June 2023 Prayer Letter

Dear Praying Friends,

I can’t thank you enough for your prayer support especially through the last couple of months. To say it has been crazy would be an understatement!!

As of today, my friend, M, has the malnourished baby, R, in her care full time. That is a huge praise! R is under the care of several doctors and she is still not gaining weight at the rate she should. We are praying the doctor will write a care order for her to go to the US to get the medical care she needs. Please pray that M will be able to adopt her and get her to the states. There are still many, many hoops to jump through for this to happen.

Work at the facilities continues to be a joy and privilege. It doesn’t get any sweeter than listening to over 200 teenagers in prison singing praises to the Lord!! My heart is so full! Last month we had 70 kids in our discipleship class. Many of them were new so we went over the rules in the classroom: we encourage each other, we don’t laugh or make fun when someone makes a mistake, we never cane anyone (this always shocks them because they have been caned often at school), we don’t throw trash on the floor, etc. The kids had name tags and we passed around the trash can so everyone could throw the back of the name tag away. We had a great class as the kids were so attentive and so much fun. At the end of class, some of the new kids were helping me collect papers and pens. One of the boys said, “Jajja, I’ll take care of the trash for you!” I said, “OK.” He went over and threw the trash out the window! He was so proud of himself for helping take care of the trash that I couldn’t even say anything but, “thank you!” We still have some teaching to do!!

What a delight to have had 6 team members from Rivertree Church in Huntsville, AL serve with us last week! My son, Scott, and granddaughter, Hannah, were two of the members! It was honestly like Christmas when they arrived with treats for our staff, and for the kids! They did a two day VBS program in two of our facilities. The kids absolutely loved the songs, flannel graph stories, skits, crafts, and games. The kids in the facilities seldom get to act like kids, so it brought them so much joy. The gospel was clearly communicated and children in both facilities gave their lives to Christ.

Not only did the team encourage the kids, they were such a blessing to the staff. The staff had a blast working alongside the team. One night the team took the staff to a cultural dance show and dinner. It was a highlight for sure as the Ugandans got to tell the team about their lives and explain their culture.

Many of the children we work with are being resettled and while that is the goal, it still breaks my heart as I have come to love them. When they leave I know I will probably never see them again. I thank the Lord for those who have accepted Christ and I know we’ll get to spend eternity together! Please pray more and more of them will come to know the Lord!

You are an incredible prayer team and I can’t thank the Lord enough for your faithfulness!

Love,

Ava