Fullness.

The past two weeks have been amazing!

A team from Iris Ministries came to visit and do their outreach following the Iris Harvest Missions School in Pemba, Mozambique!  It was a wonderful time with them!  They represented the nations New Zealand, USA, England, Scotland, and Canada!  It was fun to have so many English accents around!

We were very busy this week but it was worth every second of love, life, joy, and salvation.

The team arrived last week on a Saturday Night!  The next day we went to church and went out to lunch with our kids!  It was a great time to go out and enjoy Ugandan food and its always a special treat for our kids to eat lunch out!

I was really excited we had Becky Banaszak here with us this week too!  Becky is a professional videographer so she was busy capturing the beauty of all the special moments this week!  She got a little ill and missed our village outreach but she was really a trooper and I was so impressed how well she handled Africa for her first time here in the midst of jet lag, new food and living environment, and with such grace love and enthusiasm and with such a busy schedule!  She was such a cheerleader to me all week!  Love this girl!

We took Becky and the team to see our children perform in a public setting for the first time ever!  They did a great job!  We are so thankful to Kika Dance Troupe and their director, Kaddu, for his amazing gift to train our children!  They are being trained by the #1 Dance Troupe in all of East Africa!  What?  God is so awesome!!!  These kids were absolutely shining the light of Jesus through every step!  I was so proud and so overjoyed!

Monday we spent most of the day getting acquainted and the team helped wrap over 300 Christmas Gifts for our children at Royal Hope!  It was just starting to feel like Christmas!  They had some help from our teachers and children too!  They dived into boxes and boxes of toys and school supplies to pull out and organize and wrap up treasures for our treasures!  :)

Tuesday and Wednesday we spent at the school doing games, songs, sports, crafts, and even skits!  The team went into every classroom to share a skit of the story of the Prodigal Son....they taught how forgiving and loving is our Heavenly Father!!!  The kids laughed as they acted out being pigs that the younger son was feeding!  :)  The team also spent time ministering prophetically in prayer to everyone of our staff members!  We are so thankful for this heavenly refreshment!  Many were very deeply touched!

Thursday was the big shabang!!!  We had our huge Christmas Party/Speech Day at Royal Hope!  Many people from our community came together to see the performances of our children.  We graduated our top class, celebrated the progress of our school, and gave our Christmas Gifts to EVERY CHILD!  What a joy knowing we are giving children the only Christmas gift they will receive!!!  A special thanks to Divine Care Ministries and Mama Phoebe Sozi who donated shoeboxes full of goodies to us!

Our dance team performing on speech day!!

Friday we rested some during the day and then prepared for our evangelism outreach in our very own village!  Many came to salvation and were healed and set free!  The team ministered in prayer and shared testimonies of God's faithfulness in their lives!

This precious muslims teen girl came to Jesus during our friday night outreach and asked for a Christian name!  Since her name started with H, we gave her the name Heidi in honor of Mama Heidi Baker and Iris!

Saturday
Some of the women we partner with brought their beautiful african crafts over for the team to purchase!  So fun to get to be a blessing to these incredible african queens!


Sunday
We ministered in a very poor local church with an incredibly humble and pure hearted pastor that has been such a blessing to us.  The team ministered from the story of the Prodigal Son and many were set free of unforgiveness, guilt, and shame receiving the Father's Love and forgiveness!  FREEDOM!  :)

We also did a treasure hunt in Kampala's poorest slum which was probably my favorite part of the week!  We asked the Holy Spirit for names of people, or types of clothing or appearance, and what they might need.  The Holy Spirit gave me the name Maria, a picture of a woman dressed in mismatched patterns of fabric, and the clue for something orange!  ;)  A little bitty girl ran up to me and said very excitedly and loudly "how are you"...  When I asked her for her name she said, MARIA!  Clue #1 check mark!  Then I asked her where her mommy was...and she said at home.  She asked if she could go and get her and I said yes!  She ran off but came back without her mommy.  I said okay let's go there together.  We went and I found two ladies sitting on the doorstep with very mismatched patterns of fabric!  ;)  Clue #2 checkmark!  The ladies were of a catholic belief that doesn't believe Jesus is divine.  They truly worship Mary!  I preached to both of these sisters and they both accepted to receive Jesus in their hearts and follow Him alone!  We ministered to Maria's mother concerning abuse and mistreatment from men and that God longed to bring healing and freedom to her heart!  It was a powerful time!  As we walked away, I turned around to see if there was anything orange and viola!  There was a bright orange bucket!  :)  Clue #3 checkmark!  I was so thankful and encouraged to have found my treasures!  Many other treasures were found including a man who was overjoyed when we showed him his name written on our paper and he rededicated his life back to Jesus.  More salvations.  A woman healed of severe pregnancy pain.  A woman with full blown AIDS who was very sick was prayed over for healing and she left Islam to come home to Jesus!  So many more!!!!!!!  GOD WAS REALLY MOVING!  :-)  and it was lots of fun!  As we were going, I realized I had forgotten to bring the Christmas toys for the children.  I told the team we are just going to have to give away lots of signs and wonders!  God is so faithful to show up when we step out!

Sweet sisters who found Jesus.  The slums are my favorite!  That is Maria in the background!

I wish I had more pictures to show but the team members took tons and hopefully I'll get some of theirs!  (hint hint if you are reading this)  ;-)

Throughout this week, I have come to realize that the state of our hearts and our heart motives are so important.  We need to guard our hearts because out of our hearts flows life!  Joy and peace should be overflowing in our lives.  We should always minister out of overflow of intimacy and blessing...out of fullness.  Still even in the drier places and seasons we walk through, we are refreshed as we refresh others.  Though my body is pretty spent, my heart is so full after this incredible week of ministry.

LOVE...it is all nothing without true love and compassion and deep connection to our savior!  Stay close to Him.  Give love away this Christmas!  Worship Him.  Stay in the place of abiding!  Its the BEST PLACE to be!!!!!!!  No matter where you are in the world, if you are hidden in His heart...you are truly blessed!

Many people face so much challenge and heartbreak in this nation of Uganda...Im praying this Christmas that they will all be HELD by the comforting arms of our Heavenly Father and that they will receive signs and wonders and flashes and glimpses of His great love for them!  May you also feel His arms as you are Held.