8/7/2019 Barb Decker Newsletter 2.11

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Decker’s Diaryon the Mission Field

Dear Friends and Family,

I got back to the States just in time for the cold winter to dump severalinches of snow on two/thirds of the country. It brought back childhood

memories of walking home from school with snow banks higher than myhead and not wanting to walk on the path cut into the snow that led to myhouse. As I look back, I wonder if the Israelites had the same hesitancystarting out the trek through the high walls of water as the sea was openedto them.

It’s a good thing that I like to shovel snow. This place, in Missouri, got 5inches on Christmas Eve and 17 inches on the first of February. Unlike be-fore when the indicator to “quit” were cold feet, now my knees tell me whenthey’ve had enough cold. It must have something to do with the metal post of the replacements that is anchored into my bones. When that gets cold, itseems to radiate that cold up into my thighs and all the way to my feet.

The flight from Uganda went well and I went from sweating at the Equa-tor, to freezing in Missouri in one day’s time. On my last day at ABBAHouse, as they were preparing the food for their supper, they told me thatevery time they fixed greens, they would think of me. That was good to hear.I had learned enough of the national language, Luganda, to successfully give aproper goodbye as I was leaving the property — not a final goodbye but an“open -ended” goodbye. Those were two high points of that day; what a nicememory.

Starting Over — In some ways, I feel like I’m starting over in this children’s home.

Though now, due to efforts of House of Friends through me, the kids have apit latrine and bathing stalls inside thesecurity fence and between Abba HouseOne, for girls, and Abba House Two, for boys. Now they don’t have to go waydown the path at night, nor on vacationdays to use the school’s latrine. Butmostly, I found the home to be withoutrules and the kids without chores.

The property is in need of a multi-purpose dining area. It just needs to be a

concrete floor and a roof, with some tables-- somewhere that all can sit to eat, or dotheir homework, or have devotions. Whenthey are served food, they sit where theycan— on the front stoop, or on the ridge of the old sandbox, or inside their respective

houses. I did a few random room checks and found: 1) Dirty plates — thegirls are better about them; they wash them immediately and store them intheir closets until the next meal. The boys fling them into the bushes, likeFrisbees, or slide them under the beds, or hide them away in cabinets. I evenfound a dirty plate hidden in the stack of new mattresses. 2) Leftover food — predominantly “posho”— gets thrown out on the ground for the dogs, chick-

ens, pig, or ants to eventually eat; but I found a neat (continued on back)

February, 2011

Thank you so very much for your sup-port that made the existing water harvest-ing gutter system a reality at Abba House.Some of these children have come fromvillages where they have retrieved water from distances of a mile away. It’s a new

and wonderful thing to have a spigot rightoutside the door. The system still needs adown-spout addition that will allow thefirst water to be filtered out, as they tend todrink it. We don’t want them to be drinkingthe roof dirt.

Thank you also for your confidence inme for the garden project that enhancesAbba House meals with vitamins and min-erals from home-grown vegetables. WhenI return, the other project I would like to

see happen would be an irrigation systemthat would make available longer growingseasons and a better garden. Oh, such pos-sibilities are exciting. Will you help me dothese things?

Barb Decker

I will support Barbara Decker’s work on the mission field with House of Friends in the following way.

___ Barbara Decker Mission Support (Monthly) $_________(One Time Gift) $________

___ Abba House Project (circle) Multi-purpose dining/kitchen Gutter System Parts Missionary Quarters $_________

___ Mission Trip Expenses to Uganda $_________

___ Please send more information about House of Friends.

All donations are tax deductible. Please write checks payable to: House of Friends and send to P O Box 228, Alma, MO 64001Thank you for caring!

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stack of posho portions in one girl’s locker, next to her trin-kets and clean clothes. The boys, I think, “save it” for later,either under their beds or in the wooden cabinet. Sometimesplates left in “save mode” begin to stink. I reminisce back toUrenya, Venezuela — and even to El Zunzal, El Salvador — tothe dining rooms and dishwashing sinks and the orderly fash-ion of putting the dishes away. I want Abba House to be-come as those homes were.

The Projects —

A new kitchen is also badly needed. During my last week

there, Pastor Kaaya and I worked on a plan for such a multi-purpose area and adding a new kitchen to one end. With therain collection projects — the one completed for Abba House

One and the proposed systemfor Abba House Two — I caneasily envision sinks for wash-ing dishes and hands (all foodprepared is eaten with their fingers), and I get excited withthe possibilities of the “orderly fashion” that I long for. Thekitchen part will also have a storage room, therefore getting

the food out of the boys’ house, along with the rats. Theywould like to use an energy efficient stove — that would stilluse wood but more efficiently. As houses are coming intothe area, trees and firewood are getting less available and agas stove, using propane, is too expensive even to consider.

Another project started was the construction of a Latin-American style washing station. Unfortunately, it wasfinished about the time I was winding down and preparing toleave. After only explaining it to the kids, I hope that when Ireturn, I will see evidence that it has been used for laundryand not just as a stuff collecting table. I hope this station willbe the first of many to be used at the home.

I truly hope to be able to stay at Abba House, or at leastnear the home to be able to help out with the children in their devotions and daily lives. There is an unfinished, roofless,“annex” to the Abba House Two. Pastor Kaaya would liketo finish it as living quarters for long term missionaries, likemyself, to be similar to an apartment on the property. Plansare to include flush toilets for visitors. Since my knee re-placements, latrines and I are not friends. In all the places Ihave been, as a missionary or as a tourist, Uganda is the la-trine capital of all my travels.

I am telling you of all these worthy projects to inviteyou to invest into the cause. I hope to be going back toUganda in May. Do you want to come? House of Friends isgetting a work team together. A monetary gift to any of these projects or to my personage, through House of Friends,would also be appreciated. Your prayers for the physical,emotional, and spiritual aspects of projects and missionaryare coveted.

Shalom, Barb Decker

Visit our website atVisit our website at

www.houseoffriends.orgwww.houseoffriends.org

Washing Station

Current Kitchen /Cooking Shed

Barbara Decker, Missionary House of Friends P O Box 228 Alma, MO 64001