John Zarzar gives thanks for your contributions to UDS’ Academic & Vocational aid programs!

Recently one of our computer students, John Zarzar, expressed in an email to National Youth Leader, Anna Bertch, his joy and praise to everyone who has contributed to supporting the children and youth in Liberia. Your contributions are literally changing the world. 

This young man is fairly new to our computer training program, but immediately he saw what all of you, our community at Uniting Distant Stars, is doing to support these students at with their education and vocational training needs.

John was also proud to share that he graduated from Open Bible High School on Thursday, August 4th.  Here his email:

​“Hi Miss Anna we Liberians are grateful to God for You. Thanks for your love towards our country. And to the Board and members of the board of uniting distant stars globally. May God Almighty increase your leadership ability, give you wisdom and empower in you knowledge. The fact that Liberia will rise one day it will be through yours andother’s contributions in terms of Vocational and Academic aid and others. You are blessed. John M. Zarzar,Jr. student uniting distant stars (Liberia).”

John gives Thanks to you, who contributed to Academic and Vocational Aid.

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We are so grateful for John's email because his feedback confirms our unified resolve to Liberian children & youth. Since our last email on Wednesday, we raised another $426 (22%) and have a grand total of $1,536. 

The 700 children of City of Joy, Rogma International, and Russ Wood schools are in desperate need of school supplies for next month, as they will be starting a new year. 

​Your generosity in 2015, gave joy and smiles to these children from City of Joy, Rogma International, and Russ Wood Schools (left to right).

You can continue to move this campaign upwards in meeting our $7,000 goal by donating $50 or more today. Your gift is tax-deductible, but importantly priceless to the bright children you are helping. 

The first five individuals to donate over $75, until today August 14th, will receive special mention on our site for the month of September as “Honorary Donors.” (For those who have already made contributions of $75 and more, your names will be featured as well!)

The 3 highest donations made by the end of this campaign will not only receive acknowledgment on the site, but will also obtain special recognition when the school supplies is delivered to the students in September, in the form of a PSA Video! UDS students will get to express to you through digital media their appreciation for you themselves.

Please donate by PayPal (go to website and click donate button) or Check payable to "Uniting Distant Stars" at:

Uniting Distant Stars

4010 Lawndale LN N

Plymouth, MN 55446

The kindness you are showing these children is truly appreciated. They will have an opportunity to express their gratitude with a handwritten “Thank You” letter for donations of:

• $100 or more, you will receive a letter from one student.
• $500 or more, you will receive three letters from three different students representing each school.

Your letter will be emailed during the months of September and October.

Sincerest Thanks for Supporting Children and Youth in Liberia!!!

Ten Thousand Villages Community Shopping Event on May 21

We invite you to come and support Uniting Distant Stars at the Ten Thousand Villages Community Shopping Event at 3825 50th Street in Minneapolis on May 21 from 12PM to 4PM. Ten Thousand Villages sells Fair Trade Handmade items from artisans living in developing nations. This event will be a great opportunity to find special gifts for upcoming birthdays, graduations and weddings. Ten Thousand Villages will donate 15% from the eligible sales during the event. Please visit our table to see a sample of our backpack and learn more about our programs serving youth in Liberia. We look forward to seeing you there!

Miracles Do Happen

Life is a daily flow of learning. Any moment provides an opportunity to instill knowledge and wisdom. This stream of insight is often blocked when facing challenging or difficult situations. These experiences teach the art of courage and humility to relinquish control and detach from outcomes. This simple act of letting go is when Miracles Happen.

Uniting Distant Stars (UDS) experienced this invaluable lesson last year. It all started on November 19, 2014, when the boxes for the 4th Annual School Supply Drive started their long journey from Minnesota to Liberia by road and sea. We expected these to arrive sometime in January or February 2015 based on past experiences with the same shipping company.

14-cubic-foot boxes filled with supplies taped and shrink wrapped to be shipped on a sea cargo container.

When the calendar turned over to January 2015, the calls started to the offices in both Minnesota and Liberia, but no one answered. As we entered into February, still no communication or delivery of the standard letter from the shipping company about our supplies. When March arrived, our investigation intensified on the whereabouts of the boxes, but produced no results after several weeks of personal inquiries and online searches of the company's status. In April, our supporters received an email about the unknown location of our boxes filled with donated supplies. By the end of May, we believed the boxes were lost and gave up any hope of seeing them again.

July rolled in and it was time to launch our next school supply drive. This year we opted to only accept financial donations to purchase the supplies in Liberia since there was no point of repeating last year's disappointment. The goal was to raise $2,000 to purchase supplies for our 250 students at Russ Wood Christian Academy, who we have served since 2012. The campaign started off slow, but gained momentum with an anonymous challenge grant offered on August 2. The grant would match the first $500 donations if received on or before August 16. This prompted both current and new donors to take advantage of this opportunity to double their impact within the first few days.

Then something unbelievable happened on August 6. An email appeared on my phone from Kelvin Fomba, UDS Co-Founder and Country Director in Liberia, stating "Photos of boxes received". In total dismay, I thought to myself "what boxes?" I opened one of the photos on my phone, but could not believe my eyes. I then viewed all the photos on the larger computer monitor and still was baffled with what I saw. How could this be? After nine months of no communication or any information about the fate of our shipment, the boxes were now being off-loaded from a truck by our team in Liberia. The boxes and supplies arrived unscathed and with everything intact.

Left to right: Boxes being off-loaded from truck and supplies unpacked and stacked at our site in Liberia.

Without a doubt this was a Miracle! The shock remained as we continued with our current campaign. Only $130 was needed to receive the challenge grant. This was unlocked the following day on August 7 by one of our sustaining supporters. Wow! Within two days, the unexpected supplies from 2014 were received and this year's campaign was halfway to goal. These blessings clearly had to be shared with more than one school.

The decision was simple. The supplies from 2014 would be given to the 250 Russ Wood students, the intended beneficiaries. The original plan for these supplies were to fill the 250 backpacks made by our youth during our 2014 pilot project. The 2015 campaign, which raised $2,035, would be shared by two schools--City of Joy and Rogma International. The combined total of these two schools is about 250 students. UDS went from supporting one primary school to three in a matter of days.

City of Joy School in Congo Town, Liberia. Kelvin visited in February 2015.

Rogma International School in Paynesville, Liberia from Kelvin's visit in February.

We are happy to announce the supply distribution will occur during the first two weeks in September. Each school will hold an opening program for the 2015/2016 academic year starting with City of Joy on September 6. Kelvin and the UDS volunteer team have been invited to share in this day and present the supplies to the students. Photos from these programs will be posted on our Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter pages as they come in. A blog post will follow highlighting the festivities and stories from each school. All three schools are overjoyed and send their blessings to all our supporters.

In closing this post, Uniting Distant Stars teams in Liberia and Minnesota are extremely grateful for the continued generosity and support from our donors! UDS is equally thankful for the important lesson learned of letting go and receiving what is meant to be. We now know with certainty that Miracles do happen!