'tis the season when everyone is thinking taxes

If you would like your donation to be tax-deductible, you can make checks out to "Mt. Morris First Baptist Church" and write "Kathy's Trip" on the memo line. You can mail those checks to any one of us, or you can mail them to the church at the following address.

First Baptist Church
800 Louisa Street
Mt. Morris, MI 48458


Stay tuned for updates on how our preparations are going. :o)

Ubuntu: I am because you are.

"We are all connected to each other – all of us across the planet – everywhere. Every bad action cascades from person to person and eventually touches everyone at least slightly no matter how distant. But every good thing does too, and even more powerfully, because it brings people together in resonance and harmony instead of pushing people apart. This is the ancient African concept of ubuntu. We are, all of us, in the same boat called Earth. There are no actions in isolation. We are all together."

It is because of ubuntu that three young women from Michigan can be so compelled to make this journey to Uganda. Each of us have been becoming more and more aware that we are all much more connected than we once thought. We have been learning about deep, spiritual relationships. We have become hungry for the unity God desires in the Body of Christ. We understand that the poor and oppressed are our flesh and blood (Isaiah 58:7). We are convinced that every victim of injustice is a person with a story and each one of us is somehow a part of that story. It was only a few days ago when we discovered that ancient Africa had already given this worldview a name: ubuntu.

According to Archbishop Desmond Tutu, "A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed."

This sounds a lot like 1 Corinthians 12 where Paul says, "There should be no division in the body.... Its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it." The same concept is found in Romans 12 where Paul teaches that every member of the Body of Christ belongs to all the rest.

Also, under ubuntu, there is no such thing as an orphan since the roles of mother and father are by definition never vested in a single individual with respect to a single child. Furthermore, a man or a woman with ubuntu will never allow any child around him to be an orphan.

It sounds to me like God was the original Author of ubuntu. And it is this same spirit, the spirit of ubuntu, that Caitlin, Erin, and I (Kathy) wish to carry with us to Uganda. The Ugandan people are our family. Even if on a political level our country ignores the suffering of their country, on a spiritual level we are still one.

We also want you to know that is it because of ubuntu that we consider you much more than blog readers, prayer warriors, and financial supporters. You are an irreplaceable member of our team. Consider this an invitation to join us on our journey because we cannot walk where we are called to walk without you.