Hello from the Stubbs family…..we are finally in Uganda!!!!!!!!!!!!!

            There is NO WAY to praise the Lord enough for what He has done. The impossible has happened. 8 weeks ago our family was facing the future with fast beating hearts, sitting in the tropical heat of the Indonesian jungle, wondering how on earth we would finish up our lives there, spend a month in America and then move to Africa with all of us in tact as a healthy happy family, but HE is so much more than we could ever ask for or dream of, there is NOTHING that He cannot do, NOTHING.

            We made it to Uganda. All of our bags even made it to Uganda! We have found a home and a car that can negotiate the roads; we have even found a way to have the internet hooked up to our home. We have found the market for food, unpacked the water filter, and we are blessedly sleeping through the nights now, our bodies safely tucked away under mosquito nets from the ravenous hungry mosquitoes that prowl around like lions throughout the night!!!!

Yesterday afternoon, our rented van negotiated the rutted dirt roads and found its way to HOPE children’s home, as we drew near all of us were lost in our own thoughts. Our boys just did not know what to expect or think, we had done all we could to prepare them to meet 95 wonderful children that could not wait to see them, but how can you truly prepare someone for that?  We pulled in to the front of the children’s home and tried to open the door against all the arms reaching in, we were mobbed by children, and it was three or four minutes before I could look up and try to locate my boys, and as I looked around, I saw them, each of them with their own little crowd surrounding them, smiling, holding many hands, and bending close to hear the names being offered up in friendship, that was the last time we saw our kids, except to call them in to eat the wonderful meal that the pastor had prepared for us, which they gulped down and then ran back out to play. My heart just exploded with joy, and thankfulness. Thank you to so many of you who have specifically been praying for this.  The nervousness in my children’s hearts was gone; the prayer of my heart for so many years was being answered right then and there in front of our eyes. Our deep desire is to minister here as a whole family, not a fragment. We believe that there is no age that God cannot use. God is good, He is so so so good.

The thunder clouds rolled in and the rain poured. I sat on the floor and held as many of the new little ones that I could and gathered their stories from the others there. Brian counted beds and mattresses, taking inventory. We are so excited to be able to purchase more beds now, thanks to the HUGE gift from the kids at Grace Chapel VBS!!!!!  My heart LONGS to bring each of you here for even a few hours, just to see this place, to see what we have set our hearts too, as a team. There will be so much joy in bringing you stories of what God is doing here. There is so much more need than we could ever humanly meet, but He has shown us over and over that there is ALWAYS enough, to be able to show HIS love to these kids.                  
                                        

The dirt is red, everything is dirty, everything is red. At first I fought it, but now we roll the windows down and let the wind blow through our hair. We are so thankful to be home here. If you are even remotely inclined to get away for two weeks to another world, look up the short term trips through SHOW MERCY that will bring you here to love on these kids, you will not regret one minute of it, we promise.

Please continue to pray for our family as we learn this new culture, as we begin to study the language with a tutor next week, as our children get ready to enter a new school, as we begin to wrap our hearts and minds around what it will look like to LOVE these kids with HIS heart.

We praise Him that we are IN HIS GRIP!!!

Brian and Susan Stubbs,

                                    Ben, Luke, Bryce and Adam