Background (to be foreground in 17 days)

This July our church, Midtown Fellowship, is sending a team of 11 people to Gulu, Uganda to work with the people in this war-torn region.  Each of us have different talents and professions, and in our two week stay we will have an opportunity to work hands-on with local refugees to find ways to collaborate and form relationships that will serve the desperate needs of women and children in Gulu. 

Our trip is sponsored by African leadership, a Nashville nonprofit whose mission is to meet the physical needs of the people of Africa, to alleviate starvation, disease, and suffering.  In Gulu over the past 20 years, militants from the Lords' Resistance Army (LRA) have stolen thousands of children from their villages, killed their families, and used them as sex slaves.

"The Village of Hope" is one of the largest refuge camps where 500 of these "child mothers" have come to live for the first time in a safe community.  We will be actively working within this community to connect with these women and their children.  Our work will be planning programs for the children as well as encouraging and working with the young women who have had children as a result of rape (some as young as 12 years old). 

We leave for the Village of Hope, so appropriately named, July 19th.  Anticipation for this departure date has been building and preparations are in full swing, with many of us getting our yellow fever shots today!  In many ways, the journey has already begun.  The fundraising endeavor especially has highlighted for me that this trip does not consist of just two weeks away, nor is it solely our team making the journey.  Everyone who has contributed through encouragement, donations, and prayer is part of the adventure.  Already, many many thanks.

~ Katie & the whole Africa Team