March Update ~ #thisugandalife

Yeah, I know April is almost over...

It's crazy to think that we have had our feet on the ground in Uganda for  4 months! So much has happened and time has flown by. We have spent the last 5 weeks settling into a schedule of homeschooling, meeting with staff and ministry leaders and purchasing beds and a table for our home. We are just waiting for water and electricity to be completed in our home we are renting and hope to be able to move in and finally unpack after 8 months of living outta suitcases. Here's our recent newsletter that my husband wrote to tell you a bit about where we are. Check back for an update on how God is leading us and what our next steps will be. Thank you for your continued prayers. We love & miss you all! ~Wendy

Greetings Friends,               Hope this finds you all well and having completed your taxes!! We are on the edge of rainy season here in Arua and for a west Texas family the rain is awesome to say the least. I really love late afternoon thunderstorms as they have to be enjoyed on the porch with a hot cup of joe (btw..some really good coffee roasted here locally) and barefoot getting splattered by the raindrops pounding the ground. We also love seeing all the rain and precipitation that West Texas has been receiving since we left..God is good. We pray that the spring will bring much renewed life to a parched land.                We officially graduated & received our certificates for YWAM Discipleship Training School on the 12th of March. Thank you all for supporting our family through this 6 months of training. I can say without a doubt that we have grown tremendously in our faith and relationship with the King. We have seen our kids embrace the change and engage the new culture which we give all credit to God for answering our prayers on this matter!  It was a great time and exactly what we needed as a family. We made lifetime friends, relationships and memories with amazing warriors for the kingdom. We highly recommend DTS of some flavor for any and every one. You will NOT regret investing 6 months in you and your family’s relationship with God.                 We put Allye, Maggie & Peace (3 other team members) on the plane back to Kona on the night of March 4th and as we walked down to the parking lot where we had stood 90 days before with all our belongings I felt the Holy spirit say stop Sid! So I stopped there in that exact place and as we held hands I told them how proud I was for their perseverance on our outreach. I explained that this was the end of outreach but the beginning of something even bigger that God has called us to! I call these moments “stake in the ground” moments so we all put our hands together in the middle and clinched our symbolic “swords” I said a prayer and cried and on the count of 3 we all stuck ‘em in the ground. It was an emotional & powerful moment as we declared “we are ready for whatever God has for our future”…thank you Holy Spirit!             Traveling to Jinja, Uganda the following day was quite a treat. Beautiful rolling hills and valleys filled with sugar cane fields and dotted with luscious green tea farms littered with workers earning an honest day’s wage. We arrived at the YWAM Hopeland base that afternoon to stay for a few days of R&R. We spent the weekend eating really good food, swimming, boating down the Nile, hanging with our new friends the Leigh’s and the climax was bungee jumping over the Nile River (my first bungee jump) what a thrill. With our tummy’s full and bodies rested we headed back to Kampala for some shopping (girls choice). We bought lots of things for our new home in Arua and when we left it looked like the Griswold’s pulling out of there!! 12 hours later we were back at the base in Arua. Thank you Lord for a safe trip.

Spent the day in the Rhino Refugee Camp visiting 3 of the 5 medical clinics.   Celebrating the completion of our YWAM Outreach in Jinja, Uganda.   Levi's first day of Ugandan preschool

Thank You for your continued prayer for our family as we serve in Northern Uganda and South Sudan. Please continue to pray for these current prayer points. Blessings to ALL of you! Pray that we can come to an agreement with the landlord of the house we believe GOd has for us this week. If not we will need to find another home Pray for Sid, Baylie & Yolam as they travel this week to and from Mombasa, Kenya to pick up our vehicle Pray for Health for the WHOLE family Pray that the registration of our vehicle in South Sudan goes smoothly and that we will not be charged large fees. How You Can Help... Prayer is first and foremost essential to our ministry. We cannot thank you enough for faithfully praying for us. Partnership through monthly support or one-time tax deductible donations through our DONATE button below or via check to:                  LINKS USA                  P.O. Box 1223                  San Marcos, Tx 78667                  Re: Harper Family