It was Ontario, mid-summer. I was 27 and weeding my mother’s flower bed while she lay inside, comatose. She’d been asleep for 30 hours.  She was sick with brain cancer and my husband and I had decided to move close to my parents to take care of her.

And that’s when I heard God say it: “Watch me take care of you.”

I heard Him say it through the wind, like He was running his hands across the blue August sky.

We’d been looking for a house for us to move into. We’d looked at every place available near my parents’ and had found nothing in our price range. Yet I heard: “Watch me take care of you.”

We’d given up everything to come home and care for my Mum.

And God was giving His word that He would take care of us.

That very afternoon a friend of ours stopped by and told me there was a private listing for a house just a few blocks from my parents’; it wasn’t being shown by realtors, so that’s why I’d missed it. It was the perfect size, and the perfect price. It was ours.

I’ve never forgotten God’s promise.

And it’s a promise He sings over me daily, now, here at The Lulu Tree.

I used to dog-ear stories about George Mueller and Amy Carmichael, about how they would just pray for all of their needs and checks would mysteriously arrive on their doorstep.

Now I’m dog-earing the pages of my life because that’s exactly what God is doing. We pray. We fast. And He gives, through people like you.

And yet I doubt.

Just the other day, I doubted, and was so tempted to go to my Facebook page and ask people to give.

Our national director in Uganda was wondering if we could do a mama kit outreach in March, when myself and my team heads there for our annual visit. She and I had prayed and believed God wanted us to give out 500 mama kits and a meal for those mamas in March. But that’s $4000. And March is only a couple of months away.

I know God has called us to “faith-raise” instead of fundraise. But I started to justify to myself – well, asking on Facebook IS faith-raising because I’m asking IN faith and really, who am I NOT to give people the opportunity to give? How will they know unless I tell them?

Thankfully I didn’t. Because I should know, after three and a half years of running this ministry, that people will know because God will tell them.

The very next morning when I opened Facebook, there was a message from my friend, a popular author who leads 5,000 women in a 40-day sugar fast every year. And she was asking if this year, her mamas could raise money for a mama kit outreach for us. I clumsily typed in “Yes” and she asked how many kits would we like and I wrote “500” and she said “that’s what I was thinking,” and then I added, “But we would need a meal to offer these ladies too. They’re so hungry when they come,” and she said, “How much will that be?” “Well, $6 per kit, plus $2 for a meal,” and she quickly tallied it up and told me to consider the $4,000 provided for. If her mamas didn’t provide it, she would personally.

You guys. Our God is BIG. Our God is awesome. Our God is all-knowing and He sees us bowing low in the secret place and He meets us there. He is a good Father who DELIGHTS in giving good gifts to His children, and He wants to receive ALL the glory for it. This way, our Africa family doesn’t become dependent on US but on HIM.

“Watch me take care of you,” He whispers.

Would you pray for us? That we would keep bowing? It’s so hard when the needs are so great and we live in a land of such plenty. But God knows people’s hearts and He knows our true needs. May He direct those He’s prepared since the beginning of time, like yourselves, to stand with us in this calling. And May He reassure you today, wherever you’re at, whatever you’re facing, that so long as you care for others, He will gladly take care of you.

⁸ And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. ⁹ As it is written:

“They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor;
their righteousness endures forever.”

¹⁰ Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. ¹¹ You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

~ 2 Corinthians 8-11

Prayer and Praise:

Lulu Uganda:

⦁ Pray for Lulu’s widow Auntie Loy who’s part of our microloan program and very sick; pray for Lillian (a young woman we partner with from the slum who became a trained tailor through Lulu) who’s taking care of Auntie Loy
⦁ Prayers for this month’s prayer clinic, that God would be present, that He would continue to advance His kingdom in Namageria, Bulbugo, Wansimba and surrounding villages
⦁ Prayers for this month’s business training with the pastors/congregations that God would bless their businesses and give them understanding and wisdom
⦁ Prayers for the teen mamas as they’ve started school, that they would excel; prayers for their babies that they would thrive
⦁ Prayers for our children from the slums, that they would excel as they return to boarding school
⦁ Prayers for strength, wisdom and courage for our directors
⦁ Prayers for the March trip and mama kit outreach

Lulu Sierra Leone:

⦁ Prayers for the men’s trip as it begins to take shape for August 2018
⦁ Prayers for strength, wisdom and courage for our directors, Sonnel and Daniel
⦁ Wisdom as we begin to plant our first church
⦁ A blessing of protection and favor over the tractor, plow and seeder as they begin to prepare acres of land for seeding
⦁ Prayers for 100 more bushels of rice seed so that each of the 13 villages might be fed and might be able to fend off the famine season
⦁ Prayers for Pastor Ezekiel as he becomes a father figure for the orphans in the village and takes them into his home
⦁ Wisdom to know how to reach the girls in the FGM movement
⦁ Praise God for all the cassava harvested and for the Gari roasted