Thank you for visiting this page! I’m so glad you’re here!!

What started out as a friendship online with an orphanage administrator who found me through my music, has turned into the most wonderful experience and a myriad of miracles for orphan and needy children in Uganda. It’s an ongoing story and there is more to come! I’m so excited for you to be part of it with me!

In February 2021, I began a friendship with Michael and Hellen in Uganda who were helping orphaned children receive education. They found me through my music online and our Church’s #LighttheWorld initiative, which I had written and shared a song for.

In March of 2023, some friends of ours visited their village while in Uganda on other business, spent a couple of days with them and assessed the situation. It was determined at that time that much more could be done and this was just the beginning.

In January 2024, my husband Mark and I, this same couple and four additional young men, including our youngest teenage son, visited their village in Uganda again after purchasing land there through the help of music sales here on this site. On this land, 50km north of Mbale, we worked with our new Ugandan friends and one of their local Rotary Clubs to bring potable water to the land, rough-in a bio latrine, plant crops, manually make brick (after a brick making machine was donated by one of our generous sponsors), and assess the needs of the children.

We came home with prayers in our heart how we could help further and our prayers were answered. In fall of 2024, we merged with an already established local charity who had recently moved their work out of Peru, after several successful projects, to Africa and were interested in having new friends join their board. This has given us the proper channels to do our work there and support them in their smaller projects in Rwanda.

Since our visit in 2024, over 100 children have been educated on our land, 38,000 brick have been made (enough to start the first building) and Michael, Hellen and many other teachers and supervisors – even our farm manager – have been baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, including 25+ orphan children. There is currently rumblings that a branch will be started there and some of the adults are enrolled in BYU pathways education.

Needless to say, there have been miracles and blessings which have filled us with faith and hope that we are doing exactly what God wants us to be doing.

We are now established under the registered charity name “Elevate Hope International”, have acquired ownership of the land in Uganda under that charity name, and have received approval of a $90,000.00 global grant through Rotary International. However, to qualify to receive these grant funds (which will be used for solar power, a security fence, a new well on the property, and training of teachers at the school), we must have the first building in place by December 31, 2026. This is where we are looking for assistance to very quickly raise another $100,000.00 which would cover the cost of our first school phase (classrooms, administration building and the completion of the bio latrine).

The long term goal is to eventually add more classrooms and family homes on the property where families willing to take in orphaned children will live and raise them in a safe and educational environment, then adjacent land will be purchased for continued farm expansion and sustainability.

I will be using my music to raise funds for this purpose to see this project to completion.

Watch the full story on the video below to learn of the miracles and details of this project.

How To Donate:

To donate to this project, please visit our charity organization’s page at ELEVATE HOPE INTERNATIONAL or you can purchase music from this site. Every purchase of music from this site will go towards the project construction. Shipping for hardcopy music is included. I’m very happy to be able to use my music in this way!

MORE OF THE STORY

Hopefully this excerpt will bring you up to speed! You can watch the video to learn more history and about how in March of 2023, we were able to raise $6000 in 10 days for this little school to purchase supplies (medical, school supplies, sleeping mats and blankets, shoes, clothing and food, and even a wheelchair for a little disabled girl in the orphanage). These items were personally delivered to the orphanage by some friends of mine, Pat and Steve Leavitt, along with their grand-daughter. We are SO grateful for those who took part in this miracle with us. Pat and Steve came back with incredible stories and said “this is just the beginning“.

Watch the video to get the details and how I was connected with Michael, his wife Hellen, and the 45 children.

In December of 2023, we learned that the government in Uganda was requiring better living conditions for the children and the property they were residing on was being sold, so we got busy and raised more funds (thank you!!) to organize the purchase of a home where they could live.

A melody that came to follow me to Uganda and home. Click on the cover to listen and download sheet music.

However, there were unexpected challenges with the original plan of buying this home, and so – as an only a loving God does – He steered us in a different direction, and we are so grateful! We have found a better and more permanent solution thanks to the recommendations of a very helpful and trusted Rotarian contact in Mbale who suggested we think bigger and more sustainable and gave us some good guidelines in order to do that. We are now working with a sister organization that we started in Uganda with trusted individuals on our board who oversee the work we are doing there. We met personally with these individuals in January of 2024 (my husband and I, Pat and Steve Leavitt and 4 wonderful and helpful young men, including our son who was 16 at the time) and gave service for two weeks in Uganda and learned what was needed to pursue this project. The men helped plant crops on the new land, dig a trench for the national water to be installed on the land, made brick, built a cover for a well, and built the foundation for the bio latrine. Pat and I served the children at the orphanage back in Mbale for that time, taught some english and did reading assessments on the children. It was a wonderful experience.

We currently are overseeing farming on just over 4 acres of land which we have purchased and are in the beginning construction stages of a school on the property. This will be such a blessing to this community which has not had a school in a very long time. Some of the orphaned children were relocated to this land and currently live in rented buildings next door. Others stayed with relatives in Mbale and the new land is providing new opportunities for the community by way of employment and teaching children in makeshift school house while they wait for the permanent structure to the built.

This purchased property, which we have subsequently added an additional two acres is where we are building a school and homes where orphan children can be raised in families. This is an ongoing project and your support means the world to me! You may donate by purchasing music on this site, or by donating directly by any method of payment at Elevate Hope International.

THANK YOU!!!

~ Sara

LIGHT THE WORLD – SONG

There are thousands of ways to serve. This orphanage and school project in Uganda is just one way I am choosing right now. I have learned, after a couple of decades of music projects and raising money for other causes, that these opportunities are much more special when we can do them together! We meet new people, we learn of other miracles, and we see God’s hand more in things as we work side by side and can share in the miracles. I have learned that this is how God works…uniting people to do something – anything – good. It’s always His work – and we are merely instruments in His hands doing small things together to bring great things to pass. All our light together make everything more bright!

This song – Light the World – was inspired by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints #LIGHTtheWORLD initiative. It was originally written and recorded by my son Benson and America’s Got Talent finalist, Evie Clair in 2017.

This has been one of Michael’s favorite songs. #LightTheWorld is how he initially me and my music. Because of my many music projects associated with this initiative, he ended up on my music Facebook page and reached out. Michael and his little orphanage are living proof of how missionary work does indeed work online and can have far reaching effects.

The story the behind the initial recording of this song Evie Clair & Benson Baril is a treasured experience for all involved. It was a testimony of how God is in the details of our lives. I love that as a result of this recording, this song has found its way to so many places in the world.

This is a new recording sung by my kids for the Calgary Canada Mission. In 2022, I was asked if my kids could be involved in a music video for the mission’s facebook page as part of that year’s Light the World Christmas initiative. So we re-recorded it with Benson and Taylee (in the “mattress fort studio”) had it re-mixed and mastered, and then two nice missionary Elders came and filmed in our living room.

Benson left on his mission less than a week later (to the Florida Jacksonville Mission). Taylee left a few months later to serve her mission in Romania. Both of these kids are now home.

Missionary efforts are very important to our family and we are so happy to share our testimonies of Jesus Christ and to help others come unto Him.

Learn more about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints here: www.comeuntochrist.org

Light the World

So many wait for the light of day,
Searching for truth; who will show them the way?
As those who heed the Savior’s call,
We’ll show His love and bring light to all.

In a world where there’s darkness,
In a world with night,
We can offer His peace,
We can lead with His light
Sharing all that is good
As we teach as Christ would.
We can light the world.

So many wait for someone to care;
Maybe they wonder if God’s even there.
As those who’ve found the peace that Christ brings
We’ll be his hands at all times, in all things.

In a world where there’s suffering,
We can ease the pain.
Lift the burdens we see and
Bring hope once again.
Sharing all that is good,
As we serve as Christ would.
We can light the world.

The pure love of Christ will change darkness to light
And answer each cry and each prayer.
It heals every wound and dries every tear.
When we act in His name, it’s as if He were here.

In a world where the lonely,
Seek to find one friend.
In a world where there’s heartache,
We’ll help sorrow end.
Sharing all that is good,
As we love as Christ would.
We can light the world.
Sharing all that is good,
As we live as Christ would.
We will light the world.