Their strength comes from above.

They carry the hopes and dreams for their children. They fight against all odds to protect and provide for each child. When there is no one to fight on their behalf, they don’t give up. When they are weak with no one to care for them, they continue to care for others. When they feel like crying, they smile. When there is no money to provide food, they make sure their children eat something before they sleep.

Their strength is immeasurable. Their source of strength is not of this world. ROWAN is successful because of their determination and perseverance.

These Superheroes are the Mothers, and they are God’s angels here on earth.

The Mothers of ROWAN don’t know that there is a day on the calendar to honor them. But we do. And honor them we shall.

Here is what you can do!

Write an email to them, attaching a picture of you and your family or friends. Honor them and thank them for all they do for their family and community. Email it to info@loveROWAN.com

ROWAN will hand deliver these letters to them this Summer. We will honor them with your letters and a celebration just to honor them. Help us make that day a special one.

Contribute to the Mother’s Business Projects under Micro Enterprise

Want to be an Ambassador? Contact Us

Cindy Gibbs is a beautiful worship singer/songwriter out of Los Angeles who not only has a heart to reach the world with her music, but reach the nations with the Gospel. Cindy Gibbs brings a dynamic worship experience, as she truly believes the Holy Spirit transforms lives in those moments.

We are blessed to honor Cindy as one of ROWAN’s ambassadors, by joining with Cindy in hopes to use her music to help build awareness of our efforts in Uganda. As a traveling musician, speaker, and missionary herself, Cindy’s music is found in churches and events around the country.

Cindy will highlight the love, ROWAN jewelry collection as well as challenge people to join our amaka program!

Tweet with Cindy

A wonderful campaign in Colorado called Antlers for Orphans is collecting antlers and selling them for donations! Learn more here: www.antlersfororphans.com

This is its first year and so far, so good!

Despite all the beautiful snow in the last few months, we have been successful in gathering a great pile of antlers from ranches, individuals, and personal shed hunting! This is so exciting. After hours of calculating each antler, our total donations received so far is…(give or take a few bucks)

$ 585.00

But we are not done yet. Before we head out in July, we want to raise $10,000 more in antlers. Can you help us? Do you know a ranch that could help?

If you live in the mountain ranges- no matter what state you are in- Make it a family outing and do it together! We encourage you to join us as we continue to utilize natural resources to help HIV orphans go to school and receive their medication!

Contact Us to Help

Dear Friends,

“I am the resurrection and the Life. He who believes in me will Live, even though he dies.” John 11:25

What a Joy it is to know that more than 2000 years ago, Christ chose to die for us even when we did not deserve it. He died; because we needed it. He did not wait for us to ask of Him. He Freely offered Himself. It’s the same Love that God continues to show us through his son Jesus Christ. We know that we can trust him who knows us and who loves us beyond measure.

Easter

…is a time to reflect on how much we have been blessed, even when we do not deserve it. It’s a time to remember that Christ died so that we may live. 2Cor 5:14 says “for Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all and therefore all died. And He died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves but Him who died for them and was raised again.”

I hope in this Easter Season we will remember to extend this love to those around us.
But most of all I hope we remember that love is a free gift.

The World is slowly moving into an era of moral decadence. Turn on the evening news and you will be overwhelmed by what is happening around the world: corruption, scandals, HIV/AIDS prevalence on the rise, cases of child abuse/child sacrifices and other forms of abuse, early marriages,poverty, divorce, domestic violence, murder, the list is endless.

The World is in dire need of Revival and Redemption. We have a choice, we can choose to sit back and do nothing or we can actively seek to revive our countries, beginning with ourselves.

ROWAN is very strategic in the shaping of the kind of morals that can be the change agents in the communities.

It’s my prayer that we become active advocates for the change we want to see in our countries. This is the time to speak up against the evil in our times and to lead with courage. This is the time to do away with the evil habits in our midst even if it costs much. Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection reminds us that He does not condone sin and therefore His love should compel us to selflessly serve His people.

On behalf of ROWAN Uganda and myself, I would like to thank you for the commitment and passion that you have for ROWAN and AMAKA Family God bless you.

Happy Easter, my dear Brethrens.

Yours sincerely,
Pastor Paul Nyende
Vision Bearer and Founder of ROWAN

Do you want to make a difference and have fun doing it? Host a ROWAN bead Party. Here are the 4 easy steps:

1. Contact Us and tell us you would like to order a bead kit.
2. Tell us if you would like a Small Kit (10 pieces), Medium Kit (20 pieces), or Large Kit (30 pieces.)
3. Organize the party from your home, office or community group!

4. A ROWAN volunteer will mail you a kit with the beads, info cards, and DVD with videos about ROWAN and how the beads are made.
5. Once your event is over, mail back your box with the remaining beads and the checks.

Contact us to Host a Party!

Learn more about love, ROWAN beads

GLAMOUR Magazine Instagrams ROWAN Beads

Order Necklace at Store Today and Receive by April 20th!

PRE-ORDER at Store Today

It’s time to express some true beauty in a big way.
Brooke Danielson, one of the Associate Accessories Editor at GLAMOUR Magazine, got her hands on one our Shabby Chic necklace pieces recently and fell in love with our work and our cause. She said,

“My heart melted when I saw my very first ROWAN necklace. The Craftsmanship and attention to detail, not to mention the beautiful beads, are oustanding. To know that women in Africa are making these to better themselves, their families and communities is admirable to say the least. I am encouraged and grateful when wearing it!”

This morning Brooke broadcasted this piece on @glamourmag Instagram to over 200,000 followers to raise awareness & find out how many would purchase this piece to support our widows. Right now widows in Uganda are rolling these beads into a beautiful Shabby Chic masterpiece, and will be on sale by next month just in time for summer!

Stay tuned on @glamourmag and www.loveROWAN.com for details of when they hit the USA

Video on Ugandan bead making

A Letter from Pastor Paul. March 21, 2013
Follow Pastor Paul on Facebook

Hello, fellow Advocates of Children in Rural Communities,

Good morning, We do appreciate you for all the good work you do for the ministry.
The whole of this week I have been thinking about how some of the children who live with care givers or with Step moms suffer in Uganda. There is great need for us to step up our advocacy skills to protect the children and their rights-and to sensitize the caregivers, parents and the entire community about positive parenting. We conducted a 1 day training for our caregivers yesterday which we will continue to do on a regular basis.

Child abuse is one of the fast growing challenges in Uganda today, caused by ignorance of the law.

In order to be relevant to the current struggles of our orphans, child advocacy is considered one of our key areas of our work.

There was a horrible story in the paper this week about a young girl who was almost killed by her step mom due to physical trauma.
Let us think about this seriously. I discovered that our children feel love and peace when they are at our ROWAN base, but when they go back there is tears all the time.
Fellow advocates let us speak for these voiceless children, God has given us everything possible to help these children.
Thanks,
From Pastor Paul with broken heart for children who suffer

If someone travels from the capital of Uganda, Kampala to Mawanga village in one day, it will feel as if he/she traveled to a different country. In Kampala (or any urban city in Uganda), people are dressed in jeans, driving to work, and visiting Lake Victoria on holidays. Hospitals are readily available, movie theaters are packed,and hamburgers are on the menu.

In Mawanga, women are dressed in gomazi dresses tilling their land and most are struggling for survival. Clinic shelves are empty and most families are lucky if they eat rice and beans. Thatch roofs are caving in, and the water wells are few.

One ROWAN volunteer from Kampala admitted,

“I grew up in Kampala my whole life. The first time I spent the night in a village was in Mawanga. I was 23 years old. I had no idea what type of life people lived until I visited their homes. I knew that I had the ability to do something. And so did my friends.”

Now this volunteer and others are helping the villages in ROWAN. There have been several local teams who built roofs, donated goods and clothes, and much more.

ROWAN believes that there is a huge gap between the city and village communities.

There is no better way to transform culture than by focusing on local volunteerism.

Are you Ugandan & Want to Volunteer?

Giving of Life Grant

Introducing this “Spring into Action” Season with Giving of Life Grants. Every $1 you donate will double up to $1000!

This season’s project: Helping ROWAN fund a Mobile Nurse

Need: The Current local clinic in our region is no longer in service. All of our widows and people sick with HIV/AIDS must travel far to receive basic treatment and medication.

Solution: If we raise $2,000 in this campaign, we will be able to hire a mobile nurse on staff to travel throughout our 30 villages providing check-ups, distributing medication, and offer counsel and support to those in need.

Check it out here

Learn more about our staff

Some of the ROWAN staff were born in Uganda. Others like me were born in the USA. The differences are numerous as the stars in the sky. So how does ROWAN succeed in working effectively with such a cultural dissimilarities?

Laughter.

Let’s share one major difference that we all call time management.
One day in the village I asked Pastor Paul, “What time is church tomorrow?” Remember: this is the church he is going to preach in! He said, “Oh, around 9am.” So I faithfully set my alarm for 8am, got ready and prepared to take off at 8:45. I stepped outside my guest house door, and saw Pastor Paul nowhere! I asked mama, “Where is Pastor Paul?” Through hand gestures and pointing, I realized he was taking his bucket bath. Breakfast had just begun to cook, and no one seemed to mind that they were late.

Late.

“Late” is really a term used in our culture to define those who are 5 minutes late to meet you at Starbucks. But “late” in Uganda? Never. Whenever you show up, you are on time. So I tried to relax and just waited until Pastor was ready. We slowly made our way to church by 10:30, whereby people were just trickling in for worship.

The beautiful thing is Pastor Paul has a sense of humor. As we walked side by side, he asked me, “Kelsey? Do you have snacks? This is going to be a long service.” As I laughed at the thought of sitting in church for the next four hours, I said, “Well if you see the Indians closing the shops, it’s a pretty good sign that I’m baking under the tin roof.” (Pastor says that when people’s eyes begin to shut, it’s like Indians who close the shops too early in Kampala.)

Then let’s flip-flop the story and share about the time when Pastor Paul flew to USA to conduct my wedding ceremony in 2011. It took an entire day to prepare Pastor to shrink his 3 hour ceremony to 30 minutes. I said, “Pastor, people here get fidgety after 20 minutes of sitting! You have to focus on the main points and get to the ‘I do’s.” So after I walked down the aisle, I believe 1 hour went by before Pastor finally invited me to kiss my husband. Afterwards, I looked at him and we just laughed together knowing 1 hour was the middle ground between 30 minutes and 4 hours.

Laughter is the way to share life and love with someone extremely opposite from you.

Find the humor in the moments that have potential to be frustrating, and I guarantee you will have a heart-change.

Learn more about ROWAN