God can move mountains!

He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."

Our team met this morning for our LAST meeting...we leave Monday, August 1!!! Emotions of excitement and anxiety were evident. This is a 3-week journey unlike any other. We were struck with gratitude to our heavenly Father for where he's taken us on this journey so far: from the starting point of building a team, to realizing the HUGE financial obligation we had, and developing an appropriate itinerary: each of these were like MOUNTAINS to us; mountains we weren't sure we could climb, never mind move.

And we couldn't, NOT of ourselves. But, God could AND did. We just had to trust and allow God to use us. We realized that not only did God move the mountains, He made our big mountains EVEN BIGGER -- He helped us surpass all the goals we set for our team.
Because of that, we can't wait to see the mountain ahead of us in Marare and what God does with that.

Feel free to stop by the Northgate Baptist church parking lot (132 Ave and 95 Street) on Monday at 2:30 pm to see us off, and thank God with us for the journey ahead.

A most recent communication from Moses (FH Mbale) reads: The people of Marare are determined to cement their relationship with North Gate and are very much looking forward to this coming visit.

Update to Fundraising Goals. Thanks for your help!

Alright, well if you haven’t heard, our team met our goal for this year and the cash is still likely rolling in. Thank you so much to everyone that sponsored us by empties, donating items for the garage sale, coming to the garage sale, purchasing plants at the perennial sale and pretty much everything else we’ve done for fundraising…your support and encouragement is truly amazing.

As Shirley mentioned, it has definitely RAINED great successes on our team. I cannot believe we made our goal with pretty much three weeks to spare.

To update you guys, I am only $350 shy of my personal goal and the funds are still trickling in from all sorts of places I never expected. Truly, it was a lot of fun running laps with Nathan and Tim. I think the run to Africa was a tough one for most because of the down pour but everyone completed their goals. I ended up doubling my goal because Nathan (the natural sales mentality sold me) wanted to pace out 30 laps.

It’s a wonderful, calming and encouraging thought to see how everyone is so awesome. Any extra funds raised will be rolled over to next year’s project and team. (= I hope we can see off the next team with a grand first start!

Let It Rain!

A recurring theme in all our fundraising events this year, was "RAIN". Yes, we had to work our way around that for each event! It made things challenging, but also gave cause for reflection. God showed us with each event that He was in control, and he literally 'poured' blessing after blessing on each team member, and Northgate as a whole. We've not only reached our financial goal, but we've surpassed it (with 3 weeks to go). We've also received so many encouraging comments from many of you, AND from MANY in our community at large!

Malachi 3:10 comes to mind: 'Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it."' We trusted, and He really did answer just like He said.

We wound up our fundraising events for the 2011 Marare team with a 'perennial plant sale' this afternoon (graciously sponsored by Wallish Greenhouses), and yes, it rained AGAIN! However, we had so much fun interacting with fellow Northgaters, friends, family, AND many community members that the rain didn't impact us negatively. We were also blessed with another $980 to use towards Marare!


Praise the Lord...especially when it rains!

Running in the RAIN

We had our 2nd annual CGS Run/Walk to Africa yesterday. It POURED. Because of that we didn't have to deal with mosquitoes (it was too cold for them), and we had our own cooling down mechanism: the rain.



16 participants made it out for the morning, and braved the elements, all to help overcome poverty in Marare, Uganda. It was a SUCCESS.

Because of the efforts of these 16 participants, and the many of you that sponsored a participant, we raised over $3900!


These funds brought us over and above our goal of $30,000! Glory and honor to God!

HELP END POVERTY!

If you're new to this blog, and are wanting to follow one of our team members, or are just interested in the project as a whole, following is a link on related to the work we are doing in Marare, Uganda.

http://site.fhcanada.org/poverty-revolution

"REVOLUTIONS START SMALL BUT CAN CHANGE THE WORLD. Will you join the one that ends poverty?" {FH Canada - Poverty Revolution}

On this same site, you can click on 'Communities' and find 'Northgate Baptist Church' under Mbale, Africa. JOIN our community, and earn badges to help Marare become self-sufficient.

Your efforts really DO make a difference! Over the last month, members from Northgate Baptist and the community at large have sponsored 10 more children from the Marare community! If you do not yet sponsor a child, think about it! A small investment on your part, for a large return on the child's!

The clock is ticking!

The months have flown by and, regrettably, we forgotten about our blog. But, we haven’t forgotten about Marare. God continues to bless the project, and we’ve been hard at work organizing, building, and planning TEAM #2 heading out August 1, 2011! We can’t wait to connect with the community again, and they can’t wait to have us!

Since our return at the end of October, we’ve been sharing our experiences with our congregation and the excitement level for Marare has built...so much so that we had our second team organized in February.

Our team of 7 consists of Sarah V, Pastor Bob, Allan, Luke, Marian, Sara T, and Shirley; a variety of ages, with the youngest only 15 years, and a variety of talents and abilities.


Of course, fundraising is one of the biggest parts of preparing for our trip. We’ve spent many hours planning, organizing and running events, and have been blessed with an overwhelming amount of support!

The past few months, our church members and the Glengarry community have donate their refundable empties, bringing in over $900 to date towards team funds!

Our main fundraiser was our GIGANTIC Garage Sale, and it was just that. We couldn’t believe the donations that poured in from church members and friends! On Saturday, June 4, we were blessed with a dry day (sandwiched between 2 very wet ones), but chilly, and spent our day in the Northgate church parking lot along with 20 from the community that rented tables! We considered the day successful in that we were able to connect with many from the neighbourhood, and also raise $3700 towards our Marare trip.

We had tons of help from many in our congregation, who all pitched in to make this day fun and successful.

Our most recent fundraiser was a BBQ at Famous Toys. A few of us spent 2 days, this time enjoying beautiful, sunny weather and warm temps, bbqing hotdogs and burgers and informing the public. Many interested folks came back to discuss the C2C partnership we have through FH Canada.

And, now, with much thanks to God who is working in the hearts and lives of those around us, we are more than 2/3 of the way to our budget!!!

We have a couple more fundraisers: The 2nd Annual CGS Walk/Run to Africa on the morning of July 9, 2011 at Queen E High School. To participate in this event or sponsor a participant, send us an email at mararec2c@live.ca.

Our last fundraiser is in conjunction with Northgate’s annual pancake breakfast on the morning of Saturday, July 16, and it’s a SPECIAL fundraiser for our SPECIAL pastor: Pastor Bob is our DUNK TANK victim! So, bring a few $ to have a chance at soaking him, and to help raise a few funds for a very special community!

Sponsor me, please!

One of the programs that Food for the Hungry works hard to implement is the CDP -- Child Development Program. This is mainly designed to offer children in remote villages the oppoprtunity to education they otherwise would not receive.

In Marare there are 33 children out of 400 that are sponsored into the CDP. That's less than 10%. The need is GREAT. Families of children registered through CDP have to meet certain requirements as far as basic needs for the child. In some households, some of the children are registered, but others aren't. It's difficult for families living in poverty to provide these basic needs for all children.



Leaving the village of Marare on our last day, most team members had children approach us saying in their limited English "sponsor please, sponsor please". They were desperate for a sponsor family. That was heart breaking, but our promise to them was to encourage more families from Canada to do that.

For $38 a month, you can.


We had the personal joy of meeting our sponsor children (and those of our Northgate families), seeing their homes (generally a mud shack with little or no furniture), and communicating to them through an interpreter. That made it all more than worth it.

For more information, visit the FH website at www.fhcanada.org/Sponsorship/Mbale-Uganda-Children

This lists all the children in the Mbale area (a number of different communities including Marare). If you would like a child specifically from Marare, contact FH Canada at 1-800-667-0605, and ask for child sponsorship in Marare, Uganda.

Construction Project

For the men...the construction project is coming along...ALL manual labor...from the digging, to the cement that was made by hand from scratch (no mix), the bricks (that the villagers make from scratch)...it was a team effort by many -- the women and children included. The soil here is a rich red, perfect for brick formation; but the process is time consuming.


The days on site were started with devotions at 6:30, right on the work site with Moses from FH Mbale leading. In his words, it's important the builders do not build in vain. The day was started with God's leading and ended with thanksgiving to Him.

Building continues; even without us the villagers are excited. We were told that within 2 months the school can be built. Currently we have enough funds to get up to the rafters, so we pray that by that time additional funds will be there to purchase necessary supplies to finish.

Bearing Fruit

First...our apologies in the sporadic posts...internet has been very irregular.

Interestingly, today our sermon here in Rwanda was about bearing fruit, and the harvest. Specifically on Isaiah 5:1-7 (the hard working planter and his failed crops) and Mark 11:12-19 (the fig tree that bore no fruit).

We all found the sermon applicable in the sense that our work in Marare focused on the fruit of the spirit -- we used this as a our Bible lessons for the Marare children, and as a focal point for us as a team. It was refreshing to have that lesson reinforced today.

Going back to our last day in the village of Marare, we were blessed immensely by the community. We savored our last drive in on the bumpy dirt road with the clouds of vehicle fumes all around us, the shack houses, the goats and cows roaming everywhere, the shoeless children, the hundreds of bodas (motorcycles) on the roads, and the unique sounds around us.

Upon arriving at the village, we enjoyed one last session of hundreds of screaming children running to greet us in our mototo (taxi). One last time to feel like celebrities. One last time to have 10 or more children clinging to our arms for just a little attention and love.

We had the honor of the villagers taking time to dress us in their traditional dresses -- the women wore gomas, the men robes with suit jackets. The day was HOT, and us women got to wear at least 5m of polyester fabric on the top layer, and another 3-4 metres of fabric underneath. Some of us also got to wear a polyester head covering. Needless to say, we were honored, but sweating before the second layer was on. We then got to go out in the hot sun, and dance with ALL the village women around the church building to under the trees. The men were just as blessed with snug fitting suit jackets, but lucky them -- they got white cotton robes.

The closing ceremonies were a great reminder of why we were there -- not only to teach and construct, but more importantly to connect with these beautiful people and build relationships as brothers and sisters in Christ. Who they were was a HUGE blessing to each of us, as joy there brought us back to the basics and what our purpose here on earth is.

The last words we heard from the children as we were leaving were "See you tomorrow!" That nearly broke our hearts...the next team will be the children's tomorrow.

Rwanda...

Well... we are all accounted for in Rwanda. I was hoping that Mandy would beat me to the punch, but I know people are waiting to get word.

In North America, I understand that instant information access can make people want to know, so this will have to suffice, because I know Mandy and Shirley are both eager to share also.

So I will leave it to them to share when they get a chance, hopefully by the end of Monday {which is about the time you will be waking up} they will have posted something.

Since now you know that we're all ok, I will leave you with a teaser. The sendoff was better then the greeting, if only that we were leaving that left a dent on the entire trip, because none of us really wants to come home.

Until next time guys...

Sayanora Marare...

Or is it... Alinde.. Which is the native language for saying goodbye in Mbale.

Our time here has been well spent. We developed really close relations with the staff here at the Mbale House of Food for the Hungry and we are quite sad to be moving on our way to Kampala and then eventually Rwanda for a field visit there.

The send off was just as amazing as the welcoming we received in the village complete with the village putting us in Ugandan ceremonial dress, to the youth choir putting on a performance and the village mothers putting on a skit.

We also developed a relationship with two Go-ed students studying abroad and we wish them all of God's blessings as they will remain here in Africa until mid December.

Whie we are excited to be moving on to the next leg of the trip, we are sad, but encouraged that we are welcome to be coming back. Paul, Paul, Patrick, Livinstone, Moses, Rebecca, Justine, Stephen and Molex have all been wonderful, consistently preparing meal after meal {13 in total} for us. This isn't an easy process as each chicken must be butchered, defeathered, cleaned, cooked and then served to us as with other sides such as rice, noodles, avocado, pineapple, beans and chipata.

If and when the Lord permits, we will come again.

Day 2 In Marare...

The hygeine lesson that was put together by Shirley, Mandy and Jennie went fabulous. While we had some trouble early on overcoming the language barrier, when we got to this part of the lesson, God really stepped in and oversaw that the people in the village got the message about cleanliness.

Not only did the children 'get it,' but the Mother's in the group put the icing on the cake when a representive came up on the fly and stated that "While they were never really concerned about washing hands after using the latrine, the parents would be stepping up to ensure that the {buck stops here}. And that this won't be an overnite process, they are committed to providing a healthier solution to their children's needs when it comes to disease and germ protection.

I'd say that's a praise item worth noting for God.

Further, I had mentioned earlier that the village purchased four wells. This goes back to last years Christmas present from Northgate Baptist Church to Marare in which the Edmonton church helped to provide a solution for clean drinking water. The church at the time thought that we were only purchasing one source of clean water, a well. In turn, the village was able to secure four clean sources with the money donated and there are four wells, accessible to the entire community in which all of them have access.

Nice job Northgate.

Day 1 In Marare

Getting there was long. The welcome was unbelieveable. The end has yet to be written.

Ohhh, and Northgate, there's four of these with the money we gave.

Almost 48hrs later...

The team is safe here in Uganda, right in the middle of Mbale, the district which includes Marare.

While the time is now 12:20PM MST - it is actually 2121hrs here in Uganda. While I cannot speak for the other teammembers and how they have arrived here, I can say that we are all accounted for, that no one is sick or badly injured. None of our things went missing intransit. We were able to get all of the toothbrushes and toothpaste into the country and we are about to hit the sack.

The way people drive here is incredible. I guess what it really comes down to is awareness and back home in Alberta, I can safely say that people are just not aware. Not after seeing what I've seen.

Anyways, I myself am keeping a daily hand-written journal because my laptop battery just isn't capable of continuous use and the battery life is maybe 30mins.

So I will bid you all adieu, as I go to sleep for my first full night and tomorrow day in Uganda {Even though we landed this morning at 0730hrs.}

In Transit..

Team Northgate is on it's way to Uganda. We are excited and tired already but looking forward to working with 400 children, leading a VBS on the fruit of the spirit and teaching them about basic personal hygeine.  All being well, we will also be starting the foundation for a school.



Please remember to pray for us as we are introduced to the African culture and especially the village of Marare. Pray that they would be as open to us as we are to them and that both of us would see tangible and intangible results from this meeting.

It's TIME

6 weeks ago, we first introduced our church family (Northgate Baptist) to the Marare team with Caley's skit idea: "Is it time yet?"

This really was the beginning stages of our planning! Miraculously, in those 6 weeks, we were able to raise required team funds of $35,000 through many fundraisers, gifts from our friends & families, and donations from our church family. We also collected 400 toothbrushes, toothpastes, soaps, face cloths, pencils, pencil crayons, scissors, glue sticks, and more! And, we developed a VBS curriculum (from scratch) on the Fruits of the Spirit, as well as hygiene lessons. All together, Wow! For future teams...I wouldn't recommend working on such a short time line, but for us, it was what we were given and God made sure we would get there!

What seemed impossible at the beginning was made possible by God. I remember our Tuesday night meetings, where we were generally stressed about the mountain ahead of us, and prayed endlessly that God would carry us through.

And, HE DID! Last Sunday, our church family openly prayed for us, and gave us their love and support. Today, we're packing our suitcases and preparing our homes for our absence. It really is time!

One week to go

One week tomorrow and we leave. It feels like a dream. When I look at all the supplies laid out all over our family room floor I still find it hard to believe that we will really be in Africa, working with the children and getting to know the village people. I've been looking at pictures that Sieg, Tim and Gary took last year and I'm just in awe that we will be there, with those people.

I remember in June, 1972... the day we drove out of Zambia heading south to Cape Town... through my tears I vowed to my mother that I'd come back to Africa one day. If we had known it would be 38 years! I know that Mom, looking down from heaven, is excited for me too.

We have been so blessed by the many people who have supported us in so many ways to prepare for this trip. We couldn't have prepared the VBS program without Judith and Madhu. And our wonderful church secretary, Marlene who reminded me so many times to send her bulletin updates and was constantly asking what she could do to help. For so many prayer warriors who have been praying all along. For financial help from so many people who gave sacrificially to make this happen. For Kent, who encouraged me in so many small ways. For the Sinclairs who helped with the popcorn maker for the movie night, and put together the "Hunger" skit so well from Mike's idea. For one of my favorite seniors, Edith, who I know would love to come with us (and who we would love to have) but is, instead, staying home and making, along with a friend, 400 wash mitts for the children. For Wanda who found a supplier where we could buy some of the supplies we needed. For someone at the Health Services unit who gave me a website to order the Glo Germ products to help with our hygiene lessons. For all the individuals and companies who donated so many valuable things for the Silent Auction. And the list goes on and on...

God has blessed our team with a wide variety of ages, personalities, experiences, gifts and abilities. Are we ready? ... no. But God will use our inadequacies and bless the people of Marare!