An update on all the Lulu countries – & a 40-day fast for the future
By Emily Theresa
It’s summer here in Canada. The frogs croak their songs, and the air smells of purple lilacs and fresh rototilled dirt and campfires.
Every morning our rooster crows, long and hoarse like he’s clearing his throat, and every morning I dream of Africa. Because there too, roosters crow, and there too, my heart remains, even eight years into this long journey into God’s heart.
The other day I told my sister, “Did you know that over 600,000 men and women live in dire poverty in (a particular country) in South Asia? Like not just poor, but in DIRE poverty?”
And her response? “Can you imagine how BIG God’s heart is?!”
Because she understands, as I do, as you all do, that He holds the most vulnerable most near – or, as it says in Isaiah 41: “He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them close to His heart; He gently leads those that have young.” (NIV)
As a ministry, we’re pausing mid-year to lean in close to this generous heart. Because more than anything, we don’t want to step ahead of our Shepherd. He’s the One leading the mamas and their children. We’re simply following Him.
So we invite you to join us, to pray and to fast from something like food, or Facebook, or coffee, and to hide yourself in the strong arms of a Father who longs to whisper His dreams into your ears.
Because it’s through these fasts and prayers that any kind of fruit comes – fruit like the following:
UGANDA
- Training 68 pastors in Harvestime in Lugazi
- Training 21 mothers in Harvestime in Buleebi
- Training 20 mothers in Harvestime in Kakuukulu
- Teaching 153 students, including teenage mothers, pastors’ children, and the disabled, at the School of Hope in Namagera (run entirely by Ugandans)
- Completing the dorms and study hall to prepare for becoming a future training center
- Preparing farmland to sustain the ministry
- Providing sustainability for pastors through piggeries
- Microfinance training, business stipends, and new locations to live for 5 women from the slums, and their children sent to school
SIERRA LEONE
- Teaching four Harvestime Bible classes in the villages
- Opening and operating a birthing clinic, providing care for 18 villages
- Six rice farms preventing famine in 18 villages
- Seven church plants with more coming
- Microloan programs for vulnerable women
GUINEA
- Teaching three Harvestime classes in the villages
- A microloan program for vulnerable women
LIBERIA
- Two Harvestime classes
- A microloan program for vulnerable women
- Piggeries and goats for the ministry
- Tree nurseries to sustain a school for vulnerable children
KENYA
- Three Harvestime classes
- A cooperative maize farm for five pastors
- A microloan program for vulnerable women
SOUTH ASIA
- Funding eight tailoring centers for vulnerable women in the north and in the south
- Creating an online theological course for 500,000 Deshiya young people
- Translating Harvestime materials for hundreds of vulnerable pastors
- Providing computers and goats for vulnerable families
But we need to be honest about challenges too friends. The Lord is pruning the old Lulu Tree – even calling us to die. Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone. He wants to bear new fruit through us, and that is one of the reasons we’re taking time as a ministry to pause our social media posts, to pause blogging, and to listen.
What does it look like for a ministry to die so it can be reborn?
“Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” John 3:5-8
Would you pray with us – that as we die to ourselves, the fullness of Christ might be born within us? Our desire is ever only to walk in the good works God has ordained for us to do.
We love you, dear friends. Your prayers prepare the soil of our hearts to receive the implanted Word. Thank you for joining us on this journey into the heart of the Father.
