Lemon Aid Results

Thank you to everyone for your support with Karson's lemonade stand.  The kids had such a great time and Karson was BEYOND excited about the money that he raised.  With a generous donation from Daniel Stark Attorneys, Karson was able to raise over $250 for the kids in Uganda.  While the boys were counting the money, Everett was so excited that he exclaimed that he would go empty his piggy bank so they would have even more money for the o-fans (orphans).  I feel so blessed to have them as my kids.
 
Special Thank You To:
Rachel and Jennifer for working so hard on selling the necklaces!
Mackenzie and Hildi for doing an awesome job on helping Karson with his stand!
Jenny for hosting the event and letting us crash it!
The Klimas, The Goodwyn's and Sandy for going out of your way to stop by!
And Jessica for always being there to document things for us!

Here are some pics for those that couldn't make it! (Thank you Jessica Klima Photography!)

The Whole Gang with Imani's Rachel (l) and Jenny (r)

Service with a Smile

One of his helpers, Hildi

Hadlee, Pierce and cousin Isaac chillin' in the shade

Free yogurt from Project Yogurt, always a plus!

Winner of the 5k - Everett!

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.

The Cost of True Worship

Lately I have been struggling with telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.  Not that I am just going around lying, but I feel like I have somewhat started sugarcoating some of my feelings, and I am not sure why.

Deciding to embark on the journey that Jason and I have, we have obviously been asked a lot of 'Why' questions.  From friends, definitely from family and even from people I hardly know.

It isn't that we don't have a good answer or don't want to talk about it.  I DO!  In fact, there is hardly anything I would rather talk about more at the moment.  So please, keep asking.  I feel like there is this fire burning within me and all I want to do is set anything ablaze that I can with it.  I want to scream it from the rooftops.  So why don't I?

I think I am mostly worried about other people's discomfort.  That me voicing what is happening in our lives will make them feel like I am judging theirs.  I am not.

It is just that Jason and I finally see that worship is not true worship if there is no cost.  Service is not true service without sacrifice.  These are our feelings.  This is why we want to follow God's calling of our lives to Uganda.  Not because it will be a vacation, or easy.  But because we clearly hear Him and are finally listening.  What we have He has given us and we are willing to let go of those things to serve Him in this way.  The way that He has called us.  To help the orphans and the widows.  To make disciples of all nations.  To hopefully let Jesus shine through us to lead more people to His kingdom.

We are not trying to deny our children things here, but realize that the true gift that we can give them is not a material possession, but the gift of a close, intimate relationship with God.  A life of total surrender to and for Him, and a life focused on the eternal rather than the earthly.  We realize this may not be popular opinion, but it is our responsibility to do for them what we feel is best.  As Christians, how are we to go wrong by serving Him?

God gave me such an awesome reminder of all of this today in II Samuel.  King David had done wrong against God and wanted to make a peace offering to God.  One of his servants wanted to give him the supplies for this offering, but King David insisted on paying him for them.  He said, 2 Samuel 24:24 "No, I insist on paying you for it.  I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing."

I believe that worship that costs us nothing is not true worship at all.

Uganda Elections Today

Please keep Uganda in your prayers today.  Presidential elections are underway.  Pray for peace and for fairness for the people of Uganda.  Thank you!

Back to Uganda

I am so excited to officially share with everyone that I, (Kari) will be returning to Uganda in just over two weeks.  I will be spending the week at Canaan Children's Home.  I am once again traveling with Visiting Orphans.  In addition to working on some murals to brighten the children's rooms and loving on the kids at Canaan, I am also hoping this will be an opportunity to see what the future holds for my family in Uganda.  I will be meeting with other missionaries in the area to discuss all types of things, such as schooling, cost of living, ministries, etc.  I am also hoping to get the chance to look into what our housing options could be.

Here are some prayer requests that I would love to have you praying with us for:
- clear vision on where we go from here
- safety for Kari while traveling
- continued development of the relationships with those in Uganda.
- strength for Jason and my mom, Bonta, while taking care of the little ones for the week while I am gone.
- support, understanding, and trust from our friends and family. We are daily seeking God's will for our lives and we feel such a peace about these decisions that we are making.  Decisions that are definitely not always the easiest to make and not always the most popular, but ones that we whole heartedly feel God calling us to make.

Things you can do to help:
1. We are gathering used cell phones to take with us.  If you have any old ones that you no longer need, I would love to take them off of your hands for you.  Even the most basic, really old models can be sold in Uganda for $10+ dollars and we want to bless Canaan's with that money.  Chargers are a plus, but not a must.  Because I am leaving in such a short period of time, I will most likely only be able to gather from those people in the College Station area.  I have been told, that even if the phone is a little banged up, as long as it works, it can still turn a profit for the children's home.  Thank you so much!

2. We are hoping to bless the children's home with new mattresses.  Some of the ones that the kids are currently using are in very, very poor shape.  I have a feeling that there are many animals in the US that have better sleeping arrangements.  The mattresses cost $30 each.  If this is an area that you feel you can help at all in, please let me know.  You can donate through my paypal on this page or by check written to Visiting Orphans and mailed to me. (email me, k_penrose@yahoo.com for address)  You guys are the best and I know I can count on you for your support with this.

So I'll leave you with some of the sweet, sweet faces that I will soon get to hold and kiss!  Enjoy!