February 2018 - Biggest Trip Yet!
Twenty-five of us will be going to visit our friends at Upendo Children’s Village in February 2018. This is the largest group in our history. Yay, God! That’s 25 people who will be carrying the hope and blessings and hard work and prayers and support from countless others. Our volunteers have been doing extra babysitting, leaf raking and shelf stocking, working overtime, writing fundraising letters and creating things and selling them – all to save enough money during this holiday season not to buy gifts, but to go to Africa to love on orphans!
The Lord is blessing this trip. I’ve heard stories of checks coming in the mail totally unexpected, I’ve had checks mailed to me from people that wanted to bless some of our team members but didn’t want their name to be known. I even hear stories of non-believers sowing into their family members and friends. So many hearts are being touched and I can’t help but think of the many more still to come.
We have 9 students, 2 teachers and 2 parents from The Charles Finney School coming with us. This is Finney’s second time sending Project Compassion students to Malawi. The rest of our team is made up of Pastors and family and friends from 6 different churches!
So much has gone into the planning of this trip. We’ve had 4 meetings to talk about our travel plans. We read through the book “Before You Go” and share our hearts about the challenges and rewards of making a trip like this. The bonding and fellowship and team building will continue well past the trip itself.
Stephen Morse will be coming with us to shoot video and photos about life at Upendo Children’s Village. Our hope is to turn this into a documentary that tells the story of the lives and hearts we have come to love. We are blessed with a large team and I am so excited about the love that will be flowing through hearts and all through Upendo while working on this project!
You find yourself trusting God like you never expected. I’ve prayed a whole lot and will continue to do so as I gather information and people, purchase airline tickets and host meetings. The list will go on until we return – only for it to start all over again, Hoooray!
We are already looking ahead to summer for our next trip. If you’d like more information regarding future trips, you can reach me at: nicole@upendochildrensvillage.com.