Our Kids – His Grace For The Journey

Carpenters in the Making

Christian has been very busy trying to get the training center ready, I thought we would have our first class by May. But we don’t have a Lowe’s or Home Depot here so getting the materials for wiring the lights and electricity in the building has been a nightmare. Getting wood the he doesn’t have to plane and recut isn’t possible. So progress has been slow. He’s also been making me cabinet doors and a new cupboard because I had the bright idea when we moved here to have lockers made for our food. But, especially during lockdowns and stocking up they aren’t big enough so they are to go in the training center for the students to each have their own for their supplies.

But, Raelee’s two best friends that are here most of the time are always wanting to help him. One’s dad is in the military and gone most of the time. When you join the military here you are in until you are 65. Sula’s dad isn’t around very much because he has other wives and spends more time gone then being there. So Christian is a father figure for them. When he is trying to work he will have four little hands trying to help with everything and makes it extremely hard for him to get anything done. They can’t do a lot on their own (we thought!) and there isn’t much they can do to help with the training center. We are under quarantine again so they aren’t in school. They are getting too old to want to play house and dolls with Raelee so they always want to be in the barn with him. So Christian put all projects on hold so that they could help him build a dog house. We recently got two Rottweiler puppies after our Dobermans died of cancer. We are tired of them sleeping in the bathroom and when they get full size we need somewhere to lock them in when we have the kids for church or visitors as most people here fear dogs.

The boys were thrilled and actually did a great job even when Christian wasn’t right there. Not that he left them for very long around all the power tools and saw! But he did go to check on some other projects going on and when he came back they had one wall up by themselves. So not only giving his time that he really didn’t have, he’s teaching them early a skill that will give them an advantage when they get older. And an example to be for them. (Personally I think it should have been a little bigger considering these dogs can get close to one hundred pounds! But the boys would gladly build another one!)

In the beginning Christian said “I left them for ten minutes and came back to this. You see what I’m working with?”! He had the flap up at one time and underneath he had yellow safety glasses on!

Very proud of these boys. And I know Christian is because he actually asked to be in a picture! That does NOT happen very often! (And even though she is small Bella sacred people more. But there’s no way she’s going to sleep in a dog house outside. She barks all night anyway when outside. But she alerts us from in the house if there is anything out of the ordinary outside. She’s a brat but a good security dog!

Studies And Fun!

Salima has been teaching our six children so they won’t fall behind. She has started teaching in our big building. The government also has classes on TV twice a day according to their grade levels that they watch at her home. We are proud she has taken this on by herself. We don’t know yet how schooling will be handled once quarantine is over since children have missed pretty much an entire term. And they also have Bible class. The girls were telling me so many scriptures and stories in the Bible today. Salima brought them to clean the apartments next door – she usually cleans once a month so it doesn’t get overrun by spider webs. She said they need to learn how to clean!

She has them separated by their grade levels

Phiona at the board, Naomi and Becca watching

Having fun after classes! Elisa (the youngest) is such a funny little guy!

Visitation Day

Saturday we got to visit our kids at school. We haven’t seen them since the end of January. They are all doing so well and we had a great day. The youngest is Elisa and he is a character. We’ve been caring for them since he was just a baby. He keeps us laughing! They get excited because we bring lunch, goodies, and pocket money for the canteen! I want to commend the school for taking precautions, before we could enter school grounds we had to get out of the car and wash our hands.

The oldest, Phiona will be leaving primary school at the end of the year and we have to make decisions about where she will go next. She has struggled all through school and is now 17 and is in what we would consider about the seventh/eighth grade. Secondary school is tough and we don’t think she’d do well so she is thinking about going to tailoring school instead. She wants to be a clothing designer. And luckily we have already put Takia through tailoring school so she could be a great mentor to her and she won’t be far away. It is going to be very hard either way for her to leave her siblings because she has been mother to them for the past five years since their mother died. We were encouraged that their father had started to come around but were just told he married his third wife and left. He left the second wife with them (here on the village) and she doesn’t like them. When they are home for holidays she cooks her own food and the girls have to prepare food for the six of them. Pray with us about Phionas future and the decisions we will have to help her make.

For once I am not just behind the camera!

He stuffed it in a bag for later and put it in his locker. Hopefully he ate it that night!

“Posing” with the three girls! Rebecca, Naomi and Phiona

Elisa the wild child. He opened and drank from three sodas for the kids lunches before we caught him!

Naomi is the second wild child, so hilarious! She is trying to use each of Salimas fingers to unlock her phone. They love to take our phones!

As it is harder to make blog posts there is sometimes more stories on FB. You can follow us on The Mandate Uganda on Facebook.

Christmas Joy

Investing in others’ lives is not always easy or painless. But being a living example of the love Jesus has for each of us encourages others to move near Him and give love to others. Children learn by example. We have testimony of the young women we have discipled, loved and taught by example that are now being role models and passing it on. Thank you Salima for making these children’s day today. I want you to look at the faces of joy that $15 each gave them for Christmas! And what really makes us proud is that they make the most with what they are given. These are the joys that give me hope and keep me going on the hard days. Four years of investing of our time, love and money has not been wasted! The love and knowledge of Jesus is being paid forward!

And the message I got when I told Salima thank you.

Yay For Holiday!

The kids are home for their break before the last term of the year starts in September. They alerted so excited to see us and we are excited to see how happy they are. And growing like weeds! I got to hold Elisa (the youngest) during church. He fell asleep so he wasn’t really awake when I took the pic. I won’t be able to hold him much longer, he’s getting big, almost six. And he usually prefers Chris’s lap but he was preaching so I even traded one of the twin babies to hold him. He hasn’t had a mama to rock him, his died right after he was born.

They are all doing so well at school and seem to be developing more of a relationship with their father, which is something we have prayed for. It’s amazing to see such joy in children that have had it as rough as they have in their young lives.