This e-mail came late last night from Stephanie Gonzalez, a first time traveler with the Crossing's team to Uganda (second time traveler to Uganda). Stephanie is an impressive young woman with a heart for Uganda and for improving education there. She is working with Patrick Devusser to grow relationships with local schools in Rukingiri. Hear her heart after her experience there-----God is opening ALL kinds of doors there!!!:
Hi Kelly,
We all miss you and wish you could be here with us! We met Janet today, she is
the most incredible little girl I have ever met...10 years old and HIV positive
and yet can not take a smile off of her face! All thanks to you & God providing
her with hope and showering her with love!
The remainder of my email talks about my meeting with a school teacher here who
wants to connect her students with students in America, can you post this email
on the blog or forward to those on the email list?
Tonight around dinner time I met with a woman named Jolly who is a school
teacher here in Rukingiri, Uganda. She teaches students between the ages of
13-18 at an all girls Christian school. After coming to spend a month in
Conneticut(to aid her dear friend who flew there to recieve prosthetic hands
after losing both of them when a crazed man tried to murder her along with her
husband) and a day in New York she realized that everything she and her students
knew about our culture was misunderstood. After that trip God put it on her
heart to raise a body of students who were more informed and accustomed to other
cultures.
After my last trip to Uganda in 2007 God placed the same vision on my heart
and so together Jolly and I are in the process of devising a plan to put GOD's
plan for the students here in Uganda and in California into action. Originally,
she wanted to have the students communicate via snail mail but after some
talking we both decided that it is not the most reliable method. However, she
really wants her students to practice their hand writing so we are considering
scanning(she has one) some of the letters her students write until they are
comfortable enough to start typing. Jolly does have reliable internet connection
in her classroom, so this method of communication could work. I will also be
putting her in contact with Patrick Devusser, who is currently a teacher for the
NMUSD to see what other ideas he may have or what teachers he may know that
would be interested in CONNECTING their classroom with a classroom here in
Uganda! Furthermore, Jolly has started a book club at her school to encourage
the girls to read but because so many of the students are so eager to learn they
do not have a variety of books nor are they able to obtain enough copies of the
same book for the girls. So if any of you know someone that could help her and
her students please contact me.
I also ask that you pray that God places the same vision he has given me,
Patrick and Jolly on the hearts of teachers in California because with out their
cooperation this may not work.
God Bless & thank you to everyone who has supported our team in Uganda,
Stephanie Gonzalez
Stephgonzalez4@gmail.com
