It's Friday and I am asking you to pray for Suubi Teen MOPS in Uganda.
This morning I came downstairs to the sight of one of my Amaryllis flowers blooming. The Amaryllis is native to Africa. It was first brought to Europe in the 1700s. A blub if well cared for can live 75 years. I have some Amaryllis blubs that I bought over 15 years ago. Many people have them at Christmas time. I am always slow to place them in a dark place. They need to experience about 6 weeks of darkness before they can bloom again. I often forget and mine generally bloom at valentines. They are a symbol of love and determination. I wonder if we should not use them as a symbol for our Lilly Avenue stores? The women in Kampala are reluctant to open a shop. They fear being able to pay the rent. So far we haven't found a store to rent. And we assured them we would cover the first year's rent. But they are afraid of the cost. Fear is hard to overcome. Please pray for wisdom about opening up resale shops in Kampala. Sylvia and 10 other women with their kids will be moving to the country in January. The soap workshop is closing. Right now they have this location to get food and receive emotional and physical support. I was hoping that the stores would give them a location to go to for continued support. We would continue to provide food and other resources. Some of our women would do just fine without the support of Suubi. Others are at high risk of all sorts of exploitation. In this story, I need to show love and determination. I am determined to see them established and healthy and safe. I pray someday all of them will be strong. They are all so amazing. Even with our support, their life is not easy. But it's so important to me that they eat...and that their children eat. So please pray for a location for them to meet and receive help after we move to the new center.
They are breaking ground on the new Suubi center this week. We have agreed to build a kitchen and giant covered dining room. It will be located between the soccer field and the extra-large vegetable garden. The building is as long as a giant shipping container and wider than that. It is being built by a local builder with bricks that have been oven-fired. Oven-fired bricks are one of the leading causes of deforestation in Africa. So I am not so happy about the bricks. But the kitchen will lock. And we will use it to house our brick-making machine for a few months. And the bricks that we make on-site are going to be eco-bricks. They will have 10 % concrete. And they cure in the sun and do not require baking. So building the kitchen/ storage room is a compromise. I wish I could afford to be 100% true to my environmental ideals. But eco-bricks are hard to buy. And we can not even make them without lockable storage. This building is going to give the women working in the garden a place to run when it rains. The other buildings probably won't be built until May 2022 or later.
We are trying to raise the funds for Christmas gifts for all the kids, the well on the new property, water filters, and moving fees. The financial needs are a bit overwhelming. Pray for our financial needs to be met.
The soap workshop has 1000's of bars of soap made. And we have no place to store it once we move. So the women will probably be doing a giant soap giveaway in the next weeks. It would be good to move some and give some away. Please pray for direction on this outreach. It may seem small to you, but many people are so poor that they can not afford soap. But it's so nice to have soap.
If you wish to support Suubi in any way you can find ways to give on our website. Thank you for your prayers. God really does do great things because you pray.
Comments
Post a Comment