Update

Greetings!
I wanted to take a moment to thank the individuals who have and continue to support me from the bottom of my heart for your prayers and/or financial support thusfar on this journey. I believe wholeheartedly the Lord is using so many individuals to assist me in answering the Lord's calling on my life, which I believe is to serve in the African nation of Uganda. I cannot express how excited and humbly grateful I am and what an amazing experience it has already been to sit back and watch God's love shine through the many individuals who have supported me through prayer and through their finances. I know He is blessing them for their generosity and fervent prayers!
It has already been an amazing, yet difficult journey with each step of the way. However, I've observed already in so many ways how He is preparing me spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and physically to serve in Uganda. I wanted to give you a brief update on where I'm at financially. Currently, I sit at a little under $9,000 towards my upfront costs. That number includes financial gifts as well as my own personal savings. I am continuing to work with my home church to work out an exact amount that they will be able to contribute monthly and should know for sure once the budget is complete for 2011. I do have to raise $2,000 per month, which will serve as my salary while residing in Uganda. Honestly, my biggest need at this point is montly commitments from individuals and/or churches. If this is an area you may be able to assist in, I would like to encourage you to prayerfully consider if you are a candidate. My family and I also hosted a garage sale on 9/24-9/25 and 10/9 and were able to raise a little under $800 for my trip. Selmore Baptist, along with friends and family donated items to sell and offered their help also! The support was truly overwhelming! Glory to God!
My family and I also had the amazing priviledge of hosting two children from Africa and an Auntie in our home for two nights in October for a tour they are currently on called The Restour Tour. October 15th, Watoto came to the Shrine Mosque in Springfield for a stirring musical production. During this performance children and adults from Uganda shared their stories of unimaginable atrocities where the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) forced children to become child soliders and trained them to kill others, including their own families. Even though the war is currently over in Uganda, the effects of war are still left behind. The Restour Tour brings you the story of Northern Uganda and her community of children, women, and men thrust into the middle of conflict and used to do horrific acts toward their fellow countrymen. Children forced to be weapons of war, women torn from their families, mutilated, stripped of dignity and used as sex slaves, and men left desperate and despondent. However, the story does not end there...
The main focus of the Watoto Restour Tour is in its name. The Restour Tour unfolds a story of restoration and hope, endurance of the worst atrocities known to man, triumph over adversity, and a story of healing, the power of forgiveness and ultimately the restoration that only a Loving Savior can bring. During the performance multiple individuals stood up and shared their stories of how they were forced to kill, how they were abandoned, and left alone with no one to care for them. Later in the performance those same individuals stood up and stated how they forgave all the soldiers that forced them to kill, all the soldiers that killed their family members and friends. Then, they all joined hands across the stage and worshipped Almighty God in total freedom!!! They sang the following lyrics and the song took on an entirely different meaning to me:

"Our God is Greater, our God is Stronger, God You are Higher than any other. Our God is Healer, awesome in power, our God, our God. And if our God is for us, then who could ever stop us and if our God is with us, then what could stand against."

"Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble." -James 1:27