People like us, we don't need that much.
Just someone that starts
Starts the spark in our bonfire hearts.
You light the spark in our bonfire hearts.
We have come to Gulu with an agenda on our hands. Our notebooks are filled with lists for the days’ tasks; for things that must be done before we go because we’re unsure of when we’ll return. In our time here we have made room on the long list for one more thing. We are making time to commit to our mentors. We work together to distribute the work, to rely on their knowledge and to allow people to take an active role in reforming their local community.
Delegation is good: it’s the only way to grow- but this task seems different. In this relationship, we exist as the impetus, we come with the agenda, but the work is facilitating our mentors. Peter and Christine have the heart for their community, they have passion and vision and now we have their back.
By Ethan
Since I was a young girl I dreamed of going to Africa. I dreamed of driving on red dirt roads surrounded by trees spanning miles and animals racing next to us. I dreamed of working in an orphanage, surrounded by laughing children and being a mother to those who are lacking one of their own. But most importantly, I dreamed of making a difference in our world, and being apart of something much bigger than myself.
After years of planning imaginary adventures and talking about venturing across the pond, I finally had the opportunity to travel to the land of my dreams: Africa. And I took advantage of it in a heartbeat. Now I know it’s not going to be like what I have imagined, but really, nothing ever is. But I am confident this will be an experience I remember till the end of my days and I pray the Lord will put in me a new perspective.
We're going back. On August first we'll board for my third, Ethans second and Hannah's first time. Each time I land in Uganda- greeted by the humidity of the airport that seems to be strengthened by the midnight hour- I am filled with possibilities. Things will happen that I don't know about yet. There is something very unique about this feeling in this airport.
We're thrilled and filled with the possibilities waiting in Gulu for Aphoyo: new faces to put to the staggering statistics of children who need our scholarships. New stories to send home. New people taking up pieces of our hearts.
This will be the space we will record it and write back to you; our sponsors, our friends, our supporters the world over. We're humbled that enough of you asked for this to warrant it's authorship.
We're Gulu bound, we can't wait, and we hope you might join us here.
Aphoyo was not on purpose, it was a divine event; the day I met Winnie formed the rest of my life. The thing about days like these; the most important days, is that they are followed by mundane, seemingly ordinary necessities, like deciding on a name for our newly formed scholarship fund.
I had picked a name- one night on my cot in Gulu I stayed up late turning the name over and over, I wanted to call our scholarship fund, “The Winnie Project.” The name was dear and precious to me, I could feel the weight of Winnie in my arms every time I said it, “The Winnie Project.”
Ethan and I met with the missions team to ask if they wanted to be involved, I unveiled the name nonchalantly expecting more than a few “awe”s.
They all hated the name.
The journey continued. We came back to the states where Ethan and I were greeted with eager faces who had only caught snippets of our scholarship fund from e-mails and brief phone calls. We told them what we knew so far, but we still lacked a name. I continued to use “The Winnie Project” hoping it would catch on or others would love it and overrule Ethan.
Everyone hated the name.
About a week after returning to the states, my best friend, Haley, took me out to coffee with the goal of getting a few things nailed down about the scholarship fund, but at every turn we kept coming back to the necessity of a name. She had me write every phrase, every word I could think of that had to do with the day I met Winnie; that day that had so formed me. I started out: “Winnie” “Project” (I was still pushing), “Matthew 25:40” “The Least of These” “Clinic” “Babe” and then it even got weird, “Blood everywhere” “Puss everywhere” (can you imagine sponsoring “Puss Everywhere”?) and then “apowo.” Haley stopped me, “What’s that word?” “a-ph-oy-o,” I said, “It means ‘thank you’ in Acholi. That’s all Jennifer said to me when I gave Winnie back to her after that day at clinic.”
“It’s perfect.”
We tinkered with the name, different fonts, different phonetic spellings for the western dialects we were appealing to, and today we have Aphoyo. And a beautiful logo that Haley designed for us.
Aphoyo is thank you: it is thank you from our students to our sponsors, it is thank you from us to our donors who believe in this idea, it is thank you to the amazing people who have offered up their services, time and aid to get us going. It is thank you from me to Winnie; this little one who changed everything.