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We need 46 more donors of $20 to meet our needs to send Darlene and I to Uganda to work with teachers. Can you be one of our supporters?

Read more about the type of work we’ll do: http://blog.serve-in-uganda.org/some-good-questions/

If you’re ready to support us, donate through our secure payment solution, Paypal, by clicking on the green GIVE button:

Our work with teachers will be in both the private and public schools, though we have the best contacts through a private school in Gulu run by Favor of God ministries.  They started their school  a year or so ago and serve 200 or so students in the community (including the 33 orphans who live at Favor of God’s children’s home or orphanage).  We will be bringing teacher materials (we hear they are lacking in this area) and spending workshop time with the staff on teaching strategies and listening to and addressing their concerns.

We will also be visiting the Aber area (about an hour away from Gulu) and visiting World Vision staff there, visiting our sponsored children, and beginning to develop relationships with educators and community leaders in the area for ongoing work in public schools.  We know less about this work because our communication with World Vision is less established and this is a new relationship between The Grove Community Church and World Vision.  We will have to be patient, humble, and spend most of our time developing relationships for future trips.

Donate through our secure payment solution, Paypal, by clicking on the green GIVE button:

• Los Angeles to Detroit: Leave 11 am and arrive 6pm.
• Detroit to Amsterdam: Leave 7pm and arrive 9am.
• Amsterdam to Entebbe, Uganda: Leave 9am and arrive 7:30pm.

Yikes.

Where: Left arm
What: Hepatitis A.
How much: $32

Where: Right arm
What: Typhoid, Meningococcal vaccine
How much: $53, $109

Since Darlene and I both are going, both had shots, we paid $380 for this little visit. Next stop: malaria and um, yellow fever, yep.

And, it’s taking time to listen.  Here is what I learned last night by listening.

1) Show.  Ask God to show you His heart for the world.  Ask God to show you His invisible spirit, care, compassion, intellect for this place, and this life.

2) Know.  Ask God to fully know you.  You may say that God already knows us, knows you, but I reflected last night on what happens when we invite God in to know us intimately.  It’s an action that demands us to attend to how He will reveal His knowledge of us in clear ways. God does know us – ask Him to prove it, to reveal it.  Ask “God, what am I really like? What do I really care about?  Who am I and what have you made me for?”

With Darlene’s writer instincts, we shortened and shortened and revised until we came up with this:

“My name will be great among the nations, from the rising to the setting of the sun.” Malachi 1:11a

Family & Friends,

Darlene and I have some exciting news!  There is an opportunity through our church for us to serve at a primary school and orphanage in Uganda this summer, and both of us are going as a part of a service team!

Ever since Darlene and I began our journey together, we have been talking and praying about how to model service for our family.  A year and a half ago, when we started our own company and our online community for teachers, we made it part of our mission to reach out to places that couldn’t afford teacher professional development.  You can imagine how thrilled we are to serve side by side in Gulu, Uganda, this June.  We will be going with six others from our church and will be developing relationships with the educational community there.  Specifically, we’ll be working with teachers at the primary school run by Favor of God Ministries, and we’ll be meeting the local staff of World Vision for the Aber region (adjacent to Gulu).  We will serve in areas outlined in World Vision’s fifteen-year strategic plan for sustainable economic, educational, and spiritual growth in this region.

Will you participate in this endeavor with us? We need prayer and financial support.

We would love for you to pray for us before, during, and after our trip.

1. Please pray for our team’s unity, that we are selfless in our efforts, both in the planning stages and when we are actually there.
2. Please pray that we would be well prepared before we leave and each day of the trip.
3. Please pray that we meet the right people and communicate effectively in sharing our vision for partnering with Ugandans to improve education in the region.
4. Please pray that we display compassion and love that glorifies God.
5. Please pray for safety in our travels.

We EACH have to raise $2,000, which covers our airfare, shots and immunizations, and room & board for the two weeks.  We are so grateful for any financial support you can provide, especially considering the economic climate.

• You can send any financial support  to The Grove Community Church (checks payable to The Grove Community Church).
• Don’t write either of our names on your check or it won’t be tax deductible.
• Please use the attached coupon which has the church address as well as our names listed on it (to ensure it goes on our account).
• You are also able to mark on this coupon if you would like to receive updates via email while we are on our trip.   (And we’d both be happy to give you updates on the planning beforehand too – just let one of us know).

Thank you for your much needed prayer support and any financial help too.  We are blessed to know you!!

By HIS might,

—  Darlene and Wes Kriesel

“For this God is our God for ever and ever; He will be our guide even to the very end” Psalm 48:14

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