. Pineapples are $1 each. About twenty tomatoes are $1 as well. Meat and chicken are available. Pork is $2.50/kg and beef $3.50/kg. Supermarkes have pasta, crackers, cereal and even some canned goods like tomato paste and jarred goods like jam. If you have a fridge to store it there's boxed milk and even yogurt.

I didn't have a refrigerator or oven ( I was planning to buy them soon if I had stayed), but I was eating healthy for the first time in my life! Dinner could be greens cooked up on a hot plate or over a charcoal stove with peppers, tomatoes and onions served over rice. Or beans with rice or posho (corn flour mixed into boiling water to make a thick paste-like consistency).  Beans are good for ya right? We learn that in our food pyramid in third grade. I'd have meat mixed with veggies. Sweet potatoes. Eggplant. Pumpkin."Vegetables are good for ya, eat more of those". Despite seeing meat hanging outside in the hot sunshine,  I was game to try it. I just cooked it so long it was unidentifiable.

I wasn't starting the day with a huge cup of java with 3 Splendas and more half n half than coffee. My arteries must have been thanking me. Hot tea with a little sugar. Breakfast was pineapple and a banana. An orange. Fruits are at the top of the pyramid too! No eggs, bacon, hash browns and toast first thing in the morning for me. Though eggs are there but they're brown with whitish-yellow yolks and right from the chicken, no processing plants here to check, sort and clean them.

But boy, I was doing good! Between my great diet and lots of walking the red-dirt-hilly roads, I was losing weight and feeling and looking great!...... For about a month. That's when the digestive problems started. That's when the first Malaria hit.That's when the weight lost sped up to almost a pound a DAY. That's when hunger pains started. That's when I couldn't eat like a local anymore. That's when I started dreaming about food. My food. Western style food.What I was missing like milk and cheese. Tim Horton's mocha latte. Burgers. Fries. Casseroles. Gravy. Nothing at all with a vegetable in it! I layed awake night after night playing the game in my head called "if I could eat anything I wanted right now what would it be". I think its how I survived.

So after days and days of malaria, starvation and now laying in bed unable to take much more, I asked God what to do. My plane was due to leave in nine days. He clearly told me "go home".  The next morning I was lying in a clinic bed on IV fluids and the next day after that my B/P was only 80/40. I. Was. So. Sick. After more malaria treatments, antibiotics and steroids for an upper respiratory infection, pain medicine for the headache and fever, more IV fluids and lots of iron to replenish my nearly nonexistent red blood cells, I started a slow recovery to get myself able to fly 26 hours home. I made it. I survived Africa.

Let me say this: Since being home, and even before I left, we formulated a plan that when I return, we will have a refrigerator and I will be bringing back American food with me. I will be supplementing my unhealthy but familiar foods with the super healthy pyramid chart/Ugandan foods. After I get dewormed and deparasited I will maybe think about eating meat there. Maybe stick to canned meat only. Live and learn. That's why too I needed to come back to the U.S. To reflect on what I just lived through and how to manage life in Africa more efficiently. I AM going back there! I'm regaining my courage, resting up, getting strong again, mentally regrouping, and thinking up new strategies for moving Many Mansions of Christ International forward in 2014!

Many Mansions of Christ International Year end report

              MANY MANSIONS OF CHRIST INTERNATIONAL

                                End of year report

Hi everyone! Greetings from Mityana Uganda East Africa! Right now the weather is sunny and around 82F as I write this near the end of November 2013. It’s nearing the end of the rainy season in which pretty much every day since the end of September it has rained. When it rains in Uganda it really comes down hard. You can hardly believe so much rain could fall out of the sky so fast and so much. With the rain has come cooler days and nights and really, I haven’t minded. When I first arrived in September it was pretty hot. I hear come January I will know the real meaning of hot (living near the equator).

Since getting here, Stephen and I have had some challenges to over come regarding the NGO registration. Time wise it’s been a very slow process. But despite that and my being sick 4 straight weeks with various aliments ending with Malaria, we did manage to complete the final paperwork process. Just today the paperwork was successfully filed and we are to check back around January 20^th for the final approval! Praise God! Please stand in praise with us for success in registering MMOCI! God has begun a good work in us! I can’t wait to officially start taking in kids.

In the meantime we have been helping those less fortunate in small ways like with some school fees, small monetary gifts and feeding those who come hungry. However it’s not nearly enough compared to the numbers of people still needing our help. If you think a $20 donation won’t go far, let me tell you, it goes VERY far here. It can feed a family of four for 2 weeks. A huge 50 kg bag of corn flour would cost about $52 and would make posho every day for a family here for a month. We would like to work on buying staple foods and giving it out to those who come to the door saying they’re hungry.

 To be able to give a bag of rice or beans or a kilo of corn flour or a dozen eggs or a loaf of bread to them would help so much. We also would like to stock up on baby formula and other baby/child items. Anything from clothes to lotions and diapers. Many kids here own one pair of clothes and they are pretty torn and tattered. Just to give a kid a new clean shirt, a pair of shoes, even flip flops cuz some have nothing, and a nice pair of shorts or trousers would make them feel so good.

Just showing a child here love, concern and care is a big thing. Some of these kids have never been hugged. Some work before school in the morning doing chores and fetching water, only to sit in school til late in the day, walk home, eat, do homework by kerosene light and start over the next day. Life is hard in Africa. Survival is the order of the day. The rains make it all the more hard because the red dirt of Africa becomes orange mud everywhere. Yet life has to go on. The work of the day must continue.

 Clothes are washed by hand and water is hard to find. Food is prepared over charcoal stoves which trust me takes time and it’s messy. There’s no fridges so food must be bought daily (or every few days at the least) from the markets in town or the roadside stands. Fresh milk needs boiled. Most meals contain tomatoes, peppers and onions but pumpkin, carrots, eggplant, bananas and greens are common foods. Beans and posho, (corn flour made into a thick paste-like substance) are a staple. Meat is consumed less but its available in plenty. Especially pork. It all takes time to prepare. ( 3 times a day if you’re  a blessed family).

So now it’s nearing the end of the year and with Christmas right around the corner we felt to write a letter to inform our friends and family where we are, what we’re doing and our future (near) plans. Many Mansions of Christ Intl. has a house rented and now equipped with 2 baby cribs which each hold two babies and two 3-tier bunk beds for older kids. The house has running water and a flush toilet and indoor kitchen. It is in a gated compound. Our intentions are not to have an orphanage where kids come and live forever, but an interim housing solution for when the local authorities are left with a homeless or abandoned child. Mothers die giving birth here and often the hospitals look to police and welfare agencies to take these innocent newborn babies.

We would like to provide a safe home, with clean beds and plenty of food, water, formula, love and care for these vulnerable kids. Then we will do everything in our power to find a better housing situation for these kids. Be it searching for some family member willing to take in the child, or to transfer the child to a better long term living arrangement. There are some good orphanages in Uganda, not the ones being closed down for exploiting kids, not feeding them or schooling them, but caring, committed, loving homes where kids grow up in as close to a family atmosphere as possible. It’s just not ideal to place a child in an orphanage. It’s not a real life experience like having someone to call family, whether a grandmother or aunt. Mom or dad. And at least if no family can be found or no orphanages available, we would then aim for adoption or foster care. We hope by January our final paperwork is approved and we can take in our first child. We have day and night volunteer caregivers hired and they are willing and waiting to begin this work!

 As far as what we still need for MMOCI and are hoping that by the end of the year, is a decent stock of non-perishable food saved up so we can deliver some meals to needy families before Christmas, possibly purchase clothes, food or shoes for some kids, or just help a struggling single mom provide for her kids. We are also trying to seek monetary donations in general to assist the poor and needy in hospitals with medicine, provide school fees for some kids (school starts the new term after the new year and it’s stressful on families to carry the burden of coming up with several children).  Government schools here are free but the education is substandard at best and conditions deplorable.

To give your child a good education they must attend private owned schools. Per term fees for the finest primary school in this area can cost 400,000 uganda shillings (boarding), about $150 or 150,000 ugx-about $60 for non boarding. For a basic primary private school education runs about 50,000 ugx per term (non boarding)- about $20. There are 3 terms per year here. Each school has  a different uniform dress code and color. Sort of like our parochial school uniforms. Sweaters, collared shirts, skirts, dresses or trousers (boys). This is an added expense for the parents per child separate from  school fees. We hope one day to open a Christian school. There are many schools here but there are so many school age kids that classrooms are full and teachers few.

Ugandans are educated very well. They are challenged to learn and spend long hours sitting in classes. They start early (7 am) and go late. I see high school kids walking home from school as late as 6pm or 7pm at night when it’s nearly dark. I think then to myself will they spend the evening at home doing homework by candle light or are they blessed to have electricity? Life is hard for Africans at any age. Yet they take it all in stride and don’t complain. Hard work or not, life goes on and it’s just the way it is. Maybe when it’s all you’ve ever known and have nothing to compare it to it doesn’t seem hard. But to this spoiled American who never had to get up and do chores or walk miles for water before school, I have high respect for these kids. I see where adult Ugandan’s resilience and hard work ethics come from. Right from birth. God bless them.

Anyway, back to my end of the year request…… (and thanks for reading this far). We would like to humble appeal to you our family friends and supporters. This time of year in the U.S. is about giving, sharing and thanksgiving. I for one am grateful for being born in a privileged country with free solid education, dependable electricity, prepared food (God I miss it! Lol) and so many more conveniences that make life easy. Now that I wash every item of clothing I own by hand using water I collected from the rain in barrel, I think why did I ever complain about carrying a load of laundry to the washing machine, dumping it all in and pressing the on button?  Why did I complain I had to light the 4 burner stove or whine that the oven is taking to long to reach 350 degrees? And when I thought I was poor? Naw, I was blessed beyond belief.

So I humbly ask you,  for the price of what you would spend on a present that may be quickly forgotten (or re-gifted God-forbid! Lol) would you consider giving a gift of a small amount to make the difference for one child, one family, one person. Because your gift in their honor can transform a life and create the beginning of a solution. When you believe in someone enough to give them a hand up, (not a hand out!) then it’s one step closer to alleviating poverty in this world. Our hearts chose Uganda to be the starting point. Would you consider helping us this season? If so, we will make sure every donation will go to where it’s most needed (and we know many right now who need help!) We will bypass any administrative costs and pass it directly on. We have a friend who took in a homeless baby (her mother left her) and he needs help for her. She is 2 but wears like 12 month old baby clothes. We have 10 kids we are looking for sponsors for, 7 children and 3 young adults. The younger kids need school fees and a few need medicine. (Two HIV + and one with Psoriasis). Some are listed with photos and details at http://manymansions11.wix.com/many-mansions-11#!mmoci-kids/clci

We currently can only accept Money Gram or Western Union. (there is no Paypal here in Africa or I promise you I would make it as easy as possible cuz I have one) CVS pharmacies (red phone) and Walmart (fill the paper to ‘send money’) have Money Gram and  Western Union is at Rite Aid and Kmart. We would need the money gram sent in the name of Many Mansions of Christ Co-founder/Director- “Stephen Okumu, Mityana Uganda” (not the title too, just his name) and if Western Union the same name/city/country, though if you use a test question and answer on the application we will need the exact question/answer as written as well as the MTCN number. It’s nearly impossible to cash a U.S. check here. It takes months. Sigh. So again, we humbly appeal for donations. In Jesus name and for His glory ONLY  do we want to make this holiday season special for hopefully many!! God bless you all and have a very happy and blessed Thanksgiving and a Merry Christmas!!

(How Ugandans decorate their Christmas trees) Please don’t let Christmas be just another day of surviving but one of joy, happiness and celebration! Praise God!

Sincerely, Cheryl and Stephen