Volume 13 Issue 1 101 N. Zeysing · P O Box 228 · Alma, MO 64001 · 660.674.2222 · www.houseoffriends.org Denver and Stacey Urlaub of Loving the Majesty Ministries, our new friends from Alaska, and House of Friends can attest to God’s goodness and extravagance as an ava- lanche of miracles began to cascade from Alaska to Entebbe, Uganda. As the Urlaub’s began preparations to journey to visit their sponsored child in a South Sudan orphanage, they decided to take some needed supplies to the orphanage, but learned the plane trip from Entebbe, Uganda to South Sudan only allowed 33 pounds ofluggage per person. The airlines going out of Minneapolis to Entebbe allo wed 150 pounds of lugg age each. The pastor of their church sug gested that maybe they could take something into Ug anda. Stacey had a dream that indicated they should take a sui tcase ofshoes. Stacey commented “ We didn’t kn ow where we were taking them, wh o they were for or what sizes.” So they be- gan a search for an orphanage in Entebbe, Uganda. The first contact she had for an orphanage did not respond and when she went on the internet, House of Friends kept coming up first but it was a newsletter from 2011 and they figured it could be closed by now. Because of the short time they had, they almost gave it up but God kept putting the House ofFriends on their heart. So she decided to email and offer two suitcases of supplies for our orphanage concludi ng the email with “Would this be something that woul d be helpful to the orphanage there? “ A response to the Urlaub’s generous offerwent back with a list of possible needs which included shoes, 40 sheet sets, an engraver, 12 scientific calculators, art pen- cils, and pencil sharpeners. That started an avalanche of miracles for Abba House. But God also had His own list to add. God does more than we could ever ask or think and He does it in a spectacular way. The first request was for t en- nis shoes, as all the children have are black school shoes and flip flops —not the best for playing kick ball or foot- ball in, and shoes wear out q uickly when you wear the same pair for scho ol and play . That meant 40 pai rs, plus they wanted to include the missionary and three home staff. The home administrator decided it would be best forschool shoes a s many were in bad shape. When Denverand Stacey were told of the change and sent a picture ofthe school sho es, Denver said, “Let’ s do both.” Stacey shares, “My faith began to waiver. I didn’t know how I was buying the shoes. For us it was steps of faith. God gently guided us through one step at a time. I then realized God had to do this because it is His project.” When all this began they were six weeks from leav ing for Sudan. But Denver said, “It happened step by step and so easily.” Denver shared that not long ago he had a heart attack. As he recovered he and Stacey decided to make studying the Word and having devotions a priority in their life. He was a sales person and did not push his sales as he had the past 19 years, trying to reac h a higher sales record. When the end of 2012 came his boss congratulated him for trend- ing. He had, unaware, reached that level ( cont. page 3) God gives his best—the dress shoes at original retail price rangedbetween $40 and $70 a pair. The tennis shoes were some of Wal- Mart’s best..
Volume 13 Issue 1 101 N. Zeysing · P O Box 228 · Alma, MO 64001 · 660.674.2222 · www.houseoffriends.org
Denver and Stacey Urlaub of Loving the Majesty Ministries, our new friends fromAlaska, and House of Friends can attest to God’s goodness and extravagance as an ava-lanche of miracles began to cascade from Alaska to Entebbe, Uganda.
As the Urlaub’s began preparations to journey to visit their sponsored child in a SouthSudan orphanage, they decided to take some needed supplies to the orphanage, butlearned the plane trip from Entebbe, Uganda to South Sudan only allowed 33 pounds of luggage per person. The airlines going out of Minneapolis to Entebbe allowed 150
pounds of luggage each. The pastor of their church suggested that maybe they could takesomething into Uganda. Stacey had a dream that indicated they should take a suitcase of shoes. Stacey commented “ We didn’t know where we were taking them, who they were for or what sizes.” So they be-gan a search for an orphanage in Entebbe, Uganda. The first contact she had for an orphanage did not respond and whenshe went on the internet, House of Friends kept coming up first but it was a newsletter from 2011 and they figured itcould be closed by now. Because of the short time they had, they almost gave it up but God kept putting the House of Friends on their heart. So she decided to email and offer two suitcases of supplies for our orphanage concluding the emaiwith “Would this be something that would be helpful to the orphanage there? “ A response to the Urlaub’s generous offewent back with a list of possible needs which included shoes, 40 sheet sets, an engraver, 12 scientific calculators, art pen-cils, and pencil sharpeners. That started an avalanche of miracles for Abba House. But God also had His own list to add.
God does more than we could ever ask or think and Hedoes it in a spectacular way. The first request was for ten-nis shoes, as all the children have are black school shoesand flip flops — not the best for playing kick ball or foot- ball in, and shoes wear out quickly when you wear thesame pair for school and play. That meant 40 pairs, plusthey wanted to include the missionary and three homestaff. The home administrator decided it would be best for school shoes as many were in bad shape. When Denver and Stacey were told of the change and sent a picture of the school shoes, Denver said, “Let’s do both.” Stacey
shares, “My faith began to waiver. I didn’t know how Iwas buying the shoes. For us it was steps of faith. Godgently guided us through one step at a time. I then realizedGod had to do this because it is His project.” When all this began they were six weeks from leaving for Sudan. ButDenver said, “It happened step by step and so easily.”
Denver shared that not long ago he had a heart attack.As he recovered he and Stacey decided to make studyingthe Word and having devotions a priority in their life. Hewas a sales person and did not push his sales as he had the past 19 years, trying to reach a higher sales record. Whenthe end of 2012 came his boss congratulated him for trend-
ing. He had, unaware, reached that level (cont. page 3)
God gives his best —the dress shoes at original retail price ranged between $40 and $70 a pair. The tennis shoes were some of Wal-Mart’s best..
Shoes would have been enough, but God wantedto fill all the need. Denver and Stacey Urlaub, wereon a mission they didn’t know they would be onwhen they planned their trip. It expanded when theyhad two suitcases they could fill to take supplies toan orphanage. Soon they would find God planned
on10 suitcases and He would make all the arrange-ments to get them there. Next on the list was 44 twin sheet sets. The Ur-
laubs didn’t want to mention any more needs to thechurch, In His Shadows Ministries, because theyhad already raised $7,500 to go towards the Ur-laub’s trip. Silence did not last very long when their pastor, Binky Graham, started asking questions aswell as church members. Soon the list of needs was
laid beforethem. Thesmall church
decided todonate $400toward the purchase of the sheets.Remember the sale at theFred Meyer
Department Store? That day the sheets were on saleat 50% off with an additional 10% coupon and an-other 10% discount above allsales and coupons. Are youseeing the pattern here? Godwas in charge.
God continued to show Him-self as an abundant supplier andHis heart was full of generositytoward the children at AbbaHouse. He began to pull out hisown list...Bibles and balls.That was what had been laidupon Denver’s heart. Mem- bers from Morning Star Baptist Church and In HisShadows Ministries donatedthe Bibles and they wereable to purchase the balls.
Stacey shares, “We hadgotten shoes and everything but had not gotten the 2B art pencils. She thought in her heart just to let the pen-cils go and God said, ‘You are going to skip thischild?’ She went to a store where they had pencils, but again in Alaska it is hard to find a lot of things.They had six 2B pencils and she purchased all theyhad. Every item had a purpose — somebody neededit and it was important to God that no one got left
out.” Now, all was ready.
The Urlaub’s small but mighty church family in Healy, Alaska wave hello to their new House of Friends and Uganda friends.
Sheets
Ten suitcases were filled to the brim. Where was the money coming from to pay extra luggage fees? Denver called Alaska Air the d before departure to ask if they would waive the fees for the baggagfilled with items to be given away to an orphanage. She told themthat was not something that was done, but the person he needed totalk to was not in. Denver hung up and said, “God, you gave us allof this, you are going to get it there.” Later a call came from the airline saying they would wave the fees for the 10 suitcases. The mircles kept coming.
As planes were changed all along the trip there would be baggag
fees, so Denver and Stacey sat down and figured up how muchmoney they would need to get all the baggage to Uganda. They we$220 short. Not to worry — God had not failed them. They went tochurch where their church family prayed for them and bid them farwell. A lady came to Stacey and put some money in her hand. Without looking she handed it to Denver, who tucked it away. Later thelooked at it and it was exactly $220. God’s people hear his voice.
Thanks to Denver, Stacey, their church family and the wonderfucommunity of Healy, Alaska; and Wal-Mart and Fred Meyer Depament Store of Fairbanks, Alaska. for being the vessels of provisionused by God to say to the kids of Abba House and Pastor RichardKaaya’s family “YOU ARE LOVED.” We deeply appreciate the o pouring of love shown through the generosity of all.
Denver and Stacey shared with the chdren at their church about the orphanage in Uganda and what theywere doing. They asked the children to write letters to the childrenAbba House. Later a mother came to them and said her 10-year-odaughter, Miranda, felt like she wanted to give everything she hadsaved to go to the children at Abba House. The next Sunday Miracame to them and gave her savings of almost $50 to them.
The children at Abba House had no idea they were to be recipiof such wonderful gifts and love. They only knew Denver and StaUrlaub were coming from Alaska to the home. What was comingwith them was a total surprise.
When they arrived, the Urlaub’s saw the kids didn’t expect anything. They were so appreciative. Stacey said, “We were so excitedabout all God was blessing the kids with, but nothing could compato the love. They were so full of love — at Abba House and the schThe children were genuinely excited we were there. They loved us because they knew we cared about them and they were excited to the letters.” The Urlaub’s shared that there were (cont. page 3)
gave him more commissions, a bonus,and an award. Unknown to Denver atthe time, God had a plan up Hissleeve. While Denver was out work-ing on the log home he is building for his family, he was asking the Lordwhere he was going to get the moneyfor the shoes. The Lord impressedupon him to not ask people for money but for him to take care of it.
Purchasing 88 shoes would be im- possible with the amount of moneythey had to spend. A church friendsuggested Denver contact Wal-Mart because they give donations to non- profit organizations for their projects.He did so, as well as another depart-ment store, called Fred Meyers, buttheir answer would be delayed for
four or five days because the man-agers were not in.
What happenednext was only thehand of God.They drove the100 mile trip toFairbanks, theclosest place totheir home to
shop. Because of the amount of money they had, they were led to go
to Wal-Mart first to see what theywere able to do. They were met with,“We will donate all the tennis shoesand also socks to go with each pair.”On to the Fred Meyer store they went.Previously they were told they coulddonate a little money but there was along process involved; however. theyoffered an additional 10% discountabove any other discounts and sales inthe store. The day the Urlaubs wentto Fairbanks, Fred Meyer was having
a 40% off sale on shoes plus therewas an additional 10% off coupon inthe paper, plus the managers 10% off above all sales and coupons. God hadopened the pathway for the purchase.The Lord had said to him “You givethem something to eat.” He took, broke, blessed, and multiplied. Eachdress shoe before the sale and dis-counts were valued from $65 to $70at regular price. They were able to
purchase them at an average of under $20 each.
When buying the shoes, the Ur-laubs were interested in buying a dif-ferent style of shoe for each child theydidn’t even know, because each hadtheir own personality. Stacey shared,“It created a bond between them andthe children.” Normally it would bean impossibility to find 44 differentstyles in Fairbanks, but it happened — another miracle from God.
During another day at the buildingsite, the Lord spoke to Denver againand said, “Don’t forget the pastor’sfamily.” When he realized the Lordwas talking about giving shoes tothem as well, he called our mission-ary, BarbaraDecker, who wasin Uganda at the
time, and askedfor the number inthe pastor’s familyand their shoe sizes. The reply camethat 17 family members were livingin his home.
Later he learned another miraclehad taken place, as at the momentBarbara Decker called Deborah, the pastor’s wife, on the cell phone andtold her a missionary half way acrossthe world wanted to buy shoes for her
family and she needed their sizes,Deborah was standing in a departmentstore in Kampala looking at a list of her family members needing shoestrying to decide which ones to buy for because she only had a limitedamount of money she could spend.
The Urlaubscalled Wal-Mart tosee if they woulddonate 17 more pair of shoes to
which they re-ceived a positiveresponse. So theymade another tripto Fairbanks and
picked up the tennis shoes and boughtmore dress shoes from funds that peo- ple in the churches were giving tothem here and there. Denver tells,“The Lord took the little we had andmade it sufficient. God was doingthings for House of Friends but also
for Denver and Stacey. There was nstrife, no stress — whenever there waan objective there was a solution thafollowed. Before we had time tothink about it there would be an an-swer.”
While separating the shoes and putting names on them, size 4 shoeswere found in a size 1 box. To ex-change them would require another trip to Fairbanks and there was notime. An email came in from Barbarand she saw the shoe size put downfor Shakira and questioned it beingright. She went and measured her fooand discovered instead of a size 1 shneeded a size 4. God knew all along
Whathappenednext wasonly from
the hand of a loving
God.
...another
miracle hadtaken place...
The Lordtook thelittle we
had andmade it
sufficient.
SURPRISE (cont. from page 2) times when they were giving out the
shoes and things that they would callout a name and the child would not be there. It was learned they had run back to their room to begin writinga letter back to the child they hadreceived their letter from. They werfirst excited about the letters and thenabout getting Bibles.
(L) Vanessa reads the inscription in her Biblewhich included their name and who presenteit to them. (R) Jessica receives her Bible froStacey..
Page 3
As the shoes were given out, Denver would wash the child’s feet. HereMariam
receivedshoes,gifts andfootwash.The chil-dren didnot getup andrun off once they had their gifts, they wouldkneel before them to say thank you.
Barbara Decker, Agricultural Mis-sionary, took three of the older AbbaHouse children — Grace, Emmanuel,and Jessica — to the Eddy Reber Me-morial Home in Katogwe, Uganda ona mission trip. This area is a moredepressed area and these children donot have the same opportunities asAbba House children do.
All of the girls atAbba House wantedto send along some blessings to the chil-dren so they lookedaround at what theyhad that they could
pass on as a gift. So different things(i.e. devotion books from camp andsome crocheted things from donatedyarn) were gathered up and wrappedup as presents. It was so gratifying tosee someone with little, to give upsomething to bring joy to another child with less.
The children who went helpedaround the home and played with thechildren. It was a time of giving outof self and making new friends.
All God needs is a willing vesselso He can bless His people The re-ward is great blessing in the doing.
Denver Urlaub said, of himself andStacey, “We are regular believers whostarted studying the word and theLord helped us fall in love with Jesus.We wanted to know what is God’sword really saying?” As a result, Godchanged his prejudices toward peopleand placed in his heart a great love for people. He goes on to share that “God
has called us to go to Africa. I never had a desire to go to Africa.” After this trip he realized, “We have somuch in America but we are really a poor people. In Africa they have solittle but are a rich people. Treasure isnot in wealth.”
The Lord made the Urlaub’s triptriple-purposed — going to Sudan tomeet their sponsored child and preachthere, preaching engagements inKampala as well as walking in the
villages sharing the Gospel (the Spiritmoved and many were healed), andtaking loads of blessings and a mes-sage of the Father’s love to His chil-dren at Abba House. The entire trip began with a letter from Duku, their 10-year-old Sudanese sponsoredchild, that touched their heart. God’s purpose was beyond their imagina-tion. House of Friends is filled withgratitude that they listened to theSpirit within them each step on this
journey of faith and love.
Denver Urlaub likes to preach andhe loves to share with all ages. Not
only were he and Stacey the carriers
of God’s love through the numerousgifts, but they were carriers of a ver- bal message of the love of the Father.Both shared in classrooms and an all-school assembly. Each class receiveda ball and Abba House children wereexcited about receiving 14 balls(soccer, basket balls and dodge balls).
Some have been stored for later.Balls seem to disappear from time totime.
At the end ofthe schoolassembly,Hope, fromAbba House, prayed for Denver andStacey. Shewas chokedup as she
could not believe these people would
do these things for them.
Teacher, Judith, watches on as Denver speaks to her kindergarten class about thelove of Father God.. He picks up one of thechildren and expresses a father’s love.
Herethekinder-gartenclasshas put their ball touse.
It was evident this was a month of God’s extravagant love shown to AbbaHouse children. A second team of four arrived at AbbaHouse from aColoradochurch to do alittle work and bring some sup- plies and gamesfor the children.Amazingly their visit, too, was an add on to their originalmission. Thanks Colorado team!
Above—Jason (L) and Ken (R) join the chil-dren for a meal. Jason’s children Jessica, and Joshua (not pictured), enjoyed playing with thechildren.. Right —Ken with Faith & David .
(L) Katogwechildren withbig smiles show the joy of hav-
ing the teamvisit. Below —Emmanuel and Jessica enjoy-ing a meal.
House of Friends is sending out a missionteam of four to Adilang in northern Uganda toconduct a survey trip in preparation of future min-istry to Sudanese refugees,including children left or- phaned by war. The team
will be on the field fromJuly 14 to July 31, 2013.The mission goals are to:
…Find a location for amission base, to include anorphanage and restorationcenter.
...Develop relationshipsthat will open opportunities to minister to war
children andmake a path-way to taking
the Gospel intoSouth Sudan.
...See intothe hearts of individuals andchildren
through their stories and begin their healing proc-ess, as well as begin the planning process for those to be served at the restoration center.
This team will also spend time ministering toorphaned and destitute children now residing inHouse of Friends Abba House children’s homesin Entebbe and Katogwe, Uganda.
Village of Adilang innorthernUganda
Children of northernUganda
COME JOIN US
Carry-In LunchBring and share your favorite food(s)
Following lunch, the Urlaubs will continue to share their experiences in Uganda and other things
God has placed on their heart.
Location:Kansas City Christian Fellowship
(The Barn)8000 Oldham Road
Kansas City, Missouri
Sunday, May 26, 201310:00 A.M.
Special Speakers
Denver and Stacey UrlaubLoving the Majesty Ministries
Healy, Alaska
Kansas City Christian Fellowship and House of Friends have joined together in sponsoring a mission team of 12 going toAbba House, Entebbe, Uganda from July 10 to 22, 2013. This team will be providing supplies to complete and repair thegirl’s home— installing four inside doors, painting, and adding on a veranda. They will also be conducting a ChristianWomen’s Conference at our ministry partner church, Tabernacle of Christ Church, and evangelizing in the community andschools through the Arts.
__Please send me information about sponsoring a child.
__ Enclosed is $_______ Dominican Republic Outreach
__ Enclosed is $_______ Lakota Sioux projects
__ Enclosed is $_______ Abba House Entebbe, Uganda
__ Enclosed is $_______ Abba House Katogwe, Uganda
Please complete and return this response device if you would like to join with us in any of the above mentioned ways. All donationsare tax deductible. Please write checks payable to: House of Friends and send to P O Box 228, Alma, MO 64001.
Thank you for caring!
Extending a hand of friendship with a special gift.
__ Enclosed is $_______ Kitchen/Dining Hall Project Ugan
__ Enclosed is $_______ Missionary Quarters Project Ugan
