Big Update

Greetings from Obule everyone!  It's been a long time since I wrote or updated, sorry.  I think life has gone back to a normal, routine and we've settled in.  On the other hand, there is a lot going on and a lot coming up.  Let me give you a recap.

My full-time job has been homeschooling the kids.  It is a mix of good being with them, knowing exactly where they are at and where their needs with education, and hard to keep up with the rest of life, feeding everyone, ministry, and a preschooler who is done in a flash.  Even with all that is on my plate, I can struggle with boredom and loneliness here.  Life here is very routine and we don't have all the extras, or places to go, or entertainment.  Just us in our home in the village.  Which is so great and not so great.  I do love the beaty of wet season, it's so green, our home is so open to the outdoors, and I love the sound of the birds, frogs and rain.  I do enjoy being in the "country".  But even in rainy season it can be so hot and the heat just plain affects me.

I was able to go to the graduation for Freedom in Christ in the prison a couple months ago.  It takes a lot of effort to go and be a part of ministry here.  Plus, it is an all-day event.  However, it is so good for me to see and hear and be reminded of what God is doing.  Knowing is just numbers and stories, but being present is people, meaningful, and real.  I was once again super proud of our FIC team here!  They serve faithfully, week after week, year after year, teaching God's Word without pay because they want to share with others the Truth that changed their lives.  They do the work, we support and encourage them.  I was in tears hearing the testimonies of the prisoners graduating from FIC.  Lives changed.  Only God can take a sinful, bitter, angry, offender and change them to a forgiven, joy filled, child of God, set free in Christ!  It's beautiful and it's all glory to God.  And to see a dozen men give their lives to Jesus for the first time that day was moving to me.  It isn't a little thing!  Lives were saved and I got to witness the Holy Spirit's work in them.  I do not take it for granted.  I am humbled by the church in the prison all led by prisoners.  They witness, lead people to Jesus and are organized.  They know they are called by God in the prison.  

I also went to the FIC team's day of prayer.  I am not involved in the weekly ministry, but I do pray for the team.  I love and appreciate the team and our partnership in the Gospel.  I am very thankful for them, humbled by them, and proud of them.  Whenever I come they ask me to share something and pray for them.  I became so emotional that day, I know not a total surprise from me.  I think I have been so discouraged, discontent and praying about our role and calling here, but to be with them at the crusade and then the day of prayer reminded me why we are here.  God has done and is doing so much!  He is using us even in the ordinary mom days.  It is such an honor to be a part of.  God is with us, our team.  We are God's.  The ministry is His.  And I am so thankful!

We had a day with a film crew from Resonate (our partner mission) to make a FIC Uganda video for us.  It was a joy to hear some of the FIC team talk about teaching, former prisoners now teachers give their testimony, and our Ugandan FIC director share.  It was a long day but I look forward to sharing the video with all of you.

Our friends and former teammates came for a visit!  It was nice to have a different kind of week with friends over.  And we were able to go on safari with them!  It was great!  We saw two lions up in trees for the first time.  Amazing!  I was so scared because we were in a safari truck for the first time and there are no sides on the truck.  So thankful we all survived after a lot of elephants, cape buffalo, two lions and one leopard!  God's creation is breathtaking!

As old friends came for a visit, a missionary friend here left.  I was thankful I could help her prepare to leave physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.  It is a lot to process leaving your home, ministry and people you love.  It was hard but I am glad I could be there for her.

Grace is here!  Grace arrived the first week in June and will be with us until July 14 when she goes to Ethiopia to serve with FIC there.  I feel so relieved to have Grace here to teach Emalai and Makai so I can focus on preparing for filming the marriage course.  It is so good to have most of our family together again, to have her companionship and help with decision for clothing and set for the marriage course.  We had a fun time as a family picking up Grace and enjoying Uganda together again.

The women's prison in Moroto asked Grace to be their honored guest/speaker for Women's Day in Uganda.  Grace was still in school in the States then, but yesterday we celebrated a delayed Women's Day with the women in Moroto prison.  It was basically a mini crusade for the ladies.  About ten of the FIC team came to lead the monthly FIC Discipleship and then join us for the crusade.  There was singing, choirs, and sharing.  Grace and I were chosen to share God's Word.  They were very happy to have Grace there (Grace loves the women at Moroto prison and went almost monthly when she lived here - a three hour drive each way!).  Grace did a good job speaking on Jer. 29:10-14.  I realized what a gift Josh has to teach, because I felt like I had so much I wanted to share with the ladies but found it hard to decide what to say and share especially with a translator.  I did greatly enjoy our interaction with the ladies though.  

We were able to pray for the women in small groups.  The women asked for prayer that they would be able to go back home, for their court date next week, and now as Christians that when they go home the spirit of alcoholism will be broken.  After praying for them, I asked why most women were in prison.  One lady said she has been there for a year because her child was not in school but begging on the streets, so she was put in prison.  It is common problem that the Karamojong people are so impoverished and hopeless that they go to the cities and beg on the streets.  Uganda doesn't want this, so they routinely send them back to Karamoja and apparently some to prison.  They said their children are sent to school and live at a ministry a lady started for these kids.  What a mess.  After the crusade the officer showed me where the ladies sleep.  There are two sides one for women without children and one for women in prison with children.  Currently there are 47 women and 16 children at the prison.  The children look to be 2 years old or younger and still need their mothers.  Each women gets a thin mattress and blanket and that is their space on the floor.  I was impressed how neat the ladies kept the place.  The officer also told me about mothers taken from begging in the cities to the prison.  She also said many are there for murder although no one knows if they did it or not.  I talked to one of the ladies with a newborn baby.  She said she had seven children.  She was 15 years old when she had her first child.  Her husband died and she said she was in for fighting.  The officer also told me an organization comes in and teaches the ladies how to make bead necklaces and soap.  Like I said, I enjoyed the times of interaction with the ladies, hearing their stores and holding their hands.  They are not a number; they are real people.

I praise God that seven ladies gave their lives to Jesus that day!  Pray that these women are discipled and grow in Christ.  It is beautiful to see God in the prison and His church welcomed there.  One of the testimonies of the ladies was that she was thankful God brought her to prison because she is now educated.  She had never been to school and never even seen a blackboard.  But now she even has a Bible to read.  Whenever I hear a testimony that they thank God for bringing them to prison, I know it is a true-life change.  Amazing.  Another lady said when she came to prison none of her family came to visit her, she did not want to go for prayers and she tried to kill herself twice (she has the scar on her neck to prove it).  Many people prayed for her and she has now come to Christ.  She knows that God saved her for a purpose and wants to use her. 

Lydia is in Bangkok this summer serving with the international church there in a variety of ministries including the red-light district there. She loves being in Asia and the people she is serving with.  In July she will meet up with Grace in Ethiopia to serve with FIC there.  They will be teaching children from the church and Muslim children English using a Bible curriculum.

 In the mist of all this, Josh and I have been working on the FIC marriage course.  (I am bolding all this because I think it is important, and I hope you read it.)  I cannot tell you what this all means and how much it has taken out of us.  We feel called to the marriage course, but it has been an intense time.  Josh has put four years into this project, and we are so close to the finish line (filming Aug. 10-16), but there has been constant setbacks, disruptions, frustrations, and difficulties.  We know that God is the Author and Designer of marriage and of this course, so the enemy is attacking at every level.  On one hand that excites us because it means the enemy is scared of God using this marriage course, but on the other hand it just makes everything hard.  Through weariness, stress and decisions Josh and I have sought the Lord and trusted Him.  This marriage course is Yours God, we are Yours.  

Just in the last couple months, the venue for the marriage course fell through and we had to find another one, Josh felt he needed to rewrite much of his already edited script, and our third presenters were denied a visa to the States to film the course leaving us with huge questions of what to do now and a time crunch.  Not to mention all the little things what went wrong on our house here, needs of ministry and life here, family needs and a ton of online meetings...and the time it all takes from us.  We both had times of breaking down.  Only to once again lift our eyes to the Lord from where our help comes from.  We resisted the enemy and claimed God's protection and provision for the marriage course over and over again.  

Josh's desire is that someone (others) work on the details, venue and everything else so he is able to focus only on the writing of the marriage course.  I am trying to be the "project manager" but I don't thing I am doing a very good job.  It is so helpful that Grace is now here to take over teaching for me so I can focus on the marriage course, but I realize I am still very much needed as mom.  As project manager I am working on wardrobe, set design or layout, venue, being on meetings with Josh, the film crew, presenters, design of the books, and fund raising.  Josh and I are one of the three presenters, so we are practicing and made a short promo video.  Like I said, it is very exciting to be a part of all this, and so I want to enjoy it not be too busy and stressful that we just want it done.

So, we are down to less than two months before leaving and two months till we will be filming for the marriage course.  Oh my!  That is a "oh my I'm freaking out" oh my and a oh my excitement.  So much to be done, and I want to enjoy being here.  Why is it always mixed emotions living on the mission field and going to your home country?!  I continually remind myself that God is in control and I can trust His plans, timing and place for me and my family.

Guess that is enough for now.  Please be praying for:

-The Marriage Course

-FIC Uganda marriage retreat we will be having with our team June 26-28

-Lydia serving in Thailand and Grace and Lydia as they serve in Ethiopia

-Preparing for leaving July 28

Thank you!

THE MARRIAGE COURSE FUNDRAISING JOSH AND MANDY SHAARDA on Vimeo

Marriage Course Promo

Modern Day Slavery?

Something God has put on my heart the last couple years is what I see as modern-day slavery here.  I started it see it at the airport and when we would fly lower cost airlines.  There would be literally a hundred young ladies all dressed in Muslim attire uniform and with a work label on their uniform.  Most of the labels I read said, "Saudi Arabia..." meaning they were going to work in Saudi Arabia.  It was obvious it was their first time flying and they were excitedly nervous.   We have now seen groups almost every time we travel.  My heart breaks and I feel so angry.  I pray for them as we watch them fly off to the Arab world to do who knows what kind of work.  

Signs are everywhere in the impoverished neighborhoods for "work abroad".  They prey on the desperate and vulnerable.  Yet in the office where you have to have a background check to get a passport to travel, there are sign all over about anti-trafficking and warnings.  The people here talk about crazy, evil, horror stories of what happens to people, yet say nothing when their relative or friends goes to make money.  People going to work aboard have to pay for a passport and their ticket to fly.  They do have the money and so they sell cows, land and take on debt increasing their poverty hoping to make lots of money for the whole family while working abroad.

Recently I have met people in the remote villages we work in going to work abroad.  Two young men from our village have now gone.  The one young man has I believe four children with two different women.  He left the one woman, lives with the other women, and is responsible for all the children (some live with his parents).  With this mess and no work other than village farming, he paid a lot of money and went for two years of work abroad.  Leaving everyone behind.  He is in Kuwait working at KFC.  Could be worse I guess.  The other young man is going to work at the airport in Dubai doing delivery or luggage, I guess.  He is a smart young man who has been teaching and wants to go on to university.  He can't because he doesn't make enough money as a teacher and his father left his mother and kids (like 10 kids) for a second wife.  So now this young man feels he has to go to make money for his family to survive and his siblings to go to school.  Sin brings so much suffering. 

Then I met three young ladies in another village going abroad to work.  One of them came to us and asked us to pray for her passport.  She is not a believer, she has a son, she doesn't know English, and she doesn't yet have enough money to pay for the required list to go.  Everything about it was red warning lights that this is not a good idea.  She was recruited by someone in other town, who works for people in the city, who work for the company abroad.  Sounds like what happened in slavery.  Inland tribal people sold their own people to people in cities on the coast and sent them overseas to work.  Ok I know not all working abroad is slavery, but some is.  This young lady was going to be a maid.  The Arab countries are Muslim and Muslims don't like people of other faiths or people from other countries.  They can treat them how they want.  They will work long hours, treated unfairly, in a different language, trapped far away - a lot of times without their passport because it is taken from them.

This is a very complicated problem with many layers and levels.  Honestly, I don't know what to do.  What can be done.  Right now, the government is allowing these agencies take Ugandans.  My heart is upset by it to say the least.  I also grieve all the wrongs and injustices in it.  As best we could we talked to the girl going abroad, shared our concerns, and prayed for her.  All the people there listening that day were family members and Christians.  They agreed with us, but no one told her not to go.  I really think deep down they are willing to sacrifice a person in hopes they will send back money and provide for them.  Poverty is awful.    

So what do I, we, do with all this?  Pray.  Then do what the Lord calls us to do.