Hello PCM Bloggers,

Check out the article by Patrick Butler in the  Tyler Morning Telegraph. Click   here

It is a story of how this card below started it all………..

We have included some more text, pictures  and video below for our new readers who need to see what we have been up to in this ministry.  Thanks for reading.

We have been called to spread the Father’s love to children across the world.  Our first area of focus is Uganda.  My wife Monica and I heard this song “You’re not an Orphan” back in 2005 at a conference in Colorado Springs on the campus of Focus on the Family.  We fell in love with it and could not understand then……. why the Father was developing a love for orphans inside of us. Now we know why. Click here for a slide show of just a few of the children we have met along the way with part of a song by Laura Fitzgerald.

Right now most of our work is with the Parental Care School in a tiny town of Mbarara Uganda.  It is in southwestern Uganda near Rwanda.  Some people questioned even last year if we really even had a school. There were no classrooms, one dorm and the teachers were not getting paid. Take a look at the progress being made in the school by clicking here

Pastor Emmy sold his car and his house last year to pay for food for these orphans.  He had faith to believe that we could become spokespeople for the ministry in the United States before we had the faith to believe it ourselves.  He told us in March of 2008 that the Lord would provide the necessary people to stand alongside of us.  In May of 2008 this faith of believing what cannot be seen became reality with the formation of Parental Care Ministries USA.   To read more about who makes up our Board of Directors and what we are trying to do as a nonprofit ministry click here

Some of you may be wondering why in the world do they have a banana plant as their logo.  Click here to read our earlier post about our logo……a banana tree.

We are to PROVIDE for God’s children both spiritually and physically. Currently the orphans have pourridge in the morning and are provided lunch and dinner with beans, potatoes and bananas.  Nearly 1/2 of our operational budget goes to feeding the 200 orphans, and 22 staff.  Click here to view this video on food starring my good friend Esther.

We also were moved on our last trip (November 2008)  by the drinking WATER situation. The orphans had to use this dirty river water as a water source.   One week after our team departed, Pastor Emmy’s nephew Robert fell in the river drawing water for the orphans.  He drowned to death.  Our ministry immediately realized the need for a well, and we knew we needed to ask the Lord quickly to provide funds for a well. This water situation was now a liability.  Over Christmas a campaign was conducted to raise funds for something very special for the orphans. Click here to watch this video to see what happened thanks to the generosity of so many…….

So who is this Pastor Emmy?  Click here to read his story.

We have been called by the Lord to come along PASTOR EMMY, his orphans, and the 34 pastors he currently oversees in rural Uganda. He started with nothing in his pockets, a wife Sarah who lacked parental care herself growing up, and a small piece of land and a few believers. He had only a 7th grade education and he lived in a mud hut with Sarah for about 5 years.  His faith was big then and it has grown even more over the past 14 years.   In June of 2008 the Lord provided a new van, named the “Miracle Van.”    Currently Emmy uses the van to oversee 34 pastors and their churches.  Click here to see  a few of his churches and the main church he helped start in 1994 now led by his assistant,  Pastor Reuben.

We are also very excited to report that Emmy is taking his FIRST VACATION EVER TODAY (5/16/09-5/19/09) on the shores of Lake Victoria with his wife, “Supermom” Sarah thanks to a gift from a generous donor.   He will have 3 days to spend with Sarah and much of it will be time on their knees.

We currently have a ORPHAN SPONSORSHIP campaign taking place. Click here to check out this link to scroll through these orphan children.   Currently we have only 1/3 of them sponsored at $35 a month or $420 a year.  We are providing food, water, clothing, security and education for all the orphan children. Click  here to link to HOW TO GIVE to our approved 501(c)3 nonprofit  ministry.   All of the funds raised go directly to orphan care.  Nothing is taking out for administrative purposes.

Currently all of the orphans have a bed, but the triple decker bunks are so crowded that we need an additional girls dorm according to the Ugandan fire safety officer. The orphans are in desperate need of one more uniform  since the one provided one year ago is getting pretty old having to be worn so frequently. We would like to finish out the classrooms and begin providing more health care for them since many of the orphans’ parents have died of HIV.  We now have a well but have no electricity at the school.  Each of the dorm rooms is lit at night by just one latern for about 50 kids…….Our prayer is that someday we would have a school made of real buildings, running water and electricity.   Until we see that day we will continue to praise the Lord for the gifts he has provided so far for these precious orphans.

We are currently speaking with various groups, schools and churches. If you would like us to come visit and share with your group what the Lord is doing on the other side of the world in Uganda, you can email us at parentalcareministries@gmail.com  or leave a comment on the blog on our website.  We would love to hear from you.  You can also request for us to add you to our blog list for automatic updates each time we make a post.

If you want to see more….. click on the prayer/project button or the media button for more pictures.

Blessings,

Mark and Monica Barret

Psalm 127:1  

“Unless the LORD builds the house,

They labor in vain who build it”

Beloved during these difficult times it is easy to lose perspective and allow fear to creep into our hearts and minds because of loss of control in areas of our lives that we once felt secure.  Today I hope to encourage you that now more than ever is the time to let go of the steering wheel of your life and surrender all to Jesus. He wants to lead us all to those good works He planned before the foundation of the world for us to walk in. This will only happen as we allow His Spirit and Word to build up our inner man to full and overflowing with His truth, love, joy and peace.  These are treasures God gives us that none of us could ever afford to buy. They are free gifts He desires to shower on His children.  The LORD wants us to learn that He alone is mighty to save and His perfect love casts out all our fear in Jesus’ name.

What is our part in allowing Him to build up our house (our hearts, minds, and souls) to be able to walk with Him in Spirit and Truth and lovely fellowship? 

It takes yielding and trusting.  Yielding to His promptings to spend time with Him in His word and prayer, yielding to His forgiveness and not allowing condemnation to rob us of His joy in our salvation, yielding our hearts in complete love and adoration of  His Son.  Yielding to the desire to worship Him with everything that we are by praising Him all day long for all the many blessings He showers on us!  Praising Him despite any circumstance.  The LORD inhabits the praises of His people and His heart needs to be ministered to by our love and praises. His heart!  

The LORD is our ROCK and we can trust in Him.  Everything else may shake but He is unmovable. He is faithful and He loves to show Himself strong on behalf of those who trust in Him and love Him.  God loves to show His arm is not too short to provide for our every need.

Unless the LORD builds the house they labor in vain who build it.  Oh how we tend to labor in vain! We can’t do a thing apart from Christ.  Nothing lasting, nothing valuable for Him or His Kingdom.  This truth is actually very liberating once you grasp it.  We can rest in Him completely. We can let go and trust that God will teach us how to please  and love Him.  Then watch  and enjoy God order your life for His good purposes as your heart becomes His home. Jesus said, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.’” (Matt 21:3) How sad that we often sell our hearts over to everything except Him and then we expect Him to bless us.  God forgive us.  Our hearts are made for the King of Glory!  May our lives, actions and attitudes line up with our lips.  That He would be honored.

What is our responsibility then to show God we truly love Him?

Taking care of our spiritual house will be a priority. 1 Peter 2:5 says, “you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” 

We have to spend time with the LORD to be the holy vessels  He is calling us to be in a desolate and dying world. Jesus alone makes us qualified to minister to others but it takes prayer and time alone with Him to equip us and know where He desires us to go. Our prayers for others and ministering to others needs are the spiritual sacrifices Father is looking for in our lives!

Making sure God’s people and house are not left desolate.

Hebrews 3:1-6 says, 

  ” And so, dear brothers and sisters who belong to God and are partners with those called to heaven, think carefully about this Jesus whom we declare to be God’s messenger and High Priest.  For he was faithful to God, who appointed him, just as Moses served faithfully when he was entrusted with God’s entire house.

   But Jesus deserves far more glory than Moses, just as a person who builds a house deserves more praise than the house itself.  For every house has a builder, but the one who built everything is God.

  Moses was certainly faithful in God’s house as a servant. His work was an illustration of the truths God would reveal later.  But Christ, as the Son, is in charge of God’s entire house. And we are God’s house, if we keep our courage and remain confident in our hope in Christ.”

Beloved brothers and sisters, God is building His house. A wise person will allow Him to build into his life. An even wiser person will actually join Him in His work to build into other people’s lives.  Jesus deserves a huge harvest of people to know that He loves and died for them!

Did you know that the LORD created you for good works  to walk in before the foundation of the world? We weren’t called for own ambitions but to serve a worthy King. Ask God what is on His heart and how you can help Him. Then do what He shares with you and stand back and watch Him take care of all your needs.  Not performing because we want our needs met but because we love Him and want to please our Father in heaven. 

What’s pleasing to our Father?

Comb through God’s Word and a bible concordance and find out what God says is pleasing to Him. A great starting point to get His attention is by doing the following:

“Taking care of orphans and widows in their distress.” (James 1:27)

Orphans can be anyone who does not know the love of the Father! Our world is full of these hurting and wounded people.  They need hope, love, counsel, prayer, worship, God’s Word!

Widows may be the divorced people next to you who feel abandoned and alone! God knows many people fall in this category and He would love to see His people ministering to these hurting ones.

Be God’s hands to a hurting world or support those ministries that are making a difference for God’s Kingdom.  Ask Father God which ones you should specifically support.  But do not shrink back from giving to His Kingdom work especially during hard times.

There is a very key verse of scripture in Daniel 4:27 that is helpful for us to understand. After King Nebuchadnezzar has a disturbing dream about a large beautiful tree being chopped down.  Daniel shares with the King that this dream is about his kingdom and it is to teach him that the Most High God alone rules over men.  Daniel gives some great advice to King Nebuchadnezzer in hopes he would follow it and not lose his kingdom: “Therefore, O king, may my advice be pleasing to you: break away now from your sins by doing righteousness, and from your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor, in case there may be a prolonging of your prosperity.”

Sadly, King Nebuchadnezzer did not heed Daniel’s wisdom, boasted in himself and lost his Kingdom and his sanity and his prosperity.  

The key is knowing GOD RULES in our lives and we need to do what is right in His eyes knowing that He sees everything in our hearts! God’s ways are perfect and His ways are good for us and He desires to teach us His ways.  It pleases Him when He sees us doing the right things like being merciful to the poor.  It causes Him to take notice of our lives and our needs. It pleases our God when we don’t take His Son’s sacrifice for granted and we take the ways He has redeemed us and bless others the same way He has blessed us! 

With joy,

Monica