So many exciting things happening here at Ekisa! I promise to be better at this when the kids arrive (even though I will have even less time to blog then….I am going to TRY!)
First of all, Ekisa got our Uganda CBO paperwork about a month ago! God moved so much in the process and I am so thankful for all that I learned in this season of waiting.
In other registration news…we received our 501(c)(3) tax exempt status in the states!!! It happened faster than we thought – such a HUGE blessing!!! All donations made from June 2010 on can be claimed tax free on your taxes!
Now that our paperwork is completed, we decided to wait till after elections (which started yesterday) to take in children. Our concerns were many….to start with safety. We don’t have a car, and if need be evacuating the children would be difficult if not impossible without one. We also could not count on our staff to show up if things got violent, nor would we ask them to. The list goes on and after much debate we decided to just wait. Things when you are just starting a ministry are stressful enough and we want everything for our children and staff to run as smooth as possible during our first few weeks. We hope things will be peaceful enough to start taking in the children in a few weeks!!
We had a staff training day a couple weeks ago, and it went really well. We are hiring several disabled adults to work with Ekisa, and we are SO excited about this. And so are they!
When our staff was asked why they wanted to work with Ekisa, here are some of their answers...
“The children that I can serve at this job are also disabled or handicapped and I have the experience of being disabled so I will be able to handle them with grace” - Sarah
“I love children so much. The people who cared for me growing up were not my biological parents and I want to care for other children who don’t have people to care for them. I want to take care of children with disabilities.” - Esther
“My parents never had grace (about my disability) and I want to be able to help children with disabilities.” - Perus
Wow. God is has sent us some amazing women to help love on these special little children!!! We REALLY need to raise support to pay our workers. Soon there will be a sponsorship option on our website, but until then if you feel called please go to www.ekisa.org/donate.html and donate!
Thank you guys so much for supporting Ekisa!
