The Current State

Hello all my faithful readers & new friends,

I just wanted to share with all of you the journey that I have been on since returning from Kenya. It has been a busy, but exciting time and I cannot wait for you all to read this post. This has only happened because God has blessed me abundantly through your support.

The opportunity has finally come for me to launch The Overflow Foundation. If you read back to my early posts, I explained that a few years ago I was given control over an official 501c3 non-profit organization. Being in high school, I was not sure how this would play into my future, my current life, and what I would even do with it. I did not see myself as a business major walking around in a pant suit ordering people around (at the time thats what I thought people who owned their own business would do). So what was I going to do with a non-profit?

Before returning to Kenya, I established The Overflow Foundation officially and launched it publicly with family and friends in early May, which you can read all about on the site: www.theoverflowfoundation.org. The Overflow Foundation seeks to refresh hope in children living in developing countries through education and awareness.

The reason behind this mission is because I believe the best way to help those living in poverty anywhere in the world is to have them empower themselves. If they begin to rely on others for help, then they will always be stuck in the same situation. The only lesson they have learned is to beg to rich people and they will help you get what they want. If you teach children and adults, that they themselves have the ability to change their situation, then you change their lives and future generations lives for the better. Many times, the only way to make a lasting evident change in their living conditions is through education. Education plays a major role in getting children out of the slums. Education provides a future and stable job. A job that pays more than any work in the slums will get you. From there, children can establish a life outside of poverty. A life where food, clean water, shelter, and education is earned through hard work. Many times these children will invite their parents to come live with them. The downfall to this is that the government does not provide adequate education in these countries. The only way for children to be able to learn essential knowledge for college acceptance is to attend a private school. These school are very expensive. That leaves organizations such as Missions of Hope the only choice for their education. The Overflow partners with these organizations to help them provide education through financial support.

Missions of Hope and organizations such as these provide sponsorship education, where someone can donate the money for their education so that the children are able to get into college. Along with education, these children receive clothing, food, medical attention, Jesus, and love. Another great thing is that children with special needs are not overlooked. They are accepted and see as a human of worth, which is uncommon in these areas. Those with disabilities are normally looked down upon because they cannot contribute to the family. Society outcasts them. Thankfully, Missions of Hope takes these children and provides the tools to rehabilitate them so they can learn and function in society. It's such an amazing organization and I am thankful The Overflow can be apart of helping them spread love through Kenya.

How do we get the funding you may ask? Great question. The Overflow Foundation currently raises funds through repurposed goods in an online store. We sell headbands, shorts, and stickers. We hope to have t-shirts in our store soon. We also receive financial contributions online through Paypal. These are all tax deductible donations and all proceeds go directly to furthering The Overflows mission. Check all of these things out at our site www.theoverflowfoundation.org. We recently have launched this site through a company called Strikingly.

This company has helped launch our mission to the next level. Having an internet base is a huge advantage making it easy for customers to donate, learn information, and purchase goods through our strikingly site. They have been able to let us easily self-create our site that looks great on mobile devices and computers. Also strikingly has great customer service and easy to use editing tools to make the site true to our mission. Check them out if you are considering launching a website and soon they will have blog features running too! We are so thankful to have the site up and we are thankful to all the great people at www.strikingly.com.

Looking for ways to help The Overflow Foundation? Like and share our posts on facebook at The Overflow foundation, follow us on instagram at theoverflowfoundation.

Looking for more tangible ways? We are currently seeking designers of handmade goods from soap, to knitting, to cards, we'd love to sell your goods in our store. If you feel led, you can make a financial donation on our site.

I am so thankful for the constant support and love. I am so blessed to be able to found The Overflow and look forward to seeing how we progress. We are currently in contact with organizations in Asia to support and come along side. For now, check our site and the blog for updates! If you have any direct questions, you may contact us on the site through the Drop us a line section or email theoverflownfp@gmail.com. Thank you all.

Much love and appreciation to you all,

xoxo,

Maddie

Overdue Gratitude

Friends and Family, 

Mambo (Hey in Swahili). I hope this letter finds you all well and filled with the presence of the Lord. I am writing this thank you letter to you after almost three full months of processing time. There are two reasons for this. 1. to give myself ample amounts of time to let god reveal himself and his reasons for me participating in the Kenya trip, and 2. to reach out to you all just as you are forgetting that I even went to Kenya. This may seem weird to you but I think its the greatest way to refocus our minds. 

Do you remember how generous you were and how closely you participated in Gods will for you as you prayed for my trip and supported me in many ways? I do, and I thank you. I try as best I can to pray for you because you have prayed for me and have blessed me. I have prayed that God would fill you with his presence. I pray that he would bless you in ways only he knows how. He is a loving God who desires to place us on the right path and I pray that he has. I do not forget about you, please know that you have not just touched my life with your enormous support but you continue to remain in my mind. I cannot say thank you adequately enough but I will try. Thank you. May God bless you. 

For those of you who have not heard from me personally about my trip back to Kenya, It was definitely different from the last in the best ways possible. Looking back I see Gods hand molding my heart and my future. He taught me patience when I was not understanding of my fellow teammates, he showed me love through visiting those we saw last time and witnessed drastic improvement in the slums, he showed me strength as we were reminded of the lives that were lost while we were away, and he showed me unconditional joy through the parents and children living in the slums. There is not a way I could describe Kenya to you but its a contradiction. These children grow up in ten by ten tin shacks held up by sticks, which the government collects rent from. The parents work long days making barely enough to place one snack in their child’s hand for the day. They undergo rape at least 6 times before they turn 13, and I could continue to tell you of the atrocities these families go through including the fact that there is over a million people living in an area the size of central park, but that would be an injustice to them. Because despite all those horrible facts, the Kenya's are the most joyful people I have ever met. They are incredibly hard working, they are extremely faithful realizing that God is the only thing they need, which allows them to live a full life. 

I became envious of their joy. I want to be able to be content with little, with nothing. Somehow this American culture pushes me back into thinking I need my nails done, hair highlighted, and another piece of technology that really just wastes my time. I learned so many things from this trip and I thank you for allowing my to grow. God is doing incredible things through your support. The special needs culture is now becoming more accepted, and more disabled children are given a chance to be educated. So much great things are coming in the future! I cannot wait to see what God has done when I return. 

The school that I work with (mohiafrica.org), is called Pangani. We worked with the same school last year. It was amazing to be able to go back and see the change and growth. The amount of special needs children has grown from 20 to 200. Those that were already in the school last year have made a complete transformation. We have witnessed shy broken spirits turn into joyful children that see a future. Through your support, we are able to not only rehabilitate physical disabilities but the entire outlook of lives. Heres why, education is the only tool these children have to get out of the slums. Education allows them to get a job that supports them outside the slums. It also builds up their own confidence and outlook so that they get themselves out of the slums. This is key because it teaches self reliance, perseverance, and hard work. We have also begun to change how disabilities are viewed in the slums which is a huge victory. If we can change the view, we can change lives. 

Our next trip will be focusing on community awareness and further outreach to the special needs population. My next step is to continue to pray about where God wants me to go next. I hope to continue the work in Nairobi while also spreading myself into Asia. Asia has been on my heart lately and I feel God calling me there. I ask you to pray for me and my next steps.

I thank you so much for the small victories you have allowed happen through Christ. He has grown your support by pouring into hundreds of live in Nairobi and Chicago. Through you support, I was also able to follow the Lords call to found a non-profit organization that seeks to refresh hope in children in developing countries through education and awareness. To learn more head to www.theoverflowfoundation.org and be sure to like us on facebook! 

Thank you all sincerely. If you have any questions at all, do not hesitate to call me or email me at maddie.nooner@gmail.com. Thank you!!!!!