Dear Friends,
I hope you had a wonderful Christmas with your families and a great start to this new year! I know there are many challenges for all of us, but I’m so grateful for God’s continued faithfulness and the joy and hope we have in Christ!
One unexpected challenge for our V127 team in Uganda was that the Christmas funds did not arrive until the week before Christmas. (We’re so grateful they finally got there…Thank you so much for your prayers!) Our team leapt into action and did an amazing job of accomplishing all of our objectives in a very short period of time.
Here are some highlights!
On Dec 20th, our teenagers led three Children’s Christmas services, with around 100 people at each one. They ushered, led praise and worship, preached, and led in prayer. The children and all of those who were ministering that day were fed a hearty meal as they celebrated the birth of Christ!
On Christmas Eve, over 400 families from the community were invited to the church in shifts to receive a love gift of 5 lbs of beef and 5 lbs of rice. This was a huge outreach by the members of Victory Covenant Church to invite their friends and neighbors to come to the church on Christmas Eve, hear about the love of Jesus, and go home with food for Christmas dinner!
Also on Christmas Eve, our team invited police officers to the church so that we could express our appreciation for their service, and as an opportunity to tell them about Jesus. They were given a gift of 6 lbs of beef and 6 lbs of rice as well as sodas and live chickens! 52 police officers showed up! The new police commander in the area could not believe what was happening. He said he had served the country for 35 years and had never before experienced such a gesture of goodwill. The officers are paid very little and live in deplorable conditions, so the gift was much appreciated!
I had asked Pastor Herbert to please bless our hardworking team this Christmas with gifts for them too. They were each given bananas, chicken, rice, potatoes and soda! This gift package was also given to all of the families that we help with our V127 rice and beans fund. They were all so excited!
Our team “shopped till they dropped” for our 147 children. They assembled gift bags for each of them that included a new pair of school shoes, pants, dresses, underclothes, handbags for the girls, balls for the boys, chocolate, biscuits (cookies), and a soda!
Not all of the kids were able to be at the church for Christmas, so the team is distributing the gifts as they see them. Hopefully by the end of this month they will all have received their gifts! We are beginning to get some letters in from the kids and they are all so sweet.
Finally, on Dec 26th, our team hosted their annual marriage seminar with 75 couples in attendance. The couples attended classes on the importance and sanctity of marriage, the roles of husband and wife, and what it truly means to love and respect one another. Lunch was also provided as the final component of our Christmas project.
I want to offer my sincerest thanks for your prayers and support for our 2020 Christmas Celebration in Uganda, but these words from our V127 children say it better than I ever could.😊
From Faith K:
“Let me take this opportunity to thank you for the Christmas gifts. You’ve really made my Christmas so joyful. May God bless you for the new shoes, deodorant, purse, nickers, and the snacks. I am just too grateful…”
From Favour:
“First of all, I would like to thank you for the kindess you have shown me by paying my school fees and sending me gifts. I am so happy I got shoes, biscuits, chocolate, gorillos, and a vest! May God bless you for the work you have done for me. You asked about my best friend. I have a best friend and his name is Jesus. With Jesus I am never alone.”
From Gideon:
“Thank you for my shoes, watch, ball, pants, socks, chocolate, biscuit, and sweets. I pray for you.”
From David S:
“I want to take this opportunity to appreciate you for all you’ve done for me. The sponsorship, it is a great pillar of my today. The gifts, they are another source of joy in my life. I greatly treasure your words. May the Almighty richly bless you.”
Please continue to pray for peace as the Ugandan presidential elections are this month, and the turmoil and violence are escalating.
Our Jeremiah Katumba finished a letter to his sponsor with these words:
“I have written to thank you for the Christmas gifts you sent me. Thank you very much for everything. I believe that we can remember the birth of Jesus any day we wish, so Christmas really never ends. Uganda is voting (in January) and I expect to sit for my exams, so I request you to stand in prayer and call upon God’s mercy and pray for peace in Uganda.”
Much Love,
Jan