in support ..

December 2007

My Dear Friends and Family,

I hope this letter finds you well!

As you may know, I am nearing the end of my college career. While I had been planning on graduating in May 2008 with the rest of my class, the Lord had other plans for me. So, I am now graduating in December of 2007, and from there I am setting off on the adventure of my life.

I have been involved with a non-profit organization called Invisible Children for the past two years. This organization was founded by three young men who stumbled across a story that would change their lives while in Uganda, Africa. These three men discovered that there are children who commuted up to ten miles every night from their village into the middle of towns to escape the threat of abduction by a rebel army. The Lord’s Resistance Army, or LRA, has been waging a war for the past 21 years, in which the army abducts children and forces them to fight in a war that they and their people despise and long for to be over with. These children are brainwashed and forced to kill other children, their own family, and strangers in the name of a cause that they care nothing about.

Two summers ago, I watched the documentary produced by these three young men, and it changed my life. I knew I had to do more, and so I did. I came back to college as a sophomore, and my good friend, Amy, and I set out to do all that we could on Northwestern’s campus. While we worked hard in Orange City, Iowa, we wanted to do more. So in July 2006, we packed up my car and headed across the country to San Diego, California, where we volunteered in the office of Invisible Children for the month of July, doing whatever they needed us to do. We came back to campus and did as much as we could again at Northwestern and in Orange City during our junior year of college.

Again, we knew we had to do more. So while we made plans to go to Uganda during the summer of 2007, God had other things in store. Uganda slowly faded out of the picture, but instead Amy, my sister, Chelsea, and I were offered the job of our lives at the Invisible Children office in San Diego. The three of us set off again on our cross-country trip to San Diego. We spent an incredible summer talking to hundreds of people about their experiences with Invisible Children and specifically their experience at the national event, called Displace Me, that was held in April 2007, in which nearly 70,000 people participated in throughout the country.

While in San Diego this summer, I formed relationships with the most incredible people in the world. The people who work for Invisible Children have the most beautiful passion and heart for the world, and the love that they have for the people of Uganda and the people of the world overflows to the way they all live their lives. I truly have a family in San Diego with Invisible Children, and in January, I have the amazing opportunity to join them again.

In January, I will be moving out to San Diego for a month and then in February, I will be setting out to tour the Great Lakes region of the country as a part of Invisible Children’s National Tour. On this tour, I will be living out of a van for three months, building relationships, and sharing the news of the situation in Uganda with students, churches, and families across this region of the country. Invisible Children has already sent out two and a half tours over the past couple of years, and I have the amazing privilege to be a part of the third national tour.

While I will be on the road with Invisible Children through the middle of May, I then have the opportunity to actually go to Uganda and live with the people that I have been working for the past two years. There is a trip for the roadies that will be on Tour with me in the spring at that time. While I am hoping to participate in this trip, I am also hoping to stay longer in Africa than the two weeks that are planned out for us. Although I do not currently know details, I do hope to be in Uganda or another country around that area, and I do hope to be working with some of the most amazing people that God has created.

While I hate to be doing this, I am asking for your help. I will be receiving a small stipend for food and living while I am on the road, but I am expected to raise all my money for my trip to Africa. I am estimating that I need to raise approximately $3000, which should cover airfare, lodging, and food. It would be absolutely incredible if you feel led to support me in this way. But if you are unable or unwilling to support me financially, I would love your support in prayer. I am trusting that this is what the Lord has for me for the next few months, but I crave to have the backing of my brothers and sisters in Christ as I travel and do the work He has led me to do.

The Lord has led me on this journey the entire way. If you would have asked me when I came to college if I would have been involved in a humanitarian campaign to end a cycle of poverty and war in Africa, I would have asked you if you were crazy. But God has given me a yearning for and a strong need to help these people. As I strive to be more like Jesus in living and serving others, I am realizing the need to abandon myself and follow Christ at all costs. It is to the Great Lakes region of the country that God has called me to in the spring, and from there I am trusting that He is leading me to Africa this summer.

Like I said, this is a journey, a journey that God has led me on and one that He will continue to lead me on. He is the only One that can lead me. It has been a journey full of surprises, bumps along the way, and even obstacles that I have not been able to see around. But He has always been there to provide a way around them, and has led me on a path that has been even better than I ever could have hoped for. I am so excited for what the next few months will bring my way and what God has in store for me along the way. Please feel free to contact me at kristin.lorey@gmail.com if you have any questions at all or want more information about what my journey will look like over the next few months. I will also be keeping a blog of my events at http://inpeacefulwonderment.blogspot.com/. I would love for you to read along as I journey! I also encourage you to check out www.invisiblechildren.com to explore the organization that I love so much and am so involved in.

Thank you so much for your attention to this and your thoughts, prayers, or whatever you are willing to send my way. Please realize that whatever you can spare, whether it be a single prayer or a monetary donation, I will be forever grateful. May God bless you and thank you again!

In His love,


Kristin Lorey
kristin.lorey@gmail.com
www.invisiblechildren.com


May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 15:13

a new beginning.

ok so i am planning on using this blog to keep everyone up to date on my travels to san diego, the great lakes, and hopefully to africa.

i love you all and i can't wait to share this adventure with you.
kristin.