Faith

Hear this..It’s an Update!!

April 29, 2013 By Sherry Leave a Comment

So many have asked about our journey to our girl.

After Grace went to be with Jesus, we went into prayer and fasting asking God,

what do you want us to do?

He kept over and over saying “Continue to move forward, I got this”.

So we did, we moved forward, waiting on God to show us.

One day while watching Luke at his school play, I let my mind wonder, but we won’t tell him that.

I felt God placing upon my heart a very specific name for a girl. (God ,knows exactly how to get my attention, names and numbers)

I loved the name, it is so pretty. So I tucked it away into my heart for later maybe.

Fast forward two days…I get an instant message from director of the baby home, she says we have a little girl her name is (L)…ummm wait!! what did you say????

It was the same name God gave me just two days earlier.

Ummmm….ok….can you give me more info on her. She does tell me her age at that moment…and we are not approved for that age…so I know I have to call the USCIS office to see how hard it would be to change this.

The director states she will be right back. In the mean time I start praying like crazy asking God is this her..are you sure?? I mean I need another sign (thank God He loves me, because I can drive Him crazy I am sure with all my request).

I said God you know I need something else…as if her name wasn’t enough. I say..ok if this is her then when I call the USCIS office to see if I can change our age range..either way it will be my answer as to what you want us to do. I call and the women on the phone states..It will be NO problem.

Ok God I get it, BUT…can you give me one more sign…the thing that will seal it for me..(I am sure he is rolling His eyes just about at that time).

You see for the last two years I keep seeing the # 10 20..every where..in address, times on the clock etc…but figuring its my birthday and all 10/20 that is more then likely why..

So she comes back on the phone I tell her that USCIS says it’s no problem etc.

She says…wait for it,,,,, wait for it…her birthday is 10/20..

SAY WHAAAAAAAAAAT!!!!!

BAM!!!!!…here’s your sign.

So needless to say, we said YES!!!!

Now here we are, that was over two months ago.

We are beyond excited to bring our girl home.

There are still some mountains like finances, and a signature…but we are almost there.

We are waiting on one signature to arrive and we can submit to court, then get our date….as of this morning we are hoping that paperwork get’s there this week.

We still have quite a bit of money to raise…I hate putting all our stuff out there

but it is $5500.00. This is to pay the remainder of our attorney fee’s and in country fee’ s and travel while there.

God has shown us such favor in finances so far..but at the same time through

people in our lives He has told them that we need to be still and wait on Him for these finances He will make it happen stop with new fundraisers.

Well this girl has a VERY hard time doing that.

I feel I need to fund-raise…if I don’t then HOW will we get all this money.

I am taking what has been told and being still, plus I truly believe everyone

is so sick of hearing that I have another fundraiser, they are starting to de-friend me…lol

God has given me my little Etsy shop to help with raising the money.

I am so blessed by the orders that I have been getting…we are getting one step

closer to our girl…one cuff at a time.

We still have our puzzle fundraiser going on here.

I don’t know how we will raise the remainder $5500.00, I do know that I

need to wait on Him to direct me on if He wants us to do another fundraiser or not.

Right now He is saying, BE STILL!

Please pray with us that the remainder comes in soon, so we can go, when we get the court date..which we hope is coming in the next week or so.

Mothers Day is right around the corners as well, so head on over to my little store here.

If you feel led to help us bring our girl home, you can donate by clicking on the donate button below.

Filed Under: Adoption, Embrace Designs, etsy, Faith

I never knew the love of a father..

April 17, 2013 By Sherry 1 Comment

This post is raw and from the depths of my soul. With grammar errors and all.

Bare with me..

This last week we went to see Heidi Baker (she is so inspiring)..she is a missionary from Mozambique.

It was an amazing night..truly amazing. The worship was wonderful.

It was towards the end, as I was sitting there…the worship leader started singing

the song “The More I Seek You” by Kari Jobi.

I’ve heard it a thousand times…but this night was different.

I am 40+ and have NEVER known the love of an earthly father like a girl needs.

All my life, all I can remember is my dad being an alcoholic. I knew nothing else. He was there every night…but not there. I am sure if you grew up this way you understand.

I have some memories of him teaching me how to ride my bike, maybe going to lake…but nothing else good.

As I grew older, started a family, our relationship grew very strained.

He would call me at random times in my life and tell me what a miserable failure I was to him. I was not his daughter, he disowned me.

Then call ask for forgiveness (which I always gave)..then months later do the same thing….some things I just can’t repeat on here, but you wouldn’t say them to your worst enemy.

He tried to get my daughters involved in his hate for me..

That didn’t work, so he would come at me again..full hateful force.

The wounds have cut to the very core of my soul.

Since the time I gave my life to Christ I have learned to completely forgive my father.

I choose to not have a relationship with him, because of the pain and it just is not something I need in my life at this time.

But the desire to have an earthly father does not go away, EVER!

This last year and a half has been joyful, painful etc. I would love nothing more to have an earthly father to call and say daddy take care of this..daddy hug me…daddy wipe my tears.daddy lets go to lunch..daddy hold me, daddy are you proud of me.. That’s all a girl wants.

BUT….I don’t have that…

But that night during worship and listening to the song above…I felt my heavenly father take me in His arms, lift my chin up and say..I am proud of your, I love you, I will take care of it my daughter, I will wipe your tears, I am holding you and I am with you at lunch, ALWAYS.

I just about lost it…I completely came undone.

I might not have an earthly father in my life, but I have a heavenly father that loves me more then an earthly one ever will or could.

He is with me ALL the time, He never leaves my side. He gives me amazing gifts, He protects me, He guides me..He LOVES ME!!!

People might not understand my faith. But I can’t imagine a day without my heavenly father..my only regret is, I wish I would of know about him alot sooner. We have alot of catching up to do.

I love you daddy.

Hey daddy, you want to go play?

Filed Under: Faith

God even cares about PATIO doors!!

March 25, 2013 By Sherry Leave a Comment

What!!! Patio doors…what am I talking about you might ask?

We live in an older house and lets just say it’s been a work in progress for a very long time. Short name is money pit..remember that movie?? Yep that’s us.

As you know we are saving for our adoption and even 50.00 is alot right now.

But we knew we HAD to replace our patio door, not because we wanted a new one, but because, every time you walked by it my hair would blow…Seriously!! Not joking here.

It was literally rotting out of the frame.

We didn’t know what we were going to do…we didn’t/don’t have an extra 600.00 plus dollars…could we find a cheaper one? That was our quest.

We went to the Restore run by Habitat for Humanity..a used piece of junk was 150.00 and they didn’t work.

We went to Home Depot and yep..the cheapest one was about 380.00 (for a real cheaply made one) and another 379.00 for installation. WHAT are you kidding me..Lord help us!

So we trekked to another store..and still about 380.00-550.00.

We just didn’t know what we were going to do..

We drove to one last place while praying on the way, we were so frustrated, tired from all this house stuff. We just cried out Lord help us.

The hubster saw on Craigslist that they (84 Lumber) had a door that was put in wrong and had to be removed and returned to store, so they were selling it as is..

The original guy when we called a week before about is, said it was going to be 350.00.

Ummmmm..NO…it was damaged, wrong color and wouldn’t work.

The manager showed us another one, that was REALLY nice…the exact fit, everything we needed plus more.

But…. he had to check on price and was thinking around that 500.00 something point.

As he was looking for prices the hubster went to look across the store at other items, while I read the sign about AWESOME customer service, they pride themselves, its family run etc etc.

Nice manager says, “boy oh boy I can’t seem to find the price”

How about if you take it now, it’s yours for $100.00!!

Me-Wait…what did you just say?

Manager- $100.00

Me- choking on my own spit and holding pack the tears says YES YES YES we will take it now!! I really wanted to jump the counter and give this guy a huge hug and kiss but not sure he would of thought that was part of the deal.

I yell across the store to the hubsters…UMMM get the truck, he said 100.00 if we take it NOW..

The hubster had that dear in the head light look..

I give him that wife look…like what the heck you standing there for run like Forest Gump, dude just said we can have it for a $100.00.

The manager leaves to go get the fork lift…and right there in the middle of the store..cry out to The Lord giving Him ALL the GLORY. I could not hold the tears..we were in utter awe of His goodness.

With one swell swoop, He changes the price, just like that.. Because HE cares that much…yes our God cares about patio doors.

There is nothing He doesn’t care about, nor not want to be part of.

He wants to be part of every single detail of our lives.

A friend said, oh how I love to see God show off…boy, did He that day…because if He hadn’t, my hair would still be blowing in the wind.

Old Patio Door Removed.

We found dry rot after the patio door was removed…that’s a whole other story.

I have to say I have the best husband EVER…this man takes on every project (even if he doesn’t know how to do it) 100%.

Just about done.

This felt like it was one of the longest days of our lives..it was just us two tackling this job…

I will not confirm, nor deny, that I got into fetal position and cried that night.

14 hours later, everything that could go wrong did, but 11pm it was done.

To GOD BE THE GLORY, even in patio doors.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for loving us that much.

Filed Under: Faith

Having Faith in this Journey!

March 11, 2013 By Sherry Leave a Comment

This last year and half has been a true up and down road of emotions.

From hearing God’s heart 2011, to today being in the midst of an adoption.

It all started with a whisper from the Lord. We knew being sold out totally to what the Lord has for us, would not be an easy road all the time.

When we said “yes” to His call on our lives…we had NO idea that right now we would of seen nor have gone through what we have.

There has been joy, laughter and many tears.

Because, if we would have known what it was going to be like, we might just of said, we can’t handle that.

I mean losing a referral of a little boy, then losing another child to death, is really more then I thought I could handle…but God is truly good.

He gives a comfort like none other during these times.

Phil 4:7 “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

It’s a true stepping out in faith.

2Cor 5:7 “For we live by faith, not by sight”.

Matt 17:20 “Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

My faith is being tested I feel at every level these days.

God, how will we do this?

God, how will we get the money?

God, how will we handle the rejection of family and friends?

God, how do I deal with the loneliness?

How, How, How!!

He keeps saying..”Trust me my dear daughter “I” will do it. “ME” alone. I will deal with things for you.

But!!!!!! God how ever will we raise all the money?

My daughter, I did not bring you this far to leave you stranded. It will come.

BUT!!!!! God…what about????

No more “buts”

Being still is not one of my strong points.

I know that God has this, I know that He is taking care of our child until we can come and I know He will not leave us stranded to do this on our own devices.

I know there will be a time when we can look back at all the stress, heartache and go….oh, now I get it.

Please, don’t hear that this has all been stressful, because it hasn’t. He has blessed us with two amazing children (even for just a short bit) that we fell head over heels in love with. We have seen Jesus in the eyes of children. We have new family and relationships. We have been blessed beyond blessed. God has shown up time and time again in this journey.

The one thing we have learned is….

We are NEVER alone in our journey…He is ALWAYS right beside us, holding our hands, guiding us directing us. He is always working on our behalf.

All I need is FAITH!

Filed Under: Faith

Introducing………

January 21, 2013 By Sherry Leave a Comment

This past year has been a roller coaster of emotions.

So many of you know our story…when we left last June for Africa we had NO idea that God would break our hearts completely for the orphan.

But He did..and specifically for one little boy..we fought hard for this boy until the bitter end.

One minute he was promised ours then 48hrs he was given to another family. That had to of been one of the hardest days of our lives. I literally went into my closet for hours and cried out to God..WHY!!!!! I didn’t understand at all why this was happening..I could not wrap my mind around why we were taken this far…then all of a sudden it get ripped our from underneath us.

But we knew God had a plan…a perfect plan.

Jeremiah 29:11-For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

We new when we left for Africa this last time, we would be seeing that precious boy again..and let me tell you how heart wrenching that was.

But God gave us a word through a missionary we NEVER met before, that gave us a peace beyond all understanding.

It was the exact time we needed it…it was as if God was saying..it’s ok…open your heart to what I have for you and your family. I kept hearing each morning as I woke..”Trust the one who sent you”

Fast forward a couple of days…I cried out to God..oh Lord..help me understand what your plan is PLEASE!! 45 minutes later I would get an email that would forever change our family.

COME MEET YOUR DAUGHTER!!!!!

WHAT!!!!! You mean He answered that fast…Oh Praise GOD!!!!

You see there is this little girl…whom her mom tried to take her life twice.she is severely malnourished, but, God would not allow that…she fought for her own precious little life…we have a little fighter on our hands.

I won’t tell her whole story here, that is hers to tell. But know it is horrific…we can’t begin to wrap our minds around what she has already gone through in the short time she has been on this earth.

But one thing we do know is this…HE has a perfect plan for her life…and HE has chosen US to be her family.

We are humbled and honored HE chose US.

Luke and Mya are beyond excited…Mya already is cleaning out her room so they can bond and be sisters.

We can not wait to introduce her to the rest of her sisters, nieces,nephews grandmas and Pop Pops.

We are truly blessed….so without further adieu please meet sweet Grace..

We are hoping that we can bring her home real soon to get the medical care she needs.

If you feel lead to help bring her home, please use donate button..all money raised will go to her adoption.

Thank you for all your prayers and support.

Filed Under: Adoption, Faith, prayer

Chicks and Goats OH MY!!!!!!

December 31, 2012 By Sherry 1 Comment

One week to GO until we leave for Uganda!!!

It truly is crazy to see what the last year has held for our family here in NC. Almost a year to the day I shared a dream I had with a Missionary friend from India. A dream that I was Amy Carmichael ( at the time when I had this dream, I did not know who she was, so I was really confused why I was telling people my name was Amy Carmichael..I had the dream at the beginning of 2011). Our missionary friend told me I had a call on my life and why did I stop praying on what God was trying to show me. He stated he was going to pray with me for God to reveal what He had for me/us.. Lets just say if you want God to reveal himself to you have this man of God praying with you…the rains of Heaven will pour down on you like you can’t imagine. God will show himself HUGE!!!! I always joke if you don’t want God to rock your world…don’t go to Stanley with prayer needs…lol.

Let’s fast forward to now..many of you know the whole story of what this year has been like for us.

It has been a very blessed year..so many blessings of joy, peace, abundant love and sadness.

But in the end God get’s the Glory.

There are some people who don’t understand all that is going on or refuse to acknowledge it and that is ok. They can either join us and love us the way we are, or continue to doubt either way we move forward.

We are not living to bring man glory or to make them feel comfortable with what we are doing. It’s all about living the way God wants us to. I asked for us to be used Radically, so here we are….and I LOVE IT!!!!

When we went to Uganda in June, we met so many wonderful people that forever changed our lives.

One of them was Praise and all her children…

Beautiful!

I love this girl, she is a true woman of God…we have talked so much over the course of these 6months.

One day we Skyped while she was in the hospital with 3 of her children and I prayed with each one of them.

Thank God for technology!!!

These last few weeks I have been trying to raise funds to buy them chickens, so that they could have eggs to eat plus when they get an abundance they can sell them to make money to help feed the children.

With the donations from some VERY special people, selling bread and the sells of my Jewelry, we have raised enough money to to buy all the chickens we had hoped for.

We even had a VERY SPECIAL (thank you Scott) person donate enough money for a goat!!

When I told Praise about the chickens she said the kids jumped for joy screaming “WE SHALL HAVE EGGS”

This made my heart happy knowing these children have another source of food.

I would still like to raise some money to help feed the chickens too and have a excess stored for this. If you feel led, please click the donate button below and put in comment box that this donation is for feed or another goat/s. Each goat cost about 30.00-35.00.

The chickens and goat/s will be delivered while we are there, so stay tuned for pictures.

We are in need of some other supplies as well, diapers, wipes, sterilizing tablets, vitamins etc…so if you would like to donate for that, please put that in the comment section.

I want to take this time to thank everyone for all you prayers, love, donations and support this last year….we have felt all those prayers. God has some BIG plans for our family in these next few months and we know God is going to show Himself big in the next few weeks while in UG. Continue to pray for us as we walk in the call God has for our family.

Stayed tuned, because what HE has shown us is HUGE and we can’t really wrap our minds around it..but we know the mighty hand of God will be all over it.

Filed Under: Africa, Embrace Designs, Faith, Fundraiser

When You Say YES, to God!..part 2.

October 10, 2012 By Sherry Leave a Comment

Part 2…I truly could fill up enough blog post for the next year with experiences from two short weeks in Uganda. We worked with some amazing people and children. The children have forever captured a hold of my heart and won’t let go.

Gorgeous!

The Hubster and sweet boys..he was like a boy magnet..kids loved him.

The friday after we arrived in UG we had the privilege to participate in a Pastor Conference with another couple on our team and with Pastor Dwight (he arranged this in advance..there were hundreds there). This was such an amazing experience to be a part of..this is one day that has changed me FOREVER!!!!

This day was one of getting out of MY comfort zone and stepping into ~~fear~~ Faith. The conference lasted two days..each day when we would break from the morning leading into the afternoon session..we would pray with people that needed prayer..there were 5 of us American’s praying for others in the service. Well, when Pastor Dwight said “If you need prayer, please come to the front and one of us will pray for you” I was like ummm..you mean, you want me to pray right here right now..OUT LOUD!!!!

YES..I pray, yes.. I pray for others, but, I have a really hard time praying for others out loud..I have always felt my prayers were not good enough..I hear others pray and it comes out so pretty and praise worthy..but mine..I never thought so. God showed me differently.

So we go up front to pray…we each have a translator and a person to pray for. The woman that comes up to me is so fragile in stature and spirit…(she asked for healing of her cancer)..at the same time I am praying that the Holy Spirit guided me and be my voice..and the translator will know what I am saying so that it get’s translated correctly. As I am praying this woman breaks down right there in my arms..I am so over come with God’s presence that nothing about what I was feeling about my inability mattered at that moment..God was using me to pray healing over this woman. WOW!! Thank you JESUS!!!

When I was done praying for her, I thought, ok Lord, you helped me and I am so grateful..wow..now I am done..I survived. But God had other plans…I looked up and what did I see…about 40 people in my line and it kept getting longer…there were so many prayer needs..

I was in complete awe of what was before me….I no longer could be stuck in my box of being scared. I had NO choice but to ~~run~~, jump right in. The needs were endless..food, school fees, cancer, spirit of fear, spirit of witchcraft, loneliness, housing, cancer and AIDS…it was at this conference that the first little crack of part of HIS call on our lives opened.

I prayed without letup…God replenished my soul during this time…God was so good to me..He helped me like I couldn’t explain..He gave me words, He held my shaky hands, He guarded my heart..but most of all HE NEVER left my side.

Deuteronomy 31:6

Part 3-coming in the next couple of days…a HUGE life changer…

Filed Under: Africa, Faith

When You Say YES, to God!..part 1.

October 3, 2012 By Sherry 2 Comments

I decided to wrote this after someone said..OH, you were on a mission trip when you went to Uganda? I thought you just went to adopt. So let me start a little from the beginning. I won’t give you the long version but the cliff-note version. I am breaking this into a couple of post…so as not to go on to long.

It started a year ago, when the Lord laid on my heart His heart for adoption. He had already been working on the hubsters about Africa. After much prayer. talking and more prayer (this took a couple months)..WE said yes to the Lord…YES! Lord, we are here to follow Your call on our lives. For months I had been praying for Him to use us Radically. SO.. when He called us to this..we said YES! here we are. Once we said YES…oh boy did things start moving..

If you know us both at all, you know that when we do something, we do it full throttle. Meaning we GO and get it done. So I started researching, reading WAY to many blogs (I don’t always advice this)…calling people, more research. I started gathering all the paperwork needed. From the beginning the Lord said, YOU WILL DO THIS DIFFERENT..He was leading us to independent adoption. We scheduled our Homestudy, but right after we scheduled it..The Hubster said, I feel God is telling us to slow down and not to run ahead of His plan. SO we prayed and fasted..

He was leading us to GO first..to GO on a mission trip… HE would then show us the next step. SO we prayed more ( I do feel like I was in constant prayer)…during this, He revealed to continue with the homestudy and to continue to prepare for the adoption..but don’t do anything else, until you take this first step and GO! I will tell you what to do next….let me tell you how this took some Radical Obedience. Because I am not one to sit and wait well.

We prayed more…did I say we were in constant prayer and fasting..lol. We were looking at three different organizations…we printed off their info and prayed over each one…God lead us after non-stop prayer, to GO with IVO..(International Voice of the Orphan)….I can not say enough about them…they are truly the most Godly-honest-loving- orphan caring people, you will ever meet. Truly blessed to have been a part of this team and near future teams.

You see, the most amazing thing about this first part is..When WE said YES, we will do whatever it is you want…HE opened the doors to the next step. We had to walk in total FAITH.. a faith like non-other.

I am not one of those that does well without knowing what was is going to happen down the road..I’m bit of a planner…HE quickly showed me there is no total planning when it comes to this call. Maybe a tad but not much.

SO thankful HE knows me best…because I am not sure I could of handled everything He is showing me/us right now.

I would like to sit and tell you that the decision to go was easy and not scary…but I can’t. We didn’t have two dimes to rub together.( and to pay for an Adoption on top of that), what do we do with the Hubsters office for two weeks…the what if’s, kept coming…but The Lord kept saying…don’t you trust ME?? Why yes we do Lord, but!!!!!! There should be NO buts, when it comes to trusting The Lord. Either we do or we don’t.

Once we knew we were going, we started praying like crazy for provision for this trip and the adoption. We had a garage sale..you can read about that here. We had checks come in the mail from people we didn’t expect..I sold my jewelry, we had a giveaway, you can read about that here. We had the most unexpected people just give us money out of the blue. IT was so amazing…and once again God says..you thought I was going to ask you to GO and not provide…Oh, Thank you Lord.

This is just the beginning of how God showed himself big…all because we said YES!

It took total obedience on our part to see all the blessings He had/has for us. If we didn’t say YES..we would never have seen how faithful He was going to be to His promises to us.

Let’s fast forward to our plane landing in Uganda…My first words when we touch down was THANK YOU LORD, Praise you for all you are doing with us and will do through us. I started to cry…I was beyond grateful for His provision.

We were so excited to get off the plane ( it was a looooonnnggg trip), we left Sunday night and got there Tuesday morning.

Close and personal with the front window.

The pineapple is really good.

It is truly amazing what can be carried on a bike.

Boda Boda shop

The sites we saw the first 45 mins or so, was more then I could really grasp in my mind ..seriously! there are no laws to driving…basically the boda boda’s (small motorcycles they use for their taxis) were so close, you could put your hand out the window and shake someones hand.

There were small children coming to the van ~~asking~~ begging for food..This was way more then I could wrap my mind around…tears started to flow. Remind you, we had only been there about 45 mins and God was ALREADY showing me things HE saw and how HE saw them.

I still wake up in the middle of the night now..with the taste on my tongue, the smell in my nose and the feel under me, of the country that forever stole my heart and changed me forever!

Just typing this makes me tear up…I am in LOVE with Uganda.

So thankful we took that next step in God’s call on our lives.

I will post part two in a couple of days. More doors open, more blessings given, and so MANY GOD MOMENTS to share…all because we said YES!!!

God doesn’t call the equipped, HE equips the called!

1 Cor 1:26-29

Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.

Filed Under: Adoption, Africa, Faith

Uganda in My Heart..

September 8, 2012 By Sherry 2 Comments

I have days that are better then others..today is one of those days that I just

can’t get Uganda out of my heart or mind..

Seeing the pictures in my head of the sweet little’s, or the feel of the red dirt in my hands.

Even the smell of the streets of Kampala…I would do anything to go back right now..

I wish I could click my heels and be there.

I wish I could go and wrap my arms around the sweet little one that so captured our hearts…

I can only describe the feeling I get when I think of Uganda and how I want to go back

as a huge truck sitting on my chest, I can’t breathe at times the pain is so real.

I truly left my heart there.

I wish I could see my sweet son Steven and his wife Jackie..isn’t he just the “smartest” Ugandan man you have ever seen!!

Jackie, Pastor Jonathan, Steven

I’m going to be a jajja to a beautiful Ugandan baby soon.

Jackie asked me to name their baby…oh what a privilege, I will keep you posted…she is due

any minute..can’t tell from this picture that was taken 2wks ago.

I have the names picked, but will keep it secret until then.

I miss everything about it..

God is moving in our lives in a big way since we have been back.

He is using us in ways there that I couldn’t even imagine.

More on that later, when it all comes full circle. Let’s just say God is moving

BIG in Uganda.

We are going back in January, it can’t come soon enough. God said GO, so we GO!

So… when I am having one of these days, the ones where I can’t go a step without choking up or shedding tears.

I go through pictures (we have aver 1000) and look at the faces of it’s people.

It’s crazy what they carry on their bikes.

Church..what a great day this was.

Working in the dirt…LOVED this!!

School

Praising God!

Loved these boys..

Me handing out fruit to the street boys..another wonderful day.

So until I can go and visit my son and his wife and wrap my arms around that sweet baby of theirs.

I pray, I cry, I ponder but one thing is for sure

I WILL NEVER FORGET!!!!

Filed Under: Africa, Faith

By Grace Alone!

August 16, 2012 By Sherry 10 Comments

I have so many stories of our trip to Uganda..but one is so special to me in so many ways. God showed me a forgiveness I will never comprehend that day.

If you remember from this post I was asked if I would like to teach a jewelery making to the woman of Hope House.

I was beyond excited to do this….something only God could orchestrate took place that day.

These women make jewelry to sell so that they can save up and start their own businesses once they gradate from the program (which they all did about a month ago…Praise Jesus).. when we got there they were in the midst of making jewelry in this tiny little room.

We were met by some of the most beautiful women you will ever meet, physically and spiritually.

I bought just about everything these two precious women had to sell..

Once we were done shopping we sat at the little table and went around and introduced ourselves

with a translator. We told our name, where we were from and how many children we had.

Once we got around to this one beautiful lady (Grace), she started to cry.

She stated she had 4 children but that only 3 were living, she was mourning the loss of her 4th child.

It had only been 2 months since the loss of her son.

She was sobbing (we were all sobbing)..she was asking for pray that she would be able to forgive the men

who killed her son (yep her son was killed)..she wanted to be able to forgive them like Christ has forgiven us.

This scripture came to mind..

Ephs 4:32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.

I was a mess, and with rough translation, I thought maybe what was said was that she lost her son at birth and was asking to be able to forgive the doctors.

But later in the day in speaking with Abby the girl that runs the ministry, she told me that Grace was a Christian and her ex husband was a Muslim, they were no longer together…she found out her son was dead the day of the funeral, her ex-husband didn’t want her or her family there. But she went anyway and when she got there, her ex husband told her that he had her son killed ( her son was in prison, not sure why). Yes…the father had his son killed by the prison guards.

Can you even fathom this…NO!!! I can not…this is something you see in movies or read about in the National newspapers. He did it out of retaliation due to her being Christian. This made what I am about to tell you that much more meaningful..

See, forgiving someone who has wronged you is hard (most can’t do it)…I had to do it with my ex-husband. It is not

easy by any means…but not being able to forgive someone holds a bondage chain around your life. Grace knows this, she was living it.

But asking for prayer to help you forgive someone or people that killed your son..WOW!!!! now that is only something God can do. She knew the sacrifice of Christ in the forgiveness of our sins..she wanted to forgive them just as Christ forgave us.

After we prayed it was then my turn to go and teach them stamping on metal jewelry, but God showed me something that I had to share. I was still trying to wrap my head around what God was doing at that moment.

When I got up front, I turned and looked at Grace and shared this with her.

Right before we left for this day with the woman…as I was leaving our guest house the Lord told me to go find a necklace that I could not find that morning ( I was trying to figure out why this was so important since I already had a necklace on)..I looked everywhere…I just gave up looking..but HE is very persistent so I went back in to find and found it at the bottom of my suitcase, it fell in some shirts.

I didn’t really know why this necklace was so important, until Graces story..

You see this is the necklace God had me go back for..

Yep…God is good ALL the time…

Can you imagine…way back when I made this necklace which if I think back it was a couple of months before we left (right around the time her son was killed).

The Lord knew that a women named Grace across the world, would need this necklace.

It’s “By Grace Alone” that we can forgive others.