Christmas day in Uganda Africa

These are the amazing and talented children at Hope Children's Home on Christmas day. I hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Stirns!


Scroll down below to see a short video we put together for you. I think it will give you a great little taste of our time here in Uganda over the last 4 months.

This will be our first time spending Christmas out of the country and it can be a little difficult to get in the Christmas mood when it's 80 out. We did find a little Christmas tree (the one in the picture) and combine it with some Christmas music in the bacckground and it almost feels like Christmas!

We miss every one of you and can't wait until we can see you again. Have a wonderful holiday!

Danny, Heather, Keith, Wesley, and Jeremiah

Grace Kisakye

Grace’s father died, and her mother is mentally ill. She has one sister, named Maria. Her mother tried to kill the girls many times. On one occurrence, she left the girls in the middle of the road, hoping that a car would come and kill them. Now Grace and her sister live at Hope Children’s Home. Grace has a very sweet and shy personality. Her smile and giggles would melt your heart.

A success story...

This is a short video about Hamim, a young man living at Hope Children's Home where we work. In this video you can really see how Show Mercy is impacting the lives of these kids. In the video, he refers to a previous video that he was in. If you haven't seen it, you can watch it at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MOxNGC91bo

Kids at Hope playing drums, singing, and dancing

Driving to Hope children's home

Christopher Happy age 12

Christopher’s mother was poisoned and died, and his father passed away in the beginning of 2007. He and his sister, Violet Basemra, were cared for by an older lady in the village. Unfortunately, the older lady passed away in March 2007, so the kids were left alone to fend for themselves. An old man was helping feed them from time to time, but they were being abused by other neighbors. This young man could light up the entire country of Uganda with his smile. Every time I say hello to him or just make eye contact with him he smiles. The joy that this amazing boy has is something truly delightful to behold and it is very contagious.

Violet Basemra age 10

Violet’s mother was poisoned and died, and her father passed away in the beginning of 2007. She and her brother, Christopher Happy, were cared for by an older lady in the village. Unfortunately, the older lady passed away in March 2007, so the kids were left alone to fend for themselves. An old man was helping feed them from time to time, but they were being abused by other neighbors. Now they both live at Hope Children’s Home. I have just started to get to know Violet. She has a tender gentle sweetness about her that I love. She is a treasure for sure.

Miriam Nakabuubi age 13

Miriam’s mother, father, and brother died of AIDs. She lived with her grandmother, but wasn’t able to attend school. Now she lives at Hope Children’s Home. Miriam has a joyful spirit. She wants to become a doctor. She practices her passion already on alot of the children at Hope Children's Home by taking care of little wounds.

Norah Namata 13

Both Norah’s mother and father died of AIDs. She lived with her grandmother, but she was unable to consistently afford even just two meals a day. Norah is a great helper at Hope, and is like a little mother for lots of the younger children. She sings in the choir and is a wonderful servant. Nora is full of life and is a vibrant young woman. She speaks her mind. She is always putting a smile on my face and making me laugh.

Vanessa Nakirijja age 5

I wanted to begin to share these amazing children with you and the stories of how they came to live at Hope Children's Home.

Vanessa and her four siblings (Robert, Bettie, Samuel, & Alice) were abandoned by their parents. The children didn’t know that the parents were leaving – they just left. Robert would try to find work so that they could eat, and Bettie did all the cooking and cleaning for their home. Their father came home every few months, and beat Robert because he thought it’d be easier if their children just died. These kids were brave and persistent, and kept pressing on. Show Mercy became aware of their situation, and took them all in.

Vanessa is one of the 95 children who now live at Hope. I truly adore this little one. She usually gets my attention by tugging or tapping on me. I have a special spot in my heart for her.

You know my name

It was a day like many I have had at Hope Children’s Home…I was surrounded by a lot of children! If all of the children at Hope Children’s home and all of the students at Alpha Omega are present, there are nearly 300 kids. Before we came to Uganda, I had determined in my heart to do whatever I could to remember as many of their names as possible. I had seen a familiar face approach me and I bravely asked if her name was Teopista. Her shy, happy smile she gave me told me yes, that was her name. How many times has somebody remembered your name that you don’t know very well. How does it make you feel? After remembering Teopista’s name, she seeks me out to find me and spend time with me. She writes notes to me and slips her hand into mine and looks up at me with her radiant smiling face. I know it meant the world to her that in the midst of all the children that are at Hope Children’s home and at Alpha Omega school I remembered her name. We all want to be remembered. We all want to be significant. We all want others to remember our name.

As you are all approaching the holiday season, I encourage you to stop and remember somebodys name. Remind them that they are loved. Remind them that they are significant. Remind them that Jesus loves them so much that he came to earth to tell us that HE remembers our name.

Come and be a part of a winning team!

I wanted to thank all of you who support Show Mercy International! You are the ones who are helping to put smiles on all of these beautiful girls faces! Together we are changing there futures and there children's futures! Join with us! There are more children out there who need all of us to let them know they are loved and highly valued. The Field of dreams is going to be an amazing outreach to the people of Uganda. I want to encourage you to give big today! Be a part of this amazing thing that God is doing! To find out more about what the Field of Dreams is all about. Go to www.showmercy.org!

Giving my heart to the one who created it!

I thought I would sit down and just share my heart, so here goes. I never thought God would have ever created me (Heather) to do what I am doing now. In some ways it feels completely natural and in other ways completely unnatural. I have been having a conversation with the Lord lately. It goes something like this (in a winey voice), “So, Lord, are you sure you have the right woman? I mean, I can think of so many other “qualified” women to take my place.” But this is the truth, He choose me and I am truly honored. In the Bible when God chose men and women to go on behalf of him to accomplish a “mission”, he didn’t go looking for the most “qualified”. He picked people who where imperfect, they made bad decisions, they messed up!

I am no different than the men and women in the Bible. Whatever great or good thing he does through me, He will get all the attention. Because I am imperfect, my heart isn’t always full of love. I still think only about myself. I am learning in these last months that it is good to be weak and not have a clue. You may think that sounds ridiculous. But I am finding it almost to begin to become a comfort. That means (God) has this huge canvas to work with. I am his canvas and I am changing with each stroke of his paint brush as I yield to His ways. He already knows what the “painting” will look like. I can take rest in the fact that it will be an amazing “painting”!

As we are living in Uganda Africa we have are daily challenges. We get frustrated. We have our “bad days”. In this last week we have become a little more homesick. But each day we are out at Hope Children’s Home and spend time with the children, my heart beats with a fulfillment like none other. I get to love these children who are at the very center of God’s heart….AMAZING!

So I have given up a lot of my “things” in the last year. But in these last months, I am finding that I am giving HIM a lot more of my heart. To me, this has become the greatest comfort because I might not know what to do in this situation or maybe I wasn’t loving another person in that situation. Or perhaps I was just thinking of myself in this situation. I am now giving Him (God) exactly what He has always wanted, my heart. I know that in doing this, anything is possible!

~Heather

Tell a woman she is beautiful!

This is Gertrude. I adore her so much. After taking this picture of her I then showed it to her and said "You are such a beautiful woman"! She then said with great surprise, "Are you sure...no one has ever told me that before"! Are words are powerful. I chocked back the tears after hearing this. Have you ever admired a woman's beauty and never told her. I encourage you to do it. It might be the first time she has ever been told.

~Heather

The little things...

Well, it’s been 2 months since our feet landed in Uganda. It is truly amazing how quickly the time passes. Looking back, I can hardly believe how much our lives have changed in that time period, and how many different opportunities we’ve had to stretch ourselves and grow. Even with all of those opportunities, however, I still have to pinch myself sometimes to realize that yes, we are in fact living in Africa.

The one thing that’s always amazed me as we’ve picked up our family and moved to different locations around the world is that no matter where I am, I am still me. Profound, huh? I think in our American culture of films and entertainment (for those of you who live in America), we’re often sold the idea that if we could just somehow go somewhere else, we ourselves would be different, feel different, and behave differently. My experience is that this is just not true.

Perhaps for a time, the different location can change us and bring out parts of us we didn’t know where there, but this seems to be temporary. Before long, you find yourself back to square 1, with all the same struggles and issues you had in your previous life! You can’t run from yourself!

What this particular trip has been very good for is placing me in fairly unpredictable (and sometimes very stressful) situations which expose parts of my heart where I’m not fully trusting God or fully relying on Him. I’m reminded of the Bible verses where it talks about how a person can give up all that they have (including their life), but if they don’t have love, it’s worth nothing. Even after all we’ve been through as a family over the last year, I keep coming back to the basic principles of loving my wife, being patient with my kids, and spending time alone with Jesus every day. If these things aren’t right, nothing else matters.

This past week has been yet another reminder that things don’t typically go as planned here. Fluctuations in our electricity fried several of our appliances, including our fridge. It turns out that you really need what’s called a Voltage Stabilizer here to “smooth out” the wild power fluctuations and avoid damage to the appliances. Lesson learned. So, we now have a new fridge and stabilizers for our appliances. Through it all, He’s teaching me to trust Him and He’s reminding me that I can’t do this on my own. I have to keep going back to the source. I need His love in my heart to know how to not only deal with all of these situations, but how to excel in them.

Never underestimate the value in doing the “small” things well. You don’t have to be living in Africa to put your wife (or husband) and children first or to set your own needs or desires aside for someone elses. I know God honors those actions no matter where in the world we are and if we’re faithful in the “little” things, He’ll use us for truly great things.

-Danny

A glimpse into the Father's heart.

HE sees the unwanted.

HE sees the abused.

HE sees the rejected.

Now what will you choose?

I will embrace the rejected.

I will embrace the abused.

I will want the unwanted.

This is what I choose!

Every girl loves chocolate cake!

I wanted to spend more time with the older girls at Hope Children's Home so I invited them over for the afternoon.

A couple of weeks ago I had asked the girls what they wanted to do when they came to our house and to make a list for me. Chocolate cake was on everyone of there lists. So I thought, why not make a chocolate cake together.

After having the girls over for the day they don't just greet me with a smile anymore when I go out to the children's home. I am now greeted with a great big hug from them. I am so blessed that I get to cherish these young women and be a part of there lives.

Enjoy our fun day!

BEANS!

I took this video so you could enjoy my favorite word in Luganda. Most of the kids at Hope Children's Home laugh every time I say it. It's just a funny word plus I'll do anything to get a laugh out of them. I have also gotten my security guard and house maid to laugh every time I say it (it is more in how I actually say it). It's become a constant word in our household and at Hope Children's Home. We were taking pictures for Show Mercy the other day and Danny would say "Heather I need to get this child to smile"! So instead of cheese, we now say....beans!

Our Ugandan Security Guard Singing for Us!

Below is a short video clip that showcases our extremely entertaining security guard here in Uganda. The two songs he's singing are songs of praise to God, although it may not be obvious all the time. His name is Muhindo. He's been a real blessing to our family and has actually become a real friend to our kids and a real joy to have around! During the day (and occasionally at night), we can hear him singing outside the house.

Enjoy this taste of Uganda!

Let's make Chipati!

This is a fun video we put together to show you how to make a common Ugandan food called "Chipati". Sorry the video quality is not the best. The internet connection is so slow that we have to shrink our files down so small to upload them.

Webale Kufumba Gertrude (which means thank you for cooking in Luganda) Enjoy!

The simple faith of a child.

This week was full of challenges for us all. Some of us were homesick and missing the comforts of our own culture. The boys were missing their dog Maggie. Things breaking, miss-communications, fatigue, children needing to go to the doctor (children at Hope Children’s Home)… life here is much more challenging and things take a lot longer to accomplish. We are so catered to in America.

I was not having one of my best days (Heather typing). We were heading out to Hope Children’s Home for the day. I was tired and not looking forward to the bumpy ride that we have to drive on to get there. I felt weak and didn’t have the best attitude at the time.

We had finally made it to the children’s home and I was praying for God to help me in my weakness. I had been loving on a little boy who is only four years old all week. He had gotten an infected finger and his finger nail was just hanging by a thread. His infected finger was now as big as two or three of his fingers put together. He was holding on to my hand and swinging my arm back and forth and saying something over and over in Luganda, so I asked one of the older girls to translate for me. “What is Kafar saying?”, I asked Teddy. She said he is saying “God is our life!”

My heart melted and began to take a better shape than it was before. My heart was breaking all week for this little man and I shed some tears because he is just so young and without a mother or father to love him and comfort him. But here we are called by God to help fill that place in his life and we were there for him. I am not sure, but maybe, just maybe, his heart was happy somebody was holding his hand and he knew I cared and he knew at that moment that God is our life and that He is good. I want to be like Kafar in the midst of unsettledness I believe with all my heart that God is the life giver and He is good.

What a day looks like for us in Uganda.

Yesterday was such a great day! Nothing really profound, but I am finding that even the small, simple things can be the greatest treasures, so I wanted to share it with you!

Our day starts out by homeschooling Keith, Wesley and Jeremiah. Every day is different. Some times they get finished before lunch and other days it takes longer to complete there work for the day. They are settling into a routine and are doing great in their school work.

After school we get some lunch and then typically head out to Hope Children's Home. Some days we have to head into town to run some errands or get something else accomplished. If we do need to go into Kampala (the city) then it takes us a good hour to get there and an hour to get back, so we try to do this a little as possible.

The road out to the children's home is a killer. The road is not paved (dirt) and has deep ruts (some over a foot deep) all along it. We have to drive very slowly to avoid hitting the bottom of the car on the ruts while at the same time trying to dodge pedestrians and boda bodas (motorcycle taxis).

The children in the village all yell and wave at us when we go by..."Bye Muzungu!" "Bye Muzungu!" every day! "Muzungu" means "white person" in their language. If you came to visit here you would feel somewhat like a celebrity!

When we finally reach Hope Children's Home we are greeted by many children who are very happy to see us!

This was what my (Heather) day was filled with while at the home yesterday. It was started by getting my hair fashioned by one of the boys that lives there (Steven Mulondo) he is such a character. My hair fashioning was all inclusive of flowers (see my fashion below).
This was followed by me saying "let's dance now!" I don't know what possesed me to say that but I did. So we danced to the beat of the drum that Steven played for us (the same Steven that gave me my hair fashion)!

I then took pictures of the cutest little girls. They love having their picture taken! I then learned to play a game in the dirt with them. It was very similar to hop scotch, but I kept forgetting to pick up my "baby" (which was part of the game). The "baby" was just a piece of wood to keep my place in the game.

I saw some of the older girls sorting through beans. So I sat down and sorted with them. This is what I mean by small simple things becoming treasures. I lost track of time in this task because I went from learning to sort beans to learning a lot of different Luganda words including the word "beans" in Luganda which is very challenging to say. I then learned a song in Luganda (ok, tried to learn). We talked about many things, all while sorting beans (like what their favorite foods are, what they like best in school, what they want to eat when they come to Uncle Danny and Auntie Heather's house). Take a look at this short video clip below....



Just sitting and being with the kids yesterday was such a delight to me. I can’t wait to enjoy more of these moments with these amazing children.This blog is very long, but I wanted to give you a slice of what are days are like. I hope you enjoy it!

We finally have water and a car!

Water is a good thing…

What can I say? This is Africa. Things don’t always happen when or how you want them to. For instance, we moved into our new house and 2 days later we ran out of water. Turns out that in this part of the city, they only pump water to the houses a couple days of the week. We have a 1000L water tank to last us for the week. Well, it lasted 2 days. OK, so we’re Americans and we use tons of water without thinking about it! Well, that has changed! We are now carefully using every bit of water we have for drinking, cooking, cleaning, bathing, and flushing the toilets occasionally!
So now, the landlord has added a second water tank (bringing our capacity to 2000L) and we've been waiting for the water to come and fill them both. In the mean time, we've had 13-20L jugs that we could fill at our Landlord’s house or down at the local car washing station (mudhole off the side of the road) for a small fee (~$2). We've now just discovered a water-delivery service that can come and fill our tanks for ~$50. They were able to come yesterday and after over a week, we finally can take a shower!

We’re very thankful that we have a great water filtration system. We’ve been drinking water from it for over a week now without any problems. It uses 3 carbon-core ceramic filters in parallel to filter 10L at a time.

We have a new car!

Last Thursday we picked up our “new” car! It’s actually a 1994, Toyota “Super Custom” minivan with full time 4WD and a great ground clearance for those horribly rutted back country roads. It’s got a turbo diesel engine with auto transmission and AC, too. Although it’s old, it only has about 10,000 miles on it. Most of the vehicles here (the used ones at least) are imported from Japan. We’ve already had our first flat tire so I got to practice putting on the spare. Thankfully it was in our own front yard!
I’ve been driving quite a bit in the last few days and it seems to feel pretty natural. I even ventured into downtown Kampala on Monday to go to the bank and made it in and out without any problems! For those of you who haven’t been here, Kampala is a real mess, traffic wise. I was very uneasy about driving there, but as with many new things we have to do here, once you actually do it, it’s not so bad.

The house is almost ready!!

Well, we've spent the last 2 days buying beds, mattresses, appliances, rugs, and curtains and today we finally began moving the stuff into our new house!

Here's a photo of the delivery truck bringing everything in one load to our house!

Here’s a view of the front of the house.

The garage is the big set of doors towards the left-hand side. We’re planning to convert it into our home school room (below) by throwing down some carpet and putting a few desks in there. The big doors allow for a very nice breeze through the room, which should make it very pleasant for studying!

For our kitchen, we purchased a fridge/freezer combo and a tintsy-tiny electric stove (they call it a "cooker"). We probably won’t be able to cook a turkey in this bad boy, but we could probably bake a chicken. In any case, we’re thankful to have a stove at all, so we’ll take what we can get!

The boys’ room is really taking shape with two sets of bunk beds. We wanted to make sure that we had a spare bed for friends to spend the night.

Just outside our front gate is a big soccer field where the neighborhood kids play. I think we’ll turn it into a football/baseball field, too!

Tomorrow we get to hang the mosquito (or as they say here, the "masqueeto") nets and maybe try to get some carpet for the living room as well as some couches and dining room table/chairs. Monday we go to try to get a vehicle. I'll be so glad when all this "startup" work is done so our lives can settle into somewhat of a normal routine!

We have arrived in Uganda!

Hello to all of you. I (Heather) just wanted to put out a short, but sweet blog. We are very busy getting everything we need to make our new home "liveable". The house is brand new (praise the Lord), so it is completly unfurnished. So, our days have been filled with alot of shopping.

We have hired a driver for one week to take us everywhere. Driving here could be explained in a seperate blog of it's own. We will have to post a video for you to see what traffic is really here in Uganda. We complety believe God has sent us this particular driver on purpose. He has become our translator/tour guide/price negotiator/friend, that doesn't want us to get cheated when we buy anything. Us "white" folks are charged a higher price because we have more money.

We have spent time will the kids at Hope Children's Home and we can't wait to deepen are relationships with the children. They are so amazing! We so cherish them!



God is so good and he has been with us every step of this adventure.

As soon as we become somewhat settled, we will blog more, and more often.

Stay tooned!

Danny and Heather video blog

Only 9 days until we leave (the 17th)! It's hard to believe that after all this time of waiting it's finally here. All the last minute details are falling into place perfectly.

Below is a video blog that Heather and I put together to tell you a little bit about Show Mercy and to share some of our hearts about what we'll be doing in Uganda.

Our Kids Talking About Moving to Uganda

Greetings from the Stirn family! Only a month and a half until we hit the road! It's been a very busy month. We finally were able to get all of our homeschool materials and some critical items like water filtration systems. Just a few more things to wrap up before we go.

Many of you have asked how our kids feel about the upcoming trip to Uganda, so we thought we'd let them tell you in their own words. Click on the picture below to play the short video.

Blessings!!

God's Faithfulness

Jumping off the cliff...

Many of you have already heard that we finalized the sale of our house last week. When we originally considered what to do with our house (to rent or to sell), we felt that in spite of the struggling housing market, we should put it up for sale. Not only that, but we were praying and believing for it to sell within a month. God is faithful. We accepted an offer (near the asking price) within 26 days! There were many houses up for sale in our neighborhood prior to us putting our house on the market (some for many months) and none have sold. Through this experience, our confidence has grown that not only has He called us to this, but He will provide what we need to make it a reality. In some ways we feel as though we're jumping off a cliff, but He is catching us in mid air.

Moving out...

This past weekend, we finished packing up our things and moved into our rental house. It's starting to feel real now! We moved from a 5 year old, 2300 sq ft house into a ~40 year old, ~1400 sq ft house. Needless to say, we had to do some considerable down-sizing. We were so busy in the process of cleaning and moving out that we forgot to let our land lord know that we were ready to move in. She had said she would get the house ready for us by cleaning up after the last renters (they hadn't clean up at all) and would have the carpets cleaned.

So, we moved from our very clean newer house into a very dirty old house (with a brown shag carpet that has turned a shade of green from fading). The people who lived here before had put some powdery chemical in the carpet (which I think was ant killer) and so right before bedtime I was compelled to vacuum. As I tried to vacuum up the white stuff out of the carpet, puffs of white "dust" arose from the floor and then clogged the vacuum. Our bedroom smelled like insecticide. We were both very tired from moving and cleaning our old house and this was the final thing that pushed me (Heather) over the edge! I was so mad! I promptly told Danny I was not staying here and refused to live in this house! I put myself to bed and as I layed there, I began talking to God. I was ready to hear his reply which could have been something like, "OH Heather, you're a spoiled brat. Just stop this!" Or maybe even, "Heather, just get over it" or... "things could be worse!" No, God's response was, "I love you at this very moment. I love you and that will never change." The next day I made a decision to be thankful for where I was and to do everything for Him. We were able to get the carpets cleaned, scrub down the house, and unpack our things.

In the midst of this transition, it is emotional. It feels like a death. A death to our old life and way of living. My heart (still Heather writing) is being exposed. The adventure has become painful and sometimes it feels like pruning...ouch! I know that new growth is coming!

So here we are, waiting until we leave for Uganda (which is going to be August 17th). I have to say it is hard to wait for my heart's desire, which is to embrace and love with all my heart the children at Hope Children's home. It will truly be a joy to love them and be loved by them. I work at my children's school and had been gone all week because my oldest son Keith was very sick. I went into the school yesterday to pick up my youngest son, Jeremiah, who was now feeling sick. As I made my way through the school many of the kids started calling out to me, "oh hi Mom"and I would respond "oh hi my children!" I felt so loved and blessed even though they where being silly and teasing. It reminded me of being in Africa and made me even more "homesick" for the children of Uganda. I can't wait to hear the words Mama Heather from all the children I pull into my heart and receive as my own! Let the adventure begin!

If you'd like to find out how you can help support us or would like to learn more about Show Mercy, please go to the following link:

http://www.showmercy.org/get_involved/long-term-missions/

Why Uganda?

Our road to Uganda


How can we explain in a short blog what God has been working in us over the past several years? It’s hard to put the stirring in our heart into words, but I'll try.

Three years ago, we were a very different family than we are today. Heather’s body was reeling from the birth of our last child, Jeremiah. Her doctors had no idea what was causing her physical and emotional problems and put her on just about every anti-depressent available. Those were really difficult days. Often times, she would call me at work to pick up the kids at school or simply come home to watch them as she couldn’t so much as get out of bed. There were times when I felt like a single parent. Carrying the load of cooking, cleaning, and looking after the kids was exhausting and consumed most all of my time and energy. During this time, we entered a sort of survival mode, and boiled our lives down to the bare necessities to get through each day.

At the beginning of 2006, I had the opportunity to go to work for 4 months in Singapore. In spite of Heather’s health problems, she was willing to attempt this move. As we were there, we began to see God working in her heart in a fresh way and she began to see some improvements in her body as well. Although it seemed unlikely at the time, in the back of my mind, I hoped that this trip was the beginning of a preparation time for something bigger.

After we returned from Singapore, we immediately began planning our next work-related trip, to Ireland for 8 months. At that same time, we also began planning our first trip to Uganda, Africa with Show Mercy (http://www.showmercy.org/ ). Since we would be in Europe, it would make it possible (due to the cheaper air fare) to bring the entire family to experience Africa. All during this time, Heather’s health was continually improving and we could see the goodness of God bringing more and more healing into her life.




During our trip in June 2007 to Africa, we absolutely fell in love with the people of Uganda. I have to say, it was a huge step out of my comfort zone and I was uneasy bringing the family there. Although I knew it would be a great experience, there were just lots of unknowns. It did turn out to be a wonderful experience. Almost a year passed before Heather returned to Uganda again (in June 2008). God really stirred Heather during this trip. She found new confidence as she ministered to prisioners, visited the children's hospital cancer ward, preached on a Ugandan radio program, and developed deeper relationships with the kids at Hope Children's Home.




Soon after this, God began to stir me about truly laying down all that I had for Him and for His desire for my life. Honestly, this was the farthest thing from my mind only a few months earlier. Over the course of the next few months, He drew me to the point where I truly believed it was time to take some concrete steps. Both Heather and I knew that our connection with Uganda went beyond the short trips we had made so far. In our 13 years of marriage, there were few things that we agreed on as strongly as what God was calling us to in Uganda. So, in December, Heather and I put in our application for a long term mission with Show Mercy. In January, Show Mercy gave us the official "go ahead" and I returned to Uganda later that month for a 2 week trip.



After I returned from Uganda, we spent a month preparing our house for sale. Less than a month after placing the house on the market, we accepted an offer. We're scheduled to close on May 14th!

So what will we be doing there, anyway?

So, you may wonder, what do we see ourselves doing there? Well, our primary mission will be to minister to the kids at Hope, the kids and people in the surrounding villages, and provide logistical assistance to the leadership at Hope Children's Home (and school). Our ministering will take many different forms, but our overall goal is to bring affirmation, mentoring, and love to these people in practical ways. In addition, Heather and I want to use this trip as an opportunity to bring you (whoever is reading this!) along for the ride. We want you to see first hand what God is doing in Uganda through our words, pictures, videos, and any other way we can think of to make this experience real for you. I have to be honest, I've never been stirred to action by watching shows or advertisements on TV about the starving kids in Africa. It wasn't until I went there, met the kids face to face, saw their circumstances first hand, and realized that they are no different than my own children, that my heart fell in love with them. My hope and prayer is that you will be stirred, too, when you hear their stories, see their faces, and hear their voices.

How Can I Get Involved?

You may be asking yourself, how can I get involved? Well, there are several ways. First of all, you can pray! We have a long road ahead of us and we're trusting God to pave the way. Lots of things need to fall into place over the next 4 months. Second, you can support us financially. Don't worry, we'll never hound you for money! However, we do have a great deal of expenses ahead of us (both monthly living expenses in Uganda and one time startup expenses, like airfare), so every little bit helps. Just go to: http://www.showmercy.org/get_involved/long-term-missions/ You can give a one-time donation or, if you'd like to give a monthly donation, please enter "monthly support for the Stirns" in the comment field.

Third, you can sponsor a child! I'll go into more detail on this in my next blog. You can go to http://www.showmercy.org/ to learn more. Show Mercy is a registered non-profit, so any donations are tax deductible.