Send love and prayers...but please no more money

For those of you who still read the blog, I thought it would be important to stay active in explaining the process we are going through in our attempt to close the home. (If this sentence is a shock to you, please scroll down and read the last entry before continuing.)

Kami and I are both back in the states now in Portland, OR. Although it is so good to see friends and family and be able to email many of you freely, we are far from feeling peace about the situation we left.
The problem is that the home, under Sam's direction is not a place of safety and family for all the children. Its important to note that most of the children feel very happy and content there, receive good education and that we simply joined a home that Sam already had in place, doing all we could to bring stability and love to the kids. The painful part was that as we worked with the kids trying always to show God as a father who will never leave them and always loves them whether they have felt that in their lives or not, the girls had a father figure who was taking advantage of them sometimes nightly. They received a completely different message of what a "father" meant and the conditions that were in place if they wanted security.
Unfortunately, Dorcas Children's Home is not an entity with Sam only as the director. It is a group of buildings built on his land, under his foundation and with a board of men powerless to make decisions against Sam because legally he owns everything. In that understanding, we simply can't ask Sam to step down and have the work continue. The home is his project and part of the idealism in the situation before we knew this was happening was that we, as so many people before us, were happy to join a man's work that required him to invest everything he owned. Because it was a personal calling to him, he had put all his assets into the home, but over time, it became his way to have the life he wanted, with constant support from outside, visitors from around the world, chances to travel, and sadly, and ability to have girls when he wanted them.

Because of this, Dorcas Children's Home cannot keep moving forward. Unless Sam was willing to sign the land and ownership over to others as signatories on the NGO (Non-government organization) and let the home continue as an independent organization as it is supposed to be, the home can't continue.
Right now, Kami and I have no contact with Sam and plan to keep it that way. However, men from Horizon International are doing their best to work with the board, and Sam to see what is possible. The role Kami and I play is an intimate knowledge of the home and the way Uganda works and the requirements the country has on organizations like DCH. (We inadvertently gained this knowledge in going through many of the hoops in planning the music tour.)

For now, please continue to pray for the children and that God will work, as He has all year, in this situation.

We will keep you updated as it goes along.