“The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.”
Job 1:21
The month of June was like a roller coaster with sickening stomach drops and fast paced excitement.
On Monday June 12th our community was rocked by the death of Esther Latim, the 15 year old daughter of Fred Latim, our Sr. Pastor at Calvary Chapel Gulu. Esther was a very kind and intelligent girl who was friends with everyone, including my daughters, and she was even the champion debater (for her division) in all of Northern Uganda. Her life came to an end due to a battle with a bacterial infection and malaria, with the lifelong condition of sickle cell. Pastor Fred, along his wife Evelyn and their many children, are a blessing to everyone. They are an example to us for humility, grace, mercy and thoughtfulness. I can honestly say I have never met a more humble and meek man than Pastor Fred. Please pray for their family as they go through this season.
During that same time God providentially answered our prayers in startling ways. After much prayer and consideration, Noelle and I decided to move our family away from the Village of Adak, to the nearby city of Gulu, for the sake of longevity on the field. On Wednesday, June 7th we sent out a request to you all for your help to make that happen. Amazingly only 4 days later, we received a message from a dear friend who wanted to support us with a loan to purchase the house we were praying for. That evening I got in touch with a lawyer to help us purchase the court owned property. When he went to inspect the property the following day he found that three other people had already brought contractors to the site and were intent on competing to buy it. When we heard that news we scrambled to get a few thousand dollars together to place a 10 day “holding fee” on the house while we awaited the wire transfer from the States. In a dramatic series of events, our lawyer got them to accept the terms of a holding fee merely hours before another buyer came in with an offer to buy the property in cash! After a week of waiting for us, the pressure was too much for the selling team and our lawyer received a call that they were tired of waiting and were going to sell the house to a buyer who was there in person with cash in hand. When they were reminded of the contract they had signed and stamped, the representatives of the court who were selling the house reluctantly honored their agreement to wait for two more days; but they did tell the other purchaser to come back early in the morning on Thursday to buy the property as soon as our agreement had expired. With a flood of excitement the money finished transferring on Tuesday night and we were able to purchase the property by Wednesday afternoon! It is evident that God’s hand went before us through the whole process, and we are confident that we are moving in His will. We are now renovating the place, and we believe we will move in within the first half of August.
The loan was not the only support we received, and we want to thank each of your for the great generosity you have shown our family as we make this move toward longevity. May God richly bless each of you. Please be aware that anything given toward the property project is being used to renovate the house and repay the home loan.
In Christ,
Matt & Noelle & Family
