February 2019 – His Grace For The Journey

Persistence and Perseverance

We have been breeding and raising rabbits now for over two years. Change is hard to make in this country so it has been a slow and some times hopeless road in getting people to see the benefits of rabbit raising and eating the meat. When everyone is just looking for a way to make money it has been disheartening to not get the message through that a person can feed their family healthy meat that is easy to raise with little cost in it. Much of the unused part of crops already grown can be used as food for the rabbits. It is very hard to understand why so many children are malnourished when they have chickens everywhere but each egg is sold to buy “Posho”, which is just a flour made out of maize having no nutritional value because mixed with water and made into a thin porridge it will go further. Even though one egg a day will benefit the children so much more. It is the same with the rabbits. Even if they have enough rabbits that they could sell and still eat meat every day they are going to try and sell each one. Education and getting fees paid for school is the main goal for everyone in our village. And that is important. But what they don’t get is if your child is malnourished they aren’t going to learn as well as when they are healthy and getting the vitamins and nutrients that they need.

The market for rabbits has been growing but very slowly. As for now there are more farmers in Uganda than there are buyers. But our neighbors in Kenya have been successful in the spread of eating rabbit meat and the Chinese can’t keep up with the demand for rabbit meat. So slowly there have been buyers from Kenya coming to buy rabbits in Uganda. A problem, as we faced, was everyone bred and had many rabbits with no buyers and not enough room to house more so they had to quit breeding. Then the buyers from Kenya come and are ready to contract with breeders to supply tons of meat each month and have bought up all there was available. So breeding has started again. But it takes about five months until rabbits are ready to be sold for meat. Our prayer is contracts can be kept as breeders are breeding and raising more rabbits to sell.

Just when I was praying whether to give it up, after two and a half years of not getting interest in our village, not selling even though many of my days were spent reaching out to everyone, including restaurants and supermarkets and not seeing results, God sent men from Kenya who want to work with us. Our main goal is to fight malnutrition but I would also like for the rabbit farm to bring in enough money to pay the workers that care for them. Whatever money we can bring in through the rabbits is money that can go to hiring more workers and helping our neighbors with different projects. It would be awesome to make our farm self-sustaining and the rabbit farm is one of the ways we are trying to accomplish this.

And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. Galatians 6:9

We have had a sign of hope over the last week, a group of eleven people from a neighboring village came and would like to form a co-op raising rabbits for food and profit and would like training. This has been one of our goals also, to train others so that they can be successful. They will be coming back for training and help in choosing crops to plant and how to build cages. We have been successful in growing all of our own crops and making our own pellets for the rabbits. So we will be able to make pellets for them with the crops they grow.

Even though there have been times when I’ve wanted to give up I’ve held onto the knowledge that God gave me this idea and He will not let me down. Not everything happens in the timing we would like but when you know God is in it persistence and perseverance will pay off in furthering His kingdom. And just when you are at your end He takes over and gives you hope!

Preaching To The Forgotten

Every week Christian goes to the prison on the town near us. It’s been almost a year of going every week and there have been hundreds that have asked for salvation. For many it is a true change of heart, accepting the Holy Spirit to come and live in them. For some it is just a hope that going down and saying the words will get them the things they want. And some that come are just there to have a break from the dull everyday life in prison. But for all they hear the truth of God’s word every week.

It is always hard for us with everyone that asks for things, we know the needs are great everywhere and we can’t help everybody but especially in prison. And although most are there for breaking the law it is a lot different inUganda where at times you can be held for years without trial for something minor. Or if you have enough money to pay and families agree on an amount to give them you could have murdered someone and get out. The poverty is so great and jobs so few here so it is really hard for people to feed their families and pay for their children’s education. So many turn to crime.

Of course everyone says they are innocent and beg for help in getting out. It is very hard and very wearying to have to say no week after week to some of the very sad stories. Many of these prisoners families have abandoned them so they have no visitors and no help with things they need. There was one young man that Christian really felt for and finally gave him the little money to make bail and get out. The next week when Christian went back that young man was back. He had only made it on the outside three days before breaking into a pastors home looking for money. So we have to say no to everyone, how does one know who to help, who is going to use the opportunity given them to further their life. There have been a couple of men that were saved on prison and became leaders of Bible study, they were “Pastors” in the prison. They have now gotten out and left a hole there for men to seek guidance. We pray God lifts up more saved leaders on the inside.

What we can do is pray that Gods Word penetrates hearts, and changes those hearts. And provides those who choose HIm a way to live when they get out.

Another Pastor that goes every Week is trying to gather funds to open a type of Christian halfway house with discipleship, technical job training and literacy programs. We are in prayer with him that God will provide the way for this. We were a part of prison ministry in America and speaking Gods words to the prisoners was important, but we also knew that they needed someone to help when they got on the outside. One of the things I did with the women was teach them how to fill out job applications , how to handle themselves on a job interview. Here, they still need skills when they get out, a network of people who can hold them accountable. If there aren’t these type things set up a person that was already living a life of crime is going to go back to the only thing they know.

We ask for prayer for these men and women in prison, that God will touch them, they will accept Jesus as their Savior and He will lead them and their families to changes lives. Prayer for Christian and all of the men of God that go to minister to the prisoners. Prayer that needs are met in the prison and that also guards and workers at the prison also receive and react to the calling of Jesus in their lives.

Jesus said in Hebrews 13:3:

“Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.”

Loving God’s Children

Every Sunday we have anywhere from 110-160 children attend Sunday School. On holidays and kids days where we have games and activities we have had as many as five hundred attend.

Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6

On Sunday mornings the little ones, under five, usually number close to one hundred. They hear Bible stories that are told using the flannel board with pictures that go with the story. We all sing together and I speak a few words and then separate the children that are over nine years old. I am able to teach them more of the Bible and living and loving the way Jesus commands us. They love coming and so many really learn and take what they are taught and put it into action in their lives. There are so many mixed messages they hear everyday so it is important to give them something they can see is real, has a real effect in their everyday lives. It is sad to hear the things they face everyday. I have had many parents say they have seen such a change in their children.

They love when I do any kind of object lessons or activities. In school where we are rurally they don’t get the opportunity of coloring or painting or anything of that nature. So it is a great joy when they get to do hands on things. I try to make learning about Jesus fun and not feel like school. We also give them sweet biscuits for a snack and I think that’s the only reason some come, but even so they are hearing God’s Word and that Jesus loves them.

At Christmas and Easter we give out some kind of gift, I know for many that is the only gift they will get for the year. It has caused problems in the past, once the Word was out we gave out gifts one Christmas we had about five hundred children show up on New Years expecting something and it really upset the children that faithfully come every Sunday. So now we are a little tricky about it, we don’t do the gift giving the Sunday closest to Christmas!

I know we can’t change the entire country, we can only affect the ones around us but I fully believe that children getting the foundation of Jesus early on and letting Him have control of their lives can make them one day great influencers who can change their world. I believe these children are the future and I am honored and blessed to have been given the opportunity to share in their lives. As I am trying to be a blessing to them I am much more blessed by their joy, their thirst for more of Jesus and the hope that it gives them.

What We’re About

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This Is Us

This is a post I made on themandate.com site. Thought I would put it here also! You can read more of my posts there when you go to themandate.com and click on the “news” button. Or click here https://themandate.com/general/this-is-us-2/

This has been one of the hardest posts for me to make. Because the focus is on us personally and we do not like to be the center of attention! But I thought it important for you to see that The Mandate in Uganda is real people being used by a real God to affect lives in a little village. I wouldn’t say we are a normal family, we are just a little on the crazy side! I’ve been told that to be a missionary you have to have a little crazy in you to just go when God says go with no thought about the sacrifice you are making. But we aren’t anything special, we just love Jesus and want to give others that love and understanding of what it means to be a child of God.

We weren’t expecting to be missionaries, Christian has been a preacher and pastor for over twenty years, I (Rhonda) have been a mother, wife, grandmother and graphic artist for many more than that. We have two grown sons, a “surprise” daughter and a daughter-in-law and two beautiful grandchildren. But we were at a point in our lives we knew God was getting ready to do a new thing with us – although we were kind of thinking He was moving us from Louisiana to Texas! Boy did He surprise us with this move! Uganda wasn’t even on our radar!

The one thing we tell people over and over is in whatever you do, know that God is in it. That you “know that you know” you are right where He wants you to be. Whoever you are – you don’t have to move to another country to be God’s messenger. So that during the hard times – and we started our ministry in Uganda pretty rough – you can hold on to that and know that whatever you face He will get you through it. If we didn’t have that we may have gone back home the first month!

But now, after over three years, we call this home. We’ve learned a lot about the culture in those years but still learn something new just about everyday. There isn’t anywhere else we’d rather be, even somewhere where we had running water at all times! We love the people, we definitely have challenges and have days where we want to give up but we hold on to that knowledge that this is where God has us and if we let him have control His plan will be accomplished. People have asked me if the hardest part of living here is not having modern conveniences – running water, electricity (although thankfully we have excellent solar) or the ability to “run” to Wal-mart but I really don’t think about these things. Leaving family was a sacrifice but leaving all the material things was just a no-brainer for us. We gave away just about everything we owned including getting rid of our home. We know that whenever and wherever God puts us next He will take care of all our needs. The hardest part of living here is all of the needs, especially the children. It is hard to sit down to eat whatever and as much as we want when we are constantly hearing children crying because they don’t have enough to eat. And we can’t feed them all. But we try and keep our focus on God and use the Holy Spirits’s discernment to help those we can and lift up the others to God. Even if we can help a few by walking side by side and lifting them up that is pleasing to God. I talk in another post about the children being the future and that is where a lot of our focus is, whether it be in Sunday School, the schools we help in support, the six orphans we love and support or just in being “mom and dad” to ones who hang out at our house. Many of the kids here don’t always have fathers around so Christian tries to be a role model for especially the boys and young men that he is with almost daily.

When we talk to Americans one of the first questions people ask is how many people have been saved since you’ve been there? I can’t tell you how many. I know there have been hundreds over the years between Sunday School, prison ministry and the different places Christian preaches that have confessed salvation. We don’t keep numbers, we could but we have learned that just because people ask to be saved here doesn’t mean they are really understanding what that means. To the majority it is something you do to receive miracles and material blessings. For many, even though they’ve asked Jesus into their hearts they still cling to their culture. They may pray to Jesus but if their prayers aren’t answered just the way they want they then still go to the witch doctor to have him/her do their thing. I can tell you it is relationships that have been made where we see that God is real to them and working in their lives. It is the daily walking with someone and living what we preach before them that gains trust and respect and helps them to see Jesus is real. I pray that the majority of the people who have asked Christ into their hearts are sincere but we leave the counting up to God. And do our best to disciple the ones that we can.

So that’s who The Mandate Uganda is. Christian, Rhonda and Raelee. Just a little family that answered a call, not a big team of people even though we have a big team of donors, prayer warriors and Jesus behind us praying and cheering us on! Everyday is an adventure and looking back at what God did to prepare us for this life we can honestly say we have never been happier materially or more spiritually at peace!

Protected: New and Improved Raelee

Protected: The rains are coming!

Harria

“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well”. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

This is the story is the story I posted on the Facebook page The Mandate Uganda. Or it can be found as @themandateinc if you would like to visit and like our page. I try to keep everyone updated on everything we do in Uganda. In only two weeks we’ve already had over 3,000 views! That is exciting!

❤️

This Valentines day please give a gift of love to help girls stay in school, build self-esteem and stay safe. Too many drop out of school, sell their bodies for pads or get married just to get the things they need to stay in school.

This week my goal is to raise $5000 so that we can get kits to 500 girls in our community this term of the new school year. 100% of the money given goes to the project. We have one of our girls graduating tailoring school and she will be sewing kits to earn her own sewing machine.

Many times we donate money to causes and never really know where it goes. All money that is donated to themandate.com is used for projects. By clicking on the link below your money will go directly to this project. You don’t have to donate the $10 for a kit, anything you can give helps.

When we bless others we get even greater blessings back. And I wish all that support us could see the girls faces when they receive the kits.

This year besides the kits and education we give about menstrual health we are adding a self defense class.

Please give the love that leads to hope for these girls! Click the heart below to give! And thank you so much for your love!

Sunday School Joy

School is back in session for a new year. The children go three terms starting in February so we always are sad to see many go back to boarding school. I miss them greatly on Sundays! My older class is smaller until holidays but we still have close to or a little over one hundred under five children every Sunday. Today was over one hundred! Loud but my heart fills with joy to see their happy little faces. I still had nineteen older kids in my class including Raelee! She has decided to start coming to the older class which I know has been a hard choice for her since she loves taking care of the little ones. I am very proud of her choice!

I met a couple in Jinja at the farmers market who were promoting their Christian homeschool curriculum that is geared toward African children. I was so excited to see this and be able to use it for Sunday School. It has been very challenging to find curriculum and lessons that can be changed so that the kids here can relate and understand. They don’t face the same things that American children face so it sometimes took me a lot of searching and adapting lessons. The book I got goes through the Bible in a year but it is made to do every day in homeschool so it will definitely take us longer to get through. I am happy about that! It comes with a book that has printer friendly activities and pictures that go with the lessons. Today we were able to make little books they can take home. It was an exciting morning getting to use glue sticks! I think this is really going to be a good book to work through.