Thanks be to God

It's Thanksgiving week.  I love this time of year.  It's beautiful outside with the fall colors, and I *love* traditional Thanksgiving foods!  Looking forward to some sweet potato casserole, honey ham, pecan pie... Yum!!  My parents and sister will be here with us this year for Thanksgiving at our house, and we already have our menu planned.

This morning, the Page crew was a little bit lacking in the Thanksgiving spirit.  We had a big Aggie's Arts sale at our church yesterday morning, so my van was still loaded down with stands and beads this morning.  There was a set of tall stands in between the back seats, and my girls had to crawl over to get in and out of the van.  Well.... Mattie made the mistake of complaining about it.  

I asked Mattie why those things were there.  Of course, she said Aggie's Arts.  I then went on about how the reason those things are in our van is so that mothers can feed their children.  So that our friends in Uganda can have a roof over their heads.  So that they can send their children to school.  So that in those schools, we can help provide cement for the floors... so that the children can have less bugs crawling into their feet!  So that those children will have desks to sit at and books to read.  

Schoolchildren dancing at one of the
schools supported by Kisoro Kids

Mattie was speechless.  There was no defense for whining when you put it in those terms.  I don't want to put a guilt trip on my kids.  Feeling guilty is not from the Lord.  I am reminded of something Aggie said to me when she was here last year.  I asked her what it was like being around all the wealth here in the US.  She replied, "God has truly blessed America.  Americans should be thankful.  They should not feel guilty for their wealth, they should just give God the glory... and use those blessings for His Glory."

Mattie, Ivy, Aggie, and Carley

I want my kids to know how blessed they are.  And I want them to know why we, as a family, do what we do with Aggie's Arts.  It is so important that we never lose sight of that.  

Aggie's Arts is truly making a difference in the lives of many in Uganda.  This is why 'I do Aggie's Arts'.  I continue in this ministry because I believe in it.  I know that I know that I know that God is using every necklace, every bracelet, every bead to make a difference.  And He is glorified.  He is glorified through every sale.  He is glorified through every donation.  To God be the Glory!

To learn more about Aggie's Arts visit our website: www.aggiesarts.org 

Running the Race... it ain't easy...

It's been a hard week for me.  I've had some difficult discussions with some people that I love.  My husband has had some difficult discussions with some people he loves.  We are spent.  I kind of feel like crawling in a hole (with Jason) and ignoring the world for a few days.  Being a grown-up ain't easy.  In case my kids read this, I'll point out that I'm using "the A word" for emphasis.  ;-)  Being a mom or a dad, an employee, a leader of a ministry, a manager of money... none of it's easy.

God didn't promise us easy.  And if you don't believe that, let me introduce you to some of my friends in Uganda.  When I have days like this, where I'm discouraged and drained, I look at my pictures and videos from Uganda.  I see the environment in which they live.  I see the mud huts that they live in.  I see the 'toilets' where they relieve themselves.  I see the tattered clothes that they wear and the beds that they share.  And I see their joy.  I see their peace.  The kind of joy that only God can give.  The joy of the Lord.  The peace of the Lord.  They are Running the Race.  And I'm here to tell you it ain't easy.

Today I am holding on to that joy and that peace.  And that endurance that only my God can give.  God, help me to Run the Race!

You can learn more about my friends in Uganda at www.aggiesarts.org 

Aggie and October

October in Alabama is one of my absolute favorite things.  We are surrounded by mountainsides filled with rainbows of changing colors.  I always enjoy this time of year.  This year, though... it's even sweeter.  This year, as the leaves have begun to change I have been flooded with memories of Aggie being here with us this time last year.  I will never forget standing in a friend's house with Aggie when she saw a painting of a bright red fall leaf.  She asked, "Do the leaves really turn that color?"  I smiled and told her they do and that she would get to see it happen!

When Simon & Aggie arrived in Alabama for their visit last year, it was Aggie's first time in the U.S.  They got here in September, so the mountainsides were still nice and green.  They were able to stay until November.  I was so pleased that they got to enjoy the changing of the leaves!

This is one of my favorite scenes in town, so I had to take her to see it.
It's right across the street from my kids' school.
 Aggie loved seeing the cows in the green fields!
And by the end of their trip, the mountainsides in the back were full of colors.

 

We took Aggie and Ivy to a local Apple Orchard. 

 

We even went Horseback Riding!!

Aggie was quite nervous about getting on the horse, but she was
determined to take the opportunity while she had it.
Aggie wanted to soak in every bit of America that she could!

Our time with Simon & Aggie here in the U.S. was a wonderful time of celebration.  It warms my soul every time I remember the fun we had together.  I thank God that He has allowed me to spend a great amount of time with such an inspirational and joy-filled woman of God.

AND we dressed Ivy up and took her Trick-or-Treating.  Funnest.  Halloween. EVER!

Aggie doesn't take anything for granted.  She is continually seeing God's hand at work and praising Him for his goodness.  May we all get a taste of her faith and her joy!

To learn more about Aggie and her work in Uganda, visit aggiesarts.org

A Gift

I sat in my living room last night looking at pictures from my Uganda trip earlier this year. As I looked through them and remembered those moments, my heart longed to be there again. I felt a physical ache to be close to these women. Sitting in their homes, learning from them.  Laughing with them, and sharing with them.

Tears streaming down my face, I told my husband how I longed to be with these women. Am I crazy??!!  I know that I am supposed to be here in the US... I am not called to move to Uganda.  I am called to the work here in the United States.

I have felt this deep love for these ladies for a long time. But the emotions of this connection still catch me off guard at times. As I talked with Jason about it last night, it hit me that God has actually given me a wonderful gift in this bond with His children on the other side of the world.

Through most of my life, I have been consumed with myself... focused on plans for my day, my future, my ideas of what I wanted to happen for myself, for my family. And God has now given me the gift of living and loving outside of myself. He has given me a taste of His love for these ladies.

I honestly have times when I wish I could flip a switch and turn off this longing for Uganda... Because it hurts. It hurts to want so badly to be two places at once. But, now I realize that God doesn't want me to turn it off. It is His gift to me. A gift to remind me that my life is not my own.  A gift that reminds me of His love for not only the people that I see every day.  A gift that reminds me how vast His creation is and how deep His love is for His people.

Today I thank Him for this beautiful gift, and I pray that God never flips the switch!  I want to keep this feeling... even if it does hurt sometimes. And I look forward with *great* anticipation to the day He allows me to visit my friends again.  :-)

Learn more about the ladies here: Aggie's Arts

Team Work

As I write this, there is a team of thirteen people from Huntsville that is working with our Aggie's Arts ladies in their community in Kampala, Uganda. The team spent last week in Kisoro, Uganda, ministering to the families that we work with there (Kisoro Kids). This trip is the first of it's kind. It is our first time to send a group to focus solely on Aggie's Arts and Kisoro Kids. As you can imagine, this is very exciting to me. This is something I have dreamed of, and I am so very thankful that the Lord has allowed this dream to come true.

The team has spent time worshiping together with the families and teaching biblical truths. They also have held an eyeglass clinic, where people have been able to receive free reading glasses. I pray that Aggie's Arts will have many opportunities to take teams like this in the future! There is much to be done in Uganda.

In order for us to further develop our ministries there, we must further develop the ministry here. Right now, our greatest need is to reach new avenues for sales. If your church group, office, or school might be interested in hosting an Aggie's Arts sale, please email me at aggiesarts@live.com. We are booking now for the fall and winter months.

Find out more about Aggie's Arts at www.aggiesarts.com

Keeping Me Humble

I have recently been labelled.  My title is Executive Director of Aggie's Arts.  This is the same role that I have been in since the beginning of Aggie's Arts... but it just seems bigger when you actually have the title.  Plus, in recent months, Aggie's Arts has made some major changes and has grown tremendously, so I really do have more responsibility than ever before.  I am a person who is comfortable in a crowd, comfortable in front of a crowd, and who enjoys being in charge.  Of course, these are good attributes for a leader... BUT I know they can also be an Achilles heel. 

For this reason, I recently began to pray for God to keep me humble.  Soak that in for a minute... I prayed for God to keep me humble.  What was I thinking?!  You know the old saying, "Be careful what you pray for!"  Today I can assure you that I was not prepared for God to answer this prayer.  In the past weeks, I have been humbled. 

A lot of this has involved Aggie's Arts things, but a lot of my lessons have also involved my family.  Today I reached my breaking point.  My oldest child, Mattie, has been having some serious problems getting along with her little brother, my youngest.  Through the past weeks I have tried and tried to help them work through issues, teach them to respect each other's space, and to love each other well.  It feels like we will take one step forward and two steps back.  This morning was awful. The yelling was crazy, and I had to break up several physical fights. 

By this afternoon, Mattie and I both were in tears.  I have to say that I'm not a person that cries a lot.  My sweet sister cries at everything... commercials, cards, you name it... she got all the crying genes!  Me, on the other hand... You can know that if I'm crying - I am broken... my heart is broken, my will is broken, I am broken.  Today I sat on Mattie's bed and cried as she cried.  I realized that I have failed her.  I have been trying to 'fix' her.  And I have neglected to pray.  I have neglected to involve our Father.  And He has Humbled me today!

Today I am bringing my focus back to Him to restore the brokenness in the relationship between Mattie and Isaiah, and to restore the brokenness in my life.  As much as it hurts and I do NOT like it... I am thankful for God keeping me humble.  I need reminders that it's not ME that gets things done... It's not ME that changes my children's hearts... It's only HIM that can do all these things and more.

www.aggiesarts.com

The Quarry

Africa.  Uganda.  Kampala.  Slum.  Quarry.

Kampala is the capital city of Uganda and has a population of approximately 1.6 million people. 

The average annual income of a Ugandan is around $300 to $400.

In the quarry, on an average day a worker can make about 2,500 Ugandan Shillings, which is about a dollar.  This work includes leaving your family at home for the older children to care for the younger ones.  It includes working in the direct sunlight of the Equator.  A worker takes jerry cans (buckets) down to the bottom of the quarry, fills them up with rocks, and brings them out of the quarry.  They then begin breaking the rocks down to smaller ones.  The tools they use are primitive.  No machines.  Not even a heavy duty DeWalt hammer.

Sylvia empties a jerry can of small rocks

Several of our Precious Ladies

Helen demonstrates getting to the small ones



quite a rock crusher, huh?!

The slum area where most of the Aggie's Arts ladies live is called Banda.  The Ugandan government gave this area to the Acholi tribespeople who were forced from their homes in Northern Uganda by the LRA.  Banda sits directly beside this rock quarry.  This is why most of the families in Banda have made use of the quarry.  In the quarry, not only is the pay nominal, but it is also extremely dangerous.  Rockslides are not uncommon.  One of our ladies, Mary, has actually lost her husband and her mother in the quarry.

Once Aggie began this ministry and started making purchases from these ladies, it opened up a new realm of possibilites for them.  In the five years since we began, our ladies have stopped working in the quarry.  Now the ladies are able to stay at home with their families while they work.  They are able to take care of their home at the same time they are working with the beads.  Now, instead of breaking rocks, they are creating something beautiful!  Something so beautiful in fact, that people come from around the world to buy them! 




Sylvia, Mary O., Grace, and Rose





Mary A. showing us her new design of earrings 

How wonderful that God has done this for our sweet friends!  What a blessing it is to be a part of it all!  I hope you will come on-board with us on this journey.  A journey full of Christ's love.  A journey of empowering families.  A journey of joy. 

www.aggiesarts.com

Roller Coaster

Some exciting things have happened! One great thing is that Aggie's Arts now has a Director of Sales & Marketing... Someone that is not me. :-) This is going to be awesome for Aggie's Arts! We have also taken some other exciting steps in that area... But you'll have to wait for details on that. ;-)

We had our second Board meeting last week. It went great! All of our Board Members were there and we have made some great strides in getting this non-profit process moving. Simon and Aggie met with the Aggie's Arts ladies in Uganda last week for their regular purchase. They bought more Christmas ornaments! Yay!

In my family life, the past couple of weeks have been a roller coaster of emotions. My parents bought a house here in Huntsville... In my neighborhood. It will be a while before they actually move over, but this means it is official- they are coming! This is Super Exciting!! They currently live in my hometown of Saltillo, MS. Jason and I have lived in Huntsville for almost 12 years now and we are thrilled that my parents will be close now! On the other side of the roller coaster... my Mamaw passed away last week. She was 94 years old. It was a sad time, but also a sweet time. It is such a wonderful thing to think of her sitting in heaven, reunited with her husband who had died 30 years before. And reunited with her son and daughter who had also preceded her in death. I can just imagine them standing together before the Throne singing! They all loved to sing!

It has been difficult for my kiddos. They had a meaningful relationship with Mamaw... Really had a lot of fun times. She was their Great-Great-Grandmother. She was also the one whom my Mattie was named after. I am very grateful for the time my children had with her. At the funeral they were precious. They even put love notes in the casket with her. And when the service was finished and all but the family had left, we went back out to the graveside and had a balloon release in her honor. It was beautiful.

My Mamaw was a precious woman of God. She spent her life caring for her family, her church, and her community. She was a gifted cook and quilter. God gave her those gifts and she shared them with the people around her. She was always baking a pie for someone or putting up peas to share with the neighbors. She quilted more quilts than she could keep up with. And to my knowledge she never sold a quilt. They were all gifted to family and friends. She spent her life giving her life away. Today, my prayer is that when I leave this earthly body, my legacy will be as powerful as hers.

Sidewalk Sale in Saltillo

I am super excited about an event we are having in Saltillo on May 2nd.  I hope all of you North Mississippians can come out and shop!  It will be a great opportunity to get beautiful and meaningful Mother's Day gifts and Graduation gifts.  We are a non-profit corporation.  All of our proceeds help mothers in Uganda to provide for their families as well as helping schools in Uganda.

Hands

This morning when I woke up, I looked over at my phone.  I was checking to see if Jason had texted me, because he was on his way to New Jersey last night.  Thankfully, I did have a message from him, so I knew he was safe.  But when I put the phone down, my hand caught my eye as I was turning back over to snooze for a few minutes.  I lifted my hands in front of me in the morning light.  And I realized... I have hands!  What an amazing thing.  Something that most of us have, and totally take for granted. 

Lately, I have been getting "age spots" on my hands.  It has really bothered me a lot and I have done a lot of complaining about it.  I was telling my mom about it just the other day.  I said I am only 32 years old!  I should NOT have age spots!  Ugh!  And this morning, God showed me the beauty in my hands.  He showed me that I have all 10 fingers!  I get to do amazing work with these hands.  Seriously, Amazing!! 

The Father has used these hands to change diapers, give hugs, wipe tears, wipe noses, carry beads, count necklaces, make phone calls, type emails, design pictures and brochures, hold babies, hold the hands of hurting people, stroke the hair of my children, scratch their backs... It brings tears to my eyes to think of all the phenomenal things God has let me do with these hands.  And now, I am seeing my hands differently.  I am looking at my hands and instead of seeing age, I am seeing blessings.

Thank you, Father!  Thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you.  I thank you, God, for my hands.  And I thank you for all the work that I get to do with these hands.  And, Father, I pray that You will give me Lots and Lots and Lots and Lots of more work to do with these hands!!

My first blog entry :-)

Awhile back, I was talking to a dear friend and I said... Some people do Junior Women's Clubs, Civitan, whatever... and I do Aggie's Arts.  It's what I do.  It's my thing.  My friend told me that should be my tagline at the end of my emails.  So, I decided to use it as the title of my blog.  :)

I have a wonderful family.  My absolutely precious and wonderful and supportive and handsome husband of almost 12 years, Jason.  And my beautiful, talented, funny, intelligent, generous children... Mattie, Carley, and Isaiah.  They are ages 9, 7, and 5 respectively.  I am living my dream of being a Stay-at-Home-Mom.  I thank God every day that I get to live this dream.  I am blessed beyond what I ever imagined!

There is, however, a huge part of my life that I never dreamed of... and that is Aggie's Arts.  I would *never* have believed you if you had told me ten years ago that I would go to Africa twice and spend all my free time working with an African mission project.  I mean, Africa is scary, right?!  I've always been all for supporting missions and all, but actually going to Africa... not even on my radar.  But, God had plans for me.  He had me get a business degree, marry the perfect man for me, and move to Huntsville, Alabama.  He planned every little detail that brought Jason and me to this place and to this ministry.  

Today, I have the amazing privilege of serving as Executive Director of this 'little' ministry called Aggie's Arts.  That's what I do.  :)  In our house, we always have beads hanging around, we have a clock set to Uganda time, most of our table-talk involves things going on with Aggie's Arts, and my kids regularly get lectures of how good they have it here in the US.  But mostly, all five of us just LOVE what God is doing with these ladies and with these beads.

Aggie Paech and Amanda Page

October 2011

My reason for writing this blog is that it seems every day I find myself wanting to write about or tell someone something about Uganda or our Aggie's Arts ladies or our Aggie's Arts happenings.  So, I decided a blog might be a good outlet for that.  I hope you enjoy!

My Amazing Husband and me

Just before I left for Uganda in February