Karson

I wanted to take a moment to tell you a little bit more about our oldest son, Karson, who is 6 years old.  One of the most amazing things for us regarding our upcoming move to Africa, has been to see the understanding that our kids have had about what we are doing.

This was recently evident in Karson and I wanted to share how proud I am of him.  Our city is doing a Lemonade Day this coming Sunday.  It is a chance for kids in the area to begin to learn about business skills and to make a little money by having a lemonade stand.  Jason and I were talking about Karson's stand and explaining that he might want to consider giving a portion of his profits to a charity to help others.  He thought about that and then told us that he wanted to give all the money he makes to the kids in Africa.  When I asked him why, to make sure that he really understood what he was doing, he responded with "To help them.  Help the kids in Africa because a lot don't have clothes, or places to sleep, stuff like that."  That simple answer made me so proud of him.  To realize that there are kids that have so much less than we do and to want to do something about it.

So needless to say, as crazy as this week already is, I am giving my all to help Karson's booth be a success.  If you live in the Bryan/College Station area, we would love to have you stop by and try his lemonade.  We decided to give it a pineapple twist in honor of all the yummy pineapple we get to eat in Uganda.  We will be located at the Can you Beat the Heat 5k Run at Texas A&M University, Lot 50 from 2-5pm, Sunday May 1st.  And the 5k is actually raising money for another incredible ministry in Africa so it is a perfect place!

Hope to see you there!

Imani Tumaini Upendo

Translated as Faith Hope Love in Swahili.  That is the name of the amazing organization that will be our backbone for our journey to Uganda.  Truly an answered prayer.  As I briefly mentioned in our last post, Jason and I had been praying for someone that God was calling to partner with us in this service for Him.  Someone to handle all of the day to day operations of the ministry that we would not be able to efficiently and effectively handle from Africa.  God answered that prayer for us in the form of Rachel, Jenny and Kaylene.  I encourage you to read more about them and the ministry on their website http://imani-africa.com/.

Having them support us will be huge.  We will still be praying for monthly supporters or even one time donations to help us in our ministry, but at the same time, they will be sharing our story, bringing awareness to what we are trying to do and all around taking care of so many details that Jason and I just won't have the time to do.  We are so thankful for them and excited that God has placed them in our lives.  One of the best things about it all is now your donations to us will be tax deductible.  All of the donations can be handled through Imani, they will even have a monthly automatic option set up soon.  They will also be fundraising, planning big events and helping get the word out there.  They will be partnering with other great ministries that are helping the children of Africa as well, so it will be a great place that you can find out about incredible individuals who are working hard for God all over Africa.

Just wanted to share!

Moving Forward!

This post is very exciting for me to write.  First off, let me apologize for the long gap since my last post.  We just had many things that needed to be sorted out as a family before we were ready to share them with the world.  But we are ready and so excited!

WE ARE MOVING TO AFRICA!

Officially!  Jason and I feel so strongly that this is the direction that God is taking our family and we are excited to share that news with you all.  Our plan is in January 2012 to pack up the family and head to New Hope Uganda http://newhopeuganda.org/ in Luwero, Uganda for five months of extensive training and preparation for our life in the mission field.  In May of that year, we hope to move to Jinja, Uganda and start our lives as missionaries there.  We have many hopes and plans of what we would like to do, but most of all we want to be open to serving God however He is leading us at that time.  As for now, our hopes are to open a small clinic with the main goal of helping children and pregnant women.  There are many other details involved that I won't go into at this point since we are still figuring many of them out, but we wanted to share the general plan with you all.

Obviously these next eight months are going to be busy for us all.  Aside from figuring out our support and how we will begin this life that we have been called to, we also need to dwindle down all of our belongings to what can be taken on an airplane with us, sell our house, figure out a home schooling program that will work for us, start said program in Sept so we can all adjust to it before the move, and a million other things that seem to find their way onto my To Do list daily.  Please pray for us during this time.  The enemy has not wasted a single moment in attacking us.  Whether it just be in the form of sickness in the family or just trying to constantly discourage us or fill us with fears that we cannot possibly do this, Satan is working overtime in the Segner household for sure!

Some specific prayer requests for right now:
1. Support for our ministry - not only has God clearly called us to Uganda, but we felt strongly that He was calling us in a way that was not with a large mission organization.  We are not against large organizations, we just felt that God had a different way for us.  However, that has left us on our own (well not technically on our own, but I will get to that soon!) to raise the support that we will need to make this possible.  I STRONGLY believe in the power of prayer.  I feel that God is already working now on the hearts of those that are meant to help us in this mission.  That He has already placed the right people in our lives to make this possible.  To burden others with the work and help that is needed with the children of Uganda.  I have such a peace that the funds that are needed will come so please join us in prayer for that need.
2. Home Schooling for the kids - As I mentioned we want to begin this in the fall instead of sending the kids to school for just one semester.  Since this will be an adjustment both for them and for myself, we feel this routine will be easier to figure out when it isn't coupled with trying to figure out life in Africa as well.  Please pray for wisdom in choosing the right program for our family.
3. An intern to travel with us for the 5 months that we are at New Hope - I know that God already has the perfect person in place for us for this important position.  Please pray that person will be revealed to us.  We will be in need of someone that can stay with the kids and help them with school, during the day, while Jason and I are in training.  Someone that has a huge love for the Lord and His children.  If you know of someone that could fill this position for us, please let us know.

HUGE Praise Report!
As proof of the amazing power of prayer, God has already answered one of ours in a big way.  Being that we weren't going with a large mission organization, or even a small one for that matter, I had specifically been praying that God would lay it on the heart of someone to partner with us, in a way.  To be the person stateside that could take care of all the details that we would not have time to deal with considering the work we will be doing once in Africa.  And knowing, even if we had the time, neither Jason nor myself are really gifted in that area to handle it all.  That prayer was answered in the form of Imani Tumaini Upendo Ministries. A non profit that has been formed by friends of ours with the goal of "supporting ministiries who are living with, loving on, and caring for the children of Africa". This ministry will be helping us raise the funds that we need to move to Uganda.  They will also, starting next summer, be organizing short term mission teams to come and visit us, help serve alongside with us, and bring us much needed supplies.  We are SO very excited to see where this partnership with Imani will lead.  To find out more visit http://imani-africa.com/.  Also, you can now donate to our ministry and that donation is completely tax deductible.  For right now, we can only accept checks made out to Imani Tumaini Upendo with the Segners in the memo line.  Soon we will be able to accept donations online too.