As we were sitting through the many “piece of action” (performances) that were mostly students dancing and lip sinking to music at Takia’s graduation I had my own entertainment going on. I have to say it was a lot more fun than what was going on up on the stage!
Salima is such a go-getter. There is never a time when she is not doing something. She says she does not like to be idle. On her breaks from school she either helps me out with whatever I need or she is working on the farm. She never asks or accepts pay when she has worked all day slashing or planting or whatever is needed to keep up the farm because of her gratefulness she has for the education opportunities she has been given.
She is one of the most honest people I’ve met so far and I can talk to her about anything and know she is going to tell me the truth. A problem we have here is that many times people tell us what they think we want to hear, or something that will shine a favorable light on them. It makes it very hard on us when we are trying to do projects or help people.
I can send her on errands and she will do her very best, sometimes spending all day going from place to place and negotiating prices to get the very lowest price. She has helped me so much with the Hope For Girls project.
We also help with support to her two sisters, Harria and Takia. All three of the girls are hardworking, and show their gratefulness in many ways. A lot of times people speak the words but it doesn’t show in their actions. It definitely shows in these girls. Their mother is Jenifer and these are only three of her seven children. She has raised them pretty much on her own and has given them her work ethic. That is why she is our farm manager.
We have seen such growth spiritually in Salima, her sisters and their mother. They say that Christian’s Bible study has helped them to see the truth of God’s Word and brought them closer to Jesus. I was not so sure about her going to a Muslim college but after seeing what a witness she is there I understand that is exactly what Jesus would have us all to do, not just stay in our comfortable churches, fellowship only with Christians but living our life and giving our testimony to those who do not know Jesus.
I am thankful to have her in our lives. And I consider her and her mother my best friends here.
Takia graduated tailoring school on Friday. It was such a day filled with joy and pride for her accomplishment. Truth be told we were dreading the graduation a little because celebrations and such can last for seven or eight hours. But it was to start at noon so we got there promptly at noon and it actually started at two – which the program said was when lunch would be served! But they managed to still have it over by five! We were all exhausted from the heat and for myself all the dancing they had me doing with them!
We are so proud of her and wish her all the best to fulfill her dream as a fashion designer. I really think she’s got it on her to succeed!
Isaiah 1:17 says ““Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.”
We try and meet the needs of widows in our community. Ms. Joyce is one of our more colorful ones!” She tells us (through an interpreter) some pretty funny stories! And she is persistent that I open a medical clinic to take care of people. All I do is give her Acetaminophen for her aches and pains!
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!
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.”
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.
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!
His Grace For The Journey 