Hello friends and family!
We hope this reaches you well! We have lots to tell you so we hope you are ready to hear all that God has been doing here.
We had a very long holiday from school with the national elections delaying the start of the school year here. School did not start until February 22, but we were kept busy until then!
Katelyn's cousin, Jamie, came on January 12 and was here for a 2 week visit. We had a lot of fun hosting her at our home, playing card games almost every night (Silvester's dream come true), and traveling to Mbale in the East of Uganda to see the beautiful mountains and waterfalls in Sipi Falls. We took public transport the whole way (6 hours of travel each way) and let's just say, we have stories and memories to tell from those trips that we can laugh at looking back on now, even though it wasn't so funny at the time. It was a hard goodbye at the end of her stay, but we loved making memories that will last forever.
We had our first 3 volunteers from New Zealand and Canada stay with us at our home for one month. It was great getting to know them and hearing their stories. While they were here, they helped Haven of Hope with teacher training sessions and painting the dormitory blocks. They traveled North to Gulu and will be back with us for a few days in April.
Katelyn celebrated her birthday on February 13 with a party organized all by Silvester and almost 18 friends showed up! It was a very fun evening with a lovely surprise of our little neighbor girl from where we used to live (in Bulenga) and her mom joining the party. We had not seen her in almost 5 months and Katelyn missed her so much. It was a lovely surprise.
The past two months we have been holding women's bible study every Tuesday and have now started visiting these women in their homes every Thursday. This is where our hearts are and where we have dedicated most of our time. The women's program is now called Hope Renewed and we are so excited to share stories with you as God keeps unveiling his plan for this ministry.
The women come each week expectant and excited to be encouraged and to learn new things. Over 20 women show up each week! We are slowly building relationships with them and we know it takes time. The poverty and circumstances of some of these women can be so overwhelming at times and we just beg God to show us what to do to give these women dignity and strength from Him. We also pray that we will not become blinded to the poverty around us. We are working to build a business and sponsorship program for them which will include English classes every week. We know that God is the only one who can build this program. We are also able to give mama kits to expectant mothers who have no supplies for their birth. If you want to find out more about mama kits and the need you can visit http://www.mercyformamas.com/. We gave a mama kit to an expectant mother who came to our very first bible study and was 2 weeks to her due date. She now has a beautiful baby girl, and named her after Katelyn's cousin, Jamie!
Our dream is to be able to give each of the women a bible in their language. These women long for bibles and are asking us every week if we have managed to find funds for bibles. About 90% of the women don't have a bible in their home. Imagine trying to lean on God's promises and learn about the grace of Jesus without having a bible! How much we take having a bible for granted! If you feel led to give any amount, even the smallest amount can make a difference, please contact us. One Luganda bible costs $9 USD!
Term one at school has now started and Silvester is busy organizing the elections for the students at school. There will be a president, prime minister, counselors, and many other positions that students will be campaigning for and the student body will then get to vote for the candidates to see who will win. This is to teach the students responsibility and leadership.
We are thankful for a (mostly) peaceful national election process during the week of the 14th. President Museveni has been president in this country for 30 years, and he has won the elections again. Imagine living in a country where the same president has been ruling for 30 years. There has been injustice and violence between the opposition (Besigye) and the police and many Ugandans are claiming corruption in the voting process. If you want to read more about it, click here. Be what it may, we are thankful for continued peace in this nation. We were lucky enough to escape the city for a few days and camp out in Watoto Suubi with our family there thanks to Maurice and Jean Bradley!
Silvester has also been working hard on establishing an online business of selling African jewelry, crafts, kitchen ware, and other items. We are hoping this will bring in some money to help support us. Please head on over and check it out! http://lubwamacrafts.com/ We are still working on finalizing everything and as time goes on we will add more items to the site, but feel free to shop to your hearts desire!
It is now March 1 and we have a very exciting month ahead of us. Katelyn's mom and sister surprised us by telling us they joined a Watoto team and are coming March 5 through a series of miracles! Coming on the team is also Katelyn's aunt, uncle, and cousin. They will be staying with us at our home for about 4 days. Wow. God is so good and He really gives us our hearts desires. This still doesn't seem real. Katelyn has been missing them so much and has been praying for a miracle, without knowing any possible way of it being able to happen, and just like that, God came through. Can I get an Amen?!
Thank you for hearing all of our stories and we know this is a long newsletter, but we hope that you still enjoy listening! We have quite a few photos to share, enjoy!
|
|
