The smell of sausage, syrup and coffee filled the house as the Holloway family settled into their morning routine, trying their hardest to ignore a reporter in the dining room.
This particular morning required the children to attend school virtually, which made matters easier for the family of seven. That includes four grade-school students, who all attend different institutions.
The Holloways didn’t expect the entire family to be together this holiday season due to missionary work in developing countries. But in their case, the COVID-19 pandemic united them, as opposed to keeping them apart.
“This season, we need to pause and think about what’s good,” said Brody Holloway, chief executive officer and lead pastor of Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters. “It’s been a rough year and yet the default for Americans is, ‘What am I going to get next?’”
Holloway stressed that he’s not criticizing the American mindset for the sake of being negative toward culture in the United States. However, he and his family regularly travel to countries where citizens are less fortunate, yet seem more thankful.
“Where my kids are from, the people are the most thankful, joyful people and they have a meager existence,” Holloway said. “I think we [in the United States] get clouded with materialism and social media.”
Adopted from Uganda
Holloway and his wife, Little, adopted two siblings from Uganda about six years ago, after reading an article about the number of orphans there. The kids’ mother passed away when the youngest was about 5 months old. The two children lived in a dirt-floor hut without running water; they were lucky to receive one meal per day.
“Both of them had a distorted belly,” Brody said. “She was malnourished, and he was in the early stages of starvation.”
Juliet, today age 11, and Moses, today age 7, did not have a birth certificate nor vital records of any kind when the Holloways set out to adopt them. The family worked with Ugandan authorities and medical professionals to obtain important information about their births.
The Holloways adopted the children independently, without help from an agency, and spent about five months working to gain custody and bring them to America. For the kids to become U.S. citizens required another year of work.
“We had to hire a Ugandan attorney and win custody of the kids in the Ugandan courts,” Brody said. “Then we ran into a lot of hurdles in getting them into the United States.
“[The authorities] were strict because of human trafficking fears. They wanted to ensure that no money had changed hands between us and their biological family.”
Lower life expectancy
More than half the population of Uganda is below age 15, making it one of the youngest nations in the world. Life expectancy for males there is 60.7 years, about 16 years less than the average American male.
More than half of the country’s population lacks access to clean, safe water, according to researchers, who say people in rural areas of Uganda draw drinking water from ponds, rivers and lakes that often contain dangerous contaminants that can contribute to life-threatening illnesses.
More than 70 percent of all diseases treated in Uganda stem directly from a lack of clean water or poor sanitation and hygiene techniques.
“These two probably wouldn’t be alive today if they weren’t here in our home,” Brody said about Moses and Juliet.
Spreading the gospel
For more than 20 years, Snowbird has regularly performed missionary work in at least six other countries. Among other things, they build schools and grow farms, while teaching indigenous cultures English, agriculture and basic first aid.
When performing this work, they are not shy about their true mission – to spread the word of Jesus.
“Pure and undefiled religion before God is to take care of widows and orphans,” Brody said, paraphrasing the Bible to explain why he and his wife chose to adopt two kids after having three prior to that. “As Christ followers, we want to live our lives in the way that Jesus would teach us to live. Those who are most vulnerable need someone to advocate and care for them.”
The Holloways’ eldest child, Kilby, and her husband Greg Helms, were scheduled to be in Uganda for this holiday season, but the pandemic stalled those plans. They chose to recognize the virus as a blessing, at least for them at this moment in time.
“Most Americans have a lot to be thankful for. If you make minimum wage here, you’re in the top 15 percent of income in the world,” Brody said. “My family has seen starvation and war-torn, Third World places firsthand. I know everyone can’t go, everyone can’t adopt; but we can all recognize the gifts and blessings that we’ve been given.
“Out of that, just be kind to one another. It’s such a hostile place in society right now. Let’s just be kind to each other.”