David and I, Rhonda, are from Texas where we raised our three girls, Talitha, Hannah, and Anais. Right after Gabriel, our first son, was born we moved to Uganda as a family serving among the Basoga people in Jinja, Uganda. During our time in Uganda, Talitha contracted malaria and it went cerebral which quickly took her life. We returned from Uganda to America, thinking we would remain for a few months to get our thoughts in order after her death in 2007 and then be able to return to our home in Uganda. We make our plans, but God carries them out. I, Rhonda, became pregnant with Josiah and we saw that our family needed much healing before we could return to be a reflection of Jesus. This meant that we would remain in the States for a time, which took us to Colorado to work with an international orphan ministry and then on to the small town of Larkspur as the children’s pastor of New Covenant Church. God brought the needed healing for us there individually and as a family. It has been a long wait and much to do in developing the Children of God ministry at church and waiting on God’s timing, yet He has moved us on. We stepped out of our position at church in July 2015 to finish raising support for our move back to Uganda.
What a divine blessing it is to work with children and to have this opportunity to return to the people of Uganda. On our return, we will be learning the language and working with the children’s leaders, pastors, and parents to disciple them in the grace of God through Jesus Christ alone, teaching them truly what this means and who they are in Christ, which will enable them to reach to the heart of their children. This is discipleship and it is so vital! God has raised up so many wonderful African leaders to work with the children, yet most were raised in shame and abuse, just like every other culture. They continue to use the same flesh tactics to raise their children as they were raised in. We pray for God to break this cycle of bondage and give us teachable leaders and parents to work with that will desire to minister to a child’s heart as a partner with Christ, not working in the flesh, but in the Spirit that the children might truly have something valuable and beautiful to mimic, as they learn wholly who they are in the fullness of Christ and profoundly who their God is.
Returning to Lira, Uganda!
