New Video! Now That I Have Seen: Sweet Sleep for Uganda

Hey friends! We have a new Sweet Sleep video and I couldn't want to share it with you! It includes images from our trip to Uganda this summer and will hopefully give you a glimpse of the scope of our work in Uganda and the difference Sweet Sleep is making in the lives of orphans in Africa and around the world.

Please share this with your friends - and the world! Let everyone you know, know about these often forgotten children. Look into the eyes of these children, some of the 210 million orphans out there in the world right now, praying for someone to love them, to pray for them - and for something we take for granted - a healthy, comfortable place to pray, to dream and to sleep sweetly.

View our new video here - Now That I Have Seen: Sweet Sleep for Uganda.

Want to help us provide beds to sweet orphans like these in northern Uganda? Beds there are just $88. For more information, visit www.sweetsleep.org. To donate, visit www.sweetsleep.org/donate.

Uganda Team Home/Election News from Moldova

Hello friends! Lots of good news to report today... Our Uganda Team finally returned home yesterday (some technically TODAY) after a day of long layovers and weather delays! Our Nashvillians didn't get home until 2am this morning, but everyone is home and to their respective homes safely.

Also, you may remember us asking for prayer for Moldova in their election process. The Communist Party won the most seats in the Parliamentary elections in April, surrounded by reports of voter manipulation and fraud, but did not have 61 votes needed to elect the President so Parliament was dissolved and new elections were held yesterday. But our friends at the Baptist Union, our partner on the ground in Moldova, tell us that the Communist party only obtained 48 seats this time and the opposition parties, the democratic parties, gained 53! The opposition parties are forming a coalition and while negotiations will not be easy, our friends in Moldova are thanking God for this victory and thanking each of you for your prayers.

Valeriu Ghiletchi, formerly the President of the Baptist Union of Moldova, was elected to Parliament in April. We are waiting to hear if he will take a seat in the new Parliament since he was elected last week as the President of the European Baptist Federation! Congratulations to Val!

This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!

We awoke to a beautiful Ugandan morning! Today is our last day here, and it will be filled with shopping and time to reflect on all that has happened since we arrived in Uganda. I'm excited to come home and share all the stories of these sweet little children, but I could just as easily stay here!!

I can't believe how quickly the time has flown! It seems like we just got here (though our bodies tell us something different!). Though we will leave the continent later today, we have each left a part of us here, and will be taking a part of Africa back with us...in our hearts and our memories of the things we did and the children we loved on.

I can't wait to share the pictures and the stories behind them with all of you!!

Blessings and love!
Les

The Bad Place

An important life lesson is that when you are visiting somewhere you're not familiar with and the folks there have a place called "The Bad Place"...you should believe them. If not, you end up riding on the outside of a Ugandan kayak.

A bit of context: while we were on the river today, we had an ongoing discussion with our guide about the rapids on the river and the propensity of those rapids for sending folks on a lovely trip into the historic and pleasant Nile River (sounds a lot like a Wheel of Fortune prize when you put it that way, doesn't it...). We chatted about rapids with creative and fun names like Big Brother and Sibling Rivalry. But, we kept coming back to the ever present question of how we wanted to handle 'The Bad Place'.

By the time we approached this last rapid of the day, we'd determined that we would take the safer path and avoid this place which fun apparently forgot. So, we dropped (the boat) in the water (after walking the raft around a rapid that could best be described as a fireworks show in the water - Class 6 for those of you rafting enthusiasts keeping score at home). Our guide briefly gave us a how to on finding the calmer path down the river, and reminded us of the safety training we'd taken earlier in the day.

We pushed off of the shore and began paddling out into the rapids. Everything was going very smoothly and we cleared the first section as planned. Then we began the all important task of paddling very hard to get past the bad place and complete the run on the calmer section.
Pause for important life lesson #2: just when everything makes sense, that's when you should probably watch out - and that's a good thing.

God has shown me, and I think all of us, a lot of things on this trip. I think all of us have been outside our comfort zone in one way or another over the course of the past few days. Whether it's been changing schedules, altering priorities, finding the right plane, or just (and most importantly) finding a way to connect with these children (and adults) we've come to minister to, it's been a great growth and learning opportunity for all of us.

It's very easy to get locked in to our "normal" day to day lives as Christians and feel like we're ready for any challenges to that routine and that we're equipped to make it through those things we're comfortable with. Where we run into trouble is when we're forced to branch out into something we didn't expect or we didn't think we were ready for. I think that God gives us these opportunities so that we learn (or relearn) to put our faith in Him and not in our own abilities.

We didn't make it to the calmer route. The 30 seconds to 2 minutes that followed (time gets very relative when one is given an unexpected dunk in the river) are a bit of a blur, but I'm pretty sure of the following (and we'll be able to confirm with video evidence tomorrow):
1) We didn't paddle hard enough to make it to the calmer route
2) There's a giant washing machine hidden in the Nile that apparently thought we were dirty socks
3) Nile water does NOT taste especially good
4) It's a lot easier to ride inside a boat than outside a boat on the Nile (we had safety guides in Kayaks that came to fish us out after we tumbled through the rapid), but being outside the boat can still be comforting

Honestly, it's easy to kid about it somewhat now, but at the time it was one of the scarier moments of my life (and, I think, that of my 7 boatmates as they had similar experiences) for a few of those seconds...which brings us to important life lesson/reminder #3 (which Madelene has so aptly mentioned just now): Every second we have is precious and everything we do should be focused on serving God (and sometimes I think learning or being reminded of life/spiritual lessons from a swim in the Nile is doing just that). We aren't guaranteed any more time on this Earth, which makes things like Sweet Sleep's ministry that much more important.

Jinja, The Nile and "The Bad Place"

Yesterday we said goodbye to the children at Caring Heart and Africa Greater Life orphanages outside of Kampala, leaving us with one last full day in Uganda before returning home. So today the team decided to travel north to explore the area around Jinja. The drive thru the Ugandan countryside was beautiful and lush, and dotted with fields of tea and sugar cane. Once in Jinja, the team split in to two groups, with one opting to explore the town of Jinja, take a cruise on Lake Victoria, at the source of the Nile River, and visit the rainforest, while the more adventurous chose to go whitewater rafting on the Nile River. I was in the latter group.

At 10am, we set out with our rafting guides in two boats, which were part of a larger day long expedition of six rafts total, on our Nile River Adventure. The section we were rafting consists primarily of class three and four rapids with 3 class five along the route. It was by far the most advanced whitewater any of us had ever done, and for some it was their first time, but our guide spent time with us in the calm water at the start of our trip going over the skills we would need to tackle the rapids ahead.

We made it to our first class five rapid before Kendra became the first Sweet Sleep rafter to go flying out of the boat, but she climbed back in soaked but smiling. Shortly thereafter we lost Stuart (rookie), John, Mike, and Madelene in the midst of one of the class three rapids, but they climbed back in the boat eager for more of what the river had to offer. Up until the last rapid of the day, Whitney and I were the only ones not to take a dip from a rogue rapid. All this time, no one from the other Sweet Sleep boat lost a single rafter.

The entire group of six rafts stopped for lunch at a small island in the middle of the Nile, where we were served an American lunch buffet style, complete with coffee, tea, water and juice to quench our thirst. Lunch was followed by several long stretches of calm water where we could get out and swim in the Nile River. Never in my life did I think that I would get a chance to do that!

One set of rapids after lunch had a waterfall with a 10 foot drop that everyone on the six boats in the expedition attempted to ride, but only the second Sweet Sleep boat with Meghan, Kelsey, Leslie and Valerie managed to ride successfully without a boat flip or a lost passenger - and to see the looks on their collective faces afterwards was a mix of pure excitement and disbelief. It was right after this that our guide reminded us that "The Bad Place" was up ahead and we needed to prepare...

photos from yesterday....

here we all are -- the entire team! (small african children can be photographers too)

so my friend, tanus, who i have been chilling with all week, found me at church sunday with his new bible in tow. i was showing him how to look up verses when i opened it to the front and found this note. i think i sobbed for about 20 minutes straight. "God loves me and I love God. buyinza tanus, primary six. wakiso children's school of hope. my friend is hannah. another friend is God who created me."
oh. my. goodness.

birthday party!!

self portrait. eyes closed. tanus is the one in orange.















have you ever seen anything like it?? p.s. all these kids are coming home with us, just fyi.

hannahelaine

Five Loaves and Two Fish

What a beautiful Sunday here in Uganda. Well, today was the team's last day with both orphanages. So although we had a lot of fun with them, we were very sad to leave them behind.

We started out our day by going to Africa Greater Life and having church with them and although it was a three and a half hour long service, it was very enjoyable watching the kids singing, dancing, reading their new Bibles, and praising God. They are definitely quite the little worshippers. We blessed them with heart pillows for their new beds and in return, they blessed us with African Safari hats.

Next we went to Caring Heart where we had a HUGE party. It was non-stop dancing and singing. The team threw a birthday party for all the kids and then also the teachers and the widows that attend their church. We were prepared for 450 kids, but we had at least 500-600 people. The team is still amazed by the miracle that happened because every single person got a gift. It's like in John 6 where Jesus fed the 5,000 with only five loaves and two fish. God definitely did that same miracle today and it was astonishing. All of their faces lit up with joy and happiness and I am very glad I was able to be a part of that. God Bless Uganda and everyone reading our blogs.

-Cortnie Treadway

Torn between two worlds.

July 26, 2009. 9:43pm Kampala time.
It is hard to imagine that our time with the kids is already over.
While the days have been long and chaotic, and many of us come home exhausted, time seems to fly surrounded by these children - they are so easy to love.
Today has been a day of halves for me: this was the first day I really stopped to think about the life I left in America a week ago, and my heart strings stretched across the ocean. And yet, as I said goodbye to "my" kids this morning, I felt the strong pull of the heart strings that have latched onto Uganda. And I've realized my heart will forever be pulled between these worlds.
My morning was filled with sweet moments. I spent three and a half hours with my two beautiful 7 year-olds, Jelis and Patricia. We sang, danced, took pictures, and opened God's book (as they call it here). Our second day here, Patricia became sick from contracting Malaria, and I could tell she felt like an untouchable. What a blessing it was this morning as she realized that my love and God's love for her could not be separated by a sickness. Later in the day, I had an opportunity to talk to Faith. She is 18. She speaks wonderful english, is a fabulous singer and loves to dance. We talked about her desire to visit New York and what it is like to fly in an airplane.
We piled into the bus, and I (unsuccessfully) tried to hold back the tears as we said goodbye. I can hardly comprehend what the condition of my heart will be when I return to America.
But I leave confident that we have been the hands and feet of Christ to these orphans, even if only in a small way. And that is thanks to many of you reading these blogs. So thank you for sending us, but know that we aren't the same people you sent.
We are mzungus. We are dancers. We are winners ;-)
And we will probably force most of you to look at the thousands of pictures we've taken in these few days. We can't wait to come home, but probably for each of us in some small or large way, we are home here. And we are not ready to leave. But as life moves on, so will we, confident that God is guiding our paths and thankful that His plan for our paths brought us here.

Writing from between two worlds,
-Melissa Rau

some hope for the road

i'm not exactly sure how to put into words all that i am feeling today. this was the day we had to say goodbye to our kids at both orphanages. this week has been an experience i will never forget. we started our day at africa greater life, where we went to church with the kids there. it was very hard to keep my eyes open. in case you didn't know, african church services are very long with lots of singing. it was an amazing passion filled service, but by the end of a week of work and playing with children, a 3 hour service would be hard for anyone to stay awake. the higlight of the service me sitting in between Fred and Resty while they showed me the bibles they got the day before. they asked me to write notes to them, which i ended up telling them how special they were and how much God and i loved them. they both looked up and me with huge smiles and eyes lit up. Fred then wrote, "the person who gave me this bible is called Lauren and God loves me" in the front cover. it was such a sweet moment. we then got to spend a half an hour with the kids to talk, play, and say our goodbyes. i ended up hanging out with Resty, who wanted to show me her bed one more time. her and the girls in her room had decorated their beds and were so proud of them. each took turns showing me their beds and all the presents they received that week. i then got a few moments with her where Resty told me she had 4 sisters and 1 brother, but her brother died. she then wouldn't talk anymore about it and we just sat and held hands for the rest of our time. we said goodbye and got on the bus and headed to caring heart.
at caring heart we got to throw a huge birthday party for the kids. their faces were so bright, some of them couldn't stop smiling. it's amazing how a simple celebration that we can take for granted can mean so much to a child who never gets to have one. it brought me to tears to see the kids wearing their burger king crowns knowing that today they are extra special because we are celebrating the fact that they were born, that God created them, and he loves them just as they are.
i then got to spend the rest of my time with my girl Sonya. she's 5 and just beautiful. her eyes smile way before she does, and when she does smile she can light up the room. she would never leave my side anytime we were at caring heart. the language was, unfortunately, a slight barrier but it was enough to just hang out and play together. before i left she asked me for my address so she could write me. we siad goodbye and headed home.
it's never easy to say goodbye to kids you've gotten to spend an entire week with in such an intense atmosphere, but i feel hopeful. these kids do not have much but they have people here in their own villages who care for them and love them very much. in a way, it's a little more comforting to leave knowing that we are leaving them in good hands. heck, the entire village showed up and celebrated the children receiving beds at caring heart. i'm still sorting throught everything tonight, but that's how i feel right now. hopeful. these kids are bright and beautiful and the hold so much hope and love inside them already. i trust that God is taking care of them and will keep providing for them.

Webale, Topistar.

I have looked so forward to my turn to blog- and yet, I dive into this at an almost complete loss for words. If I was abundant in words, I'm positive that they would still not do the experience justice.

I was told my life was about to be changed by this journey and I couldn't grasp in what ways it might until the stories started piling up and my heart was broken-- in the best possible way.

Instead of giving you the rundown of the day- as I'm sure you have read the others and have an idea of what has gone on- I am going to take you a little further into the experience of one child I have had the great priviledge to love. I think just a glimpse with me into what goes on, has gone on, and continues to go on in the lives of these children will be enough from me and mean more than any words I may have.

Topistar (pronounced more like Dopista) is a beautiful, intelligent, 12 year old girl that lives at Africa Greater Life Orphanage.

The day that we brought beds to Africa Greater Life, I met Topistar. She was patiently waiting for me as I was walking out of the girls' dorm. When I rounded the corner, she tapped me on the shoulder to say in broken english (pretty much my favorite sound ever)... "Tonight... I get... to sleep. Thank you very much for helping us. God Bless you..." and off she went. Obviously struck by the statement, I made a mental picture of her face and went back to work.

The following day we returned to Africa Greater Life and walked with the children to their individual beds to talk with them. As I was walking down the hill toward the girls' dorm to speak with them, Topistar ran to me and grabbed my hand to show me her bed. I didn't realize until I was with her talking that she was the same girl from the previous day. Needless to say, we are new friends. :)

Today during the birthday party, Topistar ran to sit beside me and was attached to my hip for the day. When she received her bible as one of her birthday gifts, she ran back to me and wanted to read to me from it. As we read, we talked about how much God loved her and how He knew her before she was born... as soon as her birth was mentioned, Topistar's demeanor changed.

Soon enough, it was obvious that the topic bothering her was her birth and shortly thereafter a woman walked up to me and repeated "Wabale, Wabale, Wabale, Wabale..." (Lugandan for Thank You")

Topistar began to tell me that the woman was her grandmother and that her mother had died some time ago. She has been living at Africa Greater Life for years. As we spoke, I asked her if she could write her name for me. As she wrote, I asked her to tell me about her life.

The following is word for word my letter from Topistar. Hopefully it will give some insight into why my heart is broken, and yet full...

my name is Namusisi Topistar.
i am 12 years old.
my brother is called david.
my mother is died when was sick.
my father is died when bad person killed.
my mother when died i am ever so young. (**here I asked her if she felt sad sometimes...to which she wrote in response:**)
i feel bad person see me write on paper.
my father is work in police
my father is have young child the bad man came and kill father's child and father is fight with bad man
the bad man was kill my father
me and my brother david hide my father is left there.
me and david pastor is help us.

think you to help bring beds.

think you. God bless you.

I love you.

Bye Bye



I don't know that there are sufficient words to follow this up with. We discussed what she can do when she feels sad and how tightly God holds her in those times- and yet our eyes glistened and my heart broke. Topistar's story is so far from over, and I have no doubt that she is one of the committed hearts that the Lord searches all the earth for. "...He wants to make them strong."(II Chron. 16:9)

Luckily, when I leave and return to the states, although my heart will break to leave my new friends, I will have comfort in a great big God who will still be with them.

We are leaving them, but He will not... because this is so much bigger than me, and He is so much bigger than this.

Kathryn