AllNationsInternational Blog

Mothers Who Make A Difference

May 11, 2009 on 9:53 am | In Uncategorized | No Comments

Martha Hoffman is a mother of three and lives in a Northeastern shoreline suburb. Martha was a happy stay-at-home mom, and had no idea her call to mothering would go beyond her natural offspring and take her across the world.

“It all literally started with a dream one night,” Martha began.

She had a dream about a woman who was far, far away caring for children who were very much in need. Eventually, she realized the woman in the dream was herself, but she couldn’t figure out where the dream was. Over the course of seven years, the dreams came and went.

Gradually, the dreams became more frequent, until they were coming almost every night, and Martha could not figure out where the dream was. She decided to pray to help her understand what the dream meant. Finally, the dream came again, but this time at the end of it, her grandmother appeared in the dream and handed her a small bark cloth purse she had given Martha as a child. The purse was bought by a friend of her grandmother’s who was a missionary in Uganda, Africa.

Martha woke up, and knew in every fiber of her being, the place was Uganda, and she had to go there and help the children. She had a mission, yet was so scared. She had no interest in Africa, and didn’t even like to camp! Suddenly, images and stories of Uganda seemed to creep into her life almost constantly, until she gave in. Within four months, she was on a plane. She had no idea what she was supposed to do, but a sense when she got there, she would know.

“I saw poverty more intense than I could wrap my mind around sometimes,” she said. “Everywhere I went, the stories and the people were so inspiring to me. There was tremendous beauty and happiness, in spite of such tragedy.”

Most of the villages did not have access to fresh water, no toilet facilities and had malaria as common as an everyday cold. Only 50 feet below the ground had fresh water, but the villages had no money to dig a well.

Martha knew what to do.

She came home and began to raise money for a variety of projects including funding livestock, supporting orphans to go to school, and the largest project of all – raising funds to dig a well in a village that supported nearly 1,000 people.

Martha raised that $7900, and went back to help see the well put in. The villagers named the well “Martha,” and they call her “Toto,” which means Mother. In the past two years, Martha has started a non-profit called, “Call to Care Uganda”, has managed to help plant 150 orange trees, deliver hundreds of pairs of Crocs and harmonicas to orphans, and dug four more wells to serve thousands.

Martha is living a dream; a destiny she never knew was planted in her the day her grandmother gave her a tiny purse from Africa, and again when she received it in her sleep.

By the way, guess what Martha’s middle name is?
Martha Wells Hoffman.