Pages

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

We Got Married, Ya'll!! Woo Hoo!!

Hello!!  Our big day has come and gone.  However, the celebrations leading up to it will live on in infamy!  Somewhere between the bridal shower at work (complete with various sparkling grape juices in champagne flutes!), the family shower at Helen Fitzgerald’s, the joint bachelor/bachelorette pub crawl and the impromptu bachelor party (the night before the wedding!) we got used to everyone celebrating, well, US!  We had a beautiful, laid-back ceremony in the Great Room at Sunset Hills Country Club on Friday, November 9th.  Everything fell into place exactly as planned the day of the wedding:  The girls (including bridesmaid, Johnny) spent the day at Ginger Bay Salon; the boys spent the day working off said bachelor party. The weather turned out to be unseasonably warm and beautiful allowing us to take some photos outside on the greens at the club. A semicircle of chairs was arranged around the fireplace. The mantle was decorated with baby’s breath, vintage windows and candles. My dad walked me down the aisle to Otis Redding’s “I’ve Been Loving You”.  The ceremony began and Blake read “The Giving Tree” by Shel Silverstein.  We said “I Do” and everyone waved their celebratory “We Do” chalkboard signs.  Greg spent the next two hours trying to get used to wearing a ring while we smiled for pictures and enjoyed hor’derves and cocktails.  After dinner, the bridal party headed to BB’s Jazz, Blues and Soups where the final celebration commenced!  The evening was amazing and overwhelming.  We want to thank everyone that came out to BB’s to help us celebrate such a special evening and everyone that called/wrote us to wish us well. It was a day that neither of us will ever forget. 

With the wedding festivities behind us and the holiday season upon us, I find myself thinking more and more about my friends in Mozambique.  During this time of year, when most of us are celebrating our faith and spending time with our loved ones, they are experiencing a time unrest caused by an opposition group seeking power and money (while most of the country desires peace and development).  I am comforted by the fact that church groups brokered peace agreements in 1992 to end their 15 year civil war.  During my trip to Mozambique in 2011 I had the pleasure of meeting men and women in leadership positions within United Methodist churches throughout the country.  I am confident that these individuals have the wherewithal to overcome adversity again. 

The 2013 group has spent months preparing for the upcoming trip. I am excited to be a part of this diverse group of individuals and to get back to Mozambique.  Since my previous post, five new wells have become operational and a leadership group from The Mozambique Initiative has spent 3 weeks in Mozambique.  As Greg, Blake and I transition into our lives together, I become more confident that their time while I’m gone will be one full of laughter, love and shenanigans.  I anticipate struggles for us both during this time but I know that this will be a pivotal experience in our lives.

If this is your first time visiting the blog, please scroll down to the first post for details regarding the trip, fundraising and making a donation.  We appreciate you stopping by to hear our story, to wish us well and your donations. 

Peace+
Emilie

Friday, September 21, 2012

Welcome To Our Humble Internet Abode!! It’s Small But We Have Big Plans For It!!

You've been driven to this site by Emilie and Greg’s desire to decline any material/monetary personal gifts as a result of their upcoming/recent nuptials.  Instead, we would like to direct your attention to a cause that has affected our relationship, challenged personal decisions and built our faith.

We are asking our friends and family to assist in fundraising for Emilie’s second trip to Mozambique, Africa with The Gathering United Methodist Church and The Mozambique Initiative. The Gathering UMC donates 50 percent of their Easter and Christmas Eve offerings to The Mozambique Initiative’s water well digging program.  (The other 50 percent goes to a local non-profit, Kingdom House.)  Currently, The Gathering has assisted in funding 12 water wells with 5 in progress.  In Mozambique, your proximity to clean water directly affects your standard of living.  Inadequate access to safe water denies children their right to education, forces women to spend large parts of their days fetching water, prevents sustainable development, kills or sickens thousands of people a day and results in diminished opportunities for thousands more. Despite these statistics, Mozambicans are rich with culture,strength, happiness, hospitality, perseverance, faith and, Emilie can't go a day without daydreaming about the deep, sincere hugs.  Mozambicans show affection towards one another in a way that we do not experience in the west.  They hold hands, embrace, connect ... in a way that our society has moved away from because we spend commutes in cars, days in cubes/offices, rely on technology as a sole form of communication and seclude our families inside our homes. 

In March 2013 the second group from The Gathering will travel to Mozambique to build relationships with community and church members directly affected by the wells we have funded, assist with construction on the Gondola Training Center, work at the Carolyn Belsche Orphanage and assess additional humanitarian needs.  The cost for each participant is $4,000 ($2000 for flight travel expenses, $1000 donation to area churches, $1000 food and lodging).  Each member of the team is responsible for their own fundraising.  Greg is unable to take an extended leave from work to attend. However, he is fully invested in the cause and plays an incredible role in maintaining our life in St. Louis, MO.  That life includes our home, child, 2 dogs and one insatiable cat.  As you can imagine, his support is crucial to Emilie’s involvement in this portion of the project. 

During Emilie’s first trip she was afforded the unforgettable opportunity to travel without the group to a village currently on the waiting list for a well.  Their nearest access to clean water is miles away in a neighboring village.  Upon visiting that well she was overwhelmed to see  a horde of women and children waiting in an 8 hour line to fill their large, yellow containers with water.  Once full, these five gallon jugs will weigh 40 pounds each, greatly slowing their long walk home. 


From Greg:  While I will not be on the flight to Mozambique, I am one of the project’s biggest fans. It is an incredible undertaking to help bring water to the masses and I am grateful to get to see a solution present itself in such a personal way. The past successful trips have dramatically improved the lives of Mozambicans and the future trips will further the trend.

Emilie’s trip last fall had a significant impact on both of us. If you imagine a world without running water, you would almost certainly go crazy. When you seriously consider how much of a difference having a safe, consistent source of water makes in the life of a human, this trip and the initiative as a whole has so much riding on its success. The group is trying to solve an enormous problem and it cannot be solved with one or two trips, but each trip, each small step forward is helping the lives of so many individuals.

The initiative’s successes cannot be praised enough and the project’s future goals cannot be cheered on enough, but what Emilie and I gained from her last trip is not just perspective, but also some of our closest friends. This trip helps ensure healthier lives of Mozambicans and raises the collective standard of living exponentially, but it also creates lasting relationships with those who are a part of the project and understand the plight of the average person in rural Africa.

All that said, I am honestly not very happy to be apart from Emilie for three weeks. Last fall we had an exceptionally brief conversation fairly early on in the trip and then there was very spotty communication for the remainder. I am lobbying to have free wifi installed throughout rural Mozambique, but they insist on the water wells first. I guess I’ll allow water first, then we can deal with internet.

I’m excited for Emilie and our peers to embark on another journey. It is not easy to part with someone you love for even just a few weeks, but the amount of good that comes out of these trips is worth the sacrifice.



We want to thank you for the role you play in our lives and the support you provide us.  We appreciate all donations and well wishes you have for us. We also understand if you choose not to or are unable to make a donation. We'll update this site as the planning process continues and again when Emilie returns from Mozambique. We will try to update during the trip but we can't say for certain that we will even be able to communicate with one another!

To make a donation online: use the PayPal button at the top right. Easy Peesy!!

To make a donation via check:
Please write “Hoffman – Mozambique” in the memo line. (This is very important to the allocation process.)
Mail to:  The Gathering UMC, 2111 McCausland Ave., St. Louis, MO 63143
If you mail a donation to the church, please drop us an email so that we can make sure we can track it with the accountant.  

In any case, we'd love to hear from you.  Leave comment on this blog or send us an email: hoffmanee@gmail.com or gregmo@gmail.com.