Faith and Miracles

I apologize that I have not updated my blog in such a long time. Life has been very crazy lately :)

My first set of news... I graduated nursing school in May! I am officially a graduate nurse and am sitting for my huge state license exam next Tuesday. Fingers crossed I will pass and be able to put RN behind my name :) Its been a long past two years of studying, studying and more studying. I know in the end I have chosen such a rewarding career path. 

My second topic is Africa. For the past few months, it has been an emotional roller coaster. In my previous blog post, I had mentioned that both my sister Baylee and I were planning on returning to Uganda to volunteer at the orphanage, Amani Baby Cottage that I fell in love with last summer. Raising the money this time around has been more difficult than what we were expecting. Unfortunately, we did not raise enough for my sister to join me. She would need to raise $3,500 in order to accompany me. I wish there was a way that she could still come and experience such an rewarding, life altering opportunity.

For the past few weeks, I wasn't even sure if I would be able to return to Uganda. I had raised enough money for my plane ticket, but not enough for my room & board, visa and living expenses. We had figured that I needed to come up with $1,000 within the next few weeks in order to go. This amount would just barely cover me, but it would be just enough to get me over there. Basically, I needed a miracle. Even with all these road blocks, I still felt that I needed to be going back to serve at Amani.

Last Sunday, I placed the financial situation into God's hands. If God still wanted to use me in Uganda, He would make it happen. I reminded myself of the scripture Matthew 17:20 He replied, "Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ' Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."

With just a small amount of faith, God can move mountains and make miracles happen. Coming up with $1,000 in two weeks seemed impossible, but with God, the impossible can become possible.

Two days later, I received a slip in the mailbox to pick up an envelope at the post office. I applied for a RN-BSN program at UCF for the fall and figured it was related to that. Once I got back in my car from picking up the envelope, I opened it. The large envelope did not contain an acceptance letter. Instead, inside was a donation for $600 towards Africa! I just started crying. God is so good. Apparently, the person thought they had mailed the check weeks ago and discovered that he hadn't. He was worried that his donation was too late. Instead, it came in God's timing and became the miracle I was praying for. I now only needed $400! Later that day, I found out that my grandma was donating $150 and then my friend told me that God had laid it on his heart to donate $100 towards my trip to Uganda. I had also set aside $150 of my own from various babysitting jobs. In one day, God had provided the $1,000 I needed in order to return to Africa!! I was in complete awe.

Yesterday I was able to purchase my plane ticket :) I will be leaving July 17th, arriving in Entebbe on the 18th. I will be staying for a month and leaving August 16th, returning to FL on the 17th. Of course, I will be continuing this blog while I am over there. Words can not express how grateful I am to be returning to the kids and women at Amani. I also wanted to take the time and ask that if you feel led to contribute financially towards this journey back to Uganda and Amani, there is a way for you to help. Located on this blog is a donation button through paypal. You will be able to enter your own contribution amount.

Thank you so much for following this blog and hopefully being blessed as much as I have been by these incredible children. 

Blessings,

Brooke

Photo Credit: Amani Baby Cottage