My dear friend Sharon recruited me to join the Mocha Club this fall and I am so glad she did.

I have always had a fascination with the continent of Africa, and my passion for Africa grew deeper when I took an African Art History course at Winthrop, then shortly after that I saw the film, Invisible Children in NODA one night. Ever since watching that film I have become passionate about the immense suffering in Northern Uganda and Sudan.



Spring 2007 my sweet friend Danielle and I went to ATL to sleep among 2,000 strangers for Displace Me to raise awareness of the IDP (internally displaced persons) camps in Gulu, Uganda. That was a big deal for me because I have never even been camping. So to sleep outside without any shelter in a crappy $30 sleeping bag from Target that was soaking wet was a bit challenging. (I'm a girly girl, okay?) But it reminded me that was only one night and so many people live in much worse conditions every single moment of their lives.


(Danielle, later went on to teach in Gulu summer 07 &08)





I am so blessed it is disgusting. I don't deserve this life. I pray that I will have the opportunity to go to Uganda before I die (maybe when Walter finishes seminary). I don't think I can fully comprehend how blessed I am until I see extreme poverty face to face. I know there is a ton of it in our own country, but it is not the same as the terrible tragedies facing Uganda & Sudan and many other countries...

Starvation. AIDS. Child soldiers. Genocide. Sex slaves. Orphans. How can I help? How can I make a difference.?

I need Africa more than Africa needs me.

Why?

Because it is Africa that has taught me that there are injustices in this world I can not even comprehend, but God has given me SO much and I CAN make a difference with what He has given me. I've learned that I don't need what I have and that I have what I need.




For $7 bucks a month YOU can make a difference and change lives..the price of 2 mochas.

Join me:

http://mochaclub.org/joinme/Stiffler

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Ephesians 2:8