As we have entered our last month here- it is hard to believe. There are still many things we would like to accomplish in these last few weeks. We continue to pray for God to provide for the Home of Innocence on the Acres of Hope and would like nothing better than to be able to begin construction before we leave on August 1st. On Wednesday Mike & Simon (Ngoga) will meet with a lawyer who should be able to help with the paperwork required to get Ten Talents International registered as a foreign NGO (charity) here. He already met with one lawyer, but the person wanted an unreasonable amount, so this second lawyer has been recommended to us from the church. Yesterday Mike & Simon went to visit a site where a ministry called Living Water is digging a well. Hopefully we will soon be able to post pictures of this type of project for you to see. We will want a well on the Acres of Hope. One of the stipulations (besides the cost for digging the well) is that once the well is dug, water must be freely available to the surrounding community. This suits us just fine, as we want to provide water. (Currently, the man who lives on the property and is watering our trees for us has to walk down a steep hill & back up again, a distance of about two miles, to haul water, as do many others who live in the ares surrounding the property.) Perhaps God will put it on someone’s heart to finance the cost of the well.
Last Thursday we picked up two boys from the Faith Home (Sprian & Peter) as well as Christine (formerly in the Faith Home, now in secondary school). The boys had a long weekend because of Friday being a holiday, and Christine’s school is out for the rest of July. We enjoyed having our sweet kids with us last weekend (a treat for Nate and KaLia as well). We took them to see the ANLM Esther Home (named after one of the girls from the Faith Home, a home for young women in university), the ANLM Dream Center property (where the feeding program for street children is held now- Peter came to the second feeding program ever held and was brought off the streets that day, 4 years ago now). We also took them to the Acres of Hope. It seemed very fitting for these kids to be there, in these humble beginnings, and to pray for what God would do there. I am sure that seeds were planted that day. Towards the end of the weekend one of the boys told us that he would want to give us something, to thank us, but that he sees that we already have things so he said that he prays heaven for us. We responded that the one thing we would like would be for him to pray for God to enable us to bring more kids off the streets- because there are still many more kids who are out there on the streets waiting for a home. For him to pray that for us would make us happy, and we told him that we know God hears his prayers.
It was hard to send the boys back on Sunday, but they have exams this week and had to go. All the kids in the Faith Home would appreciate our prayers for them to do well on their exams this week. These exams determine who passes to the next grade level, as well as their ranking in class. Many of our kids are continually at the top of their class, and strongly desire to do well.
I always have to thank you for your prayers for us. I know God has been very gracious to us this whole time because of so many lifting us up in prayer. I am reminded of an old hymn,
‘Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, Just to take Him at His word
Just to rest upon His promise, Just to know “Thus saith the Lord.”
That’s what we do and the life we receive in return is so very sweet (not always easy) but very sweet.
Trusting God for great things in the days to come!
Lisa
Hebrews 10:23-24, 35-36, 11:1
Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.
So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.