I’ve been back in Uganda ten days now and the children are so happy to see me, and all my gifts! They always know that I come bearing gifts and wait with eager anticipation for me to pour out all the contents of my luggage. It truly is like Christmas and the excitement on their faces is so worth all the effort of buying and dragging seen pieces of luggage across the continents and oceans between us! For the first time I introduced them to scooters, that thing one rides while standing with two wheels, somewhat like a skateboard with a handle to hold onto. They ride them non-stop, from sunup to sundown. I also always bring new learning games and critical thinking games, which they love. Among their favorite things to receive are letters from their sponsors! This is what they wait for the most. This trip the letters were few. If you forgot and missed the deadline, and would still like to send a short note, please feel free to just type one out and email it to me and I will print it out and hand it to them. It’s never too late.

This trip to America was the longest ever for me. When the Lord spoke to me about going for two months, I shrunk back and thought, Oh my gosh that is too long. For the leader of a ministry to go away that long, well, it’s just a long time. People that know me well, they know that I am fully obedient to the word of the Lord, even when I don’t agree. So I went with a two month ticket. While in America I preached, I taught, I shared, I ministered in many places, always on the move. At the one month mark I was sitting before the Lord and asked, “Am I just wasting my time here when I could be home with the children doing things there?” I seriously considered changing my flights and moving my schedule up by almost two weeks. Then I heard the Lord,

“You are not wasting your time. You are in the right place at the right time. Everything is in My time, if you allow it. Time is not in My mind because I am the Maker of time, for your sake. Do not worry about the time, it’s in My hands. Your times are in My hands. Stand firm, look only to Me in this time.”

I was starting to fidget because I wasn’t seeing the fruit I expected to see from all my time spent at so many ministries and so many places. I knew that the Lord had spoken to me about how our building project would begin with the fruit of this trip to America and here it was a month later and I wasn’t seeing it. We did receive that one amazing seed the first week in, and definitely all the amazing seed from our regular sponsors, which we could never ever do anything without. It is wonderful seed, but a different seed was needed for the building project. We were under great pressure from the Uganda government officials to start building because where we are now is far too small for all these people. It is incredibly crowded. So here I sat before the Lord and said, “God, where is the seed for the building project? Did I miss it?” I always look to myself first before questioning God about His part in our partnership. Did I miss it somewhere? Tell me and I’ll take care of it.

Then He gave me this word to wait and keep looking to Him. It is not for me to move man, it is the Lord’s move that moves man. So, I waited. Five weeks. Six weeks. Seven weeks. With five days left, I was on my way for another meeting with another ministry, to share our story and to ask for help. I had already sent out 150 packages to 150 churches asking them to pray about helping us. Not a single response. So I went with no expectation, not believing that we would receive anything. As I sat there in this meeting, in a conference room that had a really high tech conference table with all these electronic gadgets and there were at least ten TV monitors on the walls. I was in awe of the room itself! I thought, who are we, this little ministry sitting in Uganda, that these people would even give us the time of day? The only reason I was there was because someone I knew, knew someone. I laugh now when I look back because God does that a lot in my life.

The CEO sat there and kindly told me that he doesn’t give big gifts anymore to non-partnering projects because they have been abused too many times. People taking their money and never looking back, no interest in this corporation any longer, just take the gift and run. He said that the most they ever gave was a single digit $0,000 gift. When he asked me what we wanted, I told him that I wasn’t asking for money, just help with his experts at grant writing. I wanted to know how to write grants. He asked for my story, our story of war and peace. When I finished, my friend who connected me with this man looked him in the eye and said, if I gave Carolyn A,B,C funds would you match it? It was a considerable amount, a really considerable amount, more than any single offering I had received in the last two years since we had help coming out of the war zone. The man “immediately” answered her, “You bet!” He just matched it without batting an eye and it was five times the amount that he said he ever gave anymore! You know me, I cried tears of unbelief and thankfulness.

Then I walked out to my car and sat there for a few minutes trying to pull it together. I then received a text from another friend that he had come into some money and was sending me a sizeable gift. I cried more. I then received an email from another friend saying she wanted to give a considerable gift and when could she send it? This went on and on for five days! At the end of those five days, we had one quarter of our total building project, a sizeable amount! Praise the Lord who is mighty to save! Praise the Lord who is always on time! Time is His, all His. When we wait for His timing…

Our borehole was supposed to be dug already. We were going to start willy nilly on our building project. Because of the “delay” on the borehole we were given wisdom to talk to local authorities about the legalities concerning building in Uganda. By the end of the day, we learned that other steps needed to be taken first and by the time these steps are done, out borehole will also be done. I just watched everything fall into place so perfectly. We were also about to build two separate compounds because we were told we “had to” separate our older children out, no longer being allowed to live with us. At this meeting just three days ago we learned that ALL of our children will be able to live with us forever! I wanted to run outside and run all over shouting “JESUS! JESUS! MIGHTY GOD! WODERFUL REDEEMER!!!!

Do you see the timing in ALL of this? Every single thing being orchestrated in a perfect symphony by the Lord. I always tell people that the Lord will show us a thing before He does it, if we are watching and listening. But most importantly, if we wait on Him. Trusting and waiting. On June 10th we hope to start our building project, building our new home for these amazing kids and my staff. If you are encouraged to give any gift, whatever the size, please let me know that it is for the building project so that I can set it aside just for that. I’m not asking for money, but I want to ensure that it goes where it is supposed to.

Our children are on holiday right now and are riding bikes and scooters all day long and playing football (soccer) and just being kids. I bought some tricycles for our small toddlers to learn to ride and they love it. Thank you sponsors for helping our kids to be kids enjoying what children in your world enjoy. It is so good to see them smiling all the time. Our older children, over the age of eighteen, left for the refugee camp on Monday last to register as refugees so that they can go to school and later find jobs and even buy land. We take our children twice a year to accomplish this. Last time it took almost a month. It is very horrible living at the intake place, just sitting every day and waiting. The testimony of this trip last week is incredible. They were told at all three levels of leadership that papers would not even be started last week and that they would need to stay for some time. Our bus had broken down, delaying them until late Wednesday night so they didn’t reach the camps until Thursday.

Our pastor who took them, then asked the last person in the three person leadership chain, “Then what should we do because we need to go back home as these children are still in school?” The man told him to give him our papers and wait a minute. Six HOURS later ALL paperwork was processed and our children were headed home!!! There were many, many people who had been sitting there for almost four months already! We were out of there in six hours! This just does not happen, ever. At a minimum, for over twenty people, it should have taken at least a few days, at a minimum. I tell the children all the time that God gives us so much favor all the time because He has marked their lives for something great. Everywhere we go we have incredible favor. It is not about who we are or what we do for Him. He has a special plan for these kids and if He finds faith in us, He will respond on our behalf always.

All through the Bible there are stories, true stories, about great faith and how God responds to that. Jesus told us in the book of Luke 18:8 that when He returns He is looking for faith. That’s all, faith. When we have faith in Him, He will make a way in many things, especially if we are walking out His plan for our lives. He loves when we look to Him and trust Him. I am just overwhelmed by His faithfulness this day. I want to encourage you, that if God has revealed a plan for you, don’t give up. Don’t try to move mountains on your own. Wait for the Lord. It is in quietness and trust that you will find your strength, Isaiah 30:15. May God complete all that He has begun in each of us.