The 18-year-old American was scheduled to head home in 48 hours, and only 50 miles away, terrorist attacks killed 64 World Cup viewers in Uganda’s capital. Then multiple flights were delayed, and she was separated from her traveling partner. The previous five weeks had felt safe until now. Her orderly plans turned to utter chaos in just a few short hours.
Hailing from Little Rock, Ark.,
Mariah Fowler travelled to the other side of the world so she could spend over a month serving orphans in Uganda, Africa. She might look like an average teenager on the outside with her long chestnut hair, sophisticated apparel and wide smile, but on the inside she has a great passion for less fortunate children in Africa. This passion seemed to grow each day, and after stumbling upon a Ugandan orphanage’s website, Fowler begged her parents to let her go.
“After seeing the pictures on the website, I said, ‘Oh my goodness, I got to go!” she recalls.
It took four years for her to see that dream come to fruition. In the fall of 2009, the Fowler family decided this was the year Fowler was ready. Jane and Emmitt (Fowler’s parents) were initially more reserved about their daughter’s desire to go to Africa because she would be going by herself to work in an orphanage.
“All the groups that went to Africa were only at the orphanages a couple days,” she explains. “I wanted to do orphan’s work. I wanted to stay at an orphanage and not have to go out to anything else.”
Fowler says the original urge to go was a “want,” but now it had become a “need.”
So Fowler began fund-raising. She set a goal to raise $4,400 in two months, and she raised full support in two months and one day.
“It was really cool to see how God brought the money in to the day,” she says.
Aside from sending letters and asking for support for her trip, Fowler asked people to donate items for a yard sale where the proceeds would go towards her trip.
“Oh my goodness,” she says. “I had enough stuff for four yard sales.”
Nearly all of the items ranged from 50 cents to a few dollars in price, and the most expensive was a $15 DVD player. She can tell story after story about how someone would only buy a few dollars worth, but then hand her an extra $20. Unusual for Little Rock, steady streams of people rushed through the event from 6:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. At the end of the day, Fowler had raised $900.
“I was like ‘Who makes $900 dollars at a yard sale?’!” she recollects, “It was totally, totally cool.”
This was not the first time Fowler says she had seen God work in extraordinary ways. When she was 12 years old, living in Richmond, Va., she experienced a first-hand example of the power of prayer. Her dad was employed at a Christian radio station and then joined
Family Life staff which meant the family had to raise support in order to move to Little Rock, Ark.
“We set a date to have all the funds in,” she says.
On the last day, they were short a commitment of $50 per month.
“My dad prayed for the money to come from someone out of the blue, someone we never would have thought of,” she says.
That afternoon, a pastor who her dad met the previous fall called. The pastor had previously ignored all the Fowler’s attempts for contact and support, but now he told them his church felt led to give them $50 a month.
Little did the Fowlers know, that church would never follow through in support. But oddly enough, some other friends called that night to pledge $50 each month.
“Even before we knew what was going to happen, God still answered that prayer on that day,” she says. “To see God answer so specifically was so amazing.”
With experiences like this under her belt, Fowler wasn’t about to let small hiccups in fundraising get in her way of serving. The calm, cheery, and delightful Fowler says she could talk “til next Tuesday” about her Ugandan adventure. Her dreamy and optimistic personality makes her ready and willing for any adventure. Unlike her older brother, Aaron, and younger sister, Bethany, Fowler describes her personality as “very adventurous.”
“I like meeting new people, traveling, and seeing new places,” she says.
Fowler’s confident disposition would certainly come in handy on the adventure she was about to take half way around the world.
But why Africa? Why Uganda? Out of all the other places in the world with orphans, why there?
“What drew me to Uganda was my family’s
Compassion sponsor child,” she says.
For the past three years, the Fowlers sponsored a young boy named Kanwangi through Compassion International. Mariah had a strong desire to meet Kanwangi face-to-face, but didn’t know if she could.
“I wanted to go see him, but didn’t know where he lived or anything like that,” she says. “I didn’t want to tell him I wanted to see him because I didn’t want him to be disappointed if I couldn’t.”
After buying plane tickets and solidifying the trip, she received a letter from him that said: “Greeting from your friend Kanwangi. I love you so much. I am praying that you will come and visit me in my country Uganda.”
“It made me cry,” she says. “He never said anything about us coming or anything about that before in the whole three years we sponsored him. He is praying and has no idea what I’m hoping to do!”
What Fowler would later title one of the best moments of her life was spent with Kanwangi and his family, which consisted of his mother and nine other siblings. She spent the day with them; at school, then home. Earlier in the day, Kanwangi told Fowler he was going to give her his soccer ball, unaware she had bought him a brand new one. She gave the family little items and after each one she handed to them, Kanwangi gave her a big hug saying “Thank you so much. God bless you.”
“It was so amazing to see his joy despite his circumstances,” she says.
The time came for Mariah to give Kanwangi the ball.
“He was so excited. He jumped up. His eyes got huge,” she recalls.
Then he gave her his old ball. It was tiny. Made out of plastic trash. He had woven banana fibers to make it come together.
“It was so cool how even before he knew I was giving him a new [ball], he was willing to give me his only toy,” she says. “I got to see his heart and sacrificial giving.”
Before the chaotic travel back to the states, Fowler was also able to go on an African safari on the Nile River, which was also a highlight of her trip.
It doesn’t take long to admire this young woman with the colossal heart for orphans. Christina Jackson of Pittsburgh, Pa., was a close friend of Fowler’s older brother, Aaron, in college. After hearing of each other long distance, Jackson and Fowler finally had a chance to meet at the college’s graduation last spring. They only had a few short days to get to know each other, but Jackson confidently describes Fowler’s character as “committed, kind, feeling” and “heartfelt.”
Even those who have been close and dear to Fowler her whole life see a gem whose future is full of possibilities.
“She has such a heart for God, children, orphans, and little kids,” her older brother Aaron says. “I’m excited to see what God’s going to do with her because she’s pretty awesome.”
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This was a personality profile assignment for my journalism class.
I have only scratched the surface of this amazing woman's life...
There is so much more to tell, yet little space to do so.
It is also worth mentioning her construction of a collaboration blog for young women:
Thanks, Mariah, for sharing your story.
I can't wait to see what the rest of your future holds.
Loves to you, sister <3
