Home for Christmas...

This December, Ruth and her entire family moved into her brand new home.  Please take a few minutes to read her letter of gratitude to her donor Philip.

Look at her new door and windows!!!

Dear Philip

RE: Sincere Gratitude

Praise the Lord so much.  I wish to send you this letter  to express my most sincere gratitude for all you have done for me and my family. I do not know how to tell you about my past, since I have got the good things now, but in the past I had a lot of challenges which you have washed away from me.

Since my childhood I stayed with my mum, our father could not even take care of us which caused our mum to quit her marriage because the father did not care at all. Worse still he was very violent. She could not stand this. She moved to a very small rented house. Her major aim was to make sure that she feeds us so that we do not die. We did not eat to have enough but to survive. We got used to having one simple meal in a day and just sleep on empty stomachs. All the same we appreciated the old woman.  Our mother took care of us in the best way that she could despite the very poor conditions.  We did not even get the chance to go to school.

All my life I had a dream of having a good big house, where I could have a room of my own, which I would make smart and clean. I was not thinking about a cement and glass house. I would have been satisfied with a smaller and less permanent house. Even that one I never got. I kept on dreaming for a house. But that did not happen until now. I had very many years to wait. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to realize my dream. I now have a three bed room house. I have a spacious room of my own and the children have their rooms. I do not know express my joy. When construction was going on I went to the house every day. I moved in and out of every room and I could wonder whether I was dreaming or it was real that this is my house!!!! I couldn’t wait to enter and live in it. Thank you very much for giving me a great house!!!!!!

When I grew up, I got married to a man whom I loved and we started staying together in a rented house.  I knew that since I have got a companion, we shall be well off. My husband and I worked very hard and we saved some money in the house, planning to look for a better place and build a house of our own. I was happy and looked forward to a good life.  After a few years I had 3 children and even I was 7 months pregnant expecting another baby. I was expecting Peter. One day when I came back from work, I found when my husband had taken all our belongings in the house and also the money that we had worked for and saved for a long time, he only left my clothes.  Since then I have never  heard from him or heard of him.

He left me with the kids in the rent house and I suffered with the children. Feeding and dressing the children was hard enough but paying the monthly house rent was the most complicated.  I was in arrears for many months.  When the situation became worse, I went back to my mother’s house with the family after failing to pay a few months rent.  I promised the land Lord to continue paying until when the debts would be paid up. It took me a long time. I started digging in other people’s plantations with my mum in order to get some food to feed the family.  The idea of putting the children in school was unthinkable. The dream of ever having a house of my own was completely dropped.

During those days I gave birth to a baby boy (Peter), by bad lack, the baby was attacked by Tuberculosis ( T.B),  because in my mother’s  small house we were  staying with my brother who is a smoker. We were congested in the small house and I had no help and no alternative. I took Peter for treatment in the many places that I could afford. I tried some hospitals but in those days I had no money. Peter was at the verge of dying. Good luck came when Ben and Melody took my baby to an intensive care unit; this was through the church of Christ in our area. The baby was cured and he gained his life back. He is now healthy and bouncing.

Then miracles came. The first miracle was that I was going to receive a monthly financial support. I was not even sure about who was so generous to give me this income. I knew this would be enough to give me and my children with my mother a descent life with enough to eat.  I was happy and comfortable. I was not thinking about a house yet. But miracles continued flowing.  Latter on I was told that you were going to build a house for me, haaa,  oh myyy, on that day I was the happiest lady of the day. I was like crazy!!!!

The house has been constructed and we have started staying in it. When I am in my room I hear the boys happily chatting in their room. I smile to myself and just thank God. Sometimes I do cry. For sure sometimes I cannot understand how and why you selected me among all the people… It is amazing. So I have a beautiful spacious house and even the toilet and bathroom were built. I thank you so much for that kind of loving heart that you showered to me and my family. Thank you once again for giving us a descent home to live in. It is a wonderful house. May the Almighty God bless you so much.

I wish you a merry Christmas and a Prosperous new year 2013. I wish you more and more blessings to you and your family.

I remain your friend,

Nakangu Ruth

Her new luxury bathroom

This latrine was dug down to 60 feet!

"I almost collapsed"

When Ben and I read this update letter from Josephine, we wept.  I know it will grab your heart!  Special thanks to the Stecker family who willing stepped up to sponsor this precious family.

NAKAMANYA JOSEPHINE M044

Dear Kathy Stecker

Praise God. I would like to thank God who led me to meeting Ben and Melody. I would like first of all to thank Ben and Melody for the great love they showed me when they came to Uganda. You never left me even when you went back in America. You tried all your best to connect my family to the wonderful Kathy Stecker  who is  my friend and supporter. 

It was on the 5^th July 2012, when our AFR case worker came looking for me in the garden where I was working (making potato heaps). I started wondering why she was looking for me but she told me I have good news for you; your family has got a donor. I almost collapsed because of the great joy that I felt. I shouted and laughed and cried at the same time. The next day the account was open for me but unfortunately when we came back from Stanbic Bank, I found my daughter very sick. I did not have any money to take her to the hospital. But I had to get a debt of $4 (Uganda shillings 10,000/=) and take her to the nearest Health Clinic where she was admitted but the sickness got worse. The next day my daughter Nampewo died. When my child died her father was not at home. He came for the burial but he left soon after leaving me alone and the children. I cried.

Ben and I with Pastor Dan and Josephine's family

My married life has been very stressful with my husband leaving home for many months on end saying that he has gone to work for money. But he returns home without any coin only to harass me and make me and the children very unhappy. We do not have big land for me to cultivate enough food for the family. To earn money I would go to the bush, collect some fire wood and sell it to some people at the trading centre. I would then buy some food and other items like soap for the family. It is usually very bad for us whenever I am pregnant. I would then be too weak to carry the fire food. That means that there would be no food at home. We would have just one meal a day at about 3.00pm in the afternoon. At night the children would demand for food which I did not have and then they would cry. I would also cry. Thank you very much Kathy for wiping away our tears!!!

Josephine's oldest when we first met him

Before the regular support you are giving me I have never had regular income. I always get very little money from manual work. I would spend it immediately on the basic needs at home. It was from hand to mouth as they say. What is very frustrating is that my husband never appreciates my hard work and my physical weakness. He is not bothered. I suspect that he has another woman somewhere whom he loves better and feeds.

But I thank God who has strengthened me from all that distress and with your help Kathy you have been of great help. Because now I am debt free, we have food to eat and the older children are now back in school. They had dropped out of school because I had no school fees, no uniform and other scholastic materials. I bought a piglet both to cheer me up and as a project for future income generation. The greatest joy that you have brought to me is that my children are at school and have enough food to eat. We have new Sunday clothes. The joy that we have now is unbelievable. When we are around the fire cooking we talk about you. We just wonder how you can love us this much. We pray that God may bless you more and more.

I send you love and greetings in the name of Jesus.

Yours who loves you very much

JOSEPHINE

If you would like to sponsor a family, we are desperately looking for sponsors for 80 families like this on our waiting list.  Contact melody@africafamilyrescue.org and I can get you started immediately.

Baby Christine

There is no way to write this.  Josephine has suffered another loss.  Last time I met her she was working for pennies, suffering with malaria, had a 104 degree fever and 9 months pregnant.  Today her daughter passed away.  She was only 1 year old.  Baby Christine was tiny and fragile.  She was here briefly and was the apple of her mother's eye. (See my earlier blog at:  http://melodypahlow.blogspot.com/2011/07/had-day-filled-with-hope.html)

I don't have a way of expressing my sadness. I first saw Christine as she was sleeping on a potato sack.  When she woke up I began feeding her crackers which was the first food she had eaten in 3 days.  She was inquisitive and clinging to her mommy. She loved my shiny bracelets and I gave her one.  I can't get the image of her peacefully resting on the ground out of my head.  She is probably buried in that sack now beneath the very ground she played on.

Baby Christine's family was recently sponsored and maybe, just maybe if we had gotten there 1 month earlier her life could have been saved.  I don't know the circumstances but now I only feel regret. Certainly God has a plan and Christine is in a better place.  There is a feeling I have that I am up against a 30 foot crumbling wall of poverty and my hands are just too small to clog all the tiny holes.  Little rocks are falling all around me and I am bracing for a crash.  

For now, another little pebble has fallen at my feet and I am so sad that I couldn't stop it.  Dear God please bring more help quickly so that little girls like Christine have a chance to know you and live a full life.  Amen.

In over my head

We have been at a place of calling out to God and asking him for clarity.  Perhaps you can understand the feeling of waiting on God.  His direction in our life is so necessary.  There are many things we desire to grasp in this lifetime but mostly we walk on a day to day basis looking for purpose and to join God where He is working.

My life has been spent caring for our children and being a housewife.  Almost 21 years now I have given all I have for my biological children. As God drew our family towards Africa, I found myself adopting hundreds of orphaned children and widows.  I told God many times that His calling on my life was too big; that I couldn’t possibly handle the burden.  And I was right.  When I see the faces of children so lost without parents, the women that are burdened with sexual abuse and the starving and ill people that we help I feel absolutely overwhelmed. So sometimes I wonder if the voice in my head is true… am I in over my head? 

This week we received a gift from some dear friends. When I heard about it, I stammered.  I said, “That’s not possible”.  I read and reread the email describing the gift. It wasn’t the amount given so much as it was the confirmation that God was telling me, “Melody, nothing is impossible with me.”  I find myself learning that God is asking me to trust Him in such a huge way in our ministry.  This week God used that gift to show me that He is trust-worthy. 

To that donor, I will thank you from the bottom of my heart for being God’s hands to us while we are the hands to the broken. Children will eat and smile, they will become hopeful but most of all they will know there is a God in heaven who hears their cries and THAT is priceless.  This is God’s burden for His people that we would care for the widow and the orphan.  I am often encouraged by Mother Theresa’s words of advice, “If you can’t feed a hundred people, then just feed one”.  So let us all be in over our heads!

Easter contrasts

Some days are just meant to bring a smile to your face.  Easter is one of them.  The sun was shining and the weather was perfect for the Easter Egg Hunts. There were many beautiful new babies at church today too.  I love to focus on the girls.  Those little hats and flowing dresses remind me of when my girls were small.  I dressed them in the cutest bonnets!  I even saved one of them that has ribbon weaved through it for a grand-baby someday.

This afternoon the clouds started rolling in and even now I can hear the wind howling outside my window.  It reminds me of the stark contrast of Easter in a third world country.  Of course Easter in Uganda is celebrated with great fervor but for the villages we work in, Easter is another day that is met with fear.  Fear of starvation.  Fear of rape.  Fear of death.  There are no ribbons and bows for the little girls in Mukono.  In fact, girls as young as 3 collect fire wood for boiling dirty water that is for cleaning, drinking and cooking.  These girls are naked from the waist down.  They have no shoes.  It is a picture that I can't shake.

Girls are so vulnerable; whether they are collecting water or farming or even walking to school if they have the opportunity these girls need protection.

Today you can bring hope to a little girl needing food, clean water and education.  Please sponsor a family with our organization so that Easter can be a day of focus on celebration and not fear.  You can contact me directly at melody@pahlow.com to find out how!

Edward is on my mind...

I have been pouring through the information and photos of 75 families in rural Uganda.  I am rewriting the stories and putting them into a format we can utilize for marketing.

Today I have seen and read about women who are prostitutes, children who are orphans, men who are crippled and mentally ill children too.  I have seen their downcast faces and empty bellies.  I have walked on the dusty ground they walked and in the scarce fields they plow by hand.  I have seen once again the hopelessness that has creeped into their very souls.

As I was typing these stories, I became hungry.  I began to eat a bowl of soup and was struck by the fact that I had left one of the photos on my desktop open.  It was then that I became supremely uncomfortable.  Tears began to pour from my eyes as I ate sustenance while those less fortunate stared at me.  Surely even now they haven't eaten in days.

Below is the picture I couldn't stop looking at.  This is Edward.  He hasn't stood or walked for 3 years.  His wife left him with 3 children and he has no way to provide for them.  His 16 year old son Godfrey standing next to him is trying to provide for the family through working in a neighbors field but it isn't enough for them. Godfrey has 2 younger sisters to protect.

M004 Mitaawana Edward 

If you have eaten today, thank God for his provision.  If you have extra, please consider giving to those who will surely die without something soon.  Sponsorship of a widow or orphan family is available now!  For $70 a month, a family can eat, go to school, purchase clothing and even start a business for sustainability.  To give go to www.africafamilyrescue.org OR contact me directly at melody.pahlow@gmail.com and I can forward you a biography of a needy family that you can choose personally.