Answered prayers....

i thought you'd all like to know i'm sitting in an internet cafe, the eve of christmas eve, getting to tell all of you about how you have all helped to provide love and hope and joy to children who've really never experienced any. and, listening to Kenny G playing outside. ahhh, christmas in uganda.

the last two days we have given beds to camp 3 and camp 4. we are generally welcomed with a lot of dancing and drums and songs. yesterday we were welcomed by all of that, but also with this wee little one who kept coming over to us to shake our hands. i can't even tell you how cute that was. she probably shook our hands 5 different times.


it's been really fabulous to stand before the children and tell them the story of sweet sleep; to ask what kind of things they think about at night and then listen as they talk about thinking of their future, their health, their safety, their future. most of all, it's so good to be able to tell them about our god who has created them, loves them and provides for them and has a special plan for each of them.

that's a hard one to imagine for them...a special plan...hope....but these last two days i've been asking the groups if any of them knows if they are around 6 years old. they don't know their birthdays, so i can just ask them for a rough guess.

i've had alittle one come up and stand by me and then i tell everyone that when he was born i was going on an airplane to a country far away from my home where i met little boys and girls like them.

then, i've pointed at his calf and said when he was that big we were giving beds to a few boys and girls. at his knees, i say we were giving a few more beds and when i finally reach his head and put my hand on the top of his head i say, "and now he's this big and we're giving beds to all of you." this gets a huge reaction: clapping, laughing, shouting and a semi blood-curdling war-cry-like sound. i think they are happy.


one thing that is always hard for me is to see so many children like the little boy above. people generally think it's a sign of hunger. more often it's a sign of intestinal worms. sorry if that grosses you out. it's more shocking and disturbing than gross if you want to know how i feel. little kids get worms like this for lots of reasons: food and water being two of them. but, also they get hookworms from sleeping on the ground..like these children do.


another thing that is hard to see if children sick with malaria. they are completely lethargic and look greatly pained. april saw this little boy and sat and asked him what was wrong. he said he was sick.

when we were leaving i walked to the car and found him on the ground, sleeping hard. i watched him for a minute. he was shaking and moaning. i thought he was having a bad dream and just prayed over him for a minute. i'd not known about april's encounter with him. the director of the orphanage was needing to take him to the clinic, so we said we should pile him in the car with everyone and go.

the first clinic we went to was a sea of sick people sitting outside waiting to be seen. we offered to take him to a private clinic so he could be seen quicker. as it would turn out, this little boy was diagnosed with cerebral malaria and needed immediate treatment. after we left him there i came back and googled his condition. people who get cerebral malaria die if they are not treated within 24-72 hours. i sat where i was and cried. i was so thankful god sent us to that place and allowed us to see this little boy provide for his care. i also cried for all the children like him whom we aren't able to see.

malaria, i do not love you.

friends, i do love you. thank you so very much for helping to save children's lives by supporting our work and helping to provide not only nets, but hope and love.


and finally, this image makes me happy. it's a picture that is full of hope. because of this bible, this little girl and hundreds more like her who we've ministered to this christmas will be able to find something so many of us have. in so many countless ways.

thanks my friends. sweet sleep has the greatest supporters. i am so thankful for your partnership with our ministry. without you this would all be a giant prayer waiting to be fulfilled. you, are the answer.

see you in the next blog,
jen

The Process

So, I thought I'd show you how this Christmas bed production is going down. It looks so smooth in pictures...

After we've gone to our borrowed storage unit and loaded up the beds for the day, we head to the camp with Rose and Charles, the staff of Village of Hope whom work with the children Sweet Sleep is providing beds to.

Rose talks with the children about their current joys and struggles. Then she tells them a bit about us and we do our thing.....


Beth portrays a child who is playing and gets sick with malaria. She gets medicine and is better. She stays healthy because of new net. April, plays the role of a mosquito. A mad mosquito who can't get to Beth because of the new net. Then I share with the kids about God's love and future for them. And, that these beds can be reminders to them of that love and protection and hope.


The excited children line up to get their new beds and bedding.....


First stop: picking up their blankets and mosquito nets.


Second stop: getting Bibles and the rings for their nets!


Final stop: mats and mattresses!!


Sweet Sleep is working to provide 'a bed for every head' literally.....


Those who don't carry their beds home on their heads put them on wheels.


A mattress gets taken into a virtually empty hut where the children live.


And, the kids love being able to try their beds out right away.....so great.

Thanks to all who have provided this Christmas miracle. We can still provide to more children this Christmas, you can make your gift online at www.sweetsleep.org/donate

See you in the next blog,
Jen

So, what’s this all about?

Okay, be warned: this is a long blog post. But, hey. You're probably on Christmas break anyway. And, you could just as easily spend the next few minutes of your life watching nothing on TV. So, set your DVR and get comfy.

Many know that when I began Sweet Sleep I was working for Nashville’s then mayor, Bill Purcell. I loved my job because of the people I worked with and also because of the respect I had for my boss, Mr. Mayor. I was keen on my job for another reason: it was where the power of the people came to a climax; it was where the action was. If something was happening in the city, I had the opportunity to hear about it early on. Granted, I’m sure I was clueless of what went on behind all the closed doors, but being the people watcher that I am, I at least felt like I had the inside pulse of big issues effecting the city.

I liked the knowledge of all this so much that I entertained ideas of how I could continue the behind the scenes politics once the Mayor’s second term ended. That was, at least, until I went to Moldova and saw, firsthand, the behind the scenes of what was happening in the world. It changed my life forever.

As God began to mold my life in a new direction, I found myself soaking up information on international issues concerning human beings, especially the littlest ones. I remember talking to my well educated friends about sex-trafficking and then having them come back to me months, even years later, saying, “Hey, aren’t you the one who was telling me about trafficking? I just read something about this. I had no idea this was happening…”

Some may find this statement shocking while others will nod in agreement. Over the years, as I’ve shared what I know about the sufferings of children—of orphans in particular, I know, I understand, many haven’t really heard anything I’ve said. That’s not at all an indictment. It’s just what happens when a person hears about something so terrible, so inhumane, that they literally just don’t know how to process the information. My feeling is that most of us, myself included, live in a bubble with no idea of what is happening to the world outside. And how could we? In a nation where a boy who flies off in a foil balloon (or doesn’t) makes headlines for weeks, how can we possibly begin to know what “real” news might be?

I say all of this because of what I’ve learned and experienced over the last nine months. Earlier this year Sweet Sleep was told about an emergency need for beds/bedding for some children in the northern Uganda region of Gulu. These were children who were the victims of a war which had endured their entire lifetimes. Commonly referred to as “night commuters”, “child soldiers” or “invisible children”. Night commuters because they left their villages each day at dusk to walk miles to a location which could help keep them “safe” from the rebels. Child soldiers because those children whose villages were attacked at night were forced to kill or be killed and then abducted by the rebels and trained to become child soldiers in their army called the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Invisible children because to most of the world, these children are in fact, invisible.

I knew this horror existed because years ago somebody told this “well educated” girl about their plight; yet I was unable to grasp the situation. Perhaps it was because it was happening so far away and I didn’t know what to do or because it was the first time I’d heard about such a thing or perhaps maybe even because my life was too busy. However, this story caught up with me earlier this year as I sat in a screening of a new documentary telling about the war and the current situation of Africa’s longest running war. I was shocked at my own lack of awareness. It was March 2009 and I was just learning that the LRA had walked away from peace talks in April 2008 with the possibility of leaving Uganda, but also with the promise of “shocking the world with the amount of blood that would be shed.” As I continued to sit in my seat, barely breathing, my little eyeballs tried to tell my stunned brain of how the LRA kept its word. On December 25, 2008 the LRA viciously attacked a village in the Congo; killing at will and abducting whatever child or strong, healthy man they chose to.

That night was the beginning of God showing me more of His plan for our ministry. In the months which have followed I’ve been trying to educate myself on this senseless war. I’ve spoken to so many who, like me, have no idea what I’m talking of and I’m sure, have walked away without any real sense of what they’ve heard.

This afternoon, while resting in my room in Gulu, Uganda, I finished reading the most informative, insightful book I’ve read yet: “First Kill Your Family” by Peter Eichstaedt. As a journalist and also a man who some would consider to be the foremost expert on the war and the effects of war on human suffering, Peter has studied, traveled and written about nearly every tumultuous region of the world. I’ve been struggling with my lack of education which could have led to quick action. However, Peter’s words made me feel slightly better today. I share them with you now to allow yourself the opportunity to move past the feelings of ignorance or lack of knowledge about this atrocity so that you can move more quickly into action.

“ When I first landed in Uganda in August 2005, I had never heard of the Lord’s Resistance Army. I had been warned that travel to the northern part of the country was dangerous, but it was not something I would have to worry about because I wouldn’t need to go there. That warning had made me curious. The north was terra incognita, the unknown world.

Shortly after my first trip to the north, I was staggered by the fact that a war could have gone on for twenty-two years and claimed so many lives, many of them children’s, and it wasn’t general knowledge outside Uganda. I am, after all, a journalist. I follow the news because it is my job, but also because I like it. I like knowing about the world, it is my world as well as everyone else’s. but few in the West had ever heard of this war or the rebel army that was conducting it.”

Let this be your newsflash and decide today to move to action. Action doesn’t have to mean you abandon your world as you know it. Action just means you know of this and you help give voice to these children. Action means you pray for them. Many of you have already moved into action because you’ve helped to provide the beds and the hope which we share along with them. Continue your action with me…there are hundreds of thousands of children here who need what our ministry can bring them….sleep, sweetly.

I’m grateful for each of you and the work we do, together.

See you in the next blog,
Jen

day two in gulu

hello friends! i'm so excited to be sharing with you tonight. before i go any further, you need to know that i am going to make a lot of spelling and random mistakes. this is a strange duck keyboard. i'm not even going to try to capitalize.

well, there's so much to say. i almost don't know where to start.

this morning we were walking back from an errand and i realized today was december 18th, the day i was baptized about 21 years ago. i laughed a little and thought that, if you would have told me that two decades later i'd be walking down a dirt road in gulu, uganda helping provide beds to orphans....well, i know i wouldn't have believed you.

yesterday we made the long trek from kampala to gulu. so many things went through my mind as we neared the north. i'll share some of those later. after just two days it's obvious that everybody here has some kind of story about how the lra has impacted their lives. example, last night in an internet cafe, the owner told us that he had been abducted by the lra and was forced to be a child soldier for 3 months before escaping. everyone has a story. it's like being in the aftermath of some terrible tragedy like a tsunami or 9/11. thousands of lives taken, thousands of families torn apart. thousands of children kidnapped...it's too much to understand.

today we took 70 beds to one of the camps. it was great chaos. many of the kids remembered me from the day i spent with them in july. that was fun. i wouldn't have expected it. i'm just another in a long sea of people who are coming into their lives and trying to give them hope to make up for their heartache.

these kids are great fun to watch, especially when april takes their photos and shows them the picture on her widescreen camera. i'd love to bottle up their laughter and play it back for them when they need to remember happy times.

when the kids learned they were getting beds they absolutely freaked out. it was so fun. the program coordinator was sitting next to me talking in acholi with them. i had no idea what they were talking about, and suddenly there was a great cheer. she leaned over and told me they were very excited to learn about the beds.

one little girl stood up and told me that she had been praying for such a thing for years and that now she was going to pray the same for others. she asked me to thank those back home who had helped. i promised i would. then i taught them how to blow kisses. another boy stood up and began talking. he said he had prayed for something like this and now this was an answered prayer. he said he would pray we would be able to bless others as well and asked that i tell all the people back home that they were so happy and that he loved you. so, feel loved. very loved.

today the drab brown camp was speckled with bright pinks, greens, yellows and blues as the mattresses and blankets and such sat piled up waiting for the kids to take them home. some have moved back into villages. many of the children still live in the camp because they have no where else to go. we sent kids off down the road with mattresses, blankets, mats, nets, bibles and more. others we helped settle their new beds into their dark huts.

but before everybody left each child took their mattress, laid it in the grass and laid down on it. you should have seen the smiles. lots opened their bibles and studied the pages. so great. so, so great.

i'm going to stop blogging so i can try to post some pictures from yesterday. i haven't compressed any of the ones taken today from the bed distribution. you can find those on the blog that jon posted from the facebook pictures i put up during the whole shebang. they're great.

please pray for these children tonight. pray for their rest, their dreams, their safety, their health, their lives and for them to remember they are not alone and tht there is great hope for their lives in jesus. pray these beds remind them of that.

see you in the next blog,
jen

Snapshots from Jen: Sweet Sleep Comes to Gulu!

Just wanted to send you a few snapshots from Jen's day - the day beds arrived in Gulu. :)

She may be able to post another blog tonight with far more insights, as I know she is already being confronted with great joy, sadness, hope and heartache as she hears the stories of these children.

So more to come, but here are some snipits. :)

This picture above is the line of children excited to get their bedding!

A little girl - so happy to to lay her head on something other than the ground.

This speaks for itself. A grin from ear to ear! :)

They couldn't wait to read their new Bibles! They stopped right there and began to read the Word.

A boy brings his new mattress into his hut. :)

Settling in for his first night of sweet sleep. :)

What a sweet sight to see these children finally off of the ground and snuggling into their healthy, comfortable new Sweet Sleep beds! Thank you for the part you have played in making this happen.

More from Gulu soon. :)

Jen, April and Beth Safely in Gulu!

Well friends... Sweet Sleep has come to Gulu!

 Jen, April and Beth just arrived with a bus full of mats, blankets, mosquito nets! The kids danced, thanked the ladies for coming and are SO excited their mattresses arrive tomorrow and they'll get their new Sweet Sleep beds. This boy stood up from the crowd and told Jen and friends: "Thank you for answering our prayers for beds!"

More to come! Just wanted you to get a glimpse of Sweet Sleep arriving in Gulu! :) Thanks for praying and giving to make this special Christmas possible for these sweet boys and girls in Gulu!

We are also still accepting donations for beds for Gulu! Let's see how many beds we can get these kids before Christmas! You can help now at www.sweetsleep.org/donate.

Hitting the Ground Running in Kampala; Preparing For Our Work in Gulu

After weeks of planning, praying, and sharing about the needs of the children in northern Uganda, we are finally here. Well, in Uganda anyway.

In the beginning of planning for this trip I was the sole person involved. God saw fit to give me two companions, and for that I thank Him. April is a long-time friend from way back when we both worked at the same cookie store in the mall during high school and college. She's a freelance meeting/event planner now and we think the new George Clooney movie, "Up in the Air" is loosely based on her life being that she travels over 200 days a year for work. April said she'd come with me, if the 3 events she had booked for the same time frame should cancel. God decided to accept her challenge and cancel her work plans!

When April began to share about her Uganda/Sweet Sleep plans a colleague, Beth, decided she also must be a part. What a brave woman!  So, here we are, waiting to see what God has in store. And while we're trying to live like locals, the picture above is not of the three of us, but of three girls we met in Kampala today. :)

April and I arrived in the capital city of Kampala last night. Beth just a few hours ago thanks to good old flight and connection problems. We're incredibly tired, but eager to see what our life will soon be consisting of.

Today was a day for taking care of various logistics and preparing for our weeks ahead. Lots to do as, you might imagine.

Bed is calling, but I just wanted to give a little insight as to our group and our arrival. The pictures posted here tonight have been taken by April.

Please pray for us as we travel by bus (loaded with bedding, nets and Bibles) for 6 hours tomorrow. Our day starts early...9:30 pm Music City time. Pray as you're all going to bed tonight.

Thank you for supporting our work and for following me along this journey to Gulu.

Jen

Bed Blog Monday

When Sweet Sleep provides beds and bedding to orphaned and abandoned children we don’t just give the beds to orphans, we communicate God’s intentional creation of each child and His unconditional, unending love. We celebrate the children by throwing the biggest birthday party in the country. The children are even given Bibles in their own language and prayed with over their new beds. Finally, the children are told that when they lay down at night and pull the cozy new covers up around them, it is God---giving them a hug.

One week from today I'll leave for Uganda with two other women, April and Beth, where we'll spend several weeks in the northern region of Gulu. This region has been in a brutal and senseless war for the last 22 years. A rebel army known as the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has been terrorizing the North, attacking villages during the night. During an attack, LRA soldiers kill anyone they want and force the children of these villages to kill their parents or be killed themselves. The children who are left alive are then kidnapped into the LRA army and forced to become child soldiers. These children have lived through tremendous atrocities.

Recently this war entered into a time of peace. However, there are 1 million people still living in displacement camps in Gulu; three-quarters of those people are children living in child-headed households. These children have lost their parents and their grandparents---two generations of people to protect and care for them, to tell them stories about who they are and who they could be, to teach them stories about God and how to live according to His word.





This Christmas---while we're in Uganda, Sweet Sleep hopes to give beds and Bibles to 450 children. If the children can lie in their new beds and know they are loved and protected and, if they can claim a verse they’ve learned which reminds them of this knowledge, they can begin to have little victories over the fear that grips them. That’s when peace and hope and love can slowly come to their little hearts.

But, Sweet Sleep needs help.

218 more children still need beds ($88 each). Together, we can work to change and save lives. Here’s what is still needed, you can determine which opportunity suits you best:
• 218 mosquito nets. Malaria kills more people in Uganda than HIV/AIDS. Treated nets are $8 each.
• Mattresses for 218 children so they will be able to sleep up off of the ground for the first time in their lives. Mattresses are $50.
• Can you imagine not having a blanket to warm you during these chilly nights or sheets to sleep in? 218 more children still need to be able to be warm and snuggly. They can for just $30.
• Bibles are $10 each. There are 450 households for a total of $4,500.

You can make a gift right now by going to www.sweetsleep.org/donate or you can send your contributions to Sweet Sleep, PO Box 40486, Nashville, TN 37204 with “Gulu” in the special comments box online or in the memo line of your check. All gifts are 100% tax-deductible. If you still need a great idea for a Christmas gift, you can even make this a donation in honor or memory of someone and they’ll receive a card from Sweet Sleep telling about their special gift. You can read more about this at www.sweetsleep.org/givethegift.

If you're a blogger or even a Facebook note poster, today is Sweet Sleep's Bed Blog Monday. This is a day where you can use your social platform to tell others about how they can help. Let me know if you're interested and we'll get the information to you so you, too, can be a part.

Thanks friends…..for changing and saving lives.

See you in the next blog,
Jen

Oh, Little Town of Bethlehem....

I have to tell you that this morning in church....I...had...a moment. There we were singing Christmas song after Christmas song when suddenly I couldn't sing anymore. It happened while we were singing "Oh Little Town of Bethlehem" as I reached this chorus for the second time:

O little town of Bethlehem,
How still we see thee lie;
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by;

My heart just took my mind right to the little town of Gulu that, very soon, I'll be spending my days and nights...and Christmas in. I thought about the children there--these little ones in the picture above. I thought about how beautiful it would be for these little ones to experience "deep and dreamless sleep", rather than have to worry about where to sleep or, to worry all through the night about so many other things no child should ever worry about.

As the rest of the church sang on, I decided this hymn was going to be my prayer for the children's Christmas. Sing it and pray it with me, won't you?

Oh, Little Town of Bethlehem

O little town of Bethlehem,
How still we see thee lie;
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by;
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting light.
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight.

For Christ is born of Mary,
And gathered all above,
While mortals sleep the angels keep
Their watch of wondering love.
O morning stars, together
Proclaim the holy birth!
And praises sing to God the King,
And peace to men on earth!

How silently, how silently
The wondrous gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts
The blessings of His heaven.
No ear may hear His coming;
But in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive Him still,
The dear Christ enters in.

O holy Child of Bethlehem,
Descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin and enter in,
Be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels
The great glad tidings tell,
O come to us, abide with us,
Out Lord Emmanuel!

Thanks, friends.

See you in the next blog,
Jen

Sugar Bugs....

So, today I heard a story unlike anything I've ever heard before. It came from a Kenyan man I was meeting with who has a ministry working with youth in the Kibera slum. Kibera is the second largest slum in the world. The UN poputlation is 1.2 million; 400,000 are under the age of 18.



Earlier this year I was in the Kibera slum meeting with an orphanage director and visiting a tin house for street children. Even now I can remember looking at the bed that was in that tin structure and feeling my heart so heavy.



He gave me their newsletter and said there was one story in particular that I would want to read. I share it with you now.

Sugar in a Mattress

"Recently I was in Kibera on my normal visits to projects...Something that I had not seen in Kibera even after my many visits caught my attention. It would have been easy to walk by him as SYN team was assessing the needs in this place to find out how we could help a few people in this community. But the sight of Simon...sprinkling his dirty, overused mattress with sugar made me stop in my tracks. "Why are you sprinkling sugar on your mattress?" I asked him. "Because sugar causes all the bugs to come to the surface, then I can kill them and get a quiet night's sleep."

It's okay...you can sit quietly for a minute. I am...

The man opened our Sweet Sleep folder and pointed to a picture we have on a flyer. The photograph was taken as I stood inside an orphanage we provided beds to this summer. "That." He said. "His mattress looked like that."



That day, this man made a difference in the life of that child. He shared God's love with him and provided him with a new mattress.

One man. One child. One life.

What will you do for one?

In 9 days I'll leave for Gulu, Uganda to give beds to children orphaned by a brutal rebel war. They desperately need a bed. Give them a life-saving mosquito net. A complete bed with net is $88. Just the net is $8. Give online at www.sweetsleep.org and note "Gulu" in the comment box.

See you in the next blog,
Jen