Women after Graduation and Off to Street Kids Camp!

First, I want to share that I am sitting on my bed eating both chocolate fudge cake and fresh, warm, chocolate pudding. ha! yummo! Caitlyn (click on her name for a link to her blog) and I both had milk that would simply spoil by the time we return from camp on Friday, so what do we do? Make pudding! haha... Abby found a supermarket in Wandegeya that sells pudding mix! all we need is milk and our pan to boil the yummy goodness to life! wahoo!

Anyway... I have TWO PURPOSES for this update... to mention heading out to camp and to give you an update on the women that graduated last week! Which would you like to read first? About the women today? okay. I thought so. :)

Update on the Hope House Women

So.... there is a team from the Providence Church in North Carolina that are going to be running our camp this coming week. This church has invested so much in our ministry and we are grateful for this third year of camp they are providing! Anyway, the men organized a one-day men's conference for after church today which left us ladies with nothing to do! However, the Hope House women have been graduates for a week now and some have been working on getting their businesses set up. So we met up with the ladies and they took us on a tour around to see their business/business progress. I'll share pictures and information on a few of the ladies.. I am SOOOO proud!

So, Momma Cook (Grace) chose to use a small portion of her savings to purchase 300 little chicks! haha.. Aren't they precious? She will sell eggs as well as the chickens when they are older. She will make profit off of each chicken she sells!

This is Kate. She saved the absolute most of any of the women and she also was the most loyal to the program. She was always committed and made the best quality jewelry. Although she has TONS of money from savings, she is choosing to work out of her mother's house (which is free) and is having this boutique here built just outside of her mother's house. She would rather wait and have a cheaper boutique built instead of purchasing a nice one that costs more money. SOOOO proud of her!

 This is Beatrice and her precious little son, Joseph. That space is her business! She is currently buying things and keeping them safe at a friend's house. The man who is working on her space is currently delayed by a leg injury. She also used her money to buy a PLOT of land! Soooo excited she chose to invest her money in land for the future!

Harriet, here, has a good amount saved, but says the rent at the places she has looked at is more than she wants to spend each time. She is patiently waiting and simply selling from her little home here. And when I say little, I mean it! She is pressed up against the other wall there to the right side of the picture. This is the space she lives in with her little ones. Pray the Lord shows her a great property for her business that is at a cost she would like to afford! She is being so wise by waiting, I pray the Lord blesses her soon!

Nalongo (mother of twins) Rose is standing here in the black tank top. She has two small twins, the teenage daughter, and a son in senior 2. She is praying for a godly man for her children. She cried tears of joy when she received her savings last Friday.

I am so proud of these precious ladies! Nalongo, myself, Gertrude (best graduation speech ever!) and Jennifer. May the the Lord bless their faithfulness and hard work!

C-A-M-P!!!!

Goodness I am pumped about camp! I think we all are, actually! All of the Street Program uncles and the city API staff are heading to Entebbe tomorrow morning with 100 street boys for a week of camp! Do you realize what this means? 

Five days of beds

Five days of a blanket

Five days of clean bathing

Five days of soap

Five days of breakfast

Five days of lunch

Five days of dinner

Five days of music!

Five days of swimming!

Five days of futbol

Five days of security
Five days of sleep
Five days of peace

Five days of CONSTANT love

Five days of beauty....

I just cannot wait. We take so many things for granted. I find myself being so selfish and spoiled. I pray that I do not suffer from entitlement syndrom, but I know that I do. We are given so many things each day that we don't even realize it. 

In Katie Davis' book Kisses From Katie she mentions how ashamed she was of her faith when she returned to the states for a short time after serving here in Africa. She talked about her faith weakening because she no longer NEEDED Jesus. She was so ashamed of her walk with the Lord. In Africa she truly depended on the Lord each and every day for water, power, sleep, health, basic medical care, etc. She NEEDED Jesus' love and provision each day. However, at home, she didn't really NEED Jesus. Everything was taken care of. She didn't worry about food, medicine, clean water. It was always provided. She writes about feeling so ashamed of her faith while in the states because she didn't seem to really need Christ and His provision in her life.

So I pray that the Lord will continue to work with me and my entitlement syndrome. It's a tough one... 

So, these boys are headed to camp! We have 100 street boys that are going to be loved on all week long! The Providence team from North Carolina will be running the program from 10am-3:30pm each day and we will cover before and after! I am excited to share with you after it all!

Love you all dearly. Thank you for everything. Please pray for us this week. We have expectant hearts! Our API team is praying for the Lord to truly transform so many of these young men's lives. We could easily take over 300 children, but only 100 will be allowed. I pray the Lord allows the ones that need it most to arrive on time in the morning (7am). I pray He is preparing their hearts now. And I pray that you will lift us up all week!

Ephesians 3:14-21

For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,  to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.