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Help Us "Rewrite" Sponsorship

Hello@maisey.co — Sun, 24 Nov 2024 13:24:18 GMT

Help us “rewrite” sponsorship. Poverty is a complex thing. There are no easy, straight-forward answers. We are required to do the hard work of continually evaluating our actions and determining what is most helpful to the people we’re seeking to serve. What we are learning and seeing is that the traditional one-one sponsorship can be more hurtful than helpful. For more clarity on our rewriting sponsorship model please read The Why Behind ReWriting Sponsorship.

“Rewriting Sponsorship" is about making a long-term impact on vulnerable children and changing the way we support them.

What does this look like?

Your impact is diverse . A monthly gift to the Hope Scholarship Program will allow us to provide for their education and also walk alongside a child through holistic care as every child’s needs are different. Your donation combines with gifts from all of our sponsors to fund our programs and impact every child and family we work with!

Your impact is ethical. There's no one-to-one connection between sponsor and child. That means there's no chance of unhealthy attachments, jealousy between children, or negative interactions. As a sponsor of the Hope Scholarship Program, you will receive updates on all the children in our program through newsletters and you will be invited to a private Facebook page to receive real time updates and testimonies of various children and youth in our program, in order to see how your support of that program impacts a variety of children within their unique circumstances.

Partner with Amiina to empower kids to discover their divine purpose and potential.

Seeing Abundant Fruit + Growth, Even in the Drought

Hello@maisey.co — Thu, 02 Sep 2021 13:24:21 GMT

He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is this not what it means to know me? Declares the LORD.” Jeremiah 22:16

Marcy Smith, Our Executive Director and Founder, is on the ground in Uganda and excited to share that God is STILL WORKING even during the COVID lockdown.

It’s always so humbling coming back to Uganda and seeing first hand how God is using Amiina Ministries. Today I pulled into the Amiina Community Center to be greeted by 4 of our older boys who are in vocational mechanics school. They were there working on changing the tires of one of our vehicles. They are becoming independent and yet giving back to the ministry. Seeing the friendship they have with each other and the trust and love they have with our staff blesses my heart. It has taken time for these young men to open up to each other, the staff, and our team.

I was also able to take part in morning staff devotions. Every day our staff gathers and seeks Jesus. One thing I continually learn for our Ugandans is what a devoted life unto Christ looks like. They are living and giving sacrificially because they are compelled by the Love of Christ. It humbles me to know they are not only praying for their families and the Amiina families we serve, but they are praying for my family and yours.

The baking and tailoring classes continue. Our teachers Stella and Jessica are a gift to our ministry as they show up every day and teach our kids skills that will be so beneficial to them in the future. The kids are now to a point where they can start to sell the baked goods they make.

A new addition to Amiina Ministries is Fred. He is our discipleship director. He holds Bible Study and discipleship classes for our kids. He has a passion to reach the youth and to disciple their hearts so that wherever they go they can be ambassadors of Christ, whether that is at school, home, their neighborhood or work. Being Rooted and Grounded in Christ is our theme.

I was also able to Visit Momma Victoria’s and Papa Stephen’s house where many of our younger children are staying. Covid Lockdown has been very hard on our littles children in the program. They have been out of school for so long, and many of them are unattended as their caregivers are working all day. Putting them in temporary foster care was a mutual decision made between Amiina Staff and their caregivers. They are in a safe and loving home with both a father and mother figure. They are fed three meals a day. They also have a teacher coming in to teach them for three hours a day. They are learning and memorizing scripture! Because of the new structure to their day to day, these little ones are flourishing. We praise God for the obedience of Momma Victoria and Papa Stephen to open their heart and home to our little ones until school resumes.

Life is so hard for the children and families we serve. Covid lockdowns have been brutal. But Amiina Ministries has been a beacon of Hope, a place of love and safety, a place where family is being modeled and the Father heart of God is being put on display.

I may be the one that is here, but I tell all the kids and families we serve, that I represent many of you who have joined this faith adventure and have invested into the lives of these precious kids, through prayer, support and love. I wish every one of you could see how your obedience and love is restoring hope and changing stories.

It’s priceless and immeasurable and I pray you have a deep joy from the LORD in your giving.

For the One

Hello@maisey.co — Fri, 30 Apr 2021 13:24:19 GMT

Most people sit in today's joy, foreseeing the coming sorrows. Christians sit in the midst of this world’s sorrows, tasting the coming joy. - Tim Keller

The red dirt, the smells, the beautiful landscapes are so familiar to me, but more importantly are the kids and families who we serve and who have found a place in my heart. They went from strangers, to names, to faces and now to ones who I know and love dearly. They are real people, not just statistics. They each have a story. Their walls are coming down as I am becoming more familiar and safe to them, not just a Muzungo (white person), but someone they love back, someone that represents many families in the states who pray, support and love them. They are some of the most courageous and they fight hard to have hope . Slowly we are all becoming family to each other, and this is God’s heart and our mission and vision.

I think that is why this trip has been especially hard, because my heart is invested and I’m not only seeing but feeling the depth of brokenness and suffering of families I love. My heart aches seeing the blank stare of some of our little ones who come from hard places. Or hearing a testimony of one of our own losing her dad to death a year ago and how she is now the caretaker of many siblings. My heart aches hearing that one of our younger youth was asked to leave his foster family because they don't want him around anymore because he is a burden to them. He doesn't have any family around so he is renting a small room in town, he’s 14. Or about a family who needs intervention because the children are not being looked after and are malnourished.

My heart aches listening to one of our mommas who has HIV and she fears what will happen to her little boys if something happens to her. My heart aches as I meet a couple of our teens becoming momma’s way too early because of this lockdown, they are babies themselves. I don't know how to respond when I hear from Archbishop Stephen that in just one district in Uganda over 1000 teen pregnancies have been reported since the Covid Lockdown. I could go on and on. This work is overwhelming, complex and messy. There seems to be no end. I feel way over my head most days, and sometimes questioning is all this worth it. But even in the questioning I also know that this work brings me some of my greatest joy.

“ Keep one foot in eternity. No matter how pretty this world is, it’s not our home.” Beth Guckenberger

This quote was stirring around in my mind on this trip. Living in the West, it’s tempting to keep two feet on earth and hide behind all the comforts we have and have a blind eye to the hurting. But one foot on earth and one foot in eternity gives us the WHY behind the What. We are not home yet, we are just pilgrims here, passing through to know Christ and make Him known, to walk with the suffering and bring Hope to the hopeless.

I sat in one of Amiina’s Bible Studies last week and listened to our Bible Teacher, Fred, share the Parable of the Lost Sheep, Luke 15. Jesus left the 99 for the 1. Fred went around the circle of our youth and said - you are the one, and you are the one and I am the one. It was a word intended for our youth but it was a timely word for me to receive. If we all could understand this type of LOVE for ourselves and lived this type of LOVE out, then that is when the Kingdom of Heaven is demonstrated here on earth and the Fatherhood of God is experienced.

The ache in my heart keeps me going. Because Jesus ached when He saw me in the mud and mire and He bent low to raise me up. We are to steward what God has entrusted to us, believing that in our small offering of 2 fish and 5 loaves, there will be a Kingdom multiplication that is supernatural. Jesus went to extremes to help each of us because of LOVE, and he is calling us to go to extremes to help others as we are compelled by His Love. In the Kingdom economy these kids are priceless. We GET to do this. We will see hope restored, lives rebuilt and a generation raised up in Uganda and beyond for the glory of Jesus.

Jesus went all out for the one and we will do likewise.

Humbly yours in Christ Jesus,

Marcy