If you are new to receiving my updates, I am on my 18th trip to Uganda in close to 8 years. I have entitled each set of updates according to the number of the trip. Amazing that I am on Chapter 18 in my story of my life in Uganda!
Also just to let you know upfront, the updates can be long. Thank you in advance for taking the time to read them. There is a lot of information in each update. It also will have prayer requests throughout the updates. I have also tried shortening the updates...and had more people asking me what happened to the longer ones! So read what you can! But this trip is only a week long and I can guarantee it will be filled with amazing stories of God’s grace & joy! He already has done miracles with The Ugandan Dream!
This first email is exceptionally long because I need to give a few reminders:
1. One year I was traveling through Dubai and my email was hacked. Everyone began getting emails that I was stuck in some other country and needed help being rescued. So this email is to let you know I am safe and on my way to Uganda in the morning! We would not ever ask you to give money to any place other than the normal avenues of giving which information you already have.
2. 24 Hour Prayer Team - We normally activate the 24 hour prayer team when we travel as teams. Currently I am working with Camille Small who is taking over the prayer ministry for Raining Hope. Because we are in the midst of putting the team together, I am just asking everyone to pray when the spirit leads. Instead of having a specific hour of prayer, please just pray when you feel led. Most of my work and meetings will occur between the 9 am - 9 pm hours. We are 10 hours ahead of the west coast. But anytime that you pray for us will be well received and heartfelt.
I am traveling by myself on this trip. I will be in Uganda until January 23, 2015. The purpose of this trip is to celebrate the moving into the new house!!!!!! I have a lot of work to do and people to deal with as we make this shift to a new house! We currently have $94,599 raised of the $120,000 needed! We launched the Ugandan Dream on November 9, 2014. To have raised this much in only 2 months is purely explained only by God!
Continue to pray as we would love to pay off the house in full as we start the new year. We will have to pay monthly rent for 4 years on the balance of $25,401 which will stretch us. We also have dealt with landlords for the past 8 years. We are looking forward to being free of the problems that have come along with that.
We will be able to move into the house soon after I arrive! The paperwork has been finalized & we already have sent payment so we could take possession of the house. It was important for this to happen while I was there. There will be some fixing up and cleaning up before we can move in. But then we will have a worship celebration and dedicate this new home to the Lord! It is going to be a day that we will always remember! There is no explanation other than God did a miracle! He receives all the glory for His provisions!
God did another miracle just to get me on the plane yesterday! Because of all of the great training I have received from the Office of Mobilization at CBU, I began to question an issue with my passport. Kristen White has always told students that if your passport expires the year within your travel to get a renewal. I knew better, but didn’t have time to send my passport in. Last week I realized that my passport was to expire in 5 months. I was going to just go to the airport on Wednesday and take my chances. But on Friday I decided to call our travel agent to ask his opinion. With his advice he had me make an appointment with the passport agency to request an emergency renewal. He knows they have done 1-day expedited passports before. I was told by others that they as well have had this done. When I called, the earliest I could get an appointment was Tuesday at 8:35 am. Knowing there was nothing I could do about it, I made the appointment confident that I would have it by the end of the day on Tuesday.
But God had other plans. When I went, the agent and the supervisor said the process has changed and it is a minimum 3-day wait! When I questioned the 1-day service for emergencies, he said that is only in the matter of life or death situations. The supervisor said there was nothing they could do. The best they could do was have it ready by 2 pm on Wednesday. My flight was scheduled for 3:35 pm. International flights require you to be at the airport 3 hours ahead. It was looking impossible. The airport was only about 20 minutes away from the passport agency. I figured the latest that I could pick it up and be allowed to check in was 1 pm. I knew there was nothing that I could do. These are the moments we can learn the greatest lessons of trust.
It was my fault that I was doing this at the last minute. I am just glad I didn’t go to the airport yesterday with my passport as it was. I definitely would have been turned away, not allowed to board and may have lost the ticket. The only reason I knew to check it was because of the thorough training from ISP.
I told the agents that I could come back Wednesday but couldn’t it be ready at 12? They were VERY CLEAR that it would not be ready until 2 pm. The supervisor said, “You can try but in my experience, it is always close to the time that it says. You can try 1 pm but it will probably not be ready until closer to 2 pm.”
So I left, putting it into the hands of God. There was nothing more I could do. People were praying for me as far away as Uganda. We needed a miracle. And we got one.
Heather and I left for the airport earlier than planned. We decided to get there early and wait & pray. We figured if they knew I was waiting they may speed things up. Even though my receipt clearly stated in big bold letters...”DO NOT ARRIVE BEFORE YOUR WILL CALL PICKUP TIME,” my travel agent said to go early. We arrived about 11:15 am and prayed for a miracle. I walked up to the will call window and told him upfront that I was there before my pick up time but needed to get to the airport. The agent checked my receipt, looked at my name, looked through the envelopes...and HANDED ME MY PASSPORT!!! I can’t fully explain what I felt at that moment. I was overwhelmed with emotions and the presence of God. He made the impossible happen. Nothing is impossible with God! I began to cry when he gave me my passport through the window. I turned to Heather and she said, “You have it already?” We rejoiced, we cried, and we even had a bonus. I was able to buy her lunch before we drove to the airport! Extra time! This is explained only by God.
What was even more amazing was as I walked through the rest of the departure process I did so with absolute thankfulness that I was even there. The check in process was longer than normal...but I was just thankful to be checking in. We had to pay extra for 2 bags that I needed to bring with me. At the very last moment I had to add a 4th bag to take everything I needed to take. The surprise was that because I couldn’t pay for it online...each bag cost $175. Again, I was just so thankful that I made it to the airport with my new passport, it caused me to just be thankful.
I am now in Dubai on my overnight layover until I leave for Uganda at 8:45 am. Passport control took longer than normal because they now have something called “SmartGate” which ended up not being so smart! It took me way longer than normal ... but I stood there just praising God that I was even in Dubai! Not sure what is up with passports...but i will always look at my passport with different eyes. It will always be a reminder of what He did yesterday!
I am realizing this is a lesson of praising God at all times. I’ve learned this principle long ago...but it became ALIVE by walking through this process. HE IS IN CONTROL. Our God is sovereign. We are in a journey with God. I am walking through this trip in ways already that I have never walked before. It has given me a peace as I stand in awe of Him and what He has already done...and it has only been a little over one day!
You can continue to pray for the Ugandan Dream!
PRAISE GOD FOR ANSWERED PRAYER!
- Pray for the remaining $25,401. We would love to celebrate while I am here the paying off of the house!
- Pray for the additional funds needed for school fees that are due in the next couple of weeks.
- We have been focused on the raising of funds to buy the house. We still have monthly budget items such as food, medicine etc. I will be taking care of our regular budget items while I am here. Pray for the money I have with me that it can stretch and take care of what I can.
- Pray for discernment for how to do our celebration and dedication. We will want to invite leaders and others who have stood by us in this process. We will need to provide sodas and snacks! We are going to have a worship party!
- Pray for the various meetings that I will be having as we begin our new shift in ministry.
- Pray for my continued safe travel and good health.
If you would like to make any donation or have questions you can email me at signinghands49@yahoo.com . I will get you in touch with our treasurer, Carol John. You can make donations on our website at www.raininghope.org. Carol just fixed the website so you can now make regular credit card donations on that site again. We were having issues with it going to the YouCaring site for the Ugandan Dream only. The Ugandan Dream YouCaring site is where you can make credit card donations for the buying of the house.
Thank you for coming with me on this journey. Your prayers are always heartfelt and needed. As always, lots to be accomplished, but one of my main purposes is that of a mom going to see our “kids.”
Kale!
mum eydie kisakye!
P.S. If you got to the end of this really long email...thank you. I know it takes time...thank you for loving the kids and caring so much. May God bless you for your support and your prayers.
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