Giant green trees covered with twinkly lights, bright presents wrapped in sparkling bows, and yummy smells wafting from the kitchen. A Christmas celebration of Jesus’ birth, for so many families, looks and smells just like this. One place in particular, though, will have none of these things. But why?
People living in the slums of Uganda are not afforded the privilege of even a basic schooling let alone Christmas trees and wrapped presents. At most, some parents have a third to sixth grade education. Their lives and their children’s lives manifest the cycle of poverty associated with a lack of knowledge about how to use the gifts and skills God has created in them and the assets He has placed around them.
With your help, Surprised by Hope will bring biblically-based business teaching and skills training to families who live in these slums. This teaching will help adults learn about God as their provider and how to start or grow a small business so they can become providers in His image. As a result, their children can attend school and break that cycle of poverty. We’ll welcome the supernatural presence of God as undeniable and, therefore, create an environment where entire ways of living and thinking are forever changed.
Our goal is to raise $2,500 so that we can bring this teaching. We’ll raise these funds by connecting children with children…through dollies. We hope to secure sponsorship for 100 dollies at $25 each – don’t worry, we have girl dolls and boy dolls. We have winking dollies, dollies with braids, and dollies with all sorts of other fun features. Your collective sponsorships will provide training for families in this slum, a full meal on Christmas day, and 100 dollies for 100 children.
When delivered, children will hear an age-appropriate story from the Bible, the story of the first Christmas, and learn how their new dolly relates to that story and can serve as a forever-reminder of God’s love for them.
By choosing and sponsoring a dolly, your children can be part of changing the future of Ugandan children forever. Thank you for joining with the 99 other dolly sponsors to change the lives of an entire community of people in Uganda.
Liz McKay, Director of Children’s Ministry at New Life Christian Fellowship
Leslie Mosher, Founder of Surprised by Hope