I’m Going to Africa!

For several months now, I’ve heard the Lord whispering “Africa.”  I’ve never been, but it has been popping up in my social media streams and then into my life enough that a few months ago, I began asking the Lord if I was supposed to go… if this whisper of Africa might be meant for me.

But why would I go?  What would take me there?  And once there, what would I do?  I didn’t know…but I kept hearing it almost like a breeze through the trees….

“Africa.”

As Allume began to draw near this fall, I kept hearing it more… “Africa.”  And I couldn’t help but notice that there was a fair amount of Africa coming directly in my path.  Partners like FH who had taken friends of mine to Africa (and me to Bangladesh one year ago), introductions to Pearl Ministries and Ornaments 4 Orphans who are doing amazing work in Uganda, and my new friends at Sole Hope too.  It suddenly began to feel like Africa was all around me.

About 6 weeks or so before Allume I got a really funny email from Dru Collie, who along with his wife Asher, founded Sole Hope.

“I think we went to elementary school together,” it said.

Dru Collie….Dru Collie…Dru Collie…..hmmm…sounds kinda familiar, but not sure.  I thought and thought and didn’t remember.  So I emailed him back and said ” You went to Oakwood too?!”

Nope…Viewmont.  But turns out that we did go to middle school together!  Grandview Eagles ya’ll!  And then I remembered him! Back then I was the cheerleader that had incisors that grew in above my gumline, and tall, lanky Drü who now spells his name with a fancy umlaut, was called plain ol “Andrew.”

And here we are a few years later, a couple of kids from Hickory, NC who are partnering our organizations to make a difference in the world.  Even crazier too is that my dear old friend, Laura Parker, co-founder of the Exodus Road, was also a Grandview eagle.  Funny how God decides to use a few random kids from Hickory, NC to accomplish his purposes all over the world.

Anyhow, as I got to know Asher better at Allume, I just fell more in love with not just the Collies, but the work they are doing in Africa.   My kids became interested in it.  It was something they could begin to wrap their arms around.  And it was so simple to get involved.  Beyond just sending money, Sole Hope builds a road to take something small here and make it count big there.

Take a pair of jeans that you’re not really wearing anymore (and let’s be honest, anyone who has ever had a baby or eaten too much Thanksgiving dinner has at least 1 or 11 pairs that would qualify), invite some friends over to bring their ill-fitting pants with them too, gather around a table and cut them up using shoe patterns provided by a Sole Hope shoe cutting kit.  Send the cut out jeans back to Sole Hope’s office in the US, and they ship them to Uganda.  Once in Uganda, your old pants become life-giving for thousands of people there.  The patterns are made into shoes that provide a fair wage for workers and use recycled tires for the soles.  They pave the way for foot washing clinics to remove terrible, debilitating jiggers from children’s feet, and each child gets a new pair of shoes.  Sole Hope ministers to the people of Uganda through education, medical care, and literal foot washing to eliminate the problem of jiggers amongst children there.

Watch this quick video to see what I’m talking about.  Be aware that the images are difficult to see, but even my own children have watched it and the Lord continues to break their young hearts for his beloved there in Africa.

My 4 year old had an ingrown toenail recently.  As we worked to pull it out from the skin growing in around it, he looked at me and told me how badly it hurt, and then said “I bet it hurts even more with those kids in Uganda.  Maybe we can send them some of my shoes Mommy so that their feet don’t hurt.”

They get it friends.  Even our children can understand pain and want to give hope to the hopeless.  And despite the fact that I will be away from my own children from March 9-20th on a trip to Uganda with Sole Hope, they are excited to be a part of the story that gives hope to others.

I’m excited to go.  I’m also nervous because I know that the most work I’ll do there will probably be on my own heart.  But I’m honored to be a part of the hope story in Uganda.  The Lord whispered “Africa” to me and is allowing me to shout it loud for others to hear now too.

We had a shoe cutting party for Sole Hope at Allume this fall, and our creative director, Carey Bailey, and I have the unbelievable honor of following some of those cut out shoes to actually place them on the feet of precious children while we are there.  We are joining a team of women who will be using our online spaces to make the story of hope tangible for those longing to be a part of it.  I hope you’ll follow along as I write from Uganda between March 9-20, and make the Sole Hope story a part of your hope story as well.

If you’d like to donate to our trip, that’d be super awesome.  We all need to raise support to be able to go, and I’d be honored if you would partner with me in this way to make it happen. The goal is to raise $2800 each and I’m part of the way there, but am asking for your help now too to bring this piece of my story fully to life. You can go HERE to make a “One Time Donation” and in the notes part, write “Logan Wolfram – March trip.”

And whether you donate or not, I’d love to have you follow along and join the story that God is allowing me to be a part of telling.