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!

THE GREAT COMMISSION

 

The gift of tongues!

I don't speak the language, but the Holy Spirit finds a way.

Our 16 year old Jennifer is our interpreter, she speaks four languages!  

She interprets in Lugandan, but that is not her native language.   

We completed the book of Matthew in our "Radio Bible Study" tonight.  I felt filled with the Holy Spirit as we read through the last chapter of the Resurrection and continued through to verse18.   18 Then Jesus came to them and said, "All the authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." 

Wow!   He has us teaching this nation on the radio!  Praise the Lord, Alleluia!

 

Playing Catch Up! Here Is An Update!

Well I had a big gap in my updates to you but I hope you know it is nothing personal but I have been so busy around here and time flies when you are having fun! So I thought I could give you a run down of tidbits to get us up to speed.



• If you recall, Robyn received a gift to fly back home for a long overdue visit with our family. She will visit some churches and friends along the way and hopefully see many of our sponsors as she travels her circuit.
• Of course with Robyn away it has left me with a heavier workload, especially since school just started! But this has caused me to work smarter so I can survive this "one man show".
• In December we hired an administrative assistant for me, since I just could not get caught up in all the required duties. The accounting alone has lifted a burden. Praise God! Shopping is not easy here because you have to go to so many places to get a few things. It is not like going into a Wal-Mart and finding everything you need. The flip side is, we end up with so many receipts and pay-out vouchers (for the places that don't have receipts), that it becomes a huge mountain of little receipts to be entered in the books.
• We had a few kids choose to go back to their village to live with a relative for various reasons. The biggest reasons were that they didn't want to follow our family rules. Interestingly enough, the ones that left were the ones who had a "fall back" relative to go to. In other words the best behaved and faithful ones are the orphaned and vulnerable children under our care. Basically the orphans and street kids are the ones who really value the family. God has a way of refining through fire and I believe He revealed what He wanted.
• Finances have been difficult this year and we have reached an all time low in our bank account. But I feel this was part of God's big plan that we can not see right now. I ask myself; If we had plenty of funds, would we have agreed to let these children go when they showed their true colors of character? Yes refinement through fire is pretty powerful!
• Like I said, we have all of the children enrolled in school. We have most of the school supplies and we were able to make an agreement with one of the schools to defer some school fees until next term when hopefully we will have more funds. We know the Lord Will Provide, but it is stretching our faith for sure!
• Speaking of school, I am happy to announce that John in P-2 is his Class Monitor, Moses in P-3 is his Class Monitor, Rob in P-5 is his Class Monitor, Matty in P-7 is the school prefect and English Speaking Prefect and in charge of his class. Sara in S-2 is her Class Monitor. It looks like we are raising some leaders here!
• As far as special duties here at home we have Jennifer as our "Interpreter"(she interprets here at the house when needed but also goes on the radio with me on Monday and Tuesday) , Moses as the "Breakfast Chef"(he prepares the early morning breakfast before school), Sara as the "Shopkeeper" (she issues the supplies, like soap, toothpaste, pencils, etc. to kids from the store room twice a week) and Priscilla as our "Hospitality Hostess" (you can always depend on her to make guests feel welcome & comfortable, and to decorate for birthday parties). John is the "Maintenance Man" (he loves to fix things, replaces burned out security lights, turns on the security lights every night, prunes trees, etc.) All of the children have their regular chores which includes cleaning the compound. The entire compound is divided into sections and everyone has their area of responsibility.
• As you will recall, we had a tragic accident involving Richard on the motorcycle early in January. We since have repaired the motorcycle and now have just put it back in service. The accident ended up costing us quite a bit of money, because of the burial expenses, transporting the children, retrieving the motorcycle, repairing the motorcycle, etc. So hopefully it will begin to earn money as that was its purpose.
• Speaking of finances, we are behind in our rent here so please say some extra prayers for us. If you know anyone that might be interested in sponsoring the Door of Hope, we have three levels of sponsorships at $14.00, $28.00. $60.00 per month. Just go to our web site.
• Now that we mentioned the web site, Jessica has just finished another batch of updates for us with some new pictures throughout our site. Please watch for more updates coming soon.

Well that does it for now since it is about 2:00 AM and I need to get up early to get the kids off to school. Thanks for joining us here!! We will talk soon!