with a touch of urgency ...

Dearest Family and Friends,

I hope that this finds you all well. I wish that I was up to date on all of your lives, and I hope to hear more about what is going on in your lives. Here is a little update on mine, with an urgent request. I am sorry about the length, but I would be honored if you would take a few minutes to read this.

As many of you know, I have recently moved out to California, where I have continued volunteering and working with the non-profit organization I have worked with over the past three years, Invisible Children, Inc. Invisible Children is working with the northern part of Uganda, Africa, where a civil war has been raging for the past 22 years, making it the longest running war in Africa. This war, although extremely complicated, has involved a rebel army called the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and the government of Uganda. The LRA has been abducting children to be used as child soldiers, forcing them to fight in a war that they care nothing about.

I have been working with Invisible Children for the past three years in varying degrees, but the past few months I have been on the road with them, traveling with a team of close friends, living out of a van and working with the youth of America. We gave speaking presentations to high school youth and college aged students, as well as many churches and youth groups, helping them to understand social activism and the ways that they can get involved. I strongly believe in this organization as an outlet as the hands and feet of Christ, bringing social justice, peace, and the love of Christ to not only the youth of this nation, but also to the people of northern Uganda.

I have since ended this tour and am now searching for what to do next. While I have been helping Invisible Children plan upcoming national tours, I have also been working with a close group of friends who are seeking to do the work of Jesus through what we like to call 'creative action'. We are experimenting with ways to love people, and how to do it creatively. All of us have worked with Invisible Children at some point, but are now pursuing other dreams that are bound to change the world. We have spent the past couple of months desperately seeking God and how to share His love, and are in the process of dreaming up many different projects that are taking place both in San Diego and around the world. I have never seen God work in a way that is so obvious and beautiful as I have seen Him work in this close community of friends.

Through my work with Invisible Children and my growing understanding of the situations taking place throughout the world, I have been wanting to go to Uganda for quite some time. My heart is very attached to the people of this beautiful country, and it has been my great privilege to be able to work with and for them for the past few years. Although I have had several opportunities to go and participate in trips to Uganda, I have never felt that the time was right. But at this time, I now have the chance to go to Uganda through the community that we have been developing. One of the projects that our community is working on is creating a line of children's books that are set to tell the stories of children around the world, starting with the children of northern Uganda. Our theory behind these books is that we are realizing that as people of past generations have escaped to the beauty of imaginary worlds such as Middle Earth and Narnia through storytelling, we are hoping to help bring to light the beauty that exists in our own world through the telling of true stories. While this is still in the very early stages of creation, it is just one of our projects that I know is going to be both enlightening and life changing to so many people.

While in Uganda, I would be working to set up this project, talking to the people of Uganda about their stories, and encouraging children to start telling their own. We will be coordinating a contest of sorts for children to start writing creatively, and when a winning story is picked, start the process of publishing it. The story will be available to the people of Uganda in Lwo, their own language, and will be translated into English to be available in the United States. The original idea was that when one book is purchased in the United States, a parallel book will be given to a child or a library in Uganda. This idea is under construction, as we are in the process of talking to different publishers and ideas are still formulating. As this is only starting in Uganda, there will be many other stories from around the world that will be shared, including from countries such as Burma, Nepal, and more. It will be an incredible way for people to become educated and familiar with other cultures around the world, creating a closer feeling of community throughout the people of the world, as well as giving people voices in areas that have never really been exposed before. I am very excited to see where this takes us and how this will affect change.

While I am excited and ready to do this, I need help. As I have been on the road as a volunteer, worked as an unpaid intern, and been a college student over the past few years, I am very much lacking on financial funding. I am turning to you, dear friends and family, for any support I can get. Especially including financial support. Please understand that I know what it is like to be poor and being constantly asked for support and money by so many people, so I do understand if you are unable to support me at this time.

But I also do believe that a lot of smalls add up to one big amount. If each of my friends could donate several dollars, that would help significantly.

The thing is, I need help very, very quickly. Abnormally quickly. The plan is to leave on September 2, which is coming up incredibly soon, and I would be staying for approximately six weeks, doing work in Uganda. I am in need of about $3000, including travel prices and living expenses while in Uganda.

At this moment, I am not asking for your money. I am just interested to know if you feel you can support me. Please email me at kristininthesky@gmail.com and let me know what you are thinking. If you think you can support me financially, please include an amount that you think you can give. If you can't, I would love to know you are praying for and/or thinking of me. This is a journey that I am fully trusting God is guiding me on, and it means so much that you would be lifting me up in prayer.

If I get enough pledged support within a few days, I will commit to going and then you can actually give me the money. But at the moment, I do not feel comfortable taking your money without a promise of actually going. Also, if you want to hear more about what our community is doing, more about the project that I am embarking on, more about Invisible Children, or just want to chat, I would love to hear from you, as well.

Thank you so much for making it through this email, and I truly hope you are well. One of my biggest regrets is that I am out of the loop in so many of your lives, and I wish I could be involved more. Please let me know how you are doing, and please know I love each of you very much and I am grateful for any time we have been able to spend together. You have each impacted my life in so many ways, and I am so grateful.

Thank you again, and I hope to hear from you soon.

in Love,
kristin lorey.
kristininthesky@gmail.com