January 2021 Prayer Letter

Dear Praying Friends,

Romans 15:13 “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”

I pray that you are abounding in that hope today! 2020 was a difficult, trying year for so many worldwide. I thank the Lord that 2020 didn’t take Him by surprise and that He is still on the throne! Only through Him can we abound in hope.

My heart is overflowing with joy as I write to you today. In December, I wrote about sponsoring children at Maama Catherine’s Children’s Ministries and y’all were amazing!! Nearly all of the children are now sponsored. Thank you!

Last year I wrote to you about Isaac and Habib, two boys who were street kids and ended up in one of our facilities. They were sentenced to about five months in prison, but ended up staying over four years because they had no safe home to return to. While at the facility, both boys gave their lives to the Lord. We were able to place them in a Christian home where they have received incredible love and care. I had not talked to them for a year, and this week we were able to reconnect!! I sobbed with joy as I heard their stories and heard Isaac’s voice. The boys are both doing well and growing in the Lord. Isaac had just started S1 (9th grade) when the pandemic hit, so his school shut down and they couldn’t continue virtually. He has been working around the house and once the lockdown was lifted, he would go and help farmers in the area to keep busy and to make a little money. He will go back to school once it opens. Habib is doing an apprenticeship with a mechanic learning how to work on boda bodas (motorcycles) and cars. He leaves home at 7:00am and returns at 10:00pm. He absolutely loves the work and his teacher said he is doing a great job. He also said, “Habib is a hard worker and an honest boy. I can trust him with anything.” What a blessing to hear!!

Isaac was able to visit his mother over Christmas and she was thrilled to see him. Habib saw his mother last week and it was tragic. His mother said she didn’t recognize him and wasn’t going to let him visit until his sister recognized him and made the mother let him come in. His mother is now a witch doctor. When Habib left home, about eight years ago, he had nine siblings, but only four are still living. Please pray for Habib as he tries to work through why his mother has always rejected him, fearing that his mother will try to bewitch him in some way, and fearing for his siblings who remain in his mother’s home. Praise the Lord for rescuing Habib from that home and for his new life in Christ!

There have been some changes at Sixty Feet and I want to include part of the news letter sent out by our new director, Emily Williams.

“Thank you for supporting Sixty Feet’s vision to bring hope and restoration to imprisoned children in Uganda. We are blown away by God’s faithfulness to us, especially in an unprecedented year for our world.

For Sixty Feet, 2020 was a year of refining who we are:

Remembering the vision God gave us.

Restructuring our work to remain faithful to His call on our ministry.

Identifying new leadership to help move us forward.

We are the only ministry doing this type of work with imprisoned children in Uganda; therefore, we are incredibly thankful for the call God has given us and our renewed sense of purpose and vision.

Because of your faithfulness in prayer and in giving to Sixty Feet, we wanted to update you on these exciting new changes. We are thrilled at the direction God is leading us, the mission He continues to give us, and His promised faithfulness through it all.

First, we are committed to focusing on discipling children in contact with the law while showing them God’s love by meeting their essential needs. We have reduced our staff, which is helping us eliminate some overhead costs and emphasize this goal. We are working to identify our key, critical areas and hoping to expand on this work. We are also planning to provide our current staff with more training on evangelism and discipleship. The objective is that as they fulfill their jobs, they are also increasingly well-equipped to share Jesus.

Secondly, we are reducing the scope of our work. We want to ensure we are providing long-term restoration and immediate relief to children in prison. Therefore, we are evaluating each program area and eliminating the ones that don’t directly align with our mission and/or the ones where we don’t have the capacity to effectively execute.”

Thank you for being part of this ministry and standing with us as we see to bring joy, peace, and hope to the children we work with.

Love,

Ava