It's Friday and I am asking you to pray for Suubi Teen MOPS in Uganda.
I live in Germany. A great number of people are considering how we will stay warm this winter. I was talking with a friend this week. They heat with oil. It will cost 2 and 1/2 times as much to fill their oil tank this year. That's thousands of euros extra on oil. We just purchased a wood pellet oven. We even bought the pellets ahead of time while we can still get them. What does this have to do with Uganda? It means we have less money. Everyone has less money. And many who have will be helping relatives and friends to survive. Because everything is more expensive. Food, gas, etc. And in a time when nations like Uganda need extra help...extra help is not easily available. This is one of the sad consequences of the stupid war in Ukraine. It hits the entire world. But Africa is hit especially hard. The grain they once bought from Ukraine is not available. And shipping costs have risen. So food prices have risen. Sylvia told me that many bus companies stopped operating. They can no longer afford the costs of gas. And people are starting to starve. At a time we should be more generous, it's difficult to give anything at all.
This week they planted 2 and 1/2 acres of ginger. Ginger is very expensive to plant. The ground has to be tilled twice by a plow. The seed is expensive. Then the coffee husks used as fertilizer is expensive. And the fields must be weeded by hand. But it's a valuable crop. And God willing it will yield a great amount of money. Enough to cover the costs of the vocational school. We spent the money in hopes of becoming more sustainable. God willing we will not need to rely on donations to feed our people and pay our staff. We need generous people to help us Today. But our plan has always been to grow self-sustaining. So we praise God for this amazing opportunity. Pray for everyone to recover from the planting. It was a back-breaking effort. I think they would need to put me in a hospital if I had bent over to plant 2 and 1/2 acres of ginger. They are very tired, but also very excited. It is an investment. And it's a risk. It's not a sure thing. We are still at the mercy of God. The crop can fail, or demand fails. It's a risk to invest. But you need to invest. You can never grow if you don't plant. I pray God gives you the courage to also plant in this environment of uncertainty.
The toilets got a step closer to being finished. Eventually, Juergen will go to Uganda and tile the walls and floors. But they are now fully functional toilets. I am not sure many of us understand how much effort it is to build off-grid. How much effort does it take to grow enough food to feed 100 people? We had nothing. No buildings, no electricity or water or sanitation. We are slowly building buildings. We have a shade house. They grow thousands of plants. They have chickens. Soon they will have hundreds of eggs. They capture water off a roof. We have 10,000 liters of drinking water. And we are building a pond. It has been decided to build a brick and concrete pond. It will be waterproof. And it will capture 300,000 liters of water. This water will support all the agriculture on the property. They will begin construction next week. Thank you to everyone who donated to the water. We need to build rain roofs. These are structures that capture water and divert it to the pond. We need 1000 euros for the materials to build this simple solution.
Please continue to pray we find extra sponsors for our kids to attend school. Pray the women at the Lilly Avenue stores can sell what they make. With a slow economy, it's hard to even make money to pay rent. We don't want anyone desperate or afraid.
We pray God gives you all you need. That he blesses you so you can bless others.
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