Dear Friends of Our Journey,
I had not planned on writing an Our Journey May Newsletter, but my heart is heavy and I felt the need to write, my whole world changed last month when my 7 year old granddaughter Ella got diagnosed with Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma. (DIPG) are highly aggressive and difficult to treat brain tumors found at the base of the brain. Ella's brain tumor is inoperable. I have been atSt. Jude Children's Research Hospitalin Memphis, TN with Ella and her family for the best 4 weeks while she is undergoing a clinical trial of chemo/radiation treatment , we will be here for another 4 weeks. I love this Princess with all my heart! We are praying for a Miracle for Ella - please pray with us.
My daughter Krissy has been reading a book by Timothy Keller titled, Walking with God, through Pain and Suffering. She posted this on facebook and I can't get it off my mind. I find it to be absolutely true.
Timothy Keller writes:
Over the years, I came to realize that adversity did not merely lead people to believe in God's existence. It pulled those who already believed into a deeper experience of God's reality, love, and grace. One of the main ways to move from abstract knowledge about God to a personal encounter with Him as a living reality, is through the furnace of affliction. As C. S. Lewis famously put it, "God whispers to us in our pleasures, God speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain."
Keller writes in his book about what someone once said to him, "I always knew in principle, that 'Jesus is all you need', to get through. But you do not really know Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have."
These words hit me to the core of my being and helped me to understand better why I experience the smiles and strong faith of the forgotten children in Kenya that Our Journey works along side with. Jesus is all they have! My time and heart is with my Princess Ella now but I will continue to remain Mama Maureen to my other children in Kenya. Please continue to keep these forgotten children in your prayers. Pastor Andy Chambers will make the Our Journey annual trip to Kenya without me this July but my spirit/heart will travel with him. Please continue to support the great work that is being done in Kenya.
Our vision is to improve the community health and well-being through community driven, self-reli ant programs. We aim to empower women who are the caregivers for orphans and vulnerable children affected by HIV/AIDS. We do this by building their capacities economically and socially as we seek to promote their livelihood strategies.
Our Journey’s aim is to focus on the individual’s journey to self-worth, self-realization, and finally sustainable self-sufficiency so that people are able to contribute fully and according to their individual strengths on a community level for the ultimate benefit of both the individual and the wider community.
Our Journey stands for what is just by raising dignity and encouraging people to stand for it for themselves and others. We don’t do for people what they, given the correct guidance, can do for themselves. With empowerment comes accountability and responsibility.
Blanket and Shoe Program /
The profit from Posho Mill Program helps feed these children
Local Pastor Dave’s Posho Mill Business – funded by Our Journey Supporters /
Pastor Dave and Anne working with women in community earning money to feed families
Children also working for food
Love & Blessings,
Maureen Ahern
Founder/Director
Our Journey, Inc