Sweet Summer 17: Week 1, Day 4 Companies have long used lofty campaign slogans to sell their products. They promise a better life, freedom, happiness. They’re idealistic and sell a lifestyle more than the attributes of the product. Can sharing a Coke and a smile really teach the world to sing in perfect harmony? I’m not so sure. A few …
Understanding Unyama – A Closer Look
My son has been diagnosed on the autism spectrum, has severe inattentive type ADHD, sensory integration issues, and a stutter. When he was born, he cried constantly. By the time he was 2, he had not spoken his first word. And when he was in third grade, his school told me they were concerned whether they could accommodate him within …
Understanding Unyama
Everything I’d ever known or felt about the work I do was shattered and turned upside down exactly one year ago. I remained in Uganda after that summer’s mission team had returned home. I was to distribute 50 beds to children in a village called Unyama — a few kilometers from Gulu, just outside a dilapidated displacement camp from the …
Yesterday’s Orphan
I love Veronica’s story because it was the story that brought what we’re doing in Uganda to life. Four months ago, I kicked off my shoes and, in a long skirt and bare feet, hauled a 100 pound bucket of rocks up a steep embankment out of a quarry. It was difficult, but I needed to know what it was …
Child Labor
The words strike at the heart of everyone who hears them and have such an insidious connotation. To us, they indicate self-righteousness, slavery, and an absolute lack of value of human life. But when you hear the words come out of a mother’s mouth about her own children it takes it to a new dimension. Veronica is a 51 year …
How I Changed My Legacy
“Camille, I’m going to teach you everything I know about Christmas tree illumination”. The instant those words came out of my mouth I cringed, knowing I had just accidentally paraphrased Chevy Chase from Christmas Vacation. And as silly as the moment was, I realized I was picking up where my parents left off, recreating the Christmas legacy they had created …
An Update on Lillian
Many of you have asked for an update on Lillian (click here to read Lillian’s full story, “Healing in the Story”), the child with the spinal cord injury that has left her crippled and incontinent. We actually visited her in Uganda just prior to the Gala on November 19th and learned that a widow has taken Lillian into her home …
Wendafresht
Driving through yet another community of dilapidated mud homes in Ethiopia, I saw a child across the street with her back to me. I recognized her immediately as Wendafresht, a precious girl I had met last November, and unbelievably, I picked her out from the many thousands of children. I shouted her name and jumped from the van, and she …
25 Days
Buckled in, once again, this time to Ethiopia. I just enjoyed the longest stretch of time that I’ve been the USA in several months — an incredible 25 days. In those 25 days, my children went back to school, we said goodbye to one family member and welcomed the newest family member to the world. It’s been a very full …
Spotlight On: Savannah Koehn
Spotlight on …. Suhvaaaanuh! The sweet southern name takes on a whole new feel when you hear it excitedly shouted through thick Ugandan and Moldovan accents by children who have been delighted and cherished by a young girl, not much older than they are. For Savannah, it all started with an answer to a call. It was a rare morning …