We have been so blessed to have been able to share our experience, as we have been in Uganda. As you have read over the last three weeks, God showed up in a big way. We have seen His love, His grace, and best of all His Mercy. I have seen miracles, seen the unsaved saved, the sick healed, and hearts filled with love. God has given us the opportunity to show His love to many. I will finish this blog after I am back State side.
Thanks for being part of our journey.
In God’s Hands.
Randy and Alisa
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Building Your House on the ROCK!
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The Dance Choir.jpg)
Our friend Pamela, Leads the Team.We arrived at Hope around 10:30 am this morning, ready to celebrate the Lord’s Day with our Uganda family. Pastor Prossy had asked Randy to preach and the Lord had given him a word for these precious people we have come to love. In fact, the Lord had given him several things to share. The first service was just finishing up when we entered the church. The speaker was encouraging the people not the cry about all their problems but to have faith in God and not lose hope. The speaker continued to say that when you are crying, you are lifting up your problems to overcome you. They have overcome so many problems by looking to God rather than their circumstances. They have seen miracles, signs and wonders because they believe in the power of prayer. This word was such an encouragement to us.
The second service started with personal testimonies of God’s goodness, special music people had prepared, introduction of visitors and the choir. This took well over an hour. Soon it was time for Randy to preach. The Pastor introduced him and shared how he is a man who married a woman with six children and loved his step children. In Uganda even among Christians it has been an acceptable practice to get rid of or abuse children of a spouse that are not yours. The stories of many of the children at Hope include this tragic occurrence. When Randy began his sermon He talked about the difficulty and more importantly the blessing of raising 6 children that were not his biological children. He then encouraged them to do the same. After that he shared about a dream God gave him where there was a huge earthquake and his whole city was destroyed; nothing was left standing except one house that was built on a rock. The man who owned the house was seen outside just sweeping his sidewalk like nothing had happened. He told them Jesus is the rock and that building our lives on Him is the way we can experience abundant life. First we must accept Him, then trust Him, follow Him, and share Him with others. After the service many people confirmed that this was a word for them from the Lord.
The afternoon held two delights for us. First, Miriam the cook at Hope had prepared a special lunch for us of beef, onions, and peppers, seasoned with curry and cumin as well as chips (French fries) mango and bananas. I think it was the best meal we have had since arriving in Uganda. Then, we had the opportunity to walk to Pamela’s house. Pamela is a young woman we met last year. She is a single mom who is a teacher and she is on the worship team at church. So we walked quite a ways with her, Angel (her daughter) and our friend Lia. Her house is quite humble, one room with a curtain hung to make a bedroom, a mattress on the floor, no running water and no electricity. It is part of the same building the school is in where she teaches. While there she pulled out a mat to lie over the concrete floor for us to sit on and disappeared for a few minutes to buy sodas for us and juice for Angel (water for herself). Our hearts ache as we experience her circumstances and we wonder at the smile she always has on her face.
The second service started with personal testimonies of God’s goodness, special music people had prepared, introduction of visitors and the choir. This took well over an hour. Soon it was time for Randy to preach. The Pastor introduced him and shared how he is a man who married a woman with six children and loved his step children. In Uganda even among Christians it has been an acceptable practice to get rid of or abuse children of a spouse that are not yours. The stories of many of the children at Hope include this tragic occurrence. When Randy began his sermon He talked about the difficulty and more importantly the blessing of raising 6 children that were not his biological children. He then encouraged them to do the same. After that he shared about a dream God gave him where there was a huge earthquake and his whole city was destroyed; nothing was left standing except one house that was built on a rock. The man who owned the house was seen outside just sweeping his sidewalk like nothing had happened. He told them Jesus is the rock and that building our lives on Him is the way we can experience abundant life. First we must accept Him, then trust Him, follow Him, and share Him with others. After the service many people confirmed that this was a word for them from the Lord.
The afternoon held two delights for us. First, Miriam the cook at Hope had prepared a special lunch for us of beef, onions, and peppers, seasoned with curry and cumin as well as chips (French fries) mango and bananas. I think it was the best meal we have had since arriving in Uganda. Then, we had the opportunity to walk to Pamela’s house. Pamela is a young woman we met last year. She is a single mom who is a teacher and she is on the worship team at church. So we walked quite a ways with her, Angel (her daughter) and our friend Lia. Her house is quite humble, one room with a curtain hung to make a bedroom, a mattress on the floor, no running water and no electricity. It is part of the same building the school is in where she teaches. While there she pulled out a mat to lie over the concrete floor for us to sit on and disappeared for a few minutes to buy sodas for us and juice for Angel (water for herself). Our hearts ache as we experience her circumstances and we wonder at the smile she always has on her face.
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What you see is more than half of the room Pamela and Angel call Home.Finally when we arrived back at Hope, and then enjoyed our first ride in a taxi. Prossy and Ezra went with us in a 15 seater taxi back to the road where we could walk back to our hotel. It was a great experience, crammed into this vehicle which stops regularly to let people off and on. What a day!! Praise the Lord for His goodness and love.
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Here is a 15 Pass. Taxi. At one point there were 18, yes 18 inside.
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