Spreading Her Wings

Greetings from Uganda,         We pray that this finds you and your families doing well. Below you'll find a letter written by our daughter Sydnie. Sydnie has just completed her final class for High School Graduation & she is ready to spread her wings! This child has amazed us in so many ways and we are so proud of her! She has graduated from High School early and is headed out in less than a month to attend YWAM(Youth With A Mission) Discipleship Training School(DTS.) She has been such a leader for her siblings since we ventured out almost a year ago to follow God into full-time missions. We have seen her grow in so many areas of her life and we are excited for where God is taking her next. Please read her request for both prayer and financial support and pray about how you might support her. Thank you, Sid & Wendy ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dear friends and family,         I hope that this letter finds you and your family doing well. If you find yourself reading this letter it is because you have touched my life in some way and I am so grateful for you. Over the past year my love for Jesus has grown & I am so excited for what my future holds. Living in Uganda for the past nine months has helped me to discover my love for the nations and my desire to lead others to Jesus. Finishing high school early has given me the opportunity to attend a discipleship training school to grow in my spiritual walk with the Lord.  This fall I will be attending DTS (discipleship training school) in Muizenberg, South Africa with YWAM(Youth With A Mission). I will be learning about the nature and character of God, Lordship of Christ, Identity in Christ and hearing God’s voice during the lecture phase. The lecture phase is followed by a 3 month outreach in a country where I will put into practice all I have learned. My time starts in September 2015 and ends in February 2016. I am excited about what God is going to do through this 6 months. Currently my goal is to raise both prayer partners and financial partners and I would love for you to be part of my team. Please consider how God might want you to be a part of my God story. I covet your prayers and I am thankful for your encouragement as I prepare to set off on my new journey. Below is my financial need: Airfare to South Africa-  $500 Total Lecture Fees-          $1850 Total Outreach Fees         $3200  (including airfare)         Total Need                       $5550 Donations:)              -$1460 *UPDATE*   $4090 Total Need Thank you once again for all of your love and support during this new chapter of my life.  Blessings, Sydnie Harper

Prayer Requests: Pray God will provide funds for both my lecture & outreach  Pray for me as I travel to South Africa Sept. 12th Pray that I will draw closer to God during this school & will learn more about reaching people for Christ How You Can Help... Prayer is first and foremost essential. I cannot thank you enough for faithfully praying for me. Partnership through monthly support(Sept-March) or a One-time tax deductible donation through the DONATE button below or via check to:                  LINKS USA                  P.O. Box 1223                  San Marcos, Tx 78667                  Re: SYDNIE - YWAM

July Update ~ Encouraged

Hello Friends! We can not believe that July has already come to a close. It has been full of ministry, fun & a lot of love. We started the month off hosting the Gully team from our home church, Stonegate Fellowship. It was so wonderful to have a little piece of home here for a week. We took them along for local village ministry, did morning devotional at the local Compassion International school, played games with children at a preschool, took them along to our church and to top it all off the Gully's were blessed to spend the day with their Compassion kids that they sponsor. We were SO blessed by there time here and SO thankful for all the goodies that they collected and brought to us. Thank you to those of you that sent care packages we are so grateful. After seeing the Gully team off at the airport, we had 24hrs before our family arrived for a 2 week visit. We spent the first week taking them along to much of the ministry we are doing here and the second week we took a much needed short holiday with our family, along with the Elkins family. It was so refreshing and everyone had so much fun! Our children finally got to go on a safari, our visiting family got to travel across Uganda, raft down the Nile River and some even bungee jumped over the Nile. It was loads of fun and after a tearful goodbye at the Entebbe airport we felt so encouraged and refreshed. We arrived back home to a YWAM Family Outreach Team from Kona that will be here for 3 weeks. They are serving locally in orphanages, schools, hospitals and villages and people are giving their lives to Christ! In the midst of all the ministry and family visiting Charlie had an accident playing on the trampoline which resulted in a broken arm:( Because the healthcare is quite poor here in Arua, Megan & I ended up flying to Entebbe to have his arm seen to make sure it didn't need pins to align the bone. After a few days, 3 clinics & 3 casts he finally was left with a crazy heavy plaster cast that should work perfectly. We will get a new x-ray taken on the 25th to confirm it has healed before removing the cast. Thank you to Pedi Med Center in Midland & Dr. Dehne at Dell Children's for looking at the x-rays and confirming that his care was adequate. Please continue to pray for Charlie as he is missing Toby (his service dog) & now dealing with a broken arm. Sid continues to be busy staffing the DTS (Discipleship Training School) that is now in week 8 of the lecture phase. Once lecture is over there will be two teams headed to South Sudan to complete the outreach phase of there DTS. God is doing great things in the hearts of these students. He also has become the base "fix it guy" Hmmmmm...... for those of you that know Sid, you know that this is no surprise. He is making a huge impact in the lives of the staff & students. I (Wendy) wrapped up the school year with the kids along with loads of help from our oldest daughter Lacey just before our teams arrived. It has been a blessing to have Lacey here over the last couple of months to help with teaching the kids. We start back in just 1 week. Please join us in praying for a teacher/tutor to join us here. Megan & I have been teaching women in the village about preventative health and have just started teaching the first group of women in "The First 1000 days ~ from conception to the 2nd birthday." This is a 4 session program that teaches women about health & nutrition during pregnancy, the importance of prenatal care, delivery & breastfeeding and family planning. We follow all of our teaching with what it says in God's word, and we work through the local churches. There were 32 women at our first session and they were thrilled to receive such important information and have an opportunity to ask questions. Please pray that these women will not only gain knowledge to save lives, but that they would see Jesus in us.

Gully girls sharing their testimonies with Compassion Intl. children. Teenagers encouraging teenagers:)   YWAM Arua DTS Students & Staff   Serving with our Family at a local 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 God will provide a teacher/tutor Pray for Charlie's broken arm to heal Pray for Health for the WHOLE family