General Update

River Nile on the morning of our beautiful night away last month

My dear family and friends,

Happy leap-day! It has been a good month now since I last wrote. How is everyone? Here in Uganda we are busy and well. Here are some highlights from the past month:

The TradeWater project in Kikondo is now up and running, and Betty has taken to the role of Water Agent very well. Staff from Malawi and Kenya came to Uganda for a week’s TradeWater training. I really enjoyed that week, being able to meet them, finding out how their programs work in comparison to ours, and I got to run a good portion of the trainings. I like training and the people interaction. WMU staff are now busy going about assessing new project sites to implement the next few TradeWater projects. My role in that is to give the staff forms to fill out, then write up and analyse the data when they bring the forms back to the office – as my dear friend Emma Jeffrey said, it’s just as well I listened in maths class.  Fortunately, we received a new major donor so we can continue with the next phase of projects.

Random kid tells Bryan to get in the boat - he did

I found a friend, now I want a pet one

Voula and Colleen came out for the ISA case, which has now been postponed until July 2^nd. Please extend your prayers for the protection of the CARE4Kids staff, children and property. On a positive note, the teenage girls have been transferred to Ps Hudson and Mercy’s children’s home. This is a good move for the girls, as they will be able to go to good schools, be involved in an active and mature church, and be in a home with more children their age. Hudson and Mercy are like parents to the orphans in that home, as much as they can be, so I’m very grateful for their heart to take on more children in need of youth-specific counsel and stability. 

Lapuche, Fausta’s middle child, has started pre-school. Lapuche is so excited; she’d been begging to go to school. Fausta says she comes home every afternoon and shows off all the ticks she’s received in her homework book. Bryan and I would have given Fausta more work so she could feel like she earned and budgeted the money for her own kid’s fees, but as we don’t own property and there are only 2 of us we opted for using money from some of our supporters (thank you!) to cover the costs. I’m going to go and visit the family on Sunday. I’ll get to meet Fausta’s sister and her 2 girls who are temporarily (temporary can be a long time by the way) staying with them.

The sails are made from posho bags

A change in the wind is ahead for Bryan and I, socially. Our dear, dear friends Joe and Melissa leave on Monday 5^th March. We, along with Steve and Kelly, are going to miss them so much. It’s good they’re going back, because their tailoring project ‘Tukula’ (‘we grow’) has grown and they will be able to run it from the US side. Plus, Joe would like to have a regular US job and further his studies. Their tailors will miss them a lot too, because it’s such an intimate business, but at least the work will continue. Job security is a big fear in Uganda, and the ladies thought that when Joe and Melissa left it would mean the end of their work too. Fortunately, it’s the opposite because sales are increasing. All of the tailors sell their products in Uganda as well as through Tukula to the US, so it’s a well set-up project. They’re the ones who made my bridesmaids’ dresses, and rescued the ones made by the other tailor, lol. Thank you Esther and co!

On top of that, our pre-marital counsellors and Bible study group hosts (Bryan is the facilitator since the New Year) are leaving April 31^st. Rob and Sandy have been in Jinja for 12 years, so it’s going to be quite a change for many people. Fortunately, they have fostered a non-dependency approach to their ministry. They preach in the villages with story-style (for a largely illiterate and oral learning people) Bible messages, which they then teach the Christians to pass on. We do our Bible studies in the same style, which helps us communicate in a culturally appropriate way, and it’s fun and different. The Christians elect their own pastor and place to meet. The ministry is not material based, but about Jesus and life change through specifics addresses on loving God and one another. When individuals change, so does a community. They will have furlough in the US, which was coming up anyway, and then go somewhere else in Africa below the sub-Saharan. It’s a sudden change, but I honestly believe it’s going to be a great move for the family and for the people who will receive them.  

Women collecting safe water in the rain in Mpanga from the dedicated tap operator. God bless them!

Prayer requests:

-          Please keep praying for the communities in which we work to use the teachings given them and to know that change is in their hands. People can do so much more when they realise they have potential! That goes for all of us.

-          Pray for these friends of ours that they will make smooth transitions out and see what they’re supposed to do and where they should live in their new countries of residence.

-          For Bryan, myself and the other Water Missions Uganda staff to have the energy and focus to serve others and work hard no matter what the task or how long the day.

Thank you for you care, thank you for your interest in others’ lives.

Love Emily

Beautiful kids from Mpanga peer into the camera