Child-like Faith

It is amazing to me the faith that our young children have. I have been both proud as a parent and moved as an individual to see how this journey that God has put us on has made an impact on our children. This past week we went to he post office to get our passports taken care of for the whole family. While we were filling out paperwork another family with a little girl about the same age as Hadlee came and waited in line. Hadlee began talking to the family and telling them "We are going to Africa to help the people." As I listened from nearby I heard the other mother asking many questions. The mother asked where we were going and Karson told them Uganda. She asked how long will you be there to which Karson replied "forever." I did not hear the rest of their conversation but I watched as Karson, Everett and Hadlee shared with this family of complete strangers all about our journey to Africa and what we have been called to do. Karson gave the family an information card with our family photo on one side and information about Healing Faith on the other. As we left the post office that day Kari and I never had the opportunity to speak to the family, we only smiled as we walked by. I was amazed at the boldness and the conviction of our children telling this family about our move to Africa. However, the story does not end there. That evening we received an email from the woman at the post office.  Her email stated: "The precious Segner children spoke to my heart in the post office today as they applied for their passports. May God keep you safe on the adventure!" A woman that Kari and I did not have the opportunity to speak with was moved by our children ages 6, 4, and 3 enough to make a gracious and substantial donation to our ministry. Kari and I were both in such awe and so touched that we were speechless. I think that is the problem, we were speechless. At times we both struggle with being bold in our faith and sharing with everyone we encounter the story of Healing Faith. Not our children! They will talk to anyone and everyone that will listen and will share with them our story. I think Kari and I both learned a lesson that day in child-like faith from our own children.

Hadlee moved us on her own this week. She has been talking non-stop about her sister that lives in Africa.  She has decided that when we move to Uganda that she will find a sister. Kari and Hadlee were looking at some photos online from a mission team that is currently in Uganda when they saw a picture of a little Ugandan girl in a skirt. Kari continued to flip through the pictures when Hadlee said "wait I think that was my sister in that skirt." Hadlee did not see a little girl that looked different than her, she just saw a little girl she thought should be her sister. At what age does this change? At what age do we "see" the world differently? I was amazed at her child-like faith only knowing she wants a sister. 

This past week was an amazing reminder, a renewal as to why we are following God's call. With the to do list growing longer and longer the stress level is staring to rise. This past week was a renewal of that child-like faith thanks to a chance encounter at the post office and a lesson learned from a 3 year old little girl who is looking for her sister in Africa. 

What do you need to do to renew that child like faith?

Less than 5 months Now

Matthew 10:8 "Freely you have received, freely give."    It feels this simple to us.


I thought I was semi-prepared for the craziness that life would become before the big move, but I never could have imagined this.  I guess updating the blog has fallen under the "can wait" category.  So I apologize for the slack in posts!

Life Past: So we made it back from the road trip and it was incredible.  Just over 3000miles total with stops in 5 states.  The kids were such troopers and to say that we were encouraged by all the support for Healing Faith, would be an understatement.  We are truly blessed with such amazing and supportive friends and I know we couldn't be making this move without them.  I will post some pictures from the trip at the end of this post.

Life Present:  Currently we are gearing up for a big event during Aggie Week, here in College Station.  It is the M.O.V.E. event and is being hosted by Imani Tumaini Upendo.  You can read more about it here http://imani-africa.com/?page_id=392.  And if you live in the area, we still need volunteers and would be grateful for your help.  There are applications at the above link.  Healing Faith is going to have the opportunity to share at the event about what God is calling us to do in Uganda and I hope you can make it.

-We are also steadily checking off items on our to do list and adding about 5x that everyday! God keeps sending us sweet reminders of why we are doing this and we are just extremely thankful for this time with our family and friends before we move.  We know the time to leave will be here before we realize it.  Some of the big To-Dos right now that we would love for you to pray with us about are

      *figuring out what to do with the house.  Do we try to sell?  Do we rent?  How in the world do I get it presentable, either way, with 4 young kids running crazy in it?

      *we are starting home schooling with Karson this fall.  We are both very excited about this.  I am really looking forward to the time we will have together.  We have chosen an incredible curriculum for him in Sonlight and so luckily not much rests on me!  Haha.  This really is something we are both looking forward to so please pray we can adjust our schedules to this change.

     *Time management!  Jason will still have a full time job and currently two part time jobs, up until we move.  That coupled with my full time job of having 4 kids at home and now teaching too, makes it hard to find time to do all the necessary things we need to do to prepare to move.   We know we are extremely blessed to have the opportunity to work and get financial matters in order before we move, but it is a juggling act.  I know it is possible, we just really could use prayer.

Life Future: Our departure date for Uganda will most likely be around the 2nd or 3rd of January.  We are hoping to travel with the kids to Jinja before our training starts at New Hope on the 9th.  We have been blessed with an incredible intern, Rachael Ruiz, that will be with us during those 5months to help with the kids.  Please be praying for her that she will be able to raise the necessary funds and prepare for her time in Uganda.

-There are big things happening concerning the future ministry that Healing Faith will be doing.  I don't want to go into too many details before things are more concrete, but please be praying for Healing Faith and our future.  We daily are seeking God's guidance and His will for the ministry.  There are big decisions to be made and we truly appreciate you going before the Lord on our behalf.

-October 28th we will be holding a fundraising dinner and auction for Healing Faith.  Please pray that things will fall into place for this.  We think this could possibly take care of a huge portion of our upfront costs (roughly $17-18,000).  Please pray that God will be preparing the hearts of those that are to help, those that will donate items for the auction, those that will attend and learn about Healing Faith, just all aspects of the event.

- These are a few of many upcoming things. I do hope to update the blog more frequently and please know that you can always send us email at healingfaithuganda@yahoo.com if you have any questions.  We want to be an open book for others who might be considering life in the mission field and what our experience has been like in preparing.  There are just too many details to list, but please feel free to ask.


Matthew 9:37 "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.  Ask the Lord of the harvest therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."
Jason and I are resting in peace in this verse that no matter how crazy life may become for us these next few months, we rest in assurance that this is God's will for our lives.  No, this is not and will not be an easy road.  Yes, we are deeply saddened about the family and friends that we will be leaving behind.  But making this decision has been the most confident thing we have ever done and that confidence could only come from God.  Thank you for your continued support and prayer.

I have decided if I ever hope to get this posted, pictures will have to wait.  Hopefully there will be some soon!

Mile 1300

We have officially made it 1300 miles and we are at the half-way point of our trip.

We are on the Tennessee leg of our journey. We have been through McKinney and Greenville, Texas,  Bentonville, Arkansas, St Louis, Missouri and have stopped in Nolensville, Tennessee. The journey has been amazing. We have had the opportunity to see old friends and family and meet some amazing new people.  God has provided the opportunity to share our heart and what He is doing in our lives through Healing Faith. It was amazing to see Kari back home in her church in Greenville. Aldersgate was such a cornerstone of her faith and helped mold her into the person she it today.  Seeing her share her passion with her home church was a great experience for me.  It has been amazing to watch each other grow and mature through this process and to see the path God has laid before us.

The kids are doing really well and have been real troopers in the car.    For those of you who have stock in McDonald’s…you’re welcome.  We have hit lots of “Mr. Donalds” as Hadlee calls it, along the way to allow the kids to run of some of their energy on the indoor playgrounds. We have seen some amazing parts of the country and still have some beautiful scenery ahead of us. We still have a long way to go, but it is exciting to see what God has in store.

Thank you for all the prayers and support and we need to power of prayer to continue for us to get the word out about Healing Faith and our passion as well as continued safe passage.

Roadtrip

Things continue to move forward with our move to Uganda… and we have exciting news regarding our ministry! Donations to the ministry are now tax deductible! Very soon we will have a Healing Faith website which will allow for online donations and will tell the story of our family and our journey to Uganda.  You can also read about what God is doing in our lives through Imani Tumaini Upendo, Swahili for Faith, Hope, Love at www.imani-africa.com. Imani is a non-profit organization that is partnering with us to make this vision of serving in Africa a reality.  Follow the link Imani Family to read the story of our family.

We embark on a fundraising road trip in July with the whole family.  We have a specific prayer request that God would grant our children unusual patience as we will be on the road for two weeks and traveling about 2600 miles.  We will be traveling through the Dallas area, , Missouri, Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas, East Texas and back home.  Whew, it makes we tired just thinking about it.  We are excited to go on the road to share the story of  what God has placed on our hearts.  We ask for prayers of safety while traveling.  We also pray that God is preparing the minds and hearts of those we are going to share our story with.  We also pray that those that are called to donate to and partner with  our mission will begin to do so as we have many costs upcoming while still here in the states to make the move for our family of six possible and to begin the work God has called us to do in Uganda.

Kari is currently enrolled in a midwife training program in which she will gain valuable knowledge and training in order to assist the women of Uganda with bringing their babies into the world.  This came as an unexpected turn during Kari’s trips to Uganda. One thing she found was that she was drawn to help the women of Uganda. After hearing horror story after horror story of how some of the women were treated or in some cases not treated during their deliveries, Kari felt called to help.  After delivering five children of her own she could not imagine the conditions in which these women were delivering their babies.  We would ask that you pray for Kari during this task, specifically that she would have the time and quiet environment to study.  This can be a huge challenge with all four kiddos at home.

Please pray that our fund raising trip would be a success and God would open doors, hearts and minds. We are excited to share our story with anyone who will listen.  We are thankful each day as God continues to move in our lives in preparation for our journey to Uganda. Our  prayer is that those who have like minds would prayerfully consider supporting our ministry and allowing us to work together as the body of Christ, your support would allow us to be the “hands and feet” of Christ to do His work with the children of Uganda. 

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!