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