Mountain Villages

 On Sunday night, we departed for the bus station at 8 pm, boarded a bus at 9:30; rode 7 1/2 hours in a local "coach" toward the north of the state. Arriving at 4 am (it was cold), we waited for our jeep to come to take us 4 1/2 more hours into the mountains. Arriving "ragged" at 10:30 a.m., we checked in to the hotel, "freshened up", and boarded the jeep again for another 1 1/2 hours over rough terrain. The only "public" transportation in to the village was a jeep which would carry ALL the people who could get in OR ON it!  Pastor Raju had always walked into this village. we decided after 2 days in the jeep, that might not be so bad to walk it!

Unprepared for the cold of the mountains.

 

Tribal Villages in Mountainous areas

Add caption

 

One of the mountainous tribal villages we visited had never had a missionary come there. There were only 5 families of Believers and no church in the village.

Pastor's home & clinic

 Touring the village, this lady was bathing her baby. She stopped to hold him up and proudly show him off. I pray that the family comes to know Jesus Christ as the One True God and chooses to follow Him.



I thought it was neat, how the Pastor’s wife, showing biblical hospitality, hosted the clinic at her home. We saw 91 people in the clinic, 27 accepted Christ.


Many people heard the Gospel. Pray that God's Word will not return void in this village.

Before we left, they entertained us with their traditional dance and escorted us happily to our vehicle, joyously waving good-bye! Quite a change from the first visit by the Pastor years ago!

 Sponsor a child from Immanuel School through Tom Cox World Ministries Sonshine Kids.

These are the beautiful, happy children standing in front of their home and school, and yard with geese in the background.

These are just a few of the 37 children in the Children's Home. 38 other local children in need attend the school on a daily basis. They are all grateful for their education and study hard. I was up early one morning watching the boys swim & bathe in the canal beside the compound while the girls washed their clothes. One boy was in the empty classroom studying hard at 7:30 in the morning. I was impressed! One boy was doing his chores cleaning up and would stop every little bit to practice his worship/dance routine. I loved just watching them with their joy for the little things in life. What a contrast with children & teens I know who have so much and are so unhappy and many time unaware of how blessed they are!

Mahima ("glory") and Bindu

Sam 11 years lived on street after father died

Teja 11 years (no father, mother remarried & left)

Kalyan age 7 (no father or mother)

Mahima - Her father died and her mother is not able to keep her.

True Religion: Care for the Orphans

As we entered the Children's Home in SE Asia, the children all came forward to greet us. I spoke to them in English and this young man, P, answered me in perfect English with the most beautiful smile I have ever seen. Over the next 8 days, every time I saw him, I was drawn to him, seeing the joy of the LORD in his smile.

On Sunday afternoon, I had the opportunity to sit with the children, sing songs and dance, and hear their stories. P came to the Immanuel Home in 2007 at 6 years of age. He said at home he had no clothes, no shelter, and no food. His father had died and his mother remarried. His step-father rejected him and sent him to the streets to live. (Remember, women and children have few rights in many countries). A local Pastor in the mountains brought him to the Home as a small child. He said he was so happy to be at school and to learn about Jesus. (He calls the Pastor at the home/school/church "Daddy", so thankful for all that Daddy does for him). He wants to be a Pastor when he grows up! He is already a "missionary" as he shares the love of Christ through his life and smile.

There are 37 children in this home, most abandoned by their family (or true orphans or the father or mother has died).  These children can be sponsored through TCWM Sonshine Kids for $30 a month.

RESPECT, LOVE and GRATITUDE!

 

Children all around the world need our love and care. Though many children around the world have few luxuries and many times not even enough food, I find more respect, love and gratitude exhibited by them as a result of just a touch, smile or hug of compassion. Here, I am in Uganda and have given this young albino child sunglasses so she might see in the bright light.  She is respectfully giving me thanks.

Children of India sit with arms crossed, hands in laps, patiently waiting on the program to begin!

Learning New Skills to Support a Family

With the start of new sewing classes, Ugandan women and men have the opportunity to learn to be tailors and earn money to support their families.  This term 38 women and 2 men are attending class.  Some of the women traveled so far that they are staying in an empty building because they can't afford lodging. We were surprised at the large number, and we only have 12 machines for them to practice on. Money is available for 2 more machines.  I commend these men and women for their desire to learn a new trade. Would you or your church be interested in giving $120 to buy a (treadle) machine for these people to learn a trade to support a whole family?  We hope to provide resources for them to get started in business. Then they will return a percentage of their profit to help support the next class. 

People RUN to accept Christ!

 

On our third day of clinics in June, we went to Kamake. We held the clinic in a large government building and saw 372 patients! It was market day in the village and there were hunreds of people all around. 202 of those 372 patients accepted Christ, but when it was time to close, there were still MANY people around (Some of the school kids had even skipped school and showed up. They had heard there were "mzungu" people there and they wanted to see us.) As we closed, I shared the Gospel with those standing around and 36 more people accepted Christ. That afternoon we held our first Crusade (began with 1 + hours of singing and dancing by our faithful Praise Team in the BLAZING sun). There were so many curious children around that I tried a "congo line"/Follow the Leader to try to keep them away from Virginia who was trying to just breathe in the oppressive heat. That didn't work for long, so we finally had to retreat to the shade of the van. With doors open, we were still the center of attention, even to the point of curious children touching my white skin & potruding veins to see how this "mzungu" even felt different. At the Crusade that night, 5 people came forward at the invitation. The Pastors said there were many more “private” decisions as the people are "shy" to make that public profession of faith. The next night, Hugh was the preacher and the huge crowd was back again. Adults hang back because the music is LOUD and there was some shade under the shelters of the marketplace. When he gave the invitaton, the Ugandan Pastors said they had never seen such a phenomenon - the people came RUNNING to the platform to give their lives to Christ. So much for SHY!!! As we had just successfully planted a church, we made arrangements to rent a shop space for 6 months for $20 a month.

The first picture is a picture of the rented place/"church". Agnatius called from Uganda the next week to say that over 120 people had shown up for church and the place was too small! But that's all we have at the moment. When we returned in Nov. we went by Kameke to pick up people for baptism and I snapped a photo of the "meeting place". Ladies, guess who sits inside in the shade and who overflows to the outside? Yeah, you're right!