Fruit That Will Last
Since we trained our partners in disciple multiplication tools at our team summit in Uganda in June, I have been excited to see how Griffin in Kenya has responded. Here is an excerpt from a report he sent me in September.
Every month, Heaven’s Family helps far more people than we could ever highlight in our bi-monthly newsletter. For that reason, this blog contains additional photos and stories of some of the “least of these” among our spiritual family whom we’ve recently been blessed to serve.
Since we trained our partners in disciple multiplication tools at our team summit in Uganda in June, I have been excited to see how Griffin in Kenya has responded. Here is an excerpt from a report he sent me in September.
This trip was easily the most complicated trip I've ever booked, with wild price swings and vanishing flights. Also, during the month leading up to this trip, my wife suffered a severe ankle sprain. Her foot continued to swell for a week. It turned out that she had a blood clot in her ankle, which meant many trips back and forth to the hospital. Then 8 days before I left, she tested positive for Covid-19. Pulling double duty at home, trying to prepare for this trip, and trying to maintain a godly attitude all while sleeping on the couch was difficult to say the least. But it was a good reminder that, as the Christian rapper Sevin says, "This faith walk ain’t no cake walk.”
Lydia (name changed to protect her identity) cried when the Hindu priest cursed her and her sister. He even tried to beat them. Lydia and her sister’s crime? They had shared the gospel of Jesus in their north Indian village.
You'd never guess it, but in the above picture, Brenda was not yet rescued. She was participating in a feeding program in Guatemala supported by Heaven's Family. As our partner organization worked with her, it became apparent that Brenda was being abused. Instead of seeing progress with her, the partner saw that she was continuing to be malnourished, that her hair was falling out, and that the orange tint in what should have been black hair was not going away.
A minefield of dog feces and a diarrhea-filled diaper were just a few of the items we had to tiptoe around today to get to young Joseph's home. For outsiders like us, the stench of the slum where eight-year-old Joseph lives was extremely potent. Joseph, however, is accustomed to the smell. His family has lived in this slum, which sits right next to Guatemala's largest garbage dump, for generations. But that generational cycle will end with Joseph, thanks in part to you!
Dora's spine was so curved that it was inoperable. With her spine crowding her heart and lungs, her oxygen stats were constantly dropping. Her condition was slowly killing her, but that would change if she could somehow get supplemental oxygen.