Meet the Kids (Part 1)

I want to introduce you to the youngest kids here at the home, and I'm hoping maybe you will fall in love with them as much as I have.

Ronah is 3 years old and such a cutie. She can be sassy and try to get away with anything, though, so you have to watch out for that. When she's in her sweet mood her older siblings really enjoy taking care of her and playing with her. She seems to be picking up on English pretty well. Whenever I read her a story she copies every word I read. It's so cute! She said her favorite food is bananas.

Marvin is 4 years old and such a big helper. When the dishes need to be done he is usually the first to help out. He wants me to join him in the helping too. His favorite color is yellow. His favorite foods are pineapple, oranges, and pizza. He wants to be a pilot when he grows up.

Ryan is 6 years old. He is really sweet and loves to laugh. He's one funny boy who loves attention. His favorite color is yellow. He loves to wash dishes, and his favorite food is pizza. When Ryan grows up he wants to be a driver for visitors.

Lydia is 7 years old. She loves when I read her books. She loves to help out with washing the clothes. She can be shy sometimes, but her laugh is contagious. Her favorite color is blue. Her favorite foods are pizza and chicken. She wants to be a driver and a mom when she grows up.

Lawrence is also 7 years old. He's quite the character. He always makes me laugh. He says his favorite activity is watching movies. His favorite color is red. His favorite foods are the same as Desire (they are best friends), pizza, samosas, rolex (similar to an egg burrito) and chapati (a type of flat bread). When he grows up he wants to be a helicopter pilot.

Desire is 8 years old. He so smart and loves to talk. I was helping him with dishes one afternoon and he talked my ears off! He’s such a dreamer. He told me he wants to be a pilot, a mountain climber and a president. He went on and on about how that would be. So cute! His favorite colors are yellow, pink and purple. His favorite foods are pizza, samosas, rolex and chapati.

Christine is 9 years old. She can be shy, and when the attention is on her she giggles and hides her face. She is really good at playing cards (when we play together she's usually wins every time) and jumping rope. Her favorite color is green. Her favorite foods are rice and chapati. When she grows up she wants to be a shopkeeper and a teacher.

Victoria is 10 years old. She always seems to have a smile on her face and loves helping out with the youngest children. She also loves to dance. Her favorite color is blue. Her favorite foods are pizza and fried chicken. She wants to be a teacher when she grows up.

I see so much joy in the kids. I asked Angela (one of the oldest) after school if she had a good day and she said "No", but had a big smile on her face and was skipping around. So I asked her why she was happy, and she said "Home is good, I am happy to be back at home." This is a family, not an orphanage. The kids and staff here are amazing, and I’m so thankful for this opportunity to be part of their lives this summer.

During the past two weeks I've been able to really get to know the kids and see what it takes to run a home like this. When the kids have free time we play games, read books, watch movies, and just talk together. This past week we played a water balloon toss (their favorite). The kids asked me to bring more water balloons because they remember playing it last time I came (with the YWAM team). They helped me fill them and they had a blast playing. It didn't last long, though, because they were so excited. The joy on their faces was priceless. I love seeing even the oldest ones having fun! 

Taking a silly selfie with Marvin.

The kids are really starting to get to know me and I’m falling in love with them. It’s going to be so hard to leave, I already know that. Even though I miss many things about America and some moments I just want to go back, I really love this place! It’s not always easy. As you can imagine helping raise 16 kids is tiring, emotionally and physically, but it’s also awesome! There is so much to learn from my experiences here!

I can't wait to see what the next 3 weeks bring!

Ryan and I playing with my webcam.

*Prayer requests: 

Please pray that God will give me strength and energy to make the most of my time with the kids. Also, that I would be joyful in everything I do. Thank you!

Also, Kirabo Seeds needs at least 3 more sponsors for the kids here. If you are interested please email me for details (sharonburick@gmail.com). It's only $25 a month. I'll be writing a post soon with more details on sponsorship.

Serving at The Gem Fundation

For the past 28 days I've been serving here at The Gem Foundation. 

The Gem Foundation was founded by Emma (read the amazing story here of how it all began), and exists to take in children with special needs that other orphanages do not have the resources to take care of. Emma's has a huge heart for these children and it's awesome to see! Macey, who like Emma, has moved here indefinitely from America, to work for The Gem Foundation. Currently there are no children in the home, yet, but it could be any day now. They are just waiting on their final approval from the government. The Ugandan staff members are hired, the home is ready, and they even have some children in mind to transfer here as soon as possible.

So as you can imagine we've been doing a lot of praying, waiting, getting last minute things together, and attending meetings. But we didn't forget to have fun!

Staff lunch/birthday party for one of the staff children. 

The sweet birthday boy!

This past week we trained the staff in Early Childhood Development, Nutrition, First Aid, and Special Needs. I put together a training manual for these topics and we taught from it. It was so much fun training the staff and hearing all that they learned. I know these ladies will be such great nannies for the children who come into this home! 

Emma sharing her vision for The Gem Foundation

Me teaching on Early Childhood Education

It's been an incredible journey to serve here and be a part of the beginnings of The Gem Foundation! I can't wait to visit again soon and meet all the precious "gems" that will call this place home! 

Tomorrow morning I travel to the other side of Kampala to serve at the Kirabo Seeds Children's Home. I am very excited for this new adventure, but I will never forget the amazing people here at The Gem Foundation!

The staff members and their families!

Birthday Party Fun!

On May 31st our team joined with A Perfect Injustice to celebrate the birthday of 3 boys in their program. Every month they have a birthday party for the boys born during that month. 

It was an honor to help them prepare the food, join in with the games, face painting, and cookie decorating, as well as help serve them lunch. Here are the pictures from this exciting day!

Rachel and I cutting up fruit.

Carrying the food to the Gazebo.

Washing dishes (makes me appreciate a dishwasher)!

The boys playing with marbles.

Getting their face painted. 

Of course, we ended with their favorite activity, dancing!

Joy for the Street Boys

On May 27th our team helped at a program for street boys in the slums of Kampala.

Taking a group picture with the street boys.

We taught a bible lesson, gave our testimonies, organized games for them and finished off with face painting and coloring.

Rachel sharing her testimony to the boys.

Me telling the boys the story of Noah and talking about God's faithfulness in my life.

20 boys raised their hands to receive Christ after our testimonies and bible story! Wow!


It was amazing to see them all be able to be a kid again. For those 5 hours they didn't have to worry about being hungry, being vulnerable, where to sleep safety, or how to survive.

Photo by Linsay

They really enjoyed everything we did and we saw so many smiles. It was a privilege to see so much joy in them. They were amazing kids! So sweet and loving. I can't even imagine being in their shoes and living on the streets at night especially. Having no where to call home and no one to care for you. It was heartbreaking to think about. But today they were brought hope. Today they laughed. Today they were loved. The ministry that runs this program does such a great job! All their staff really love the children and are great christian leaders for them. What a great experience! 

Teaching School at API

Back on May 28th while the Go Team was still here we had the amazing privilege to teach the boys at A Perfect Injustice. These are boys who once lived on the streets of Kampala. Now they belong to a family, receive an education, and are shown the love of Jesus. They now have a hope and a future, and most importantly have the opportunity to be a part of God's family. It was amazing to go to the village where the boys live! It is a beautiful place with huge gardens, amazing homes, fun playgrounds, and beautiful views. The boys are home-schooled right on campus. The boys are all on different levels, some have never been to school, some have only been a few years when they arrive. So, in order to avoid embarrassment and shame from the other children in public schools the boys are taught everything here. There are also a few girls from the community that are enrolled in the school, because their families are not able to afford school fees. 

The classrooms are under these gazebo's that a past IVO team provided.  

Our team of 8 divided up into pairs and taught the children different subjects. This was actually considered a fun day for the children and the teachers were able to get a much needed break. We taught health/anatomy, agriculture, art/geography, and dance! The children were so excited to have us come teach them and they were so eager to learn. They were all so smart and worked hard. 

Theresa and I taught art/geography, where we drew a map of the world. It was so interesting seeing what each grade level knew about the world. We were impressed with their knowledge! I feel like some of them knew more than me! 

After a few hours of teaching it was time for fun! Theresa, who is a Zumba teacher in America, taught us different dances from around the world. The kids were so thrilled to learn these dances. I'm pretty sure dancing is any Ugandan's favorite thing to do! Of course, they wanted to teach us their local dances at the end.

James 1:27 In Action

On Monday we went to an orphanage far out in the bush (the country). This orphanage was started by Pastor John. It's not just an orphanage though, the model he makes is an orphanage attached to a church. This model is exactly how it's supposed to be according to James 1:27. The church would be the people in the village and they would support the orphans in the home and the caregivers for the children would be the widows in the church. Pastor John has built many models like this in so many villages around the Kampala area. I was so impressed with this model. I have not seen many like this before! I am sure God will bless them abundantly because of the way they are doing it.

We came today to set up the bedrooms in the home, so they could take in children in 2 weeks. International Voice of the Orphan supplied 11 bunk beds, bedding, nets, supplies for the kitchen, and chairs for the church. It was such an honor to help set everything up, carry in the beds, make them and pray over the children and staff that will be living here.

There was a small village school right beside the church/orphanage and the children were curious about what we were doing. So we took a break and went over to greet them. The children have not seen many white people so they were really excited. They loved getting their picture taken with us and seeing it on our camera screens. They thought it was the coolest thing ever.

There were a few children who didn't have the money to go to school and had no food for lunch who came up to us while we were eating lunch. We gave them our leftover sandwiches, and they loved them! They may have been a little confused as to what a peanut butter and jelly sandwich was, but they ate them anyway. Who knows when they had eaten last. The big smiles on their faces showed their thankfulness.

A Village Church

We began our first Sunday in Uganda visiting a church in a village about an hour outside of Kampala called "Christ Restoration Church". Going to a church in the village is always an awesome experience! So much different than any church in America.

If you look closely you can see a butterfly flying by at just the right moment!

Our pre-welcome. Soon after we were surrounded.

I am with a team of 8 (from the US and The Netherlands). Our team leaders Dwight and Emma Saunders started International Voice of the Orphan and The Gem Foundation. Dwight preached an amazing message today for the church and we also did a prayer time afterwords. You could really tell the congregation were getting a lot out of the message and were so hungry for God. We had them come up for prayer at the end if they had any requests. We had so many come up to us and ask for prayer for things like provision for jobs and land, wisdom in school, a way to support their families and for sicknesses. We gladly prayed for each of their needs and asked God to bless them in mighty ways. It's so eye opening to realize how hard their lives must be as we heard some of their stories. They were very encouraged by our prayers and thanked us many times. We heard later that one man actually received Christ during the prayer time! We were all encouraged by that and decided that made the day! It wasn't us that made the impact on them, it was God working through us that changed this man's life forever! All glory goes to Him! We are so thankful to have been a part of that!

Dancing, of course, and a lot of it!

And I want to thank all my supporters as well. If you hadn't have prayed for me or donated to make this trip possible this may not have happened! Because of you there will be at least one more in Heaven! How amazing is that?

Since this congregation had been so generous to our team leader Emma in the past (giving her highly praised gifts, such as a pig) and had welcomed us all so well we wanted to give back to them. So we brought gifts for the pastor and his wife and gifts for all the children. We handed out toothbrushes and lollipops to all the kids at the end. It's the simplest things that they are so thankful for! Their faces were beaming!

What an amazing day in Uganda!

Getting Involved

I leave for Uganda in 34 days! 

I'll be staying for the whole summer serving with 3 different organizations that work with orphans/children-at-risk in the capital city of Kampala. I do still need to rise a good amount of money before I leave. If you would, please prayerfully consider donating, I can guarantee you will not regret it! It will not only be a blessing to the people of Uganda and me, you will also be blessed through it! Your support will play a part in sending me to be the hands and feet of Jesus to the children of Uganda! 

Here are the things you would be providing for through your donation:

• Building a playground for special needs children! 

• Showing God's love and providing food to children who live on the streets!

• Taking care of abandoned babies who need love and attention!

• And loving on orphans of all ages!

Would you like to make an eternal difference in the lives of beautiful children just like these?

Than, please consider donating! 

No amount is too small!

There are currently 3 ways to give:

1).  Make a donation of any amount, 

on my online fundraiser:

http://www.youcaring.com/mission-trip-fundraiser/help-send-sharon/150423

or through paypal:

https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_flow&SESSION=Dc_SQZRfyYZnpg3Ac3LC6eMH5-4uCGb6lawTnZZq1OjmKhfaosTsPf2yvgG&dispatch=5885d80a13c0db1f8e263663d3faee8d8cdcf517b037b4502f6cc98f1ee6e5fb

2).  Purchase something from my online store, here is the link:

https://squareup.com/market/heart-4-orphans

    3).  Send items for me to bring to Uganda to give to the organizations I will be working with. (Items like baby blankets, clothing, shoes, craft supplies, small toys for children). Please email me if you are interested in sending me anything and I will send you an updated list of supplies they need. 



                               Thank you so much!! 

(An awesome video from last year with my team from YWAM Madison. This is a great example of what it looks like to give to children in need! The joy on their faces is priceless!)