Father's Day

                                  ***New Hope Uganda's theme verse***

It is a bit hard being here on our American Father's Day, when all the children here are fatherless.  Not all of the children are orphans, however.  Many of them have a grandmother, aunt or next of kin that they live with; many even live with their mothers.  But to qualify for New Hope Uganda's program, the child must be fatherless.  New Hope's vision is bringing the fatherhood of Christ to the fatherless.  For many who have never known a father, or the one they knew was abusive, angry, uninvolved, or neglectful, relating to God as a father is a struggle.  So New Hope works at teaching them them that God is a loving father who is gentle, patient, kind, forgiving, caring, etc. and that God is the father they never had.  They have done a lot of research and training about "the orphan heart". The prayer is that God will fill the void in their hearts that their earthly fathers left and that the Holy Spirit will heal the deep wounds inflicted by the person who should have protected and cared for them.  There are so many roles that God plays in our lives and in our hearts, so many names He has, but out of all of them, "Father" is the most important. 

They do such a wonderful job of structuring their program using a patriarchal model (which is Biblical) rather than the matriarchal model that most orphanages use.  The primary school (elementary) has 238 children, but only 140 of them actually live on the property; the rest are day students.  The 140 who live here are considered "total orphans" meaning they don't have a mother or father or another family member to care for them.  Those 140 are divided into 7 family groups of 20 children each, and an "uncle" is placed as the father head figure over the group.  He provides love, wisdom, spiritual leadership, guidance, discipleship, loving discipline (if needed), authority, etc. And of course their are aunties assigned to each group to help with caring and nurturing, but everything goes thru the uncle.  This points the children to God as the loving authority.  Unless we learn to submit to our earthly father's authority, we will never be able to submit to our Heavenly Father's authority.  This is God's design.  The next verse in Psalms 68:6 says "He sets the lonely in families".  

The family groups have nightly devotions together, recreational times together, working together in the garden, rotating chores around their compound, study and do homework together, eat family dinner every night, even have a small side family business where all the children contribute, to earn some extra cash for the family.  They are taught to help and care for their brothers & sisters, supporting each other as a real family would/should. Truly New Hope has this family and fatherhood thing downpat! It's a beautiful thing.

One of the 2 families we got to spend time with on Father's Day. They graciously invited us over for Sunday dinner. This is my friend, Ketty, who is using her cancer as a ministry outreach. Her & her husband are staff at New Hope. Their 7 children are blessed to have 2 loving parents and being raised in a Christian home. Ketty shared with us that in the past she could relate to Jesus and would pray to Jesus, but praying to Father God was too hard for her because she could not help but view God as her own earthly father--cruel and condemning. She shared how God convicted her heart that she had to forgive her father for the unimaginable things he had done to her and seek healing & restoration in Him. Until she did that, she could not have a healthy relationship with her Heavenly Father. And now her own children are able to enjoy a wonderful loving relationship with their earthly daddy! 

This is the other family we shared a meal with on Father's Day:

It is our sponsored son's family who has basically adopted us! We feel like they are all our sponsored kids! God has given us a special bond with this family!

They are 4 biological siblings raised by their mother, who is so grounded In her faith and so passionate towards her Heavenly Father that the children have all grown up to be passionate adults as well. You would never know they grew up with out an earthly father becuz their mother did such a good job helping them know God as "Tata" ("father" in Lugandan). She is a New Hope staff "mother" for one of the family groups and is such a Godly role model. Completely beautiful on the inside and out!

One of our favorite things to do with this family: worship!!! 

I am praising God today, for Joey who is a wonderful earthly father to children on both sides of the globe!  His heart is soft and obedient to his Heavenly Father and sensitive to the Holy Spirit's pomptings. In Jan 2008 he stepped out in faith and signed up to start sponsoring our first 10 children, using the monthly raise in salary that he received from earning his master's degree.  7.5 years and 3 visits later, we are so in love with these kids...so proud of their amazing gifts & talents.  Joey consistently stands in the gap, lifting up all of his kids in prayer.  He is a wonderful role model, pointing the kids to their Heavenly Father and reflecting Him.

THANKYOU Tata, Abba Father, for this blessed gift in being here in Africa...celebrating YOU on Father's Day and what you are doing in the lives of your children around the globe!