I’m thankful for days like today when I can wake up and have a quiet/study time with Jesus.

“Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don’t have to know about Einstein’s theory of relativity to serve. You don’t have to know about the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love.” -MLK

I missed day one so I’ll double up today.

I’m thankful for second chances at life.
I’m thankful for my two besties, Holly Torres & Joel Willis.

Not gonna lie, Im having a really hard time on the road. I miss Holly. I miss my mom. I miss Emily. I miss Jared. I want to go home at some point on a daily basis. I love my job, don’t get me wrong, I just want a break. Not a vacation, a break in our organization. I believe whole heartedly in what we do. I understand the need and am literally starving myself out here to get the job done. To try to open deaf ears, isn’t an easy task. Unless you’re Jesus, which Im not even close. I think the closest I am to Him is that I love the poor. Not because I am but because I get it. I understand and can relate to the broken. Im basically a broken magnet. I get that these kids need me to have hope. My hope for you to listen to me or read about Got Your Back transfers to them sitting there waiting on someone to open their heart and respond.

This isnt another blog about asking you to give. If you want to, you will. This is a blog for me.

Today my struggle is the question: “Am I making a good decision?”

The Breakdown…

Ive given up basically everything Ive ever saved for. Everything Ive ever invested in to live like I am. Im a 28 year old vagabond. I live in a RV with two beautiful souls. Im cold. Im tired. All I have is my words. This morning, I woke up with just a heavy feeling if I was even supposed to be out here. Whats the point? I mean, we havent had any huge break through out here. We havent had an audience in a while. Im in a small town in Maine then off to Canada. Do people up here even care about this type of stuff? Im from the South. Its way different here! After this tour is over, I wont be doing another one until summer. How are we going to make it as an organization until then? Que, Starbucks….Random tears fell from my eyes on the drive here. Brooke noticed, Im sure, but I tried to hide it. I feel broken. I got here and put on my quick composed face and sat on my lap top drinking a perfect cup of Chai tea. My sweet friend (who I wish I could be more like), Daniel Bottecelli, had written on my FaceBook wall. Heres what its said…

I read Isaiah 61 today and thought about you! It is so beautiful! I love how it talks about us being the church and his hands a feet. I love that it says I will delight greatly in the lord! That’s what we are all called to do! Rachel don’t forget for one minute that you are chosen and placed perfectly where God wants you! He uses us sinful unworthy people to be part of his beautiful story! Don’t forget that you are called a daughter of the most high and he loves you more then you could ever know. I love you and know that God loves you so much so trust in him and remember his promises in the hard and good parts of this. One of my favorites is Rev 21:4-7! Woo woo! Last thing! VERSE ten says he has clothed me in garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness. That is freaken so DOPE! BOOM!

Upon reading this, my eyes started pouring water. Granted, Daniel knows that Isaiah 61 basically is the summary of my testimony. I have it tattooed on my bulging biceps actually. But, I know this was Gods way of giving me a hug. Since I seldom visit FaceBook anymore, I checked in on my sweet friend Kimberly Ross. I told her I love her and wish we could go to lunch today and Id give her a great big, awkward, prolonged, selfish hug. Apparently, she was having a day like me too. A day when she just needed to hear something like that. Daniel didnt know what I was going through. I didnt know what Kim was. God knew both. I think we are interconnected and beautifully made for community. I hope that if you can even follow what I just tried to communicate, that you reach out to someone, the first person you think of, and text them, call them, FaceBook them, Tweet them…COMMUNICATE with them. Just let someone know that you are thinking about them today. You will never know how much it means to them to know that you did. It might not be meant for you to know. Just be human and interact with another person today. I dare you.

Im just going to be real with you. Life on the road isn’t easy. Its tedious and repetitive. Its exhausting and uncomfortable. However, our small team of three has been able to share with many people that we all have the ability to help someone in need. We have shared with people from many demographics, creeds, ages, and walks of life. Even though all of our stories and all of our seasons in life vary, we have been able to learn from them and give them something in return. 
Re-educating the educated on education. From a first world perspective, it doesn’t make much sense that a child will inevitably be denied  schooling if he/she does not have the means to purchase a school uniform. The main challenge is that; the simple cost of school uniform. God trusted me enough to send me to Africa in 2008 for 3 months. Back then, I was still figuring out the ins and outs of social justice even though I thought I knew so much about it. My job consisted of going from school to school all over northern Uganda and interviewing kids about their schooling. I learned so much about their lives and about myself in the process. I learned that I was selfish and ungrateful for the blessings I had in my upbringing. Let’s be honest, I hated school. I hated wearing a uniform when I had to (and that even transferred into the work place). Schooling to these children brings a sense of purpose to their lives. It gives them hope. Hope that I’ve seen first hand. Our very own Will Hill says it like this about his most recent trip to Haiti…
“…although it’s shrouded in a darkened cloud of poverty, hope lives. Hope transcends problems and lights a pathway through the darkness. Hope silences naysayers and breaks down walls. Hope perseveres in trials and thrives in despair. This hope is the light that will drive the darkness of poverty away from Haiti forever.”
I haven’t yet been to Haiti but, this same image of the power of hope that Will felt in Haiti mirrors the tangible hope I felt in Africa. 
If you’re new or old to the Got Your Back family, with your help, contributions, sacrifices, and selflessness we are able to gift these beautiful children with a school uniform that gets them into the classroom where their lives will begin to transform and grow forever. These kids are the future generation of purpose, hope, and love. These kids will change the world. YOU will change the world. I invite you to join the movement. 

We started training the new Got Your Back Ground Force interns today for the fall tour. It was refreshing to be back in the office after a few weeks off. Hearing Will and Austin talk about where we came from and where we are going as a movement is incredible. They have passion conversion down to an art form; something that I strive to achieve day after day on the fall tour. 

There will be so many exciting new ways for people to start their own movements to provide uniforms to children in need this year. Im sure Ill flood your feed and most likely lose a few friends when those campaigns roll out. As for now, this is my final plea for support before we leave. I never met my goal for this tour. Im still $600 short. If you have an extra few dollars, help. If you can spare a cup of coffee this week, Ill greatly appreciate what you would have spent on it. Prayers are also needed. We are about to embark on another seven weeks in a RV. Please pray for strength, unity, safety, and favor for my team as we travel across the east coast to advocate for kids who need to be in school to have a restored sense of purpose in their lives. 

PAYPAL GIFTS HERE.

Blessings.

Rachel Ryan

Im still $600 short on raising support for the fall our with Got Your Back. With just hours remaining, I woke up with a heavy peace and Gods presence around me this morning. He is so faithful. This is what Im called to do; give back, go out, and show love. Sure its a great feeling knowing that Im helping puts kids in school globally, kids that in other circumstances are faced with a hopelessness that my first world self could never imagine, but its the joy in the Father that makes me keep going.

Here is some insight on the importance of a uniform. In recent years, there has been a global push to make uniforms mandatory in public schools. Studies have found that introducing matching clothes amongst peers creates an environment in which students are more likely to excel in the classroom. But as this trend continues to gain traction, many children, especially those living in impoverished countries, are facing a new challenge. Even with most public education remaining free, the cost of required uniforms is often too great an expense for struggling families, a burden shared even by developed countries like the United States. With 80% of humanity living on less than $10 a day, and the ever growing movement to mandate uniforms, education many times becomes a distant dream. Got Your Back has focused our efforts on eliminating this burden by distributing school uniforms around the world. Through supplying uniforms free of cost, we hope to offer a pathway for children to gain an education and a chance at pursuing a better, safer, and healthier life. In addition to the free uniforms for the students, our uniforms are hand tailored within the communities that we deliver to and the goods are purchased locally. Creating jobs and sustainability for the neighborhood.

Nearly 1 billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names. For many of those individuals, finding a job to support themselves & their families will prove to be a daunting, if not impossible, task. Education provides the necessary tools to not only advance in today’s work place but it also helps to create lasting and sustainable change for the good of communities worldwide. We believe that the moment a school uniform is delivered to a child, it becomes the tipping point in that child’s life and has the power to change a village, a town, a city, a nation, a country… forever. We believe education is key to breaking the cycle of poverty.

Watch our media here to see proof of what we are doing.

If you are able to give, if you are able to help me go out this fall, please go here and donate. (tax-deductible) Please put my name in the note area for online giving.

You are the Got Your Back Movement. We couldnt exist without YOU.

After being on the road for 2+ months, I was tired and stressed yesterday when I blogged. Here is a little more detail about why I need your prayer and support. 

I work for a non profit called Got Your Back Movement. We exist to provide school uniforms to kids in our projects in Haiti and Kenya. Public education is free in those nations but uniforms are mandatory. If a family cant afford a uniform, the child can not go to school. We currently are working with the Northeast Haiti Christian Alliance at an orphanage in Haiti called, Danitas Children and just picked up another partner called Help Heal Haiti which works in the northwest part of Haiti, which is the poorest region in the western hemisphere. And lastly, Lwala Community Alliance in Kenya which focuses specifically on girls education.

Im about to embark on another 2 months on the road across the east coast and Canada with my lovely friends Brooke Brown and Lydia Woodward. When we are on tour, we talk to thousands of people about why education is so vital to children and especially ones in developing/impoverished nations. We are having to re-educate the west on WHY education can be a life or death gift to these kids. We believe education is dire to breaking the cycle of poverty. Its the whole give a man a fish or teach him how to fish situation. 

Im raising support for the fall tour. I still need $1395.00. If youd like to give support please visit this link to give online. If youd like to support and receive a tax deduction receipt, please email me at RachelRyan@GYBMovement.org or send a check to:

Got Your Back Movement (memo: Rachel Ryan) to

121 Seaboard Ln.

Ste. 11 Franklin, TN

37067

Prayer is appreciated from everyone, always. 

Thank you always supporting me, friends. You all mean so very much to me. 

Im running out of time to raise support for the Got Your Back fall tour. If you can give $10, $20, whatever….it would help so much. I need to raise $1500! Click this link to give if you can OR if youd like to give and get a tax deduction receipt just email me for details (RachelRyan@GYBMovement.org).

THANK YOU so much, my friends! 

I LOVE YOU ALL!!

www.gybmovement.org for more info about what we do!

Sitting in the RV, as usual, and going through some old Africa photos. I found the ones from Stewarts 23rd birthday. We through him a surprise party at a local Gulu restaurant. They only sold pink balloons so thats what he got. Perfect for a 23 year old boy, right? Anyways, our photos are freaking hilarious. Its incredible to think that it was over 3 years ago that I had easily the best summer of my life. The people I met, the things I saw, what God placed in my life, the stories Ill have forever, and what I left behind will forever be engrained in my being. I know without a shadow of a doubt that I wouldnt be the person I am today without having been to Uganda.