Dear Sponsors...5 Years in

 Dear Sponsors,

                  Five years ago, Sonja and I watched 42 kids in Uganda head off to school for the first time. On my recent trip to Uganda, I showed the kids pictures from that first trip in 2010. They had never seen old pictures of themselves. We clicked through pictures from 2010-2015 and they pointed, laughed, and clapped as they saw themselves. They have five years of overwhelmingly good memories. For kids whose memories have been the sort that you try to forget, being a part of creating 5 years of good memories is probably the most significant thing I have ever done.

                  Today, Beautiful Response is partnering with Raising Up Hope for Uganda to provide food, support, housing, and education for 58 kids. Raising Up Hope helps an additional 21 students by rescuing them from slums in Kampala and placing them in boarding school.  A further 140 children are receiving an education through Raising Up Hope’s day school. Well over 200 children’s lives are profoundly different because of our work with RUHU.

                  At 21, Sonja and I naively embraced a responsibility we had no business embracing.  We often think back on how outrageous and impulsive it was to promise an education to Victoria, Arnold, Sylvia and the other kids at RUHU. Two weeks ago on my 5^th trip to Uganda, 5+ years into our relationship with RUHU my eyes started tearing up when the 14 kids at St. Mark’s High School walked up to the bench where I was waiting for them. They were not kids anymore. They were young men and women with confidence and passion, multi-lingual, on their way to universities and lives of service and leadership.

                  In 2010, Sonja and I were clueless.  The growth of RUHU and the success that Beautiful Response has had are daily reminders to us that God can take naive faith and turn it into something far surpassing what we could ever ask or imagine. We are more confident today of the excellent care and academic opportunity that RUHU is providing than we were five years ago. We are starting to glimpse just how impactful an outlandish decision made 5 years ago will turn out to be.

 

                  To those who have given financially to ensure that these kids receive what they need in order to grow into their potential, thank you. Your giving over the past five years has accomplished a lot! 

                  The next five years are going to be amazing.  The first RUHU kids will graduate! We will cheer them on, help them find jobs, and establish lives. The littlest ones will make five more years of good memories. There will be triumphs and struggles.  We cannot see what the next five years will hold, but if you had told me what the last five would have been like, I wouldn’t have believed you anyways.

Not Cute Anymore.

The kids aren't cute anymore.

Well, that isn't true. Cathy, Miracle, Dan, and Rachel are still breaking hearts with their chubby cheeks and dance moves. But RUHU has moved from being an organization in its infancy into its blossoming, yet challenging adolescence. On our first trips to RUHU, our days were spent spinning kids in circles. We taught them how to say pineapple and explained why we had never met Obama. But this trip, five years later, was different.

On this trip, I helped Francis write an essay about the affects of drug abuse. I spent two days with Hassifah at a hospital for the headaches that adolescence has brought for her. I held her helplessly as she cried with frustration over fear that the medication would not work. I got to observe Patrick and William explain to two young teenage girls that they need to go to school. The girls wanted to go to a different school, further away and more expensive.  Someone even offered to help pay, but Patrick explained, "thank you, but this time they need to just learn that you have to do some things that are difficult. They will find a complaint wherever we agree to send them." 19 year old Patrick didn't have that answer in him.  This Patrick, 25 now, has the vision and maturity needed to give the difficult but right answer.


The kids in high school will soon be taking their national exams. Students who score well enough will go on to two additional years of high school before applying to university. They are growing up and they are asking the same questions I asked as a teenager. On our visits to the high school, where 15 of the RUHU kids attend, Patrick and William sifted through several requests for spending money. "Teenagers can be so-so difficult, you know?" William told me. Patrick and William are no longer teenagers taking care of kids. They are father figures to kids ages 2 to 18, and their own growth matches that of the kids.

It has been five years since we started partnering with RUHU. It's odd to be thankful for teenage angst, but along with the angst comes discovery, growth, and a realization for these kids that genuine opportunities for a brighter future lay ahead.

I teared up a little as I watched the high school kids going off to their classes. Five years ago, that sight was a naive wistful dream. Today it's a reality. Who knows, maybe five years from now we will have students in universities around the world.

A man can dream, right?

Dreams from Haiti

            Last August, Beautiful Response began partnering with neighborhood leaders in Haiti. Families unable to pay for tuition can receive scholarships to keep attending school. Ticarme, a good friend and Haitian leader, has developed an inspiring program that is helping over 40 families. Holly Schut is ensuring that TiCarme has the funding and support she needs to see her dream become a reality.  Holly wrote this piece after her most recent trip to Haiti:

There is a dream in Haiti.

That there will be food on our tables and clothes on our backs.

That I will be able to find work, and perhaps work with dignity.

There is a dream in Haiti.

That I will be able to help my community.

There is a dream in Haiti.

That our young people who are falling through the cracks will be able to go to school.

That those without hope will find hope.

There is a dream in Haiti in the eyes of the 40 students who a year ago were desperate to get back in school; Today they are back in school!

Students came to TiCarme 15 months ago and said, “TiCarme, you can help us!”   They were absolutely right.  TiCarme is a leader in her community. They call her “Mayor.”  TiCarme knows the needs, she knows the families and their stories, she knows the schools and the teachers.  TiCarme knows what it takes for students to not simply survive, but to thrive.  She also has her staff, Arnold and Rodrique, who share her dream.  But TiCarme was missing the financial resources to make the dream come to life. 

TiCarme called us 14 months ago.  We were in Haiti for 8 months in 2001 and had remained friends ever since.  TiCarme said, “I can't lay this on your heart, but God can.  You can help us.”  TiCarme's call came 13 years after we had lived in Haiti, but one month after we had begun wondering about returning.

In February, we were in Haiti again and we met with the first 40 students of Help the Youth Get an Education.  Four of them gave a speech.  Each of them began with these words, “We thank God, first of all, for laying it on your hearts to help us, so that someday we can help others.” 

Now it is our turn to say, “We can't lay it on your hearts, but God can...You can help us.”  Like TiCarme we can't do it alone. We need partners here in the United States...people with resources to share in the dream.  You may not think you have much to offer, but together we can help.

Would you be a part of making the dream of these 40 kids a reality?

Perhaps you need a trip to explore-to see the eyes of the kids, like we did.  We invite you to join us on one of our next trips to Haiti.  We are planning trips for May, July and November to build relationships and share dreams.   You will be able to see for yourself what God is accomplishing in the country of Haiti, in a village called Neply.

There is a dream in Haiti, and we get to be a part of it.