Happy Mother’s Day to all of our amazing moms! Thank you for your sacrifice and for your commitment to your families. Thank you for shining your light for Jesus so brightly in the way that you love your children.
I wanted to spotlight for you today one of our courageous Ugandan mommas. Faith’s story is very similar to many of our mothers…persevering through extreme hardship to insure the survival of their children.
Faith lost her husband to HIV about 10 years ago. She also lives with HIV, as she has struggled to care for her 3 beautiful children. She sells snacks along the road and makes various crafts to try to provide for her family. They live in a a small one room house, with very little of anything, yet the joy and gratitude that exudes from them is so inspiring. Her children, Judith, Mathias, and Jonathan are all sweet, funny, thoughtful, smart, and creative. When all three kids were sponsored through V127, it was a huge relief to Faith to know that they would now be able to get an education that she could not provide for them. Judith is hoping to attend university in the fall, Mathias is in vocational school studying Building and Construction, and Jonathan is a hard working 6th grader. I will never forget the tears in Faith’s eyes and the gratitude in her heart the first time I met her. She is so so grateful for those who are helping her children.
So on behalf of all of our Ugandan mommas, I want to say Thank You for the way you are investing in their children and giving them opportunities that their mom’s could only dream of. God is richly providing through all of you and its a beautiful thing to see.
On a side note, on our first trip to Uganda, Faith’s children showed me that they each had a small plastic box to hold their possessions. They pulled out every letter they had ever received from their sponsors, and it was evident that they are precious treasures that they read over and over. Never underestimate the power of your words in your child’s life. (If you haven’t written to your child lately, you can do so here!
Construction Update
Construction is ongoing on Phase 3 of Victory House! Thank you to all of you who are helping us with this project. This third floor will be our very first dormitory for boys. We have several boys who are living with our teachers on the first floor (sleeping on the bunk beds that you provided), so they are all excited about getting this space of their own. (No one is more excited than the teachers! 🙂 )
This is a video we received this week of the construction in progress!
Farmland
Finally, I wanted to share with you that our team in Uganda has been diligently searching for the right piece of farmland for our ministry since this time last year, when God provided $11,000 for the land purchase. Herbert is very excited about a 30 acre lot they have discovered that is very fertile and has been idle for 15 years. The owner doesn’t want to subdivide, but he is only asking $990 per acre. (About half of the going price) That would mean that we could potentially get about 11 acres instead of the 5 we were hoping for.
Herbert has asked us to pray that he will find someone who would be willing to go in with him on the land purchase, and they would buy the 19 acres, while we could buy the 11. This land would be great for growing bananas, potatoes, other fruits and vegetables that would help to sustain our families and provide an agricultural education for many of our kids. Please continue to pray for God’s guidance and direction. We are trusting Him and believing the right piece of land is coming to us in His perfect timing!
I leave you with these verses that I’ve been meditating on all week…
“In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly.”
Psalms 5:3
Are we praying and then waiting expectantly for God to answer? Paul tells us in Philippians 4:4-6 that the very act of bringing our requests to our Father with gratitude in our hearts, brings us a peace that “surpasses all understanding”.
Greater faith…more peace and gratitude and joy in our hearts…that is my prayer for each of us today.
Much Love,
Jan