It is Friday and I am asking you to pray for Suubi Teen MOPS in Kampala Uganda.
Before I express our needs, I want to thank God for the good things that are happening. The first photo is Rahuma. She is one of the teenage moms that graduated from our sewing school this year. She and all the other 10 women in her class are busy trying to make a living with their new skills. Ruhuma set her sewing machine in an established tailor's shop. She is redesigning clothes and getting orders to make new clothes. She has to pay rent to the other tailor. But she is making a success of herself. I posted a photo of one of Sylvia's daughters. She is wearing a dress that Ruhuma made. And I thank everyone who gave to Suubi last year. We used your support to give Ruhuma and 9 other women skills to sew. We gave them a machine. And now they are using what they were given to climb out of poverty! We would like to open 2 used and new clothing stores in Kampala. Our sewing school graduates can redesign used clothes and take orders for new clothes. The rent for a store is about 110 euro/ 125 USD. We need people who wish to help us pay the rent on these two stores for 1 year. The total need for one year rent on two stores is 2500 euro/ 3000 USD. These stores will be run by 20 of our women. Ten women in each shop. Right now many of them walk door to door selling used clothes that they have redesigned. This will give them the opportunity to sell in their own store, and keep the profits for themselves. After a year we hope they will be established enough to pay the rent themselves. And if this model works, we might try to set all our sewing school graduates in a used and new clothes shop. Set up a chain of stores across Uganda. The store is going to be called LILLY Avenue, New and USED clothes. The name came when I was praying. In the Bible, Jesus says to the people that they should not worry about what they wear. Even Salomon in all his glory was not dressed like one of the lilies. I wanted the name to have Lilly in it. And I thought of LILLY Avenue. It is the street I grew up on. The place where my mom still lives. Uganda has water lilies. We will use a water Lilly in the logo. Our goal will be to start two LILLY Avenue stores in Kampala. And right now we need wisdom and grace to find the right locations for the two shops. 
Last Saturday the survey team came to Suubi's land and marked out the boundaries. They laid down stones to mark the land. But already some local people are moving the stones. They know the new owners are in Kampala. Sylvia says people try to steal land. They plant corn and potatoes. They "move in" and it's very hard to get rid of them. So we have to build a fence. They have gotten the price on the fence. And God willing will start the work on a fence next week. It is sadly necessary to have a fence to protect the property. We may even need to have the property re-surveyed to be sure we put the fence in the right spot. Sad! We also plan on building or planting a bamboo living fence around the entire perimeter of the property. The plan is to use at least 3 different types of clumping bamboo. One is a yellow and green striped bamboo good for building. One is a giant tree bamboo you can make furniture from. And one is a green bamboo very good for burning to make charcoal. I think the charcoal bamboo will be the one we plant the most of. People cut down trees to make charcoal for cooking. The forests in Uganda are quickly disappearing. Growing bamboo, which is a renewable resource is a very good solution to deforestation. We will probably also establish a bamboo nursery on the school property. And we will train women to propagate bamboo as a job. As soon as the fence goes up, we have women ready to plant our bamboo. In 4 to 5 years we will have a forest surrounding Suubi's property!
Right now we need wisdom as we seek quotes on building material and labor. We are also trying to design a center. It has to be 100% off-grid. And we have a budget but it's small considering all we hope to accomplish. So we have to set priorities. Rome was not built in a day. We will try to build what's necessary to get started. We need students and staff houses. We need a school building. But it must not be our dream school. Each room can have many purposes. We will need water. And a well can eat up a giant portion of the budget. We need solar panels. And we need toilets. We could just have pit latrines. We want biogas toliets instead. So what we want and what we can afford is very different. Please pray for wisdom.
In the meantime, everyone appears healthy. The kids are receiving tutoring. We continue to feed about 100 or more people each day. And we ask you to continue to pray for health and safety.
If you wish to donate to Suubi or read more about child sponsorship look at our website.
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