Special video from my trip to Uganda with Kylie

Inspired by Kylie taking noticeable delight in reading my blog posts from a looooong time ago last week, (with me oftentimes recounting her little-girl antiques, with photos), I have decided to put together a short video about our latest adventure together to post on here. 

After all, this blog is a cool platform and easy way to keep memories alive.

BUT WAIT - LET ME BACK UP

Prompted by God, Kylie came with me to Uganda last year and fell in love with the people and the country, especially the children. 😊😉

Shortly after returning home, God provided a part-time job for her at a bakery in walking distance to our (then) home. SUCH an incredible provision for a 14-year old to be able to make some pretty good money while still going to school and at the same time learning valuable skills!

She worked hard, sacrificed much and saved up for every last dollar needed to get back to Uganda with me (once again following a prompting from God), paying for all of her expenses, even with money to spare to treat different people to some pretty special experiences, including a dozen+ FIRST TIME EVER experiences
(Ask her about them.😀).

By the way, she herself also experienced around a dozen FIRST TIME EVERs during this trip.
So cool!
(once again, why don't you ask her about them?!)

She was an amazing travel-buddy and such a trooper! I just love her!
WHAT A JOY AND DELIGHT SHE IS!
I am SUPER proud of her and how she carried herself once again on this trip!

She was very motivated to learn some Luganda beforehand, so that she could at least communicate a little better with the children/youth than last time. Quite surprising to me, as I have never been able to get her excited about learning German or French. Go figure... 😬😏
Thankfully, we found a Ugandan here in Tauranga who was willing to teach us and she made a fair bit of progress. YAY!

Anyways, here we are - came back from Uganda 3 weeks ago. 

Every time I come back, I am so full of emotions, experiences and memories which I LOVE to share with anybody that's interested.

Anybody out there???

What a challenge to summarize 3 weeks in a 4-min video.... and lots of memorable moments didn't get filmed/photographed, but here it is.
Click on the link to see it
(or better yet, read on and find it at the bottom of this post). 

Thank you for visiting with me/us for a bit!

OOPS - wait a minute - you may want to first read this

DISCLAIMER

Watching this footage might tempt you to conclude that my Uganda-trips are nothing but fun and games.

YEAH RIGHT

All fun and games?

NOPE - FAR FROM IT!

(If you want to know more, ask me about it.😃)

What you are going to see in the video are snippets of what we were up to,

highlighting the funnest moments.

Cuz 

At the end of the day

When all is said and done

I am in my VERY happy place when I watch

CHILDREN

 HAPPY

PLAYING

LAUGHING

HAVING FUN

 

LOVING GOD

AND EACH OTHER

Especially children who probably wouldn't be doing well at all right now if GOD hadn't intervened in their lives through people like you and me investing time, love, energy, passion, prayers and finances

to LOVE ON THEM and CARE FOR THEM!

(Insert Praise and Moses as well as every person that has been investing into the ministry of Maisha Africa - thankyouverymuch!👍😁)

YES

The children are now a part of a family, with consistent love and care.

They are getting educated
(oh, what a challenge to finance their ongoing education 😬!)

HOWEVER

Their lives are still VERY simple

even though they now live in a

VERY BEAUTIFUL HOME

as you will see in the video

God's miracle provision (see this post)!!!

(by the way, they RARELY, if ever, play in their living-room, the way you will see them play with Kylie in the video)

They work HARD and a LOT, and play little.

Our primary/intermediate school still doesn't have a playground.
(only the preschool has some play-equipment)

A swing, a pool, a bouncy castle, bubbles...?

Some had never experienced some of these things - EVER - others maybe once a year or less...

There are no public playgrounds.

Maybe someday that will change - hopefully.

Especially the PLAYGROUND AT OUR SCHOOL is something I REALLY want to see established as soon as possible!

BACK TO THE VIDEO

The girl in the yellow dress you see playing with Kylie is SUCH a happy, delightful child now, thriving under the care of her mother, who she has been able to get reunited with thanks to somebody who read this blog post years ago and met the need.

No longer needy, empty - but secure and happy!

WHAT A JOY! 

Some of the children you'll see in our video are the same ones as the ones who sang this song 6 years ago.

And the ones you can see in this blog post - almost 8 years ago!

As a matter of fact, the youngest in that last blog post, (first photo) has now become my apprentice photographer and has filmed some of the footage in the video. Haha!
He's so adorable!
(he's the one Kylie filmed while he tasted cotton candy for the first time)

WOW~ WOW ~ WOW!!! 

What a journey it has been! What a transformation!

You probably won't recognize these children, but - oh - what a JOY and PRIVILEGE for me to see them grow up and develop so well in different areas of their lives.

And many others have been added since then - each one with their own story of pain, loss and (ongoing) restoration.

SO BEAUTIFUL - AND HARD 

(pray for Praise and Moses as they parent them!)

Another one you won't recognize (the photos go very quickly) is a young girl, who
 - also thanks to somebody who read my blog-post about her and responded to meet a need many years ago -
is now doing amazingly well, just finished her university degree that she financed herself after having been sponsored through high school. SUCH a precious young lady and lover of God!
SUCH a turn around from hopelessness to a future made of hope!

HONESTLY

As exciting as it might seem to be able to do what I do,
It has demanded more of me than I ever thought I could handle,
with a HUGE price tag attached.

It hasn't been easy, friends - AT ALL!
(ask me about it 😉)

BUT

When I get just a few minutes/hours of watching the children and teens happy and having a good time once a year (wish it could be more often)

my heart melts and I know:

It is all worth it! So very worth it!

SO - WITHOUT FURTHER ADO:

I hope you ENJOY the video as much as I do!

Our miracle home!

(mostly written on January 18th, 2019)

My heart is swelling with overwhelming joy and wonder.

Tears are softly forming in my eyes

at the thought of such a God that we love and serve

as I am entering a very special day in the Betts-household:

Today, we are moving into a home that God has provided for us! 

A home that we can call ours
(even though it’s not just ours – more on that later).

A home that fulfils a promise we received from our Father many years ago.
(more on that further down the post)

A home that will finally allow us to settle after close to 30 moves (quite a few of them international), not having the continual threat hanging over us to be told any time (usually the worst time) that we need to move on because the owners want the house back for themselves, or sell it. 

And – oh – the investment of time and the exhaustion that is entailed in each move.

NO MORE!

A home where we can paint walls

Put up decorations as we want

Make improvements

Plant a garden, flowers, trees, knowing the investment will still be there years from now.

I am overwhelmed – just overwhelmed.

Jesus sure meant what He said when he promised that if we give up fathers and mothers….. homes…. for His sake, that he will provide a hundredfold in the present age – houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and fields, along with persecutions – and in the age to come, eternal life… (Mark 10,29-30)

We have experienced this reality in many ways already. 

All the relational blessings, tick.

persecutions, tick.

And now the time has come for the house.

TICK!

It’s a long story – brace yourself – sit down with a cuppa and visit a bit with us.

It’s a story of marvel, of miracles, of waiting, longing, praying, claiming, disappointments, more waiting, standing in faith, claiming some more and did I mention waaaaaitiiiing???

Allow me to back up into a cute little Scottish Church in Lausanne, Switzerland, one chilly Saturday afternoon in the winter of 1988, (snow falling – yes!) where Rich and I got married, with a full commitment to give our lives to Jesus and His great commission. 

“Go into all the world and preach the Gospel…..”

Interesting little titbit from our wedding: When we got prayed for during the ceremony, one of our YWAM leaders saw a vision in his spirit of us being surrounded by lots and lots of children of different skin-colors, way too many to be our own.

Oops, just writing that down is opening the floodgates of my eyes with tears now streaming down my face.

Back on track - - - Thanks to a YWAM connection, we had the privilege to spend our honeymoon in South-Africa at a beach house (for free). While the scenery was beautiful and we loved the country (drove around a bit, too, including Kruger National Park), we were really troubled by all the signs of segregation we saw on the beaches and public places. Those were the days of the Apartheid. 

It pained us and made us feel very uncomfortable 

(signs to keep non-white people off the beaches etc).

Little did we know that 30 years later, God was going to weave a then little 4-year old Indian girl and a 14-year old Indian boy who were living in that same country at that very same time into the tapestry of our family story. 

In fact, unbelievable as it may sound, God had already then planned to use these two to provide a home for us! 

He had already then chosen to redeem them unto Himself and bring them together in marriage 20 years later after meeting in Auckland, New Zealand, where they had both immigrated to.

Those two young ones – the ones not allowed on ‘our’ beach - - - OUCH! 

The ways of God just blow me away.

Humble me deeply.

I hate injustice and have been doing my bit to lift up the disadvantaged and give them opportunity for a brighter future through education.

This little girl grew up (just for the record: I have ALWAYS felt that Indian children were incredibly gorgeous and we almost adopted an Indian boy 11+ years ago!) and when she was a teenager, her family immigrated to New Zealand. She later became a chartered accountant, very skillful and professional, as well as very sweet, kind and generous. 

Fast forward to 2018: She listens to an interview on Radio Rhema about Maisha Africa – or at least she thinks she listened to this interview. This interview has actually never happened! (And no, she confirms, it wasn’t one of Praise’s interviews on Radio Rhema.) 

A couple months later she can’t get it out of her heart and wants to find the ministry. 

So off to the internet she goes where she finds the Maisha Africa website. 

Looking through it, she loves what she sees and contacts me.

While I am sick in bed on an August winter day, I am surprised by a text from her, wanting to find out more about how she can get involved in the ministry. Now, believe me - you don’t just get random requests from people wanting to find out more about your ministry, let alone wanting to help, like she informed me she wanted to do!

Praise, Moses and I had been praying and looking for a very specific chartered accountant to help with the financial management of Maisha Africa. It needed to be somebody trustworthy that would volunteer their time, have the needed skills and experience as well as cross-cultural experience (preferably with Africa). 

It had been a while and we hadn’t been able to find anybody. 

(The one who has been helping wasn’t able to give enough time, so too much was left on my shoulders.)

My heart leapt inside of me when she told me that she wanted to do more than give money and invest her time to help disadvantaged children – and – she was a chartered accountant! 

WOW!!!! 

I was overjoyed and saw this as a supernatural provision of God for our need!

FAN-TASTIC!!!

When I read through the requested references for her, I quickly realised that we had struck gold with this young lady! 

WOW WOW WOW!!! 

Character, integrity, professionalism, expertise – she was top-notch! And she had grown up in (South-)Africa!

My – my – my! SOOOO AMAZING!!!

But wait – there's more…. 

Remember, I started out telling the story of how God provided a home for us? 

Well

To make a long story short

When she came - with her husband - to meet me/us

so that we could get to know each other before working together

something someone stirred their hearts in such a way that when they walked out of our house

They said to each other

"We've got to help this couple/family get into a house".

Less than 3 months later, we had bought a house together (50/50)!

Can you believe it?!!

It was an insane roller-coaster journey as the impossibilities still seemed to dominate the circumstances around a house purchase. We spent hours upon hours talking with each other - long-distance - since they live 2 1/2 hours away from us in Auckland.

For the sake of actually finishing this blog post without it becoming a book

let me just say that God used this couple - plus others -

including complete strangers

to fight our case

to push and push

(reminded me of what I do for my Ugandan family)

until God removed every obstacle and

MADE THE IMPOSSIBLE POSSIBLE!!!

Not only did we buy a house together, but we have become friends!
How precious is that?!

WHAT A GOD WE HAVE!!!

By the way, just to add a few of the many little 'details' of our story:

DETAIL #1:

As mentioned above, God had given us a promise for our own house years ago.

We always kept it tucked away in our hearts while looking at different options of buying a home.

Yet it always stayed out of reach for us.

Until I was inspired by the testimony of another woman, who received their family home as a result of very intentional, insisting, 'vigorous', faith-filled prayers and claiming the promise of God for them until God came through with the promised home in quite a spectacular way.

So early June of 2018, I decided to become just as 'vigorous' about our promise.

I printed it out in big letters and stuck in on our fridge.

During devotions with the kids we almost daily 'claimed' this promise:

Then, God brought Avasha and Percy into our lives, wanting to help us.

DETAIL #2:

Avasha just reminded me that on September 11th, the day before we started being in contact with each other on social media, this is what I had posted on Facebook
(After they met us, she did a bit of checking me out, as you do, on Facebook 😉):

DETAIL #3:

Right after I had heard from Avasha that they felt to help us get into a home, which of course was a HUMONGOUS SURPRISE for us, I had my weekly ministry-call with Moses in Uganda.

Before I could say anything, he told me:

"Mummy, I just want you to know that for months now I have been praying for you and asking God to SURPRISE YOU WITH HIS GOODNESS!"
(in bold letters as he emphasized these words a lot!)

DETAIL #4:

This time from Percy and Avasha's side:

This was Percy's daily Bible reading during the time they were setting out to help us (pretty much complete strangers). There's more to this but Percy says the details will go into the 'book' one day😁:

DETAIL #5:

Just at the time when it seemed like it was NOT going to happen after all, even with their help (seemed like a death as we had our hopes up and then it seemed impossible after all), God whispered to me to stop claiming. Instead, I was to just thank him for this peaceful dwelling place, secure home and undisturbed place of rest that He was going to give us.

So, I did.

And God moved EVERY obstacle out of the way.

He made a way where there seemed no way.

WOHOOOOO!!!!!

And one last little DETAIL #6:

We had to move out of our (then) rental by February at the latest, since the owners wanted it back for themselves - so the timing - getting the house in January - was just PERFECT!
AND - just a 2-minute drive away from our rental - SO IDEAL!

Are you in awe of God yet?

At the time of me finishing this blog post, we have been living in our new home for almost 5 months and hardly a day goes by where I don't thank God for this amazing provision - with us paying pretty much the same amount as we would for renting a home.

We love our home, feel wonderfully settled and are so so very grateful for it!

More than that

WE LOVE OUR FAITHFUL FATHER!!!!

Jehovah Jireh - our provider!

And Rich is busy planting a garden and different trees as I am writing this.

Oh how BLESSED we are!

Full Circle

It's been soooo long that when I type in my blog's webpage, I have to type in the whole thing as it isn't being recognised after the first few letters.... oops.... hahaha

You can thank Facebook.

Makes it so much easier and quicker to share what's happening with the world.

Anyways.... although I know that nobody is following my blog any longer with posts being non-existent sporadic,

today, I feel compelled to write - just for the record - and to give HUGE credit to God for the random person who might read this in the future.

When Praise was 24 (a mere 8 years ago), single, with 10 needy children by her side, and in a really tough place, this was her vision-statement, sent to me by somebody via email after my first Uganda-trip.

I hadn't even met her yet.

"At the moment, I am praying for my own land so that we may build a home there and have sufficient space to grow food to feed all the children, and even help more children. I have a vision of building a school for abandoned, orphaned and disadvantaged children and spreading the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Her story, as it was shared with me via email, see full blog post here, gripped my heart before ever meeting her in person. Isn't that crazy to begin with? And then our family went fundraising throughout the USA to find support for Praise and her children. The fundraising was pretty much a disaster, but that was okay. God had other plans.

As of 2018, I would say that Praise's vision has come full circle.

Yes, we still need to renovate the very first (badly-built) building she put on the land to increase our capacity for taking in boarding students (to generate income for the school)

build more teacher housing

and get more land to feed everybody.

But here is the school (still believing God for a playground and soccer field)

The preschool/kindergarten

Thanks to our amazing friends and supporters from around the world, the lives of 400 mostly very disadvantaged/vulnerable children are getting transformed through education and the Gospel.
(Wanna partner with us, too? We need you! Check out our website)


We have been donated 7 acres of land for food production
and yes, the kids are working the fields whenever possible.
Here some of them hiding from a rain-shower.

Praise and her (since 2014) hubby Moses, who are now caring for 40 children

 have done numerous evangelistic outreaches

 planted two churches

And lastly but most definitely not leastly

here is a short video of the home that God has provided!

Can I hear a shout of THANKS TO GOD?!!!

See you do a dancing gig?!!

Praise, Moses and the children have done just that!

At the moment, Praise isn't dancing much, though,

actually not at all

since she is heavily pregnant and about to receive the most incredible miracle-gift from God:

TWINS!

YIPPEEE YAY!

The most desired, longed for, awaited, prayed for miracle!

And not just one baby but two!

Just like what God would do!