Full Hearts!

NOTE: Thank you for your patience! We are soo sorry about the delay in posting. The internet was down for 3 days and when it is up, it's been super slow.  Every time I've tried to upload pictures to this blog, the pictures take forever to upload or often "fail" to upload, so I had temporarily given up. Plus we are sooo busy that it's hard to stay awake at night to blog.  Our days are completely full from sun-up to sun-down.  We are exhausted but our hearts are overflowing.  The work we are doing is soo fulfilling! We fall asleep with a huge smile on our face every night! THANK YOU for your prayers! They have been sustaining us!  And thank you to those of you who financially helped us to get here! We are beyond grateful for the opportunity to be here again serving and spending time pouring into the people we love! Our hearts are FULL!!!

This is what was hanging on our guest room door when we arrived at New Hope Uganda (made by some of our sponsored kids).  The heart shaped paper perfectly symbolizes the love behind the messages and the love we felt upon seeing it.  2 years is a long time to be separated from our sponsored kids.  The reunion is always sooo sweet!  We feel so incredibly blessed that these kids call us mom & dad! They are each gifted & talented in unique ways, full of personality, and have an amazing heart. I can't even begin to tell you how proud we are of them and all they have overcome in their young lives! It has been a privilege watching them mature & grow into God-fearing young men & women. We are so humbled & honored that God chose them to be part of our family!

Family Time--funny faces!
Missing from photo are 3 that we will visit in Kampala (the capital city) and 1 that is currently living & working in Dubai.

ANOTER NOTE: all the pics are taken with my smart phone, so I apologize if the quality is not the best. It's just sooo much easier than lugging our big camera around everywhere and much faster & efficient for uploading as well.

The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through Love! (Galatians 5:6)

Dear Family & Friends,                  

          This summer will be our 4th & final mission trip to Africa as a family of four…Alea will be graduating in 2019 and we await to see what God has in store after that.  She is looking into various gap year programs that could land her back in Africa. We can see Jonas possibly working as a vet assistant in the future for one of our older sponsored sons who we put thru veterinary school and now has his own business working on farm animals in the bush villages (pigs, cows, goats & chickens are part of the rural Ugandans livelihood). And Joey & I have always been open to full time missions after retirement here in the USA (as soon as all of our sponsored kids have graduated from college and we no longer need to work to support them).  So there is a very real chance of each of us being back in Africa again at some point down the road, just probably not together as a family of four.  While it make us sad to think about this, we also look forward to how God might use our family in various ways in the future.

  Most often with short-term mission trips, everyone wants to hear what you are going to DO while you are there.  Yes, we will be DOING a lot of outreaches:  child evangelism (kids clubs, VBS, etc), tutoring in the orphanges, school feeding programs, visiting a Deaf School, helping out in a special needs program, feeding/holding/bathing/changing diapers for babies at several Baby Houses, some manual labor projects at a transitional living home for orphaned young adults, teaching Sunday School, etc, etc. We will also once again be leading a small team from our church who will be joining us June 27-July 10.  We will be visiting the 2 Ugandan missionary families that our church sponsors and help run a week-long MK Camp for Missionary Kids in Uganda.

However, as excited as we are about all the things we will be DOING, we have learned, what is most important on these trips is to BE….be emotionally available for the kids, be a tangible representation of their Heavenly Father, be Christ’s hands & feet. The most valuable use of our time is BEING in relationship, not only with the children, but with the staff and many adults that are serving in these ministries…encouraging & supporting the many teachers at the schools where we serve, the nannies & staff who live & work sacrificially at the orphanages, Dr. Edith who works tirelessly to keep the Mengo AIDS Clinic under MCC running despite constant cut-backs from the government, those serving in full-time missions, etc.  We can't wait to wrap our arms around all the cooks in the kitchen, the aunties/uncles who care for the children, the drivers, the gardeners, the smiling gatekeeper, in addition to all the hundreds of children  that we will get to interact with and love on! We have built so many precious friendships and bonded deeply with so many people in both Kenya & Uganda, that this will definitely be an emotional trip for us (not knowing when we will be back next)!  

Of course the highlight is always spending time with the amazing kids we sponsor!  We are the proud parents of: a veterinarian (mentioned above), a 4th grade teacher, 2 social workers, a lab technician, and a food-service/hospitality worker.  Graduating this spring is an accountant and we are putting one through medical school who has 2 years left before he becomes a pediatrician!  We have 6 in high school and 5 in elementary school.  And we are so excited this trip to meet for the very first time, our 3 GRANDCHILDREN!!! Yes you read that right!  Two of our older sons in Nairobi, who we put through college to become Social Workers, both have a baby now.  And our Ugandan son in med school, has been using part of the money we give him, to sponsor his own 6 year old little boy for the past 2 years!  He skips meals so that he can afford to do this.  He said he is so grateful for what we are doing for him, that he could not help but pay it forward.  As you know, child sponsorship is our passion and this is just one of the many examples of the far-reaching impact that sponsorship has!  If you feel led to change a child’s life forever, please let us know and we will set you up with the phenomenal organizations we sponsor through: New Hope Uganda and First Love Kenya (there are links at the bottom of this blog for both organizations). There is a waiting list of hundreds of kids who need sponsors before they can afford to start school (there is no free public education in Africa). 

This year’s trip dates are: 

June 5-July 10 New Hope Uganda, Watoto, Musana Camp, UCF....

July 10- July 31 First Love Kenya, DOOR (Deaf Opportunity OutReach)

If you can please mark your calendars to pray for us and our team during the dates listed above, we would so appreciate it! We literally depend on your prayer covering for health & safety. We have never experienced the power of pray more strongly than when we've been in Africa!!  Each trip, one or more of us has gotten sick but recovered quickly, lost luggage has been retrieved, children have accepted Christ as their Savior during our VBS, a young man Joey was mentoring asked to be baptized, our broken-down van was fixed, etc….we count all of that as a direct result of your prayers!  

 We whole-heartedly THANK all of you who prayed for us throughout our past trips and once again ask you to pray us through the whole 8 weeks of this trip!  We trust God in every detail of the trip. We know that He has called us to go back and so we step out in obedience. We know that He has a purpose and a plan for our family. It is our desire to bring Him glory.  

In addition to prayer partners, we are also in need of financial partners. We are soo grateful for all of you who have already donated to one of our trips!  If you have not yet partnered with us in the work God is doing in Kenya & Uganda, we would ask you to prayerful consider making a tax-deducatble donation to:      

Calvary Community Church
PO Box 1200
Williams Bay, WI 53191
NOTE: Please do NOT write on the memo line, rather include a note stating that it is for the Haywood's Mission Trip.

A sincere THANK YOU for all of your support, on so many levels! Thank you for being a part of our journey!!! We would love for you to follow our trip via this blog for stories, photos, praise reports, updates, and immediate prayer requests!

For God's Glory,

Joey, Anissa, Alea & Jonas Haywood

A God Girl in Heaven

This week was the one year anniversary of this sweet African princess departing for glory! I can't believe it has already been a full year since we received the devastating news that she had died from a bacterial infection on her brain.  She was one of the precious girls from the First Love Children's Home in Kenya that we had gotten very close with over our 3 visits. She didn't have an earthly father, but now she is in the loving arms of her Heavenly Father!

Beryl (2000-2016)

Beryl is a valuable precious stone; a jewel which is mentioned in the Bible eight times.  It was used as one of the 12 gemstones on Aaron’s ephod, which represented the 12 tribes of Israel (Exodus 28:20), and one day a beryl will be used as one of the 12 foundation stones for the wall around the Holy City of Jerusalem (Revelation 21:20).  The website www.minerals.net calls it “a most alluring & popular mineral.”  All who knew Beryl would agree that her name perfectly described her character: a true gem!  In the photo above she is wearing a crown of earthly "gems" but now she is wearing a Heavenly crown of beautiful gems beyond our compare of anything here on earth!

  Beryl was known for her spiritual maturity, her strong sweet voice in leading worship during nightly devotions, being a positive role model for the younger kids with her amazing Chirst-like character,  her stellar academic performance, and last but not least, she was known for her excellent hair braiding skills... ;)

       

(Braiding the hair of Dorothy, who Alea sponsors...and......yours truly! ;)

Beryl wrote a poem that was featured in the Fall 2015 issue of Alea's God Girl Magazine. Please take a moment to read it and be inspired!  When she says, "You have a wonderful mind"...she herself was #1 in her class of 360 students. But most importantly was her kind & loving heart. She was beautiful inside & out!  She loved to worship God and HIS light most definitely shone from her eyes!

Beryl's best friend and "sister" from First Love, Immaculate, who wrote the poem on the right in the magazine, read this beautiful tribute to Beryl at her memorial service last year:

Beryl,  a girl as precious as her name is.  

She was one person you would not forget if you had spent time with her.  Beryl always shone among other people, be it her peers, elders, or even younger than her.  

She always left a good mark wherever she went.

At church Beryl portrayed leadership skills leading other children in praise and worship.  She was well known for her power to preach to others.  Teachers and other children loved Beryl.  

She was kind and would give a hand where she would.

At school, she was very hard working; she has left a clear set of footprints for others to follow.  She hated to see others suffer and was willing to correct other persons.  Beryl did anything she was told with passion.  She did the best of everything.

At  home, Beryl was always helping her brothers and sisters, leading in devotions and preaching.  She loved doing right.  One would really be surprised to find her in any mistake.

Beryl was really gifted and talented.  Her powerful voice had changed many lives;  her ability to dance had given many hope;   her gift to preach had shown many the path to salvation.

 She was one girl who readily forgave and asked for forgiveness.  She never held any grudge towards anyone.  

Beryl was not new to pain and suffering.  What she had gone through in the past was not what you even would like your enemy to go through, but Beryl was a strong and courageous girl. 

She never let her past bring her down.

Beryl had big dreams.  She hoped to either be an architect or a doctor and would change her family’s status.  Only the Almighty knows why she did not live to fulfill her dreams.May her soul rest in perfect peace.  She may be gone with body, but memories spent with her will forever live in our hearts.

Death strikes when least expected.  Only God knows why.  

Had we known she would not live, we would have filed a defense, but since it’s God’s making, we humbly submit to His will.

Bye bye, Beryl.  See you when our time comes.  

Your loving friend,   Immaculate

(Alea is sitting right between Beryl & Immaculate in this Class 8 picture with all the "candidates" who were studying in 2015 for their big state exams, to determine placement for Secondary School)

Alea dedicated her final issue of God Girl Magazine to honor Beryl's memory by making her the cover girl (photo taken by Joey):

We pray that her story continues to inspire other young girls to live passionately for Jesus and to make an impact during your time here on earth by pointing others to Jesus.  

Beryl loved to worship her Maker through singing and dancing...now she is signing with the angels & dancing before the throne for Eternity!!!

NOTE:  After the last issue above (June 2016) Alea passed the magazine on to another younger homeschooled girl to continue creating.  Alea earns "royalties" by the magazine sales continuing to sponsor Dorothy at First Love Kenya, another one of Beryl's dear "sisters".   If you are interested in subscribing, please goto:  www.GodGirlMagazine.com.  If you are interested in purchasing a copy of the issue above, please email us! 

I have seen the Lord!

Job 42:5  "I had heard of you with my ears, but now my eyes see you!"

This was Aunt Ketty's theme verse for her cancer. She said that cancer allowed her to finally see God to the fullest! She was a beloved wife & mother of 7, a 2nd grade teacher, who used her cancer as a platform to proclaim Christ!  She testified of God's goodness in churches, school groups and on the radio! She praised God that he counted her worthy of bearing cancer in His name! 

What an amazing legacy she left behind for her children and the other children at New Hope Uganda. Please pray for Okuth (her widowed husband) and her 7 precious children who are now without a mother.

We had several sweet times of fellowship with her in June, filled with laughter and tears.  On one of her bad days, I sat on her bed and gave her a shoulder massage. We sang and prayed with her.  When we said our final goodbye, she said, "See you at the banquet table in Heaven!"  She knew God was calling her home; she knew her time here on earth was almost over. As any mother would, she worried about her young children left behind.  She worried about her husband left alone caring for their 7 children. But she was at peace.

She was a kindred spirit; a soul sister; a special friend.  Joey led 3 of her children to Christ at our VBS two years ago.  I would sit in her classroom after school to talk and we connected at a deep heart level; we bonded through laughter and tears.  Shortly after that trip we heard of her cancer.  I'm so grateful for Facebook that kept us connected through those 2 years of battling cancer, and even more grateful for the chance to see her one last time.  I rejoice in victory over the grave, as I mourn the loss of my dear friend.  It makes me smile to envision her dancing and worshipping before the throne of her Heavenly Father!