Father's Divine Love - Part 1 (Peniel House)

This is the beginning of our deep dive posts into the people and places that we visited. Our trip took us to Jinja, Uganda for the first week to Father's Divine Love Ministries. I was introduced to this organization last year. It was on my heart to go to Africa and I had done a lot of research on where to go. Uganda popped up as a place that had tremendous need and the orphan population was large. It also was a place that was politically stable, welcomed visitors and generally is a very safe place to go. I have 3 kids who I kept at the forefront of my planning to make sure they weren't orphaned in the process of me going to help others. I had finally decided what organization I wanted to visit - Nyaka school in western Uganda. But that very Sunday after I had made my decision I went to church and heard about how the youth group had started a relationship with a ministry in Jinja that was helping orphans and they had been raising funds for them. I was sitting in the pew and my heart started to race and I was shaking (God's way of telling me to pay attention) :) I knew then that I had to visit FDLM as well. I was very happy that Third Church had started building a partner in Africa. I had read several books including "Global Soccer Mom" that was critical of the lack of Christian response to the AIDS epidemic and had been dissapointed that Third wasn't supporting any ministries in Africa- until now.

So FDLM was on my list of places to go. I contacted Pastor David Livingstone Zijjan and he was more then willing to welcome mom and I there. They had asked if we would commit to supporting a widow home before our trip. We were more then willing to do that and through friends, family and Peoria UMC were able to fund one of their homes.
                                  Google Map of the Places we visited in Uganda
When we got to FDLM they shared with us their program and we got the privilege of meeting the beneficiaries. FDLM has many different "arms" of the organization. They care for about 90 orphans - 50 of the older children are at the base of FDLM where they have a room and are cared for by "Momma Lillian" who is pictured below; isn't she beautiful?! Lillian has 2 boys and 2 girls of her own and they live on the base. Her 4 year old son Feva was a constant source of entertainment and fun. We have a bunch of pictures of him posing for the camera.

One core value of FDLM is the concept of not just caring for orphans with shelter, food, education but to love them! This is best done in a family setting and not in an instituation and it's critical that young children who have no parents to feel the love of a parent. Because of that they set up "Peniel" to live out that value.

Peniel is a 3 acre plot of land on a beautiful hill that has amazing views of Lake Victoria. Right now they have 3 homes built on those 3 acres. Each home has 3 bedrooms (one for momma, one for the girls and one for boys). It also has a large sitting room. These homes have a Mom and up to 10 kids. The mothers have their own children and then take on orphans to care for. At Peniel the children get the love of a mother, siblings, food, shelter and a built in community. It is within walking distance to the base of FDLM. The mothers of Peniel share the duties of cooking at the base for the larger group. Below are pictures of the mothers (Jessica & Nakagolo or "Auntie Naka") that we got to hang out with. They are beautiful too! Jessica is sitting by her kitchen and she is a fantastic cook. They were our first glimpse at how much work the women of Uganda do. They wake up very early and start their day preparing breakfast and don't end the day until supper has been served for the family at around 9pm. They also take care of their 10 kids, get them off to school, tend the garden, and of course general "mom duties". As a mother myself this amount of work is not lost on me.

Both Jessica and Nakagolo were always welcoming to us, filled with gratitude and had the Holy Spirit glow to them. Such fine examples of God's love!



Their vision for Peniel is to have 10 houses in the area. FDLM is doing a great job creating and supporting these family units. It takes about $150 per week for each family to provide for them. There are so many more children that could benefit from this and it would be such a great blessing for them to be able to expand. If you are being called to give to FDLM you can do so on the left hand side of this blog.