Early Days:

I realize we are still in our early days of being a small nonprofit doing our part to make a difference in this world, hoping that we can point others to God and let His light shine through us and what we are doing.

I have had the fantastic opportunity to meet, connect and come to love some seriously amazing souls that are God's light in this world.

“Educating all of our children must be one of our most urgent priorities. We all know that education, more than anything else, improves your chances of building better lives.” — Nelson Mandela

Let me start with two extraordinary ladies whom I am blessed to call friends and who are like sisters to me! Right from the beginning, they have encouraged, prayed, spoken truth, and loved on me as I began this journey into the nonprofit world, with no knowledge of what I was doing! I am excited to say they are now my board members (be carefully becoming my friend- haha)

But if you are reading this, here we are; all of us are doing this together! It’s still early days, and I love that you also choose to be a part of this! THANK YOU  

The first visit I took to the school was with two ladies two years ago. One was a friend of a friend whom I had never met…. she is a photographer who helped me photograph the students, teachers, and school. The other lady just happened to call me one day asking where in the world I was, we started talking, and I shared that I was heading to Kenya in 2 weeks and somewhat jokingly asked if she wanted to come too; that afternoon, she had her ticket booked! (Crazy but true) She was the most fantastic photographer's assistant we could have ever asked for; God is so good!

The wheels were in motion as I took my first step in Faith, trusting where God was leading…..

A year later (2021), I traveled back to Bluebells school with a group of courageous, strong, crazy, fun, Jesus-loving ladies from Maryland. They shone their light so brightly in a small school in Watamu, Kenya. They came with suitcases packed to the brim with all sorts of goodies for the students and teachers and left behind their smiles, love, and light. They returned home with their hearts and souls full of love overflowing and wanting to continue to impact Bluebell's school.

A bonus on this trip was that my son and his wife (who were on their honeymoon in Kenya) could join us along the way!

An essential part of this Maryland group were the ladies that stayed home and prayed for us while we were on our travels; this was very much needed as we were traveling during the Covid pandemic; God's hedge of protection surrounded us for sure.

In the Spring of 2021, this group (my Maryland girls – led by my sister-in-law) went on to organize an AMAZING fundraiser, ‘Wine in The Woods,’ which raised an outstanding amount of money for Bluebells school! These funds were, in turn, matched by an anonymous donor (a God story for another day)

Today I find myself sitting on a plane with my best friend heading to Kenya (which has been a dream of mine for many years), knowing that only God could have orchestrated such a beautiful story! As I look back over the past two short years, my heart is bursting with so much gratitude. I see all that God has accomplished; only He could have done all this; I hope you can see it too.

Thanks to many of you, we now have funds/money to work with on implementing school programs, putting a playground in for the students, computer training for our teachers, adding new classrooms, doing monthly food drives/outreach for our students and teachers, and so, much more! Thank you to each of you for making all this possible; we can do much more together! (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12)

(For more information on Holding Hands Africa, I would encourage you to read our ‘Vision’ page on the website at www.HHAFRICA.org)

Until next time – Sonya