Armed Only With The Armor of God

Jireh Ministries Foundation, Inc (USA)

He Will Provide Ministries (Uganda)

By Robyn Fruehan

In 2005 my life was changed!  After reading the Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren, I was challenged to venture on a missions trip to Uganda.  This was something that I always wanted to do but never thought was possible.  It is my belief that once God sees that we are committed to answer His call; He continues to work within us.  In 2006 my husband and I founded Jireh Ministries Foundation to help the people of Uganda.

 We found during my second visit to Uganda in 2008 that in order for us to fully support a ministry in Uganda,   we needed to have full accountability from them.  We learned that this could only be made possible by us starting our own ministry in Uganda.

 In January of 2009 we returned to Uganda with a vision of beginning a ministry to help the children.  We visited with the government offices and learned of the great need to care for the Orphaned and Vulnerable Children.  There are over a million children that fall into this category.  We also found that this country needs lots of help not only with the children but within their own structure of the government, churches and business leaders.  There is a lot of corruption, deceit, and outright disobedience to God.  Much like we read with Paul’s letters to the early churches.  To be perfectly honest with you, Satan is alive in Uganda, and we need to recognize and understand that, because that is the battle we face!  We knew that whatever we were going to do to help children that first and foremost we needed to raise them up to be God fearing faithful leaders for the future of Uganda.

So with that being said, this past year has been extremely difficult in so many ways.  We have been wrongfully accused, threatened to be arrested, lied to, cheated, and on three occasions robbed; and that is only the first half of the year.  The second half of the year had its ups and downs as well and ended with one of our boys being killed in a tragic motorcycle accident.  Unfortunately even out of that came lies, deceit and corruption from his relatives.  After a year of this, and as I was desperately missing my family back home, my daughters and six grandchildren, it had really wore me down.  But God knew, and He had someone rescue me with a plane ticket home to get refreshed and to tell our story. 

So here I am Lord!

Praise the Lord we also have a good side to tell.  Despite these obstacles and equipped only with the armor of God we have some successes to share.

January 2009

December 2009

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

                                                                                                                                 February 2010

   In February 2009 we founded the Door of Hope Family with a group of kids that were presented to us as “children needing help”.  Through the year God sent us more children and had us give others their freedom. 

       

·        We have reunited a family of three orphan siblings who now call us their family and the government wants to place them under our foster care.

·        We have three "street boys" that have no one else in their life to care for them.

·        Two of the street boys spoke no English when they came to us and now we can sit down and have a conversation!   

        Two of the boys have dropped their Muslim names and have adopted Christian 

names and want to be baptized.

·        Two of the boys have changed their hearts from lies and stealing to standing up to tell the truth.

·        When Jim is called to give the Word of God, his interpreter is one of our 16 year old girls, Jennifer, who goes on the radio and outreaches with him.

·        Our children are setting an example in our village by cleaning our road of rubbish that is habitually strewn around by the locals.  They are learning to help their community and take care of God’s creation.

·        The schools have recognized that we are raising leaders: John is his P2 class monitor, Moses is his P3 class monitor, Rob is his P5 class monitor, and Matthew is in P7 and is the school Prefect.  Sara is one of three of our S2 students and is the class monitor and Jennifer is her S3 class monitor.

·        All of our children have grown tremendously this year, I think if we totaled the combined inches we would be talking in feet!  We can only account for this because of good nutrition and a balanced diet along with drinking water, which was a new concept for them, believe it or not!

·        We have our compound divided into sections and 100% of the grounds, house and dorms are the responsibility of each child to maintain.  In addition to that, several of the children have other responsibilities like, the Maintenance Department, Hospitality Hostess, Breakfast Chef, and the Shop Keeper.

·          After spending the better part of the year jumping through hoops with all the bureaucracy and red tape, we received our Foreign NGO (Non Government Organization) certificate.  This is similar to our non profit organization 501 (c) (3) status in America, but it was much more difficult to obtain.  In Uganda we are known as He Will Provide Ministries, which is basically the translation of our USA name, Jireh Ministries Foundation, (Jehovah Jireh = God to provide) .

·        We are on the radio two nights a week conducting a Bible study reaching many remote villages.  Many of them do not have electricity, but listen to us on their battery operated radios.

·        Periodically we go on outreaches; evangelizing in villages, and visiting hospitals and prisons and praying for them.

·        

Every two months, we participate in a local ministry event called the Big Saturday Miracle Explosion by teaching a Gospel message.

·        We have a Water Project called H2O8; this past year we installed a water tap at God's Revival Church, a small village church and children’s center.  Before this, they were fetching water at a swamp.  Not only do they now have water for their personal use but they are able to pay the water bill by selling water at a reasonable rate to the locals.  The profit from selling water has allowed them to invest in raising chickens and they now have 750 layers and broilers.   The added bonus from this project is that it has made water available to an entire village because our project brought in a large enough water line for people to tap off of in the future which will make it more affordable to them if they choose to install a tap of their own.

·        We have started a co-op farm project with God's Revival Church to create income for both of our ministries to help us become self supportive.  They had the farm land and we helped to finance the planting so we can split the profits. We are planning and praying for two crops a year.

·        We had a motorcycle donated to our ministry this past year.  We lease it to a boda driver for income and it reduces our transportation costs, because as part of the agreement, he drives for us.  This helps us to generate income and reduce our costs, so at least we are partially self supportive. 

We are only able to continue to do God’s work with your help. 

Would you consider sponsoring us? 

We have three levels of monthly sponsorship to help meet most anyone’s budget, at $14.00 for Junior Level, $28.00 for Sponsorship Level, and $60.00 for Level II.

http://www.hewillprovide.org/giving/sponsorship/

If you are currently a sponsor of this ministry, we thank you and we are happy you can see what you help make possible!

Most importantly!  Please consider to be a prayer Sponsor!