Adopted by God- what a difference Emmanuel can make in a life!

Phionah Bogere, FARM STEW Uganda Trainer and
Joy Kauffman, FARM STEW International President

Phionah, Auntie and Roger in the village home.

What does it really mean to be adopted by God... to be His children and to be able to cry out to Him as Abba Father? The image of dear Phionah, FARM STEW Uganda trainer, with her Auntie comes to mind now as I think of adoption.  She was orphaned as a young girl and moved from house to house of her older siblings until the day that her Auntie took her and her brother Roger in to stay.  I had the privilege of being in their home last week, being fed like a queen and catching a glimpse of true love like I've rarely witnessed in my life.  

Phionah and Auntie sharing their story.

Phionah sat together with her Auntie, explaining to us visitors how "she is everything to me, my mother, my father, my friend."  Phionah explained how her Auntie had even gone without food such that they could attend school.  How as a single woman in a culture that does not have much room for employment of women, she sacrificed to put food on the table.  She and Roger have committed their lives to assuring that their Auntie is cared for with the tender love with which she bestowed upon them as children.

Then the next day, I meet this young, pathetic boy and I saw a life with such a different path ahead.   We were walking to a slum in Jinja to do some home visits and found him and his brother near the railroad tracks under a small plastic tarp, crying.  We asked a woman working in the field nearby and learned that his mother and father divorced and the mother left.  So now his father leaves them there all day while he tries to find some work.  The small piece of sugar cane in his hand is his only sustenance. This wretched, poor and suffering boy, broke my heart.  

Our team returned to this community yesterday to lead the local mothers in health and nutrition classes and taught them the skill of making soya milk.  My hope and valid belief is that they can use that skill to both nourish their children and sell to provide some income.   I pray someone has pity on this young boy.  I couldn't take him home with me. 

As I read a beautiful devotional book last night, now 4,000 miles away from any of these dear souls, I thought of Jesus and how His life of self-sacrificing love made it possible for all of us to be adopted as the children of His Father.   The fact that He will never leave us nor forsake us made me think of the dear abandoned boy.  How wretched would we be without Him. 

In the first chapter of Desire of Ages, we are given a glimpse of this love.  Although Jesus had forever enjoyed the worship of throngs of angels daily as He shared the heavenly throne with His Father, from the foundation of the world He had agreed to become wretchedly poor, a refugee, a hunted, hungry babe fleeing for His life as His parents took Him to Africa.  

"In stooping to take upon Himself humanity, Christ revealed a character the opposite of the character of Satan. But He stepped still lower in the path of humiliation. 'And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.' Phil 2:8"   Ellen White continues, "By His life and His death, Christ has achieved even more than the recovery from the ruin wrought through sin. It was Satan's purpose to bring about an eternal separation between God and man; but in Christ we become more closely united with God than if we had never fallen. In taking our nature, the Savior has bound Himself to humanity by a tie that is never broken. Through the eternal ages He is linked with us...  God has adopted human nature into the person of His Son and has carried the same into the highest heaven. It is the "Son of man" who shared throne of the universe... In Christ, the family of earth and the family of heaven are bound together. Christ glorified is our brother, Heaven is enshrined in humanity, and humanity is enfolded in the bosom of Infinite Love." 

I am so thankful for my adoption in the the family of God, for my place in the bosom of Infinite Love. I join with Phionah and her tender love saying, "Jesus is everything to me, my Mother, my Father, my Friend."   

I learned last week that Phionah, who bathed in the love of her Auntie, is sharing it by sending two orphan boys to school with her FARM STEW wages.  She has sacrificed so much that she did not even own a Bible that she so dearly wished for, so she remains with mine. :) 

I could go on and on about Emmanuel... but you can read the chapter or even the whole book here: http://www.whiteestate.org/books/da/da1.html

Praise God our Father, who is the giver of every good gift to His children.  May we all share generously the blessings that we find in the bosom of His Infinite Love.

FARM STEW | Working to End Hunger Throughout the World farmstew.org UNBELIEVABLE BUT TRUE!! The not-for-profit organization I have founded, FARM STEW International, applied for 501c3 status. It usually takes up to 9 months to be approved. LESS than a WEEK after submitting, we got our approval from the IRS. We are officially charitable and TAX deductible! :) God can move mountains, even mountains of paperwork in government offices.

I should have been blogging all along... so much has happened it is hard to beleive it all.  But, there is no time like the present to get started.  This past week, both FARM STEW International and FARM STEW Uganda have been officially registered!

This video is something I am so proud of!!  These are students who have been trained now training and teaching their parents (and selling Soya Products to them!)  I am so proud of my team that trains so well that their trainees can speak with this much confidence!  AMAZING!!

A Recipe For Longevity? Beans, Friends, Purpose And Movement
Here's an excellent audio file and article that share the secrets of long life found by a National Geographic writer who combed the world for the "Recipe For Longevity."  He found that the same ideas that FARM STEW teaches will work wonders. 
http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2015/08/26/blue-zones-recipe-for-longevity

Fill me up with some soy milk!!

"Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me." Matthew 18:2-5

This child is suffering from severe Protein-Energy Malnutrition (Kwashiorkor). Our team encountered him while conducting training in his village last week, a village where more than 300 children died in January 2015 of malnutrition after subsisting on a diet of cassava flour and water. Kwashiorkor was a local word in Ghana that means "the sickness the baby gets when the new baby comes", meaning this is what happens when they loose their mother's milk as a primary staple.

That is why we are so committed in enriching the local weaning foods of straight maize, or cassava, with Soy, for the protein and introducing other fruits and vegetables for micro-nutrients.

Call it what you want, it's still sudza!

This was a sobering reality, getting to visit a shanty community directly across the road from the hotel where we are staying in Zimbabwe. They could not have been more warm, in part because Steven and Dr. Gil have visited a few times already.  

Today we got to be there while this young pregnant mom was making the family breakfast, granulated corn starch (SUDZA) with a little added sugar and peanut butter. Three cheers for the peanut butter, but I think folks would likely get about a 1/4 teaspoon per serving... not enough for adequate protein for anyone, much less a pregnant woman.