Believe it or not this
is the first time I have had to write a post since returning home... here is a summation of my last 2 weeks
God is doing so much on so many levels… THANK you for your love and prayers! These could each be a blog post in and of themselves... but alas I have limited internet now in the bush.
• Holy Spirit outpouring parties on my front porch- wahoo Jesus… many of our children received the gift of tongues as we prayed together and were touch by deep laughter.
• LRA attack, 10 killed about 1 mile from our compound-God protected us… following night there was much fear among the children as everyone but us evacuated (we prayed and God said not to) so we prayed- you should have heard our kids praying in their new gifts of tongues and calling down heaven as well as praying salvation for the LRA- it was awesome!
• We have become an implementing partner with UNHCR to help oversee about 100 or more unaccompanied minors in family based foster care at a refugee camp of about 5000 Congolese at Lasu on the border of DRC, as well as to conduct trainings for the foster families, camp social workers, women’s groups and community leaders on loving vulnerable children and child protection awareness ;-) starting in May. They ran from the LRA violence.
• Our school has grown to well over 300 students (bordering 400 on the books but some are double entries we are sorting, about 80 of which are our YCV/ICCP kids)
• Our ICCP has grown to include a Primary School Scholarship Program, Secondary School/Youth Work Study Assistance Program, Milk-Feeding Assistance to Infants and Malnourished Young Children… all together helping roughly 55 area children and youth… We will soon be adding in follow up visits to their families and outreach to their home communities.
• We have 84 children that live with us and 10 more in our Eastern center (it has a waitlist of over 60 more though!)
• We have pending invites to start works in an unreached area north of us in Mundariland, Nuba mountains and contacts even through family of one of our older boys potentially in other more inaccessible areas. YAY!
• Building continues all over the compound and we continue to pray for favor with government sorting out the land issues… it is still in flux- pray with us…
• My house floods each time it rains but we are trying to fix it- thanks to a corrupt contactor who had never heard of a level! Grace, grace… I love swimming but not in my bedroom…
• Sid Roth interview aired and I have gotten my first official hate mail letters from it- poor hurting people- healing and God’s goodness gets people really mad… but I am so glad they emailed because now we can pray for them ;-)
• My book manuscript is done!!! Wahoo!
So much is happening- It is an honor AND a joy to be here dancing with Jesus in the storms of our day. Mar 27-30 I am in the UK speaking in S Hampton and then on to meetings in the US in April. Then back here for most of the summer/early fall visiting out locally to villages for outreaches.
Saturday we took in 3 children of a single mom who was killed less than a mile from our compound hacked to death last weekend. The baby of 5 months was on her back when she was killed, the 3 year old little girl watched the attack and went mute afterwards, we are not sure if it is the trauma of what she encountered or the fact she had her head hit with rocks by the rebels… There is no imaging capability here to know how severe the damage is. So we are just holding her and praying for the moment. The nine year old boy was hiding during the attack but watched it all including his elder brother being abducted. One of our oldest boys who wants to be a pastor- he has taken him under his wing and is caring for him in the nights. I have never seen such suffering… it is beyond astounding. This is why we are here.
And then the department claiming half our land came back with a map in hand—we are so thankful a good friend here has agreed to stand with us and help us fight to keep our land. This is just the devil he says- I think I scared the representative who came- I sorta burst into tears and marched him around the perimeter of over half our 40 acres pointing out all the programs they were messing with and praying loudly in tongues the rest of the way- then I told him it was a very serious thing to interfere with what God was doing. I wanted to speak with all his superiors Monday morning. To which he agreed- don’t worry mama we will not take your land but we will take only some of it. Bless his heart he was flustered, he wasn’t even making sense.
Our dear friend looked at me-
NO one is doing in this nation what you are- let alone what has happened in 2 years. We have never seen an organization do what you are, not even the UN- building such nice homes for the children and the vision compels the land you were given. Not one inch will be touched. God is with you. It is truly a miracle. Do not even given it another thought. This friend is a man who has stopped grenade throwers in meetings with a word and has stopped witch doctor attacks with a mere sentence. A lion came on compound one night where he was and he ordered it away in Jesus name and bound witchcraft- it flew back, turned into a man before his eyes, they led him to Jesus and the man is now a pastor. Dude- I am so happy this guy is on our side as a friend.
And we had our land dedication to today... we wish you all could have been here but there is the photo documentary coming. We love you!!!
Ok see the little gal to the right on this photo- her world was torn apart by LRA rebels less than 2 weeks ago. After the LRA killed this little one's mother in front of her, they beat her head with rocks. She came to live with us days after the attack. She was barely walking and was not speaking. Her eyes were dull and lifeless. She had a huge soft spot on her head that sent all of us to deeper places of prayer. She rapidly found a favorite resting place in my arms. (Her cousin on the left also has come to live with us after having lost both her parents to disease.)
And people ask me why I would want to live in Sudan?
