His Hands and Feet

There has been so much going on here in Sierra Leone. I have done my best to put on the blog all that I can share at this time. We all do thank you for your prayers and we all feel them here on the other side of the world. There have been many, many God moments here that I will share about at a later time when all is well with the children. The Raining Season is such a true example of what being an Ordinary Hero is all about which is why I took such a leap of faith to join up with them on this amazing trip. It is truly an honor to be a part of such an amazing time of redemption for all of these children.

We came across this scripture this morning which explains all that is going on here.

Isaiah 43

"Don't be afraid, I've redeemed you.

I've called your name. You're mine.

When you're in over your head, I'll be there with you.

When you're in rough waters, you will not go down.

When you're between a rock and a hard place, it won't be a dead end

Because I am God, your personal God,

The Holy of Israel, your Savior.

I paid a huge price for you:

all of Egypt, with rich Cush and Seba thrown in!

That's how much you mean to me!

That's how much I love you!

I'd sell off the whole world to get you back, trade the creation just for you.

So don't be afraid: I'm with you.

I'll round up all your scattered children,

pull them in from east and west.

I'll send orders north and south:

'Send them back.

Return my sons from distant lands,

my daughters from farwaway places.

I want them back, every last one who bears my name,

every man, woman, and child

Whom I created for my glory,

yes, personally formed and made each one.'"

These children have such life inside of them just waiting to burst out. They long for someone to notice and help them reach their destinies. By God's grace we will help make that happen for them.

We are all working very hard to get the center ready. There is a lot more than expected to get done but we are working tirelessly into the nights to get it all prepared for these little ones.

I can't tell you what a blessed sight this new building was the first time I saw it. After leaving the place that the children had been staying and then driving over to the new place it was like night and day. Above you will find the view from one of the top balconies of the new building. It is breathtaking. As I looked around I could just take in all of God's beauty and feel the oppresion just lift off. The new center sits high atop a hill as if set apart from all of the hardships that lay below. It is a place of hope and healing and such a perfect picture of God's glory and redemption that replaces all of the darkness that these children have lived in for sooo long.
It is a beautiful building with 12 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms and two kitchens.

We have all been working hard to get it cleaned and prepared for the children. These children have not had any running water or bathrooms or beds or any of the things that we take for granted every day. My words could never describe how they have been living. Our dogs in America live better than these children have been and I'm not even kidding.

We had an exciting day of picking up the mattresses from the factory. It made it all seem real once we saw them loading them all up. It was very exciting to watch. We have 75 of them and there are 90 something children. Can you believe that this new center is hopefully going to be maxed out right from the beginning!! There will probably be kids doubling up in bunks....but they will love it, I'm sure.

Many thanks goes out to all of you who have given towards the purchase of these beds for The Raining Season and this new center.

It was so neat to pull up and see women standing on the balcony waiting to be interviewed for their new jobs as the mattresses were being loaded inside the building. I have to tell you that we have had some amazing people show up for positions in the center. Several of them are from the same church and they have been having an all week, all night long time of praise and worship. It starts at 10 every night and lasts till 5 in the morning. Our head facilitator that we have hired, we found out ,had been attending these services and we did not know. Then she would show up every day and hang out with us to help get stuff done. But the neatest thing is that several others from her church have come to interview as well and they are all finding employment during this week of prayer and praise for them. I love how God works it ALL together for good, don't you? Many have been looking for work for years.

Below, you will find that even the boys on the wood truck were excited when they pulled in. This is all the wood being brought in to build the beds.

We have been hitting the markets as well. It is such a madhouse I can't even explain. It is so hard to buy supplies here. The streets are so packed with people that you can't even drive in them. It takes 30 minutes to just get to the next block. People walk by your car wanting to sell you everything from dishtowels, to underwear, to fish or fruit....and it is all carried on their heads. I am very impressed.

While some are shopping for supplies and cleaning, others are interviewing for positions.

Not to mention the meetings taking place for Erica's adoption as well. We are believing that God's favor will be on this adoption and many more to follow in this country.

Any time you are set out to make a difference it does not come without obsticles. It makes for sleepless nights and long days but God brings good news in the end. Below I was able to capture some of the reality of how emotional this trip is for all of us. There are things taking place that need much prayer. These things weigh heavily on our hearts for these children as their lives hang in the balance as we continue to fight for them. We witness all of this first hand and I wish I could go into detail on the blog but I can't at this time. Our hearts are broken for these children and we continue to lift them up and believe that their end result will be in our center and we continue to prepare for them as only God knows what will occur. We have seen things that we will never forget and it makes us all the more confident that what we are doing is completely led by God.........even if it is hard on the heart.

We then pick back up and walk in God's strength and not our own and continue to prepare.


Erica met up with her adopted daughter's birthmom for a special meeting.

Every evening as the day comes to an end and it has been one more day without the children while we continue to pray for the children I am reminded of God's goodness and His peace that He longs for these children to have as the sun sets over our new center and over the ocean in the distance as if it is a warm blanket of strength and peace that is saying...."Not much longer."

I wanted to leave you with one more glance at some of the beautiful faces that we long to rescue. These faces are what keep us going each and every day. We thank you for your continued prayers for each of these little ones. May not one of them be lost.

I know that many of you have sent messages asking how you can help us so I want to throw this out there......

We are looking at receiving double the number of children that we thought we would be allowed to take in. Therefore we are having to hire double the staff and double the supplies and food and you get the picture. We are thrilled to think that these children could walk in our doors in just a couple of days but the funds were not collected for this number of children. So if you feel led to give in any way toward this project then you can give to the following link on Paypal which will go into The Raining Season account and they will get it to us to finish getting all of the supplies. We are also praying that the doors swing wide open for adoption in this country so continue to pray for that.It has been difficult up to this point and we pray things are about to change. I know some of you have inquired about it. There will also be sponsorship opportunities available for these children after we get them all in and settled and I can take all of their pictures to see exactly who we get. I will have a personal story for them and am honored to meet each and every one of them. You may contact Erica to let her know of your interest in sponsorship and we will get back to you once it is all set in place and we discover the true capacity of the need of each one of them. To inquire about sponsoring one of these children contact info@therainingseason.org .

To give to the cause while we are still here you may go to this link.

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=6356798

Thank you for your continued prayers and support. And thank you for being Ordinary Heroes to these children in need through your prayers and support. I am honored to share the same heart with you as well as everyone here with The Raining Season.


God Bless!!