The Amazing Race

We’ve been wanting to write for a while now but it seems as though there’s just not enough time in the day to both run this amazing race and fill everyone in on the progress.  The race we run in Kenya is marked by unexpected twists and turns, unpredictable delays and surprising miracles.  Come on and take a run around the track with us…

Race hurdles:

The land situation with the church dares our faith daily but not without reward.  Ever since the destructive persecution started, we’ve constantly encouraged each other to refuse anger, bitterness or selfish requests and PRAYED for what we believed is God’s heart – mercy salvation and redemption.  During last Sunday service one of the young men who participated in the damaging violence appeared. He wanted to confess.  He explained he felt tormented since he cut down the church structure with a machete. He begged forgiveness.  Believers cried, hugged the young man and prayed for him.  As for the building he chopped, amazingly, children still meet for Sunday school among its razor sharp edges and no one has been cut.  To top off the praise reports - the church doubled in attendance! Is it any closer to owning the land?  Only God knows, but that’s ok because He knows best!

The ministry of the widowed/single mamas continues to grow despite relational issues between the women that tests Lisa’s patience (we all know patience is NOT a fruit of the Spirit that Lisa indulges!) She reminds herself that we are all growing in grace and focuses on a group’s strength – service to the community in Jesus name.  Here some of the mamas shine, and we enjoy nurturing their giftings to gleaming beauty.  Loisa’s love for children and effective interaction makes her a favorite at Joyland School for the disabled.  She challenges the other mamas to join her in visiting the forgotten children.  Carolyne’s ability to teach engages attention and collaboration.  Plans are underway to take DIGGS training into a rural community where poverty hangs heavy over widows and their children, threatening to steal their destinies. Both Loisa and Carolyne also volunteer at a small playgroup for physically challenged children that we started on our compound.

The metal mold for the evangelistic pure water project came in under the expected price!  Surprised! Grateful!  Now, let the real work of sifting sand, shaking gravel, mixing and pouring concrete begin.  Will all that effort be worth it?  Ask mamas of babies who drink dirty water from the polluted lake or murky streams. Boiling water takes precious fuel but providing a biosand filter gives them access to potable, affordable water – something for which we just turn a tap. With this gift of drinkable water we share the eternal gift of Living Water, ministering to both spiritual and physical needs.

  

We spent years preparing for this African call, foreseeing it could become a marathon.  Experiences with culture now expose hidden detours that could attempt to take us off track. We are learning to pace ourselves since an energetic special needs four year old entered our lives. And on those days when we feel like we can’t run another step, we see Jesus.  He not only set the course, but He’s running it with us.  That makes for an amazing race. Hebrews 12:1-2.

Asante sana for your prayers, support and encouragement.

hugs from the haugers Ooo0o

Divine Colloquy

Prayers explode in my mind like popcorn in hot oil. Our constant conversations with Jesus sometimes make us wonder if locals might think we’re a bit daft. We rarely say, “Let’s pray.” We just do it. 

Mornings begin with purifying both water and our hearts before the Lord. Our little guy is up early to meet the ministry leader who helps us manage the compound. We pray together.  Taleah rises later and devotions follow a breakfast of peanut butter toast with milky tea.

The day is in full swing with mamas and children, orphans and caregivers, pastors and board members.  All of us looking to God = believing His faithfulness, receiving His grace, sharing His mercy.

Please join us in our conversations with the Lord…

1. The adoption of our four year old to be timely and without undue complications.  He’s a true orphan (no birth family) and we would LOVE to live with him as our son.

2. The mamas we work with will continue growing in the knowledge of God and wisdom He gives.  They are helping to start a “learning play group” for some physically challenged orphaned kiddos at our compound.

3. The church we work with will trust the Lord without compromise in the struggle to procure land.  They sacrificially gave what little they had to buy a piece of property. A very powerfully corrupt man is now challenging ownership, using thugs to destroy the tin building and threaten people.  After the land issue is settled, we can move forward with the shipping container plan.

4. The water filter mold and materials will be delivered safely. Mark and George are excited to continue the evangelistic pure water project.

5. Physically challenged Musl*m refugee children from Sudan and Somalia who school at Joyland will hear the truth about Jesus and live the destiny God created for them.

6. Our family:

Tavin - positive friendships, understanding of schoolwork, continue to press into Jesus and be helpful to his aunt and uncle.

Us - the Lord will ever be our protector and provider and we serve Him here.  May we continue strong and healthy, overflowing with the good news to pour it out on a thirsty land.

As the sun sets across the lake, bringing an end to the day’s activities, the popping prayers turn to hushed whispers of thanks.  We’re grateful for all God has done and will do.  We are grateful you joined the divine colloquy.

Asante sana for your prayers, support and encouragement.

hugs from the haugers Ooo0o

Open Doors = ...

Open doors = opportunity.  

Opportunity = a set of circumstances that make it possible to do something. 

Opportunity for us = the mission:

• to serve the least among us.
• to walk alongside those fathering the fatherless and share the widows' burdens. 
• to treat others as Jesus' image bearer, and teach the supremacy of Christ in all things.  
• to equip believers to care for orphans and widows in their country and help them prevent generational patterns of oppression, prostitution and slavery. 

 Opportunity for this little boy = to live:

•  meet Jesus and learn about God's unconditional love.
•  attend school. 
•  regularly eat nutritious food. 
•  daily drink clean water.
•  avoid the orphanage and stay with his mom.

Yes, asante sana for your kindness.

It has opened many doors of opportunity!

hugs from the haugers Ooo0o 
Field Directors, Among the Least
PO Box 3543 Pagosa Springs, CO 81147

Church Today

What to wear to church in Kenya 

when the property is flooded?

  Sunday best, of course.  

Just roll up the pants.

What to do as a pastor when hooligans and 

thugs show up at church with machetes and rip 

                     down fences, destroy buildings and threaten the people?

                                         Worship the Lord, of course.

                                     And know He who calls is faithful.

How was church today for you?

Eternal Gifts

Your gifts helped us bring the good news of Living Water and potable water to a village and widowed mamas.

 

Your gifts helped us teach healthy transition and attachment 

practices and to orphan caregivers, reminding them that 

Heavenly Father adopted them when they were abandoned in sin.

Your gifts helped us minister to single and widowed mamas who are neglected and victimized in this developing society.  These mamas learn who they are in Christ and who Christ is in them. 

Your gifts helped us feed and care for forgotten children, showing them God's love.

Your gifts help us carry the gospel of God's kingdom to the poor in Jesus name.

Remembering each prayer, encouragement and support that's helped us be God's messengers of grace here in Kenya... 

We offer our simple gift of thanks.

May the Lord bless you for your kindness.

hugs from the haugers Ooo0o

Change

Change.

Everything that grows changes.

As the not-for-profit CARE grows, it experiences changes.

Let me tell you about a BIG change… but first, a little background  -

Mark and I have been a big part of CARE from its inception in 2000 (along with some AWESOME adoptive families). It started as a small adoption support/advocacy group and has grown to a remarkable organization that awards grants to adoptive families, participates in an annual River Run for Orphans, facilitates adoption trainings and acts as a clearinghouse for adoption resources and education.

The work CARE does in Kenya, as CARE4Nations, affects the core of orphan prevention by helping mamas raise their children instead of abandoning them to orphanages. The ministry assists widowed/single mamas with discipleship and biblical business practices - learning to serve Jesus and earn an honest wage. By God's grace we also started a school for neglected children, provide bio-sand filters through evangelistic outreach to places needing potable water, work at an orphanage and a boarding school for physically challenged kids.

You donations labor hard through volunteer efforts 

to bring vulnerable children the support they need to grow in families.

 

There’s that word again - grow. We’re happy to see CARE grow and experience change. Our new board members and their fresh creativity have introduced an innovative change... 

CARE has been re-branded as Among the Least.

This name change more accurately reveals the vision, work and growth of the ministry.  We are now Field Directors of Among the Least.

Finally, you might have noticed on your tax receipt that CARE’s exempt status was  re-evaluated by the IRS. We’re pleased to report (CARE) Among the Least has been reinstated retroactively.

Your donations can be sent to:

 Among the Least

 PO Box 3543, Pagosa Springs, CO 81147

or

 thru paypal at amongtheleast.org

or 

Restoration Fellowship

PO Box 2757

Pagosa Springs, CO 81147

A huge "asante sana" to all who partner with us 

through support, prayers and encouragement. 

Your giving make an eternal difference in the lives of widows and orphans.

Feel free to google tiltingbalance.blogspot.com to read amazing stories of God’s grace in Kenya and look for our new blog commonbecomesholy.com coming soon.

Find more information about the organization at amongtheleast.org.
 
Blessed to be a blessing,
mark and ~lisa hauger

Field Directors for Among the Least, Kenya

+254705707339

Strong Courage

As I post this, Taleah has finished school and is practicing the violin.  Mark just got in from taking Henry back to the orphanage and is helping get dinner on the table.  I spent my day with women - praying, planning, organizing the future.  Only a week ago we were laughing with friends in Pagosa... Now's the time we reflect and appreciate everyone who loved on us so well.  Thank you for your help, support, listening ears, wise advice and encouragement.  Below is my first journal entry this time around. God's calling us to be brave.  What about you?  What's God calling you to?

Here we are again, on the other side of the world, trading quiet, crisp Colorado daybreak with humid city sounds. 

Sunrise from Lisa's sister's home in Pagosa Springs, CO

The morning air drips wet and warm and I sip milky Kenyan brew from a tin cup, listening… birds’ song mixes with children’s laughter, traffic jostles with toots and rattles, women outside our bougainvillea fence chatter as they walk along, wood piled high on cloth-wrapped heads. 

  

But I hear more then this African life teaming around me.  I hear God.  He speaks to my heart in a familiar rhythm, with ancient words,  

“Be strong and courageous.” 

You would think by now I’d be used to moving into the unknown…

As a wild teen living on my own, to a wife with little strength, with children adopted from difficult places, to living among the least in a culture far from my own, to adopting another…

“Be strong and courageous.”

I have no grid for the next move… the one where we leave behind a son to gain another.  It’s not like we ignore the tall 16 year old, grown from a forgotten seed into a stout sapling whose roots need water – lots of water to continue flourishing.  Yet, we also can’t overlook the small one waiting for something he needs that he never knew existed – a family.

“Be strong and courageous.”

If that’s not enough… ministry surrounds us on every side. 

• We want to send a shipping container full of useful donated items to empower the local church to minister to the poor.  The container would then serve as a resource building on the church property.
• We desire to help develop a curriculum that trains both orphan caregivers and short-term missions teams to understand healthy attachment practices.
• We need to advance the already existing programs - pure water evangelism and micro-finance discipleship - to become completely sustainable. 
• We long to love the Lord and others and share joy unspeakable and full of His glory.

“Be strong and courageous.”

So amidst the noisy busyness enveloping me, vying for attention, constantly knocking for more, I listen for His voice. I hear His Word guiding us through the unknown, providing wisdom, nurturing encouragement. In the shadow of giants, He teaches us... 

“Be strong and courageous." 

Joshua 1:9

Looming storm in Summitville, CO.

Taleah being brave floating into Niagara Falls (free day ride).

Tavin being strong and courageous in CO (Notice Africa...)

 

Watch for our new blog coming soon... 

 

 

Kumshukuru Mungu kwa ajili yenu!

(Thanking God for you!)

the haugers Ooo0o