Here is the latest good news from Uganda………..

1.

Our PCM Mbarara School Choir has been asked to sing to the wife of the President of Uganda today, Tuesday March 23.  They will be holding an international women’s day conference in Mbarara and our children will get the honor of singing to her.  What a blessing……….we are so thankful for this opportunity and know they will be full of the Spirit as they sing to her and many others.

2.

The Crusade at the Chicken Church this past week was a huge evangelistic success.  57 lives were saved over these 3 days at Pastor Johnson’s church.  Here is a photo of our beloved friend Pastor Johnson on the left with Pastor Simon on the right during a break at the crusade.

We are so thankful for the use of the new truck as this has enabled PCM to be a mobile church in the village and bring the Gospel to more areas that have no electricity.   Here below the worship team, pastors, and other workers sit to enjoy some matoke (cooked banana) together. It’s a meal they know well, but they are grateful for this provision.

3. Cows for the Kingdom (our self sufficiency project for our 43 pastors) has started in Mbarara, the “Land of Milk.”   Yes,  we have selected 3 pastors to receive our first 3 cows.  They are Pastor Reuben, Pastor Simon, and Pastor Januanario.  The vet officer from Kampala has traveled to Mbarara to teach the men about taking care of these cows, milking them, and also breeding them. This week we will be picking up the cows and transporting them to the pastors’ homes with the aid of our PCM Little Dump Truck.  What a blessing to have this piece of equipment.  It is the gift that keeps giving.  Thank you to all who gave for this vehicle.  Mukama Asiimwe  ”Praise God” for you.

4. Our new classroom is being used by the P6 class already.  Here you can see our oldest students learning in our new building. Lydia, our head girl of the school, is seen here raising her hand. We don’t quite have desks yet,  but that is not stopping the learning from occurring. Blessings to all of you at Grace Community Elementary School for helping us with our Hearts for Change project to fund this project with our spare change.   It is already making a huge difference in the lives of these young students.  We were able to build it big enough where next year we will not need a new building for the P7 class!!!  Wahoooo!!!

5.  We have a new employee.  His name is Emmy………can you imagine that.  Pastor Emmy, Driver Emmy and now another Driver Emmy for our new PCM truck.  Here is a picture of the 3 Emmys together from this past Christmas.  

When I took this picture I asked Pastor Emmy what our new friend’s name was.  He didn’t know and he asked him and they found out together it is  ”Emmy.”  The reason they didn’t know is because he doesn’t go by that name.  He goes by a Uganda name which I can’t spell but it sounds like “kumwe kumwe”  which means “one by one.” You see our new little friend is known for his methodical way of doing things one at a time. He has done such a great job for us these past few months that we have decided we need to hire him full time.  He drives the PCM Little Dump Truck to all our crusades, Cows for the Kingdom events, and his biggest job is to drive to the village to buy all the food for the orphans.  Justin and I look forward to joining “one by one” for such a trip in the next few weeks.  We will find a way to buy some extra fruit and fill that truck for Easter. Here is a picture shot yesterday after Pastor Emmy and Supermom (seen on left) told “one by one” of his new employment and salary of just a bit over $3 a day.  He was so happy and grateful….. …….true joy…..

6. Many of you have been praying for Pastor Charles, our construction pastor and builder extraordanaire.  He has HIV and has been struggling these past few months.  We are happy to report that he is feeling a bit better,  is on site at the school supervising the building,  but is still having some pain. Please continue to pray for our beloved Charles.  Our God is able! We can’t wait to see him soon.

7. We have a new PCM office, a new web address (old one still works) and a new post office box.  Justin will be moving to our new office at the Good Sam building off Beckham just past Erwin.

Many of his students helped us paint it,  and all the Barrets and Hayes were up at the office this past Saturday to finish with the clean up. We are amazed at having a permanent office space, 2 employees, the use of a board room, and a huge church building to hold meetings if needed in this Good Sam building.  We can’t wait to show it off to many of you after our next trip.

Our new postal address is

PCM

PO BOX 131166

Tyler TX 75713-1166

Our new website address is   www.pcmonline.org                                                                                       You will notice that our emails are changing as well to match our new domain.                                           We will soon have a new phone number and share that with everyone.

8.  Many of you have asked if you could send your monthly sponsorship checks to the new PO Box.  The answer of course is yes.  We also have something else exciting for those of you who have been asking…….you can now hit the donate button and select recurring monthly payment for paypal to do this each month for you if you would like.  You can still make a one time donation or go in each month using the left column, but we now have a recurring payment option via paypal.  The old PCM address still works, but we have a new prayer request.   The Barrets have heard clearly from the Lord to put a sign in front of our beloved home. We have heard the Lord tell us that we have much more to do with PCM and selling our home is going to enable some of these dreams to happen.  We are not leaving Tyler, but we know we need to obtain the new land for the school site, farm and ministry headquarters just outside Mbarara.  We ask that this be a smooth, easy process and one that would honor our Lord.  One of my closest friends often tells me, “Bub, no white knuckles.”  Meaning:  don’t hold on to anything too tight that you can’t let go of it.  Good advice for all of us these days. Time is short.  The Lord is going to return.  We need to be in the field working while we can………

Two last bits of IMPORTANT information.

• We would like to thank those of you who have written a letter to their sponsored child and given it to us to bring with us next month. But we need more ASAP!   We have plenty of time to do this still. We would love to have all of them by 3/31.   You can even mail them to our new PO BOX !!!   I can’t tell you how much the orphans treasure these letters.  You can put some stickers or other flat items in the envelope with a picture of your family and some questions to ask the orphans and we will bring you back a reply on our return. Some of you have graciously written a letter to the orphans without sponsors and we thank you for that compassion. They will be thrilled to get a letter too.  Here are 3 pictures that were drawn by the Green Acres High School youth.
• Save the date,  Tuesday April 6th…….700pm.…….we will have another ice cream sundae, prayer meeting for PCM trip #5.   Join us that night at our home in the Woods.  More info to follow soon.

PCM is proud to announce that we have hired two employees at PCM: Justin and Christie Hayes (also pictured are PCM supporters Marley, London and Carter).  Let me explain how this came about.  Many of you have come to know our volunteer extraordinaire Christie Hayes who has been sending the blogs since last year.  Well, we got board approval to finally start to pay her in 2010 for all the time she is spending staying in touch with you and organizing the orphan sponsorship program.  What we didn’t know is that the Lord was going before us and he had so much more ready for us that we couldn’t imagine it.  We have seen the friendship grow between the Barrets and Hayes this year and have spent much time praying for their family and the direction they were taking.  We thought at first that Justin would have a part time job at a church and spend the rest with PCM. The PCM Board was sensitive and knew that we needed to be a good steward in spending our first administrative dollar. We also realize that we are at the launching point and without staff, it is going to be hard to grow. However, we knew that we couldn’t afford even a single full time employee (as talented as Justin) as we have yet to meet all of our operational expenses in Uganda at our Mbarara site. What we would soon learn is that God sometimes has bigger plans than you can ever imagine.  I write this blog today in full amazement of what the Lord is doing with this ministry.  We now have 2 employees and PCM is still only paying for one 1/2 time employee with what the board approved. Wow…….it’s a great story……ask us about it sometime.

I am here ready to announce the positions of our 2 employees:

Justin Hayes will be PCM Director of Ministry Operations. He will direct all of our operations here in the US via working with churches, schools and individuals, but he will also travel back and forth to Uganda taking teams of pastors, parents, and students to experience PCM Uganda. He will report to the PCM CEO yours truly.  We are calling him “the Deuce” for obvious reasons. Monica and I can’t tell you how blessed and excited we are to work alongside someone so talented as Justin.  You will all soon begin to see what we mean.  Just don’t ask him to play any musical instruments with his nose.  Justin and I leave for Uganda in less than one month.  More on this trip coming very soon.  (PCM quiz: Can you tell the difference on Justin’s 2 photos?…..if you can tell him about it)

Christie Hayes will wear multiple hats as well…….She will be the PCM Child Sponsorship Coordinator and the Director of Accounting as well.  You already know her talents and her nickname as “DC” …….”Double Check.”  The Lord knew that Monica and I needed someone who loves to make lists, check them twice, be excellent at communication in person and email, and have a huge heart for Jesus at the same time.  Bullseye.  Right now we know these days for her are busy with 3 kids under age 5 running around the house, but we know it won’t be long before DC is in the Miracle Van herself traveling those dirt roads of Uganda we have come to love so well.

I wanted to share a bit of the email they sent today to all of their friends and family that they have come to love this past decade at Green Acres.

Here are their words today March 7th, 2010  (2 years exactly from the day the Barrets got on the plane headed for Uganda).

Several months ago, even though we were still enjoying Justin’s role as High School Minister at Green Acres, we started feeling God calling us away from student ministry.  It wasn’t all at once, we just slowly felt our hearts changing.  We still loved students (and always will), we just felt the Spirit stirring things up.  I can’t explain what an exciting time it has been for us to know He was moving and leading and guiding and that we were just along for the ride!

We continued to seek God as we were feeling this way, and we allowed Him to guide us through each step.  Since January, through none of our own strength, He has opened doors–and opened them WIDE–for us to take this step to work together for PCM.

He has also solidified our family’s friendship with the Barret family, making this ministry partnership feel like it is exactly what He had planned all along.  The PCM Board of Directors met in London over the New Year holiday and began planning out the next 5 years.  One of the top 5 needs identified at the meeting was help for the Barret family.  A position was approved and less than 2 months later it is filled.  Justin will finish his student ministry job in early April and he and Bub will leave for Uganda soon after that for a two week trip.  Justin and I will both be traveling to Uganda as often as we can.  We can’t wait to bring our family with us one day too!

Many of you know how much Justin and I both love international missions.  I asked him when we were dating how he felt about missions…because if he wasn’t willing to do missions, I wasn’t going to marry him.  God had made it very clear to me that this kind of ministry would be a part of my life, and I knew he wouldn’t have me marry someone who didn’t feel the same way!  Over the years, we have been involved in missions in different ways.  Now God is calling us to this full time missions ministry, and we are THRILLED!  It is a bittersweet time as we leave the student ministry, which feels like home, but we are so glad to be staying at Green Acres and to have their support in our new ministry as well.   The Parental Care Ministries office will be located at the GABC Outreach Center on Beckham in Tyler  just north of the hospitals (0.8 miles from Bub’s doctor office) where Good Sam is located.  Justin will work there most of the time, and I will too when I need to get work done without three little munchkins at my heels.

We would love for you to check out what our new ministry is all about.  The website is www.pcmonline.org.  We would also love to talk to you about it anytime! We are excited, can’t you tell?

We would love for you to join us in praising God for this amazing thing He has done in our lives!  We pray that each of you would also seek His direction in your life and allow Him to bless you in ways you couldn’t even imagine, too!  Even though I’ve had many sleepless nights lately–some because of a precious baby girl, some from worrying a little, but mainly from pure excitement!– I wouldn’t trade a single minute of this abundant life He has given us.

As we come to the end of one chapter and begin the next one, we are finding that the summary of our whole experience can be found in Psalm 126:3:

The LORD has done great things for us,

and we are filled with joy.

Love,

Justin, Christie, Carter, London, and Marley

Amen. Amen. Amen as Pastor Emmy says.

God has been so good to PCM these past 22 months.

We are so thankful for your continued prayers and support.

We have so much more good news to share and will be doing so very soon.

It is with much joy that we praise God today,

Bub and Monica

Hello PCM Bloggers,

Yes, we have been away for a while, but that doesn’t mean a lack of activity.  We have tons to share.  Here is the latest:

• First of all,  PCM wants to thank the students of Grace Community School who last month during the Hearts of Change Program raised over $3300 literally one nickel at a time for a new P6 classroom for the children of Mbarara Parental Care School.  Amazing!  We were touched by the multiple opportunities we had to share about “the heart”  and the enthusiasm so many had in their hearts to build this new classroom. Thank you Grace Community School!
• So what has happened in the last 2 weeks with the classroom.  Well, 100% of what was raised was sent to Uganda and here are the latest photos from Pastor Emmy. As you can see, the planks are going up fast and the P6 children have a place to learn. Each grade now has their own classroom. Here are the P6 children standing in front of their new classroom. This group will move forward with each year and hopefully all of them will be ready for P7 next year.  After that instead of high school they call it “senior” school and it goes from senior 1 to senior 6.  With this group we want to grow by one grade a year from the bottom up and eventually as our new land is acquired, we will slowly transition the older kids out to this new land.  On this new land they will be responsible and help us farm the field, sell the crops to become more self sufficient, and even use some of them as a ministry tool to bless others who are in desparate need of food. We have high expectations of this group and the classes that will be following.
• What has Pastor Emmy been doing?  Well, take a look at these photos from the Sunday service of a week ago 2/14/10.   Here is portion of a recent email ………                                                   Beloved,It has rained heavily today,we may have more tomorrow.This interupts the Classes because when it rains P6 and P5 suffers a lot.Also other classes are getting disturbed because we need windows and doors to close. But step by step we shall reach where we are going. It has rained after we have finished baptism, we have baptized 20 members from our church and also some children from Parental Care School. Attached are some of the photos we have taken.The Church is growing we are so happy about it.  Emmy Yes this is the river that runs right at the bottom of the school property.  This is the water that the children were drinking and bathing in as of 1 year ago.  The current was up in the river in November of 2008 and this is near the site where Emmy’s nephew fell in and drowned shortly after one of our trips.  We praise God for the river of life that flows through Jesus Christ!