Hi everyone!
I wanted to take a few minutes this morning to introduce you to the five women that I will be traveling with during the Race! From left to right, meet: Alexa, Jen, Hannah, me, Ashley, and Sam.
Alexa is 20 years old. She is from Florida. She is a calming presence and a very humble and inclusive person. She is about my size but way stronger – for one of our team building exercises, she volunteered to carry me on her back for quite a distance because I was “unconscious”!
Jen is 31 years old and is from Virginia. She is now out-processing from the army after 9 years of working as a Logistics Officer. She really cares about every person on our squad and looks at us as her little brothers and sisters. She also has this dry/sarcastic sense of humor that I love!
Hannah is 21. She just graduated from Northwestern University, where she studied Journalism and Russian. She can speak five languages! We ended up sharing a tent on night 1 of Training Camp because her luggage was actually lost at the airport (no sleep simulation here!) Hannah is from Vancouver and calls a bathroom a washroom. She has a way of making everyone around her feel at ease.
Ashley is our Team Leader and hails from Illinois. She is 22 years old and just graduated from Bethel University, where she was Student Body President. She studied Business Entrepreneurship and Computer Science. She and Jen are both into physical fitness and broke the record for the 2-mile hike! Ashley loves to learn about everyone’s strengths and how they can best be utilized. She will be a fantastic leader!
Sam is 22 and is another recent college graduate. She is from New York state and studied Psychology at SUNY Cortland. She loves playing games and even brought Dutch Blitz to camp (that’s when I knew we were going to be friends!) Sam is upbeat, extroverted, and fun, and I can really see her plugging into ministries right away.
So there you have it! Together, we are Team Liora, which is a Hebrew name that means “God’s gift of light to us.” We hope to share God’s light and love with the people we meet this year, and to help one another grow in Christ!
Our first ministry location in September is Rukungiri, Uganda, where we will be serving with an organization called Cherished Life Ministries. This is an excerpt from an e-mail from our host, Enoch:
“I had a vision of beginning a ministry called Cherished Life Ministries to address the effects of household poverty and the emergence of HIV//AIDS that have left behind many dependants, hopeless orphans, street children and vulnerable children. All of these factors can then lead to school drop outs while youth are engaged in alcoholism, drug abuse, and early pregnancy. Cherished Life Ministries (CLM) also responds to the needs of youths, orphans, widows, teen mothers and vulnerable children who come from families that live in poverty and are affected by HIV/AIDS in South Western Uganda. Our vision is to improve the quality of life for all generations. We can accomplish this by improving the livelihood of orphans and vulnerable children through education, skills development, economic enhancement and reduction of health related hazards towards holistic development.”
CLM is involved in many aspects of the community. They have a school, and they are involved with orphanage ministry, door to door, youth, Sunday service, Hospital ministry, evangelism, office work, preaching, fellowship, and Bible study. I am excited to meet my Ugandan brothers and sisters and to learn alongside them!
HUGE PRAISE – as you can see, I am nearly fully funded! I have been given some gifts recently that have not processed yet, but I believe when they go through that the little blue bar will be filled to the top! THANK YOU for your financial support, both what has gone into my AIM account and the gifts to help me purchase gear. Please continue to pray for the other members of my team and squad who are fundraising, and pray for us all as we transition over the next six weeks. Pray that God will help us to process all the emotions that we are experiencing, that we will all remember why we are doing this, and that we will be holy where our feet are!
Love,
Debbie
