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What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them?  Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food.  If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?  In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”   James 2: 14-17

Speaking on behalf of the voiceless children in Uganda….

We greatly appreciate your time and consideration of partnership with Every Child Ministries, The Way Home Project by prayer and financial support as our family moves to begin this project in just a few weeks. We are intending to begin the first phase of our holistic compassion ministry to abandoned and institutionalized children, by ministering and supporting the unsung heroes of Africa…the “GRANNIES”!

Grandmothers in Uganda single-handedly care for tens of thousands of children orphaned by AIDS, sometimes as many as ten to fifteen in one household. These are courageous women who bury their own children and then look after their orphan grandchildren, calling on astonishing reserves of love and emotional resilience. But they do so with almost no support. They are the unsung heroes and the backbone of Ugandan family caregivers. Although African ‘Grannies’ have learned to be resourceful, they need help or the reality is, their hard lives will become unbearable:
The steeply rising cost of staples like rice means that many cannot count on even one meal a day, let alone enough food for a family.
Grandparents take on the care of their grandchildren, while still mourning the deaths of their own children.
They need help to buy coffins and pay for dignified burials. Many families must spend a third of their meager incomes on funerals.
They need funds to buy uniforms for their grandchildren: Primary education up to P-7 is ostensibly free in Uganda, but uniforms are mandatory and classrooms can be up to 100 children.
They need help to establish sustainable incomes and sustainable gardens to secure life and possibly afford a good education.
They need mattresses, water supply and good shelter and working latrines. Many live in mud-and-straw huts without latrines and almost no ventilation, which means that in dry times, interior dust creates breathing problems. In the heavy rains, quite frequent in Uganda, the walls dissolve. We could help build a new brick houses and/or latrines to replace some granny’s crumbling mud shelters.
It’s very difficult to grasp the extent of the AIDS pandemic. Statistically, of the 33 million infected worldwide (that’s about the population of Canada) 22.5 million live in 15 sub-Saharan Africa countries like Uganda. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the seeming hopelessness of it all but what we can experience is the joy of generosity and Christian love in doing what we can to minister to the basic needs of these precious families that we can help ONE at a time.

The 1st phase of THE WAY HOME- developing the Grannies ministry, will build our reputation of helping the biological families care for their own in Uganda through strengthening Christian grandmothers and her grandchildren. During the 2nd phase, after the first 1 to 2 years on the ground in Uganda, we will begin a Foster Family program. Working in the Church will be our greatest resource for finding the neediest grannies and the families who will eventually step forward to serve as foster families to orphans who God gives us as abandoned or institutionalized children.

We have commitments for this program already and our goal is for a “seed” fund to initiate our grannies program. All 2010/2011 Way Home Project donations in excess of our goal will be allocated 50% to our grannies program and 50% to the Way Home Foster-2-Adopt Program.

Is God is tugging at your heart? Let us hear how God might be calling you to partner with us–financially enabling us to begin these vital programs in support of widows and orphans. Thank you for your heartfelt prayerful consideration!

For the Glory of our Father…
“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”
James 1:27

I WANT TO INVEST ETERNALLY THIS CHRISTMAS

“If a commission by an earthly king is considered an honor, how can a commission by a Heavenly King be considered a sacrifice?” — David Livingstone

As our family prepares to leave for our move to Africa in a few short months, and as we share our mission opportunity with others…it seems this question posed by an historic African missionary remains the underlying question to anyone whom God is commissioning into service for Him! Almost across the board the reactions to our “commission” to serve Uganda’s most vulnerable children is seen as a sacrifice. To that we say…how can it be a sacrifice if all that we’ve been commissioned to do and all that we need to accomplish it is provided entirely by our King/Commissioner?

Ray Stedman put it like this:
“When we freely admit, in practice, that without Christ we can do nothing, then we shall learn that we can do all things through him who strengthens us. Faith is the process of this, and it will never be any different. No matter how long we live as Christians, we will ourselves never become any better or any more able to serve Christ, apart from simple dependence upon him. It is always and only Christ working in us which accomplishes the Father’s will.”

So that settles it…while we may be giving up earthly comforts of living in beautiful NW Michigan…how can we do anything but consider this commission an honor bestowed upon us by our Heavenly King…as we move forward in faith and simple dependence on Him for all the resources, wisdom and strength to accomplish HIS will for “The Way Home” project in Uganda? To God be the Glory!

O, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! Rom 11:33

If God is commissioning YOU to be a partner in this project…please join us in counting it an HONOR! To find out more about “The Way Home project to orphans and vulnerable children please contact us at: baughsinafrica@yahoo.com or online:http://www.thewayhomeafrica.com/

MISSION NETWORK NEWS INTERVIEW of EVERY CHILD MINISTRIES’ “THE WAY HOME” project will air 8/17/2010.

Check this link to see the online interview: http://www.mnnonline.org/article/14606

The Baugh family with their 3 adopted children all serving with :

HOPE FOR THE FORGOTTEN CHILDREN OF AFRICA

www.ecmafrica.org

Habakkuk 3:19 The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights.

Okay…so we have returned from two weeks of support raising with vacation mixed in 🙂 in celebration of the FINALIZED ADOPTIONS of our two new sons! We had a great time and met many encouraging partners…but realistically speaking driving 3500 miles with three small children is a bit on the edge of exhausting and the re-entry back to busy schedules has always been a challenge for me and this one was no different.
I took my frustrations and disappointments to the Lord in prayer as I went for an UPhill run with great music in my ear…all the way up the hill I was uploading my discouragement to the Lord in prayer…as I breathlessly reached the top the Lord (I believe) sent a young dear leaping over my path into the woods in front of him. At the same time the Lord (I believe) put the thought into my mind “HE makes my feet like the feet of a deer, HE enables me to go on the heights”
Thank you Lord for putting my life and our goals to reach Uganda by September back into perspective, by literally giving me a creative word picture to remind me that YOU are the goal setter and the goal acheiver, YOU call and YOU equip…YOU make my feet like the feet of a deer.
I love being dependent on YOU alone Lord God. Thank you that you only ask me to take ONE step at a time in Faith that YOU will enable the Baugh family to reach the heights you have for us, with exactly the team YOU have chosen, in exactly the timing YOU know is perfect for our needs and the needs of your helpless children in Uganda. Because I live by your spirit, I am free to just keep in step with YOUR spirit…
Praise YOU Lord!!!

Galatians 5:25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

Therapeutically submitted 🙂
Marcia
http://www.baughsinafrica.com

WHY NOT ME ???

THIS IS LOVE : Lyrics by Jeremy Riddle   
INSERTS: Truths from GOD’S WORDThis is how I love you
I obey your commmands
To love truth and love justice
And my fellow man

  Isaiah 1:17 learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.

To steady to weak
And the hungry to feed
That Christ might be honored
And with me be pleased

  

James 2:15-16 Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food.If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?

For this is the love

The love You have shown
And to love I must echo
The love I have known
So I will be faithful
To love as required
A love shown by obedience
Lord I’ll be obedient

1John 5:3 This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome,

This is how I love You
Giving as I’ve received
The blessings You’ve lavished
To others in need

1John 3:17 If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Matthew 10:8 Freely you have received, freely give
To care for the poor
To free the oppressed
To stand for the orphan
And the widow to bless

James 1:27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

If I have not love
Then I truly have
Nothing at all

1Corinthians 13:3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Here now is love
The love You have shown
And to love I must echo
The love I have known
So I will be faithful
To love as required
A love shown by obedience
Lord I’ll be obedient

1John 4:11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 

Partner with us in this ‘opportunity’ to practice the pure and faultless religion that God accepts and to keep yourself from being polluted by the world. Love, The Baugh Family

“THE WAY HOME” – Uganda 
serving under:
Every Child Ministries…hope for the forgotten children of Africa 

“AM I ADOPTED YET?”

That was the question Dominick, our 8 year old grandson, asked just before we tucked him into bed last night!

His question hit me like a ton of bricks… it never occured to me that the finality of adoption had been on HIS wish list too. After all, he and Samson (his 3 year old brother) have lived with us for over 2 years now…awaiting the unavoidable barrage of paper work involved in state foster care adoptions. But as I thought about it again… the NEED for all people to permanently belong to a family…I asked myself, “why wouldn’t he want to hear those words ‘it’s final!-you are officially part of our forever family now”…even from his Nana and Papa?

I assumed the stability, love and bonding over these two years of living together as a family, would have caused his level of ‘assurance of son-ship’ to replace any anxiety of finishing the final step! By God’s grace, I have never experienced the earth shattering loss of confidence that must surely give way to fear and lack of trust in all relationships in a child, when a parent can no longer care for them.

Once again, I am humbled by the responsibility and awed at the privilege of parenting, and have been awakened AFRESH to all I have taken for granted. Through the mouths of babes!

I don’t take these life lessons lightly… I have learned that each is a part of the preparation to serve the Lord to do the good works that He has prepared in advance for us to do as HIS children (Ephesians 2:10) Thank you ABBA Father…for adopting me into your forever family…Officially !!