In Preparation… Thursday, 29 March 2007

“The increased spiral of adult deaths in so many countries means that the number of children orphaned each day is expanding exponentially.  Africa is staggering under the load.”  -Stephen Lewis, UN Special Envoy for AIDS in Africa

Dear Family and Friends,

As we near the completion of our degrees in Christian Ministries from Taylor University, we now embark on a journey of service through a summer internship in Fort Portal, Uganda, with the organization Horizon International.

“Horizon International exists to create a world of hope for AIDS orphans.  Our objective is to raise up, out of the tragedy of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, a new generation of leaders who follow Jesus Christ, ‘one child at a time.’”  This goal is accomplished through orphan care, community transformation, and child sponsorships.  Horizon uses a home-based orphan care model.  They not only care for the children, but are committed to transforming a whole family unit so that the kids stay in their community and culture.  Then they tend to prosper once they get the help Horizon can provide.

We will be serving in Uganda under the direction of Pastor Silas and Betty Atugonza Mufumu, who are the Southwestern Uganda Regional Coordinators for Horizon.  We will primarily be working with 32 groups of orphaned children in various villages surrounding the provincial city of Fort Portal.  Our task will be to implement programs that focus on the spiritual nurture of the children, and to enlist and equip others to carry on with the work of these programs after we have returned to the States.

Through our internship with Horizon we hope to gain a better understanding of the scope and impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the lives of those who are directly affected by it.  We have the expectation that our worldviews will be broadened, allowing us to better know how to respond to this crisis and make others aware of the needs surrounding it.  We hope that through our interactions with AIDS orphans we will be able to show love to some of Christ’s children who live daily in a world of pain that we have never had to experience and can only imagine.  We expect to be challenged and grow into a deeper understanding of what it means to be a true follower of Christ and to respond to the needs of the world in the same way he would.

We now ask you for our greatest need, your prayers.  The assurance that we are being fortified by the diligence and love of you, our dearest brothers and sisters in Christ, will be our armor and wisdom, our strength and peace, and most assuredly, our joy.  Our joy, as you travel with us to Africa in prayer during the summer of 2007.

If the Holy Spirit directs, we would be honored if you would sow a financial seed into Horizon International, on behalf of Christ and those orphaned as a result of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.  We will take any amount of support with gratitude, with no amount being too small.  We will count it a privilege to be sent by many.

Thank you so much for your invaluable role in our lives.

Blessings,

Heidi Oliver & Hannah Moser

“Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,” says the Lord of hosts.  Zechariah 4:6

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