While we're in Uganda, here's who our team will be working with:
Compassion International – Our friend from Master's, Peter Habyarimana, and his dad Jacques Masiko will be our gracious hosts in Uganda. Mr. Masiko is the President of Operations in Uganda for Compassion International. Peter is now also working for Compassion full time and will be leading his 13th trip to Uganda in June. Lord willing, we will be traveling to the northern part of the country with Peter and his group of businessmen during the second week of our trip. In Uganda, there are 60,000 children sponsored through Compassion, which exists as a Christian child advocacy ministry that releases children from spiritual, economic, social and physical poverty and enables them to become responsible, fulfilled Christian adults.
World Vision – Eric has been in working with Amy Parodi, the Media Relations Officer for World Vision. She has put us in touch with Sam Kilara who is acting director of the rehabilitation program in Gulu. We hope to visit Sam, as well as Fortunate Sewankambo, the director for advocacy and communications in Kampala. These contacts will give us a good idea of what the World Vision ministry going on in Uganda is like. This page gives a really good overview of WV's work in the country.
S.O.S. Ministries – Our friend Shannon Hurley runs Sufficiency of Scripture Ministries, which provides humanitarian aid and biblical training to the people of Uganda. Part of the mission at S.O.S. is an orphanage that houses approximately 50 parentless children. The Margraves and Sam Neylan support orphans there (Winnie and Rose) whom we will get to visit. We also hope to help Shannon out with whatever he needs, as he will be hosting a TMC team and is recovering from a fairly serious injury.
Invisible Children – While communication has been difficult with our friends from San Diego, we are hoping to visit the school that IC started in Gulu. The school is run by two former BIOLA students, and while we haven't ever met them, I'm sure we'll all get along smashingly. If we can find them that is.
Amani Baby Cottage – Our friends Gunner and Cindi are adopting their son Judah from ABC. We're going to try to get some new pictures and video of Judah for his proud mom and dad. Although I'm not sure if it's even possible for him to have gotten cuter since the last pictures, we'll find out soon.
Thank you SO MUCH to all those who came to the Invisible Children screening tonight at Church of the Canyons. I was reminded once again how much I love our church body – you guys are great! Thank you for all of your support in getting behind our trip, we’re really looking forward to seeing what God will do with a praying church backing us.
Hello Friends-
I've been thinking about starting a personal blog for quite a while now, and I can't put it off any longer. Today my pastor called me up and when we were talking about my upcoming mission trip, he casually asked, "You're going to be blogging from Uganda, right?" Apparently the bar has been set by my good friend EWZ, and if the success of our India trip is any indicator, "Mission Blogging" or MB will be the wave of the future. This site will be a place for you to come to get updates on our trip, and prayer requests that will hopefully be updated on an ongoing basis. Please check back often, we covet your prayers.
Here's the text of the initial email we sent out to raise support for our trip:
We are sending you this email to let you know that the three guys in the picture (Eric Margrave, Jeff Lewis, and Adam Powell) are planning on traveling to Uganda this June and would like to invite you to be a part of this trip through the support of prayer and finances. We have been praying about going to Uganda for the last six months and just recently the Lord has begun to open doors for this trip to become a reality. Our purpose is twofold: 1) Assist existing ministries such as Sufficiency of Scriptures, Word of Life, and Compassion International Uganda in the preparation and running of their summer programs and 2) Visit the Northern part of the country in a province called Gulu to get a firsthand look at how we might be able to bring the gospel there and contribute to the ongoing efforts to end the suffering of orphans in the region.
We will be leaving on June 3rd and returning on June 24 th. Obviously, there are many preparations for a trip like this as it is less than a month away, and there is much left to do in order to be ready to go. We would covet your prayer for the preparation process as well as the trip itself and would also like to make you aware of an opportunity to contribute financially. Attached is a link to our trip’s paypal account, which you can go to in order to make a donation. Thank you in advance for partnering with us as we join in what the Lord is already doing in Uganda!
P.S. – If you don't have a paypal account but you would still like to contribute, please send an email to uganda2006@gmail.com and we will forward instructions on where a check can be sent.
