Practicing the Presence of God here in Uganda!

Since our first weekend here in Uganda we met Beatrice in the neerby town of Karuma (where we walk 7miles to get our food for every week)...Jesus basically shined a light on her, not in a literal way for clarification, but in that she is one of the few people in the town that can fluently speak English.  Getting to know Beatrice over the past 3 months led us to meeting and becoming friends with her sister, Agnus, who lives in the same town. Agnus has led us to several people who needed prayer for healing so we have gotten to do that with her over the course of our time! She had invited us to go "pray with her" at her church for several weeks but always deferred the offer until this last week. We walked the distance early Sunday morning and entered the village consumed by the booming sound of African voices in passionate, powerful prayer! It was awesome! Almost scary because it was so driven....anyways it turned out to be our friend Agnus, who basically is one of the heads of her church. She led us in prayer for Uganda, for the redemption of Karuma, for the eradication of witchcraft in Karuma and for the healing of the parts of the body that are sick. From there we went into worship, which Agnus also led, and it was then that the girl infront of me and Macy and another girl a few seats to the right of us started convulsing. From my OneThing and WorldMandate experiences I obviously assumed these people were jerking in the Spirit (which was so tangibly there) and maybe just being filled. Then the convulsions started, the girls fell back onto the floor and started kicking and screaming at the top of their lungs. This obviously wasn't normal for my Baptist, Waco, Tx background and Macy's Southern Baptist, Henderson, Tx background... so we started stepping back from the event to keep from being hurt by they girls flailing limbs. The Ugandans weren't the slightest disturbed...they were keeping with the rhythm of the drums as they danced and sang the songs while they stacked up chairs and tied the girls legs together to keep from injuring themselves! Again...it was ridiculous! Macy and I were literally staring in awe of what was taking place before us...but no one else seemed to be bothered. The church began casting out the demons that were manifesting in these girls, still keeping rhythm mind you, and the girls were carried outside to finish the process while we continued worship. Things became humorous to us by this point! Minutes later they came back inside, dusting themselves off and sat right back down as if nothing had happened. By the end of the service the pastor called out those who have been fighting demons to come to the front and get delivered. This process was as common to the Africans as the alter call for Americans! Obviously as they, it was three girls getting prayed for at his pointnow, were getting prayed over for deliverance they began to manifest the demon. Again the convulsions, the tieing of the legs was happening (if you have ever seen a rodeo where they rope the calfs...its basically the same process) and by the end these girls were delivered! They stood up at the front and gave their testimonies...all three of them didnt know of Jesus, didnt know how they even got to the church... even one of them said that she contracted the demon a few months ago while she was getting water at the well, because the demon had been living in the water. Praise Jesus, by the end of the service they all gave their lives to Jesus!! And it doesn't even stop there... as we left the church to get our weekly Coke at a gas station/ bar/ restaurant a friend, named Herbert, we have made who works at the shop came and sat down with us to tell us that he has noticed something different in us. He has been between Islam and Catholicism his whole life and has never been able to stick with either one so he had given up until the week before when we invited him to our church at Restoration Gateway and he had come. It was his first time to a protestant church and he proceeded to ask us about who Jesus was and what made us different and how he can see God as a Comforter but didnt know where his place was in Christianity because he was never very good at following those other paths of faith. We got to share the heart of God with him and that what he sees in us is the joy of Christ and how he desires so much to have relationship with each one of us....and basically the Gospel...it was glorious! We are meeting with him this upcoming week to answer questions he has and talk with him more about who Jesus is and what he came to do! So please please pray for our time coming up with him! 

Great Great Great things are happening here! We have seen healings, demons casted out and lives transformed....and its only been three months! God is moving here in a powerful way....the beautiful thing about Africa is that the Holy Spirit is so much more understandable and received than it is in the States....so spiritual warfare is all over this place! Its a battle field and its a glorious day getting to be in the midst of it when you know that you are on the winning side! Literally! Its unreal!  Would we be a people who walk in the Spirit who truly live out Love and who speak Life over ourselves instead of rationalizing evil in this world! Let us walk out harmoniously in the love of God!  Be encouraged by the work that is going on here! Please pray for us and for the people of Karuma! 

Lubanga Ber (God is Good)

mb

TERMITES for LUNCH

So I just wanted to let everyone know that MB, Whit, and I ate termites (a.k.a white ants) for lunch today. I don't really know what else to say besides T.I.A. (this is Africa). We were invited to lunch by one of the children, so of course we said YES!!! Little did we know that we were having a Ugandan feast which consisted of mashed cassava (pretty much mashed potatoes, which was WONDERFUL), white ant balls (a mashed up glob of termites that had been boiled), and beef (which tasted really good if I could think past the REALLY disturbing image of the raw meat from the market. The image: raw meat sitting on a piece of muddy wood with about 1,000 flies swarming around it. Not to mention the uneatable, bloody, cow head resting beside the meat.) The termites actually tasted a little bit like bacon, so you can think about that next time you go to IHOP. Lunch ended up being wonderful though. We were able to talk with the house mom, Josephine, for a couple hours. It was such a time of laughter, joy, and friendship.... I am beginning to feel more and more connected with these incredible men, women, and children as each day passes. What a blessing and answered prayer.

I wanted to update you on a HUGE praise from last week. Mary Beth and I walked to Karuma last Saturday for our weekly trip. We ran into a boy, named Dennis, on the road who had a HUGE swollen eye. It was swollen shut. He told us that he had been whipped, and that is why his eye was hurt. We prayed over him and went our separate ways. The next day, which was last Sunday, Dennis randomly showed up at Restoration Gateway with a completely healed eye, less than 24 hours after our prayer. Praise the Lord for He is a healing God. He is working in this place. He hears a prayer in faith and is quick to answer it. Thanks for your encouragement, love, and prayer. We are so thankful!!!!

-Macy-

We LOVE our MOM's

Devo-

SOOOO it is Mother’s day and I am halfway across the world from my mom. I just wanted to say a few nice things about my mother, who I love VERY MUCH!!! My mom is an absolutely INCREDIBLE servant. Many of you have probably never met her, but if you have, you know that this is definitely one of her gifts. She loves to give. She constantly gives of her time, money, encouragement, cooking skills (she is a REALLY AWESOME cook), and anything else you would ever want or need. She is an incredible comforter. She is the type of mother who always knows the right things to say and the right time to say it. I know I can approach her with any issue, problem, struggle, sadness, or who knows what, and she will wrap her loving arms around me and comfort me with the perfect words. She has been an incredible comforter these past couple of months. I have been walking through just about every kind of emotion (loneliness, sadness, homesickness, feeling worthless, useless, purposeless, and a million other things) but she has been so faithful to call and encourage. She has been so faithful to pray, send emails, letters, goodies, and send constant love my way. My mom is a woman of humility. She serves, never to be seen or praised. She serves with a heart of humility. She serves the Lord, not man. I literally could probably write a novel about how incredible blessed I am to have a mom like I have. I hope and pray that I will grow to become a woman like her. Happy mother’s day!!!! I love you and miss you very much mom!!!

-Macy-

Luana-

My mom... only one word is really applicable: ridic! (that's "ridiculous" for those who aren't with me on the abbreviations). When I say that my mom is "ridic," that constitutes a myriad of things of which I would love to share with you. I love my mom's giddiness! She is the absolute best at receiving phone calls and hearing my stories that everyone else would consider silly but mom always gets equally excited with me! She will let me tell tidbits over and over again just because I get so excited talking about them and she gets just as excited hearing about them! Its the greatest thing! Mom is such an incredibly humble servant. I am continually charged by her actions that are minial to her everyday life but to me stick out to be the greatest acts of service. I pray that I would inherit this gifting because it blows me away how she loves people so well, without any resentment, judgement, condemnation.....she sees people the way that I believe Jesus sees us. And that is a gift unlike any other! I love love love that me and mom share so many hobbies and interests! I love that we can sit on the floor in the quilt room covered in fabric and just be ecstatic with the endless possibilities that surround us! I love your passion to create and to use what you create to bless us! Mom, there are literally thousands of things I could say that make me love you so much, but in the end just know that I LOVE YOU and that I could never want, expect, or even imagine a greater mother than you! Happy Mothers day!!
Your daughter, 445


MeMop, 
HII!! I wish I could be there to give you a hug, to go on a run with you, then go to starbucks with you with a piece of dark chocolate in our hands. I LOVE doing errands with you, Mom. I love Cheap Thrill's and garage sale runs. I have a lot of fun with you! My favorite thing about my mom is that (well, now that I think about it there are a lot of favorite things) she is so understanding. I can tell her anything and she will understand how I am feeling. My mom is super compassionate and is so good with people. Mom, thanks for being excited everytime I call or see you! I can always say you are my biggest fan, because I really believe this is true!! You are so encouraging. I really appreciate that. I have learned so much from you, Mom. Your love for people, your compassion, your understanding heart, and your encouragement are all things that I hope I can have one day. You never meet a stranger, and you are gracious to everyone...this is such a wonderful quality. And for sure one of my fav things is that we both can't get enough parmesean or popcorn. I LOVE you, Mom. You are so special to me!!! 
Whitney

I hate rats

SOOOOOO you never really know what each day will hold here at Restoration Gateway. Last week was for sure an unexpected surprise. The children are out of school for three weeks. They are on “holiday” and will begin school again on May 23^rd. Since the children are on a break, many of the moms are getting time off too… So for the past week, Whitney, MB, and I have been substitute moms for one of the houses. Little did we know what kind of adventure was to come…

Our first night, Whitney and I were the moms for house two. Mamma Florence left to visit some of her family and we were in charge of the children for the night shift. We arrived at the house around 7:30 pm to all of the kids (eight to be exact… there are four girls and four boys in each house) eating dinner. Our night began with two rats being caught in a mousetrap all before the clock even turned 8:30. When the trap would snap the kids would run over to it, show everyone the dead rat, open the trap, twirl the dead rat around by the tail, and quickly reset the trap. Needless to say, this was only the beginning of our night. We put the kids to bed around 9:00… When I say “put them to bed,” that means that we told all of them to get into bed… they all ran into their rooms, stripped down naked, and climbed into their beds. The cutest thing and probably the best part of the night, was the kids each said their prayers out loud before falling asleep. What a wonderful sound!!!

Well Whit and I finished setting up our bed in Mamma Florence’s room. We climbed into bed, tucked in our mosquito nets, and tried to fall asleep to the sound of what seemed like a stampede of rats running above us. Before falling asleep, a rat ran out from under Whitney’s bed. So we opened the door to let out the rat, however, another one ran in… this went on for several hours. Around 3:00am Whitney and I awoke to the sound of a rat climbing through the window…we shined our flashlight onto the window just in time to see the rat jump from the window onto Whit’s mosquito net. About thirty minutes later, a rat climbed up Whit’s bed and was simply resting only inches from her head. Needless to say, sleep was not really experienced for either of us during the night. We ended up switching to a house 5 for the rest of the week. We couldn’t handle the rats!!!

We are staying in house 3 next week. You can shout out a little prayer that the rats would not be a problem… it would be greatly appreciated!!!! Just wanted to update everyone on our rat attacks!!! T.I.A.

-macy-

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