Month: December 2017

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6

Want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! I have pictures to post but we are watching movies…The Lion King is coming next so no time to upload pictures! It’s been a quiet day which has been very nice. Raelee had the “best Christmas ever” and has been playing with her kitchen sets and baby doll clothes! As I post this most of you are just starting your Christmas Day, we just ate supper and are wrapping up our Christmas day!

The Birthday party was mostly a success! Apparently one of the older girls must have put the word out that the party was kids only – except for the older girls! Haha! So we had plenty of cupcakes and fun. I made a balloon dart board, each balloon had candy in it and when popped candy went everywhere! But I didn’t count on her still having the fear of loud noises so she freaked out a bit. After picture time though she was back to running around playing. I took quite a few videos, the pin the tail on Rainbow Dash was a lot of fun. I pinned the tail on his neck and that went over real well! Nelson Mandella stayed and played along, he had fun. Raelee loved the party, just requested we don’t pop balloons at the next one! Don’t worry all Grannies and Grandma, we are doing a photo shoot for good pictures tomorrow. Just got so busy today!

Raelee and I are in the Christmas spirit but to my regret, I didn’t bring any of my nativities when we moved here. The only Christmas decorations we’ve found are very few and very expensive in Kampala. (Expensive but cheap!) Only one store carries any and the trees they have are not good. So, we decided to make our own. We searched Pinterest for ideas and Daddo made us the tree. We only had one fail and that was me trying to make dough from glue and cornstarch. The recipe I used was apparently wrong because every one I’ve read since had different proportions. Raelee stuck with the salt dough recipe and her ornaments turned out good. All but the nativity she made which is a little disturbing to me! She isn’t finished with it so I finished the tree so that there was no room for her lumps of colorfully painted clay to go on it. I’m a terrible mother, I know! I told her they would be perfect for her room! Ha! But she did an awesome job on the popsicle stick angels, the burlap angels and ornaments. She is now addicted to making paper snowflakes but did not have the patience for the origami Christmas trees. (It took me a few tries to get it.) My favorites are the nativities and the placemats she laminated. I think we are finished but she has different ideas!

Popsicle stick angels

Origami trees

Christmas worksheets

I have a strict rule about people who “happen” to come pump water right at porridge time in the mornings. Porridge is only for workers who are on the job. But when I stepped out the other morning and saw these little cuties I had to make them honorary part-timers so I didn’t have to kick them out! How can I say no to those little faces? Especially knowing that’s all they will get to eat until evening time. The two on the right end weren’t even a couple months old when we moved here, Becca and Sophia’s kids. We’ve watched them grow from babies to toddlers and are now really starting to show their personalities. They are both going to have siblings soon…Becca is due anytime and Sophia is due in January, although she looks like she is due anytime! Christian keeps telling her she is going to have twins! We were very excited when they both came to tell us they were expecting. They went on birth control soon after their first babies were born and one of the husbands was very hesitant, the myth here is that if one goes on the “family planning” they will have trouble conceiving again. Apparently they didn’t have any trouble, I pay for their transport to get their monthly injections and know they only skipped one month before telling me they were expecting! So that is a good witness to others that there shouldn’t be fear in planning their families.

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. Colossians 3:23-24

We made it through another exhausting week! I have been able to breathe a little more but still busy and Christian didn’t get much rest. The roof of the government school is finished and they are putting the roof on the other school buildings. But now the school needs desks to put in the new buildings. Saw that one coming!

The workers all got to keep their jobs – on one month probation. (That was very confusing to them because this was the last week of Nov. so what date would the month probation be over!) We had a big meeting with them on Monday, changed some things and it has taken all week to implement them. Changing the way things are done is very hard here and causes much confusion. A lot of it shouldn’t be changes – the work was supposed to be being done in the first place.  We had to use tough love – these people aren’t just employees, we love them as family. We want them to understand that every project, everything we do – they are a part of that. They help to make a difference in their community. I told them we weren’t happy with any of their work but for each one of them I told them the good things I love about them. We all get slack at times in our work and have to get a swift kick in the tail but it is doubly important to do our work well when we are taking care of animals. Grass can grow up to our knees, just makes work harder. Slack off with the animals and you lose some that you can’t get back. We just asked them to work with us and not against us. Showed them a job opening for rabbit farm manager in Kampala that had quite a few qualifications, one was a college degree, and still didn’t pay what they get each month. So they could see that they should appreciate their job. This project is very important to us and whether they can see the importance or not if they work for us they will do the job the way it needs to be done or they will be gone. They don’t know it but we are going to make one of them Farm Manager and I’m not sure it will go over well at first. But that is the cost of not taking initiative and doing your job well. We can’t do everything as the farm grows and the ministry grows and we need someone we can rely on. This person may not be perfect but has proven we can depend on her for most everything and will do whatever we give as her duties.

So…the rabbit house is getting into ship-shape! There is no reason the entire grounds shouldn’t look everyday the same as when we are preparing for visitiors. (They think there is a difference). We will be having Monday morning meetings with one person from each area to go over what is happening and what needs to happen during the week. We have been trying to implement things to make the job easier – I learned a lot this week as far as cleaning and see some areas we can do differently and improve on. They have been working hard and I have been with them everyday training (or re-training). There is one guy that hasn’t been working in the rabbit house long, I don’t think he had any kind of training as to the rabbits – he just throws feed in and cleans the metal. (We have had a supervisor over the rabbit house.) Which is fine as long as there is someone else that inspects every cage and every rabbit every day. It is best if every worker does that. Our prayer is that they all see what we are trying to accomplish and as Christian told them, when we look at each rabbit or each goat  it’s not money we see but what each animal represents as far as bettering the community, helping children be healthy and women that have no one to help them.There has been misunderstanding on their part that we are trying to be a business. We explained that we are not, that is not our intention with anything on our property. Everything we do is to help others around us to better their lives and to share the love of Jesus to all we come in contact with. Yes, we do have goals financially – our organization depends on donations. The giving hearts of others to help those with less. And if we are able to generate some income, if there were ever a time when donations aren’t as much, our budget has to be smaller, we can still put in bore holes, we can still employee people, we can still help. With all the money Mandate has put out we will most likely never be able to say we profit from anything. They have a hard time understanding what profit really means!

We put our choice for farm manager in the rabbit house for this month with the reason to them being that she is the only worker we have on the grounds that hasn’t worked in there. Also, we believe a farm manager needs to have first hand knowledge of all positions to effectively manage the entire farm. Most importantly we told them that all work – whether we like it or not – should be done as unto the Lord. We can slack off, we can hide it from the boss but we can’t hide it from God. Some argue about what worship is, music or no music; hands raised, hands down…. Pleasing God comes from doing everything everyday with thanksgiving to Him for His love for us and all the daily blessings He gives. Living everyday in thanksgiving. That is worshipping Him.