The HOPE Center Uganda Happenings
Monday, May 30, 2011
Friday, May 27, 2011
Things are happening!!!
I am working on an before/after update! It may be slightly incomplete as some areas are not going to get done as fast as I wanted them too, but never fear! We will just have to do a second before/ after update as I don't think I can wait much longer for you all to see the exciting and wonderful changes happening!!!
This week was very eventful! We went to Kampala Thursday and picked up our car that was at the mechanics, and we also went to register our NGO, or nonprofit within Uganda. Praise God, thank you to all prayer warriors! Our NGO paperwork was accepted quite easily and paid and submitted!!! WoooHoooo!!!!
Bad News, carpenter made everything we ordered completely wrong!!!! It will be redone or we will find a different Carpenter
Good news, Landlord visited today and LOVES all the changes!!!! Says we can do and paint whatever we want to!!!! Love our Landlord and Landlady they have gone above and beyond for us.
Funny Picture Henry stopped and let us take.
Please keep praying, especially for monthly donors, Randy will leave June 7th to return to the states for minor surgery and to bank more money so we can get a nest egg!
We know that God has had his hand on this journey from the start, and it is so incredibly evident by all the blessings He continues to shower on us daily. We truly have never felt so blessed in our lives. To see a roadblock from Satan and then God dissolving it and all things become just the way He wanted, words do not do it justice.
Love you all and thank you for being a part of HCU!!!!!!
Miss you and pray that someday some of you can come visit!
Angie and Family
This week was very eventful! We went to Kampala Thursday and picked up our car that was at the mechanics, and we also went to register our NGO, or nonprofit within Uganda. Praise God, thank you to all prayer warriors! Our NGO paperwork was accepted quite easily and paid and submitted!!! WoooHoooo!!!!
Bad News, carpenter made everything we ordered completely wrong!!!! It will be redone or we will find a different Carpenter
Good news, Landlord visited today and LOVES all the changes!!!! Says we can do and paint whatever we want to!!!! Love our Landlord and Landlady they have gone above and beyond for us.
Funny Picture Henry stopped and let us take.
Please keep praying, especially for monthly donors, Randy will leave June 7th to return to the states for minor surgery and to bank more money so we can get a nest egg!
We know that God has had his hand on this journey from the start, and it is so incredibly evident by all the blessings He continues to shower on us daily. We truly have never felt so blessed in our lives. To see a roadblock from Satan and then God dissolving it and all things become just the way He wanted, words do not do it justice.
Love you all and thank you for being a part of HCU!!!!!!
Miss you and pray that someday some of you can come visit!
Angie and Family
Monday, May 23, 2011
God is working!
The last few days have been interesting to say the least!
Satan still is still trying to block us in various ways but God continues to prevail ( as He always will)
Timmo took us into the village where they found David, he was showing us where they found him, meeting his Grandfather and the people of his village. On the way home, the cars windows, speedometer, mileage reading, air conditioner, and rpm gage all quit instantly, no groaning or moaning just instant stop.
We were scheduled to go into Kampala Monday to meet with the Minister of Gender, so Henry called the mechanic and scheduled us in. We left at 8 am, Beka tracked the night guards dog poo all in the car, so we got out and scrubbed the car. we piled back in and were off at 8:30 am, we got to Kampala, and I kept thinking I saw steam coming from engine, but those of you that know Kampala know its hard to tell if its your car or the one jammed next to you. I finally casually said, I think we are overheating! We pull over, sure enough, we are overheating. At this time, its already 10, and we meet with the minister at 12. We put all our water bottles into the radiator, and a mechanic from across the street comes to check things out. We find out that whatever happened Sunday afternoon took out our fan AND the alternator because now the car will not start. We get a jump and we are off! Well the mechanic that looked at it, took out a fuse and it must have been something to do with keeping the car running, because we barely moved and the car stalls out!!!, (10:30) Henry decides to call mechanic car is going to. He sends a breakdown (aka tow truck, although it isn't a tow truck more like a car pull/lift). We call Ernest and ask to be picked up. everyone finally shows at 11:00am, at this point in time I am starting to panic as I know that if we do not make the Ministers on time we are in trouble. (Just a nice little feeling from God). car is finally loaded on top this contraption.
That's Henry and Ernest on the left.
Finally we are on our way 11:30!!!! Oh No!!
We go straight to mechanic, and drop off car, meanwhile things are just not moving fast enough!
We all pile into Ernest's van and head towards Ministers Office, we get there with 1 minute to spare!!!
The minister is in quite a hurry, he glances through file, asks a few questions, see my children and asks if the white ones are mine, and I answer no, they all are mine, we adopted the 2 Ugandans almost 4 years ago. He instructs secretary to write our referral letter and declares he knows we will take good care of the orphans!!! Praise God!!!
WooHoo, almost everything is complete to register NGO, only 2 more steps and 1 is on me. Writing Randys and I CV, or resume. Ewww! Please someone come work in the imaginary office!!! I HATE this part! The other step is meeting with the RDC here in Mityana! Everything else is completed! Aren't God's blessings wonderful???
When we sit back and look at what God has accomplished in 2 and a 1/2 short weeks we are so astounded and awed that no words can do justice!!!
Please keep praying for us and HCU! Your prayers are working God hears you! We see the evidence!
Satan still is still trying to block us in various ways but God continues to prevail ( as He always will)
Timmo took us into the village where they found David, he was showing us where they found him, meeting his Grandfather and the people of his village. On the way home, the cars windows, speedometer, mileage reading, air conditioner, and rpm gage all quit instantly, no groaning or moaning just instant stop.
We were scheduled to go into Kampala Monday to meet with the Minister of Gender, so Henry called the mechanic and scheduled us in. We left at 8 am, Beka tracked the night guards dog poo all in the car, so we got out and scrubbed the car. we piled back in and were off at 8:30 am, we got to Kampala, and I kept thinking I saw steam coming from engine, but those of you that know Kampala know its hard to tell if its your car or the one jammed next to you. I finally casually said, I think we are overheating! We pull over, sure enough, we are overheating. At this time, its already 10, and we meet with the minister at 12. We put all our water bottles into the radiator, and a mechanic from across the street comes to check things out. We find out that whatever happened Sunday afternoon took out our fan AND the alternator because now the car will not start. We get a jump and we are off! Well the mechanic that looked at it, took out a fuse and it must have been something to do with keeping the car running, because we barely moved and the car stalls out!!!, (10:30) Henry decides to call mechanic car is going to. He sends a breakdown (aka tow truck, although it isn't a tow truck more like a car pull/lift). We call Ernest and ask to be picked up. everyone finally shows at 11:00am, at this point in time I am starting to panic as I know that if we do not make the Ministers on time we are in trouble. (Just a nice little feeling from God). car is finally loaded on top this contraption.
Finally we are on our way 11:30!!!! Oh No!!
We go straight to mechanic, and drop off car, meanwhile things are just not moving fast enough!
We all pile into Ernest's van and head towards Ministers Office, we get there with 1 minute to spare!!!
The minister is in quite a hurry, he glances through file, asks a few questions, see my children and asks if the white ones are mine, and I answer no, they all are mine, we adopted the 2 Ugandans almost 4 years ago. He instructs secretary to write our referral letter and declares he knows we will take good care of the orphans!!! Praise God!!!
WooHoo, almost everything is complete to register NGO, only 2 more steps and 1 is on me. Writing Randys and I CV, or resume. Ewww! Please someone come work in the imaginary office!!! I HATE this part! The other step is meeting with the RDC here in Mityana! Everything else is completed! Aren't God's blessings wonderful???
When we sit back and look at what God has accomplished in 2 and a 1/2 short weeks we are so astounded and awed that no words can do justice!!!
Please keep praying for us and HCU! Your prayers are working God hears you! We see the evidence!
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Pictures
David our first child, he will come when we have beds completed, they are supposed to arrive next Tuesday.
This is Krisann, who yet again God sent!!! She has helped with my children and sorting house, we honestly do not know what we would have done without her!!!!! Thank you Lord Jesus!
I have made it a point to show you the beauty of this country, because it is beautiful! I have honestly not seen anything that can compare with its beauty. Next week I shall show you the other side of this country. THe side that people really dont want to see, the side that makes them uncomfortable,
Blessings to you all!!!
Angie
Progress African Style! :))
Yesterday May 16th we went into Kampala to work on our work permits, now my experience with immigration is not a most wonderful one, and I was dreading this trip. We got to immigration and went directly to the workpermit window. She handed me the forms to fill, and proceeded to tell me we needed to buy our own folder etc. We left (I needed the restroom and immigrations was not suitable) we filled forms and got together all the information they needed. One item we had to handwrite.We proceeded to return to immigration, bought folders at the gate, and handed it to the lady at workpermits, she informed me the handwrote one needed to be typed, and that they needed our NGO registration. Oh great! Here starts the shuffle around! We walk over to NGO registration and were blessed with a very wonderful lady who informed us that hiring a lawyer was NOT necesary and that she would help us through the process, she went through the checklist with us and found that we are lacking not as many things as I thought we were, and all we need to file work permits is the NGO registration paid. BUT the NGO lady tells us that we cannot file NGO registration til we have MInister of Genders Approval. So we leave immigration completely and go to the minister of Genders office, there we are informed that he is out of office til next week, and that if we were wanting approval for our NGO we have to go register our name first. We leave Minister of Gender and go to register our NGO name with Uganda. There we find out that we cannot be called The HOPE Center UGanda because it is similar to another, so in Uganda legally we are now called The Helping Orphans and Prodigals to Eternity Center, aka The H.O.P.E. Center!
Now I think you all understand why I dislike Kampala, this is a typical day in Kampala...lol
We did not get paint bought like I was hoping we would, so painting the garage will have to wait, although, we may have to go make a trip just for paint. The beds and cribs arrive next week Tuesday!!!! Praise God!
I am trying to upload pics but it is rejecting the server, lovely!!! So we shall continue to work on that one! I will figure out a way around it.
The showers of blessings God is surrounding us with, is absolutely wonderful!
Praising Him!
Angie
Now I think you all understand why I dislike Kampala, this is a typical day in Kampala...lol
We did not get paint bought like I was hoping we would, so painting the garage will have to wait, although, we may have to go make a trip just for paint. The beds and cribs arrive next week Tuesday!!!! Praise God!
I am trying to upload pics but it is rejecting the server, lovely!!! So we shall continue to work on that one! I will figure out a way around it.
The showers of blessings God is surrounding us with, is absolutely wonderful!
Praising Him!
Angie
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Our Journey and New Home
Wow, has a lot happened in 5 days! God is so good!
It is so hard to know where to start!I will attempt to go in order of events. While we were in Denver eating breakfast Wednesday morning, a random man walked up to us and put some money in our friends shirt pocket, Praise God!Said he wanted to help in a small way, in out opinion it was a huge way).
We then went to the airport to find out when we would be able to check in. British Airways check-in does not happen til 2 pm. We said Goodbye to Walt and Bill, prayed together, and started cruising around Denver with our friend Sam, we realized we did not have anything to do so we returned to the airport and proceeded to bring in 26 totes and stack them. There was a very nice man that worked for a different airline that went above and beyond helping us bring in the totes, weigh them and get everything situated. We sat for 3 hours waiting for BA to show, when they saw our luggage they started checking us in at 1:30pm. It took over an hour to get everyone and everything checked in and organized.
We all then proceeded through security, I was dreading security but Sam got as special pass to accompany us through security. There we sat and walk around til time to board. We had a few meltdowns. But those can be expected when you are moving out of the country. The flight to London was very uneventful, and fairly smooth. Once in London, we had a 9 hour lay over, at this point I had a mommy melt down, I was very tired and had not been able to sleep and just starting crying for no particular reason. I said a quick prayer and all was well once again.
While we were laying over in London, we had a very nice family ask us about our ministry. It was nice to run into caring people. We finally got to board to make our way to Uganda, and Elizabeth starting throwing up shortly after take off. I think she picked up the stomach flu in the hotel or Denver airport. (She shared with Mikey 2 days later). Poor Elizabeth used every sick bag on the plane I think, plus I stashed a few in my purse for the drive to Mityana. When we landed I was very relieved, that is a long way to travel with 5 children by yourself, but I have to give my children credit, they were all wonderful and well behaved. We proceeded to the baggage claim, and started pulling off totes. I was praying the whole time the all the totes arrived safely. ELizabeth and Beka were sitting at the wall while Mikey, Alex, Josiah and I pulled totes, as I saw the growing pile I started counting, we were up to 25!!!! 1 more to go! As I started wondering if we were going to be one short, I heard Mikey scream I see it! Hallelujah!!! EVERY SINGLE TOTE ARRIVED SAFELY! Praise the Lord! I arranged a few workers at the airport to help us along the way and we star our caravan of pulleys out the door.
The first person I see is my amazing husband with tears streaming down his face and our dog! The emotions were high at this point even though it had only been a day and a half since we had last seen each other. I met Ernest, who my new missionaries friends arranged for us, by the way, our new friends are amazing! We loaded luggage and I sat with Elizabeth encouraging her and found Randy and we both prayed over her, We knew it was simple flu, but were also worried about dehydration. Elizabeth jumps up off curb and says, Lets get this show on the road I want to see my new home. So we loaded into the bus and started making our way to Kampala, we knew we should stop for a few necessities and cell phones before making our way to Mityana. In the middle of Kampala, we got stuck in a traffic jam, I hear a faint Mom, please help me, mom, and thought Elizabeth needed a new sick bag, so i quickly grab my purse and start digging for one of the bags I borrowed. She says no mom look! So I look at her and got the biggest grin The street children, had come up to the bus and were stroking her arm and softly saying with awe, Mzungu, Mzungu, they were NOT even asking for handouts, they just wanted to touch Elizabeth, her in the meantime is saying do something, why are they touching me, It was so adorable. I think we all slept the whole way to Mityana, and those of you that know Africa know that was no e3asy feat with the bumpy roads.
Once we arrived in Mityana, our missionary friend met us and took us to our new house! What an amazing AGod we have, He helped find a fully furnished house, with enough beds,dining table living furniture etc. Not only that, the landlord wants to sell us his car, it is not the 4x4 van we wanted, but it is enough to get us by til we have enough funds for something better. There are 2 missionaries here, 1 is a beautiful single lady teaching culturally relevant books from creation to Christ. The other family is just as amazing and they are IMB missionaries doing discipleship training. They have 2 children out childrens ages. 13, and 9. When we arrived at our new house KrissAnn
Saturday Eric and KrisAnn invited us to their house for a beautiful lunch and we also met with the landlord to finalize everything. We unpacked totes, Mikey was amazing, she was on quest to get all the totes unpacked, and she did so with help and by Sunday every single tote was unpacked.
Monday, Oh Monday, where shall I start, Randy got up early and went to Kampala with Henry. They went to go shopping for a Refrigerator, stove, linens and other necessary items. I needed to stay home with the children and clean and start getting organised. I handed him the debit card for the hope center kissed him goodbye and proceeded to get busy. They left by 7:30 am, and at 2 pm, I received a call that I need to come to Kampala because the man would not accept the card because it was my name not Randys on the card. Oh how i wanted to cry, Kampala is not my favorite place! Henry said he was going to send someone to get me, and to get ready. At the same time this was happening the landlady showed up, saw my frustration and said Madame what is wrong, I explained to her the situation and was ordered to call Henry cancel his driver and that she would take me to Kampala s that is where she lives!!!! (Gods blessings, drivers cost money!) I was having HUGE issues leaving my children with the housegirls as I had just met them that day! I was close to tears, but there was no way out of the situation, less than 5 minutes after the landlady says eh will take me to Kampala, KrissAnn walks in the gate with her children, offers to stay with mine!!! God is Good ALL the time!
Now we finally get to today, Tuesday. Today was the day we went around meeting people. We met the LC, the probation officer, the police, we also got a PO box,
Our Ugandan address is.....(drum roll).....
Randy and Angie Goering
PO Box 59
Mityana, Uganda, East Africa
We could not put the box in the Hope centers acct until we have it properly registered with the Ugandan government. We will switch it once that is done. Tomorrow we will get a bank account and meet with the carpenter that will start helping us remodel for the orphans.
We made great progress today with the probation officer, he has stated that he is willing to start us with 10 children to start. That he wants to make sure we are worthy.
Please keep praying for us! We feel the prayers and they are very welcomed! God is working hard and we are seeing it everyday in situations that arise.
It is so hard to know where to start!I will attempt to go in order of events. While we were in Denver eating breakfast Wednesday morning, a random man walked up to us and put some money in our friends shirt pocket, Praise God!Said he wanted to help in a small way, in out opinion it was a huge way).
We then went to the airport to find out when we would be able to check in. British Airways check-in does not happen til 2 pm. We said Goodbye to Walt and Bill, prayed together, and started cruising around Denver with our friend Sam, we realized we did not have anything to do so we returned to the airport and proceeded to bring in 26 totes and stack them. There was a very nice man that worked for a different airline that went above and beyond helping us bring in the totes, weigh them and get everything situated. We sat for 3 hours waiting for BA to show, when they saw our luggage they started checking us in at 1:30pm. It took over an hour to get everyone and everything checked in and organized.
We all then proceeded through security, I was dreading security but Sam got as special pass to accompany us through security. There we sat and walk around til time to board. We had a few meltdowns. But those can be expected when you are moving out of the country. The flight to London was very uneventful, and fairly smooth. Once in London, we had a 9 hour lay over, at this point I had a mommy melt down, I was very tired and had not been able to sleep and just starting crying for no particular reason. I said a quick prayer and all was well once again.
While we were laying over in London, we had a very nice family ask us about our ministry. It was nice to run into caring people. We finally got to board to make our way to Uganda, and Elizabeth starting throwing up shortly after take off. I think she picked up the stomach flu in the hotel or Denver airport. (She shared with Mikey 2 days later). Poor Elizabeth used every sick bag on the plane I think, plus I stashed a few in my purse for the drive to Mityana. When we landed I was very relieved, that is a long way to travel with 5 children by yourself, but I have to give my children credit, they were all wonderful and well behaved. We proceeded to the baggage claim, and started pulling off totes. I was praying the whole time the all the totes arrived safely. ELizabeth and Beka were sitting at the wall while Mikey, Alex, Josiah and I pulled totes, as I saw the growing pile I started counting, we were up to 25!!!! 1 more to go! As I started wondering if we were going to be one short, I heard Mikey scream I see it! Hallelujah!!! EVERY SINGLE TOTE ARRIVED SAFELY! Praise the Lord! I arranged a few workers at the airport to help us along the way and we star our caravan of pulleys out the door.
The first person I see is my amazing husband with tears streaming down his face and our dog! The emotions were high at this point even though it had only been a day and a half since we had last seen each other. I met Ernest, who my new missionaries friends arranged for us, by the way, our new friends are amazing! We loaded luggage and I sat with Elizabeth encouraging her and found Randy and we both prayed over her, We knew it was simple flu, but were also worried about dehydration. Elizabeth jumps up off curb and says, Lets get this show on the road I want to see my new home. So we loaded into the bus and started making our way to Kampala, we knew we should stop for a few necessities and cell phones before making our way to Mityana. In the middle of Kampala, we got stuck in a traffic jam, I hear a faint Mom, please help me, mom, and thought Elizabeth needed a new sick bag, so i quickly grab my purse and start digging for one of the bags I borrowed. She says no mom look! So I look at her and got the biggest grin The street children, had come up to the bus and were stroking her arm and softly saying with awe, Mzungu, Mzungu, they were NOT even asking for handouts, they just wanted to touch Elizabeth, her in the meantime is saying do something, why are they touching me, It was so adorable. I think we all slept the whole way to Mityana, and those of you that know Africa know that was no e3asy feat with the bumpy roads.
Once we arrived in Mityana, our missionary friend met us and took us to our new house! What an amazing AGod we have, He helped find a fully furnished house, with enough beds,dining table living furniture etc. Not only that, the landlord wants to sell us his car, it is not the 4x4 van we wanted, but it is enough to get us by til we have enough funds for something better. There are 2 missionaries here, 1 is a beautiful single lady teaching culturally relevant books from creation to Christ. The other family is just as amazing and they are IMB missionaries doing discipleship training. They have 2 children out childrens ages. 13, and 9. When we arrived at our new house KrissAnn
Saturday Eric and KrisAnn invited us to their house for a beautiful lunch and we also met with the landlord to finalize everything. We unpacked totes, Mikey was amazing, she was on quest to get all the totes unpacked, and she did so with help and by Sunday every single tote was unpacked.
Monday, Oh Monday, where shall I start, Randy got up early and went to Kampala with Henry. They went to go shopping for a Refrigerator, stove, linens and other necessary items. I needed to stay home with the children and clean and start getting organised. I handed him the debit card for the hope center kissed him goodbye and proceeded to get busy. They left by 7:30 am, and at 2 pm, I received a call that I need to come to Kampala because the man would not accept the card because it was my name not Randys on the card. Oh how i wanted to cry, Kampala is not my favorite place! Henry said he was going to send someone to get me, and to get ready. At the same time this was happening the landlady showed up, saw my frustration and said Madame what is wrong, I explained to her the situation and was ordered to call Henry cancel his driver and that she would take me to Kampala s that is where she lives!!!! (Gods blessings, drivers cost money!) I was having HUGE issues leaving my children with the housegirls as I had just met them that day! I was close to tears, but there was no way out of the situation, less than 5 minutes after the landlady says eh will take me to Kampala, KrissAnn walks in the gate with her children, offers to stay with mine!!! God is Good ALL the time!
Now we finally get to today, Tuesday. Today was the day we went around meeting people. We met the LC, the probation officer, the police, we also got a PO box,
Our Ugandan address is.....(drum roll).....
Randy and Angie Goering
PO Box 59
Mityana, Uganda, East Africa
We could not put the box in the Hope centers acct until we have it properly registered with the Ugandan government. We will switch it once that is done. Tomorrow we will get a bank account and meet with the carpenter that will start helping us remodel for the orphans.
We made great progress today with the probation officer, he has stated that he is willing to start us with 10 children to start. That he wants to make sure we are worthy.
Please keep praying for us! We feel the prayers and they are very welcomed! God is working hard and we are seeing it everyday in situations that arise.
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