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!
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!
“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!
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.
Thursday was the second day of the conference Christian is leading. When he was first approached about doing it there were to be about five different speakers/preachers. He was under the assumption there would be different speakers each day and didn’t know the conference started on Sunday. He was led to believe it didn’t start until Wednesday! So three different preachers had preached Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. That has left him now preaching three services each day. It is gone really well though with hundreds of people still coming, even in the morning/afternoon services with hundreds coming forward for salvation. Praise be to God!
Meanwhile a few hours away we are staying at the hotel close to my Dr. since I am having some medical issues. We have a very nice maid who has been checking on us and schooling is going as normal! Little Miss has brought her doll and I overheard her in her bedroom – “What do you want to wear? And we are not doing this eeny miney mo thing because that takes too long”! She is so funny!
Today was the first day of a three day Evangelical conference Christian went to in Northern Uganda. He said there were between 100-200 people for the morning services and 400-500 for evening services. He said there were hundreds that came forward to accept Jesus and some of the stories from people were heartbreaking. There was a couple with their little baby that wanted prayer for protection because their village witch doctor is trying to take the baby to raise him up to be a witch doctor and they don’t want this. He was the only speaker at all of them, another scheduled Preacher from Poland got very sick and had to cancel.
The hardest part for him going to the places he is to is he never gets all the info, clear ideas of what the program is – and there is definitely always a program whether it is consistently followed. But he is never told. For the first part of the morning he was pretty much just sitting in a room with a lot of people who spoke no English! Sometimes he is just put in a room for hours by himself with no idea of what’s to happen. But he always knows God has his back and leans on the knowledge God will guide him and give him the words to say. So please pray for him, he wasn’t expecting to be the only speaker and preaching more than once a day so after a full day he is in his room tonight praying for the extra messages he may have to give tomorrow.
His Grace For The Journey 