I am always amazed by who God sends to us for a visit. Many friends stop by on a daily basis and we actually have to encourage them to set an appointment because of our busy schedule of being in and out and being involved in so many projects, because we really want to be here to spend time with them. Here, we have, what I call, tea parties. I remember having tea parties with my two daughters Jenny and Kimmy; we would have make believe cakes and cookies and tea and anything else that I would ask for, because I was always their guest. We would sit at that little red table and talk about everything and we would "make believe" we were friends meeting over tea. This was many, many years ago, and as I reminisce, I have to stop to wipe my eyes.
Now I realize that all that was for practice when "I grow up" and go to Africa. Because here they really drink tea and we sit and visit, something that it seems people are too busy for back home. We usually have a great time with our visitors and many have a message that they didn't know they were bringing. Prophets! A tea party with the prophets!
Recently we had a meeting with Pastors Betty and Gerald Kasozi from God's Revival Church. We also look forward to meeting with them whether we meet at their church or they come to visit us. It is especially exciting to witness when 10 year old John 12 year old Moses come home from school, and as they wait at the compound gate for it to be opened they peer through the opening and see Gerald's little motor scooter. They jump up and down and giggle and scream and point. They know that motor cycle very well.
(Moses and John joined us our first week when we opened the Door of Hope. We met them last summer after the Kazosi's took them in off the street, and we had sponsors for them to go to school but we were not sure what the logistics were going to be. God revealed to us, to all of us, the sponsors, Jill, Cheryl and Micah, along with Betty and Gerald and Robyn and myself, that the boys would be joining us here at the Door of Hope.) Well, these boys could not contain themselves when they ran inside to see "mommy and daddy" Kasozi. To have both Gerald and Betty together here for these boys was a great reunion.
As we visited, Betty had a few stories to tell, and anyone who knows these two, know that Betty has some good stories to tell, usually they are a testimony to the Lord. Somehow it will always end with praise the Lord! Recently Betty had been seriously ill and since this was the first day in a while that she felt good, they had to come over to share and say thanks.
Thanks to our supporters, we were able to fund her hospital visit that saved her life. She had a serious tooth infection. This was going on for several weeks, in fact the last time I wrote about them was if you remember, was the water project; remember we thought we were going to talk about chickens and I was there with Rob the missionary on March 5th. Betty at that time had a terrible toothache and we happened to have some tablets that day to help relieve pain. Now this is over a month ago and this tooth was not letting up, they said it had to be pulled and they pulled it. But it was still hurting weeks later, anyway back to the hospital and after several attempts, visits, discussions, x-rays and they find that there were pieces of tooth still left embedded in her jaw and the infection was through her blood stream. One more surgery and another major dosage of antibiotics she is feeling well again. So she came by to say thank you to all of you and praise God! She literally thought she was going to die.
I told you that people come with messages, and yes she had messages as well. One was, if you remember, when we were talking of their water project that we are supporting through our H2O8 program. It just wasn't that the water was inconvenient or costly but sometimes they were doing without water. As she prayed and thanked God for the water I realized how much more serious it was or to put it another way, how much of a gift it is to them. When she says "many nights we just did without water," but God has brought them water, something that they have prayed for a long time. This is just as impacting as if we were digging a well for them. In this case we just had to have the government system extended by laying a pipeline to there property. Water is something that most of us take for granted back home, even though we may complain about the bill, but it is there running and clean when we need it.
During the prayer, Betty asks for God to bless us here at the Door of Hope and to stop any obstacles and threats against us as we run our ministry. She is hitting on some major areas for us, we were just in the middle of receiving the notification of accusations from that "other ministry." Anyway we need to respond to this agency about these ridiculous things and it was reassuring from God, through Betty's prayer, that we have the Lord on our side. Betty had no idea of what she was bringing us. Praise the Lord on how He works and how He reminds us that He is here along our side for us to lean on or for Him to carry us; Have you heard the story of "One set of footsteps in the sand?" Isn't it amazing how He uses us to make it all happen? He certainly doesn't need us, it is a blessing to be used by God, and we should all look forward to when He may use us again. Imagine picking one of us out of billions of people, and how many of us is He doing this to simultaneously. Now that is an amazing God!
Happy Easter!
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