March 24, 2011
Dear Friends and Family,
We hope that 2011 is off to a great start for you and your family. For the Gebhart clan, this year promises to be a year of excitement and new experiences. Many of you are fairly up to date on what’s happening in our life, but for those with whom we’ve lost some touch, we would love to fill you in on some changes going on in our lives.
Last November I decided I would leave my job at the end of the first quarter. In fact, since January I have worked largely from home helping the restructuring process of the firm I’ve been a part of since mid 2008. I have decided to step back a bit, take some time to enjoy our family, and give Christi and me a chance to determine what path God has in store for us in the next chapter of life.
As part of this discernment period, we have decided that in early April we will be going as a family to Uganda for six weeks, and perhaps do some traveling to see family, friends and sites here in the states when we return. Why Uganda? Here’s the story…
Several years ago, we met a friend of a friend who through various aid organizations had landed in and fallen in love with Uganda. Her name is Roxanne, and she lives in Kampala with her newly adopted, Ugandan-born son Wasswa. Roxanne has worked with International Justice Mission and Samaritan’s Purse, but has recently begun her own NGO called Tutukana (which means working together….with hope, http://www.tukutana.org/). Her primary mission is to serve and help meet the needs of Uganda’s many orphaned and most vulnerable children. As a part of this, she has developed programs that help widows to become financially self-sustaining through specific trades. Roxanne has a huge heart, and has literally poured her entire life into serving and helping the people of Uganda.
Bringing this back to our family, just about 18 months ago we decided to do a focused family project in 2010. We landed on raising money for a water well, as we were all blown away to learn that over 1 billion people (that’s about 1 in every 6) lack available access to fresh drinking water. Thousands die each day in far away countries from water-borne disease, and kids under 5 are the most at risk. It resonated with all of us, and maybe most powerfully because of how big an impact can be made for a relatively small dollar amount. We had a large garage sale, and did other small projects and have essentially raised the money to do this. However, we had not found a project to support.
Enter Wasswa’s village. His birth village, several hours from Kampala, has no access to fresh drinking water. Unbeknownst to us, Roxanne had been developing a campaign to raise money for a well but the money had been slow to follow. This seemed like a hand in glove situation to us, and we hope to be able to break ground on the well while we are there, or at the very least, begin the education process with the villagers of teaching them how this resource can very much change their lives.
As the time is drawing nearer, we’re working to see which organizations we can partner with to get the well project going while we’re in Uganda. The timeline for the actual well drilling can be as short as a couple weeks, but often there is a lot of groundwork that needs to be laid in these villages to ensure that the well will be maintained and that general hygiene will be learned and followed to maximize the benefit of the well to the community.
Beyond the water well, we expect we’ll serve many of the Ugandan people alongside Roxanne in her ministry during our time in (and around) Kampala. We’re not sure what this will look like, but one thing we are all coming to grips with is that it is likely it won’t be what we expect.
So, that’s the update on what has led us to the adventure that lies before us. It is dawning on us that in less than three weeks we will be on the ground in Kampala, Uganda. The to-do list is long, and seems to grow by two for every checked off task, but we are checking off the big things and somehow, by God’s abundant grace and the help of some wonderful friends, we’ll be ready.
We plan to use this blog to keep all of our friends and family up to date leading up to and including our six week journey to Uganda. Please feel free to keep up with us and leave messages if you want, as we’ll try to leave frequent blogs and include some of our best photos. We will also be making future entries as kid-friendly as possible, though you may want to scan for the best ones if you will have your children following. Tyler and Brayden will even be making their blogging debut!
We would appreciate your prayers for our family’s safety and thank you for your interest in our adventure. Please check back frequently (we promise not all will be this long!!).
Love, Rob, Christi, Tyler, Brayden and Lila
