God Answered Your Prayers with a “YES!” — Thank you thank you thank you thank you!!

*** INITIAL POST FROM NOVEMBER 14 *** ASKING FOR PRAYERS FOR UPGRADES SO WE COULD BRING GIFTS ***

gifts1

Dear friends,

In exactly one week, my twelve year-old daughter and I will be flying on the first flight of our journey to Uganda. If all goes well, our routing will take us from Billings, Montana to Salt Lake City, Detroit, Amsterdam, Rwanda, and into Entebbe.

I am writing today to ask you to PLEASE consider praying for us to be upgraded on just ONE flight. Now. I fully recognize that I may sound like an entitled jerk and a terrible missionary to ask for such a thing. And maybe I am—but please allow me to at least try to convnince you that there is actually a righteous reason for my request …

No. We are not asking for an upgrade for the 11+ hour flight with the fancy lie-flat beds. Or the 8.5 hour flight that comes AFTER we have already been in airports and on airplanes for over 36 hours. Again. Nope. No way.

We are praying for an upgrade on our shortest flight (BIL-SLC, around 1 hr) because if that clears, we get to take an extra 100 lbs of gifts to Uganda!! Peacemaking/Relational Wisdom resources, medical supplies, feminine care products, school supplies, and soccer balls for the 180+ children who are expected to attend the women’s conference (at which Sophie and I are speaking) with their mothers … and more!

The rules for our airline are that each passenger gets two 50-lb checked bags, so Sophie and I are planning to live out of our carryons and use our entire checked luggage allowance for gifts for Uganda. If we clear even ONE upgrade, our checked baggage allowance jumps to THREE. How great would that be?! An extra 100 lbs of gifts!

If you are so inclined, would you please join us in praying for this strange prayer request for an upgrade? Thanks to your astoundingly generous gifts, our dining room overfloweth with goodies that need to be packed in the next few days. It would help us so much to have that extra “wiggle room” and space of 100 lbs and two more boxes/bags. If the Lord wills!

Thank you thank you thank you!

Much, much love—
The Barthels

PS
If you’d like to pray for other things related to our time serving in Uganda, here is a quick overview of our schedule:

Monday, Nov 14: Depart at 5:50AM — arriving Entebbe Tuesday evening around 11:00PM + 3 hour drive to village
Wed-Thur-Fri: Both Sophie and Tara meet with the women in their homes to visit, read the Bible, and pray together
Saturday, Nov 19: Tara meets with the men of the community to discuss biblical peacemaking and other issues related to the women’s conference topics
Sunday, Nov 20: Sophie and Tara teach at the women’s conference
Monday, Nov 21: Sophie and Tara participate in a dedication service for the new Life and Peace Children’s Hospital
Midnight, Monday — depart Entebbe, arriving Billings (Lord willing!) Tuesday evening, November 22

gifts2-jpg PPS
If you have no idea what any of this is talking about, you can read more about our trip on our GoFundMe pages:

*********UPDATE**********UPDATE***********UPDATE***************

God answered your prayers with a “YES!” and we were able to bring NINE suitcases and boxes stuffed with gifts for the village of Kibisi, Uganda. Thank you so, so very much!!

You can read all about our service project in Uganda on this page of my website, and you can even see photos and videos of the boxes and suitcases filled with gifts and being shared with the Ugandans here.

Thanks to YOU, the women leaders in Uganda are going to be able to DOUBLE the number of young ladies in their computer / tech classes. In just a few short weeks, we have already raised funds for the three most immediately at-risk girls TO GET TO STAY IN SCHOOL (!!) and we are prayerfully working hard to try to find the $30/month (or the $50/month) to keep the other at-risk elementary and secondary girls in school—safe and tucked away from their only other potential futures: the child-bride “marriages” to alcoholic, abusive, polygamous men who will abandon them and their children to destitution.

If you have a few spare moments and you would like to share your advice with us re: how we should apply for grants, private family foundation funding, NGOs, any honorable source of funding!!, we would be so grateful for your counsel. Or may you are ready to take the leap and fund a girl’s education at $30/month! Please just click on the “Getting Involved” tab or drop us a line: tara “at” tarabarthel “dot” “com.”

THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! WE ARE ON OUR KNEES IN GRATITUDE AND WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!