Christmas Challenge 2011

The Love in Action Christmas Challenge has started, this year we would like to buy every child we are helping a T Shirt. The cost is £10 for 3 - How many will you give! Visit www.loveuganda.com to place your order. Thank you

We are joining Love in Action with this Christmas Challenge! $16.00 USD Will make three shirts for our kids. You can donate through us at 
http://www.hewillprovide.org/giving/financial_donation.php
or at www.loveuganda.com

We Are Called to Have Faith

On a recent Sunday morning, Jim was given the opportunity to share his and Robyn's testimony of faith, with the congregation of Harrison Community Baptist Church in Idaho. Listen how God changed their lives prior to going to the mission field in Uganda.
Please click on the following link:  http://harrisonbaptist.org/sermons/31Jul2011.mp3

See How God Is Working!

Here is an update from Love In Action, our project partner in Uganda! 

Hi everyone.

It has been a while since I visited the school at Kasaka and I was amazed. “What is that?” “That is the canteen” – I opened the door to find a builder hanging up his trousers (he had another pair on). The canteen will be a small shop where children (and possibly others) will be able to buy small snacks for lunch, (eg small bag of peanuts, or a local bun made by an enterprising parent, or a piece of sugar cane perhaps) and where the teachers will be able to buy credit for their phones etc.

I saw the bore hole, complete with pump, and a good fence around it. I had a go at pumping, and was surprised by how much water came out with each fairly hefty pump.

Then I wandered around to the clinic – well, not wandered exactly, more like scrambled on dusty mounds of earth where giant tree roots and scrub were in the process of being dug out in readiness for future construction. This building, which Alan told me was at wall plate level last week, had a tin roof on it. It is brilliant, and beyond our dreams at this stage. This clinic is being funded by a group of medical students from Birmingham University who arrive here in 1 week’s time. They will also be funding the nurse to work there for 2 years.

I went into the shell that will house a nurse, and then clambered over bricks and assorted buildingy  stuff into the waiting area which separates the accommodation from the clinic. The next room will be divided into two by plywood, and will be the examination room, and the treatment room. All as prescribed by the government regulations here.

Of course a well is no good without drinkers, and the clinic will need a nurse and patients. I believe there will be no shortage of patients at all, and we will start advertising for the nurse very soon.

In a similar vein, the school is just a building without staff and pupils, and after wandering round the site we went into some classrooms. All seems so ordered now, and if the standard is maintained, we should soon have an excellent reputation. Of course, I can always see room for improvement, and no laurels are being rested upon.

The teaching style is teacher/blackboard/questions and a forest of arms waving around. I suddenly had a vision of the donkey in Shrek shouting “Pick me, Oh pick me”. I wondered though about the row of boys who looked like they had no idea “How many sticks Cate picked”, and what was more they did not care!

The teacher had mentioned that she had just had the class up singing a song because they were in danger of falling asleep. I guess it had been a long maths lesson. My sympathy was with the boys in the 4^th row.

Reaching home I had a cup of tea, and thought through the morning. It wasn’t the buildings I remembered, or the maths lesson, or the one classroom that was filthy, it was one little girl.

We have a few children for whom we are fully responsible who live at the school during term time. We have a brilliant young lady looking after them, but a couple of children had been sneaked in without our knowledge, and Alan had sent them back home to live. I did a check on which bed belonged to which child, and came across a name I did not know. I asked to see the little girl. Meanwhile I phoned the office to check the story. Yes, we had given permission for her to stay, because she had received a cruel punishment at the hands of a relative for stealing.

The little one has a visible scar. As I sat with her I could see that that scar was pretty unimportant in the great scheme of things, but the one in her heart was dreadful. Her little face was so sad and her eyes were deep. Rovence translated as we talked, and as I prayed for her. I do not have a good memory, but if I could draw, I would be able to sketch her as she has captured my heart.

Over the next few weeks we have UK visitors who will visit the school, and do some fun things with the pupils. This is one child that I hope will catch more than a ball during games, or learn more than maths during a lesson. I hope that she learns that not all adults are cruel, and that love can conquer all things.

Having returned from Kasaka, I had asked our visitor to swing by the bakery to get some bread for lunch. As Alan drove them back they saw a teacher hitting children with a stick as they left the classroom in a school over the road.  For several reasons it was not possible to physically intervene – not least because at that distance, it would not be possible to identify the teacher. This is an everyday occurrence here in Uganda, and when and where possible, we act – when our children are beaten in school, we complain and make a huge fuss. Beating children is against the law here, but continues none the less. It makes our blood boil, and we feel powerless on many occasions, such as this. Please pray that we would always have the wisdom and courage to know where and when to intervene. It is a hard mindset to change, because there are parents who endorse this harsh discipline. One teacher told us –“We have to beat – I have been to Liverpool and the teachers there wish they could beat children!” On another occasion Alan and Noah complained to a head-teacher “If you carry on like this, a child will die”. His answer was “If a child dies, it is between me and my God”.

This is one of our main motivations for building and running schools – to run establishments where children are safe from harm, and where teachers can teach children who can learn in an environment that is conducive to fear-free learning. We want to teach other ways of disciplining children – which in the end will lead to self-control.

Would this be Beryl if I didn’t moan? Three weeks now without water. Country wide 24yr power cuts mean that there is no water in our town. Little water is being processed, because power is off, and because of where we live – up a hill – above the level of the town tank , we are very very low in the pecking order. Until today, judicious use of the water we had, and large rain water tanks, and a delivery by water tanker, means that we have eked it out. Now though, the last drop has gone, and it is THE LATRINE, and baby wipes for washing, until the next tanker load arrives.

Not being able to bathe or wash up may be many a teenager’s dream, but after a day the novelty wears both off and me down. How do you even prepare food without a tap? On the plus side we will all smell like a baby’s bottom – (the fresh and clean ones until the baby wipes run out!). We cannot wash our floors, our feet or our clothes. Lively debates are around the best way to reuse underwear, and our lovely visitors think it is all great fun. I will reserve my judgment in case my awaited tanker does not come.

My lovely father used to give us rainwater from our underground tank each Friday with which to wash our hair. I felt like a princess. Yesterday Alan bought a large pump to transfer the remaining water from the rainwater tank up to the main tank so that we could shower and flush the loo. It was quite a performance to prime the pump, and someone had to climb the water tower, and several somebodies had to hold up the pipe. In all the melee, and calling for more jerrycans to fill the bucket that the pump was sucking water from, it was noticed that one lad was filling the jerrycan to feed the pump with water from the tank that we were trying to fill! Sometimes I feel like a princess with my soft rainwater shower – and some times I feel like I am starring in a Carry On film (minus the naughty bits). TV? Don’t miss it much. We have it all here – comedy, culture, and more than a little drama.

Please do not sympathise or spend much time worrying – we can drive the 20 mins to the school to collect water from the borehole if we need to – doesn’t that bring me back to where I started? Ever decreasing circles!

Have a good weekend,

Beryl (& Alan)  Went

Love in Action

Masaka

Uganda

www.loveinaction-int.com

Weebale Nnyo

(Thank you very much)

Dear Sponsors and Friends,

  We are so thankful to you for your faithful support to make all of our work in Uganda possible!  Over the past few years, because of your support, we have provided a home for many children, but besides shelter, we have provided love, food, education and most importantly, their spiritual needs.  Our goal has been to teach Christianity and for the children to discover a personal relationship with Jesus.  In addition to the care of our children, we have been able to give medical aid to save lives, bring food to some starving drought stricken villagers and help spread the Gospel to everyone through evangelism, in person and over the radio.  We really want you to know that we could not do this work without you; therefore, this is your story:

This is Moses.  Life on the streets is tough; we had to teach the children how to play!

He carved this truck from a banana tree.

   In 2008, you took in a ten-year-old Muslim street- boy, who spoke no English.  He eventually accepted Jesus and he changed his name to Moses, and after about another year he learned English and became an excellent student in school.  Every Sunday he would sit next to me in church and when he knew that I would soon be leaving to come home, he asked me if I would baptize him before I left, and indeed, before I left we celebrated his 13^th birthday and his baptism.  Just this week we were informed, with the assistance of our social worker from Love In Action, that we found his little sister.  He has missed her because he has not seen her since he went on the streets and he has really  been burdened with worry about her. 

To be continued… 

                      

  We give God all the glory for this and we all should be thankful to Him for allowing us to play a part in any of this.  These are real lives being changed through the grace of God!  We really want you to know how important you are to us to help make all of this happen, because the works of this ministry have been very fruitful, praise the Lord!

   As you recall, after a very long time in Uganda, of literally nonstop work, Robyn and I are on furlough in Idaho.  This lengthy journey was not by design, but out of necessity and dedication to the job that just needed to be completed.  You probably have heard the acronym TIA (This Is Africa), what it is referring to is true, nothing is easy in Africa and in fact, some things that are simple back home become very difficult over there.  One of the difficulties in working the mission field is a lack of long-term help from dedicated people, but God has His plans to take care of all our needs.  Unfortunately, in 2009, thieves stole our money that we had set aside for our trip home, so it was a test of faith to see how our Lord would take care of us.  When the Lord decided it was time for a break, He provided the means to make it happen, and we offer a special thank you to those who provided the airfare for both of us to return home.  When God has blessed a plan, it is destined to be successful, and no man can destroy it.  This time at home has given us a much-needed rest, and has allowed us time to rejuvenate physically, mentally and spiritually. We feel especially blessed, because God provided a home for us right next door to our daughter Jenny and our son-in-law Todd, and five of our grandchildren, on Lake Coeur d’Alene, Idaho!  We serve an amazing God!

Proverbs 16: 9  In his heart man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps. 

   Remember when we shared the story of our friends, Alan & Beryl Went of “Love In Action,” a Ministry from the UK?  They came to us and offered to take in our children so we could return to the US and leave with the confidence that our children would be properly cared for during our absence from Uganda.  We continue to send funds every month from our sponsorship program to support our kids.  This has become a wonderful relationship with our ministries, and our children have been doing really well.  With this, we see how our Lord has established our steps.

  After much thought and prayers and through the grace of God, we decided that if we combine our Ugandan resources, facilities, and work forces, it would provide the best situation, especially having more people to share the workload.  Love in Action is blessed with capable leaders and a staff; including social workers, who can take care of business and uphold their standards even during the absence of Alan and Beryl while they take periodic breaks.  Most importantly, we are committed to the same goal:  To serve our Lord.  Love In Action arranged to purchase property, with buildings, for our new boy’s home as they had about 60% of the needed funds donated to them for this project.  We were able to contribute $1200.00 towards the purchase of the new boy’s home.  This amount is what we have been able to set aside from various donations other than our regular sponsorship funds we receive.  We need about $1500.00 more to complete this acquisition.  This is really a great situation as there will now be a separate boy’s (Hallelujah House) and girl’s (Hosanna House) compound, and we will save on monthly rental costs. With these combined facilities, we will be able to take care of more children with more efficiency and ultimately do a better job.  We have always strived to be good stewards of God’s money, and we ask for His guidance in all that we do.

This is the new boy’s home!   The locations of the boy and girl’s compounds are now within a 15-minute walking distance to the main facility where meals and fellowship take place.

  Optimistically, Robyn and I are planning to return to Uganda for about five months, sometime around the fall of this year and returning home in the spring of 2012.  This would also place us in a better climate than what we would typically expect in an Idaho winter.  One of the things we will be evaluating this year is the feasibility of hosting short- term mission trips in the future, so please pray about this.  This year’s trip greatly depends on the availability of funds, as we have always paid for our travel expenses with our (now depleted) personal finances.  We have decided it is time to let our needs be known, and we want to give the opportunity to everyone to help make our work possible.  Airline fare for two round trip tickets is about $3500.00, which is one of our larger expenses, but there are several other expenses as well.  For your convenience, an automatic monthly payment ($10, $25 or more) for our support can easily be set up.  If it is the desire of your heart, you may contribute towards our support & mission trips with just a few clicks on our web site with the notation; “Jim & Robyn’s missionary account.” Missionary Donation 

 Since our beginning, from the founding of this ministry and the opening of the Door of Hope to help children and teens in Uganda, we have trusted in the Lord to take care of every detail... and He has.  For sure, the result has not always been what we expected, but we have the assurance that our loving God has our plans for this life and our eternal salvation as His glorious purpose for each of us. 

May God Bless You Abundantly,

Jim & Robyn Fruehan  

PS:  Keep up-to-date at our blog site:  http://www.hewillprovide.blogspot.com

Giving Our Heart To Jesus

What a happy Valentines day!

 We were asked to share a story of our mission experiences in Uganda with our church teen group.  We just don't know how the Lord is going to do His work, we think it is only the task at hand that is so significant in His eyes, but when you do God's work He will surely yield all of the flavor for His Glory. 

Four teens accepted Jesus Christ as their savior on February 14, 2011 (Valentines Day)

This was the Lord's doing; It is marvelous in our eyes.  This is the day that the Lord has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it.  Psalm 118:23-24 

Praise the Lord!