Back to Amazing Grace

It's been nearly eight years since I first visited Amazing Grace Children's home in Northern Uganda. Since that time the wars in Southern Sudan and Northern Uganda have all but wrapped up, and the kids are so much older.

Many of you sponsor kids at Amazing Grace, and it's great to see the smiling healthy kids here and reconnect. Nate and I arrived up here on Tuesday, and will be here until next Monday.
The photo below is of a possible new location for Amazing Grace. Through a mixup with a landlord (who's been sharing the current land with the kids and staff) it looks like the whole home will need to be relocated to property that is actually owned by IWASSRU. We are working on this issue, and ask that you would pray with us that we will find a good suitable home for these children.The photo below is of the solar panels in use at the current home. The panels were given by the Lahash community through the banquet fundraiser last year. They usually provide anywhere from 2 to 4 hours of electricity in all of the rooms at night - which is amazing by my standards! The kids now can study by electric light at night which improves their schoolwork.

Please pray for Nate and I as we take some final pictures, meet with staff and committee members, sing and pray and worship with the kids, and hear about the realities on the ground.
Thanks for following our journey!

Trekking through Uganda

After a couple of great weeks in Tanzania with our media team, staff, and partners in the city of Dodoma, Nate Grubbs and I (Dan Holcomb) have traveled on to Uganda.

Our highlights in Tanzania were worshipping with the church in Dodoma, spending time with our host families, and completing our first bi-lingual Lahash Magazine. Look for that magazine to hit mailboxes in mid-October!

We've enjoyed working as a team collecting these stories, but carry the weight of the potential and the responsibility of these precious stories. Below are some pictures from the past week of work and travel in East Africa.

Above: A secondary age girl (high school) sits on a rock above the city of Dodoma. Our partnership is located in the capital of Tanzania. The region is dry and dusty.

Above: Sunset over the tangled trees of Dodoma.

Above: Working late into the night on the Lahash magazine - editing, working with photos, and translating Swahili! Asher was a huge help.

Above: Sunday, one of the kids at Susan's home in Kampala, holds up a fascinating bug.

Above: Santino is a kid from St. Bartholomew's Orphanage in Sudan. He's suffering from a liver problem and can hardly bare the pain at points during the day. Please pray for him and his doctors. We don't know how much the surgery will cost, but if you'd like to help out - please email info@lahash.net for more details.

Hope is Alive is alive!

The media team has been hard at work. We've thumbed through our Swahili dictionaries, written and rewritten articles with our partners, and pulled an all-nighter. And now we're proud to say that Hope is Alive magazine is finally completed.

We would love to send you a copy. If you're not yet receiving Hope is Alive, please send your mailing address to info@lahash.net.

Taking the Plunge

I've decided to jump in. I don't know what my hangup has been. I've long been involved with Lahash, but for some reason I've never sponsored a child. Was it the money? The commitment? The sheer distance between me and a child in a remote African town?

Whatever the reasons, they were erased a few days ago.

Sauda is a child in the Lahash sponsorship program. I'm not even sure I'd call her a child, since her maturity and life experience surpass mine in many ways. At age 16 Sauda lives on her own, since her mother died of causes related to HIV and her father lives in another city. Sauda herself is infected with HIV, and has experienced the stigma and isolation that often come with the disease.

I was invited to spend the night in Sauda's home last Friday. She lives in a tiny single room with very little color or comfort. Once the sun goes down, her only light is a small kerosene flame which she uses to study by.

Sauda was such a gracious hostess, and her shy sense of humor brightened the evening. We shared a simple meal of rice and fish before bed, and she awoke long before I did to light a fire and make tea.

The next day I wondered aloud to a friend, "What's the secret ingredient? How can kids like Sauda survive with no one to provide for them?" Then I remembered the big bag of charcoal in Sauda's room, her school supplies, cooking oil and other essentials that had been provided by her sponsor. To see a real child's needs being met in a way that gives her a hopeful future makes me realize it's high time I entered into that kind of relationship.

photo by Nate Grubbs

Hope Is Present

One of the main projects that the Lahash Media team is working on is creating an issue of the Hope Is Alive magazine right here with our partner, Grace & Healing Ministry of Dodoma (GHMD). The voice and passion of our partners is essential to the work of Lahash, and it is a privilege to come and encourage GHMD to tell the stories of what God is doing through their ministries among the vulnerable.

Along with GHMD staff, we have also asked some of the kids in the Lahash Sponsorship program to contribute to the magazine as well. I have been so impressed with these kids. Joseph, Neema, and Nuru immediately jumped into their writing and photography assignments. They have even been holding their own meetings, separate from the rest of the group, to keep themselves accountable and encourage each other. Joseph has been taking many pictures and the girls have been busy writing. They recently turned in their articles and photos for the team to review. They have done some great work.

Everyone here is excited about this issue and the ways it will be used in the U.S. and in Tanzania as well. This will be our first bilingual issue, designed in both English and Swahili. One thing we learned is that "Hope Is Alive" is more understandably translated in Swahili as "Hope Is Present." Please continue to pray for the team, our partners, and these amazing kids as we work on editing, designing, and finishing up this issue over the next week!

Lahash Retreat In Dodoma

We have just come to the end of the Lahash retreat. We have had a wonderful time in Dodoma especially at the retreat as we look into the plans and future of Lahash. We shared different ideas, worshiped and prayed together.

Brainstorming and planning at the retreat.


Fun time at the retreat.


The media team.
There will be a lot of activities going on in the next few weeks here in Dodoma. Please pray for our team.

Arrival in Dodoma

Our media team has arrived safe and sound in Tanzania! Nate Grubbs, Dana Bertermann, myself (Dan) joined Casey and all of the other staff, travelers, volunteers and friends in Dodoma yesterday afternoon.

Our first goal as Lahash staff is to spend some time in a retreat together. It's been just about one year since Casey, Leisha, Edwin, and I were together. It's so exciting to join up and hear about what God has been doing in lives and to pray and dream together.
The picture above is a guinea foul on a roof near Leisha's home. You can be praying for us over the next several days in the following ways: Unity on our staff retreat, great insight and conversations with our Tanzanian brothers and sisters, and refreshment after our long trip.

To Tanzania with the Media team

Our media team (minus Casey) has just finished some burrito wraps at the Minneapolis airport and we're headed out in a couple hours to Tanzania. Nate Grubbs (our magazine designer) and Dana Bertermann (our magazine editor) are joining Casey Schilperoort and I for a couple really exciting projects.

The big project we'll be working on is a partner designed and created magazine. We'll create an issue of Hope Is Alive on the ground in Tanzania with the ideas, photos, and text from our Dodoma partners. We'll share updates along the way about this process.

We'll also be working on some photography projects, video pieces, and we'll all be sharing a homestay with kids in the sponsorship program.

We'll get some good updates on the blog in the upcoming month - so stay tuned...