Praise the Lord!!!

The day finally arrived! Today, we closed on property for the Village of Eden - 130 acres in the village of Mawayo, Uganda. As always, it was God's perfect time. It took 2 days to work out the details, I was nervous and spent a couple of sleepless nights, but God worked out everything and we made the transfer of the funds today. (The family is very happy!) WOW! What do I do now? All I've done the past several weeks is work on getting the title and getting to this point, now I'm thinking, what next? God is so good, He has taught me so much these past few weeks, and I know I have a zillion more things to learn. But that's how I know He loves me, He just keeps on showing me new and great things every day - Village of Eden, here we come..
by Dr. Brenda

Are you ready for some GREAT news? Then meet Beatrice...

I first met Beatrice several years ago, when we attended church services in
Busia, Uganda during one of our frequent mission trips – she is a devout
Christian, sings in the choir, never misses fellowship, and is faithful in her
service to the Lord. We gave her a job as a cook at our Helping Hands
school, and she worked for about $10 monthly, preparing meals for our
students. Her husband had divorced her many years ago because she is
barren. After a horrible surgery, she was unable to have children and in
Uganda, a woman is valued by the number of children she bears. Thus
Beatrice, who was illiterate, had little opportunity to ever marry again or
to advance in any way in her life.

Last year, we needed someone to come and live with us at the mission house, helping to care for Arafat, the young boy who was critically ill after being run over by a motorcycle. Beatrice was the first person we thought of. She was already caring for her niece and nephew, whose mother was unable to take care of them. So Beatrice moved in with us last year and what a blessing! She is a compassionate and dedicated caregiver, always smiling, and singing praises to the Lord.

Now…here is the news that I hope will make you smile (as it did me)! Helping Hands offers free literacy classes and Beatrice has been attending faithfully and is slowly learning to read and write. She is going to be our very first Housemother at the Village of Eden and I have already begun her training. She is so excited!! Here is the best part…I was talking to her last night as she was practicing her writing skills. She shared with me her dream… Every Sunday in church, the pastor calls on someone to read a passage from the Bible, and Beatrice is dreaming that one day, she will be the one who can stand up and read the passage.

I think of her simple dream, and want to say “THANK YOU” for helping to make her dream a reality. For you and I, that may seem like such a small thing, but it is what Beatrice is working toward. Can you imagine the day that is soon coming when she stands and begins to read? What joyous singing by the angels in heaven. She wants to read her Bible and through your support and your partnership, this will happen.

Thank you for supporting us – the work here in Africa, the literacy classes, the 1600 school children who are receiving an education, training the pastors, and building the Village of Eden. Thank you for your part in all that is going on through Helping Hands.

– let your heart soak in the joy of all that God is allowing us to be a part of!

With love and gratitude to you, and all glory and praise to God! from Dr. Brenda in Uganda

Amazed, Humbled, and So Richly Blessed

I made the decision to come to Uganda almost 1 year ago. I never expected to see and experience what I have seen, smelled and felt. The Holy Spirit is engulfing my mind and heart each and every day. I am not sure that I can adequately express what all has happened; but I would like to tell you about some of the changes that God is laying on my heart. When we first arrived at the mission compound, we were greeted by Joy, it was a blessing to not only see her, but to be with her here in Uganda. It has been a long journey getting here, not counting the seemingly endless plane ride. We got situated in our rooms and then we met for the first time as a full team; we met up with our 4 new German friends in Amsterdam. We were blessed with little notebooks with our names on them with a special, individualized note inside from Joy. What an amazing woman of God, she inspires me to step out on faith, because once you do that the rest is entirely up to God.

The blessing that I have received from coming here have been innumerable. I know that when I return home on Saturday afternoon that I will not be the same person that I was the day I left to come here. I have been amazed by how the Holy Spirit has filled each of the team members, in very special and very individualistic way. This filling is coming on a daily basis and sometimes an hourly or minute by minute basis. We have played games with some of the most precious children that I have ever seen. The joy that they have comes out of them in every thing that they do. The times that we have gone from hut to hut have been some of the most special times for us. We have been able to immediately reach out and engage them in conversation and they hang on every word we say. The kindness that I have seen has been such a blessing, and at times a struggle.

I woke up Sunday with the phrase "This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it." I thoroughly believe that this has become my theme for this trip; it has been said everyday by someone, somehow. I have seen worship in a whole new light, and I have experienced prayer in a way that I have never felt before. I have been deeply convicted about many things and in many aspects as to how I live my life. My most consistent prayer is that I must rely on the Holy Spirit to help me take home the changes He is making in my life. I want to make these changes not for myself, but for the glory of God in my actions, thoughts, and attitude. I have learned to look at people differently and be more focused on their eternal well-being than their physical, which is astonishing, considering the living environment here. In the preparations for this trip, I was able to see God provide in amazing ways. Having stepped out on faith, God has showed me that all that was just the beginning. He has provided in so many ways. My first thought is to be amazed at how He has provided in the most basic sense. But the fact is that He has provided in ways that only He can provide, He has left no room for anyone to deny that He has fulfilled His promise to be faithful to us. I regret that I have not lived my life with this kind of understanding.

I want to thank everyone who had a part in helping me make this incredible, life changing journey. You may never know all the things that have happened here, but one day in heaven, you will receive your reward for your obedience. Thank you very much and may God pour out his blessings on your life as He has on mine.

In Christ,

Michael Jones

By the way, all of the Blackshear Place team members wanted me to let everyone know that we will all be in the 8:08 service on Sunday, so that means you have no excuse not to join us! :)

Mungu Wu Baraka

Hello friends a family! We have been working hard here in Uganda and the fruit of our labor has been amazing. The Holy Spirit is moving through us and people are coming to Christ. Jesus says that "the harvest is plentiful and the workers are few" so true. The hearts of people are tender to the Spirit and there is only so much that we can do. God has anointed this team and we have been blazing through the villages like a burning torch sharing the Gospel. Revival is happening here in Uganda and it's awesome to be a part of what God is doing.

Today over ten people prayed to receive Christ as we were doing hut to hut evangelism. God is so good! All the time! Why? because it's His nature! This is something that the Uganda believers say all the time, but it's so true, He is good!

We had two church services today that were outstanding! Greg and Joel preached and it was awesome, GO GUYS! I wish all of you were here to experience worshipping with the Uganda people. Oh, do we have a lot to learn from them. Their worship is so beautiful! There is dancing, clapping, singing, jumping and much more. I can't wait to come home and show you all my new dance moves, lol. Their love for Jesus and their passion to make Him known are convicting and powerful. They encourage us greatly in their relentless pursuit of God and love for Him.

Mungu Wu Baraka (God of Blessings). This is a song that is sung here and talks about the blessings of God. We are truly blessed to have Gods approval here and it is so evident in the work that is going on. Many blessings to you and I leave you with this challenge. Go! Be the blazing torch of Jesus in your neighborhood, your work place, your school, and your home, because the harvest is ready, but the workers are few.

Hello everyone! We have had a fantastic couple of days. Yesterday (Saturday) the team was up and ready to go out to the bush first thing in the morning. Chris, Nathan, Connie, Leoni, Stacy, and Jonas went out hut to hut speaking to people close to the church. It went great - several people prayed to receive Christ and lots of seeds were planted. Everyone else stayed at the church and had activities for the kids. They had a blast with the games, songs, and the lesson about Adam and Eve. At two we had a great church service with Pastor Patrick and his church.

This morning we had church at the school in Busia. Everyone helped out with a Sunday School class. It is such a blessing to teach these kids. They are so eager to learn and they love Jesus. We also had baptism in the river after the service. It was incredible - and hot!

This afternoon we had a great soccer match - Americans and Germans against Africans. We had a lot of fun and were able to share Jesus with the crowd that was there to watch.

We are all having a great time - we are learning and growing and looking forward to more good days this week. The weather has been good and the power is on! Thanks for all your continuing prayers.

After two days of flying and a day of driving the first October mission team has arrived safely at the Helping Hands mission house. Everyone made their connections and all of the luggage and ministry supplies arrived. The team has settled in and is ready for their first day of ministry.

Guiding Hand of God

God continues to build and grow and shape our Helping Hands team. During the past month, we've had some changes - one of which involves Mike and Sarah McCord. They joined Helping Hands one year ago, and have been wonderful Godly additions to our team. Now God has called them to continue their ministry through Helping Hands in Uganda. We have been praying for staff in Uganda - we need people on the ground full-time to help with our medical ministry, the schools we support, mission teams, teaching, and so much more.

God has given Mike and Sarah many skills and they are using them for His Glory. They will spend 6 weeks in Uganda in September/October of this year, and plan to be in Uganda full-time beginning in January 2012. Please pray for God to continue guiding all of their steps and ours as we continue preparing for what God is doing in their lives and in the life of Helping Hands.