Gifts for Marcia’s Birthday!
Posted by Marcia MacIntosh Baugh on Friday, October 11, 2019
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Category: FAMILY
Now that’s a HEAP O’ BEANS Granny Topirista!!
Praising God for this News of Harvest after the two-growing season drought!!
This is how God blesses abundantly : 1/4 lb. TO 176 LBS.!
News from our Granny Coordinator, Pastor Richard:
” Granny Topirister Is Seated On A Heap Of Beans Harvested From Her Farming God’s Way Garden.
She Says,her Farming God’s Way Teachers (at The Way Home) Gave Her A quarter 1/4 (1/2 pound) Of A Kg Of Beans During (Farming God’s Way) Training.
She Has Multiplied This Seed Using Farming Gods Way Techniques And Now She Has Over 80kg (176 POUNDS!!!!) Of Beans.
She Is Happy And Proud Of This Way Of Organic Farming ”
True JOY at Christmas!
Merry Christmas to YOU from our family (Russ & Marcia Joseph, Dominick & Samson) and on behalf of the 83 Granny Families of TWH, may your day of celebration of Jesus birth this day be blessed and your joy increased:
We have been sharing our joy with you these last 10 days (10 days of Christmas blessings)…this Granny is the picture of true JOY!
Granny Topirista is the 10th granny family of 2016 that you may have been a part of blessing by your prayerful or financial participation. God Himself has increased their supply…we hope being able to actually SEE these before & after photos has been a visual of how Preciously God cares for the least of these in tangibly sweet and practical ways through you in His ministry #TheWayHomeAfrica
This is Granny Toprista Tibitondwa’s Family & their story please pray for them today 
Topirista has a huge family. Maybe that’s why her smile is magnetic. A lovely and not complaining woman. Her mom stays in the bigger house next to her terrible shelter. I asked why doesn’t she and the kids she cares for stay in there? Alfred (our GM and Construction manager) understood the practical part but sometimes even the most practical solution can’t overcome culture. She stays outside because once a daughter or son leaves the home of the parents they can’t go back. There are exceptions but it looks like this is not one of the exceptions.
Mainly Topirista cares for the 5 children of her deceased son ranging from ages 8 to 15. In this culture some men (particularly the past generation) took more than one wife and the wives are called “co-wives”. Christianity is making some progress in helping the people of Uganda on this topic. Actually we may be surprised at such practices, but we shouldn’t let that deter us. We can take a lot of lesson’s from the Ugandan ethics and practices we do not follow. It’s the poverty and existence of so many widow’s and orphans and the introduction of Hope of Jesus Christ we strive to promote.
In addition to the 5 children of her deceased son (Topirista had 9 children of her own!), Topirista cares for the 3 younger children of her deceased co-wife. Topirista is another of our Hero’s! To top it off, her mom is living and blind. A better sense of humor I have not seen and I’ve seen some good ones. In fact when we were introduced she said: “it’s good to see you” and she laughed and clarified saying: “I don’t really see you because I’m blind but I know you are there”. Topirista’s mom is 88, caring for two children of Topirista’s deceased brother, Moses.
For reasons you now know, Topirista was the first one to have her home built in 2016! Thank you for joining in our journey.
BEFORE
AFTER
Visiting Widows & Orphans in their distress
Biography of a “Granny”:
Mwamini Kaswa became a widow several years ago when her husband died in a tragic motorcycle accident. Mwamini, her 4 children and 2 grandchildren were eventually evicted from their home and are currently living in a neighbor’s hallway. But all of that is about to change! Contracts for the construction of her new home on family land have been signed and a three room brick home with two room latrine & bathing room is being built by The Way Home’s local laborers, funded by our dedicated ministry partners at ‘Homes for Homes’.
Praise the Lord as He faithfully directs His obedient followers to look after His vulnerable widows & orphans…
God has not forgotten you Mwamini.
SWEET POTATO JOY!
LOOK at what God does with sweet Potatoes when we farm HIS Way !!
The Way Home applies “Farming God’s Way” with FULL persuasion 🙂
Our harvest has been very good and improving potato crops each season but never such large potatoes. Granny Juliette together with TWH Staff workers exclaimed that they have not seen potatoes this size since they were young children! The likely explanation is that traditional methods of farming in Uganda tend to not sow back into the soil…when we teach them to Farm God’s Way we teach them to sow into the land because in farming as in life…we reap what we sow!!
What did we do differently?
This past growing season we decided to add water during the rain/growing season. We didn’t know what outcome adding water after two weeks passed without rain would bring to our harvest. Our compound now stores rain water in a large elevated container that makes irrigation water available as long as the stored water lasts in the container. If it rains we can add more to the storage. We don’t use it so long as rain comes. The store of water is used to moisten with about 1.5 liter to every plant when two weeks pass without rain. We can see that water seems to be valuable. Is it possible when it’s been dry for two weeks that you carry water to the garden to revive your plants. Farming God’s Way to a high standard means you also have mulched your garden. The water you deliver will help so much until the next rain. Try it! We think you will like the results.
And remember to give God thanks and Glory for He has given everything you need.
His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
2 Peter 1:3
Profile of a true HERO!
Granny Topirista has a huge family.
Maybe that’s why her smile is magnetic.
A lovely and not complaining woman.
Her mom stays in the bigger house next to her terrible shelter.
I asked why doesn’t she and the kids she cares for stay in there?
Alfred (our GM and Construction manager) understood the practical part but sometimes even the most practical solution can’t overcome culture.
She stays outside because once a daughter or son leaves the home of the parents they can’t go back.
There are exceptions but it looks like this is not one of the exceptions.
Mainly Topirista cares for the 5 children of her deceased son ranging from ages 8 to 15. In this culture some men (particularly the past generation) took more than one wife and the wives are called “co-wives”. Christianity is making some progress in helping the people of Uganda on this topic. Actually we may be surprised at such practices, but we shouldn’t let that deter us.
We can take a lot of lesson’s from the Ugandan ethics and practices we do not follow. It’s the poverty and existence of so many widow’s and orphans and the introduction of Hope of Jesus Christ we strive to promote.
In addition to the 5 children of her deceased son (Topirista had 9 children of her own!), Topirista cares for the 3 younger children of her deceased co-wife.
Topirista is another of our Hero’s!
To top it off, her mom is living and blind. A better sense of humor I have not seen and I’ve seen some good ones. In fact when we were introduced she said: “it’s good to see you” and she laughed and clarified saying: “I don’t really see you because I’m blind but I know you are there”. Topirista’s mom is 88, caring for two children of Topirista’s deceased brother, Moses.
For reasons you now know, Topirista will have her home be the first The Way Home construction team will build this coming 2016 as soon as possible, beginning January!
Thank you for joining in our journey.
We are thankful for your friendship, prayers, and ask if you can help, and encourage you to continue if you are already give, but if not please give what you can to support the expansion of the Kingdom through The Way Home, sending your gift payable to Every Child Ministries, memo note: The Way Home.
Address:
PO BOX 810
Hebron, Indiana
46341
or electronically via our website donation page: http://thewayhomeafrica.com/make-impact/
A monthly gift would help very well.
Merry Christmas!
Gasping @ “Jesus Loves YOU”
Today is Monday, June 1.
It was time for a special time with our staff to talk about the transition from the close of the Gospel’s after Christ had died, rose from the dead (according to the various witnesses, including the report of Dr. Luke) and the beginning of the Church in Acts. Several men were on our compound and are temporarily working with a sub contractor. I’ve enjoyned speaking with them and admiring their work the past few days. None of them believe in Jesus as God or as Savior. They were kind of skeptical, at the suggestion Jesus is God, but were very interested at the testimony of Luke talking so confidently, just reporting what happened but in so doing expressing his own belief in it all. Because they are of another faith, with so many of their friends and family of the same faith around, there’s a lot of pressure to be skeptical of a Christians’ motives. One thing I wanted them to know was what I called an American proverb. I said: ” a person’s judgement is only as good as the information he has”. I told them “we will continue with Acts tomorrow to be picked up by Alfred and Simon when I leave in a week, but remember, whether you believe what the Bible says, or even want to come to a study like this tomorrow or any time, is a matter of free will. Your job is not at risk if you don’t come”. I told them “I examined the scripture for years myself, but after that, I believe it is all true, but you should decide for yourself. The meeting to hear scripture is only the sharing of good, and I believe very accurate, information”. We will see who shows up tomorrow!
We met with three more Granny’s to sign their home construction agreements (one a mother but a terrible situation she is in and an exception was made for her). One is Granny Fatina who with her 4 daughters, one son and three grandchildren all sleeping on the dirt floor together in a 9′ x 10′ feeble hut. Her eye had a thorn in it. It has been worked on by a Physician who knew what to do, thanks to our nurse, Asaph, who took care of her needs. In the process of signing an agreement we talked of a number of points but when I told her “Jesus loves you very very much” she gasped and cried very quickly, caught herself and gained her composure, trying to conceal her emotion. She also is of another faith but something special happened just then. Fatina accepted our Granny Coordinator, Simons’ invitation to join the Granny Group meeting very close to her for the group Bible study Simon leads. Please pray for Fatima and the children in her family.
Our new guard dogs (well…”guard-puppies” so far!) are lodged in our guest house courtyard to allow them to be nurtured and grow. A very nice environment to raise them to a bigger size. The staff love them although generally Ugandans cannot really love dogs. But these dogs are here as “guards that do not take bribes”. As such they protect and cannot be corrupted according to one of our guards. Hope so. Already I’m looking forward to seeing how much Ricky and Lucy will have grown when I return again to Uganda in August, God willing.
God bless, Russ
Truth going forth!
Praise the LORD for what He has done ~ and will do…
Alfred’s contracted with a man having experience to put a proper grass roof on TWH. That looks to be so! Alfred built a foundation with bricks and cement that is very strong and this roofing contractor is doing his part to put the stick built trussing structure up to support grass roofing material. When the poles are all up and in place grass is put on in bundles, layered and secured. I hope the end product looks so good. But by the quality of the rafters the grass will probably be good too! Now, where does he get the grass? He travels by taxi from Nasuti about 5 hours to the shores of lake Victoria, then by boat to an Island where the grass is growing. He hires local men to cut it, and bundle it, and stack it. They don’t have termites there. We do, so we need to spray our grass as it waits to go up and finally again when it gets to the roof. After the cutting on the island, they heap it on one or more boats (it’s going to take a lot!) and the boat travels over pretty dangerous waters (a storm can kick up any time like one of the great lakes of Michigan). When it arrives they load it onto a truck then to its home in Nasuti. We’re hoping all the grass we need arrives soon as the rafters may be done next week.
The Latrine too is nearly done, a four stall beauty with a real septic system hand dug and hand mixed and poured concrete made right there. With the 4 pit latrine style toilets there are two baths for bathing and changing. What luxury we will make available to our Pastors!
Again, you all, thank you for your generous praying, and your generous giving and praise the Lord over and over for what He has done. We look to what He will do as well!
I meet our teacher, Daniel Isabirye Friday, to talk about things I need to know to facilitate a Pastor Bible Training Program. Marcia and I are so thankful it will be run by Pastor Terry Nester (our missionary Pastor from our church in Jinja) and taught by Pastor Daniel and probably a few others along the way. Pray for men on our staff and those others God has to come, that they will come and be faithful to work diligently and persevere to transform, and become the Shepard of their community God calls them to be.
We’ve signed agreements Monday with two Grannies to receive 3 room homes and latrines.
They are Beatrice (having 4 grandchildren ages 2 1/2 to 14)
and Elizabeth (having with her two grandchildren ages 8 and 10).
Yesterday we approved two more after the interviews. Fatina lives in the smallest straw and broken brick home (9 x 10) with four daughters and her son PLUS her 3 grandchildren (ages 9, 6, and 3). She has a thorn stuck in her eye.
We will get her to an eye doctor and hopefully get her agreement signed next week and start her home and latrine very soon. Please pray for God to be their Husband and their God.
Thanks and talk to you soon!
Russ
until we meet again Fred !
What a blessing it was for the staff and granny-families to have Fred & Heather with them; serving so selflessly…it is bittersweet for us too Fred Thank you SO much for sharing your time there with all of us through this blog…we feel like we’ve been on the back of your boda 🙂 see you again ‘soon OR forever” !!
BITTERSWEET
Fred writes: Today was bittersweet as it was our last day at The Way Home. While today was sweltering and we’re tired and starting to look forward to coming home it will still be hard to leave this place and its wonderful people. This morning Heather sped off on the boda to track down the last three grannies while I stayed behind and spent some time talking to director Russ about how our church might be able to assist him in what God is doing here. Later in the day we had a very special treat as we were able to be present at a granny interview where she was informed that she would be receiving a new home. Her son passed away and left her with three orphaned grandkids and she still has three daughters at home as well. They are all sleeping in the round eight foot diameter hut pictured below. They will soon have a 10′ x 30′ house, a new latrine and three years of training and assistance with their garden. Director Russ shared with them how God has a heart for widows and orphans and that there are people in America who love God and desire to obey Him and invest in the things that He cares about and that is how they are receiving their new home. At the end of our time with them He then also had an opportunity, at the request of one of the Ugandan pastors who will be following up with the family, to share the way of salvation with them. It was astounding to hear the sensitive, culturally relevant way in which he was able to share the Good News – Good News that began 2000 years ago in Palestine and now traveled to east Africa by way of North America. Amazing stuff here.
At the end of the day we were treated by the Ugandan staff here at The Way Home to a traditional Ugandan dinner of mitoke (an un-sweet banana kind of thing cooked like mashed potatoes), greens, rice, potatoes and even some of Tom, one of the turkeys we’ve been watching strut around the yard all week. It was great to sit down and break bread with the builders, farmers and pastors who work so diligently bringing shelter, food and Jesus to the people of Uganda.
