Listen to the entire conversation with Ellie Millerborg and Jacqui Morgan in the podcast below.

The little girl couldn't stop smiling.

She sat near the front of the classroom, swinging her feet back and forth, her joy filling the small schoolhouse in Lira, Uganda. Her name was Subra. She was missing a few teeth, her clothes were worn, and the Crocs on her feet had long since outlived their purpose. The soles had nearly disappeared, exposing the bottoms of her feet as she kicked her legs beneath her desk.

She didn't know where her next meal would come from.

She didn't own a new pair of shoes.

But she radiated joy.

Standing in the doorway, Jacqui Morgan felt her heart break and heal at the same time.

"I saw her," Jacqui remembers, "and I thought, She's the one."

Today, Jacqui co-founded For the One International, a ministry serving vulnerable children and families in Uganda. The organization provides education, meals, discipleship, and is building a refuge center for children with nowhere else to go.

But years before she ever met Subra, Jacqui was the one who needed rescuing.

A Father Who Lived on Mission

Long before Uganda was ever part of her story, missions had already shaped Jacqui's childhood.

Her parents didn't simply talk about serving others—they lived it.

After Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, Jacqui's family packed up and moved wherever they were needed. Her father, a contractor, rebuilt homes, churches, and communities destroyed by the storm. If people were hurting, he believed Christians should be there.

"He loved like Jesus," Jacqui says simply.

It wasn't a performance.

It wasn't a title.

Everyone who met him walked away talking less about the man himself and more about the Savior he represented.

That's the legacy Jacqui remembers most.

"He truly is the best man I've ever met."

Eventually, the family settled in Tennessee, believing God had opened another chapter.

Six months later, everything changed.

Without warning, Jacqui's father suffered a fatal heart attack.

He was gone.

When Grief Shakes Your Faith

Losing her father didn't just leave Jacqui grieving.

It left her questioning everything she thought she knew about God.

How could a loving Father allow her earthly father to disappear so suddenly?

The questions didn't have easy answers.

Instead of drawing closer to God, Jacqui slowly drifted away.

She wasn't running into rebellion. In many ways, her struggle was quieter—and perhaps more familiar.

She simply lost herself.

Trying to fit in became easier than knowing who she was.

"I liked whatever everyone else liked," she says. "I didn't even know what I liked anymore."

Without realizing it, grief had stolen more than her father.

It had stolen her identity.

Like so many people carrying hidden sorrow, Jacqui tried to fill the emptiness with things the world promised would satisfy. None of them did.

Deep down, she was still looking for a Father.

The God Who Kept Pursuing

Ironically, the very thing that reminded Jacqui most of her father became the place where God found her again.

Missions.

During a spring break mission trip in college, something shifted.

She watched believers in another country worship the same Savior she had nearly walked away from.

Suddenly, her world became much bigger than her pain.

She realized God's Kingdom stretched far beyond her own heartbreak.

More importantly, she realized God had never stopped pursuing her.

"I just felt Him saying, 'Jacqui, you are My daughter. I want you.'"

Those words changed everything.

God didn't shame her for wandering.

He welcomed her home.

Over time, Jacqui began discovering something grief had hidden from her for years.

Even though her earthly father was gone, her Heavenly Father had never left.

Instead of asking her to suppress her questions, God met her in them. Instead of condemning her sorrow, He patiently walked with her through it.

The relationship that emerged was deeper than the one she had before loss ever entered her life.

Beauty from Ashes

Not long afterward, Jacqui's sister Ashley joined a mission journey that would unexpectedly lead her to Uganda.

Near the end of the trip, Ashley met a local pastor and his wife serving one of the country's most vulnerable communities. Their home had quietly become a refuge for children with nowhere else to go.

Some had lost both parents.

Others had parents forced to leave in search of work, hoping to send enough money home for survival.

The pastor and his wife never seemed to know where the next meal would come from.

Yet they kept saying yes.

More children kept arriving.

More beds were squeezed into small rooms.

More prayers were offered.

Ashley couldn't walk away.

She called Jacqui.

"We have to do something."

That phone call eventually became For the One International.

Rather than creating something entirely new, the sisters came alongside faithful local leaders already serving their community, helping provide resources, education, feeding programs, and now a refuge center that will house children while also creating space for churches around the world to serve alongside Ugandan believers.

For Jacqui, it wasn't simply another mission project.

It was redemption.

God had taken the deepest wound of her life and transformed it into compassion for children who understood loss all too well.

"I may not understand their exact situation," she says, "but I know the God who healed my grief can heal theirs."

When Heaven Multiplied Goldfish Crackers

Jacqui has witnessed many moments in Uganda she can't explain.

One afternoon, volunteers planned a simple Bible lesson about Jesus feeding the five thousand.

They handed out small cups of Goldfish crackers—a snack many of the children had never tasted before.

Then more children kept arriving.

And more.

Soon it became obvious.

There wasn't enough food.

The volunteers filled every prepared cup.

Still the line continued growing.

So they started pouring handfuls directly into waiting hands.

The jars should have emptied quickly.

They didn't.

Child after child received crackers.

Some even came back for seconds.

Only after every child had eaten did the jars finally run dry.

Standing there, Jacqui couldn't help but think about another hillside thousands of years earlier.

Another crowd.

Another impossible shortage.

Another God who delights in providing exactly what His children need.

"It was only Him," she says.

The One

The ministry's name isn't accidental.

For the One International is rooted in Jesus' words about the Shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine sheep to search for the one who has wandered away.

For Jacqui, that story is deeply personal.

After losing her father, she often felt like she wasn't worth pursuing.

Like she had become the forgotten sheep.

But God refused to leave her there.

He came after her.

He reminded her she was still His daughter.

Now, every child she meets carries that same reminder.

Whether it's Subra smiling through worn-out shoes...

A child receiving a meal...

Or a teenager wondering if anyone sees them...

Each one matters to God.

Each one is worth pursuing.

Each one is loved by a Father who never abandons His children.

Looking back, Jacqui can see that the greatest tragedy of her life became the doorway to her greatest calling.

The pain she once begged God to remove became the very place where His compassion grew.

Her father spent his life introducing people to Jesus.

Today, his daughter is doing the same—one child, one family, one story at a time.

Because sometimes God's greatest miracles don't erase our grief.

Sometimes He redeems it.

And in the hands of a faithful Father, even our deepest loss can become someone else's hope.

Learn More

Learn more, support their mission, or get involved at fortheoneint.com.