In Between Letter

Hello Everyone!

            This is what I’m going to call an ‘In Between Letter’. The first letter I sent you all was one asking for prayer and support because God called me to go to Africa. As you all know I went to Jinja, Uganda and spent 6 weeks living with and loving beautiful little children. God blessed me so much on that trip and I cannot thank you all enough for supporting me along the way; whether with money or prayer, or both. In this letter I just want to talk to you about what happened while I was in Africa. I wish that I could post everything that happened each day, but that would make this letter contain 100+ pages, so I guess I’ll just try to hit up on some of the biggest moments of the trip.

I was beyond excited to leave for my trip, but I was honestly quite scared about flying, since I have never done it before and my first flight was over 8 hours long. Once I got on the plane with Mariah and we started takeoff my heart skipped a few beats as the air was being sucked out of my lungs, but when I said a few quick prayers and we started to level out again I had a very large sigh of relief. The flights went just as they should have, and we were even ahead of schedule in all of them. We finally landed in our destination of Entebbe, Uganda at midnight and went through customs and received our Visas. We were supposed to be the last 2 of 4 to land, but Cori’s airline had a few problems along the way. It was 2 am before Cori got to the airport and came to find us, missing all of her luggage except her carry-on.

When we got to Jinja, our driver dropped us and all of our luggage off at the baby’s home, when we were supposed to be at the volunteer house. After unloading all of our luggage into the nursery, a call to our volunteer coordinator at 5am, and reloading all of our luggage back up, we finally arrived at the volunteer house around 5:30. When we received about 5 hours of sleep, we were all too anxious to get to the baby home and see the kids. So we went to Amani at 1 when all the older kids were taking naps and we spent some time loving on the little babies. Once the older kids got up from their naps they were excited to meet their new ‘Aunties’. We went outside and played with them on the playground for about 2 hours before going back to the house because of how exhausted we were.

The next day was Saturday, what is usually project day. We got to spend the day with the kids and getting used to being around and helping out our Mommas. That afternoon we got to go out and do something really special, we took a child each (some 2) and got into the vans (Moto-cars) and drove down some bumpy roads into the fisher village. We got out of the vans and grabbed our kids, walked back in between some kiosks (miniature stores inside a shack) and went to the water’s edge. We then got into 2 wooden boats, and floated off into the sunset (Just kidding!!), we got to go onto Lake Victoria and saw some of the fisher’s spots, a prison on the middle of an island (don’t worry, we stayed a long ways away!), made our way into the Source of the Nile and down to the walking bridge of Jinja. On our way back we went to the other side of the Nile and were floating up next to a lot of trees, and got to see our first monkeys!! The kids got so excited, we had to hold them by their lifejackets and make sure they didn’t fall out of the boats into the Nile!

Most people are excited to go to places and just be able to check it off of their bucket lists. But for me, going to the Nile was something so much more significant. Just the thought of being at the Nile makes me smile still. A lot of people talk about going to the Promised Land, which is still something I wouldn’t mind thinking of doing. But to me, just thinking of all the amazing acts that happened at the Nile, and I felt a huge sense of God at the moment it truly crossed my mind. It may not have been the exact point of where it happened, but I was at the source of the Nile, the place that started the flow of the water to where those amazing acts came about! I thought about the moment in the Bible, Exodus 7:20, when Moses and Aaron struck the staff to the water and allowed God to turn it into blood. I was floating on a river that at one point, however many thousands of years ago, had been turned to blood because of 2 men fulfilling one of God's amazing promises, one of whom was placed in a basket and sent down the very same river by his mother only to be pulled out by the Pharoah's daughter!! How many of you can say you’ve done the same?

As I stated in my support letter, Amani Baby Cottage is a home for children from infant age to five years old. The children who live there either do not have families or their families cannot care for them. While I was staying at Amani, my main job was to help care for these children.

I worked in several areas while at Amani. I worked in different cottages and preschool groups. While in the Boys C Cottage I worked with 15 boys. Eight of the boys were between the age of 1 and 3. I would stay with these younger boys while the others went to preschool. I also worked in Girls B Cottage, the 3-5 year old preschool, and the 2 year old preschool.

A typical day began with a 20 minute walk to Amani Baby Cottage. The on-site home for volunteers was currently under construction. The “Aunties,” as all of us volunteers were called, arrived at work by 9 am. I would then be at my job from 9 until 12 in a cottage or preschool, and then with all the children until 5:30.

While working with the younger children in a cottage we would play, read, and teach them songs. We would also play outside. In the preschool the children were taught things that most children in America know, such as what the inside of a house is like and about money. We also taught them Jesus songs, Bible stories, and a verse per week with actions. The children were extremely good at memorizing verses.

At 10 am it was snack time. A typical snack consists of drinking porridge, except for Tuesday. Tuesdays are mandazi days! A mandazi is a fried bread like a donut in a triangular shape. After snack everyone would go out and play on the playground for a while and then preschool would continue until 12 when lunch would start with the youngest first and rotating through to the older ones. After lunch was nap time. During this time all of us Aunties were allowed a 2 hour break where we ate our lunch and could take a nap ourselves, do devotions, or spend time with the babies in the nursery. After nap time was over the children got another snack of fruit and then played on the playground in the compound.

The children took many potty breaks during the day. We were always taking potty breaks and doing diaper changes. I helped the Mommas occasionally with laundry if one of the other Aunties was able to watch over the children without a problem. Washing the clothes and the diapers is not an easy task. Unlike in America where you can just fill up the washer and toss them in, you had to fill up one sink (since our orphanage was modernized enough for good sinks), and then soak the dirty clothes and diapers in that sink. Once those were thoroughly cleaned we had to rinse them out in the other sink. Once those rinsed we stuck them into another bucket with clean water to soak while we took them over to the clothing press. You then grabbed a piece of clothing and ran it through the clothes press and tossed it into a dry bucket. Then we had to take all of those clothes and diapers to the clothesline and hang them up. Once those were dry you took them down. And just a little bit of a shock for all of you; this happened not just once a day, not twice, but THREE times daily!!

There was one particular child that made a great impression on me. Every day I find myself thinking about him. His name is Joseph. Honestly, it’s hard for me not to just start up a conversation about him without saying “Joseph. That little boy. I love him.” He is honestly quite the character. He just runs around the compound dancing, blinking like a madman, and acts as if he is trying to eat you. He really has the craziest personality. He would always kiss me and his favorite thing to do was swing. There was one day where he took my hand in the cottage and simply said “Auntie come.” So I followed. He walked me all the way out to the swing without saying a word, pointed at the seat for me to sit down, and then crawled up into my lap. We literally just sat there and swung for 5 minutes in silence. He then looked at me and simply said “Auntie, I love you.” He then just leaned his head into me and sat there clinging to me as we swung. After a little bit longer he looked up at my again and said “Auntie, when you go back to America, will you take me on the aero-pwane (airplane)?” This literally just tore my heart apart, because I wanted nothing more than to be able to say “Yes, yes Joseph. I will take you on the aero-pwane with me!”

When I think back to the day that I left, I cannot do anything but start to cry because I remember just like it was today – just how much it killed me/kills me to leave my children. I am again crying right now as I am typing this. When I left the baby cottage that day I literally had my heart torn in half and left part of it at the gate that I walked out of. I cried the entire walk back to our house, with one of the other volunteers holding my hand and hugging me the whole way back. The wound from that day is still just as fresh today as it was when I physically had to walk out of those gates. When I had to say goodbye to all of my children, and to the ones that really understood that another Auntie was leaving them again…it literally broke my heart. The hardest, but most uplifting part of that day was when a few of the Mommas grabbed me into a hug and started to pray over me.

During my time in Uganda, I cannot count how many God moments I had. We never knew what the people we would run into were needing, or what we were personally needing. During one of the days at work, I had a conversation with one of my amazing Mommas. I spoke to her occasionally throughout the day because it was needed to take care of our children, but one day I felt like I just needed to really talk to her. When our boys were outside playing I happened to find Momma Georgina finishing up the dishes after the morning snack.

I cannot begin to tell you how amazing our conversation was. I was completely lifted up and had tears in my eyes as she was telling me stories and talking about God's love for us and all that she knows about the Bible. One of the first things she said to me was "You girls, you Aunties come here from all over the place, especially America…and I know that those flights are not cheap. They cost a lot of money. The fact that you come here means that you have the love of God in you. No one would willingly want to come to a poor country like ours when you come from having so much. You come here and I have already seen how much you love God and how much He is in you just from the look you have on your face and the love you have shown through your actions with our children here."

I just wanted to cry, because I never realized how much some people can really see God in us. We then had an amazing talk about how our children are at the home because God has chosen them to be there. God has chosen them to go through such bad things before they come so they know just how much God truly loves them when they come into such an amazing and Christ centered home like at Amani.

She kept asking me, “When you go home after being here and doing all that you have done here, do you know how much God is going to bless you? ABUNDANTLY! God will bless you more than you think He could, which we always somehow underestimate even after He has done everything for us.” She then pulled me over and sat me down on the table and looked me in the eyes, and told me just how much God loves me, loves her, and especially loves our children...HIS children!! After she looked me in the eyes she turned my attention to the walls that are in the boys' room. On the wall is the Bible verse of 1 Peter 2:9 "But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light" She then went on to explain just how important this verse is and how much it applies to each and every one of us, especially those of us that have given up everything in order to go and serve Christ at the orphanage.

We are a chosen generation. God has chosen us to do His work because right now we need Him more than ever. We are royalty because we have Christ's blood in us. This is a holy nation because God is everywhere! We are His own special people because again, we have His blood in us! By us coming so far to serve Him and loving Him with all that we have, we are proclaiming the praises of Him who called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light!

My wish for all of you, is that you will know just how marvelous you are and just how mighty God is and understand His love for us. I pray that you will accept this and take everything in. Christ died for us who deserve nothing, all so that we can join Him in His marvelous light! He loves us so much that He gave up His everything for us…so why should we sit at home in our comfort zones and not go out and do His work for Him? God has a beautiful and amazing plan for each and every one of us! Why, oh why, would any of us want to stand in His way of what His plans are for us? I pray you open up your everything and give it all to Jesus. Yes, EVERYTHING! I pray that you may be broken completely so that you may gain it ALL! Please understand just how special you are and how much God loves you. We do not deserve it, but Jesus gave it to us anyways!

As the song I am listening to right now says “I'm not gonna worry, I know that You've got me, Right inside the palm of your hand, Each and every moment, What's good and what gets broken, Happens just the way You plan, You are here, You're real, I know I can trust You, Even when it hurts, Even when it's hard, Even when it all just falls apart, I will run to You, 'Cause I know that You are, Lover of my soul, Healer of my scars, You steady my heart.”

I know that some day I will return to Uganda again, but until then I ask that you could please pray for me and that I continue to do His will for me. I ask that you please pray for me to continue listening to Him, that I might hear when He calls me to go back again as clearly as I did the first time. Please pray that I may stay strong as I continue waiting, and pray that I always know that I am exactly where God wants me to be at this point in my life.                   

Thank you all so much for your continued prayer.

I couldn't ask for greater family and friends to stand behind me in all of this!

Jennifer Rose Sladky
John 14:18

Let Everything Go

Sometimes the solution to a problem is just to give up and let go of your right to be right, your right to an inheritance, your right to special attention, your right to a certain seat, or to a certain place, or to a certain privilege, or to a certain position. Just give it up. Let it go. Don't let selfishness keep you from solving the problem and restoring peace. From personal experience, I know that my prayer life tends to be very shallow unless I deliberately, intentionally make the effort to deepen and develop it on a daily basis. Prayer must be central to our lives if we are serious about embracing the magnificent obsession. So..how's your prayer life? Who is watching you and the way you handle your problems and disputes? Often it's someone you don't even know is watching. But you and I can count on the fact that one reason God allows us to have problems is so we can demonstrate to a watching world how His children respond. Abraham had let everything go, including first choice of the land God had promised to give him. He impressed me as someone who wanted to be right with God more than he wanted to insist on his own rights. He wanted to maintain his testimony more than he wanted to accumulate the world's treasures. He wanted peace in his home more than he wanted property and possessions. And, so he had to just let everything go. I learned that you can't outgive God. If I just give up and let go, what He gives me in return makes what I had clenched in my fist seem so small and worthless.
Hebrews 12:1, Luke 3:21-22, 1 Peter 1:6-7, Luke 17:33, 2 Corinthians 9:8

Embrace Your Sonship In Christ

Today I went to Worship Harvest church along with our Amani Director, Volunteer Coordinator, a lot of the other volunteers, and the team of 12 that has come to us from Colorado. We started the morning off with a lot of worship songs. It is so normal to see people's hands raised up in the air and tears flowing from eyes just because of how much God is moving in the church and the services there. Today we had a speaker named Rachel, who is from Canada but is living in Entebbe, Uganda right now. The series we have been going through is called 'Relationship Beyond Rules' from the book of Galations. Today we were covering Galations 3:26-4:7. Please read these verses before continuing on. The whole service today was covering something that is very near and dear to our hearts here at Amani..."Adoption". This blog is basically just to talk about the amazing points and quotes that I wrote down because of just how amazing this message was for all of us to hear and I hope you all can get the same out of it.

We talked about what it was like to be slaves in the Roman times and there was a process of getting rid of your own sons/adopting that is beyond comprehensible. Back then they were able to sell their children, completely estrange them, or even put them to the death penalty. If the father sold his son, he could buy him back, but only 3 times. So if a father sold his son and then bought him back the third time, he was his forever. This is just the same as buying/adopting a child into their family. Later they then changed this process into having the father take the soon to be adopted son into a room with 7 witnesses. The father would then state that he would like to adopt the child into his family. The child would then say that he agreed to this and wanted to be in the family.

By faith we enter into the lineage of Abraham and become heirs according to the promise! Promise = heirs of the world. No matter what our race, tribe, sex, religious views, etc..once we are In Christ we become One and heirs of the Same promise. Just as slaves in Roman times lived under fear of punishments, making them lowly in status and inferior to everyone else - so we too lived in fear because of the Law which was our slave driver, which ruled us by fear of punishment if we broke the rules. The spirit of adoption is not one of fear! The Spirit itself is witness to the adoption process - becoming irrefutably sealed. The Roman fathers could estrange their own biological sons, selling them and even issuing the death penalty - this would often trigger the adoption process of a new son or slave to carry on the father's lineage/rule. This is just like how God estranged His own son to inherit us as His own sons and daughters. The process of adoption was called "Adrogation". It consisted of the verbal will from the father asking of the child to be His and the child confessing that he wished it so. Redemption of the purchased possession was accomplished by the act of the heir taking possession. We too received our inheritance by the act of taking possession by faith. The Holy Spirit is our guarantee of our inheritance. Adoption is the highest form of love; you can never be estranged by God once you have been adopted into His kingdom. We are all Chosen, God did not create us and adopt us as His children without first choosing us. We have been bought into God's eternal kingdom. We are untouchably Secure! When we are adopted, we lose all rights to our old family. By losing all rights to our old family we then gain ALL rights as a legitimate son/daughter into a new family with our new Father. The old life is wiped out, ALL debts are paid - we are a new person with no past life. The Holy Spirit witnessed our confession of God asking us to be His and us accepting His offer, so our relationship with Him is irrevocable. We are under a protection. God cannot do to us what He did to Jesus for our sake. We are under a permanent sonship!!

It is time for us to leave everything behind, and follow Him!

I have been here for over 2 full weeks now and it honestly couldn't be better. I love it here so much. I feel like I am at home, and half of the time I'm walking around I don't even think about the fact that there is a difference in our skin color. I was sitting at church today when one of the little local girls grabbed my hand and kept looking at it and feeling it. Then during the service, she kept moving her chair closer to me and kept feeling my skin. I honestly don't consider myself any different than everyone here, but I guess even though we were at a church full of American missionaries, I somehow stood out just a little different. The best way for you and me to overcome our 'fear' (as I've heard some call it) of those people so unlike us who surround us in our everyday lives is to keep our focus on the Lord and cultivate an awareness of His presence in our lives. We need to learn to be more aware of Him than of them. Could it be that you have made the choice to leave everything behind, then followed through with the commitment to let everything go in order to pursue knowing God...and now you're wondering, What in the world have I done? God knows where you are. It is time for us to leave everything behind, and follow Him!

The life of being an auntie!!

Hello everyone! I'm sorry it has been so long, but I have been super busy lately! I have had a request to share what I do during my day at Amani. So... this is how it goes! We start walking to work at 8:30 and get there around 9. We then go to our cottages or preschool (I'm in cottage C). I have 8 little boys that I take care of on my own until 10. I take off all of their shirts and leave them in their diapers, give them their snack of porridge and then strip them down to put them on the potties for 15 minutes. Then I re-diaper them and clothe them. We go outside and play until 12 when it's time for lunch. We repeat the same pattern except just re-diaper them and put them down for nap from 1-3. After the 'babies' in the cottages get done eating their dinner, my 7 older boys eat their food and then will wash off, go and sit on the toilet, and then come into the room to also lay down for nap. During that time us volunteers get to eat our lunch and take a break. During our break most of us end up in the nursery. Once 3 o'clock hits we're back in our cottages for 'cactus time'.. We wake the boys up, give them a snack, and potty and dress them again. We either have activities, outings, or 1 on 1 from 4-5:30, or we just play outside until 5:30 when we get off work.

Since I last updated you I have gone on my first boda ride, gone to 2 church services, had an entire week of work, met some amazing missionaries at different ministries in the area, went to watch Martha and Florence's band's first 'gig', went on a boat ride on Lake Victoria, saw my first monkey in the wild, gone swimming with some kiddos, and started doing homework with 2 of our boys who are actually in school. I am loving absolutely every second of being here. I find myself totally in awe of this life I am living and the fact that God allowed me to be here. I find myself loving God more and more and I know that it is a combination of me being here because it's where God led me to be, am surrounded by His beautiful children, and amazing missionaries who love Him with all that is within us! As one of my fellow roommates put it "God seems so much bigger here. So much stronger and more powerful. And maybe it's because I spend my days around missionaries, who are poor and have given up everything to be here, or because I spend my days with orphans who by only works of God, are living and thriving, and joyful."

Today when our boys were outside playing I happened to come inside and found one of my mamas finishing up the dishes in our room after the morning snack. For some reason I felt God tell me that I really needed to talk to Mama Georgina more than just the few words we have gotten to speak while the kids are around. I cannot begin to tell you how amazing our conversation was. I was completely lifted up and had tears in my eyes as she was telling me stories and talking about God's love for us and all that she knows about the Bible. One of the first things she said to me was "You girls, you aunties come here from all over the place, especially America..and I know that those flights are not cheap. They cost a lot of money. The fact that you come here means that you have the love of God in you. No one would willingly want to come to a poor country like ours when you come from having so much. You come here and I have already seen how much you love God and how much He is in you just from the look you have on your face and the love you have shown through your actions with our children here." I just wanted to cry, because I just never realized how much some people can really see God in us. We then had an amazing talk about how our children are at our home because God has chosen them to be there. God has chosen them to go through such bad things before they come so they know just how much God truly loves them when they come into such an amazing and Christ centered home like we have here at Amani. She kept asking me, when you go home after being here and doing all that you have done here, do you know how much God is going to bless you? ABUNDANTLY!!! God will bless you more than you think He could, which we always somehow underestimate even after He has done everything for us. She then pulled me over and sat me down on the table and looked me in the eyes, and told me just how much God loves me, loves her, and especially loves our children...HIS children!! After she looked me in the eyes she turned my attention to the walls that we have in our boys' room. On the wall we have the Bible verse of 1 Peter 2:9 "But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light" She then went on to explain just how important this verse is and how much it applies to each and every one of us, especially those of us that have given up everything in order to come and serve Christ at our orphanage. We are a chosen generation. God has chosen us to do His work because right now we need Him more than ever. We are royalty because we have Christ's blood in us. This is a holy nation because God is everywhere! We are His own special people because again, we have His blood in us! By us coming so far to serve Him and loving Him with all that we have, we are proclaiming the praises of Him who called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light!!!

My wish for all of you that have read this, is that you will know just how marvelous you are and just how mighty God is and understand His love for us. I pray that you will accept this and take everything in. Christ died for us who deserve nothing, all so that we can join Him in His marvelous light! He loves us so much that He gave up His everything for us..so why should we sit at home in our comfort zones and not go out and do His work for Him? God has a beautiful and amazing plan for each and every one of us! Why, oh why, would any of us want to stand in His way of what His plans are for us? I pray you open up your everything and give it all to Jesus. Yes, EVERYTHING!! I pray that you may be broken completely so that you may gain it ALL! Please understand just how special you are and how much God loves you. We do not deserve it, but Jesus gave it to us anyways!!

Until next time!! "Auntie Jennifer loves you, but Jesus loves you way more than auntie ever could. Why? Because God made you SPECIAL!!"

Loving Jinja

Hello again everyone! I just wanted to update you all. Yesterday was a great day. Usually on Saturdays we have a project day and just do different work around Amani, but we had yesterday off so we could just start to get go know our children in the cottage we are going to be working in. I happen to be in Baby C. Baby C holds 16 boys right now that are 1 to 5 years old. Right now it is just the 2 C mommas and I working in that room, so it will be a handful. There is one little boy who has especially captured my heart because he has been classified as being on the autism spectrum! He usually attaches himself to one auntie while they are there, and he found me instantly! I know God placed me in the cottage and with this little boy for a reason and I am loving every second of it! Most of the boys in my room are older, so they go to preschool for most of the morning. So that's the main reason why I'm the only volunteer in the room since there are fewer little ones to take care of. I'm getting ready to go to my first African church service and I am extremely excited! Thank you all for your prayers, God Bless! :D

A few pictures!

 Here I am feeding Baby Ann

 Baby Ann was pulling on my hair during this picture

 Baby Jane!! She is actually 5 months old right now..but is so tiny she looks like she isn't more than 2. Her grandmother couldn't feed her any more than avocados and water for the first 4 months of her life, so she was severely malnourished.

 Baby John is just over 2 months old. He came at 3 days old and weighted 3 pounds. He is now up to almost 7 pounds! :)

 We took our preschoolers out into the city for a little fun afternoon of painting, drawing, getting their faces painted, and drinking orange juice!

These are our preschoolers!