Living Freely

**I tried to post this with pictures. . .but alas TIA (this is Africa) and no pics will upload!

Does anyone remember Bethesda Int'ls from our KidsLake project in April? We got to visit there on Friday!!!! What a wonderful opportunity for the entire team, but for us especially!

Rapha School and Village is a ministry of Bethesda Int'l run by Arthur Muga. Rapha Village is about 30 minutes from Jinja town into the Bush. This place is AMAZING! Wait until I can post all of the video we took. . You will be amazed! Not only is there a large foster care program, with 60 children living in Rapha Village and 20 more in town, but there is a school, pig farming, agriculture (including pineapples, sweet potatoes, maize / corn and casava) and they are even starting a project to “harvest” water that falls during the rainy season so that they can water their crops during the dry season. It is well run and simply amazing. Sustainable development like what Rapha is doing is THE way to go and is far ahead of most organizations.

It was indescribable to see the school children. Kids, YOU GUYS made it possible for these children to go to school and have new uniforms. (Our April KidsLake project was to provide uniforms and tuition to 120 children at Rapha). The kids say Thank you, Thank You, Thank You! What a treat to see them learning and growing because of YOUR generosity and obedience!!!!!

Next, we headed to the well in progress. Do you remember this? In April, we raised money right here to put a well in this village. Their nearest water source is 4 miles away. . THROUGH the Bush! It is a dangerous journey, especially for small children. Now, because of YOU GUYS who gave, they will have clean water soon! We saw the well being built! They have dug the well deep enough for water and are now bricking the inside to prepare it for use. They will have CLEAN WATER in 3-4 weeks! This village and these children were beyond grateful and excited to have clean water soon. Thank you, Guys! It brought tears to my eyes to see the children in person. To see with my own eyes the need and know that people from halfway across the world had reached out to help and meet that need. Please know that those of you who gave literally SAVED some of these children's lives!

We were then able to check out the foster homes. There were 2 that we checked out. 1 was a 2 room cement building that housed 40 children!! Basically, cement and bunk beds. We then headed into the adobe style hut with 2 small rooms sleeping 10-12 children, with 2 per bed of course. We noticed immediately that there were NO mosquito nets over any of the beds. This is a huge need as children DIE every day from Malaria that can be prevented for $7-10 per net. Thankfully, our friend Chirstine from CA stepped up to the plate. She quietly, without any of us knowing about it, grabbed Daniel (from HopeChest) and headed to a local store to pick up 25 nets. All of the children now have nets to sleep under!!!

Not only was this a wonderful day to see God's Work in action through Arthur and Rapha Village, but it was such a phenomenal experience to see God's people in action LOVING on the precious Ugandan people. Thank you again to everyone who gave in April and thank you to Christine who saw an immediate need and met it! Sigh. . What a joy!