Love "is" Honesty

"Honesty".... what a powerful word. 

I want to share with all of you about two situations that happened to Edwin this month. 

Four Pastors from 4 different districts in Kamuli travelled 200km south to visit with him and find out his theory of success in building our Home of Angels.  Edwin told them first of all, it was God.  Secondly, it was about being honest, because without honesty, there is no way to be successful in serving God.  Apparently we have not only inspired our own community but the districts around us. After some hours of hearing how Edwin and his crew had built this beautiful compound, mostly out of love, they left to travel home to report to their own district.  I see something big happening here.... a new trend maybe?  

 The next day there was a knock at our gate and a woman named Sarah was there to present Edwin with a chicken.  It is a high honor to receive a chicken.  She was there on behalf of our local community to give thanks for making their community a better place to live.  It can be difficult to understand for those of us living in such a different part of the world, but for them, they consider us the catalyst for others creating development in the area.  They were grateful for jobs for their men and children, the water we share with them daily and eventually having their own pumping station, being able to sell fruits daily to the workers on our property, helping the widows start micro-lending businesses and so much more.  And there are more things that we hope to do.  Edwin is working on street lights on the road leading to our compound and fixing the roads that were so damaged over the past 2 years with truckload after truckload of bricks and other heavy materials.  These people are our neighbors and even though the community is a large one, everyone is grateful for what we are doing there and it makes us smile.

July is rapidly approaching and it is almost time to house not 12 but 13 children...Yes, we have a new child and his name is Sam.  He is 11 years old, homeless and very attached to Edwin, Dr. Isaac and David.  A wonderful boy who will be an inspiration to the others.  We recently found Sam a sponsor (thanks Bennie) and even though he has been through some difficult times recently, he will do well living with us.  I see great hope in his future.

Enough rambling.... Here are some recent pictures to show you.  We never planned to make this project as large as it is and God only knows how we are ever going to feed everyone, but we did make a decision to bring in 45 more kids that have had their home taken away.  We also needed a new wall to build around our 2 acres of gardens and chickens for sustainability.   We are so thankful to the Heronbrook Foundation for providing funding to start the building of this wall.  It's people like you who really make a difference in this world and we are all so grateful for your big hearts in helping the less fortunate.  Thank you

Sarah is presenting Edwin with a chicken from the community in honour of all that he had done for them.  So many people have benefited by our Home of Angels and we feel good that we could have helped so many to provide the basics for their families.

Meet Sam...This is one special boy that will be an inspiration to the other children.  With love, hope and education, Sam will prove to be a productive citizen in Uganda..

This will be the new home for the children coming in later. In the future when our wall is built and we have a way to provide for them, they will live in this new home and call themselves brothers and sisters.  We are dreaming for this day to arrive.

A different view of the 2nd children's house.  The paving stones are almost made and installed and everything is complete except for the interior.  That will all come in time.

We had to make a new veranda.  When this home was built in 2010, we were still learning and through experience, we discovered a new and more efficient way for construction.  This will last for years to come.

A view of the main house.  The stone slate on the patio in front and the paving stones are all installed leading up to the main gate.  The grass is now flourishing and hedges following along behind.  

This is our Electrician Dennis and he is installing all the electrical fixtures in the homes, the main gate and the guardhouse.  He also will be working on the submersible pump where our water will be turned on with a switch in the house.  He is considered one of the top electricians in the entire area and has such a heart for the poor.

These three kids and their father painted our homes inside and out and what a beautiful job they did.  They made enough to support their family for a year.  In our country it's called child labour...in theirs, it's called survival. 

This is our cookhouse for the children.  The far left is where the cook will prepare the food with 100 vents installed for ventilation as to prevent smoke accumulating within the room.  The window in the front will be a pick up station the children to get their food as we don't want them going into the actual kitchen. The room on the right will be for the storage.

We want to help our community.  This is the garbage dump at the end of our road and we have people already cleaning it up.  Once this is gone, we can start working on the road going up to our home.  One step at a time but the most important thing is...everyone wants to make a difference here and they are willing to work to better their neighbourhood.

This is the road leading up to our home and the many trucks building in the area now have basically destroyed it.  Edwin is speaking with officials to bulldoze it and fill in the holes and make it a more easily travelled road for everyone.

The growth you see beyond our wall is the 2 acres recently purchased.  We will start building an extension of the main wall to enclose the gardens, fruit trees and animals  which will be our long term sustainability program.  Thanks to the Heronbrook Foundation, we are able to do this.  

Edwin and I speak every day and we try and think of the perfect words to say to make you understand how life is in Uganda.  It's not just Uganda, people are suffering throughout the world and we read about it every day.  Most people want to be more productive citizens but have little to work with to make that difference.  If we can just take a few kids with your help and change their lives to where they have hope, love and care, we have done our job.  


Thanks from all of us at our Home of Angels for listening and staying with us throughout this journey.  It means so much to us.