Point of Grace Benefit Concert this Sunday

Local Brentwood woman, Katie Davis, is founder of Amazima Ministries International, (http://www.amazima.org/) a non-profit organization that supports the education of Ugandan children and assists with the adoption of Ugandan orphans. Katie herself has adopted thirteen girls. She has left them in the care of a good friend, and is back from Uganda for five weeks and will speak at a benefit concert this Sunday, June 28 at Fellowship Bible Church.
Katie's journey is an amazing story going back to December 2006 when she visited Uganda. While there, Katie met Pastor Isaac Wagaba who implored her to come teach Kindergarten at his orphanage in Buziika, Uganda, called Canaan Children's Transit Center. In September 2007, Katie returned to Uganda and began teaching. While working with the children, she began to see the hardships of children and families there. There are no public schools in this area, and families financially sacrifice for their children to go to school, but most cannot pay for their children's education. Katie decided to start a sponsorship program where a sponsor could pay $300 per year and provide a student with schooling, school supplies, two hot meals per day, and any minor medical care needed. By December 2008, Katie had successfully seen 150 children through a year of school. On Saturdays, Katie also provided a bible study, a hot meal, and a bath. Most importantly, Katie gave these children fellowship and the knowledge that others do care about their well being. Follow Katie's journey on her blog at http://www.kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com/ and you will be touched at the devotion of this young Brentwood woman.
Katie also works diligently to help children get adopted. The Oatsvall family is attempting to adopt children from Uganda and Katie is speaking at the June 28th benefit concert that will help fund their adoption. Point of Grace is hosting and will perform at this concert. Tickets are $10 at the door. The doors open at 5 and the concert begins at 6. The Oatsvall Team will be selling many items to benefit their ministry including tshirts, homemade flip flops, necklaces, bracelets and hats. The concert will be at Fellowship Bible Church on Franklin Road in Brentwood, Tennessee. See more about the Oatsvall's journey at http://www.oatsvallteam.blogspot.com/

BHS Senior Collects Old Soccer Uniforms for Needy

A Brentwood High School senior is on a mission this summer to collect presently unused uniforms from past seasons. Here is information from Nick Koltz:

GOT UNIFORMS???
My name is Nick Kolts and I will be a senior at BHS. I have been involved in soccer since I was 4 years old and it has been a big part of my life. I have started an organization called "Y.O.U.", which stands for Your Old Uniforms. I am collecting old soccer uniforms and have a Y.O.U collection box by the welcome desk at the Concord Road and Maryland Farms YMCA. I am distributing them to organizations, both locally and internationally. I want to give back to youth that would love to play but do not have the means to purchase uniforms etc. Especially in this economy, there are many groups that cannot afford to purchase uniforms on their own. I am promoting this with the slogan, "Y.O.U. can make a difference in a child's life".

To date, with the help of the Brentwood Soccer Club and local high schools such as BHS, I have collected over 1000 uniforms. The first donation was recently sent to children in Honduras. More will be sent to an orphanage in Uganda in July and I hope to have some sent with the soldiers of Fort Campbell when they next deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan.

If you have soccer uniforms to donate, please drop them off at the Brentwood Concord Road or Maryland Farms YMCA. If you know of an organization with children who need uniforms, please contact me at cdkolts@aol.com.

America's Youth Address the Plight of Ugandan Children

On June 22 and 23, there will be a lobbying event in Washington D.C. that addresses the atrocious situation facing the Ugandan region and all of its children. The rally has been titled "How it Ends" and the tagline is "It's time for Africa's longest running war to be over, and this is how it ends." Backed by thousands of people, celebrities and politicians alike are showing up to lobby on behalf of this cause. The "How it Ends" website states, "The program will include lobbying trainings, VIP speakers, a kick-off rally and will culminate in an unprecedented outpouring of activism on Capitol Hill, with hundreds of meetings taking place between Members of Congress and their constituents."

The youth of America have been banning together as word of the children of Uganda's plight spreads through the schools, churches, and clubs through groups like enough!, Resolve Uganda and Invisible Children. I am most familiar with Invisible Children, a movement that has provided specific materials and instructions on how youth can make a difference. Overnight walks and mock kidnappings demonstrate through our youth the devastating actions of the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda. Thousands of youth participated in a peaceful "sleep out" last month all over the country. Specifically, they made news by camping outside Oprah's studios and she invited them on the show to share their story.

On March 12, Senator Russ Feingold addressed President Obama and the Senate regarding the Ugandan crisis. His statement began, " Mr. President, I rise today to express my grave concern at the continuing massacres, kidnappings and terror orchestrated by the Lord’s Resistance Army, the LRA, in northeastern Congo and southern Sudan." Feingold's interest and actions regarding this issue go back to 2004 when he authored and Congress passed the Northern Uganda Crisis Response Act. The United States committed to vigorously pursue the end of the war. Negotiations have failed with Lord's Resistance Army leader, Joseph Kony, for over five years. In fact, when Ugandan, Congolese, and South Sudanese armies went on the offensive against the LRA early in 2009, Kony's forces struck back harder killing over 900 people in a two month period. The biggest struggle for most Americans is how Kony is reinforcing his armies - with kidnapped children.

Feingold stated, "We have come a long way in just a few years, thanks especially to young Americans who have become increasingly aware of and outspoken about this horrific situation." My three daughters have been involved in various ways through the Invisible Children organization and it is uplifting to see our children right here in Brentwood striving to make a difference for children halfway around the world. I applaud America's youth. See if you can make a difference or at least make yourself aware of the plight. I feel if it were not for my children and their friends, I might not have known myself about this atrocity.

Websites:

http://www.howitends.com/

http://www.invisiblechildren.com/

http://www.resolveuganda.org/

http://www.allafrica.com/

Invisible Children