From the outside looking in

Several years before we arrived at GSF, someone donated hundreds of meters of lion king material to the orphanage to do whatever they wanted to do with it and that they did. They made curtains hung by string, they used it for diaper material, towels, wrap around skirts and almost anything else you can imagine. After being here only a few weeks, I was tired of the material. By the time we had been here for over a year and much of the lion king material was hanging by threads on the windows or gone, I decided it was time for new curtains. While we were going to be gone on furlough, I enlisted the help of the guesthouse helper to sew curtains for the houses. When we returned we set work to hang proper curtain rods so we could hang the new curtains.

I noticed the other day that the last of the curtains had been hung in the houses but my American mind stopped in disbelief. Those mothers hung the curtains "backwards" (facing outward not toward the inside of the house)! "I can't believe they hung the . . ." I stopped my thought, wait a minute, who says the curtain has to be hung where you can see the beauty of it from the inside. Why not hang so everyone on the outside looking in can enjoy the beauty? I had to remind myself that these women live most of their lives outside. With Uganda being a tropical country, Ugandans do not need big houses. They cook and visit outside. The bathrooms are even outside. So from the outside looking in, the visitors will be able to enjoy the beauty of curtains even if they do not go inside.

Who says you have to have your curtains facing the inside?

Delivering the Goods

After months of praying for a ton of vitamins to make it to Uganda and GSF, they finally arrived! With eagerness, Mark, Caralina and I woke early Sunday morning to travel the 2 hours to get home so we could show everyone else what God had done. Most of the children had not heard about the vitamins and we were eager to tell the story, so after Sunday School, all the children were called to the pavilion where Mark pulled out a bottle of vitamins and began to tell about how a group of kids in America wanted to collect bottles of vitamins for GSF. He told how a pharmaceutical company got involved and that someone shipped the vitamins to an NGO and a university who desired to help.



As he told the story, Caralina and others made sure each person got a vitamin that morning.


When the story was finished, Mark asked Solomon, one of the older boys, to open the trunk of the van to reveal the boxes.



That afternoon we all enjoyed unloading the boxes into one of the offices for storage.

We want to thank SBEC (especially the 7th Grade class), Northwest Health Products, NICS, World Help and Liberty University, along with many others who prayed and took part in sending a ton of vitamins to Good Shepherd's Fold in Uganda! God used many instruments to orchestrate a beautiful miracle.

We are now giving daily vitamins to over 300 students at the GSF school, more than 30 GSF teens, special needs kids and toddlers, as well as sharing with other ministries in this area. To God be the Glory!

The Vitamin Hand-Off!

Mark, Caralina and I went to Kampala on Saturday to meet the World Help/Liberty team and 1300 lbs of the vitamins. We enjoyed visiting over a great meal with the team. Although they were exhausted after traveling over 36 hours, they were upbeat and we had an enjoyable time. The guys then helped load the van with all the boxes of vitamins.
As we all left the van, Mark stayed behind to make sure everything was secure. He then remembered that he had noticed earlier in the day that the lock on one of the windows was missing. He stood by the window trying to figure out what to do when he decided to pray. He said, "God, you got these vitamins all the way here, You don't need a lock to keep these vitamins safe. Please keep them safe."

When he stopped praying, he looked down to see a small wire laying between his feet. He promptly took the wire and fixed it in the window to lock it. We serve an incredible God!

We woke up early the next morning to get to Sunday school at GSF so we could share with the kids what God had done. Stay tuned for more pictures!

Vitamin Update

A few weeks ago we posted a developing story about A Few Vitamins.  Now we are “at liberty” to tell you more of the story.  In February, the whole lot of vitamins was shipped from Southaven, MS to Forest, VA at the offices of World Help.  The shipping was donated by a source unknown to us.  God provides again!

World Help is leading a large group of young people from Liberty University (our alma mater!) on a Spring Break mission trip to Uganda this month.  Though they aren’t coming to visit GSF, World Help committed to bring most, possibly all, of the vitamins to us since there are more than 40 young adults on this team.  Hand carrying items into Uganda is by far the best way to get things here, so the Lord provided the small army of people it takes to carry a ton of vitamins (about 40 pounds per person).

Yesterday, the students packed all of the extra luggage for the trip and it will all be weighed tomorrow to make sure they are within the airline weight restrictions.  The team flies to Uganda on Friday and we will meet them soon after they arrive on Saturday to pick up the vitamins.  Since there are literally more than we can use here at GSF, we are giving 1,000 bottles of the vitamins to the team to give to the other orphanages and ministries they are visiting in Uganda.  This was not only practical, but a way of saying “thank you” for delivering this cargo to us.

Stay tuned for the completion of the story!