Praise! God is faithful!

Every Wednesday night, the missionary staff meet together for devotion and praise time.
Tonight, Gregorio was preaching about God's faithfulness, sharing from Psalm 117.

Praise the Lord, all you nations; 

extol him, all you peoples.

For great is his love toward us, 

and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.

 

During this time, we heard all the children screaming at once. However, not one of us moved a muscle - we have about 30 kids, there is always screaming of some kind.

Afterwards, the housemothers told us the reason for the screaming - a 3 foot cobra had been found on the front porch of one of the children's cottages.  It was raised up, trying to climb the wall and go through the window!

Luckily, a housmother saw it and called the guard.  Alfred killed it immediately.

It seems so ironic to me that all this was happening while we were being reminded of God's faithfulness.  All 30 children were there, playing, running, eating, laughing - all within striking distance of the cobra. But God is faithful.  No one was hurt, no one was bitten.  God is faithful always.  Always.

The faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.

Praise! Jiggers Be Gone!

We have a praise!  I posted about Sam, who came to us with a severe case of jiggers.  He has been with us for about a month receiving treatment.  When he came, he could barely walk, forget about playing like a child should.

Sam is the one in the black and white striped shirt!

God has healed.  Although he still has some jiggers remaining, he was spotted playing soccer at Esangalo!  Running and playing, enjoying life again!  Praise the Lord!

Notice he is the only one with shoes!

“Where is your Pastor?”

"Where is your Pastor?"

We get this question from visitors; both Ugandan and foreigners.   

The first thing people think about is that a church must have a pastor.  But, God has not sent us a pastor yet.  We don’t know why but we are not letting that stop us from having church every Sunday.  

We have a great team of missionaries that are sharing the Word every Sunday and we are seeing the fruits. The people are learning God’s word!

We have all meet together in worship service and then break into four groups.

We have two children’s groups, older and younger primary children.  We have between 200 and 300 each week! Either Anya or I teach the Bible story weekly; Arafat is our awesome translator.   

Galya and Evan work with the class that is not in Bible study. We rotate the groups so all hear God’s Word and get to do a color sheet.

We also have a youth class, this began as a class for Esangalo helpers but has grown to be so much more!  Robin teaches this class with Alloys as her translator.

 

We have a great Adult group!  Gregorio or Luis teaches this class in Spanish. Then Claudia or I translate to English. Then Alfred or Hassan translates to Samia!  This class has really grown in the past year!  At first we would have 10 – 15, now we average 40 – 50!

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Yes, we are praying for a Pastor and we will all be excited when the Lord sends us one, but in the meantime, God is working and his people are hearing his Word.  Praise the Lord!

Two New Residents

A few weeks ago, Brenda sent me to go pick up two new residents.  She said that they were at a local church, the grandfather is unable to care for them and has asked for help.

So, Dad and I set out (Dad was here visiting).  We arrived at the church but the kids were not there.  The pastor told us we had to go to their house to get them.  Ok, we can do that.

We drove about 20 minutes to the grandfather’s house.

 When we arrived, he brought out Ronald.  He was scared.  The grandfather explained that we were the first white people he had ever seen! Ronald’s father drowned in Lake Victoria and his mother ran away, leaving him with his grandfather.  However, due to poor health, the grandfather needs help and decided that the two youngest should go live elsewhere.

Ronald was comforted by Edith, she held him while we finished things up. 

[I have to say, it was overwhelming.  All these children there and Ronald has no idea what is happening.]

 We filled out paperwork on Ronald.

 I asked about the girl.  “No, she is not here.  We will go to her house to get her too.”

We loaded up and started in pursuit of the girl.  I thought it would be 5 to 10 minutes down the road.  NO!  An hour later, with the sun setting fast, we found Sharon’s house.

 She was excited to see a car pull up, but then became scared like Ronald at seeing white people.

   Her mother had died and her father was not around, so her aunt was caring for her.  However, the aunt had left and went to Lake Victoria so she and her 3 siblings were being cared for by an older (18ish) brother.

 We took both of the kids with us and drove away.  It took another hour to get home – driving through a rice field, back roads, stopping for directions numerous times, buying gas in a coke bottle “just in case” and finally arriving at 8:30 that night!

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Update:  Both children are flourishing now. They are doing great at the VOE.  Ronald loves it here.  He is friends with all the kids and loves playing all day!

 

 Sharon loves helping the housemothers with their work, really seeming to soak up that motherly figure she had been lacking.  It is great to see such a change in such a short time! God is good!