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Kari Miller

Kari Miller

Teacher and Supporter of the Dorcas Widows Ministry

Born: MN, United States
Heritage: European American

The biggest change for me is how I live. I’m going to give like I have all the money in the world. If I went home with nothing in my wallet, I didn’t care. I realized I’m part of a worldwide community. You always have a capacity to give to another person. That act of giving between two friends creates love and gives hope.

Kari Miller

Teacher and Supporter of the Dorcas Widows Ministry

I was born October 12, 1971. I teach in St Louis Park. In 2000, I started sponsoring a girl named Maria who lived in Uganda. She was in 2nd or 3rd grade. Her parents died of AIDS. She was living with her grandmother and struggling to go to school. If you don’t have any money you can’t go to school. I decided I wanted to help. I went to Uganda and visited her and her grandmother and it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I also learned about HIV and the disease of AIDS. There are millions infected with that disease.

Over the years, I thought more and more about what I can do to be more compassionate. I left my job and home and family and got on airplane and went to Uganda. I met a lady named Joyce. Joyce is a widow and has five children. As we became friends Joyce invited me to come and meet other friends of hers, a group of widows. I felt honored to be asked to be part of that group.

“Do you understand the life of a widow?” one woman asked. “My name is Rosemary. I was living in northern Uganda at the same time the Lord’s Resistance Army, a political movement, was kidnapping children and making them become child soldiers.” Two of her children were abducted and she never saw them again. She talked about her kids going to sleep hungry. She tried to feed them tea to fill their stomachs. I was overwhelmed.

As we were walking out of the meeting, Rosemary began shouting “Widows. Widows. Widows.” She was saying, “one of us is in trouble.” When I looked, there was a woman standing outside the building. She looked like she only weighed eighty pounds. She was sobbing. These women, who had a hard time feeding their own kids, started reaching out with the small bits of money they had. I knew some women would go home and say to their children they wouldn’t eat tonight. They don’t have food to feed them in order to feed another.

“What can we do to make money?” They got this idea of collecting paper to make jewelry. They would cut it into strips and varnish it. The widows started supporting themselves.

HONOR SONG LYRICS

I’m Looking For Love Today

Honoring Kari Miller

I’m Looking For Love Today
(Honoring Kari Miller)

(Chorus)
How many more lives would be saved
If by chance everybody gave
All the money we have the whole wide world
To give help to everybody, every boy and girl
I’m looking for some love today
Looking for love today

I’m excited to share with you my passion
About a little girl I met not long ago
In the land of Africa in Uganda
Far from the comforts of home
The girls name is Maria
Her mother and father died from AIDS
Growing up with her Grandmother
Since second Grade
(Chorus)

When I traveled to Uganda
I met these women on the street
Like Jane, Joyce, and Rosemary
Positive with HIV
With young children, some adopted
With husbands who have died
When they heard my mom was ailing
For me they began to cry
(Chorus)

Children getting kidnapped
Taken off to war
By the Lord’s Resistance Army and what for
To become soldiers
In the jungles of Sudan
Now is a time of peace
To give help where you can

I’m looking for some love today
Looking for love today

With those women we decided
To start up a widows fund
After Dorcas from the Bible
To share this gift of love
To work to earn money
To support their necessities
To buy land to live on
To fulfill this dream
(Chorus)

You can do anything you set your mind to do
When you have love in your heart
No one can ever stop you!

Words & music by Larry Long with Mrs. Venem’s & Ms. Robinson’s 6th Grade Class of Cedar Manor Intermediate Center.
St. Louis Park, Minnesota
© Larry Long 2008 / BMI