Emily - Our Blessing

We have had the most precious blessing grace our household and lovingly help me take care of our grandchildren.  She came to stay but God has ordained her path in another direction.  We send her away  reluctantly, because she has been such a blessing to our lives and our grandchildren love her so.  Hannah has learned to say “Emily,” before she has said “Nannie.”  But we know that God has a work for her to do and we are blessed to have been a part of her life for a short time. I would ask you to prayerfully consider being a part of her work in Uganda.  This is her story.

Emily felt called to Africa for the first time in 2007, at the age of 18. As soon as she set foot in Africa, she knew that God has placed a calling on her heart and she was to spend her life serving in Africa. After many exploratory trips to South Africa, Ethiopia, Senegal, and Uganda in the years after that initial trip, Emily felt the Lord calling her to full time ministry with orphans in Uganda. Uganda has over 2 million recorded orphaned children, due in part to the civil war, rebel army activity that was present in the country until 2006, and sicknesses that plague East Africa. On her first exploratory trip to Uganda, Emily met her now husband, David (a Ugandan and ex-child soldier himself), and they became friends. She moved to Uganda in 2011 to work with a U.S. based organization that David also worked for that cared for children in Uganda. Emily and David soon realized that the organization that they worked for was engaging in donor fraud and was mistreating the children in their care, so they left that organization in March 2012. God placed it on their hearts to start their own organization to care for some of the orphaned children that they had grown to love over the years. In April 2012, David and Emily, along with their dear friend, Zechariah, also a Ugandan, founded their NGO (non-governmental organization), Hope of Life Uganda. Hope of Life Uganda aspires to bring hope to the orphans of Uganda by providing for their basic needs. Emily and David married in Uganda in June 2012 and have enjoyed spending their first year of marriage caring for their family of 26 (David, Emily, and the 24 children, age 5 to 18, that they care for in Mbale, Uganda).

In August 2012, Emily came back to the U.S. to finalize the legal paperwork for New Hope of Life Foundation, the U.S. based non-profit corporation that will serve as the fundraising sister organization for their Uganda NGO, Hope of Life Uganda. Emily is an Ohio native but settled here in Huntsville when she came back in August, as her parents were living down here at the time. A week after returning from Uganda, Emily interviewed with Elesha and Brandy to help me provide for the grandchildren, and she has been with our family ever since.  Emily has been caring for the needs of her 24 Ugandan kids with her paycheck every week, as they have very few consistent donors thus far, as she has only been back in the U.S. promoting her organization for just over six months. This has been extremely difficult for her as she also has her own personal expenses to take care of, but she knows that God will bring her help to financially care for the Ugandan children. Emily knows that if she does not provide for the children that no one will, so she invites you to partner with her and help them provide for the children’s needs.

New Hope of Life Foundation funds the needs for the 24 children that David, Emily, and Zech care for. They are still looking for 22 individuals, families, church groups, etc. to partner with New Hope of Life Foundation and become a sponsor for one of the children in their care. For $40 a month you could help bring hope to a Ugandan child in need by providing for their food, housing, medical needs, and education (school is not free in Uganda). Emily, David (who is still in Uganda, awaiting the opportunity to join Emily in the U.S. for a while), and Zechariah (who lives with the children and is their main caregiver) trust that God will touch the hearts of capable people who will be able to partner with their organization and become a monthly sponsor for one of their 24 children. If interested in learning more about becoming a monthly sponsor for one of the Hope of Life kids, please email Emily at newhopeoflifefoundation@gmail.com or by contacting her through their website, www.newhopeoflifefoundation.org. As a 24 year old newlywed, Emily never really imagined that she would become the mother of 24 Ugandan children but she followed where God led and this is where she has ended up. I would encourage you to check out the New Hope of Life Foundation website,www.newhopeoflifefoundation.org, to learn more about the children, their day to day needs, and how you can partner with David, Emily, and Zechariah, as they work to provide for the needs of these 24 very special and loved Ugandan orphans. Once on their website, you can sign up to be on the monthly email newsletter mailing list that Emily sends out with pictures, updates, and partnership opportunities. Donations to New Hope of Life Foundation can be accepted on their website or by check, made payable to New Hope of Life Foundation, and sent to:

New Hope Of Life Foundation

201 Mountain Ridge Drive NE

Huntsville, Alabama 35801

Emily is moving back to Ohio in a couple weeks to be closer to family, friends, and her church community as she awaits David’s arrival in the U.S. They plan to spend the next few years living primarily in the U.S. raising funding and awareness for the needs of New Hope of Life Foundation and the children that they care for. David and Emily plan to move back to Uganda permanently in a few years. It is their hope to have raised enough funding to build a home for their orphans, and a school complex for the community in Uganda, when they move back to Uganda to live. Thank you for prayerfully considering how you may be able to contribute to the New Hope of Life Foundation and the goals they have to bring hope to orphans in Uganda.

It is my desire that you prayerfully consider supporting this organization as they endeavor to serve God by, “looking after orphans and widows in their distress ,” Jamess 1:27.