Ecclesiastes 3:11 "HE has
made all things BEAUTIFUL in its time.
He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what
God has done from beginning to end.” (NLT)
The mother eagle will push
its baby out of the nest when she knows the baby is ready to fly. It seems God
does the same thing with us humans when He feels we are ready to do the work He
has trained us to do. Even though we didn’t
know exactly how we were going to do ministry with all the changes that have
taken place within the Project, God let us go from His grasp to do the ministry
He trained us to do. God knew we were
ready and HE paved the way for us to start.
One night, while living in
Kaliro, I went to the vendors to buy a rolex.
Before you get to excited, a rolex is a flour tortilla with an egg and
some vegetables wrapped inside and it is cooked for you while you wait. While waiting for the rolex a man came up to
me and asked me to go to his house to pray for his family. I didn’t think this was such a good idea, because
no one back at the compound would know where to find me if something were to
happen to me. I told the man if he truly
wanted me to pray to God for his family we were going to have to do it there on
the busy street. He agreed and we prayed
for his entire family. For me, it was at
that moment that God reminded me why I was there.
Janine made a friend in the
city of Jinja. Her name is Rita and she
is a lady who has the gift and business of sewing. The two of them hit it off right away and
this lady decided she would help her sister, Janine, find the sewing machines
she would need to start some of her ministries in the village of Naigobya. Over the course of two weeks Janine and Rita
sampled out several used sewing machines to pick out the three she would use to
train the women. I think you can tell by
the pictures they both are having a great time harassing the man who was
selling the machines to make sure he came through with all he said he would. I can tell you, by the look on Janine’s face,
this is when God reminded her what she was here to do.
We have moved from the city
of Kaliro to Jinja in order to have accesss to more amenities such as more
constant electricity, better choice of food, and fellowship with the body of
Christ at Acacia Church. The house we
are renting is bright, larger, and has space to receive guests as they come to
visit us. (Hint, Hint) The move to this
house has brought back life to us. We
have not had a home for over a year.
We have been spending 3 to 4
days a week in the village learning the ins and outs of the Afayo Project in
order to understand how things function and what is being done to spread the
love of Christ. While doing this, we
also started serving by doing Bible Studies with the teachers at St. Paul’s. We feel this is crucial because the teachers
have the ability to share the love of Christ with the 300+ children they teach
everyday. We teach this Bible study each Monday and we love all the questions
they have. Both of us attend the Bible
studies on Thursday, to stay connected with, and to build relationships with the
men and women of the village, and practice our language lessons on them each
week.
I want to start meeting with the children periodically, in an assembly, to speak words of encouragement to
them. This experience was a great help
to me as a child and I want to pass it on.
Janine is preparing the
village house to use for teaching beading and sewing. I was helping her clean one-day and had to
leave her for a half an hour to meet the builders, who are starting two new
classrooms at the school and go over their plans. I returned to the village house to find
Janine outside the house and she seemed a little troubled. As I approached the porch I noticed the
neighbors smiling as I asked what was going on.
Janine said that she brought a box outside to empty just in case
something was in it. A rat jumped out of
the box right in front of her and she screamed.
The neighbors, two men and a mother, came to her rescue and in the end
they walked home with two rats. I think
it was going to be their supper.
I hope you are as excited to
hear these stories as we are in experiencing them!
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| building the first classroom |
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| Standing on the foundation of the next two classrooms being built because of some wonderful Michigan friends! |
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| Students in their new classroom |
Thank you for all your prayers and support! We are doing fine and we know it is only because of the prayer support we are receiving. Thank you for the financial support as well. It is crucial in helping us live here and work, and please keep up with the commitments you have made to help us reach our monthly budget. We are still short of our monthly budget and would appreciate your prayers and financial assistance to reach the needed amount. Thank you!
