What's So Important About a Car?

It's less than two months until we leave (<==== check out the new countdown we added!) and the excitement is mounting! We cannot wait to get to Uganda and serve the people there under International Justice Mission! What a privilege and an honor to do this work the Lord has called us to.

We are also excited that we have reached 100% of the monthly support we needed to raise with IJM! GOD IS GOOD!!

We have now begun raising money to help us with the purchase of a vehicle once we arrive in Uganda.

Unfortunately, IJM is unable to justify a car as a "business expense" and thus, we are unable to raise money for a vehicle through them. Thankfully, our home church in Florida provided a way for us to raise money for a vehicle while still allowing our donors to channel their funds through a trusted organization. This money will not be tax deductible.

For those of you who have already pledged to give to us monthly through IJM, please continue to send your donations in to them. We are considering your monthly donations when we calculate that we are at 100%. For others who have not given or pledged to give, would you consider giving towards our car fund? Vehicles are very expensive in Uganda, and we need to raise quite a bit before we leave.

Cash or check donations towards our car fund may be sent to:

First Baptist Church

124 W Ashley Street

Jacksonville, FL 32202

Please do not write our name anywhere on the check. Just include a separate piece of paper signifying your donation is for the Hutchesons (do not specify that it is for a car). Thank you!

We'd like to take minute to share with you some of the reasons a vehicle will be important for us while we are in Uganda:

1. As most of you know, we are planning to adopt soon after we arrive in Uganda! We do not yet know what orphanage we will be adopting from, but an orphanage we are looking in to is located in Jinja, Uganda. With traffic, Jinja can be more than two hours away from where we will be living in Kampala. Once we identify our child and begin the paperwork, we could wait months before we are awarded legal guardianship and are able to bring our child into our home with us. This means many many trips to the orphanage to visit our baby before we can bring her and/or him home. A car will make this travel an easier thing to accomplish.

2. Another reason a car is beneficial for us is because of our desire to use car seats for our children (although it is not the law in Uganda). Many interns and fellows that go to Uganda with IJM are either single and/or childless. Thus, they find that using public transportation suits their needs. Public transportation is cheap, easy, and EVERYWHERE in Uganda! However, with a family of (soon to be) four (or more?), public transportation is not the most ideal situation for us.

• This is a matatu - a Ugandan taxi. This is a great form of transportation but these taxis are usually packed full and not only would there be little room for car seats, it would be hard to constantly lug them in and out of the taxi (and there may be no seat belts to strap the car seat in with)! =)

  

• Another form of transportation common in Uganda is a boda boda. Boda bodas are also found almost everywhere. They work like a taxi. You flag one down, hop on, and pay at your destination. Boda boda's are fun to ride (you can see Drew enjoying himself in the picture below taken when we were in Uganda in Spring of 2009) and Drew will most likely use them often to get to work. However, they are not the best solution for a family outing (no car seats fitting on these babies)!

 

• Another form of transportation would be a special hire private taxi. These are also easy to find and easy to use in Uganda. However, the price is more expensive because you have the whole taxi to yourself. Also, again we would have the issue of lugging car seats in and out at our destination!

As you can see, a car will be an important asset to us as we serve the Lord in Uganda. Would you consider helping us raise the money that we need to purchase one? We would be greatly honored and appreciative!
Learn more at our Start-Up & Support page.

THANK YOU!