Prayer Needs

Prayer Needs

We have had a lot come up lately that I feel burdened about and I believe I need to share with you as my friends and prayer warriors. I am not usually the one to share my exact needs with everyone but I am learning that it is good to do, so that people know specifics to pray for.  So, this time I am asking that you pray for each thing specifically with me. Prayer is powerful! 

1.       Baby Mukulu is due at the end of May (4 months away) and we need $800 to cover the cost of the hospital stay/medications. We are also in need of all baby items.
 

2.       Our rent is $200 a month.
 

3.       We are trying to come to the states for fundraising at the beginning of September for several months. Please pray for Ivan’s Visa to be accepted so he can get into the country. Pray he only has to apply 1 time and there are no issues! Pray that all of the baby’s paperwork/passport is taken care of with no issues.
 

4.       Ivan’s Visa will be $160 each time he applies. I have to change my Visa name for $120. Baby will have to be declared with the states as a US citizen plus have to get a Passport as soon as baby is born for $320. Then have to get a dependents visa pass for the baby for $100.

5.       Once we have the visas, the booking process begins with churches, schools, bible studies, and organizations to speak at. Plus host homes to stay with. Please pray that all goes well with the bookings!
 

6.       We need help with our plane tickets to get us to the states and back for the fundraising. We need approx. $2,500 for each of us. A total of $5,000. Baby is free! (:
 

7.       We need a good 4 wheel drive vehicle to get around the rough roads here.

8.       Need to find a new home to rent for Sonrise Children to house 40+ children before September. The home is maxed out right now with 30 children and by next January, we will have 10-12 more joining us. We need more room. With us hopefully being in the states at the beginning of September and not getting back until the beginning of January, we need to make sure we have a place for the children ready to move into before we go. Rent will be around $800 a month.
 

9.       Pray for each of our children at the home to be fully sponsored. Each sponsorship helps keep the home up and running. It also builds a relationship between you and your sponsored child!  You can see each of our children at http://sonrisechildren.com/sponsorchild/

10.   Pray for all of our teams coming this summer that God will use them while they are here for His Glory!
 

11.   Pray for us as we have a lot to prepare for and accomplish before September!  

Thank you for taking the time to read and pray about these items. I know God will provide! 

Holidays

Thanksgiving and Christmas

This holiday season was so different than what I am used to! I missed sitting in the kitchen with my mom and sister days ahead of Thanksgiving and Christmas preparing all the yummy food and desserts . We would feast the day of with the entire family and have left overs the week after. I missed the big turkey, the chatter, and the family time. I missed the nieces and nephews running around. Things just were not the same.

With thanksgiving, we were so busy with the Children’s Home, Church, and other things plus I was sick all the time from the baby that I didn’t have the time or even feel like cooking. I wanted to so bad but just couldn’t. The day came and it just wasn’t the same, I was looking at facebook and seeing all the posts of family together and all the food. I really haven’t been homesick until this season. This is where it really hit. I a message from a missionary friend down the road asking if we were doing anything that day. We weren’t. (: So she invited us to a lunch with a bunch of other local missionaries. We went and it was so good! Finally felt like a thanksgiving with family! I didn’t know most of the people but it was the family stile gathering and food that made it feel like a thanksgiving. I am thankful for friends and changes. Although the changes are hard, I am glad I am able to spend my time here with my new family, new culture, and new ministry. I wouldn’t change that.

Christmas was different as well. I knew it would be. (: BUT, we had a huge Christmas planned for our children and workers this year due to our Christmas volunteer team and many, many donations from churches and friends in the states. Because of everyone’s hard work and generosity in the states, everyone was able to have a fabulous Christmas! We made sure that the children’s home and girl’s home had a tree that was decorated. Ivan even found us a Charlie brown Christmas tree! (: A great church service in the morning! Lots of food. All the babies, boys, girls, and children all received amazing gifts and everyone was so happy. The volunteers brought gifts for all of our workers as well. Some of them had never had a Christmas or received a gift EVER! The shouts of joy were the greatest. It was so great to see the happiness from everyone that day. We received so much that the team was not able to bring EVERYTHING on this trip but they are dispersing it to other teams that are coming to make sure it all gets here eventually. Christmas will just be spread out (: It was an exhausting but amazing Christmas with friends, family, and children. 

Overdue update

Update

It’s been a long time since I have written due to teams and sickness from baby/flu. Now, time to catch up a bit!

Last I wrote, we were talking about a lady named Rehema. We are so grateful that the funds that we needed came in for her surgery! We took her to several doctors to double/triple check and see what the doctors think she needed to do. The infection had gone down and she no longer needed the surgery and she was recovering just fine.  

The day after we found out we received a call from a local HIV clinic and they asked for Ivan and I to come down immediately. We met with a nurse there and she told us about a 12 year old boy that they have been treating since he was a baby for HIV. He later contracted TB and with that he lost his eye sight. She said that he has been complaining of a headache for a long time now so they took him to Kampala to get a scan of his brain where they found that he had a brain aneurism that was about to burst and if he didn’t have a surgery to fix it within the next 2 days he would die. We had the money that was supposed to go toward Rehema but she no longer needed it. We asked how much the surgery was and it was the exact amount that little Jacob needed.  We went into the village to go see him, take pictures, and to pray with his family. Found out that his dad is no longer there and the mother is trying to support Jacob and 4 of his little sisters on her own. She has no money for the surgery. She has to guide Jacob around because he cant see. Doctor think that the vessel in the brain may also be a cause for part of his blindness. After we prayed for him, we decided that we wouldn’t have time to write to the people who gave and that we had to make a quick decision. We decided that Jacobs surgery was important and that they could use the money that was given for Rehema. We gave the money to the hospital and they immediately transported Jacob to the hospital for the surgery. We prayed and prayed knowing that there was a chance that is could burst during surgery and he might not make it. We prayed that he would be just fine and would recover quickly. We received word 2 days later that little Jacob was doing great and could now see shapes! He had been asking to see us to thank us. He is such a happy boy now. His mother said he is so different now and she thanks God for the special donars that Jacob had in his life! So THANK YOU to each of you who gave and prayed for Rehema/Jacob. I pray that God blesses you greatly! Here is a before picture of Jacob with his mother…can’t find my after ones but I will keep looking. (:

 

 

 

Story of Rehema

Ivan and I met a young girl named Rehema this Sunday in church. She shared a heartbreaking story with us and we asked her if we could share with others for prayer and support and said yes. Here is Rehema’s story.

Rehema is 22 years old and now has a baby that is a couple months old now. Rehema was born due to a rape. Her mother was raped by men during some cultural ceremony and she later conceived due to the rape. When the mother went back to her home and the family found out she was pregnant, they told her to go look for the father. She went out but couldn’t find the father because there were so many in the ceremony (gang rape). When she gave birth to Rehema, her parents told her they could not take care of both so she either had to find the father or leave. Since she didn’t have anywhere to go, she decided to dispose of the baby. Another women heard she was about to kill the baby and told her not to do it and she would take care of the baby for her. The women took her baby (Rehema) and raised her. She put her through P-5 (5^th grade) and then the lady died. Now, Rehema had nowhere to go and could no longer put herself through school.  The rest of the ladies family denied knowing her after that and told her to go. They would not take care of her. So Rehema left and was living day by day by people giving her food but had no place to live. Due to these hard circumstances, she developed a bad infection on her lower body that is extremely painful and surgery is the only way to correct it. She heard of a radio station that shares people’s stories in Jinja and will find them help. So, she went to the radio station to share her story and to see if someone out there would help her. Through this, a witch doctor called and said he would be able to heal her. So she went to his place (shrine) to seek healing from him. He wasn’t alone; he had 2 other men in there with him. When she went in, the 2 men held her down while the witch doctor raped her. She conceived from the witch doctor, still in pain with the infection that she really needed a surgery for. He did not help her, just raped her. Later she tried to go back and find him to tell him that she was pregnant but after he raped her, he changed locations. He was no longer there. So, she went back to the radio station to share her story again and to see if he could hear her.  A caller heard her plea, called the station, and told her of a pastor who could help. Said that this pastor has also helped me and I am sure that if you go to him, he can help you too. They gave her the directions to get to Sonrise Community Church. Just as we are finishing church, a lady with a baby comes to church on a boda looking for Pastor Ivan. Ivan sat and listened to her story and was heartbroken by what he heard. So he called me to also come and listen to her and to see what we could do for her. She is desperately needing a surgery but there is not much we can do financially right now. We gave her 20,000 UGX ($9) and told her to come back next Sunday so it will give us some time to figure out what to do. So we told her we would share her story for prayers that the finances will come in for her to be able to get the surgery that she needs. The surgery will cost $200. So pray that the funds are provided for her. Please gather in prayer with us this week for Rehema.



If you would like to make a contribution towards Rehema please go to the link below and in the comment box - for Rehema

http://sonrisechildren.com/one-time-gift

Heart is heavy tonight...

Today was hard day. I don't really even know how to express what I saw today.

A close friend of Sonrise (Ida) lost her son today. She is the lady that found and brought Brenda, James, John, and Mark to sonrise. Ida had told her son (9 years old) to stay away from the River Nile because it was dangerous and he couldn't swim. Her son decided he wanted to go swimming with his friends this morning in the river. Well, he got caught in a whirl pool. Boys came and told the mom that he drowned. Ida sat by the river all day and waited for his body to come back to the top. He eventually did. We went to Ida house tonight to give our condolences..I was not ready. As we walked through the village the crowd was getting bigger. Got there and so many people were around the little house. Saw Ida and we went right up to the front of the crowd where she was. We had to pass the small casket to get to her. I thought he was already in there. The farther up we went, I saw him. Her son was just lying there on a table. His little lifeless body. So small. He just wanted to go for a swim, not knowing that he would never come back. Cotton was shoved up his nose. The doctor was preparing his body (injecting him) to put in the casket so he wouldn't smell for the upcoming 4 hour trip to Ida's mothers home to bury him. It was so hard to see him like that, and so hard to see his mother hurting. Ida started wailing and walking around wailing. I have never heard someone like that. It was so loud. I have never seen anything like it. Broke my heart. Only the family around was crying. It was like an old movie you see with people wailing over a loss. I was holding my breath to try not to cry. No one else was crying around me. Just somber faces. People staring at me to see how the mazungu would react to death. I know this will not be the last time I will ever have to experience a day like this. Pray for sweet Ida and her family. I have no idea if her son knew the Lord.

Jigger Clinics/School Supplies/Games

We drove to a school to run a jigger removal clinic, hand out school supplies, tell bible stories, and play games with the kids. So many kids at this little school.

 

Don't know what a jigger is? Ready for this? Its a small flea like bug that lives in the dirt. You can't even see it when it lands on you. If you don't keep you feet and hands clean, these little things bury into the skin (usually in the feet and fingers) and grow. They will multiply in the skin quickly. They feast on your blood. The bigger they get, blisters and infections occur. Sometimes resulting in losing the toenails and fingernails. It's extremely itchy and painful. Most of the time, when children get them, they are not removed. We came in to remove them.  

 

These ladies are ready to start removing jiggers. This is where the donations of medical supplies came in. THANK YOU!!

 

Here are a few of the children

Setting up for the clinic.

She is ready to get started!

Thank you for the flip flop donations! We are able to give them shoes after the jiggers are removed. 

Washing Feet

Also cleaned up and bandaged opened wounds of all sorts. 

 

She was a little scared but was comforted and given sweeties

Removing Jiggers. These children are tough. Rarely saw any shed a tear while we are digging in their feet and hands. 

While the rest waited to be treated. We sang, danced, told bible stories and had a puppet show. 

 

Tug of War game. The Muzungus against the Ugandans.

Dance Game

 

The School House

Handing out school supplies

Peeking out at me from in between the boards of the school. 

Children's Party

Catching up on some of my blogging (: A few weeks back a team from Canada threw a party for the Sonrise Children, Mirembe Girls, and the local Village Children. Big success! They planned for 100 kids, around 300 came!

Bubbles!

Jumping Ropes

Face Drawings (:

Canadian Stickers Anyone?

The hit of the party. So much fun!

The majority put the stickers on their heads.

Cat, Cat, Mouse (Duck, Duck, Goose) with Water Balls

Snack Time! Juice and Popcorn for everyone!

They enjoyed the snacks and games!