Is There A Reptile in The House?

YES!

We do have reptiles in our house.  We mostly have geckos that we consider friends because they eat bugs.  In climates like this bugs thrive and geckos thrive too.  Recently we had some new visitors that arrived with the help of some of our boys. They call them our pets!

File Photo 

These are Chameleons that are pretty abundant around here. The first one was Shane, and then came the others; Sebastian the the small green one, Sidney the big brown one, Saith the small brown one, and Sean the big green one.  These guys are pretty amazing to watch and are very friendly and love to be held.  The geckos are a quite skittish and would rather be left alone.  The geckos also can climb walls and ceilings and run fast.  

When they were first introduced we found most of the locals seem to be afraid of them.  But some have accepted them as there friends, as it seems with our family.

I am glad nobody seems to love snakes around here!  There is the black mamba which is a venomous snake which can be found in the bush areas, but thank God not in our house!

Back To School Sale

It is time for the kids to return to school for Term II!  They have enjoyed a holiday for about three weeks.  This second term will end in mid August.  Thank God that once again we were able to pay most of the school fees, we just have one child's fees yet to be covered.  We want to thank all of you for supporting us to make this all happen.  We are still lacking in a few areas and we have come up with a new page that is called Our Current Needs, you can see the tab on top of this page just under the header.


While you are at it you may take a look at these other new tabs as well.  We have added tabs for Prayer Requests, Be a Missionary, Become a Sponsors, Meet The Authors, and Visit Our Web Site.  Our hope is with this new feature that more people will connect and participate with us!  


If you notice, the Prayer Requests is specifically for you to tell us where you need prayers.  Our children have learned to pray for others around the world.  This way they are loving their neighbor as themselves and learning not to focus on their own problems.  They see and understand how they can make a difference in other people's lives by the power of prayer.  You may also consider attaching a photo, the kids love seeing pictures.


So what is the BACK TO SCHOOL SALE?
We would like to introduce you to our sponsorship program if you are not presently involved in it.  When you become a sponsor of the Door of Hope Family you will be known as an Auntie or Uncle to the children.  We encourage you to exchange letters and pictures with any or all of the children.  It is the combined effort of several people that makes this project work. 

 Our successes can be seen when we look at just one child's life.

Johnny
Johnny was on the street in 2008 when he was found by a missionary team.  He is 11 years old and had never been to school.  He was abused by his step mother which was ignored by his father, which is a common problem here.  We first met him in 2008 while he was in a temporary home and we brought  him here in January of '09 to join us at the Door of Hope.  He did not speak English and school was very difficult at first.  He is now top in his class and we can hold a conversation in English.  He loves to fix things like a handy man, he also loves farming, and is a really great tree climber!  He is also blessed with a wonderful sense of humor! 
  Praise God!

We have three levels of sponsorship. 

 $14.00 per month for Junior Sponsor

 $28.00 per month for Sponsorship

 $60.00 per month for Level II Sponsorship 

Read Barbra's Thank You Letter to our Sponsors

Grasshoppers A La Carte

The grasshoppers are swarming in clouds of smoke in the bright lights over the barrels to catch them.  At night, as you look in the distance at the bright lights, you will see thousands of them. During the rainy season, which we are in right now, they are in abundance and these people are ready for them too.  They are a true delicacy and the locals love them.  Robyn and I both had one in 2008 and that satisfied the curiosity for us!  


The grasshoppers are a boost to the economy as well by supplying food to the people and the birds along with other animals.  As they are rich in protein, they may very well be a good supplement to their diets.  During the night the collection stations are numerous and during the day you will see the vendors walking the streets with the prepared treats in clear plastic containers with a measuring scoop inside. The preparation is taking off the wings and legs and frying the bodies.  For eating, it is just popping them in your mouth.


Last year one of our boys ate a few too many.  He woke up with a swollen face, itching all over and trouble swallowing.   A quick dose of an antihistamine seemed to settle him down.  I noticed he is a little more reserved about eating them this season.  One theory is that since the grasshoppers eat vegetation, they become rich in pollen and  it may be after eating the grasshopper we ingest a large dose of pollen thus an allergic reaction.


As I am writing this, one of our boys just got home with a pocket full of live grasshoppers that someone gave him , I think he stopped on the way home and picked them, which is another common way to collect them, just on a smaller scale.  As he emptied his pockets, grasshoppers starting spilling out and jumping around the kitchen.  He willingly shared them with the other boys and said; "I don't eat these anymore, you take them."  They quickly captured all of the grasshoppers and began the process of winging and legging them so they could prepare another batch.


I Just wanted to share with you another way of enjoying God's creation and giving thanks for all that He gives us.  

Confession or Testimony?

Recently, I sat here staring at 6,000 schillings the equivalent to about $3.00 USD, yes three dollars!  I said OK Lord, this is your ministry, so it is your move.  What else do you want me to do?  I told God that I will have faith and not worry about it.  Now, I know our commitments and what it takes to run this place, and it is pretty hard to just shut those things off like they don't exist. So I became more intrigued on how He was going to do it, because I did have Faith in Him. There were all these thoughts on how He has never left us without food, He has always come through.  Over the past five years, since the beginning of this ministry, there would always be an unexpected donation from the least expected person to cover our needs.

This time I did have different thoughts go through my mind.  Here I am, all the way on the other side of the world, alone (as Robyn is in the US right now), sitting here with these children that the Lord has entrusted to me with  a meagerly $3.00.  What kind of caretaker am I?  I don't have big financial backers behind me.  We have our few faithful sponsors that contribute each month to make this happen. Is He testing my faith again?  OK, if He is then it means He has plans for us.  Because as all this was taking place, the Lord was telling me to grow the ministry!

 GROW THE  MINISTRY?  Yea right, take on more kids Lord?  OK you want blind faith?  Then you got it!!  This was all your idea from the beginning and I am only following your command.  He has taken over the keys now as I am writing and I don't know where we are going, as I am in the Spirit  right now.  What is He telling me?  Where are we going?  I should complete my testimony to you.  As I was sitting there with the $3.00 I knew we were behind in payments at the school and we are preparing for the next term with a financial obligation that is compounded by what we were already in debt for.  Robyn and I decided that we would not go further into debt and just trust God. Then an unexpected donation came in from a church, who we didn't even know, for $490.00.  That totals nearly all of the school fees that we need right now to cover this past term and this new term.  Within that few days other sponsor money had come through and we were able to once again meet our day to day obligations. But that was a major pivoting point for sure!

Do you know what that is like to see God working right before your eyes?  As He comforts you and says "I have it all under control, trust me."   I think; What does He have me here for?  He can cover all the costs of His projects with one person or a thousand, I think it really depends on His plan, how He will include people, who's life does He want to touch.  His miracles are always multifaceted and I don't think we could ever understand the full impact of one of those small things He does in our lives.  How amazing it is to be a part of it all!

So as He tells me His plans of expansion to include more children, and evangelism, I still have to wonder how He is going to do it , not out of doubt, but out of amazement.  The message I got from all of this is that He wants our faith first, the same message that He has had me preaching lately.  He doesn't want the vision, or the huge task that needs to be done, because He can do that easy enough.  But He wants our faith and He will manifest off of that.  I often think of how Peter was to step out of the boat and walk on the water towards the Lord, and I realize that is some pretty heavy and awesome faith!  Am I ready?  Here I am Lord!

Now I am looking to where I am suppose to insert commas and do a few humanly things to make this legible.

 I have been re-reading Rick Warren's book The  Purpose Driven Life, the same book that helped get us here in Uganda in the first place.  In chapter ten he talks of totally surrendering our lives to God. He tells a few stories of how some well known people, especially in Christian circles, had surrendered their life to God.  In Romans 6:13 it sums it up by saying we should surrender our whole selves to the service of God to be used for a righteous purpose!  How awesome is that?

I surrender my life to you God, a slave to our Lord Jesus Christ!
Amen