'tis about time they agreed on something...
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Friday, March 28, 2008
African Choir
These are the beautiful children I worked with in Uganda. My eyes well up watching the joy on their faces.
Also, there is good, brief background on the choir in this video.
Life has been amazingly wonderful recently, but Africa has been put on hold because I am getting married! My presence will not be in Uganda this summer...it was a difficult decision to make, but I felt that God was calling me to return to Uganda-but not without Micah. :)
Though, for our wedding we will be asking people to make charitable donations to Music for Life, the parent organization for the African Children's Choir. These donations will go to directly serve the children in Africa.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Update
Hey everyone!
There have been some pretty big events in my life happen as of late which have shifted this summer a bit for me, but I am still planning on going back to Uganda! I am just trying to figure out what that will look like...right now I would like to go to Amani Baby Cottage for 2 weeks then go to Kampala to see my friends and help in the schools for 2 weeks. I just e mailed the volunteer coordinator with this idea and will let you know what happens as things solidify!
peace.
There have been some pretty big events in my life happen as of late which have shifted this summer a bit for me, but I am still planning on going back to Uganda! I am just trying to figure out what that will look like...right now I would like to go to Amani Baby Cottage for 2 weeks then go to Kampala to see my friends and help in the schools for 2 weeks. I just e mailed the volunteer coordinator with this idea and will let you know what happens as things solidify!
peace.
Kenya
My friends Rachel and Pamela are here right now...Rachel and her family (husband + 2 boys) are displaced. Pamela was denied a travel visa.
AFRICAN CHILDREN’S CHOIR VETERANS AMONG VICTIMS OF KENYAN VIOLENCE
New York, NY (January 8, 2008) Stories of attacks and displacement of former members of the African Children’s Choir™ are coming through following the violence in Kenya in the wake of Presidential elections.
A former African Children’s Choir™ member Anthony Were and current journalist in Kenya recently wrote a chilling first hand account of the tragedy that is taking place there now and reports that some veterans living in Kenya have been affected. In the Rift Valley, Eldoret has been the worst hit in the recent violence. Lucy and Grace from choir 10 live there. Their homes were looted and they have been displaced from their houses. Another former choir ten members, the ever bubbly and happy, Peter Kagwe was shot with an arrow which had to be surgically removed from his body at a health centre. Two other girls, Katherine and Carol also had their homes looted. Food in those parts is scarce. In the Kibera slum, Florence of choir 15 is safe but after having to flee from her home.
Following this report the African Children’s Choir founder Ray Barnett set on a mission to do all he can to get not only his Choir children help, but also any others that may have been left without a home. After witnessing years of suffering through Idi Amin in Uganda and other violence that has taken place in Africa Barnett states, “While parts of Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, seem to be peaceful at the moment, our Choir Children who come from different parts the country - from the slums of Kibera, Kisumu, Eldoret and Mombasa, are affected by the violence. Kibera and Eldoret are among the worst affected areas.
Those of our Choir children who have lost their homes are scattered, sheltering in different churches and our staff on the ground can't easily get to them. We are doing our best at this time to locate them as we would like to help them rebuild homes that have been burnt, replace school uniforms and other basic items that have been destroyed. We anticipate that substantial help will be needed to assist us to do this and urge you to help us, help them both financially and through prayer.”
To make a donation to the Choir to support necessary relief and development work, click here.
The African Children’s Choir is a world renowned Choir that has been working with the most vulnerable children in Africa for 23 years, raising awareness of the plight of the orphaned and abandoned, but also showing the beauty, dignity, and potential of the African child. With a focus on education the Choir is currently caring for several thousand underprivileged children throughout Africa. These are children who could have lost all hope, but have overcome their circumstances and now are making a positive impact on society by being a voice for millions of children suffering in Africa.
Anthony Were was born to a deaf mother and alcoholic father. He joined Choir 6 in 1990 in the first Kenyan choir. After touring and then going to school he graduated with a journalism major in 2004 and began working shortly after for the Nation Media Group where he reports on this current Kenyan violence today.
For more information on the African Children’s Choir visit www.africanchildrenschoir.com and/or to interview Anthony Were or Ray Barnett for more information on the children affected in Kenya
contact:
Leslie Taylor
Big Machine Media®
212-572-0760
leslie@bigmachinemedia.com
AFRICAN CHILDREN’S CHOIR VETERANS AMONG VICTIMS OF KENYAN VIOLENCE
New York, NY (January 8, 2008) Stories of attacks and displacement of former members of the African Children’s Choir™ are coming through following the violence in Kenya in the wake of Presidential elections.
A former African Children’s Choir™ member Anthony Were and current journalist in Kenya recently wrote a chilling first hand account of the tragedy that is taking place there now and reports that some veterans living in Kenya have been affected. In the Rift Valley, Eldoret has been the worst hit in the recent violence. Lucy and Grace from choir 10 live there. Their homes were looted and they have been displaced from their houses. Another former choir ten members, the ever bubbly and happy, Peter Kagwe was shot with an arrow which had to be surgically removed from his body at a health centre. Two other girls, Katherine and Carol also had their homes looted. Food in those parts is scarce. In the Kibera slum, Florence of choir 15 is safe but after having to flee from her home.
Following this report the African Children’s Choir founder Ray Barnett set on a mission to do all he can to get not only his Choir children help, but also any others that may have been left without a home. After witnessing years of suffering through Idi Amin in Uganda and other violence that has taken place in Africa Barnett states, “While parts of Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, seem to be peaceful at the moment, our Choir Children who come from different parts the country - from the slums of Kibera, Kisumu, Eldoret and Mombasa, are affected by the violence. Kibera and Eldoret are among the worst affected areas.
Those of our Choir children who have lost their homes are scattered, sheltering in different churches and our staff on the ground can't easily get to them. We are doing our best at this time to locate them as we would like to help them rebuild homes that have been burnt, replace school uniforms and other basic items that have been destroyed. We anticipate that substantial help will be needed to assist us to do this and urge you to help us, help them both financially and through prayer.”
To make a donation to the Choir to support necessary relief and development work, click here.
The African Children’s Choir is a world renowned Choir that has been working with the most vulnerable children in Africa for 23 years, raising awareness of the plight of the orphaned and abandoned, but also showing the beauty, dignity, and potential of the African child. With a focus on education the Choir is currently caring for several thousand underprivileged children throughout Africa. These are children who could have lost all hope, but have overcome their circumstances and now are making a positive impact on society by being a voice for millions of children suffering in Africa.
Anthony Were was born to a deaf mother and alcoholic father. He joined Choir 6 in 1990 in the first Kenyan choir. After touring and then going to school he graduated with a journalism major in 2004 and began working shortly after for the Nation Media Group where he reports on this current Kenyan violence today.
For more information on the African Children’s Choir visit www.africanchildrenschoir.com and/or to interview Anthony Were or Ray Barnett for more information on the children affected in Kenya
contact:
Leslie Taylor
Big Machine Media®
212-572-0760
leslie@bigmachinemedia.com
Sunday, December 30, 2007
The Church
The church should be standing up for the oppressed in the same manner as the buffalo.
We can learn a lot from Africa.
peace.
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
December has come and gone...
Hello everyone!
As I write this I realize that I am only a week away from the year 2008 when I will spend 2 months of my life in Uganda. CRAZY!
The African Children's Choir Base Choir has come and gone. It was an amazing time of getting to share in their joy and love, catch up with a friend, and make a few new ones. I got to meet children and leave them with the sentiment, "See you in Uganda!" I was affirmed that staying in Indy for second semester was the right decision. And I was encouraged and excited to continue my relationship with the people of Uganda.
I love the African Children's Choir for the organization's focus on empowering people to create change in Africa. Helping Africa's most vulnerable children today, so they can help Africa tomorrow.
I will post pictures from the month the next time I have a chance.
As for now, my plan is to leave in early to mid June and go to Amani Baby Cottage in Jinja, Uganda for up to a month. I may or may not join up with some people related to ServLife while I am there in that time. I then plan on spending a week with some friends I met last year and this month. Then the hope is that the schedule for the Music for Life Camps will work with my teaching schedule and I will be able to return to Indiana somewhere in the time where July meets August.
I get excited about this opportunity. Especially in the time where Jesus' agenda in coming to earth is so prevalent.
And I get excited to read things like this:
Again I looked and saw all the oppression that was taking place under the sun:
I saw the tears of the oppressed-and they have no comforter; power was on the side of their oppressors-
and they have no comforter.
I get excited because I know that this is not a static statement. That there is a sense that I can be a comforter...but not of my own accord.
And I can be a comforter wherever I am...Auburn, Indy, or Uganda.
peace.
As I write this I realize that I am only a week away from the year 2008 when I will spend 2 months of my life in Uganda. CRAZY!
The African Children's Choir Base Choir has come and gone. It was an amazing time of getting to share in their joy and love, catch up with a friend, and make a few new ones. I got to meet children and leave them with the sentiment, "See you in Uganda!" I was affirmed that staying in Indy for second semester was the right decision. And I was encouraged and excited to continue my relationship with the people of Uganda.
I love the African Children's Choir for the organization's focus on empowering people to create change in Africa. Helping Africa's most vulnerable children today, so they can help Africa tomorrow.
I will post pictures from the month the next time I have a chance.
As for now, my plan is to leave in early to mid June and go to Amani Baby Cottage in Jinja, Uganda for up to a month. I may or may not join up with some people related to ServLife while I am there in that time. I then plan on spending a week with some friends I met last year and this month. Then the hope is that the schedule for the Music for Life Camps will work with my teaching schedule and I will be able to return to Indiana somewhere in the time where July meets August.
I get excited about this opportunity. Especially in the time where Jesus' agenda in coming to earth is so prevalent.
And I get excited to read things like this:
Again I looked and saw all the oppression that was taking place under the sun:
I saw the tears of the oppressed-and they have no comforter; power was on the side of their oppressors-
and they have no comforter.
I get excited because I know that this is not a static statement. That there is a sense that I can be a comforter...but not of my own accord.
And I can be a comforter wherever I am...Auburn, Indy, or Uganda.
peace.
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