treasures...

One of the best things about being here, for me, is just being with
the kids. Playing with them, cooking with them, walking with them,
sitting with them--doing whatever they do normally in a day...these
are some of my favorite moments. It is in these moments that they
become more like a friend than a student or a child. I love getting to
know each personality within the 64 children... seriously, it’s the
greatest privilege to get to hangout with these kids! Another one of
my favorite things is that me, Mace, and Auntie B (Mary's Ugandan
name) try to pray for one child each day. As we lift them up to the
Lord, praying for salvation and deep walk with Jesus, God often times
gives us a prophetic word for them. It is so exciting to hear the
words that HE says about his children...these incredible kids aren't
orphans to Him...they are constantly on his compassionate heart and
constantly in his loving thoughts. These kids are his jewels, his
treasures, to display his grace and glory. I am so honored and
thankful to get to be in their presence on Earth, because I know they
will be treated as such great royalty in Heaven.

Here are some of the things we have heard from the Lord about some of the kids:

David--Will be a warrior for the Lord, just like David in the Bible.
He also will have the traits of a gentle and quiet spirit, like that
of Jonathan, David's best friend.

Linda--She will be a woman of compassion, eager to listen to people
and help them through her servant's heart. She will change lives
because of this compassion.

Shalom--God sees her and knows her coming and going. She will grow
into a great leader in Uganda--whether that is in the government or at
RG.

Patrick--Though he will be a quiet man, he will be the father of many
children who will spread the name of Jesus.

Francis Maleka—He will be a man who stores not his treasures on Earth
but in heaven. Also, God revealed that Francis has a spirit of John
the Baptist—he is a strong leader who is called to live independently
but powerfully.

Jonathan--He will walk deeply with the Lord. Though he may not be a
good speaker who leads people with his words, he will be a leader
through his deep walk with the Lord.

Francis Ogwang--He will be a man who speaks out truth even when no one
else believes what he is saying. (There is a picture of him speaking
to a great crowd about the Gospel, and though the crowd isn't
listening, Francis' faith is growing, and he is strong.)

It is so exciting to be in the presence of these kids who are future
leaders and world changers for the Kingdom of God. We serve a Great
Redeemer...

Keep praying for them with us!

whit

Rat Attacks and a Russian Missionary

SOOOOO I am alive… Just in case you were worried. I am horrible with communication, BUT I am going to try to be better. Thank you so much for your prayers, encouragement, emails, and support!!!! They are so needed and so appreciated. Thank you so much.

So I have a couple stories for you… First we will start with a few T.I.A. (This is Africa) stories:

As many of you know, we are currently living in a mud hut. With this mud hut comes many new T.I.A. experiences one of them being RATS. The night before we moved to the mud hut was our first rat encounter. We were calmly sleeping when around 4:45am I awoke to a rustling sound coming from Whitney’s bag. I shined my flashlight onto the suitcase only to see plastic bags moving. Then all of the sudden I saw it, our first rat encounter, stuck in the top mesh part of the suitcase. I quickly woke Whit and Mb up so they could see the commotion. We zipped the rat into the mesh only to see it quickly chew through the mesh, jump out of the suitcase, and run somewhere in the room. This was only the first rat encounter.

Thankfully for the first month in our hut, we encountered no rats, however, this is now history. A night ritual consist of:

1. Praying against rats, snakes, lizards, and cape buffalo

2. Tucking in mosquito nets to prevent easy access for rats

3. Falling asleep

4. Whitney or I waking up around 4:00 am to the sound of rustling somewhere in the hut

5. Trying to fall back asleep

6. Shining the flashlight all around the hut in search for the rat

7. Repetition of this process about 3-4 times throughout the night

Needless to say, rats are now an issue (last night Whitney awoke to a rat watching her sleep on her bedside shelf).

Although there have been many other T.I.A. stories, life is becoming less and less T.I.A and more like everyday life. This is one of the biggest answered prayers and praises for me. Today MB and I went to Karuma and had a WONDERFUL thing happen. We were able to talk to Beatress about the Lord and realized that she is a follower and believer of Jesus Christ. There was a miscommunication about her being a Muslim. She told us that she had been walking with Jesus since 1989 when she converted from the Muslim faith. This brought so much joy and comfort to us. Beatress is genuinely one of the most hospitable and joyful women that I have ever met. She is filled with so much joy, and even today as we were able to encourage her she told us that her joy is a gift of the Lord. She assured us that she was a sister in Christ and that she is filled with so much love because of Him. PRAISE THE LORD. Thank you so much for your prayers for her. Continue to pray that she would be a light to those in Karuma. She has many Muslim friends that she showers with the love of Christ everyday through her hospitality… We were not able to go see Francis today, but he is still very sick. Please continue to pray with us for his healing. He is such an incredible man of faith, and his family (especially his wife) is absolutely precious.

Another story from the past week… this will make your heart smile. Every Friday MB, Whit, and I lead morning devotionals for the kids before school. Our devotions on Fridays are focused on praying for the nations. Last week we prayed for Japan, and this week we prayed for Russia. We sang “He’s Got the Whole World In His Hands” and a song called “For God so Loved the World” then we showed the children a map and a few pictures of Russia. We talked about the religion in Russia and how there are many people who do not know Jesus there. About 4 or 5 kids prayed for the Lord to move in mighty ways in that country. Afterwards one of the boys named Morris came running up to me. Morris grabbed my hand and said “Auntie (this is what they call us), do only three people know Jesus in Russia?” I told him that very few people knew Jesus in Russia, and his response was, “Auntie, that is so sad. They need to know about Jesus.” I proceeded to tell Morris that maybe God was calling him to go tell them, and Morris looked at me with a HUGE smile and said, “Okay, I will go tell them.” I literally had to hold back tears of joy. God is raising up a new generation of leaders in Uganda. I truly believe He is going to call them to go all over the world to spread His fame and name throughout every nation. Continue to pray that the Lord would move in the hearts of these children. Pray that He would draw them near and raise them up to be men and women of His word.

A second heart-melting-wonderful story happened a couple of weeks ago in my class. We have been learning to read words from the “at,” “et,” “ot,” and “it” word families. We have been learning words like “cat, sat, fit, sit, hot, jet, pot, and rat.” One of the assignments that we did during class was to choose one word from one of these families and make up a mini-story of about 4 sentences and a drawing using the word. Most of the kids decided to write about a cat or a pet, but one child, David, wrote his story about a jet. This was what David’s story said:

“I have a jet.

I fly up in my jet.

I met God in my jet.

God sit with me in my jet.”

(On the front David drew a picture of the jet with him in the drivers seat, but on the back he drew a picture of the jet with him and God sitting together in the front.)

I almost lost it in class. My eyes filled with tears as I thought about how good is our God. How incredible are His purposes and plans for His children. How amazing is His divine plan to bring each of the orphans to a place of hope and restoration. He is pursing their hearts just as He has pursued mine. He has incredible plans for each one of these kids. I am so honored and blessed to even see a glimpse of His work.

Love you all VERY much,

Macy D. Phenix

We are alive...if you were concerned

Hi everyone! Sorry it has been so long since we last posted. We have
been increasingly busy here, which is actually an answer to prayer.
So, Praise the Lord!

About 2 weeks ago, we moved into a new home at RG—a mud hut. It has
been a really good experience so far… and thankfully we have been
protected from any rats that we were told would nibble on our fingers
at night. (Almost every Ugandan we talked to said something about rats
inevitably exploring our hut and eating our fingers. Needless to say,
we were pretty nervous about our new home…) Our hut has three beds in
it, three shelves, and a bamboo mat in the middle. It has been a
really fun place to hangout in the evenings—doing one of our three
activities we can do post 7 pm (read, watch a movie, or watch your
comp load the Google homepage for 20 minutes). But truly…we are
thankful for it. The Holy Spirit is working in our new home, and we
are really grateful for the bonding and community the mud hut provides
us.

Can I just tell you that everything in Africa is exactly how you
picture it to be? If anyone is wondering what a “mud hut” actually
looks like, it is probably exactly how you initially picture it. Look
it up on Google images…I’m sure you will find the most typical looking
African mud hut, and that is what we are living in. Mud for walls,
concrete for floor, and grass for the roof…and somehow, no
leakage…even in the most intense rainstorms. How have Africans not
figured out the convenience of a flashlight but have found the
cheapest, most efficient, coolest type of roofing for a home? I don’t
understand this continent.

On a more serious note…today, we walked to Karuma—the little town that
is about 3 miles from RG. Mzungus—or foreigners—stick out a lot in
this town, and everyone likes to come greet you (or stare at you) as
you are walking. It is really fun to be with the people that live and
work and play in the middle of Uganda. We have made a lot of friends
in the town, so it was especially fun today to hangout with different
people there. We had the privilege of going to the home of a lady who
works at RG and praying for her sick husband. Her husband, Francis,
has a liver disorder—something that would be easily corrected in the
US, but there aren’t resources here to help him. We walked into the
tiny hut, and Francis was laying on a thin mattress right beside the
door. He woke up and welcomed us, moving slowly to the end of his mat.
When he sat up I was amazed. He was much smaller than any of the three
of us; he was basically skin and bones. He also had a really big
belly, resembling that of an intensely malnourished child or the belly
of a 7 month pregnant woman. We exchanged a few words with him, but he
spoke very weakly. He knew we had come to pray (Mary Beth and Macy had
prayed with him last week as well), so he thanked us, and we began. We
prayed for God’s healing over his body, for him to know the love of
Christ more, and for him to be a light to people in his village
because of what God does in his life. After praying, Francis felt no
immediate relief, but he thanked us immensely for our prayers. He said
that he hoped God would agree with us for his healing, because he was
in very much pain. He told us that he maybe sleeps two hours a night,
and that he can eat very little because there is no room in his
stomach for food. His wife, Ameda, arrived home before we left, and
she also thanked us for coming to pray. Francis and Ameda are
believers, and they have faith that God can heal if he chooses. It
absolutely broke my heart to see this grown man sitting in front of me
who was the size of a tiny child. Francis was not only weak in his
physical appearance, but I sensed so much that he was weak in his
spirit, his hope, and his faith. He has been suffering for a long
time, and though he has a small bit of hope for healing, he is slowly
losing even this. Will you please pray with us for a miraculous
healing for Francis? Will you please pray for the renewing of his
faith and hope? And will you pray that he will put his treasure in his
heavenly homeland during this period of intense earthly suffering?

People in Uganda need hope. They need restoration. They need the God
of Life to blow over them like a cool, refreshing wind. Pray with us
that our GOOD Father will grant this country JOY again. A joyful,
grateful people are eager to receive the hope of our Savior and
beautiful God. Let’s join the cries of the weak, of the sick, of the
oppressed, of the lonely, of the poor, of the orphans, of the broken.
Our God is coming to save….let’s just pray He comes in power all over
Uganda very, very soon.

Much love to each of you!

here are some pics....sorry for the blog's defficiency
by the way....in this link are pics of the 7+ ft long cobra found and killed at RG....enjoy!
Whit