Friday, May 1, 2009

Money, Money, Money (sing with me!)

We were able to provide $2500 to Rapha from money you guys sent! They are building a kitchen (mostly. . .just getting it enough done to make it workable and will have to finish it later) and buy supplies to be able to feed all of the children in tha school!!! Note: They were originally going to buy beds, but it is more important to EAT then have your own bed! Oh yeah, we also gave them $100 to provide rice, beans AND MEAT for Tuesday for all the kids! And $100 for Nabakalu to provide the same for our visit later today.

We also worked with Arthur (head of Rapha) and this woman name Rose (she works for an American family here and we are giving her a ride to Soroti). Rose had found 25 double orphans and brought them to an orphanage near Jinja. . .she is later seeing that the orphanage is not taking very good care of the children. . in fact, she is going to Soroti to check on a little girt who is now hospitalized there b/c the orphanage didn't take care of a wound she had that is now septic. So, she has been thinking that she will have to take these orphans in herself. . .now, she is talking to Arthur and Rapha will possibly take some of these children in. If there is a possibility for some people from our church to come in September with Greg, they will have to build another building so that Rapha can take in more of the children!!!!
God is good all the time! Those of you who are on our waiting list, may have kiddos soon!

We also just finished purchasing 150 nets. 43 will go to Pastor John's Ministry that we visited yesterday as well as 8 mattresses. They had NO nets and 8 of their mattresses had been destroyed in a fire. We are also givine Rapha 7 nets for one that had gotten holes in them (we purchased them during our last trip in October). We also bought 100 nets to give away in Soroti as we see needs. We got a GREAT price of 4800 ugx which is only $2.25 per net!!!!!!!

We will probably buy many more as well, as the girls on the trip are thinking they no longer need gifts to bring home or even to eat lunch if we can spend more money on the kids! They are so overwhelmed that if the money we have for our ground fees is not spent we can either meet needs here or have it go back into the Uganda fund. That speaks volumes as to the integrity of HopeChest. I emailed the HopeChest team this morning just to thank them again for being the kind of people and organization that I can brag about and promote without hesitation. . .and for being the kind of people who will love the fact that I just wrote you a super long update b/c I know they (like all of you!) are each praying for us and wish you could be here. Know that your faithful work and giving in the US is what is making this possible. It is eternal, even when it feels mundane!

PS I don't think I'm going to be any better at spending money when I get home. . .knowing the gravity of my $2.25 here and how it can literally SAVE a child's life (remembering that every 30 seconds a child dies of malaria) is so sobering. How easily I throw around that kind of money. . .oh Jesus make me aware of the gifts you have given me. . help me to accept them with thankfulness and not hesitation as well as be a good steward of them. . I'm not so good at living in the tension between the 2.
I love you guys!
Brandi

4 comments:

Brandi said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
jena said...

Thanks for the morning cry. Seriously... not being snarky... thank you!

Keith and I are drawing straws to see who gets to go in the fall. I got an email out of the blue from our Exec Pastor wanting to schedule a mtg to talk about adoption and orphan care. I told him I could be there in 20!

Beautiful Mess said...

How exciting to see changes abound. In us all! Praying for you! Thank you Hope Chest! Thank you Brandi. Thank you Lord!

Love, Jen

Terri said...

Caught between 2 worlds. The tension is great. Thanks for the reminder! Oh, LORD, change me in the process. Open my eyes and continue to do your work in me. I continue to pray ... I love you Brandi ... I love your heart! Mom