*this post is super long, but it’s also really important to me. Thank you so much for taking time to read it.
Life has never been the same since Africa. Really, there’s no way it could be. I asked God for a new heart and BOY did He deliver! I cannot unsee what I’ve seen. I cannot unbreak my heart. I cannot forget His incredible provision and power that He has shown me. I cannot deny how He commands His followers to care for the orphan, the widow, and the poor. I cannot deny my Savior my life, when He has given His for me. And I wouldn’t want to. Because my eyes were opened on this trip and because I love God with all I am, and desire to give my life for the things that matter to Him, I am going back to Uganda, (and so is Lindsay, but I’ll let her tell you about that)! He has blown me away at the plans He recently revealed to me. Much of the time I am at such a loss for words I just have to praise Him.
Before I even left in June, I began talking with one of my team members on FaceBook, named Melissa.
(Lindsay, Melissa, me)
When I told her about how I already loved Uganda, and hoped to have my own orphan home someday, she said, “Oh, you need to talk to my friend Lexi!” Lexi had gone to Uganda for the first time a couple months earlier, and had also fallen completely in love, and was now planning to move there.
(Lexi with her special kids at Canaan’s)
I read her blog, and it seemed like everything she said had been in my heart, I just had never known how to put it into words. I went on my trip, and a couple of weeks went by, but in the back of my mind I kept thinking of how I really needed to contact Lexi. Finally, one night I was up on my laptop in the dead of night, AS USUAL re-living the trip by stalking the pictures of all my team members, and I just had to write to her, so I did. Originally, I just asked her for advice on how to set up a ministry, move to Uganda, etc., but she was so gracious and replied back and told me she would talk to me on the phone, then she asked me to kind of explain my situation, what I felt God was wanting me to do, what I was struggling with, etc. When I got her response, she told me that she had dealt with almost all the same things that I was going through, and that she was so excited to talk as soon as possible! Our first conversation was purely from God. Our hearts are so similar, and I knew God had led me to her for a reason. She offered me a position as a volunteer at her new ministry in Pallisa, Uganda from September through the end of December! (I’ll actually be staying till January 6th, but on the 27th of December, Lindsay will come and meet me and we’ll go to Jinja.) I was over the moon! God created me with such a passion in my heart for Uganda, and He was the one that placed the longing in me to go back and share His love there some more, and He is the one that led me to this opportunity. As Lexi and I talked, I just felt as if I were looking down a corridor lined with doors that God had swung wide open. I prayed and fasted about this opportunity for a few days. I felt this peace from God that this was from Him, so I committed to going and meeting Lexi in Uganda in late September! Whenever I questioned if this was the right decision to make because of doubts from my family or others, God has been so good and faithful to give me little signs along the way. I was house sitting, and my sister was watching tv in the morning, and I walked past the couch, and all of a sudden she kind of bumped one of the buttons on the switcher, and the tv turned from the show it was on, and the first word I heard was “Uganda”. I’ll hear these songs on K-LOVE about orphans, and not sitting idly by, no matter what the cost. (Natalie Grant-“Your Great Name”: “the fatherless, they find their rest…all condemned feel no shame”,{I think of the joy in the children at the prisons}; Josh Wilson-“I Refuse”: “I refuse to sit around and wait for someone else to do what God has called me to do myself…”)
Lexi just arrived with her one way ticket in Uganda yesterday! Lexi’s ministry is called Muzungu Mama Ministries. She really focuses on partnering with and empowering Ugandans. It will cost me $400 a month to live there, (so $1200 in all), and half of that is for my needs, and half of that is for a project of my choosing in the village! Some things that are on my heart are buying medication, mosquito nets, or getting part of the Bible translated into their tribal language. I don’t really know for sure, but I am confident that God will show me that exact need He wants the money used for. Pallisa town is predominantly Muslim, so there’s lots of polygamy, and out of that practice many orphans are created. Many times, a man cannot support all of his wives’ children, so he may run away and abandon them, or the other mothers will become jealous of a different mother’s children, and those children will be forced out of the home, and lots of other horrible situations like that. So, while they may have living biological parents, they are truly still orphans because their parents do no care for them at all. Pastor Samuel and his wife Mercy will be our neighbors.
(Lexi’s house, where I’ll be staying, in Pallisa)
Pastor Samuel is Pastor Isaac from Canaan Children’s Home’s son! He runs the Christian church in the town, and also holds bible studies. There will be a Christian children’s home called the To Africa With Love (TAWL), and we will be helping out there as much as possible. Lexi is also having another volunteer stay at the same time as me, and this girl is a nurse and I will be able to get nursing training from her so I may better serve. I don’t just want to go and talk at people about Jesus and how great His love is, I want to go and live an example so they may see and understand, and want to love Him, too. I have been praying that God will use this trip to show me the specific area of Uganda, and specific need He wants my future ministry to be about.
When Lindsay comes on December 27, we will stay together in Jinja till January 7th. We will be visiting many of the ministries we fell in love with last time.
Oh, how we have been aching to hold our dear ones in our arms again, and to have little ones sleeping on our chests!
We have a dream to give every child at M4 a new outfit a couple of days after Christmas, so if you have any new or gently used children’s clothes, we will gladly take those off your hands!
But I really need your help to get there. I have to be honest and tell you that I’m straight up desperate. It’s crunch time, (TWO WEEKS), and I honestly thought the fundraising I had done so far would have produced results… I thought wrong! It’s so difficult for me to admit that. I really hate soliciting money from others, but I had to realize that this is not about me, so I could just feel free to get over it. It’s about Jesus and His people in Uganda. It’s about faces like these:
It’s about love:
It’s about planting seeds of God and His love so that we can all be together in Heaven forever someday.
I need to raise about $4000 just for my plane ticket, living expenses, and travel, but I would love to see God provide in some huge ways, because I can name about a trillion needs that I would like to provide for there, so really, the more I get, the more we can help. I know money is tight, but these people matter. They deserve the love that we have all been lucky enough to receive all our lives, they deserve to know Jesus Christ, these kids deserve people to hold them and pray over them and care about them. I have to be shameless in my asking for help, because it’s not for me, it’s for them. I am just a messenger, a go between. I have seen, and I want to share and be their voice and to act. Please, if you find this on your heart, your support would be a huge blessing. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email me: allisonfalt@yahoo.com
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this.
If you would like to make a donation, you can…
Go to Lexi’s ministry’s website:
And click “Donate” along the top. When filling out the form, just put my name in the section called “Note”.
Or send a check or cash to my church at:
Avery Presbyterian Church
1910 Avery Road
Bellevue, NE 68005
(if it is a check, please write something about Allison-Mission trip in the memo line. If it is cash, please include a little note about Allison-Mission trip)
Love,
Allison
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