I’m so excited to introduce you to my new friend, Rebecca Sorensen. I had no idea there was a real life princess living in Kampala, Uganda in a house full of love. God called her to serve and minister to orphans, so she is working full time making a mighty impact in her tiny village. She has a home for children who are orphaned and a school and church ministry. I think what I fell in love with instantly was her spirit and personality. She is bubbly and warm and inviting. She greeted our group at her home and invited us in for a much needed break with fresh squeezed juice and pineapple chunks. It was the best snack I have ever had in my life. She sat down on the floor and just chatted with us life family about her life. We were all so impressed, but we knew that deep inside this petite beauty was something extraordinary. She would probably cringe if she knew we called her a hero, but that is exactly what she is. A hero to a village and hundreds of children that are being cared, nurtured, taught, and loved by Rebecca. The only negative of our time with her was it was too short. I cant wait to go back in June and spend a few days watching this super hero in action and ministering to her children.
Rebecca knows how to throw a party, too! She greeted our team with something truly magical. The celebration was humbling to us at so many levels. The children made us feel like VIP visitors, but in the end, we knew exactly who the celebrities were… each and every child in the tiny village school. They taught us what worshipping God means with every fiber in their bodies. I felt like I witnessed, literally witnessed a peek into heaven. The children sang like angels and worshipped God like their life depended on it. I know many of the children have gone through horrific atrocities, so their love for God is their only source for healing and eternity.
Rebecca’s Own Words:
I asked Rebecca to share a short testimony about her ministry…
Before Visiting Orphans started visiting us with their teams, we were literally hidden in Christ. We had very few visitors to our ministry before them and were praying for God to send us teams and resources. God in His miraculous beautiful way, led Amanda and Visiting Orphans directly to us! The two teams we have had so far have been such an incredible blessing to us. Though their times with us have been short, they have blessed us in every way possible. They have given of their hearts, time, love, and prayers. Some team members have even helped us to transport our collection of school and medical supplies which is a huge need for us as it is almost impossible to reliably ship things to Uganda. The teams have brought with them incredible waves of joy and excitement to our 200 children who look forward to and anticipate their visits, games, and activities! I believe that these visits impact our children all the way down to an identity level. They are impacted by seeing that someone from America, who they look up to automatically, has come all the way 
across the world just to see THEM, to love THEM, and to be with THEM. It sends them a deep message that they are special and worthy of love. Another way Visiting Orphans has helped us tremendously is the team members giving of their resources. These teams came during difficult financial times for our ministry and blessed us beyond expectation or imagination. Some team members even invited me to come and share at their home churches or to help host a small fundraiser. For me personally, Visiting Orphans brought me to a new level of HOPE and VISION after a very challenging year of ministry. Their visits have reminded me WHY I’m doing what I’m doing and I have been SO ENCOURAGED, very deeply encouraged through their partnership and visits. We have been blessed in every way by this ministry and I highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a way to touch God’s children of the nations. (Rebecca)
My Crazy Journal (I wrote this at night with a flashlight)
We loaded up the bus and headed the short distance to My Father’s House. We were giddy… so full of life. Funny- poor Vit Steiger jumped on the truck for a phone moment with me and ripped the front bumper off the truck. It was hilarious, but he felt soooo bad!!!
The next visit has changed my life in such a special way. We pulled into My Father’s House (about a mile down the road) and met the Mother Teresa of Kampala. Rebecca Sorensen is adorable from head to toe. She is strong and alive and passionate about teaching her children the good news of Jesus. She has come to this beautiful place and is making a difference in a major way. Her home has 16 children (orphans) she cares for with a staff of about 6. She has them come home from school to meet us. She wanted us to know the children personally who is her family. They served us fresh juice and fresh cut pineapple and greeted us with such respect. They were simply THRILLED we were there and told us over and over. Maria I spent some one on one time in the girls room and talked to them about their beauty inside and out. I shared that they were princesses and the 5 girls swarmed me with hugs and kisses. Oh what a special moment.
We walked about 1.5 miles to the school. The team was ecstatic getting to walk in the real Uganda… right down the street we paraded waving and taking photos (with permission:) The Ugandans are so beautiful and have such a spirit of love that just pours out of them. The hospitality they show is remarkable.
I was the last one around the corner, but I could hear the children singing loudly as I approached. All of a sudden I turned and walked straight into heaven. The children were in 2 lines and singing with every ounce of spirit they had in their precious bodies!!!! Each team member walked down the row as they sang and danced us into their church building. There are no words to describe the love and respect and honor I felt walking thru the sea of children on side to side. It was magical and miraculous all wrapped up in love. We entered the church and I literally lost my breath. It was decorated for US!!! There was a huge sign in the front- Welcome Visiting Orphans! The children never stopped singing and dancing for at least 30 min. We sat in front in special chairs they set up for us. I was weeping. I was overwelmed. I witnessed something I will NEVER see again for as long as I live. They were praising Jesus in a way I have never had the honor of seeing. The dancing and singing were like a Broadway play. It was just that good and more. A young girl led the singing and dancing and she was on fire with the Holy Spirit. There is no other way to describe the spirits. I could feel Jesus in that tiny church. A precious 2 year old names Vivian came up to me and I picked her up. This was my gift from the Lord. I held her as she slept in my arms for hours.
The singing never stopped. The rain came hard. It was indescribable. Rebecca told me that they have not had rain in months. The precious teacher Ruth, told me that in Uganda if you have a visitor and it rains it means only one thing…. the visit is very blessed by God. The visit is something extra special. The rain came in torrents and that meant to the people and children… our time with them was a blessing. WOWWW
I was literally weeping the entire time. They had our team dance a traditional dance. We found out later from Rebecca a few days ago, 3 of the girls there had been raped. The songs they sung were about pain and trails, but the hope they have in Jesus gives them a reason to live. When they sang Yes, Lord song… my heart was transferred to a place of real love for the people of Uganda. I have been changed being with the people… the real people of Uganda. I’m not feeling like a tourist, but a missionary coming to simply love the gifts of humanity… the hand of God is here. He has not abandoned the people. He gives them hope, and dreams and purpose and meaning and worth. It’s my honor to show them the love of a mother.
At the end, the team was surrounded by over 200 children saying goodbye. How do you describe that kind of scene? I couldn’t give Vivian away, so Rebecca told me I could carry her with me to the bus. Vivian never said one word to me the entire time, never a sound… she never smiled, but she clung to me like a mother and child. When I gave her back to Rebecca she was crying. I told her I loved her and kissed her like Zoie. Rebecca and I both started crying.
We drove away changed. The massive display of honor we felt that day was something I will cherish in my heart forever. You might think we would have gone direcly to a hotel and crashed. We were feeling spiritually, physically, emotionally exhausted, but wonderful too!!! However, we jumped on the bus ready for our next crazy adventure… wait till you hear about Pastor Rebel and his family at Canaan’s Children Home.
Rebecca Sorensen’s blog (please follow her daily journey)
Sneek Peek-
How I Found a Home in Africa.
A few people who have newly entered my life have been asking me how in the world did I end up in Africa running a school and a children’s home for the precious children of Uganda. So I’ve decided to write it out for the world to read. I think it’s a pretty good story…of redemption, adoption, hope, and healing. My prayer these days is that God would make my life a SPECTACLE of His LOVE!
THE ADOPTION:
I remember standing on his chest as a little girl. My age 3 memories are vague but still have an emotional energy attached to them. I remember feeling so small and my Daddy feeling so big. I remember feeling so loved and safe as his great big arms held me up to stand up tall on his chest…balancing against his arms. Suddenly my world came crashing down and I have a vague memory of my Daddy asking me if I wanted to stand on his chest …one…last…time. I didn’t understand. What was happening? Why did we have to leave? Was it my fault? My mom and I left heading from Texas to Arkansas to go and stay with my grandparents. I wouldn’t see my Father again until I was 14 years old. Even then, it was only for a few days. Even today, my earthly Dad is not active in my life.
During those eleven years without my Dad, he would call me every Sunday night to talk on the phone…for about a year then one Sunday night he would stop calling and wouldn’t call again for another year or so…then the calls would start again and end again, start again and end again. I was repeatedly hit with bullets of rejection and abandonment during these years often crying myself to sleep at night. I had friends tease me that I didn’t have a father. As an only child, with a very busy working single mom, I remember feeling very alone and isolated. God became one of my best friends…but I was wounded…with an orphan heart. It would be years later before I would receive healing, freedom, peace.
One night at college church group I heard this girl singing a spontaneous song to God…she kept singing over and over…Daddy, Daddy, Daddy. I couldn’t connect with it. I thought maybe she was just trying to look spiritual. Could she honestly call GOD…Daddy? Though I didn’t understand…I desperately wanted that. That night I went back to my campus apartment and lied awake for hours in my bed. Around 3am, I had a powerful encounter with God. Father God visited me and revealed Himself to me as my Father. As a loving God who created me, who knit me together, who knew every part of me, who understood every pain I had, who dreamed me to life, who wanted the best for me, who chose me to be a part of His family, who was beginning to transform me …from an orphan heart to the heart of a princess. It was the beginning of a journey of healing and discovery. The wounds and lies of rejection and abandonment were gradually replaced with acceptance, safety, and a deep love and confidence in who I was and whose I was…my Daddy’s!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I learned that I was not a reject or unworthy of love but in fact, I was a royal princess with a royal Father, the King of Kings and NOTHING was impossible for us together! I longed to give this away….to every child who had ever cried themselves to sleep at night…because they were alone or lonely or longing for those who were supposed to be there…to father and mother them.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The REDEMPTION:
I’ve ALWAYS loved other cultures especially the tropical ones! Their bright colors, their wild rhythms, their dancing and singing, their language, their understanding of one another. When I was little I would even have Africa parties with my friends where we would dress up using big pieces of material to create African dresses and go out and take pictures in the forest! I also have always dreamed of using music as a tool to bring change to the world, to bring awareness to the world’s suffering, and to inspire a movement of compassion. During high school, I began to read the writings of Mother Teresa and Ghandi and was drawn to the colors and stories of India. I told my family I was moving there after high school to serve with Mother Teresa’s ministry. They refused and told me I needed to go to college. While studying and singing and writing music, I encountered God in a whole new way and desperately longed to serve the poor even more. I worked twice a week at a homeless shelter where I made many unusual friends and I worked in the projects with a church ministry on saturdays playing and bringing hope and food to some sweet kids. But I wanted more….I wanted to give my whole life to compassion and mercy and change and hope and to the suffering of this world. I would lay in my college apartment and cry out to God to send me somewhere …anywhere. though I really began to long for AFRICA once I heard of this little woman named Mama Heidi from Mozambique who was a little like Mother Teresa meets Peter whose shadow healed the sick. I watched Blood Diamond where I saw child soldiers from Sierra Leone, the Invisible children documentary where I learned of modern day child soldiers in Uganda, and Hotel Rwanda where I saw the evil genocide of Rwanda. I had a justice heart and a mercy heart burning inside me. I wanted to take on the world …with JESUS!
I applied for Heidi’s mission school in Mozambique which was a 3 month program and got accepted. During the process God’s voice whispered to me that there was going to be another opportunity come up. Sure enough, a professor I had at my high school who was from Kenya, invited me to go with him and his wife to visit his family in Africa and serve the people of Kenya. I had little desire to go to Kenya…but I felt a nudge from the Lord in that direction. I told God…”if I could go anywhere in the world, I’d want to go to nothern Uganda”. This was the home of child soldiers and a 22 year long evil civil war. But I listened to the Lord and began walking towards the Kenya trip (after a lot of struggle between me and God). A week before that trip my kenyan friends let me know they were not able to go due to some issues getting their visas! I didn’t know what to do! I had raised all the funds, set out letters, and was desperately finally looking forward to going. Some friends of mine were working in Uganda and had planned to meet me during my time in Kenya. I let them know of the change of plans and they immediately invited me to go ahead and come to Africa…to UGANDA!!! I was very excited and of course jumped on the opportunity. I thought the northern area of UGanda was too dangerous for us to go but we ended up traveling there and I was able to serve the very people of the area I had told God I really wanted to go to. Obedience…always leads us to our heart’s desire…even when we can’t see it at all. God’s eyes are much bigger than ours.
During my time in Uganda, I fell madly in love with Africa…with the children and their sweet voices and faces, with the dirt, the adventure, the sunshine, the rhythms, everything. I felt like I was at HOME. I made some significant friendships with Ugandans there too as I spent a few weeks there completely immersed with no Americans or whites around. I learned a little bit of the language and dived in to the culture. I came back to America with a burden…a big burden for the children I met who had NOTHING and NO ONE. Children who were digging in trash dumps while across the street other children were looking smart in their school uniforms and looking forward to a hopeful future. Children who were dressed in rags and had no clothes. Children who were alone, being abused as child workers, unable to see any sign of love or hope in their lives…and I remembered. I remembered all the times of my childhood when I felt alone…and God gave me HOPE. Why not these kids too? I often asked Him after that trip where are you for these people, for these kids? and He would reply to me, “where are you?..you are my hands, my feet, my heart, my bride. where are you?” I spent the next 6 months collecting supplies and filled up a garage full of school supplies, clothes, and toys. I took a few of my friends back and we distributed these things in slums, refugee camps, hospitals, villages, churches, and schools.
Afterwards, I traveled from Uganda to Mozambique where I served under Heidi Baker and Iris Ministries for 3 months…learning
about what it really means to serve the poor and to become a missionary with Jesus as our model…He came as a humble dependent baby who had to learn a trade, a culture, a language. He gave His whole life for those He came to serve. He was a real missionary…a true missionary. I learned what it means to have compassion and during my time there, I had a a vision and encounter with God where He asked me…to “please bring my lost children home” as tears ran down His cheeks… I was called, commissioned, and was burning with fire to see this happen…that every orphaned (physical or spiritual) child could find a home in His heart…in His love…in Daddy God!
Through a series of wild events, some Ugandan friends and I formed a school in an area of town where I had always stayed when I went to Uganda. We started it with just a few hundred dollars and some wooden timbers. We built a small structure and some desks….painted the building, named the school Royal Hope Academy, and started with 3 teachers and about 35 children. Only a few months later, we had 9 teachers and 100 children. Another year later, we had 200 children, 10 teachers, plus 5 staff members. We also decided to really bring some of these desperate kids HOME…and started our first family style children’s home where 10 of our kids were adopted. We hope to have more of these homes in the future for more of these children who are in great need of home and family! All of the kids at our school, with the exception of about 5% who are simply very needy, are orphaned. These children are either full orphans or half orphans but in Africa if you have lost only one parent, you are considered an orphan. We began the school with no blue print, little experience, no fundraising plans, no money, in the middle of a recession in America…and with an awesome great big faithful and rich Father! Every month, I would pray for God to supply the needs to pay the staff and feed the children and He never never failed us.
Since February 2009 when we first started the school, at least 100 children have come out of polygamist islam, witchcraft or Rhasta into the marvelous light and love of Jesus Christ, really knowing what it means to give Him their hearts and lives. They have learned that they are loved by their heavenly Father, the King of Kings, and that they have been adopted as princes and princesses into His Royal family. Many have been delivered of demonic oppression, healed from diseases and conditions, and certainly saved by the marvelous love of our Faithful Father. They have developed a compassion and a generosity for others as well through a weekly offering they give to help someone in the community who is in need.
We have also seen great healing in our children who are within our home. They have also been delivered and received such a beautiful inner healing as Holy Spirit ministers to them through us about forgiveness of those who have abused them, killed their parents, or abandoned them. They are our dearly loved treasures we would give everything for, and certainly the treasures of their Father.
As I have lived and served these children in Africa, I have an overflowing joy and delight to be a part of what my Daddy is doing for His kids. It’s a big part of God’s redemption in my own life and certainly Jesus is on the move in Uganda spreading His love
and glory among the villagers of Busega, Kampala, Uganda. My joy and delight has been in being blessed to be a blessing. Our ministry is humbled that God has allowed us to help needy single mothers and caretakers feed their children,begin businesses to break the cycle of poverty, bring hope to their families through education, receive medical care and treatment for many different kinds of conditions, and to be given a gift of mercy for their struggle and be loved on by Father God. We are humbled as God has moved through us dissolving tumors, setting children free from demonic oppression, and healing the hearts of young precious lives. These are the treasures hidden in darkness, the true diamonds of Africa… I am honored and blessed to serve the true royalty of God’s kingdom…and there is SO MUCH MORE to be done!
To all who have prayed given served gone over the past two years, you are the hands and feet and light and love of Jesus to the world. Thank you! 
The team went to the bank together and exchanged the money we had for donations and shopping. We had about a 30 min. drive to Kampala and Return Ministries. The children had been waiting for a long time for us to arrive (had to wait to eat) They were ecstatic. The looks on over 200 faces of children ranging from ages 1-15 was something I won’t forget. They were cheering and dancing and sooo excited to see our team. *Remember, we do not have any of our donations bags, but we had glitter and fingernail polish and bubbles to play. The children did a short program for us of songs and dancing. It was really precious. They sang several songs and then we got to eat with the children and staff.
way of bonding and taking photos with the children. I got to hold 2 girls about Zoie’s age and they both fell asleep in my arms. I was in heaven. I also got to have my hair braided by a group of about 5 girls and 1 staff member. Oh boy did it hurt. My head is still tender:)) I think my team had more fun seeing my wild crazy hair, but it was worth it.
The children received 200 color books and crayons… we worked with them as they held a crayon, maybe for the first time. A sweet little girl bent over in her chair clutching her color book and threw her guts up. Awwww I felt so bad for her. Watching the older children/siblings jump in and take over parenting skills with their younger siblings was a reality eye opener. They are so loving and nurturing.
However, what soon became transparent to me was that Google failed to mention a single thing in any of the articles I read, about the individual heroes I would meet in Kampala and Jinja. In fact, I wasn’t prepared for the kindness, hospitality, service, joy and love I would witness at every corner we turned. I had no clue reading from my Google notes, that the children who are suffering atrocities on a daily basis, exemplify what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. I was completely unprepared meeting Pastors and Directors that literally gave everything they had to their congregation or village ministry.
The months preparing for the trip were busy, fun, and detailed. I’m not a very detailed person, so I was thrilled I had a co-leader (Ashlie) who took the reins on that department. She did a fantastic job conducting the conference calls, creating online charts, and answering the emails from the team. I still don’t have the guts to tell her the 
zipped through security, but was instantly stopped by a very grumpy agent. He literally grabbed my carry-on, tossed it on the scale, and told me I would not be able to board with the overweight bag. I remembered reading in past emails from Visiting Orphans to stand firm if there were problems with the airlines, even if security was involved. I basically grabbed my suitcase and ordered him to let me on the flight with my team!! He grabbed my suitcase back and chewed me out for having such a heavy carry-on. I was the only one left standing and started to panic. I’m going to miss the flight and really mess things up for the team. I looked up and saw Randi and Vit standing in the doorway pleading with security to let them take some of the weight off. We scrambled and repacked my bag. It worked and I was able to roll on with my heart pounding and sweaty hands.
We stumbled into our hotel in the wee hours of the morning and crashed until lunch. We met Pastor Samuel and started our adventure to Return Ministries, a special orphanage in the heart of Kampala. I had no idea that my life would change radically in less than a few hours.
The executive director of Visiting Orphans is my friend, Amanda Lawrence. We have never met in person, but have a shared passion for missions, orphans, adoption and craziness. She opened up her heart wide in faith and allowed me to jump on board due to our relationship with America World Adoption. She has lead countless mission trips all over the world and taught me so much about leadership and serving with her grace and love for orphans.
