This is a terrible story and we are in urgent need of your financial support and prayer for Robert. The message below comes from Katie Sasser, who works for Global Support Mission on the ground in Kaihura, Uganda:

On July 17th, one of the orphaned boys at Home Again, 15 year old Robert Kabiito, was hit by a car. We’re a little unclear on the details of the story, but what we know is that Robert was riding his bike home from school when he was hit by a car coming from the neighboring town of Kyenjojo. I saw him this morning in the Hospital in Fort Portal. He is doing okay considering what he has gone through. He had emergency surgery last night to stop the bleeding and to repair the break of his fibula and tibia which were broken up by the knee. The doctor said today that they are really shocked that he made it through the night. He will stay in Fort Portal until Wednesday and then they will transfer him to Kampala where he will have another 2-3 surgeries to repair the other breaks. His femur, elbow, and shoulder are broken. His head is swollen and the other leg is very badly scraped up. He really needs prayer and support right now.

His treatment is going to be very costly and his recovery will be long. If you would like to get involved and you are not sure what you can do, we could really use your help with the medical bills. Bringing Hope can not afford the medical bills and this will be putting them in a tough spot. So again, this is a need for help. I asked Robert what he would want to say to his friends in the US and around the world that know him, or not know him. He said “I am somehow and please continue to pray for me.”

Click here to give towards Robert’s medical bills and keep up with this blog and also on Twitter to find out the latest about Robert. I appreciate your time and thank you for your prayers.

Katie Sasser

I walked up to the orphanage and saw Faith sitting with an incredibly frail little boy. She told me his name was Moses and he had just recently come to them. He looked like an infant, no more than a year and a half old… I was shocked to find out that he was supposedly 4 or 5 years old, depending on who you asked. How could this be? How could a child that age be so malnourished, so frail, so unresponsive and close to death? Moses came to Home Again not only HIV Positive but with a myriad of other illnesses as well. If ever there was a case that was easy to lose hope in, it was Moses.

But Faith never lost hope. The transformation I saw take place in Moses over 3 months was probably the most incredible transformation I’ve ever seen in my life. What was absolute skin and bones, the poster child for frailty and malnourishment, was now filling out, a little chubbiness to his cheeks. They had him in a walker to help strengthen his legs. He will eat anything and everything in arms reach. He smiles. He waves. It is a beautiful, beautiful sight.

I love this story. I love how much redemption and hope it contains. There are many stories that echo Moses’, however many of them go unnoticed or they suffer far more unfortunate fates. We can change that. After watching Moses’ story, log on to Know.Think.Act. and see how you can help provide care and resources to orphans like Moses.

I hope you enjoy this video. I hope it challenges and inspires you. Above all, I hope it gives you hope for what is and what can be. Moses is an inspiration to us and I know he will be to you as well.

Jeremy Stanley
U.S. Programs Director

My time here in East Africa has come to a close. Over the last two months I’ve had the honor and privilege to sit down with so many incredible individuals and listen to their stories; from young children facing the challenges of getting a basic education, to elderly men and women who have lived with leprosy the majority of their life, to leaders who have given up their personal pursuits to serve their community. The situations are different, the struggles and challenges vary, but their hope is what binds them all together.

What follows is a small photo journal of a few of these conversations.

We are so excited to be able to share these stories in video format with you over the coming year. And, as we release each story you will have the ability to become a part of the continued narrative… to give life to the hope that binds them!

So, join our community of action on www.knowthinkact.com by becoming an ally and keep an eye out as we start to release these stories starting in July.

Compassion = Action,

Travis Gravette
Founder & Executive Director

Walking through the slums of Mombasa, I start to think of all the other slums I’ve visited around the world. They can vary wildly, but all have similar through lines. You can feel the hopelessness, the despair, the lack of self-worth. There’s a longing for opportunity, for a dying dream to be reborn and displayed in front of you, not as a dream, but as your reality. Many dream of breaking free from the vice like grip of the slums, yet few seem to achieve it. Why is this? What makes escape so seemingly improbable, if not impossible?

Many have been born into the slums. Never having a chance, never knowing what one would look like. They’ve lived in dilapidated shacks, hastily thrown together, barely standing, their whole lives. They walk barefoot, through heaps of trash with raw sewage draining beside their walkways. Many have never even left the confines of the slum.

I walked through the slums of Mombasa, stepping on piles of fermenting and rotting garbage, over small pools of toxic looking green waste. We made our way down the coastline at the base of the slum, stepping around piles of feces littering the sand, as there are a lack of bathrooms. If you are not careful, you can feel the overwhelming hopelessness creep over you, like a thick fog that has no intention of releasing you from its misty haze.

But hope cannot be kept down. We are with a few of the Action Ministry team. They begin to introduce us to people they are working with in the slums. And they being to share their stories. Hope rises. Families that started out in a home that was literally falling to pieces, has now moved to a better part of the slum into a small mud and brick home. It may not seem like much, but it is a huge step for them.

We hear stories of teenagers and twenty-somethings, that have taken up soccer and boxing in Action Ministry’s sports program. We visit the gym where the boxers train. It is an incredible sight. They tell us how much they love it. How it is teaching them discipline and how those they train with have become like family. We hear of the programs and initiatives that Action Ministry has in store for these slums in Mombasa. And the misty haze begins to dissolve. The fog begins to lift. Hope, as it always does, rises to the surface.

We can be so quick in dismissing those of the slums, those living in abject poverty. We can throw our hands up in despair and walk away. Never looking back and muttering the question of what is the point. Let us not be so quick to judge, to dismiss. There is a strong tide beginning to shift in the slums of Mombasa. The team of Action Ministry knows the potential of these precious lives. They see the possibilites of these forgotten children. They refuse to let their vision be clouded by the fog of doubt and defeat.

It will be a long fight, yes, but one worth fighting. No one should ever be dismissed for not having the opportunities growing up that so many of us take for granted. No one. Let us link arms with Action Ministry as they support and love the people of the slums of Mombasa. Action Ministry is assembling many practical ways for you to get involved with helping the people of the slums. Keep visiting the Needs page on Know.Think.Act. To see how you can be a part of lifting the fog of hopelessness off of these precious people.

Jeremy Stanley
U.S. Programs Director

WARNING: This post contains graphic images of leprosy wounds and sores.

I grew up reading the Bible, hearing Bible stories, etc… Throughout the Bible you always hear about lepers and leprosy, that they were always deemed unclean, that they were sent away from their city or town or village into camps. There was a severe stigma associated with the disease. Those infected not only had to live with the physical effects of the disease, but also with an intense and overwhelming sense of loneliness and unworthiness from being cast aside and pushed to the margins of society. They became the untouchables. A scratched out footnote of humanity.

Leprosy is a contagious disease that affects the skin, mucous membranes, and nerves, causing discoloration and lumps on the skin and, in severe cases, disfigurement and deformities. This can mean anything from what looks like a skin disease to the literal loss of fingers, toes and other extremities. Open sores and wounds form and cause even more pain and suffering.

The one thing that I (and I venture to say that many of you) didn’t realize is that leprosy is still alive and active today. It isn’t a strange, rare disease strictly confined to the ancient Biblical middle east. It is present today. It is primarily found in tropical regions of Africa, Asia and South America.

I never thought I would come face to face with those affected by this horrific disease. That I would watch men and women struggle with the basics that we take for granted… walking, holding things in our hands… that I would see limbs and extremities missing… nubs where toes and fingers once were. But I have.

I spent two days at a leper camp visiting with our newest affiliate Action Ministry. They are working with these beautiful people who have been affected by this grotesque disease. As in the stories of the Bible, these lepers have had to deal with the same stigma, rejection and neglect. The exclusion from society and years of being unloved has run so deep that it has had a severe affect on their children and grand children; who are clean and unaffected by the disease.

Through the work of Action Ministry there is a beautiful restoration taking place. The camp was once known as Tumbe (meaning a place for rejected people), but they have renamed it Blessed Camp. Through a feeding program, monthly medical outreaches, educational programs and the founding of a church, they are meeting physical and spiritual needs that have been untouched for years. The work that is being done is incredible… a work of hope and healing.

You can help Action Ministry and be a part of the work that is happening in Blessed Camp. Check out Know.Think.Act. right now. Whether through purchasing medication, food for the feeding program, or educational resources for the children, there is a tangible way that you can get involved.

Click here to help provide the supplies needed to dress the wounds of those affected by leprosy. As little as $80 can help 40 people have their wounds dressed twice a week. That’s $2 per person per week!

Jeremy Stanley
U.S. Programs Director

Peter stands in the room, beaming at the children. In one corner, they point at a picture and yell out what it is in English, over and over again. In another corner, they are learning their multiplication tables. Outside this building, a table is being set-up as two men are putting on scrubs, laying out several medications. A man gingerly walks towards the table, another hobbles over with a walking stick. An older woman with a single crutch and wearing an oddly large and awkwardly shaped shoe sits down on the bench where the men are preparing the medications. The woman begins to take off her shoe and unwind the bandages around her foot. This woman suffers from leprosy. As the bandages come off, the men in scrubs begin treating and cleaning her wounds. They will do the same for the men that follow. This is the work of Action Ministry.

Peter grew up in western Kenya, some 50 kilometers from the Uganda border. Growing up in a rural region, Peter was excited to have the opportunity to move to Mombasa to train with and then become a staff member of a large hotel in the city. He enjoyed his job and being a part of this new city. However, Peter had a desire to be a part of something more. He wanted to be a part of serving people, to see their lives changed and transformed. He saw lack all around him and wanted to help bring it to an end. At 24 years of age, Peter started filing all the necessary paperwork and started an organization called Action Ministry. He began to pray that God would open doors and provide him with opportunity to serve.

One day, as Peter was walking to work, a man approached him, begging. This is not uncommon in Mombasa, but Peter started listening to and then questioning the man. He was asking Peter to pay his child’s school tuition. Peter asked him why he was unable to pay and he told him it was because he was unable to work due to his disability. He had leprosy. Peter asked this man to go to the school and get a letter from there, stating the issue with tuition and then to bring the letter back to him. He did.

Peter agreed to help this man pay for his child’s tuition. He also wanted to meet the child and see where this man and his family lived. The man took Peter to his home. Peter was astounded by what he saw. For this man was not the only one affected with leprosy. He was living in a community with many, many others affected by this brutal disease.

Peter wanted to take action and felt that this was it. This is what he had been waiting for. He strongly believed that God had planted this in his heart and that he was to pursue it completely. This is where his faith and trust had brought him.

Action Ministry is now focused on working into that very same leper camp, where years of rejection, humiliation and loneliness after stigmatized not only those affected directly by this terrible affliction, but their family members as well. Action Ministry is working to restore hope and pull these families from the margins.

Action Ministry is also working into two large slums in Mombasa. Coming alongside those that have very little if anything to claim as their own. Barely standing shacks as homes. Lack of water, food, finances and anything resembling hope for the future. These are those that Peter and the rest of the Action Ministry staff feel called to love and to care for.

We are honored and privileged to call Action Ministry an Affiliate of Global Support Mission. We are so impressed and humbled by the vision of Peter and the rest of his staff. They have vision and clarity and are pursuing it with wisdom, thoughtfulness and planning. We so look forward to sharing with you the many stories that are to come. Please go to Action Ministry’s Needs page on Know.Think.Act. to see how you can help be a part of changing the lives of those in the leper camp and slums of Mombasa.

Seeing the Difference,

Jeremy Stanley
U.S. Programs Director

Coming back from my second trip to Uganda and beginning to re-acclimatize has given me a chance to pause and think about how I ended up on this trip and why I believe so strongly in the organization that I traveled with, Global Support Mission.

To understand how I ended up traveling to Uganda you have to go back quite a few years. Almost five years ago I saw a movie created by three guys from San Diego called “Invisible Children.” I was moved to tears hearing and seeing how the children of Uganda were living. After I saw the movie I looked up the organization and gave the standard donation, but felt like I wanted to do more. I believe that God often emotionally moves us in order that we will act, and I knew somehow this country Uganda would come up again. I just didn’t realize how Uganda would change my life and faith.

I am the Associate Pastor of a church in a fairly affluent area of Southern California. I am blessed to have the opportunity to connect the youth of southern California with the world. I had spent some time while in seminary studying the connection between our own personal piety and our call to social justice, and I have always felt that service was a huge part of my faith. One of the ways that I helped our youth group to connect faith to action was to commit our group to sponsoring a child through World Vision following our participation in a 30 Hour Famine. Low and behold when we hit the button to allow World Vision to select us a child it selected a little girl named Prisca from Northern Uganda.

A couple of years after we began to sponsor Prisca an opportunity to travel to Uganda came through another church. My biggest fear was raising money but as my friend John said “Your right to worry God doesn’t have enough money to send you where he wants you.” Point taken, I raised all the money and more in less than a week! Through God’s grace the area of Uganda that we traveled to was the very town that Prisca was from. I had no idea before I interviewed to be on the mission team that I would be traveling and staying anywhere near where she lived. The excitement and nerves I felt meeting this child was more than I have felt for any other event in my life. Forget first dates, I was so nervous and happy just to get to see the girl we had been writing to and praying for! It was an amazing trip but it left a hole in me that wanted to do more. I was really wanting to help establish something that was sustainable and community driven, run by locals. That desire continued to grow in my heart for awhile.

I still had Africa on the brain almost two years after this trip when, through a former grad school classmate, I met Travis Gravette. He was traveling through California and my friend got us to connect and grab coffee together. Travis shared with me about Global Support and the heart of its mission and passion; Transforming the lives of east Africans through mobilizing and enabling local affiliates. Affiliates are on the ground already engaged in change and justice. As a youth pastor I was excited to hear about Know.Think.Act, a website that works like a social network site connecting people together around a cause and need. As Travis and I talked I began to want to get involved in what Global Support was doing. A couple of months later I felt led to call Travis and ask if I could join him and a team in traveling to Uganda. This is the way that I got on the team that traveled to Uganda March 10th.

The trip itself was amazing. I want to write it all down but room won’t allow it so please accept these few details and stories. I worked with an organization and affiliate of Global Support called Bringing Hope to the Family in Kaihura, a village 5 hours from Kampala. Bringing Hope is run by an amazing women named Faith. They serve 3,000 people through various means including an orphanage and a medical clinic. I met the Sasser family, who are the International Coordinators for Global Support. I got the job of helping to build a metal playground for the orphans. At first I thought it meant assemble a playground. Nope. It meant build, welding and all, a metal playground. I worked alongside a team member, Jeremy Stanley, and occasionally another team member named Josh Bronleewe, but mostly along side a man named Phil who is from Australia. Phil is teaching locals how to weld, fix cars, do carpentry and all sorts of other crafts. He is hoping to help people create their own means of creating sustainable businesses. Seeing his teaching effect the day to day lives of locals was inspiring.

I also got to travel to villages where Bringing Hope has educated locals about malaria and the use of bed nets. Following the education Bringing Hope has handed out many bed nets. It was amazing to speak with one of the women and find out that she had malaria 5 times last year but since getting the net and education she has been healthy and able to work her farm. I also got to see the type of well the rest of our team had been working on. After seeing the original water source compared to the well water I knew that building wells will forever be a passion of mine. It makes the difference between health and vitality, infirmity and even death for many of these local people. I love Global Support because they don’t just go in and build a well. Community members are involved and employed to create the well so that it becomes a community investment.

Perhaps the biggest thing I will carry with me through out my life is the images that I saw while back in Uganda. The people I believe are some of the most beautiful people I have ever seen. I am always blown away by the beauty of their smiles. Since returning I have treasured my photos and the stories of the people these pictures represent. One such story is the story of Moses, this tiny boy I met the first day. He has HIV and was malnourished.

Had you asked me that first day if he would make it, I would have said not likely. He broke my heart. He barely looked at people and was tiny. They told us they thought he was around four but he looked about a year old, due to his malnourishment. The next time I saw him was at church three days later. The orphanage had him a couple of days and had gotten some food and medicine in him. As our team member Josh led worship I looked over and saw Moses clapping along. Not strongly but very gently keeping the beat.

I was brought to tears. At that moment, I believed that Moses would make it. I saw him the day before I left. I went over to the orphanage for dinner and there he was, sitting up on his own and eating. I was helping them clean up the plate after dinner and little Moses had a tight grip on his. There was no way I was getting it away from him. My heart was beaming. He was well enough to feed himself and wanted to keep going. There are many Moses stories that I will carry with me and be processing for a long time. I left Uganda and once again left a little piece of me there.

So the standard question is what now? How will I respond? For me the answer is fairly simple I will stay a supporter and ally with Global Support. I will raise awareness and give a voice for those who live in extreme poverty. I have begun by creating a Know.Think.Act Action Group called “Agape Alliance” and hope to raise funds for specific needs through that. More than that I have committed myself to trying to connect folks to one of the major needs and that is building a larger medical clinic in Kaihura. I hope to connect my physician friends to this great need and see the completion of the communities dream of being able to get medical care within their community. They now travel great distances for emergency care, which often means it is too late. I also promise to not forget Uganda or the lessons it has taught me. I know I will go back to Uganda, I have to, I left part of my heart there. In some ways traveling to Uganda is always a bit like going home.

Sarah Heath
International Volunteer

This blog is a bit lengthy, but it is very very important. Please take the time to read it all. I would be most grateful.

It is so satisfying and rewarding to work with our network affiliates long term. Since I met Faith in 2004 she’s gone from supporting 600 orphans and a staff of two people (including herself) to now having over 3,000 children registered under Bringing Hope to the Family and a staff of over 40.

Faith is a woman of vision and action. She knows the process of seeing a need, finding a solution, and the hard work of implementation and then the even harder work of creating sustainability (which is a constant process). It’s how everything that Bringing Hope to the Family does has come into being.

One of the biggest needs she’s been working on over the last five years is good medical care that is accessible to her local community. The nearest hospital (that is of any quality) is over 50km away. That’s about a forty minute drive. Many people have died or just went without proper treatment, because of the distance. I’ve personally seen both… and it’s heart breaking.

About four years ago Faith started a small clinic to provide basic care to the orphans, widows and HIV positive individuals she was working with. Over time that clinic has grown and expanded it’s services and reach. It has moved rooms and buildings several different times to contain the growth. For the last three years Faith has been trying to build a phase one portion of a larger medical center plan.

Our friends from Embrace Uganda have been working on this project with Faith over the last year. Here is a description of the current situation from their project manager here in Uganda.

Overview of Hope Again Medical Center Outpatient Clinic (Phase I):

The phase I proposed outpatient clinic building is an approximately 3,200 square-foot structure. It will include two exam rooms, a treatment room, a laboratory, a counseling room, a 2-stage delivery room, two patient wards, a nurses room, a storage room, an administrative office, a handicapped-accessible bathroom, an open-air reception/waiting area, and a records/dispensing room.

Phase one is currently under construction, but is running out of funds. It has been years in the making to get to this point and we believe that this will be built. We want to give you the opportunity to be a part of making that happen. We need $154,764 to finish phase one. You can give on Know.Think.Act. We’ve broken that number down into parts. If you would like to give a donation of $5,000 or more please mail a check (to save on credit card fees) to:

Know.Think.Act.
1262 2nd Avenue South
Nashville, TN 37210

Please make checks out to Global Support Mission and put Medical Clinic in the memo. 100% of every donation, whether it’s a $5 donation online or a $10,000 check will go directly to finishing this clinic. I’ve seen $40 save a young girls life… I paid the medical bill. Every little bit helps and adds up! So please don’t fail to act, because you think that what you have to offer is insignificant… it’s not!

So let’s build this clinic! And bring Hope Again, to a community in need!

Compassion = Action,

Travis Gravette
Founder & Executive Director

We’ve had a great first week here in Uganda. I wanted to give you an update of everything that’s been going on.

We’ve been hauling materials down to where a new shallow well will be dug, within the next week. Its steep terrain, so getting the concrete blocks, brick, sand, etc. to the well site has been intense labor, hauling four concrete blocks at a time by wheelbarrow, down a steep hill and then back up again. The heat these days was intense. We’re excited to get digging though! We visited the current water sources and let’s just say, I’m so happy to have this well go in. It’s amazing to see what communities like this one rely on for their drinking water.

We’ve also been building playground equipment for the Home Again Orphanage. Cutting, sheering, hammering, welding all of the pieces into place. Once we’re finished, we’ll have a set of monkey bars, three swings and a slide for the kids to play on!

We have several other projects going on as well, but for now, I wanted to show you a glimpse of our time here in Uganda so far through photographs. A few of these are mine, but all the credit goes to David Molnar. David is an incredible friend of GSM as well as a Board Member. He also happens to be an amazing photographer. He’s here with us for the next week and has delivered some breathtaking shots. You can check out more of his work at davidmolnar.com.

Jeremy Stanley
U.S. Programs Director

After nearly 3 full days of travel, we’ve arrived safely in Kaihura, Uganda! We started in Nashville. Myself, Travis & Maggie Gravette from GSM as well as our volunteers Josh Bronleewe from Nashville & Sarah Heath from Orange County, CA. We arrived at the airport and immediately had our first adventure! Sarah accidentally left her passport on a copying machine 2 hours away in Alabama! We thought she was going to miss the flight, but our flight ended up being delayed by an hour and she made it JUST in time! Was pretty amazing. So we flew from Nashville to Washington DC. From DC we flew to Rome, Italy where we refueled and then headed down to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We got in to Addis late so the airline put us up in a nice hotel and had a really late dinner. We woke up, drove back to the airport and then flew down to Entebbe, Uganda. I had to post this photo. Doesn’t the couple sitting off to the right look like they’re posing for an advertisement straight out of the 1940’s? I thought so too. Katie Sasser, one of our International Coordinators was in Entebbe waiting to pick us up. This is also where Emilia joined us on the journey! She has been traveling all over Europe and had been spending a little bit of time in Cairo, Egypt. We’re really excited to have her here with us! From there we drove into Kampala by taxi, where we off-loaded our bags, exchanged money and grabbed lunch.
After lunch we bought our bus tickets and headed on a 5 hour bus ride to Kaihura!

We arrived around 11:30pm on Friday night. There was a group of people still awake and waiting for our arrival. It was great to see all of their beautiful faces, including Faith, who founded Bringing Hope to the Family, our Affiliate here in Kaihura.

We’re so excited to be here and there have been MANY adventures to tell you about, even after a few days here. Hauling concrete blocks for a shallow well, playground equipment construction, hand shucking corn with the community, motorcycles and many, many stories to come! In the next blog I’m going to be telling you about an urgent need hear in Kaihura and we are really going to need your help with this!

Thank you to everyone who got us here, who supports and loves us and who is praying for us. We’re incredibly excited to be here and cannot wait to see what happens on this trip!

Jeremy Stanley
U.S. Programs Director

P.S. Okay a few things here. First, I cannot explain to you how tired I was. I didn’t sleep the night before. At all. Didn’t go to bed. Second, my lips are NOT that red. I’m blaming Sarah’s camera. Third, I have and will continue to rock out the eye mask, no matter what color the airline decides it should be. Good, bad or whatever you would call this particular mask. That is all.