Tag: children

Eeew Posho and Beans!

Today was our second time feeding the kids at Global. I heard they were all excited about getting rice again but on Wednesdays we make posho (which is maize flour made in the consistency of mashed potatoes) with beans on top. Not a favorite! So we added an orange in each box. Man! That made a big difference in attitude about posho! There was excited screaming and many thank yous! I told them I knew they would t be excited about beans and posho so I gave them a treat to go with it. Then I told them beans and rice are on Friday’s it was pandemonium! I just love being able to do this! We also gave them wash stands with antibacterial liquid to wash their hands since they were eating oranges. It was a good day!

Lunch Success!

We fed the children at Global School. Everything went so smooth, didn’t even need the restless night of worry the night before! Everything was finished early, kids fed on time and God blessed us with extra – there turned out to be less kids than we were told – so we were able to take food to Ms. Joyce’s family! Just like I would say to every classroom as we went in to see them eating “God is good” and they would say “all the time”! And He is!

I am thankful also that my advice to the cooks about soaking beans overnight worked out. They don’t always think us Mzungus know much, and we do learn from them. And they were skeptical at first but after cooking they were so excited that it took half the time to cook them! I was relieved they saw the difference!

Ms. Joyce’s family

Sunday School

We had a great time in Sunday School this last Sunday in November. There are so many little ones that have been coming. Christian says it’s parents sending them so they have something to eat. That’s fine with me, they also get to hear the word of God and I believe it when He says In Isaiah 55:11

so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
    it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
    and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

Every time the kids hear the Word, tiny seeds are planted that when watered over time will sprout and bloom. One day they will fully understand what God was telling them through these stories. I am so encouraged every time we come together at their understanding of the message of the stories. And their memory of the scripture verses is just so awesome, even the very little ones remember! I am thankful I have this opportunity to help bring children closer to Jesus – though it is one of the biggest challenges I face in my life. I have always felt so inadequate to work with children, feel like that is just not my gift and have had to fill the void because there was no one else to do it. But apparently God has a different view of it – or maybe it’s just a lesson in obedience! I love the children, but I also pray that with mentoring the teenagers, they will one day be able to do most of the service – they are able to minister in ways I can not because of the culture differences. But I know I will always have a part in it because my heart desires all of them to have a better life and to follow Jesus!

but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”    Matthew 19:14

Dinner At Shafik’s Home

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9

We did it, with hope in our hearts that we wouldn’t embarrass ourselves or our host we went to Shafik’s house for dinner. We took along Sharifu to interpret, he is some kind of relative. (I hope to get into relationships in my next post!) It was a nice evening, we arrived at 6 pm and I think dinner was served around 7:30. Sharifu had told me earlier in the day that he told Shafik that mazungus eat dinner around 6, so that was the time set for us to come. There were so many children running around so Raelee went to work on them. I swear she is the Pied Piper, it only takes about five minutes and every child within a mile is following her, obeying her every command. Doesn’t matter what color or nationality or if they even speak the same language! There were goats everywhere, and she spotted a baby right off the bat and had five or six kids running to catch it for her. Now, her holding and babying that goat was hilarious to those kids because they don’t have pets. They have dogs to guard, cats to kill rats and goats to eat. They don’t pet them or baby them. She is considered strange because she babys everything that is even just a little smaller than herself. She even passed up the human baby for the goat! After about ten minutes I was freaked out enough so I made her put it down. It didn’t look all that healthy to me, and I was already a little freaked out at our surroundings, the dirty snotty children and the dinner that was being prepared outside! She put the goat down and within minutes we saw her walk into someone’s house by herself with ten or twelve children egging her on. As I started walking that way she came out of the house with a cat! Jeesh kid, leave the animals alone, you are getting quite the reputation as the crazy mazungu girl! You can see by the picture below the triumphant look on her face and the joy and amusement on the children’s faces!

Victory!
Victory!

We didn’t do much talking beforehand, except Shafik trying again to talk us into moving next door to him! His family has many acres of land and he has decided that he doesn’t want us to ever leave Uganda so he wants to give us land and help us build a house. We told him that if ever there came a time that we have to leave it is because God is moving us and we can’t tell God no. He asked if we could say no to moving! He has a very sweet personality, that shows through even though we don’t speak the same language. It is very pretty land all around, but they live right off the highway.

Finally dinner came, by that time it was dark so you know I was more than a little panicky to eat what I couldn’t see! It was very good, I have to say there are good cooks here to make the little they have to work with taste so good. Rice and gravy, matoke (which looks just like a banana and grows on trees that look just like bananas. I get confused all the time!) and chicken. The matoke is baked and then mashed like potatoes. It is very dry and I do not like it. Christian and Raelee eat it so I piled a lot on their plates to make up for my not eating it! I slipped my chicken to Christian and ate the rice and gravy! Free range chickens here are pretty tough and even though I had gotten the breast it was very hard to even pull it off the bone. They had fixed enough food for an army and told us it was all ours. I told them we don’t eat like Ugandans and they laughed. Shafik and Sharifu joined us in eating.

When we were finished eating, Shafik’s father came out to visit. He asked many questions about America and Australia. Not sure about the Australia part but apparently he knows someone who went there and I guess thought the two countries were close. We told him about America but said we don’t know much about Australia. He wanted to know if we had things in common with Uganda and we told him there were a lot of things we have in common. Yes, people farm and have livestock. Then about the weather, Christian told them about hurricanes and they were amazed. He told them how people have to evacuate their homes and the father couldn’t believe it, he wanted to know how you would eat, and did you take your cows and chickens with you when you leave home. We told him no and he was so shocked and wanted to know what happens to the animals. Funny how they look at things and what have the most importance here. If you are blessed to have cows and chickens (like they do) it would be out of the question to leave them behind. Thankfully they don’t have to worry about evacuating because of a hurricane. We did enjoy talking with him and he told us (through Sharifu) that all the work that has been done by Mandate has meant so much to the people in this community. And he added that especially what we (Christian and I) have done since we got here. Then he hit us up on educating ALL the children in the community! I know it’s hard not to be able to send your children to school, the government schools are not good, supposed to be free but they aren’t always. Then there are the private schools (some not much better than gov’t schools) but they cost so much. We told him that is something we pray for but at this time it is too big for Mandate to try to take on. One step at a time! He also asked about getting a bore hole (water well) over there. We told him that we just put one in and it would be about six months before we put another in and the Chairman is the one who decides where it goes. We would put in a suggestion but it was up to him.

All in all it was a good evening, nobody got sick, even the one handling all the germy things! I am thankful to God for watching over us and giving us the courage to go into the awkward and kinda scary situations and talk about all He has done for us.

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8

Sharifu
Finally, got to hold a baby goat!
Is that not a happy face?
The children love to have their pics taken!
We asked Sharifu if this was his kid. Looks just like him! He’s a nephew or cousin. I don’t know!
Sharifu and Shafik
Just a few minutes after this there was a tussle and he lost his bread to a bigger boy.
Always has to be in charge! The Teacherr!
Yes, tree climbing in a white dress, just glad she had clean panties on. Not that it matters here where children don’t wear any!
Shafik’s Father

Happy Resurrection Day!

“I am the resurrection and the life.  Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26)

I hope and pray everyone has had a good day. We had a wonderful day with the Church – the kids way outnumbered the adults, but there were a few adults that don’t normally come. There was singing and then the Jesus movie. I got to hold many babies today and had one little girl that would not let go of my hand. The children are taught that they are not to sit in the chairs, but because she was glued to my side an exception was made. I sat for a long time with a tiny sleeping baby in my lap and the little girl in the chair beside me that went to sleep and drooled all over my arm! When the baby woke up she promptly threw up on me. Oh well, it all wipes up and was well worth the chance to love on these little babies. Raelee had her share of baby holding, much to her delight!

“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)

After the movie, Christian gave a message to the people inside the church and part of the children came outside with Raelee and I. There were two other ladies that I am forever grateful for helping with the children! I also had a great interpreter, it is important to have someone who understands what we are talking about. It’s not enough that they can just interpret the words, but to know the context and be able to present it in a way for everyone to understand. I gave my testimony, and then while I used The Wordless Book, Raelee showed the matching color on the dolls necklaces. The wordless book has on one side just the color and the other tells what each color represents . I want to give a special thank you to the great, indispensable Donny Lee, our friend, organizer and magic man, for The Wordless Book. Also a big thank you to all the ladies at Good Hope Baptist Church in Anacoco, LA for their hard work and laughter and love in making 100 dolls for us. I know you have been waiting to see the smiles on children’s faces when they received them and I have been praying for the best opportunity to give them out. Today was the day! We gave 95 dolls out, and it was pandemonium even with the ladies helping us. These kids don’t know what “make a line’ means! And they were all so afraid they wouldn’t get one. The trick was trying to keep track of the ones coming back trying to get more! We got down to the last 5 dolls and Prosy said that’s it. I told her we may as well give them all out but there were kids coming from across the road when they saw that something was being given away so she said no more! But then with such humility she asked me if she could have 5 dolls for her children and I told her of course. She had spent the entire church service wrangling kids. You can see in the pictures there were many many there! Almost 100 little ones and the building is pretty large but it was full! Then I noticed she was pointing at the tub we had the dolls in and I told her she could have that. She cried and hugged me. She hugs me often, and usually it last about 2 minutes too long! But I am grateful for her!

Finally, at 2:00 we parted ways, me exhausted, Raelee ready for a nap and many, many very happy kids. I am thankful for the 9 that came forward to receive Jesus as their Savior and I plan on doing my part in keeping up with them and teaching them. We are getting a slide and catwalk for Raelee this week, and building a bench for the kids to sit on outside so that next week we will start doing the felt board Bible stories that an a generous man bought for us. There are hundreds of pieces that have had to be cut out. I believe it is going to be such a great tool for the kids and adults alike.

I pray everyone had as happy a day as we did, and took a moment to remember and be thankful for the love of a Savior Who loves us so much He gave His life so that we could know Him and have relationship with Him. Raelee gets so excited about the crucifixion of Jesus – that he died but 3 days later He came back! I pray that today around the world there are many people who now have that same excitement and awe!

“The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name.” (Luke 24:46-47)

Raelee was needing a nap! But she was an awesome helper!
Raelee showed the color of the beads as I explained what they meant
The kids that came forward to receive Jesus.
Pandemonium broke out!

Beautiful Children

Every time we take a walk outside our property, we get a following! Most of the time, if it is boys, they follow, but don’t talk to us. And if we turn and look at them they will either run the other way, or dive into bushes. Pretty funny! Sooner or later I pray, they get used to us and get a little closer. Some of the babies will cry if we talk to them, as we are the only white people they have ever seen. It’s not a good feeling when small children are terrified of you just because of your skin color, but I have hope. The 4 kids that we have been feeding and checking on started out crying every time they saw me, now they smile and touch me. It just takes time and consistency to gain their trust and try to form a relationship. Our biggest prayer is to learn the language quickly, but I am sad to say I am not doing so well in that department! Raelee helps me when someone greets me, she is picking it up quickly, so is Christian. So, pray for me, I have the hope I will get there…eventually!

Eating Sugar Cane
I barely snapped this before he dove into the grass, my third try at getting his pic!