Hey beautiful ladies of God!!!
Here are a few things you might be excited to know….
We have a team of 19 girls (as of today)!!!!
We have 4 leaders (Aaron, Michelle, Rachel and Monica) who are as excited as you are and who are praying for you every day!!!!!!
We have two hosts (Dr. K & his wife Dr. Brenda) who are happily awaiting our arrival and planning out ALL sorts of amazing opportunities to share the gospel and great adventures for us.
There are THOUSANDS of little children waiting to be loved on and played with and WE get to be the ones that do it!!!!
Ok so that was a little something to remind you of how amazing this summer is going to be. Here are a few details that should help you as you prepare for the trip.
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We will be doing VBS, sports camps, visiting churches in the bush, of course spending lots of time with children and even some students your age. We will also learn dramas that we can use for street type evangelism. We will be serving in many different areas, some that are yet to be determined. So we must be ready for whatever comes to us.
I know you all probably have lots of questions, we are going to try and help you with a few things. More info will come as we get a little closer.
Dr. K would love it if we could all go to our churches and see if anyone would like to donate items for helping hands ministries. They are specifically in need of ANY instruments that could go with us on the plane. In case you were wondering….. NO pianos! J
Also any type of sports equipment, especially volley , soccer and basketballs. Nets, anything that could be used for their sports camps.
Dr. K said Balloons were a HUGE hit with everyone there. So if any of you know how to do balloon animals or any of you want to make the extra effort to learn how, please do. If not, maybe we could all grab a bag of regular balloons and we will just draw faces on them. Please if some of you are planning on bringing the balloons for making animals, let me know and I will try and collect some of them also.
Also we are going to be putting you girls on VBS teams. You will be responsible for doing VBS on a certain day. We will most likely not be doing a typical week long VBS, but rather doing a travel VBS. They said one day we may be with young children and another with the older students. So we need to have a wide range of activities to do with them. So what each team needs to have is the following.
Games and ice breakers. Songs: songs with actions are always great and ones without too many words in case they don’t all speak English. A bible story (it would be good if you had a skit to go with it, we have enough people to do just about anything!). And last but not least the craft. This will be a special treat for the kids as many of them don’t EVER get to color or make anything. They should be easy crafts and something that doesn’t require too many supplies. This is another thing you should talk to your church about, whether they can donate any extra supplies they have or maybe by having a “crayon Sunday” where everyone comes to church with a pack of crayons. Some of us go to BIG churches and others are small. Don’t stress if your church isn’t as gun hoe about everything as you are. God will provide!!!
This is something that we need to have ready and planned out before training camp. When you all come we need you all to know who is responsible for what part of the VBS. This is going to require you all talking to each other (you already are so that is wonderful!). I will need you all to keep us posted on how things are coming (like what kinds of donations you are getting, that way we don’t all come with the same thing!). We need to try and have everything Ministry supply wise collected by June 1st if possible. That way we can let Dr. K know how many totes we will need to pack with stuff we are bringing.
So there is a brief description of ministry stuff. Remember this is not a SET IN STONE promise of what we will be doing. Things are likely to get changed on a daily basis. We need to be ready for whatever the Lord puts before us, even if it’s not what we planned on.
Here are a few other tid bits that we will add to later on:
We will need to bring 2 sets of twin sheets, if you are willing to leave them there for the ministry that would be a big blessing for them. A light sleeping bag, mainly for our time in GA.
It is going to be HOT, HOT and HOTTER. So PLEASE bring sunscreen, even if you don’t usually wear it. The sun is different there and it will be a necessity for you all to wear it. We don’t need any of you turning into Lobsters. Also he suggested we each wear hats. Sun hats would probably be the best, but whatever is fine. Just nothing with anything written or pictured that could be offensive.
I have talked to some of you and at first I was told shorts were going to be ok, and they are but only for time we spend at the compound (shorts need to be to the knee because that is how they are made, not because you have them pulled down low, no exceptions on this rule . Look for Bermuda shorts they are best. Please no soccer shorts at all.)We will need to have capris for the rest of the time and skirts (long ones) for when we go to church services. This is to prevent any offense. I know this may seem silly to some of you, but we are striving to bless and don’t want something as small as our clothing to be a stumbling block for anyone. Thank you for your sensitivity about this. Also, if any of you want to leave your clothes in Uganda, they will be given to young ladies in need. Again, this is not a requirement. Just letting you know all the options.
You will need your 1 suitcase and a backpack (carry on size) you can carry with you when we travel. If you have an instrument you are bringing, please let us know ahead of time if it won’t fit in your bag.
Living conditions: We will be staying in a compound. We will have running water and power SOMETIMES. It may not be every day. It may not be every other day. Be prepared to use the “outhouse” and bring baby wipes for cleaning up.
We will be hand washing everything. So the lighter material your clothes are, the easier it will be on you. Jeans are a bear to wash by hand.
Water bottles for everyone is required. You can buy them at training camp from AIM for $10.00
There will be a more in depth packing list sent to you as it gets closer. But this is a little sneak peak. I hope this helped out with some of your questions. I can’t even begin to tell how excited we are as leaders to have this opportunity to serve you girls. We are thrilled to see what the Lord has in store for all of us as we fully give ourselves to Him.
If you have any other questions you can post them as a comment on here and I will check back. If not, please keep us posted on your progress with VBS and raising supplies. You can do that by email or on facebook if you want to.
We love you girls already and look forward to more contact with each of you and finally meeting you face to face!!!!
Blessings!!!!
Aaron & Michelle Lawson, Rachel Shaffer and Monica Nichols
