Being Exalted Among The Nations

Ps. 46:10 "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." Greetings from Uganda and Liberia, Africa! What a privilege to join with people of all nations to exalt the name of Jesus. We are one in His name...what a bond we feel with believers here in Africa.

Our experiences have been many...a few....last Sunday we joined with Pastor David and Sarah Waisana's church in their village. We celebrated with them as we were able to bless them with money to buy church land. No inhibitions---just an extended time of pure praise of singing, dancing, and bowing down in worship to the Lord who has answered their prayer after 12 1/2 years of praying!!! How blessed we were to be the instrument in answer to their prayers!! We cannot begin to convey to you how very, very grateful they are!

Monday, the women went with Helen and some of the ladies from Jimmy and Helen's church to purchase some groceries, an experience in itself, in preparation for a cooking class which we had later that afternoon. Jodi, Brenda and Karen helped the ladies make pizza, banana cake bars, and apricot crisp! What a joyous time we had eating our creations!! I might add, it all did turn out amazingly well too! We were so blessed as we listened to their stories as they shared their hearts. We were able as a team to bless their Women's ministry! Again, their gratefulness is overwhelming!

The men have aggressively been dedicated to working with the water well. After many days of hard work, they came back Monday evening....dirty, tired, BUT JOYFUL to say, "Mission Accomplished!" as the well was pumping approximately 2 gallons per minute! PTL!

We left Uganda 5:15 am in a heavy thunderstorm for our destination of Liberia. After several stopovers in Nairobi and Accru, we arrived in Monrovia, Liberia, over 8 hours later. Flights and customs have gone amazingly well so far and we thank you all so much for your continued prayers.

We were greeted by Eric and Pam ( Jay's cousin) and their family of four, plus three Liberian children they are fostering. They are doing mission work here, with the vision of making their home in the bush of Tahn, north of Monrovia,....in God's timing. Their vision is to provide a house to aid Liberian orphans and help mothers who need help with their little ones. We have been so blessed to hear their heart and see their obedience to God's call on their lives, including their four children!

Our team is very blessed to be staying in the guest house on their compound about one block off the beach of the Atlantic!....a special blessing to enjoy God's creation as we see so VERY much poverty everywhere!

This is Friday as I write and our flight heads for home Sunday early evening. We thank you so very much for your prayers...

Justin and Jodi, Jay and Brenda, Leon and Karen

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Connecting With People

We were excited to deliver blessing bags to several sponsored kids at Fountain of Hope School. We also were amazed at the progress and growth at the school! Our dear friend, Robert Siyto, was gone but we had a special visit with Sarah, his wife.

These are the kids we connected with to give blessings bags:

Justin and Megan Souter's sponsor child, Geoffrey.

Jodi, Brenda and Karen with Michelle Hiett's sponsor child, Kevin.

Brenda with her sponsor child, Teopista.

This is one of Robin Souter's sponsor children, Emmanuel. His brothers were home sick with malaria.

David and Sarah Waisana joined us for dinner and shared about their ministry. They also blessed us thru their music and dance. Brenda even got to join in by playing the drums for them!....watch out Errol, your job on worship team may be in jeopardy!:) Our Sunday School class raised some money and our team added to it and blessed David and Sarah with funds it purchase land for their church. To say they were excited was an understatement! We then were able to help them FaceTime with Deena Craighead who has a special place in her heart for them and who spearheaded the fundraising project.

 

Today(Friday) the men went to NGM Farms to work on the water well. We will post about that later. The women joined Lyzette and her team at the Jinja Main Hospital maternity ward for Charity Day where we blessed each new mother with a gift. This is our team of ladies which include Rebecca and Morgan, house guests of Paul and Pam, Brenda, Zyna, Jodi, Lyzette, and Karen. Esther joined us at the hospital. Zyna and Esther are on Lyzette's staff.

These new mothers are the two cases Lyzette was called to the hospital for. They are both just children themselves, ages 14 & 15, both having been raped. Their stories broke our hearts. Words fail to convey what we are feeling.

 

 

Jodi and Karen showing off the cleaned and freshly dressed little baby that Karen had helped with.

This new mother accepted the Lord as her Savior while Esther and Brenda were talking with her and bringing her a gift. We prayed with her and left her a Bible since she has a friend who could translate for her.

While we had some time we wanted to share and update you on today's activities. We will share more when we can.

 

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Safe Arrival!

After traveling to Oklahoma City in a snow storm and having a two hour flight delay on the first leg of our trip, things starting going encredibly well as we made up time and even arriving early in Amsterdam and Entebbe. We traveled as far as Kampala and stayed in a hotel the first night. There were many errands Paul did the next morning along the way as we made our way to Jinja and we even had chicken on a stick for lunch after being mobbed by the many local vendors shoving pop and chicken and goat on a stick in our windows before arriving at the compound around 1:00 pm. We were so exhausted that some took naps and others spent time visiting and catching up with our friends that stopped by to welcome us.

They had been praying for rain for many months and they were happy that we brought a good old Oklahoma thunderstorm with us. It rained, got very windy and lightening and thundered for about an hour and cooled down. After a wonderful dinner, Edgar and Peter shared their heart about the direction that that Next Generation Ministries is headed and Ezra lead us in some Spirit led worship. We then had a wonderful time of sharing with each other and then turned in early.

This morning we had our much anticipated veranda time together having devotions and prayer time and visiting. The women went through the totes and got things organized for Lyzette and the guys (with the exception of Justin who is not feeling well) went to the farm to start work on the water well.

Thanks for your continued prayers as we minister as God leads.

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