Grace. One word seemingly small and simple yet one of the most powerful in our local vocabulary, in The Holy Bible, in our lives. If we could only share our grace with the children orphaned and living on the streets of Africa hopelessly. Guess what? We can! God said YES!The beginning of Grace Family Ministry was born long before accepting Christ in my life. God has been working on it throughout my life; developing the empathy for children in need, developing my leadership, growing me spiritually through many sufferings of my own and years living in the dark. Not only has He been working on it in me, but also in many people he has recently brought into my life for GFM.
For myself, the love of Africa has been in my heart from my first breath on, only until last year, I did not know why. Everything Africa I magnetized to - African elephants, African-Americans, African movies, African news, African music. With time this passion only grew more strong yet I still had no idea what to do with it. By age 32 I had collected over 100 African elephant items but nothing was scratching my African itch! I always knew I would go to Africa some day. August of 2007 that came true. Only 5 years ago I turned my life over to Christ, taking on the will of God instead of own; not an easy journey and never ending. Last year I was invited to Africa on mission with a church friend, Lori Shinar, who is also obsessed with Africa. By the grace of God my husband found the money for the trip, I booked my ticket, and there was no turning back. This was the largest leap of faith I had yet to take; traveling alone for 3 days through countries by air just to get to Nairobi since Lori and I could not match up our flight plans. Lori came into Nairobi the morning after me, thank God! I had never traveled outside the US let alone done so Solo with 3 bends of cargo to get to Kenya - but every time I felt I was in trouble or beat, giving up that control to Christ, the Lord provided abundantly. After 3 weeks in Kenya spent on the Masai Mara for 3 days of safari, at the Gift Orphanage in Nairobi bringing soccer balls & craft items, and in Karatina for 8 days during a Christian youth conference at Antioch teaching music, spiritual gifting, and most importantly about sex-marriage-AIDS/HIV-courtship-dating to the youth, my life was forever changed.
I finally knew what this growing desire for Africa was for... to serve the children of Africa in the name of Christ. During my stay in Nairobi we had dinner with Sandy Wilson who was a founder of a local Nairobi Street Kids Ministry for boys.
After hearing about the children living on the streets there, the daily struggles most children of Africa are up against, and the hopeless situation for orphans my heart was bleeding. Upon returning home from Kenya, I could not stop thinking about those orphans and street kids. The pain in my heart for them was crying out for a plan; a way to help them. But not to just Band-Aid their situation; to truly change their lives forever.
July of 2008, after months of knowing I had to start a nonprofit ministry for these kids and after receiving more of Gods vision for that, I was faced with finding a name for this work. The name Grace has been in my heart as long as Africa. It was the one name as a child that I knew I would be using; that was given to my heart to use for something very special. Up until 3 years ago, I "assumed" that special thing to receive the name of Grace would be my first born daughter. After doctors removed my uterus due to stage 4 endometriosis at 29 years old, I knew I was way off. God had a plan for Grace and revealed that the Family we hope to create out of the wreckage of an orphans life in Africa is nothing short of Grace. The creation of this family is only done so upon God's Grace... our African sons and daughters will be given Grace and will be known by Grace. For I now know this ministry and all these children are my first born child; I hope to enjoy hundreds of children through my new family. We will all be apart of Gods family gifted to us by Jesus - The Grace Family.
The plan of our Lord has been revealed to myself and those others brought into my life all in His perfect timing. We have received His vision and now begin to take the first steps. Our second board meeting takes place this week on the 15th where we will discuss and vote on our Articles of Incorporation, Bylaws, and Business Plan and plan a rummage sale in order to raise our Start-Up Costs. These costs include our Incorporation Application, Lawyer Fees, Ground-laying Mission Trip to Kenya early 2009, 501(c) application fees, AZ Corporate Commission Name Reservation Fee, GFM Website, P.O. Box, and any office supplies. Once we get incorporated we can apply for 501(c). This will more than likely happen early 2009 as we are hoping for official Incorporation to take place by end of year. We have reserved our name with the AZCC but will have to renew that reservation if our application if not complete and lawyer approved by December 14th.
Current Board Members:
Bobbi Jo Miller = President/Founder
Andrew Gwati = Vice President
Shuana Riech = Secretary
Carl Miller = Treasurer
Kenyan Directors:
Pst. Domnic & Sis. Millicent Owigo
Please help us pray over the needs of this nonprofit, praying that start up costs are provided and applications are approved quickly, and for the needs of our children orphaned and living on the streets of Kenya and all over Africa. May we hold steadfast to this vision placed faithfully in us by the Lord, living for our purpose in helping these abandoned children and putting them first. May we follow the will of God and only His will in every step we take as we begin this life work in Africa through Grace Family Ministry. May our Family grow!
In Christ's Love,
Bobbi Jo Miller
PS. And... may I never get "founders syndrome" too! ;-)
