The Longest Two Weeks EVER!

I knew that these weeks were coming.  It was a feeling of dread deep down in the pit of my stomach.  It would wake me up in the middle of the night, and I would spend the next few hours in prayer trying to find peace and comfort.
We have had Silas for almost a full year and I can't picture our family, lives, home without him.  When we first got him we were told that we needed to run an ad in the local newspaper.  For whatever reason, we didn't.  We waited.  
When we were in Kampala car shopping we met with the lawyer that is going to be handling our case.  He told us that we needed to run the ad so we could move forward with getting legal guardianship.  Running the ad proves that we did everything to try and find any family of Silas's.  
So we came home and I talked with the caseworker and the lady that runs the baby home where Silas came from and found out what I needed to do.  
We ran the ad.  
It started on Thursday, along with my anxiousness. 
Friday morning Colin's cell rang.  It was probation.  At that moment my heart was in my ears and my stomach was somewhere in the driveway.
I answered and found out that someone was claiming to know or be related to Silas.  It wasn't clear which one it was.  At that moment I wanted to just curl up with my knees in my chest and bawl my eyes out! 
Instead I grabbed Silas and Colin and cried while clutching them, my sweet boys.
My head was spinning and I was trying to figure out what possible family it could be.  I called the lady that runs the baby home where Silas came from and she was a wonderful voice of reason.  She called the caseworker and he went to probation to sort out what was going on.
Thank you LORD for their willingness to move fast on this. 
I was also so thankful for my wonderful husband.  Even in the midst of my panic, he was my rock.  "God always works ALL things for good.  Even if we can't see what the good is yet." he told me as I cried on his shoulder once again.
I emailed family and friends and told them to please be praying for us.  One of Colin's cousins and I email on a regular basis and she and her husband are currently going through the long steps of an overseas adoption.  She had emailed me the night before the ad was suppose to run letting me know that we had been on their hearts and minds and they were lifting us up in prayer.  God is good!  Even before the ad ever made the page He had people that love us praying for us.  (I love that part of the story.)
I called a close friend here and sobbed to her over the phone.  Prayers were once again sent up and I am so grateful for this wonderful woman God put in my life.  
Colin was supposed to go and work in the shop in Obulle, but after the phone call from probation knew that wasn't going to happen.  He called Dan and told him what was going on.  I love Dan, and his whole family.  I just love every one of our friends in Obulle!  Dan told us and the whole church that Sunday that he cried to God for us.  Real tears from a very loving man.  He said that he had a dream that I was also crying and he cried for me.  Just thinking about that makes my heart swell with joy.  (Another part of this story that I treasure) 
We loaded up and headed over to probation to see if we could find out any more information.
The caseworker and the probation officer were there and we were able to get some other information from them.  A man and a woman that at some point cared for Silas's birth mother were the ones that made the call.  They claimed that the mother was either dead or gone.  (Last year his birth mother was transported back to her home village up north so family could care for her.)
Probation and the caseworker assured us that they would not let Silas be taken from us.  So they went to meet these people and get their story.  
Colin, Silas and I went to buy trees.  We needed to do something as a family and buying plants seemed like a good idea.  Sitting at home wasn't gonna make the cut.  
We heard back from probation and we had a little more of the story.  
The man that called was an old "boyfriend" of the mother.  The other woman (the one that claimed to have cared for Silas's mother)  was currently living with the boyfriend.  And here comes the kicker...About a month before we ran the ad the man went and got the birth mother, and she was currently living with them.
It was decided that the mother would again be moved to her home village and probation would go with to see about any other family.  
All of this happened on Friday.  Saturday they traveled.  Sunday we heard nothing.  Monday we got the call.
This time Colin took the call.  
Once they arrived to the village they worked with the local officials to try and locate any family.  They found that both of Silas's grandparents died by cattle raiders years ago.  There were no clear family left.  Some were saying that they were related but could not give clear proof to the police and probation.  
So the local officials wrote a letter stating that we could proceed with our foster/legal guardianship/adoption of Silas. 
I have the letter.
He is ours.
Forever!
Yesterday was the last day that the ad ran.  No one else made any calls.  
We did have a good day yesterday.  We went to the baby home where Silas stayed for a few months and we got to meet with the police lady that found Silas almost a year and a half ago.  She was thrilled to see him and see how big he has gotten.  She said she never would have recognized him.  We talked for a while and I wrote down his birthday for her.  I thanked her and told her that we should make it a yearly visit so she could see him growing.  
Today is the 6th.  We are celebrating God's goodness and how He does work all things for good.  Silas is our son.  If ever you get to meet him, you'll see it too.  
So ends the longest two weeks of my life.  
God answered my pleas and cries the first day we got the phone call from probation.  There was a peace that settled over me at the end of the day Friday and remained for the rest of the two weeks.   

Water For All International - Water Well Drilling In Uganda

Here is a short video detailing the water well drilling ministry we are blessed to be a part of here in Uganda. This video was shot and edited by a photo journalism team working with the missions sending agency - International Teams.  They were kind enough to shoot this video and allow us to show you the work God is doing to bring people water and to transform people's lives.

using agriculture to preach The Gospel

A great article on the use of the Farming God's Way agricultural tool.

http://issuu.com/prismmagazine/docs/preaching-agricultural-gospel-prism

some more families have clean water

Here are a few of the happy faces of the more recent water well recipients.  Sometimes it is difficult to get some of these folks to smile because they have it in their heads that we are supposed to be serious for all photos... but trust me they are happy, even the ones that are not smiling.  Many of these wells are from an area near Lake Kyoga.  The area has a high [population density and very few water wells.  We try and drill "family" wells, but so far all of the wells we've drilled are being used by entire communities.  One of these wells is being used by as many as 50 families (most families have more than 6 children).

We want to thank everyone who prays for us, for Uganda, Water for All, God's beautiful water ministry that He allows us to be a part of, our church in Obule, and for God's transformation in these areas of Uganda.

We are the ones who are blessed by these families.  We are the ones who are here and we get to receive all the "ayalama" (thank yous).  We get to see the happiness, gratitude, joy, and heartfelt rejoicing. We get to witness folks praising God for the water they now have.  We get to see these things on a regular basis and it never gets old.  We are routinely blessed by the drilling of the well, the working alongside these families to achieve something, and the instant gratification of seeing water come out of the pipe at the end of the work.  It's a fantastic job we get to do.

We want to bless you with these pictures of happy families as well.  Please continue to pray for the work God is doing in Obule and Pingire.

Car shopping...

In order to start this story I need to rewind a few months.
Back to March of this year.

We had just gone to a retreat with friends from International Teams, and we dropped off Jennifer at the airport so she could head back to the states for a few months.  While she was gone she let us use her Toyota Land Cruiser.  It was such a HUGE blessing.  The Land Rover was in the shop before we left and pretty much stayed there until about a month ago.  Jennifer returned in May and her Land Cruiser returned to her.  Thankfully we have the dirt bike so Colin was still able to work with the drilling crew and work in the garden.  I, as many of you know, strapped a green plastic chair to my bike and we (me and Silas) sailed around town like that for the last few months.

We continued to pray for the funding for a new vehicle.  We knew that God would provide the funds for us to get the right rig for our program and family.  Colin emailed Terry (who is our boss) about the condition of the Land Rover and told him that we were praying for the funding of a new truck.
Within about a week we had our answer.  Terry told us that the money was there and we could start looking for a new Water For All vehicle!  When God moves, you better be ready!

Colin had been emailing a dealership in Kampala (that has a great reputation) about what we wanted.  They said they had Land Cruisers in stock and we were VERY excited about that.  We flew down on Monday - which was awesome and once you've driven these roads you have a greater appreciation for not driving them!  Flying, we were in the city in 50 minutes!  It takes 7-8 hours driving.  We picked up the Global Care Super Custom that used to be in Soroti, and drove that around so that we didn't have to do a private hire.  Once we picked up the Super Custom we headed to the guest house.  Car shopping was going to start on Tuesday.  First thing the next day we went to the dealership to see what was in stock.  Silas fell asleep so I sat in the car with him.  Colin went and looked around and was back within 10 minutes.  I knew that was not a great sign but we loaded up and headed out.  Colin told me once we were leaving that an NGO that works in northern Uganda and South Sudan came in the day before and bought every single Land Cruiser they had.  Even the high mileage ones!  We even asked about the Hilux pickup trucks and they were even sold out of those.

So...We went to another lot and found two that we liked.  A Toyota Land Cruiser ZX and a Toyota Hilux.  Both were really nice.  Our friends put us in contact with a really great mechanic and he sent two guys to check the two vehicles.  The Land Cruiser was a no-go and the Hilux was clean.  When we went in to talk with the mechanic, Kirit, he told us that he knew of a Land Cruiser VX (just like Jennifer's) that was for sale and if we wanted to look at it he would call the owner.  We looked at it and we really really liked it.  It was nicer than anything we had been looking at.  However we did have a budget.

Now, all these Toyotas were '91-'93 models and would cost about $20,000 USD or about 55,000,000 UGX.  Our approved budget was $25,000.

We saw the Land Cruiser that Kirit knew about and it was NICE.  We drove it and knew that it was really well taken care of.  Kirit maintained it and also knew that it was well cared for.  When we asked how much they were selling it for the man said 28.  We were disappointed to hear that because $28,000 was too much.  The other ones we were looking at were just around $20,000.  The weekend came and we still didn't have a truck.  So Monday we went to talk to Kirit about another ZX and Hilux that we looked at and liked.  We were going to go with one of those two options and even had Kirit send a guy to check them over for us.  Kirit asked why we didn't like the VX that he had recommended to us.  We told him that is was way over our budget.  That $28,000 was too much for us.  Here is the good part - Kirit seemed a bit confused for a second and then he told us that what we thought was $28,000 in USD was really 28,000,000 in UGX!  So we went from what we thought was $28,000 for the Land Cruiser to a little over $10,000!!!  That settled it.  We arranged for the paperwork and money to all be transferred and we had a new vehicle!  Thank you Lord!

We drove it home on Saturday and it was wonderful!  It has AC and we had a nice cool ride the whole way.  It was good on fuel, as smooth as you can get on these roads, and comfortable to drive.

We are so thankful for the answer to our prayers.  God is good.  This Land Cruiser is perfect for us and for the program.  And because we got it for such a great price there is money left over for other program expenses.  We will put a roof rack on it so we can haul drilling stuff on top.  Thank you to our Water For All supporters that made this purchase possible.  We are so thankful to be a part of the WFA family and are blessed to have such wonderful supporters.

So here it is...Our new vehicle.

      

harvest at the church garden

This morning the church members came together to harvest the maize from the church garden.  At the beginning of the season we decided to put in a 35 meter by 35 meter garden and use Farming God's Way as our method of farming.  Grass is getting hard to come by in Obule so a garden that size was pretty ambitious, but we were feeling adventurous so we went for it.  We were able to get enough grass to mulch half of the garden.  It took us several more weeks to get enough grass together to mulch the second half of the garden.  We received good rains during that period, but it turned off dry before we could apply the mulch to the other half.  Those few weeks proved costly as the half of our garden that didn't get mulched until later in the season did not really produce any cobs.  The maize stalks on that half of the garden were short and stunted.  The dried out a lot quicker than the other half of the garden.  They appeared stress, etc.  So we learned a valuable lesson about mulching, and that is TO mulch, to mulch often, and mulch heavy.

The yields we received from the producing half of our garden were completely unremarkable except for the fact that we did yield something.  That part is remarkable, because of everyone in the village who planted around the same time as us, we were the only folks to yield anything.  Thats right -anything.  So rather than looking at our moderate yields and wishing they were better, we have chosen to thank God for the gift of maize when everyone else is yielding nothing.  This "wet" season has been pretty dry.  Very few folks, except for a handful of folks who planted early are suffering because no one is going to get a crop.  People are already talking about famine.

Charles holding up a couple of our better maize cobs.  

We are blessed in that we were able to produce some maize because we put ourselves in a position to receive God's blessing of moisture when He sent it.  Through practicing good stewardship we were able to capture some of the early rains and retain that moisture long enough to get a crop.  Most people didn't get one.  Very few farmers in this area are in a position to receive the blessing of rain.  Most folks are praying for rain and then when God sends the rain, they sit helplessly by and watch the soil from their fields wash away as the majority of the rain erodes away their land.

our maize drying in the sun

We in the Obule church are so thankful God has chosen to bless us with knowledge that we need to be stewarding His creation rather than using up and wasting "our" lands.  I recently have had the opportunity to watch our Pastor Charles share the Gospel with several primary schools as he teaches Farming God's Way to the primary schools in this area.  Charles has been sharing Proverbs 3:5-6 with the children and their guardians.  The verse says " Trust in The Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding, But in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight."  When you look at the way the farmers struggle to work their fields.  The way they sweat and toil to work the land, and then they wait and hope and pray to get a good return on their efforts.  But sadly more often than not they get a yield that is less than what is required to properly feed and care for their families.  It is apparent that we are working and farming by leaning on our own knowledge, that we haven't stopped to ask God how we should care for His creation, and we don't trust in the Lord with all our hearts or otherwise we would consult Him.  I hope more folks in Obule and in Teso will begin to see their gardens as God's land, begin stewarding that land, begin to turn to the Lord and seek Him and His way, and stop leaning on our own limited understanding.

Charles and a group of primary school students praying for their land, repenting for all the blood shed on this land, repenting for all the witchcraft and blood sacrifices offered in the hopes of a good harvest, repenting for not looking to God, repenting for not trusting in the Lord with all our hearts and in all our ways.  

It is so encouraging to see the folks in the Obule church trusting God and seeking his guidance and wisdom over their own.  It is also encouraging to see their faithfulness and commitment be rewarded with a yield, even if those yields are below average because God was faithful and provided.

Euria's well

A few weeks ago we finished a well for a man named Euria.  Euria is married to a lady named Margaret and they have ten, yes ten (10) children.  Ten children by the same women is pretty incredible.  Here in Uganda you see men having ten children, but they usually have more than wife, but not Euria, he is a one woman man.  Euria's well was particularly challenging.  We spent the first two days slamming a pipe in the ground and only went one meter.  Not a great start!   Fortunately things got a little easier as we went on.  After two weeks of drilling we were finally able to case the well at 18 meters (~60 feet). We would have loved to have gone deeper, but we hit granite bedrock and God gave us enough wisdom to know when it is time to call it quits.  After casing the well, we took our time washing the well and conditioned it to make sure it produces a lot of water.  Today I was able to stop by Euria's home to get some pictures of the completed, cemented in, final product.  Euria was there along with a few of kids and his mother-in-law.  They were all very happy with the well and were very appreciative. I thought I would share with you about Euria's well and let you see some of the pictures.  Enjoy!