Steve Bittner wanted to talk to some of our Hope kids to find out how their lives have been since they have been living in the home.    Because of your partnership, lives are truly being changed!

Here is what he wrote:

Below, you will find some of the stories from today’s interviews, as spoken by some of the children we have grown to love so much. They were also asked to say something to you; they are speaking to you through the last few words of each message…

Ronald M (13)… “I came here (to Hope) because my dad died in 2001 and he left us in the house when we were just renting the house. Then my mother had no money and she told me to go live with my aunt in Nansana (district). My aunt told pastor that I should come to school at Hope. The pastor told me to tell Papa Mike my story and I told him my story and he told me to come to Hope. God bless you and give you what you need because you have done a good job to help the children.”

Robert S (13)… “Before we came here I was like the father to my sisters (Betty, Alice, Vanessa) and brother (Samuel) because our parents left us. Some days, when we came here to school, when I didn’t work, we didn’t have money to buy food. At lunch time we begged to the children who had lunch, and they would give me food and I would take it to my little sister Vanessa. When we would go back after school in the evening to home we would drink water for supper. On Saturday, when I didn’t come to school, I went to work and some days I was going to people’s homes and ask them if they would have any job like washing utensils or mopping the house. Some people told me no and some people told me yes. Those who told me yes, I cleaned their places and they give me money and I would buy food and Betty (sister/12 yrs.) would cook. The day when you all came to my home I didn’t know that you would come and I didn’t have any hope that we would come to the children’s home. When you came to the house, I was sick and when Papa Mike told us that you would bring us to Hope I felt happy. Now, at Hope, we eat food, and drink here, and eat what we need. We go to school now and have what we need. I love all of you who help Show Mercy because you send friends and they help me. You send me some things that I need like notebooks. I want God to bless you because you do good things in our lives.”

Resty (14)… “I came to Hope because at home I was suffering ; and I now have a good life. I was not eating food, I was lacking school fees and if I was sick, there was no care for me. I was living with my grandfather and grandmother because my parents died. Pastor Prossy brought me here because in the village were some of her friends and she went to the village and found me and brought me here. I love you all so much. Thank you for helping us and may God bless you. Now we are not suffering because of you. We are feeling well and we are sleeping well; may God bless you. I love you so much.”

Moses K (14)… “Pastor Prossy was there when my father died. I was young. My mother went to the village and left me with my grandmother. Pastor brought me here. When I am here, I learn and when I finish learning, I want to help other people. I will buy clothes and food for others because God showed love to me on the cross. You showed me love and you fed me and I love you.”

Fahad M (13)… “I spent five years at Hope so far. I was living with my mother, and my father stopped being with us when I was two years old. My mother was working for us and sometimes when we didn’t get money we went all day without eating. My oldest brother started to go to the village to fetch water and he would bring us food. Sometimes we had no money and no food. When I was ten years old my mother got sick and spent two months in the hospital and died. When she died and had the burial ceremony, our oldest brother started to care for us. He was fifteen years old. He told us that he was tired and said he couldn’t work for us anymore because we couldn’t get enough money. So, Pastor came to our home and informed our brother that we would come to Hope. We didn’t have clothing to wear and the ones we had were very bad. The life was not good. I thank the Lord and the whole Show Mercy team that God brought me here. God bless you and everything you have done for us has been very good. We pray for you and ask that God will give you all you need. Many of us have no one to care for us and you show us the love we need from our parents. God bless you.

I think Fahad summed it all up…”you show us the love we need from our parents.”

Resty is in need of a sponsor and we have added many new faces to our website.  We are also going to begin helping to feed many of the children in the village atleast one meal a day.  For some, it will be there only meal.  We are answering their cry.  Please consider sponsoring one of the children today or donating towards our SAY NO TO HUNGER project.  Click here to save a life today.

Lori
Show Mercy International
www.showmercy.ort

Saturday

We had a wonderful day today! I think I start every update with that, but it is really true! We have been so busy here with the Santiam team and trying to keep up with all the admin stuff as well. Thank goodness there is internet on this side of the world (even if it is slow).

These past few days, we have had the honor of loving on a very old widow in Gganda village. She lives right down the rode from Hope Children’s Home. She is close to 100 years old! We have mentioned her in past updates, but this trip, we have really been spending more time with her and plan to continue until we leave on July 1.

Yesterday, our team visited her mud house. They asked how they might help her and she was very slow to share different ideas. She finally did allow the team to clean the dead banana tree leaves from her "banana orchard". (Not sure what you call it). Next she allowed the team to cut (or I should say hack with a machette) down branches from trees that are in front of her house. The team also gave her one of those self-powered flashlight/radios. According to “Grandma” as we will call her, the president in power prior to Idi Amin (late 1960’s) brought trucks through the villages to take the villagers’ personal belongings for his own purposes. It was on one of those sweeps through the village that "Grandma" lost her few possessions. She hasn’t had a radio since.

I wish you could be here to see this wonderful Grandma. She is very thin and has trouble walking. She is very dirty, because she literally lives in the dirt. Her hands are rough because she digs in her field for roots to eat and she gathers sticks to burn so she can cook her rice. Remember….this lady is close to 100! She has been widowed since 1957. She is filled with many many stories and I plan to hear them all! She has a tree branch as a walking stick.

I asked her what we could bring for her and she said rice. She also mentioned that she hasn’t had any meat since Christmas (Remember when we took Christmas gifts to the widows in the village….she had meat then….so thank you to all that donated towards that outreach!) So guess what we took for her today….a lot of rice and some beef! When we walked up to her, she was overwhelmed. She insisted that we all sit on mats. I was sitting on the edge of the mat and my skirt was touching the dirt. She stopped mid-sentence and said I must move back out of the dirt (of course in her language).

She began to tell us that she didn’t understand us, because she has never had anyone come to her house to help her for free! She knows that Jesus is alive because of the love we have been able to show her. Today, I tried to explain why we keep showing up at her house as well as the children from Hope. My own grandmother died in February. My heart was very sad, because I lived so far from her and I wasn’t able to be apart of caring for her in her last years. I showed up the night before she died. Her last words to me was that I was beautiful. I have missed her dearly ever since! Last September when we drove past Grandma’s house, I knew in my heart that I (Show Mercy) was to spend time and to help this precious widow. This is where God has called us (a few times a year for now). As I shared my heart about my own grandmother, she said to me that I am now her great granddaughter. Of course this made me cry. I tried to give her a hug, but she refused, because she said she had a cold. I didn’t care and I gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

This was the highlight of my day! Sitting in the dirt with a 100 year old widow showing her the LOVE of Jesus. What better way to spend one’s time on this earth!  If you have a heart for the village widows and want to help us continue to provide for their needs, please click here.

Thanks for reading and for being apart of reaching out in LOVE…one Grandma at a time.

Lori
 

Today (Thursday) was a wonderful day.  Again, all of the team was very busy teaching our children in school, playing with children, doing dramas for the children and people in the village and sharing the Gospel with many.

I could type and type forever, but I know that we are all busy people, so again, I will just share two short snippets from our day.

First, THANK YOU for all of your prayers and help.  Today was a very heart warming day.  The many widows that Show Mercy has been helping this past year, surprised us and walked from the village to Hope Children’s Home.  They wanted to meet us and thank us for all the help! (This past year, we have given out baskets of food, holiday meals and mosquito nets)  We are just representatives, so we wanted to pass their love on to you!  The elderly ladies are so precious.  Just seeing their smiles brought tears to both of our eyes.  The pain and sorrow that these women have endured is overwhelming, but because of your help, we have been able to touch them with a tender touch of love and let them know that they really aren’t alone!  We plan to continue reaching out to them all!

Everytime I come back to Uganda, I am in awe of all that God is doing in the lives of the children at Hope.  I realize time and time again just how valuable and important rescuing these children really is!  Today, one of the team leaders from Santiam was sharing a story of one of the chidren from Hope named Mercy. 

We took Mercy into Hope Children’s Home a couple of years ago.  She is flourishing now and today she had a God moment.  If you remember her story, she was being raised by her older sisters who were prostitutes and didn’t know her parents.  She had a twin sister and still doesn’t remember her name.  The neighbors found Mercy cuddled up next to her twin, locked in a house in a fetal position.  Her twin had died. Today, Mercy said that she remembers her sister refusing to eat, because their mother had abandoned them.  It was because of this that Mercy’s twin sister had fallen sick and died.  Barbara, one of the Santiam leaders, shared with Mercy that her twin sister was in heaven.  It was like a light bulb came on inside of Mercy.  Barbara shared with Mercy that one day, she would indeed see her twin again.  Just imagine the grief that has been inside of little Mercy.  From what I have read and heard, twins have a very special bond. She had never considered that she would see her sister again.

This little piece of information about Mercy’s twin has released a large burden from Mercy. She can now have peace, knowing that things are ok for her sister. Without someone sitting down, talking and comforting her, she might never have this kind of peace. This is a simple example of how reaching out in love, changes lives around us.  

Thanks for helping these precious little ones in Uganda.  If you are interested in helping more of the children, we will be posting children on our website (as the internet in Uganda allows!).  Transformation is happening in these little children’s lives.

More to come…..

Lori (and Mike too!)
www.showmercy.org

Many of you have asked about getting involved with specific needs or projects that we are currently working on at Hope Children’s Home and Field of Dreams, so here are just a few opportunites to make a difference:

Real Classrooms for the Children

We are also still in need of monthly child sponsorships for many kids. We are caring for approximately 200 kids, but have sponsorships for only a little over 100 of them. If you would like to touch a heart by sponsoring a child for $35 per month, please look on our website for a few of the kids that need sponsorship. We will be adding many more as we have time and internet capabilities. You can also ask for a girl or boy and we will gladly pick one of the most desperate children out for you. By the way, the cost of food over the past 3 years has risen over 80% in Uganda. Fuel is nearly $7.00 per gallon. Costs of goods are actually higher in Uganda as compared to the US. Additional sponsorships will help us to increase our monthly budget used to provide for the very basic needs of the children we serve.  Click here to meet Jaqueline and Brenda.

Many days have passed since we have sent an update out. Just to recap, here are a few of the things we have been doing….

• Sunday, we went to 4 different village churches to share The Gospel. The Santiam students all shared and for some this was their first opportunity to preach.  We prayed for the sick and people were healed and delivered.   It was awesome!
• Monday, we drove to Jinja and spent the night (about 2 hours away from Kampala). We went to visit the source of the Nile River (by the way, it takes 3 months for the water from Uganda to reach the Mediterranean Sea) and several of the teams members were baptized in the river.
• Tuesday, we prayed for the sick at a hospital and close to 25 people gave their lives to Jesus. Many people were healed!
•  Wednesday, the team went out to visit The Field of Dreams. Things are moving along with this new project. We will be meeting with some engineers next week and begin excavation hopefully very soon! The team went door to door and handed out wind up torches (flashlights) which included radios. The heart of the people in this village is very open to help at this time! We are excited to begin working and helping this community. (Thanks to the donor of the flashlights! A little more “light” was left in Kaliti Village because of you)