Author: rhondajwelch

Well, we have made it halfway through the week and still moving along! Moving a little slower and with sound effects! I had to squat down to get something and thought I’d never get up. Had to get to my rear, kinda roll over to my knees, then all fours and finally back into a standing position. On the dirt floor of the rabbit house. I’ve been working like I’m twenty-five but once I stop my body reminds me I am a little older than that! Ha! Raelee has still been a trooper but she got to have more time off today. She spent a lot of it talking to one rabbit that she is determined to bring inside. And spoiling a few with more sunflowers. Christian worked with me today and we fed, cleaned and doctored all before lunch. Then we remembered we had to fill the water tank. Yikes! Christian says if us old people can do all that those young guys shouldn’t be complaining about anything!

We have a bore hole in the back of the property that used to be a community pump until we fenced the property in. So it doesn’t get used and the water has been pretty nasty. Jennifer and I are convinced that if pumped enough it will clear up. Someone will go pump it for ten minutes and quit and say it won’t clear up. For at least three months, if not more, we have been talking with a company that installs solar pumps to go on our bore hole that we can use for the rabbits water system and drip irrigation for our crops. I have been stressing over it, wanting to get it done before the dry season is begins. The owner (who is American) lives about two hours away. We were told by friends that he is a really busy man for all this time he would set an appointment with us and cancel the day before. Finally he told us he had the trucks packed up with equipment to at least come blow out the well and see if that clears up the water. Haven’t heard from him in almost three weeks now. In the rabbit house is a five hundred liter tank with PVC pips that carry the water through each cage. The five hundred liters last about three days. The rabbit house is at the back of our five acre property and the guys have had to come up to the very front of the five acres and pump water to take back and fill the tank. The guys aren’t here this week so this evening we pumped and filled the tank. It had some water in it but we pumped and poured two hundred and fifty liters into it! We did pump at the back well and the water was crystal clear. The bright side is it was a good work out for my “granny” arms as my loving husband calls them. You know, when you get old and when you wave you look like a flag is attached to the bottom of your arm. Where did this come from? When did it happen? Haha! I probably won’t be able to wave anything tomorrow. We did it different than the guys, they carry the jerry cans down the road, inside the building and hand them up to whoever is pouring. We drove the truck full of jerry cans, I hooked them up to a rope and Christian pulled them up. The two cans in the pictures are ten liters, some we have are twenty liters. We had to fill them all. I told him all he has to do is put a pulley back there and problems solved until we can get a pump!

While we were pumping and filling, the boys (with Raelee supervising from a perch in a tree) cleaned out the chicken house. I think they were quite relieved not having to clean urine and manure in the rabbit house! I love them both and they always make me laugh. They love to ride on the truck and thought they could convince me to let them hang off the side when I drove it back up to the house. They and Raelee love to ride in the back. When they realized Christian wasn’t going back up they all three climbed in the front with me and the boys were amazed I was driving. We got up to the house and Indianga was at the gate in the tipper waiting to be let in as the guard was gone for the day. I had to turn the truck around and when I backed up I was watching the building but forgot one important thing….the tail gate was down. Oops! Just barely I bumped the building but the boys looked at me with big eyes waiting to see what I was going to do. I said “Oops”! Got out, went to find the gate keys, let Indianga in and was telling him I forgot the tail gate was down. He said “Whoops”! The only thing it did was smash the plastic cover for the solar wiring to the Church building.

By the time we were finished watering rabbits, watering goats and chickens it was past supper time. I started making tacos and boiling water to bathe. After the meat was done and shells were cooking I realized there was barely a flame under the water kettles, and then poof! there was no more flame – gas was over! The water was near boiling, supper was ready so I say that was perfect timing!

We want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! Remember to thank God for all the many blessings you have everyday – even the small ones like having just enough gas to finish supper! He always provides just what we need!

We decided to go swimming Friday and Saturday, Raelee and I love to swim. First we went to a hotel she and I went to two years ago, you can pay a couple dollars and swim all day. It has gone down hill since then and they had the pool drained, it had about two feet of water. She begged to stay. I said I couldn’t swim in that. We went to the hotel we stayed at when we moved here, they put in a pool about a year ago. They actually have two pools, one that is shallow for kids. The big pool is really big and I can barely stand in it – on my tiptoes! I will have to work up to swimming the length of it. They are doing a lot of expansion and it is all going to be really nice when finished. You can also pay a couple dollars and swim all day. That’s probably where we will spend a lot of Saturdays – a good way for us to relax and her to have a ball!

She loves jumping in!

Forced to take a break after 2 hours!

Big Daddy doesn’t swim much but he does like hanging out with us!

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:16

This post is a hard one for me. Partly venting but mostly to ask for prayers lifted up. For us, for all missionaries who struggle wondering if what they are doing is matters. For our village and the entire country. Sometimes the only thing I know is that God has a plan for those around us and He put us here as His hands and feet. Sometimes my faith in that is the only thing that keeps me here. I could run away, lately I’ve wanted to run away from the struggles and the doubt that we are making any kind of difference but I can’t run away from the calling God has for us. There’s struggle and disappointment at times in everyone’s life.

This will be our third Thanksgiving to be away from family. I’ve been homesick for the first time since we came. It hasn’t helped that this month the mornings have felt like fall – and then gets to 86′ in the afternoon which is so much like Louisiana! We were in Jinja and saw a display with white pumpkins and I want my mama!

I am always encouraged by the children and their thirst to know more about the Bible and about Jesus. Another boy got his Bible last week and although not all have gotten their own I let them use one in Sunday School as we are learning through the book of the Case for Christ for kids to help us know who Jesus is. But….

Trying to get those around us understand why we are here, why we have the rabbits and goats is a struggle. All they see is a paycheck or think that we are an ATM. And maybe we are partly to blame that we haven’t been clear enough on our intentions although we try to get them to understand we are just tools used by God and everything we do is to try to lift this community up. Sometimes they see, as we are currently building new classrooms for one school to try and help them build it up and children won’t have to be boarded away from home. When they go off to school, parents are only allowed to see their children on one visiting day a term. And it is so expensive, they spend all their time worrying about school fees. Other times, as with the rabbits they believe we are here to make money as a business. So the full-time workers come to do their jobs, complain about too much work and the rabbit urine makes them so sick. Granted, it is not pleasant emptying the pans but it’s part of the job and it isn’t as bad as they make it out to be. We have prayed A LOT about the rabbits and I intend to talk about that in another post – I believe God is giving us a new direction. Maybe not the goals and intentions we had going into it but how He wants to use it. We – all of us – sometimes (often) start out listening to His intention but then get in the way of it with our own small-minded intentions. When His goal is so much bigger than ours.

This is going to be a rough week. Christian fired all of our full-time workers today. Well, he told them all to go home for a week without pay and don’t come back until next Monday to see if they still have a job. He sat them down, explained that we pay them more than they would at any other job in this area, but they were welcome to go if they can find a better one. We would be happy for them. If we hire more help (because apparently they work too hard) he explained they will have to start paying taxes, and that is on their monthly wages and the lunches and breakfast that is paid for on top of that. By law we don’t have to give them lunch money or supply breakfast. He explained what they would be left with. This is after having a meeting last week to put a stop to everyone, every month asking for pay-day loans. Every month six to eight times a month we have to go through this whole thing and say no. We explain the money isn’t there until the first of the month. It’s hard to say no. It’s tiring to say no. But it wouldn’t help them in the long run. We know from learning the hard way ourselves.  They asked if he could just dole out a little of their pay as they need it! He told them to grow up, we helped them set up saving accounts, we deposit their pay. All they have to do is withdraw what they need as they need it. It all came to a head Saturday, we left Friday evening to spend the night and next day at a local hotel that has a swimming pool. Had a good day. Came home to hear a sixth goat in about four months had died. And that there was fighting among the workers and fingers pointed that someone was poisoning them. We were so excited a couple of months ago that we were going to get to give two goats to widows, we were trying to find two that the greatest need. There’s some reason they are all dying. This last one had a month old baby and because we were gone and they wanted us to see it, they left it laying dead from sometime Thursday night to Saturday evening. The baby beside it trying to nurse when we got home. Everyone here has goats and it is not normal for that many to die. They are fine one day and dead the next. They were also complaining that the work is too hard in the rabbit house seven and a half hours a day. Thirty minute breakfast break and an hour lunch. That was it. He told the workers that they may as well go take a widows food because in not caring about the goat situation that is what they have done.

Christian has been cutting all the lumber for three school buildings and roof for an office at another school, he’s been busy for a couple months with school desks and building a fence for the bulls and goats.  I have been schooling Raelee and doing the things I have to do. So we haven’t spent as much time in the rabbit house, we have had a few visitors come to talk about rabbits and get advice but haven’t spent as much attention as we probably should have because we had confidence in the workers we now have in there. It was awful yesterday. There are a few rabbits that I knew were sick and was told a few times they were getting medicine. We are going to put them down tomorrow, they are beyond getting better. I found the medicine hidden, none of it used. Food bowls caked so much there was no room for fresh food. Spent half the day yesterday cleaning bowls, replacing hay bottles. A few didn’t even have food bowls. Today Raelee and I fed the rabbits, doctored rabbits and it took us two hours. Me and a seven year old. This evening her two buddies came and in about one and a half-two hours we cleaned all the gutters and emptied urine. About 250 cages. So close to four hours it took me, two seven year olds and a nine year old to do the seven hour workday work of three men. Twenty minutes of that was chasing an escaped rabbit – he’s still loose. And I cooked lunch and supper. It’s not easy work but it’s not back breaking either. I’m sorry but I don’t have a lot of sympathy. But I know we can’t do all that we have to do normally and take care of two hundred plus rabbits and five acres that includes at least two acres of crops. It’s going to be tough this week, but the boys asked me if they could come back and help tomorrow. Our chickens haven’t been laying eggs and nobody could tell us why. Six have disappeared. We went in to get eggs yesterday, there is supposed to be about a foot step down when you go in but the floor is now even with the bottom of the door. You figure out why. The nesting boxes are full of waste. We thought maybe the boys could help dig it out. But I asked them why they weren’t in school today and they said they were sent home because they couldn’t pay their school fees. I had one of them go get their mama and worked out a deal to pay enough to get them back in but they would come the rest of this week after school to help out. She and they were so excited. I told them I would be checking with the school master to make sure they didn’t skip out to come work, next week are exams and I don’t want them to miss. So we will have a little help. Christian is almost done cutting boards and our part time guard will be helping him on the grounds this week until we decide what to do. All this to say sometimes working for the Lord is hard, emotionally and mentally mostly. We know how to work hard, we can get through a week of it physically. The toll for all missionaries I think is living in a culture that is hard to understand, not seeing what we think progress (on our part) should be and being away from our loved ones. For us it is also only having each other to vent to and we are in the same boat! We still laugh almost everyday, we still have faith God is working even when we don’t see it. We still know this is where we are supposed to be. We know we aren’t the only ones that have struggles and disappointments and ours are small compared to others. Serving God isn’t always easy or fun but everyday I still say it is well with my soul. And that’s a big thing.

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? Romans 10:14

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you,when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. Psalm 139:13-16

And how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.      2 Timothy 3:15

Let me ask you, how many people do you know would walk through pouring rain, through mud in the chill of morning to hear the Word of God? I know of Churches that cancelled services because of hard rains. It doesn’t matter how much it is raining here, many will walk barefoot through mud to get to Church service. There were even a couple new adults at the 7 am Bible study. We didn’t have all of our kids but surprisingly there were many that made it. It was raining so hard we kept them all inside.

I am still amazed at the attention and absorption of the stories the little children have. Our teenage girl that tells them Bible stories always asks questions at the end and the answers aren’t just repeating of what they have heard but understanding and a grasp of what the stories are about. And these are children that are six and under. I am always in awe of the work God is doing in their hearts and minds and full of hope for their futures.

We had one more older boy get his Bible this week. I am still waiting on two to get the courage to get theirs. They weren’t here on Sunday so I look forward to next week.

Before we got the Bibles we asked what language to get them in. It is funny to me that all asked for English Bibles. Very few speak English and that is very little. I have to have an interpreter for everything. It makes me wonder if they can actually read them. I have to leave that in God’s hands and pray that they will be able to read and understand His Word.

Please continue to pray for our kids and adults, the Bible study has added a few more in the past few months and we have had more requests than usual for Bibles from people in the community.

So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:11

Here are some of the homes that were damaged in the storm last month. We helped quite a few with repairs, giving bricks and tin for their roofs. Our kids home is the one with the tree in the side of it. We were able to find their dad and told him if he repaired the walls we would put a new roof on. He agreed and our guys finished up on the roof this week. Two of our workers lost their entire home. The one’s home that was lost was actually one of his wives home and it was flattened.

The reason many were demolished was because many people can’t afford to use concrete as mortar, they use mud about 3/4 of the way up and finish the rest with concrete. Also, use unbaked brick that over time wear away.

We are thankful that we were able to help quite a few, ones that came and asked if we had work so that they could make repairs. The rains are still coming each week, we are thankful for that because we have beautiful sunflowers growing again and hay. Trying to get in as much as we can to feed the animals through the dry season.

About the wife’s house. I see America and all the people wanting to embrace Muslims and even adapt their ways. If they really understood what it means to be a woman in this culture they would change their minds. We went to inspect our worker’s home, it’s a fairly new home built with money saved while he was working on our mill and rabbit house. Christian had built two nice wood doors for it. It is a nice, pretty large home by standards here. We were surprised when he came asking for work to fix his house because it was flattened. As we drove up we could see it was still standing. Curious, we were directed to the pile of bricks next to it, the second wife’s house. I will say we don’t know that he doesn’t have intentions to build her a nicer home but I was so sad to think of this lady living in about a 6’x8′ “house” with two or three kids right across from the nice new home the other wife and kids live in. I don’t care that this culture accepts multiple wives, you will never make me believe women are content living this way. But the alternative is to be a single woman and that is a dangerous life to live. So, they marry and accept what they get. American women have no idea, when they are wanting to embrace something they don’t fully understand. Yelling about not having equal rights and not treated fairly. Come to a country where women really don’t have any worth in society’s eyes and little rights and you will be thankful for what you have there. I pray that will our help and his working again she will get a little nicer home to raise her babies in.

Sunday was a fun day, I am so proud of the kids that have worked hard to earn their Bibles. They were so proud! They have been memorizing the books of the Bible for a couple of months, when they could recite the books they would receive their Bible. There are a few more that are so close to getting one, two are so shy they won’t get up and recited them, so worried they will mess up. I had them privately tell me, I want them all to get one so much – for many reasons I had to put some kind of condition on their getting them. The two have a little more work to do but I fully believe they will be ready next Sunday. Now my prayer is they actually read it on their own! (Above are Naomi, Fancy and Sylvester)

I thought I would post a few pictures from Greece. We love it there and have decided even though our kids are no longer there we definitely want to go back!