Support. Hope.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2A5jyHNGLHE

This video is very similar to the one I made when I first returned in July. I fixed it up a little and am asking for your partnership for my return in just two short months.  I have about two months to raise just under $4,000.  Please let me know if you have any questions or fundraising ideas.  I am also open to speaking at any meetings or events. You can contact me at machinnis@gmail.com.

Thanks and God bless!

Graduation countdown: 49 days :(
Africa countdown: 65 days!

Just came across this blog post and read it through tears. Since I haven't really shared many details from my trip I'll start here (advanced apologies for being vague, not sure how many details I can share)...Towards the end of the Uganda week of our trip we left Jinja and headed to Kampala to a children's prison.  Sixty Feet is a ministry currently working in the prisons to minister to the children and do as much as they can to provide basic necessities for these children who live in unimaginable conditions. Anyways, we rode our bus about three hours, I think, to what we thought was where we were meeting a staff member of Sixty Feet who was going to take us into the prison.  When we pulled up to where we thought was the right place, no one was there so we called and found out we were at the wrong one and were too far from the one we should have been at. I was pretty bummed because I really wanted to go but we knew that God had a plan! That night, the guy from Sixty Feet came to our guest house and spoke to us about how much they needed our help and I just felt awful that we couldn't go. I was wondering why on Earth we couldn't switch our schedule around to be able to go and just pretty bummed out.  That same night I started feeling kind of sick so I went up to my room after he finished talking to our group.  There was a smaller group of people that stayed to talk to him and worked it out to where a few of them were able to go the next day into the prison.  When I heard about it I wanted even more to go and was extra bummed out because I missed that opportunity.  The next night our group got together to talk about our day since we had split into two groups.  The group from the prison began sharing their experiences and I just can't even begin to do their experiences justice if I tried to retell them.  It is hard to even think about the description of how these children live without crying and asking God, "Why? Why your precious children? They are innocent." Needless to say, we were all very upset listening to these stories of hope or lack of. I knew then that God knew I probably could not have held it together had I gone. He is faithful and has a purpose and plan for everything regardless of our "plans"! I encourage you to check out https://SixtyFeet.org/2011/10/23/steadfast-love/ for just one story and God's promise for these children.  There, you will also find more information on Sixty Feet.  This is one of the places I may get to go to in December.