Greetings Family!

I have made two trips to the Refugee Camps in Northern Uganda in June and July to take some of our children to see their relatives. Most have not seen a relative, including parents, for ten years. There is a huge fear that if the relatives make themselves known then I will give their kids back and all chance of a good education is lost. But now that word is spreading that we still plan to take these children farther with their education, relatives are being found. The reunions are always very emotional for everyone. It is my favorite part of what I do here, reuniting families. During the Christmas holidays, most of our children will go and spend a month with family in the refugee camps and the children are extremely excited. You can never replace family regardless of their living situation. That bond is eternal. In two trips I have logged about 2,200 kilometers of driving a Land Cruiser in an eight-day period. The camps have no paved roads and many times we find ourselves on a path barely wide enough for our car. I praise God for the gift of our Land Cruiser which is ten years old now and still going.

While at the camps I also preach at the churches. After one Sunday morning service we found that our tire was flat. The lock on the spare had frozen shut somehow so, I couldn’t even change the tire. We got a local mechanic to put the flat tire on his motorcycle, take it to patch it, and bring it back. I thanked him and asked if he was born again. I spent the next hour talking to him about Jesus and being born again. He is now born again. I heard in my spirit that our delay was much more than a flat tire. It was a new life in Christ.

We then drove the three hours to the city of Arua on the rough dirt roads. Within 30 minutes of arriving our tire went flat again. Now I could at least get a new tube as we were in a city. The next day we drove nine hours to get home, seventy kilometers on roads so bad we couldn’t drive over 20 kilometers an hour, and lots of prayer, our lock to the spare still frozen. We would have been stuck in nowhere land. After arriving home in Luwero, our tire went flat again. This time I bought a new tire! I am just so amazed at how God could keep that tube inflated as needed until we got to the next point in our journey every time. There is no way we should have made it for nine hours and not going flat again. But, God.

Besides supporting and loving and teaching our children at Iris, we do a lot for our community. Our police officers in town get paid less per month than I pay my cleaning staff. It’s sad because there is no motivation to run to help someone in need. We even called the police once and they never came. One of the police women who loves God and is honest and true has a sister who just died, leaving her young niece an orphan. Long story short, when we heard her story and how she cannot even send the girl to school because she has no money, we surprised her with a promise to support this young girl for her entire education. The police lady got on her knees in the dirt and lifted her hands to God in thankfulness. This girl would have been another statistic, pregnant young, no husband, an added burden. She now has a chance.

This is what your donations do, all of this! You have no idea how much you help so many who are really struggling. Fuel prices here are $6.48 per gallon. This extremely affects all the prices of food which are transported from all over Uganda to the markets. There is no government aid or free medical for kids or school lunch programs. There is no one to help the ones who are struggling to survive. The death rate here is extremely high because people have no money for medical treatment and are just sent home to die, literally. Children are abandoned right and left. We help in many cases of child rescue and placement by providing our Land Cruiser and the fuel just to get to these kids. The government does not even provide the child welfare office a car and fuel. So, every time the probation officer calls us, we immediately respond. We help to get the children medical treatment and clothes and food until they are placed. Things are overwhelming because everyone has a need. We help where we can. It’s all we can do.

We celebrated International Day of The African Child and the biggest cry from the children as they presented their songs and skits was abuse by parents and step parents, abandonment and parents refusing to waste money on school fees because food is more important. I always tell our children to look around and never forget the blessing that God has given them. Our children have been struggling in school like others, but we are able to tutor them in the evenings because we are educated. Many village children’s parents are not educated and cannot help them. Classroom sizes in government schools can easily reach 100 children per classroom, most sitting on a dirt floor. Yet the children are still so happy to go to school. This is the situation in much of the world. It is not unusual. Sometimes I think I am barely making a dent in the situation, but God reminds me that we are making a huge impact because each life makes a difference. And so, we press on toward the goal of glorifying Jesus in everything we do all the time.

Two of our University students have been accepted in high places of government for internship and they are not even Ugandan citizens. One just finished interning with the High Court Magistrate Judge who has now contacted me and wants to visit our home! Another is going to be interning with an office of the Parliament in August! How can this be? This governmental favor in a foreign country not our own? Just read about Daniel and Joseph. God does not change. He is always for us. The Minister of Education in South Sudan came for a visit last month and continues to be so inspired by the success of our children and seeing how they are growing up in the Lord. I praise God that I get to live to see the fruit.

We are almost finished building our Library/Discipleship Center. Every day after the workers leave, I just stand inside it and dream of all that God is going to do here. I have a very big vision for this place and it will come to pass in about five years. And so, I dream big.

Immediately across the dirt road from us is a new mosque that was built immediately after we moved in. A Muslim friend of mine told me that for every church that is built, they aim to build a mosque next to it. We are friends with all of our neighbors and I wave and smile and talk to our Muslim neighbors as I see them, which is a lot now as they meet at the mosque four times a day. It is a very difficult adjustment when you move to a village so that you can be away from the noise of the town only to be awakened each morning at 5:30 am to a very loud speaker shouting to Allah. This is repeated three more times in the day with the last one at 8:30 at night when we are all trying to settle down for the evening. It is loud as they are literally a stone’s throw from my front porch.
I asked Jesus, what do I do with this? He reminded me of Daniel and how he had to live in Babylon for seventy years with all the temples to all the gods and had to see the temple prostitutes. He could not move to another town. He had to worship God with a humble heart and still be nice to all people because he was second in command under the king. It was a good reminder because we know the story always ended with the king’s favor on Daniel, all four kings that he served. So now I praise God for the opportunity to stop what I’m doing and I worship MY God when my neighbors worship theirs. I have been provoked by their faithfulness to be more faithful in my prayers to Jesus Christ. And I have kept my love for my neighbors as Jesus commands us to do.

In between all these activities and community outreaches we still do the daily stuff; visiting our children in boarding school, bring an awesome lunch and lots of hugs; being bus drivers at the end of each day picking our kids from school; having weekend worship under the stars; church on Sunday and bible study in the afternoons after lunch; evening Math and English tutoring for 4th, 5th and 6th graders; Saturday reading tutoring; weekend gardening (the kids not me lol); every day chores. The kids now also have kitchen cooking duty, boys and girls, all ages. We have also built a double brick oven that will be wood fired. I am hiring a lady to come and teach us to make bread and cakes in it. It’s a bit different when you use firewood. Have to learn how to control the temp!!

I would like to end my update by honoring Beni Johnson, a beautiful friend of Iris, who was a powerful woman of faith and was known as “the happy intercessor”. She wrote the book. She has touched so many lives and hearts through her ministry at Bethel Church in Redding California and has traveled to many nations, partnering with her husband Pastor Bill Johnson. She has surely left her thumbprint upon this earth all for the glory of Jesus Christ. Thank you Beni Johnson for giving to the Lord. We praise God for you and for your life given to Him.

Beni Johnson 8/27/1954 – 7/13/2022 Healthy and Free