I’m excited to share with you the recent completion of two of our construction projects! Our new pavilion is attached to Victory Primary School and is providing a much needed covered outdoor space. This will be used as an open air cafeteria where our children can have their lunch, and also as an outdoor learning space for our teachers. It will also provide additional room for children’s church classes on Sundays. One exciting feature of the pavilion is that it also houses our church’s first ever baptismal pool! A young man here in the US brought us all of his savings and asked us to use it for something they needed in Uganda. The baptismal pool is a result of his generous heart! Praise God!
Our new staff room started out as a covered space for children’s church on Sundays, a simple structure of poles and a tarp. It was then converted to classrooms as we built our school. This past year we realized we needed a place for our teachers to gather, to eat their lunch, and to prepare their lessons. We now have our first ever staff room at the school and our teachers are very excited to have their own space.
I had to share this photo of our Jeremiah Katumba as he left for college last week. Below is the first photo that we took of Jeremiah, when he was a little boy who had just lost his father to HIV, and his mother was living with HIV. Jeremiah and his four siblings were not in school at the time and they soon became a part of our very first group of V127 children. Jeremiah lost his mother to HIV about a year after that photo was taken. We fed the children through our rice and beans fund and housed them in our House of Hope. Jeremiah has worked hard, applied himself, and has been abundantly grateful for the opportunity he has been afforded to attend school. He is quiet and soft-spoken, generous and kind, and now he is at Mbarara University studying software engineering. With tears I look at this photo and see a confident young man who is ready to impact his country and to impact the Kingdom. Thank you, Jesus.
Our students have recently completed their second term of school and are now on a short break before the beginning of the third term in Sept. We are currently receiving school reports, so please remember that our job is to encourage them and be their biggest cheerleaders. Pray for them and then write when you have a chance. They love to hear from you! This photo shows our students who attend the Lion of Judah secondary school arriving home after the completion of their second term at the boarding school.
Here is an excerpt of our Dorcus Kwagala’s letter to her sponsor:
”In every single day I pray for you in our prayer tower at school. I would like to thank you for paying my school fees. You have given me a better future and a better life”
Praise God for a better future and a better life! That’s what we are praying for for these children. Be encouraged today, that in the lives of our children in Uganda, and in the lives of each of you here, God is always working and it’s always good.
“I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
Phil 1:3-6
Much Love,
Jan