I guess all the prayers that are coming my way are definitely making a difference because today was a great day. Thank you! This morning I met with Henry and we discussed things that were going on in the house, and what the day was going to look like. Then we had a quick meeting with Tevin to talk about chickens!
For those of you who don’t know, we have a friend in the States named Frank who has become involved with The Sanctuary over the last year. He loved our project so much that he decided the raise enough money so that we could start a hatchery. This way the boys would not only gain skills and knowledge in how to raise chickens, etc, but also The Sanctuary would have some sort of income to help cover the cost of some things. We are very excited to be able to do this, but where the boys are currently living is not an ideal location to start a project like this. Therefore we were trying to figure out what our best options were. It seems that it always comes back to needing a bigger place, not only for the chicken project, but also for the amount of boys living in such a small space. We are also at our max capacity, every bed is full. In fact Henry spent the night last week, and ended up moving the cushions from the couch onto the table and slept there. Lol.
About this time Tevin told us that he had been informed about a house that was for sale just outside of Jinja, and it is under half the price of what a house and land would normally cost. This seemed too good to be true so Henry and Tevin decided that they would go check out the situation in the afternoon.
While they were taking care of that, I went to the boys and started them on their first test – English. And oh boy are we going to have some work to do (Something to look forward to dad!). We started them both with Primary 2, which we thought would be well below them, and it turns out that we were alittle to eager. Some of the questions they were able to do, but when it came to the spelling of words, or figuring out which letter was missing, or even writing a sentence containing a word, natta. Alex helped me by translating in Luganda, and this helped out a lot, but there are still certain things the boys have no idea of. I also realized that they don’t know colours, shapes, or even what certain letters in the alphabet are. Hassan knows how to read words that he’s already been taught, ie. Cat, cow, dog, etc. But it is all memorized; he doesn’t know how to sound out how to say it. Either way, this is an area we will really be focusing on over the next couple of weeks.
We stopped for a delicious meal of posho, cabbage, g-nuts and avocado (yum! Seriously) which is apparently Alex’s special! and then went to town to do some shopping for me :) As well as to get cake mix for our next birthday coming up on Thursday!
The rest of the afternoon was spent playing UNO, working on the math test (which they seem to have a better handle on) and oh, I GOT MY FIRST (to this trip) TASTE OF JACKFRUIT! Woohoo! Soooo good! I can’t explain it very well..I’ll try to get a picture of it to show you, but it kinda looks like a yellow pepper on the inside, but more rubbery, but the taste is very sweet! Our neighbour bought one and shared it with all of the neighbours! I also got the chance to shell beans! (some things don’t change between growing up in the country in Canada, and living here in Jinja!)
That night Henry arrived with good news about the house, it really IS only 70 million shillings (roughly $31,000 Canadian) for a 3 bedroom house, living room, dining room, 2 full bathrooms, garage, kitchen, 2 boys quarters (which means another 4-6 rooms) and a big enough front yard to play a small game of football! PLUS it is outside of town, which is the ideal situation when working with kids who you are trying to take away from the streets. Anyways, is not something that we have prepared for, although it was definitely something that we were considering for the near future. Now, we pray. The problem is that it JUST went up for sale, and not a lot of people know about it yet, and because it is such a good deal, the chances that it remains available for a long period of time are not very likely. So please please pray that we will know what the best thing is to do in this situation. Is this something that God has provided for us? How are we going to raise enough money in a short amount of time? While we are still in the process of deciding whether or not this option makes sense for The Sanctuary, if we do decide to move forward, and you are interested in helping us to make this dream become a reality, please contact me at melmaer@gmail.com .
Sometimes it seems so difficult to know what God’s will is. I know that it is NOT His will for these boys to have to go without a home, without food or without knowing that they are loved not only be us, but by Him. This is what we are trying to provide for these boys. A safe place, a place that is home, a place where they are free to be themselves, and to know that regardless of who they are or where they come from, they are loved!
I met a boy on the streets today named Robert (he is one of David’s friends who still lives on the streets). Henry informed me that he had recently been taken by the police and put in prison because he was sleeping on the streets, but while he was outside working for them cleaning up the streets, he escaped. Now he has nowhere to go, and the police are looking for him. This breaks my heart, and I am not sure what to do. Of course I want to take him into our home and help him to work towards a promising future, but we are out of room (mind you if things remain how they are, I will do my best to work with Henry to find another organization who can take him in) but it’s frustrating to be at the end of the number of boys we can help.
So, please pray for us.
- For the house situation
- for Jacob
- for the boys who are already live at The Sanctuary
- for our new friends David and Hassan
Praise:
- That God continues to move us forward
- For all of you who continue to support me with emails and messages of encouragement and prayers. Without you none of this would be possible
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