Uganda - Village of Hope

1st week of jan

2012-01-10T19:10:00.000+11:00

smile mother after she receives her apron.

all young girls with their new clothes for last Christmas and year eve.with different looks and big smiles.

Young boy on stage with suites and smart clothes at new eve .

Big boys with smile on their faces in Christmas clothes..Thank you Lord .

Girls ready for photo with smart clothes

Team and entire village having outing on 1st 2012 @ jinja christian center getting a bottle of soda .

The little ones refreshing a soda after watching different musician at JCC .

mothers,farmer's,team and children enjoying gospel musician presenting on the stage.

Mother's w/shop are in progress at every home for Christ in Jinja town,the yields of this w/shop can be now see in lives of our mothers.

Most important decisions here was discipline ,we took almost half hour asking questions on what discipline should be and how,the teacher said,the word discipline comes from the word disciple which tells us to speak,instructor and show directions children and love not beating .

Joshua's birth day with anti Renata holding knife to cut a cake made by Milly my wife.Thank LORD

Schoolies started the farmer's house and it was not roofed but its now almost ready as you can see.only doors and windows are reminding then we have Micheal's family moving inn and thank God in new house.PRAISE GOD

This how far house 7 look like,since uncle Rob is here construction is moving so fast and some team members are so excented knowing that they built house 1 and building 7 on others side.we thank for such big development on site.

PRAISE GOD

W/shops for children are in progress and we have gone1and half weeks but so far children are learning to share their feelings and their history.i wish you would hear some stories from our children in their past memories . i am planing to record some testimonies from different kids and hear amazing stories that the Lord is doing our lovely children since we started w/shops with them.this week we'll be going town on small basis to meet other children who has been in the same life style and share what God has done in their lives.

Music has gone to great level here at the village ,kids like these one are spending most afternoon in singing,dancing and playing different installments for musical skills

In front of admin house ,what welcome is beautiful banana which measures up 2and half
fts very big and nice.welcome to admin house.
WE NEED RAIN OH GOD,ITS HOT HERE.

Sunday Church

2012-01-09T05:40:00.003+11:00

Through out the week uncle Rob was teaching the children the story of Daniel in the lions den All through getting them to learn a play which they performed on sunday Church.
The drama was a sucsess even after the last minute "Daniel" did not show and got a replacment, all the children acted very well and got many laughs from the church audience.

Wednesday 4/01

2012-01-05T02:33:00.002+11:00

The team has been in fifth gear all week with house number 7. Today we finshed to window level.... ITS FINISHED!! Tomorrow the welder will come to weld the steel up for the ring beem. House number 7 after a accidental slab fault is the biggest of all the houses. Just made team 11 and the locals work harder, but the house has been finshed in a week

Tonight we will be going to the village to watch a movie with the children and tomorrow afternoon we will be running a childrens programm.

Village of Hope

2012-01-03T05:02:00.003+11:00

Village News
New Aprons for mothers
The mothers were very greatful this week as they all received new aprons from Auntie Jo in Australia. They were very much apreicated

Chicken project

The chickens are growing up and becomming hens and roosters right infront of our eyes, everyone at the village is doing a great job of raising them

Team 11 Dec-Jan

2012-01-03T03:52:00.005+11:00

Welcome to Uganda team 11

Hi, we have finally made it to the suubi house in Uganda after what felt like a week of plane trips. We arrived here on Monday late afternoon safely, with no troubles or delays. On Monday night we went down to the village to see all those who live and work at the village of hope, and we arrived at the village with the most humbling and wonderful welcome where we shared the word of god and lots of hugs. On Tuesday we arrived at the village of hope early were we got a chance to interact and get to know the all the children and mammas. In the afternoon we had a trip into jinja to relax a little as we are still climatising to Africa. We are all thrilled with suubi house and all the resources and luxuries it provides. Tomorrow we will start building house number 7 and as team 11 we are all fired up and ready to go.

Day 2,3,4

Been very hot in Uganda the last couple of days, even the Ugandans have been sitting in the shade, not us Melbournians we were out in the scorching sun laying bricks at house number 7, after a few tool delays we got 3 courses done on the first day of building and the house now after 4 days in almost after window height and the house is starting to take shape. In the nights we had the privilege to join in on the childrens devotions at the village.

last week dec

2011-12-24T17:54:00.000+11:00

DRIVE WAY

We thank God for Schoolies team...

Schoolies team came in big mud with huge rain as unusual systems. God spoke to uncle Johann about drive ways. we thank God working through the team of Schoolies and Johann, as it was like a dream come true for us. We did not need to live life parking our van every day at Suubi house when it rains. Thank God.

The entrance to Village of Hope looks great with a nice crossing over the drain - teh Schoolies worked very hard to make this happen - Praise God!

COMMUNITY HALL

This is how far the community hall has gone now.The kids are always taking about and looking forward to having our x-mas meals in there.after we had several meetings in it since schoolies went back and Ron and Anne’s farewell.

CHICKEN PROJECT

We thank God for his faithfulness .we are looking forward to raising them within 2 to 3 months then sell them. After that we want to buy layers for eggs and more broilers to increase our farm income.

Its some hard job to do but we thank God who has helped us to have the birds after a long time of waiting .Everyone at the village especially the children are extremely happy and working very hard to see their growth. We thank God for this addition .

Chicks are now three old days and they are doing well.our boys are working so had here at the village.
We thank God again for the providion of the funds for this project through the Schoolies team - Praise God!

MOTHER'S WORKSHOP

We left the village at 2pm and went to town

with the mothers for a parenting workshop.

Theme of workshop : PARENTING IN GOD’S WAY: our speaker introduced and explained the word parent as pa-rent = as we all know what God says about children as his gifts. So "par" - means authority given to you as care taker, "renting" - parents are just given responsibility of passing on care from God

It was really good for mothers to have workshop and to understand how God valves children as His heir so parent are in position of being accountable to God for raising ,shaping and preparing them for a life of service to God and humanity. This point raised questions from our mothers to understand more and the speaker was good enough to explain more with guidance of the bible references.

Biblical principle of parenting, role of parents, styles of parenting Knowing your child, mothers couldn’t speak any more because they discovered that they had not known their children at all. After they raised a question to the teacher if he was willing to have another session with them and make follow up with them on weekly basis and have some one on one with each mother at least once a month. The facilitators were Mr.and mrs Fred Mukasa, leaders of family ministry [ywam] and every home for Christ in Uganda.

OUR SHELTER

Some meetings will be held in our new shelter besides the rock at village. And its now a beauty salon for the girls.The teams will also be having their Rolexes and breakfast in there, especially quite time, prayers for individuals and some small groups. etc

Comfy Chairs

Joy mounted up in our kids when saw chairs on the van today. Everyone was struggling to be the first to sit.

Thanks to the Schoolies, for helping each of our houses to become more comfortable and home... it’s a blessing .

Ibra and maama agnes enjoying a cup of tea

FOUNDATION/SLAB FOR HOUSE 7

Ugandan building crew has worked tirelessly before Christmas time to make it ready for the upcoming team on 26/12/2011.

Glad for the new signpost. For it carries alot of meaning. Many have come in and have been blessed and many have have left and been blessings.Thanks to the last team - The Schoolies Team for this encouragement.

Overview of the driveway and Village!

Another HopeBuilder gone home!

2011-12-13T06:20:00.001+11:00

At the start of the day!

On the 27th November 2011 our Heavenly Father called home our good friend Bert Van Weeghel. Bert was a member of our third team to Uganda that was instrumental in completing the first two houses of the Village of Hope. Bert worked hard and didint mind "getting dirty for Christ?" While being one of the older members of the team, it didint stop him and he did his fair share and more.

Worshipping in Uganda

After returning from Uganda Bert did not stop, his love for the work in Uganda rubbed off on Coby and together they started campaigning amongst their camping friends and organised a number of opportunities for me to share the HopeBuilders story. This resulted in the raising of funds and awareness, of the orphans and widows in Uganda.

Whilst sitting on top of "The Rock" at the Village of Hope which now has 6 homes with 6 widows (mothers) and 49 children, I was fondly remembering the hard work of the teams and the investment of many like Bert who made the sacrifice and came to Uganda to "Help Break the Cycle of Poverty". Bert was a quiet guy who just went about doing what he did, he always said "I dont have much to give", but he gave of his all, from his heart and this was huge. To see these children laughing and playing and singing and praising God, is a true testament to the generosity of Bert and the many other supporters of HopeBuilders.

The HopeBuilders International board together with our friends in Uganda and all the children and mothers from the Village of Hope, THANK God for our friend Bert. To Coby you will be in our prayers and we also thank God for you and your support of our work. We will always remember Uncle Bert - A HopeBuilder - we will see you again soon in GLORY!

New Managers - Robert and Milly

2011-12-13T00:55:00.000+11:00

Robert and Milly - New managers of Village of Hope

This is the first post by the new managers of the Village of Hope. We trust that you will be blessed by the many items of news that will be posted here. We look forward to your comments and we thank you for your prayers for the work here.

We look forward to seeing many of you visit us in Uganda - you will be most welcome.

The Halfway Mark!

2011-12-08T06:45:00.001+11:00

The sun beginning to rise!

The morning started with an early wake-up and a walk up the mountain opposite the Village of Hope at 5am. When we got up to the top after walking around 40 minutes we were treated with an awesome panorama of Jinja and surrounds as well as right in front of us the Village of Hope. As the sun began to rise the group started to worship with Joel on guitar and this was an amazing God moment. The team also reflected on the trip so far and how good our Great God has and had been to us.

The Village of Hope in the middle of the landscape

Having been to Uganda many times since the start of HopeBuilders, this was the first time I had personally been up to the top of what has become affectionately known as "monkey mountain", and this was quite special in a number of different ways. I was looking down at the Village and there were 26 young people (the Schoolies team) in my line of sight, it was as if I was looking through them at the Village and we had all just the night before, experienced an awesome time of devotion with all our wonderful children of the village. There was something about this timing and I think God was saying this is how the HopeBuilders story is going to continue, this was about generations and dreams and visions to young, younger and not so young.

An amazing panorama of God's creation

It was special!

Through the day we saw the completion of the house that the schoolies team started just last week - yes it is now ready for the roof which will be put on by locals.. maybe before we leave!

Praying in the new block of land for the new school

The day ended with anither amazing event that could only have been timed and orchestrated by God. The Schoolies team walked through and around the recently purchased land that will see a new school built - they also prayed over this land and claimed it for Christ and prayed for a blessing upon all that will learn and grow to maturity as leaders on this land and through this school.

Ron and Anne in traditional
Ugandan outfits

This was a special moment especially for Ron and Anne Matheson, in whom God had placed this vision and dream and together with HopeBuilders and the blessing of God, they will take it forward into reality. Ron and Anne have played a very special part in the ongoing development and growth of the Village of Hope and the ministry of HopeBuilders in Uganda. We have seen the completion of 6 houses now and in the next couple of days ALL 6 will be filled with children and mothers. We have seen the building of Suubi House and amazing home for our visiting teams and others that may want a guest house. We will soon have a new Village Meeting Hall and we have seen many community families and individuals released from the cycle of poverty through engagement in the ministry of Suubi House and facilitated in commencing enterprises of their own. Ron and Anne will be returning to Australia a day after the Schoolies team leaves for their safari - they will continue to minister in Uganda with HopeBuilders and through the school in particular through short term visits, so their story will continue albeit in a dufferent manner. I would like to thank Ron and Anne for their generousity and love to the teams and to the work of HopeBuilders - they have modelled true selflessness and been Jesus to many. This community here in the Village of Hope and around it has been impacted and will bear fruit to their endeavours and sacrifices made in their time here. Thank you "Uncle Ron" and "Aunty Anne" you are most welcome thank you for your good work :)

Schoolies progress...!

2011-12-07T05:47:00.001+11:00

The whole team at the Source of the Nile

The Schoolies team have made some incredible progress at the Village of Hope and they have managed to fit in a whole lot more.

On Sunday we visited the Source of the Nile and witnessed where the Nile River starts it's 4000km long journey. We also enjoyed a little boat ride on the Nile and also into Lake Victoria.

This was also the day that we celebrated Tayla's birthday which also included dinner out at a restaurant - great day!

The team on the marker that marks
the start of the 4000km

The building continued and the team has managed to get the house up to the ring beam and they are quite confident of finishing all the brick work in the next day or so ready for the roof. They have also put in a new culvert drain at the entrance to the Village of Hope which means no more bottoming out of vehicles as they drive in. The driveway is also now looking "very smart" with gravel and drains on either side.

The house ready for the ring beam

The team has also interacted a lot with the mothers and the children, with our Schoolies being taught African dances, how to make paper beads, how to make chapattis and learning first hand a bit more of African life and culture.

Today the team also visited the Jinja Main Prison - what an eye opener. We were escorted in after having to leave behind all our wallets, cameras and phones. As we entered the prison there were over 500 prisoners sitting on mats and gathered around. There was a mini sound system setup and the team proceeded to minister to these inmates - it was explained to us that the inmates with the white shirts were the condemned men (death row) and the yellow shirts were the others. There were about 1/3 in white shirts!

Winnie and Jane having some quiet
time in the new Rock Hut

The team did an awesome song with songs and Andrew B shared a message and then the team paired off and had the opportunity to pray for inmates as they responded to the Word - this was amazing. We then shared in a volley ball match with the inmates - probably the largest captive audience (sorry!!) we have ever played in front off.

Another highlight was also sharing in the devotion time at our Village of Hope - what a priviledge. To see our kids leading in worship and prayer that was truly from the heart and then our ENTIRE Schoolies team gathered around and prayed for the kids of theVillage of Hope - unforgettable - and it was all in front of the ROCK!

So many memories and we are only half way!

Open air devotion time with the Village of Hope

Worship in Uganda

2011-12-05T07:37:00.001+11:00

WOW! What an awesome day today with the terrific Schoolies Revolution team. We woke up to balloons and streamers all in honour of Tayla's 18th birthday.. after breakfast we went to church and this was an amazing experience with our wonderful Village of Hope children - who greeted as we walked up. The entire team had to introduce themselves to the entire church and then we had the priviledge of seeing some of our older girls leading worhsip as part of the worship team. The younger boys also ministered in a couple of songs and Samuel and Paul were the stars... Paul who now wants to be a singer with the stage name of "Paul Boy" was fantastic :) Here is a little glimpse of what you all missed out on...

The whole worship experience was incredible and the whole team loved it. The rest of the day saw us enjoying some amazing chocolate cake made by Lucy (our Ugandan Suubi house cook) and a lovely lunch. Then it was off to the Source of the Nile - yes this where the 4000 km journey starts for the Nile River, and then dinner at 2 Friends... not a bad way to spend a day! Tomorrow it back to them mudbricks and digging and raking and working - sounds like an even better day than today!! :)

Schoolies Revolution in Jinja

2011-12-02T04:50:00.001+11:00

The SR brick line

The start..!

Looking good...!

Well we are here.. 22 young people, 4 leaders and 2 board members.. The team have been awesome and they ahve already made an impact in the 4 days that they have been here. They have made huge progress on the house being built, they have resurfaced the road in the Village of Hope and they have helped get the new community shelter well underway to completion. Today was also a visit to the Kikaramoja slum which was an incredible experience - our young team did an amazing job. While it was a very confronting day, the team were fantastic and our debrief was a truly God moment. We got a glimpse of what breaks God's heart every day. Tomorrow we will be visiting Hope Community High School in the morning and then continuing our building in the afternoon. We will also complete our road with a drain at the gate, this will stop cars bottoming out as they enter our driveway. This is truly an incredible journey and I am so priviledged to be on it and sharing it with these amazing young people. You can follow this journey with a day-to-day blog at http://schooliesrevolution.com/?page_id=85

Progress..!

Team eating on deck of Suubi House

New shelter by "the rock"

Kikaramoja doing a skit!

Kikaramoja slum visit

2011-11-21T15:36:00.001+11:00

In about 5 days a group of 22 young people (21 from Australia and 1 from The Netherlands) and 4 leaders along with two HopeBuilders board members will set off for Uganda and the Village of Hope. These young people would all have just completed their VCE Year 12 exams and will be making a stand against the flow and will be the first Schoolies Revolution team. We are looking forward to some amazing stories and some transformational experiences. We will be building and working in the Village of Hope, visiting some slums and villages, a prison, and engaging with kids and people at all levels. You will be able to keep track of our adventures here and on the Schoolies revolution site < CLICK HERE >

Almost the whole crew - we were missing 5!!

Together with the Board Members - the avg age jumped up!

Here we Grow again!

2011-11-18T05:36:00.001+11:00

Last Saturday was another very special day in the life of Village of Hope. All of the hard work of the teams of people from home in Australia, together with the local labourers, became worth it when the next intake of children into the village began.

Previously, each of the intakes had included 16 new children. Circumstances this time meant that on Saturday only six children came, with another two expected any day now, and a further 8 within a couple of weeks we hope.

Our new mother, Mama Florence, has been in the village for a little over a week now, getting used to her new surroundings and assisting with the final preparations for the children to arrive. She came with us as we collected each of the children from where they had been living, providing a sense of comfort to those who had been caring for them that the future for the children was secure.

In the few days that they have been here, Florence has been very caring and has made the transition for the kids very easy. It was amazing to see how quickly they were adapting to the new surroundings and circumstances, and this was very much down to the love that Florence was giving them all.

The children include 4 very young ones, 2 boys Richard and Johnson and 2 girls Mariam and Irene, and 2 older boys Robert and Juma. Robert and Juma are both at school, and are completing the year at the school they were attending, so each morning they head off early to school and then come back midway through the afternoon. When they arrive home, the little ones follow them inside, glad that "the family is together again". They are still learning that there is a difference between "Mzungu" and "Uncle Ron" - I only answer to one of those names when in the village!

The rest of the children were looking forward to the new arrivals, and have been terrific in welcoming their new friends. Robert and Juma have fitted in with the other boys as if they were lifelong friends, and most of the older (and not so older) girls have been very helpful in looking after the young ones. It is really a great privilege that we have in seeing this transition of the kids from a life that is often one of despair and hopelessness to a present and future that has hope.

Time for a manicure . . .

. . . while the new brother and sisters await their turn.

Mama Florence collecting her brood to bathe before supper

Wet Season

2011-10-14T21:31:00.001+11:00

Wet season here seems to be getting serious. This week it has rained overnight and into the morning each day, but has generally cleared up after breakfast and then the sun dries it all out. Not so today! It is rapidly approaching time for me to have some lunch, and the rain has not let up as yet. It is at least a bit lighter now. And rain here means no work. In fact not much of anything at all when it rains, so I ran out of excuses for not posting on the blog.


Enjoying sodas at the soon to be flooded Bujagali Falls

Excitement is building around the village as the next intake of children draws near. The recent team did an awesome job in preparing houses 5&6, sacrificing the idea of 'building their own house' to carry out a whole lot of tasks to make the existing houses ready for occupation. They are now just awaiting the final floor surface and a couple of power points to be installed and they will be ready. Ali, the welder is busy making beds for the new children and mothers.

Suubi House continues to develop. The guest house has just had its first 'guests' other than the Hopebuilders teams who have come, and they enjoyed themselves greatly. Lucy, our cook, continues to dazzle visitors with her great meals, both African and Mzungu! We are also in discussions with a group of people from the UK who want to come here in Feb to stay while they take part in an Alpha training conference in Jinja. We met them during our trip in Aug/Sep, and they are keen to have an opportunity to stay in a real African community whilst doing what they come here for.

Emma at work on the extra pillars needed for the deck.

Extra rooms are being built out the back to enable Suubi to accommodate the large Schoolies Revolution team coming in December. A passing joke when Glenn Dekker was here that 'perhaps we should turn the roof into a deck' quickly gained credence, and after a couple of phone calls home, approval was given and now a wonderful deck has been built on those rooms to allow extra outside space with an amazing view of Lake Victoria, and from where the 'sea breeze' off the lake will be very much enjoyed after hot days working at the village.

The children at the village seem to have got through the worst of the malaria outbreak that troubled the place during September. A number of the children required visits to the clinics for treatment, but we have had no cases in the last coupe of weeks. They all enjoy school, and have plenty of fun around the village, especially when there are visitors around.

Safari & Home

2011-10-07T21:15:00.006+11:00

Its all over - Team 10's time in Africa has come to an end. A 2 day safari adventure in Kenya was a great way to say goodbye to this great place. Relaxing around the fire sharing stories was a highlight

The Massai Mara is an unbeilivable part of God's creation. Wildebeast, Zebra, elephants, lions and much much more!!!

The Team have now gone there seperate ways - The Dekker's to Rwanda, Rubin to Thialand, DeHaans to Dubai and the rest should be landing in Melbourne as we speak. Out ime at the village was amazing and we have truley seen God and work in so many ways!!

Last day of work

2011-10-04T00:26:00.004+11:00

The plants were planted creating some wonderful hedging down the driveway.

Robert and Lyn finished of the kitchen area - fitting it all out in one day - not bad going!!

We had our last meal with the village on the the slab of the new Community Shelter. Next times teams will eat here with a roof over their heads.

Tonight we say farewell to the Village and early in the morning we are off to Kenya for Safari.

More fun and games!!

2011-10-03T04:48:00.007+11:00

Bujagali Falls was a great outing with the village. Many of the children and some mothers had never been here before. It was great to play some games, watch kayakers go down the rapids and just enjoy the wonderful creation that God has on display in this country.

The Concrete slab for the deck in the back yard of Suubi house has now been poured after a couple of mamoth days from the human concrete mixers and pumps - all by hand!!

Gladice ran a great afternoon informing the children about Australian animals. There was lots of discussion about kangaroos and dingos after this session.

Finishing things off

2011-10-01T15:02:00.008+10:00

We had a great night of devotions with the kids - great songs great drumming and some pupets even came out to help tell the story of God's love and protection. The boys love their drumming and help for some excellent African singing.

Dinner with Robert and Rachel and our new village managers - Robert and Millie was a real delight. Robert and Rachels newest son George was certainly a hit with the team.

Back on site - things are being finished off. The kitchen roof has now been finished - thanks to a lot of blood and sweat and tears from Ron. Concreteing has almost been complete between the houses.

Window shutters and doors have been hung and painted on house 6 while the house 5 doors and shutters are just being welded up.

Monday will be our last day on site where will finish of some drains and plant a whole lot of trees and plants the the team have purchased for the village.

Today we are having an easy morning listening to the AFL grand final before we take the children out for an outing this afternoon.

Things are still moving along

2011-09-29T00:44:00.006+10:00

The kitchen has most of its roof on. Beautiful fascia and lots of helping hands. The new village of hope van looks resplendant infront of the newly finished houses.

Sunday school under the tree with mama Loyce

Coralyn was made beautiful by the children in church
Short post because I am just about to run out of sola power. We have just clocked up 24 hours with out no mains power!!!

Suubi House - The place to be!!

2011-09-25T00:12:00.005+10:00

Suubi (hope) House is the place to be for HopeBuilders teams coming to Uganda. This is the new HopeBuilders 'guest house' that has been completed in recent times. So much work has gone into making this a wonderful place to stay while we are here. It is all freshly painted in great Ugandan colours, the front yard has been landscaped and is now just waiting for the lawn to grow - while the back yard has been totally transformed - see below. Two new rooms are being added to the back yard in time for the Schoolies Revolution team's arrival in November. Even Reuben got into the swing of things by helping lay a few bricks 'after work'.

Below is the view from the new deck that is being constructed on top of these rooms. With a bit of a last minute change the building crew is now in full swing of constructing this deck. It will be an amazing place to enjoy a soda at then of a hard day while taking in the wonderful view over Lake Victoria. Uganda is truely a beautiful country.

More work

2011-09-22T14:06:00.005+10:00

Each morning begins with a lovely morning walk from Suubi house up to the Village of Hope. It is often a great way to start the day seeing Ugandan life unfold as you walk up the road. You are always happily greeted and people often join us for a walk and a chat. But soon the work begins in earnest - the ladies were in to the rendering before it got a little bit muddy. The cow poo mix was not a great hit with them!!

The Kitchen roof is going up with the first trusses going up yesterday!!

We continue to have may wonderful African experiances as we see village life working out before us and in so many ways see the cycle of poverty being broken.

Mud Boys

2011-09-22T13:57:00.005+10:00

The walls have been bricked up to the roof and the boys are working hard to finish of the bricks ready for their final painting.

Its hard and sweaty work - but the boys love playing in the mud!!

Joining In

2011-09-20T13:57:00.007+10:00

Chappatis and of course the mighty Rolex was agreat source of energy for the first day. Thanks to Mama Loyce and Millie. Pineapple continues to be amazing here!!

A meal with the children was certainly a highlight. The village is growing so half of the team had dinner with mama Loyce Agnus and the other half joind mama Peris and Rose. This was topped of by a great devotion time where we sung prayed and encouraged eachother. It is such a joy to be able to be part of village life and share this time with mothers and children.

The first few days for team 10 have been wonderful - re connecting with people and meeting new people has been such a joy.

So much in just a few days. We have begun our work at the village and will update progress soon.

We're Here!!

2011-09-18T20:31:00.002+10:00

Yep team 10 has arrived in Jinja and are living it up at Suubi house. Ron and Anne have given us a great welcome. After a 35 hour door to door trip last night we all slept very well.

Church this morning was a truely African service with special items from the children.

It was so good to see the kids and mothers and see how the village has progressed.

We are all looking forward to continuing this journey.

Team 10

2011-08-28T17:36:00.008+10:00

Yes this is us - the Next HopeBuilders team getting ready to head of to the Village of Hope

In a little under 3 weeks this lovely crew of 12 will be touching down in Jinja Uganda ready to serve the people at the Village of Hope. Some of us will be staying the whole time others of the team will be in the Village for a short time and then heading of to Rwanda to contribute to the work the Vanderzaag family is doing there through REACH. At the end we will all get together and finish off with a safari together.

Last night we had our last team meeting followed by a great Bon Fire night at Robert and Lyn's. This was a fundraiser to help contibute to the work that we will be doing at the Village. Some $1500 was recieved so thankyou to all those who chipped in!!!

We look foward to blogging from Uganda telling the stories of our teams adventures. Please pray for us.

Where are we up to?

2011-08-17T05:00:00.004+10:00

(more pictures to come)

As this ‘correspondent’ prepares to leave the country for a few weeks, I thought it would be a good time (well overdue) to update you all on where things are at at the village.

We are preparing the house 5 & 6 combination for the next intake of children to come in, hopefully at the end of September / early October. The houses are almost finished, although there is a bit of finishing off work for the next team that is coming in mid September. The kitchen is getting there, with the pre-slab plumbing finally happening this week to allow the slab to be finished, then the walls of the toilet / bathing rooms can go up. Then the roof can go on - just a cinch now that I have put a couple of house roofs on. We think that we will have no trouble making the deadline on these. So, tht gives more opportunities for you to sponsor a house. Check the hopebuilders website for details on how to go about this.

House 6 is the last to be built along that side of the block as it is near the front gate.

The water project has progressed a little since the wonderful Hank Noorbergen left. We have added spouting to Mama Rose’s house, and it now is collecting water to fill the 10,000 litre storage tank. Tomorrow we will use this to connect into the village supply, our first “free” water.

Suubi House is almost complete now. Since our first ‘guests’ left (Andrew’s team) we have completed all of the plastering of outside walls, furnished the living area, have hot water on tap, will have the painting finished in a day or so, and then should have the front yard landscaped by next week. ‘The rains have come’, so planting of grass and some shrubs in the garden is about to happen to beautify the place even more.

We have purchased a vehicle for the village, to allow all of the transport issues to be resolved. We thought about a dual cab ute, but the prices were prohibitive, and when an opportunity to purchase a taxi, (Toyota Hiace van licensed to carry 14 passengers - often with about 18) we thought that it could prove more useful. We have had it renovated a little, and with the back two rows of seats removed and a roof rack it has more load space than a dual cab, and still has seats for 8 passengers. When a team comes and we want to get around we can just put the seats back in. All this for less than half the price we would have had to pay for a dual cab ute!

The most exciting news of all though is that today we grew to 33 children. When the first 16 children came to the village a little over 2 years ago - yes it has been that long - two sisters were expected to come. One of them decided at the time to remain with the grandmother who had been caring for them as well as three of their cousins. We’re not certain of the reasons she decided to stay, but suspect it was out of concern for the grandmother. We have met this girl on several occasions this year. Recently, she came to the village with the grandmother to visit her sister and cousins. Whilst she was eating some lunch, totally out of the blue she said to me, “I would like to come and live with my sister”. We checked with the grandmother, who was happy for that to happen, and so Ivan has done the necessary work with the probation officer to allow Rehema to join us at Village of Hope. She came today and within half an hour was out learning to ride a bicycle with plenty of help from the other children.

Just last week I was in Bugembe buying some meat for one of our “Dinners with the Kids”. (We have had all of the children, and mothers, come in small groups for a meal and tour of Suubi House) A gentleman approached me and asked about the slogan on my Hopebuilders t-shirt - “Breaking the Cycle of Poverty. “How are you doing that?” he asked. It was great to be able to respond with some of the things that are happening at the village, and the impact that we are having on the lives of these children. And by ‘we’ I mean the whole Hopebuilders community, not just those of us who are here at this time. And it’s not only the kids, but the people in the community around, and the impact has spread out across the country in small but significant ways. We don’t know how many lives have literally been saved by the people who have come as part of teams to Village of Hope, but it is many. This is not an exaggeration. Sometimes giving someone as little as 5000 shillings, less than $2, for medical treatment has actually saved a life. People here are soooooo grateful for the help that Village of Hope / Hopebuilders are giving.

Teamwork

2011-07-22T03:08:00.015+10:00

A couple of times many years ago - back when I was a young footballer trying to find his way - I had the pleasure of hearing the late Allan Jeans deliver some coaching addresses. Apart from the fact that he did not pronounce "perform" properly (it was more like preform) I remember him stressing the importance of teamwork and of each member of the team doing their job to ensure that the team 'preformed' to its maximum.

Over the last two months the whole teamwork thing has been very evident here at Village of Hope. We have had the pleasure of a number of 'visitors' (although we don't call them that here) coming to spend time at the village, each one bringing their different talents and putting them to good use.

First off we had John & Judy Fooks and Roger & Sandra Beimers for two weeks in June. They were the first people to stay in the not quite completed at the time Suubi House. They worked very hard to assist in getting a number of things done both at the house and at the village. We have cupboards in the kitchen, a roof on house 5, a much better sorted office just to name a few. As well as that they did their part in refreshing us, both with the beautiful Aussie lamb and real cheese they managed to import for us and the week that we were able to spend with them at 2 amazing game reserves in Kenya. Of course the real highlight of the trip was 'Mama John's' Sunday lunch for all at the village.

A couple of days after returning from Kenya we welcomed John's sister and brother in law Louise and Hank Noorbergen. Louise put her nursing background to good use, not only in treating many people from the community and a couple of village injuries, but she also did a power of work researching the best way for health to be improved in the area. As a result of her searching people out and using some of Anne's contacts, she was able to get important people together to develop village health teams which will lead to local people in a number of the surrounding villages being trained in first aid and as the first point of call for anyone needing medical attention. Meanwhile Hank went quietly about his business working on a water plan for the village. One of our biggest challenges here at the village is having a consistent and adequate water flow. In the process of his work, Hank discovered a large water leak that we had no knowledge of that was consuming about one half of the water use at the village. Having fixed that, he then developed a plan to make a sustainable, consistent water supply for the village. He got so enthused about this that he has delayed his return to Australia by about 10 days to get as much of it in place as he possible can. So by now we have a new tank delivering water to all of the houses and soon this will be being filled from a large tank that collects rainwater from the roof of the houses. Not to be outdone by her brother, Louise and Hank also prepared a meal for the village before their departure.

Then of course we have had the last couple of weeks with the wonderful team 9 led capably by Andrew Boonstra. These guys really did demonstrate what a team can do when it functions well. In their just on 2 weeks here they managed to complete the brickwork of an entire house. Other teams have gotten as far as the ring beam, but these guys timed their day off to go white water rafting to perfection so that the ring beam could be done and then they used the next 2 days to complete the top courses of bricks. And it wasn't all building. Andrew barely got his hands dirty as he was very tied up doing all of the things the other board members had set him to do whilst he was here. Fortunately he had a trusty lieutenant in Jordan who cracked the whip on the building site and kept the others working. Stan made himself incredibly useful, doing many other tasks around the place as well of being busy with the mudbricks, and Hetty discovered the sewing machines that we have here, dusted them off and began again the process of teaching the mothers to use them for repairing clothes and making new ones for the children. She also helped our budding cook, Lucy, in preparing some of the meals. All of the team made a great impact with the village community and also with some of our neighbours, and all were amazingly generous in many different ways.

And now, the mzungus have all gone, but still the team grows. Today, Robert and Millie moved their belongings from YWAM which has been their home for the last few years to the Admin block at the village. They are becoming the new Village Managers and a very important part of the team. We are looking forward very much to working with them in the coming months as they step into this role and we step out of it. I will 'introduce' them more in a coming post.

So, teamwork is a good thing, and Allan Jeans was right.

In fact I think someone talked about this stuff a few years before.
In 1 Corinthians 12: 12 and following, Paul wrote: The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. . . .
Thank God for the many parts of the body and their contributions to this village, not only those mentioned above but everyone who has and will play a part.

Some more of the teamwork that goes on here - and afar.

The local team, in uniform of course, who worked tirelessly to build Suubi House.

A eam of ladies in Melbourne have made quilts so that each of the children and mothers could have their own handmade quilt.

Even giving birth here is a team thing. Anne got to be very involved in the birth of Racheal and Robert Kafeero's new son, George William.

The mothers being a team during the farewell dinner for Luke.

2011-07-17T20:43:00.004+10:00

The picture above shows the finished product as of yesterday lunch time, the official end of our 'work' tasks at the village! We were able to get the house to the top of the windows and more. We were able to get the ring beam in place and all the door and window lintels, then lay the four courses of bricks above it. It is now ready for the roof. Of course the clean up took quite some time too, as working with mud and mudbricks creates heaps of dirt and rubble in the house.
The team is doing well. We went to church this morning and then this afternoon was spent in town picking up souvenirs and paintings that were ordered.
This evening we will eat with the children of the village and say our farewells. This is always hard on the children as they bond pretty quickly to the teams. They all have written us letters and drawn pictures for us to remember them by, and we will give them replies to their letters tonight.

There are som many stories to tell and individual experiences.. way too many to put up here. I encourage you to ask one or a few of the team members to tell you what they experienced and get a glimpse of what it's like being in Africa.

Tomorrow we pack and clean Suubi house and leave for the Capital Kampala. We will spend a night there before catching a very early flight on Tuesday to Kenya. We will drive from Nairobi to the Masai Mara, where we will spend 2 days at a safari park. This will be a time of relaxing but also exciting as we will see the many animals of the African savannah. We are all looking forward to it.

Some of us are still struggling a bit with stomach upsets so we'd appreciate your prayers for that as we travel, but otherwise we are well.
The blog will not be updated from Kenya as we will not have access to internet.
Thank you for your prayers and support! They are appreciated and felt.

Team 9

2011-07-12T04:02:00.004+10:00

The girls celebrating the end of the day!

Monday of the second week, and the goal is looking more realistic. It's hot and steamy and we haven't had rain since we came, but the team is doing a great job. We are enjoying the help of a few excellent Ugandan workers too. Today we were able to mount the windows in and begin to brick the walls up around them.
Yesterday was a special day for us and the kids of the village. In the morning we went off to their church and enjoyed a typical African church service. Lots of clapping, singing and dancing around. Many moments of raising our voices to glorify God and to top it off some of our kids sang some item songs up the front. Us white people are amazed at the parts of the African body that can shake and move during dance!!
The afternoon was spent taking all of the children in the village out to a resort swimming pool. No mean feat, organizing 32 small and not so small children into bathers and into the pool. Some of the children had been before and some had not. Africans don't usually swim, so it was a thrill seeing the small ones get so excited, although some of them were so frightened.
We finished the afternoon off with sodas and cookies as a treat before the kids all went home tired and satisfied, and we the team went and sat at a restaurant by the Nile to have dinner.

Most of the team are doing well except for a few tummy bugs and slight nausea. We are tired by the end of each day but well satisfied.
We value your prayers heaps and look forward to telling more stories as the days go by.

Blessings
Team 9

Team 9 update

2011-07-10T03:31:00.004+10:00

The new SUUBI (hope) house

A fresh update from team 9 in Uganda..

Well, we're a week in (sort of). Today we finally got the house up to window stage! This is half way to roof belt height which is our goal!

Last night we had the opportunity to have supper with the children of our village. We split the team in half so that half of us had supper with house 1&2 and the other half with house 3&4. After supper the whole village got together for devotions. We were treated to a fantastic, refreshing time with God hosted by our wonderful children. Most of us went home humbled when we compared our children's passion for God and how they express it, with our own!

Instead of me writing heaps this time, I've asked a few team members to write some reflections for you to read, and of course check out the photos below...

Keep up the prayers! We are well aside from a few tummy bugs, and we are safe......

Blessings

Andrew

The last week has been a steep learning curve, but incredibly rewarding! From never laying a brick in my life to working 8 hour days laying bricks. The physical aspect of our days is tough but the relational parts are incredible. The friendships that have developed within our team are life long and the interaction with the children are always a highlight to our days! My highlight so far is participating in worship and devotion with the kids. Their passion in praise and worship is inspiring and a lesson we could all learn.

Jocelyn

When I first heard that there was a mission trip to Uganda to help build a mudbrick house for young kids I thought to myself, “Who me? I'm not sure I've got what it takes...” But wow has it been an incredible experience! Working all day laying bricks, something I never thought I'd ever do, spending afternoons with the kids and even taking part in their boisterous singing and devotionals has been a truly unforgettable experience! I came here thinking I would change their lives but instead mine has been changed by their pure love for God and their beautiful joy for life, even though materially I have so much more than them. An amazing and touching first week in Uganda, one I will never forget!

Ruth

Ten muzungus (white people) came to Uganda to build a house but so much more has happened! We have made some amazing friends and become part of a really special community in the short time we have been here. Yes, the house is going up, and it hasn't always been smooth sailing but the obstacles have taught us much about this beautiful place and how to adapt and work as a team. I'm loving Africa!!!

Katrina

Below: 2 deep thinking building men!!

2011-07-07T23:48:00.006+10:00

It's the end of Thursday and we've been working on site now for three and a half days. We are beginning to get traction now. We are waiting for some bitumen to arrive from Kenya that has been held up at the border. We need this for the external walls so it has slowed us a bit. Not that we've not found work to do though. We've been painting, cleaning, fitting skylights, re-fitting solar panels, cleaning houses after construction, checking and making sure sewing machines work properly, cleaning out and re-organizing the whole tool shed and more!! We hope to see the bitumen tomorrow sop that we can pull up the external walls to match what we've done internally. The temperature has been high the last few days (unlike Melbourne we hear!), and the heat takes it's toll, but all in all, the team is doing a fantastic job!
It's been fun interacting with the kids as they come home from school in the afternoons too. Teaching them songs and learning (sort of!) a few ourselves. On Friday evening we'll be eating with children and doing evening devotions with them, then on Sunday afternoon we'll take them out swimming. This is always great fun and a treat for the kids. For us too by the way!
The power here is irregular. The government is having trouble keeping up with the demand which means we have power for 12 hours or a day, then not for the next day or 2. Water is also a little unpredictable, but we've had enough when we needed it albeit slow...
We are eating well, very well in fact. The weight loss some of us were counting on may certainly not happen! We have a wonderful young lady called Lucy, who has just graduated from YWAM's vocational training school, and needed to have some experience cooking for a group as she'd like to be a cook. We have enjoyed her work and will be able to write a recommendation for her CV.

We are all still well, and keeping safe. We'd appreciate your continued prayers if you're following this blog. We do not take for granted anything in Africa and know that God is with us.

2011-07-05T22:02:00.004+10:00

First update from team 9 in Uganda..
After a long flight we arrived together with all our luggage and yes that is almost a miracle.
We then had a long drive back to the village as there had been plenty of rain and the traffic was chaos. 120 kms in about 4.5 hours!
We woke the next morning ready (sort of!) to go for it at the building site.
The first job to do was finish off making some trusses and then clean up the site and slab ready to work on. The requisite looking for all the tools necessary took a while too.
Working hard!! The top one has a pretty lady!! (the blogger is a bit biased!)

The ladies did an admiral job carting barrow loads of mud bricks the whole length of the it's site to make stacks ready to use. The afternoon yesterday was spent discovering Jinja, getting money out of the ATM machines and checking out the main street. The day was finished off with a dinner at 2 Friends (a local restaurant) as a team with Ron, Anne, Hank and Louise. Very nice!
The new mission house (Suubi we call it) is our lodging place, and apart from a few small bits and pieces it's shaping up to be a premier place to stay.

Stan and Ron were able to fit one of the skylites we took over which made a huge difference inside. Can't wait till the second one is in. The solar power system is beginning to work and Ron's patience with the local power providers saw power being connected and working yesterday. A fridge with cool drinks is luxury here, and we sure appreciate it!
Tomorrow the walls begin to be built up higher and it'll seem like we are really moving.
The weather is hot and steamy but we are all doing OK with enough water and rest when needed
A lovely morning sunrise today!!

We'd appreciate your ongoing prayers for our health and safety, as well as for good working conditions..

2011-06-18T12:06:00.002+10:00

JULY TEAM (#9)
Back Row L-R: Andrew, Philip, Jordan, Hetty, Stan
Front Row L-R: Sue, Jocelyn, Ruth, Natalie.

In just 2 weeks the next team (team #9) will be heading to Village of Hope! We are a mix of 3 couples and four singles. One of the young ladies on our team (Katrina) is missing form this photo as she has gone on ahead to London first.
We arrive on Sunday the 3rd and are excited to be able to spend time working, playing, praying and having fun at Village of Hope.
House #6 will be our goal, as well as many other exciting ideas. We are very much looking forward to meeting all the children, the mothers, our local workers and the many that live in the villages around VoH.
Please pray for safety, health and wellbeing for our team as we are there. these are things we do not take for granted and would really appreciate specific prayer for us.

We will update the blog each few days hopefully with photos and testimonies of what we are seeing and doing.

Andrew

A Day in the Life of a RAV4

2011-05-31T05:59:00.002+10:00

I’m awakened fairly early, just on dawn, as David the night guard comes as usual on most mornings to help me bathe. The water is cold at this time of day, but I have fairly tough skin so can cope. After bathing I get to just dry naturally under the rising sun.

At about 7:45 am ‘the driver’ comes out and loads my back end with tools before slamming my back door shut. I try to complain by not catching the door properly, but he just keeps at it until I give in and let the thing close fully. Then he puts that sharp pointy thing in my ignition switch for the first time today and twists! Oh the pain. It takes me a couple of minutes for my engine to warm to the task, but then we are away.

The drive is a relatively short one from the village down the road to the new house where thankfully the tools are unloaded and I can stand straight again and rest for a while. Unfortunately its only a short rest as we head back up to the village for more supplies. This time I get pushed and prodded until my back seats are flattened and then the back is loaded with a heap of metal - I hear the word scaffolding” being used. This stuff is so big that they can’t even shut the back door, so I have no opportunity to protest. Out the gate and I get my own back a little as I tip some of this metal out the open back door so ‘the driver’ has to stop and reload. From there its all down hill and he surprisingly takes it very slowly, so I don’t feel all the bumps, not like when he is in a hurry! Again I scrape my bottom on the ground as we enter the new house block. When is ‘the driver’ going to do something about that entry. It hasn’t been nice since the grader came and turned the gutter into a moat. Oh no! Apparently the boss (Robert) likes what the metal can do and tells ‘the driver’ to go back for another load. Seems like he is getting smarter. This time he uses a couple of bags of Lime from the shed in my rear end first to change the angle of the metal, so I can’t tip it out any more. After offloading this second lot of metal, I finally get a rest for an hour or so.

After a nice little snooze in the morning sunshine, I am rudely awakened by ‘the driver’ reefing my door open. NO ... he’s been at it again. Some days he comes out of that house all wet from sweat and then just flops down on my seat and I get covered in it. And with the dust that is always around here, how does he expect me to keep a nice, clean appearance on my lovely cloth seats? Back we go to the village for ‘the driver’s’ lunch break. All very well for him, he kicks all the kids out of his house while he eats. Where do you think they go? Straight to me, thats where. It seemed like a nice idea at the time when my Japanese stylist painted me black, but these kids have trouble differentiating between me and a blackboard, so all they want to do is write all over me. Sometimes this is very hurtful and has left lasting scars! I don’t like it. When ‘the driver’ finishes his lunch its time to become a food transport vehicle and take food to the workers. The posho tin is always a bit hot, but my carpet doesn’t seem to mind. Its when that Mama woman puts the other stuff on my seat that the problems begin. The container is fine, but seems unable to keep all of the stuff inside inside, and it tends to dribble. ‘the driver’ doesn’t seem to mind too much, he just rubs it in and mutters something about “not being his seat, so why worry”.

After the lunch run I finally get a decent bit of exercise as he has to go into town to go to the bank, apparently so that the workers can be paid. I do miss those nice smooth roads back home in Japan though, as some of the places ‘the driver’ takes me here are very rough. More of a “cross country’ event than a “track” event.

We no sooner get back to the house from the bank than that imposter of an engine, the generator, coughs and splutters and uses up its last bit of fuel. How embarrassing! But good old reliable RAV4 to the rescue. A quick trip over those Bugembe bumps to fill up the yellow jerry can and we can get that generator purring again. At least on this trip ‘the driver’ brought one of he little kids along for the ride. I liked giving him my front seat view as he felt that bit special.

Is there anything else that can run out today. Because I provided all of that metal called scaffolding, the workers are making good progress and have run out of nails, so its off I go again to replenish their stocks. Its just the short journey down the hill to Wairaka trading centre, but the journey back is all over the place. No easy way back from there!

Once darkness sets in I usually get to rest - ‘the driver’ doesn’t like being out on the roads here in the dark if he can help it. I think it is something to do with the number of pedestrians and the lack of street lighting that he is used to. But tonight it is a different story. The little boy from next door is really sick and so I become like an ambulance and rush him to hospital The roads around the hospital are filled with potholes and its dark so they are hard for ‘the driver’ to see so I am unable to deliver the “smooth riding experience” that I always aim for. After waiting at the hospital for a while, ‘the driver’ and his friend Luke come out and off we go on a search for supplies that the hospital needs. They don’t really seem to know where they are going, but eventually stumble on a clinic where I get parked and they go inside and then come back after a few minutes with strange looks on their faces and mutterings of “smuggling” and “the nice nurse who helped them” Back to the hospital to deliver the goods and then after another short wait, finally I get to go home and call it a day.

Peace at Last

2011-05-24T03:00:00.008+10:00

A little over 5 weeks of school holiday came to an end yesterday and the children returned to school today. The village is remarkably peaceful when they are not here! The mamas and mzungus don't make a lot of noise between them.

The holiday time has really been a great time to spend time with the children doing all manner of things. Sometimes its what they want to do, more often they want to tag along with what we are doing or at least do what they want to do in our presence. Occasionally that can be useful as they will very happily go and get that tool that you need or move the ladder from here to there as required. On other occasions it can lead to trouble as well, as when I was working with some spouting for the new house, making up the corner pieces, and a group of the boys were taking it in turns to drill and rivet. After a while there came a cry from one boy, "Uncle Ron, look what . . . is doing!" . . . had taken an offcut of the spouting and was "drawing" with it along the side of my car.

Anne spent many an hour in the admin block with children reading, drawing, colouring, doing jigsaw puzzles, drawing on a blackboard, learning words and numbers and letters. Both her and Trudi, our visitor, gave the one sewing machine a good workout, mending clothes and even making a few new items.

The highlight though of the holidays came last week on Monday when we finally opened the newly arrived container. If you haven't been following this saga, the container left Lilydale in September and arrived here in Jinja Customs Bond yard in mid January. Unfortunately it has taken this long to get the official documents from the government here to have the import taxes waived. But a little over a week ago, on Friday 13th May, we finally got approval to collect the container. We then had to wait to open it until Monday so that a customs inspector could check its contents. The arrival and opening provided much excitement for the children, and then the work began of unloading it.

There was a huge range of things in the container, but those that brought most excitement to the children were the bicycles and the slide.

I, on the other hand, have had a lot of fun looking through the boxes of old tools that have come, thinking of all of the times that I could have used that, or that, or how good it is to finally have one of those.

Also in the container was a very very large number of items of clothing of all shapes and sizes. Anne, Jane and Christine, with a few others have almost completed the mammoth task of sorting them. Some are ready for the children, some will be modified to fit the children, and some will be given to various people in the community to bless them.

The container also included building materials from a house that some hard working people demolished back in July in Wandin. Soon they will be put to use in constructing roofs for houses here as well as providing some of the bathroom fittings for the nearly completed guest house.

The children and all associated with the village here want to say a huge "Thank You" to everybody who donated goods and / or time and / or money to get this container here. It is a huge blessing, not just to the village, but the whole community.

Its been a while - sorry

2011-05-10T05:43:00.002+10:00

It is quite a while since I have posted anything here - thats not because nothing happens, but more because so much is happening.

We have been a village of 32 children for two and a half months now, and life has certainly changed. The new children have learnt many new things, including "Aunt Anne, may I come in?" when they are standing at the doorway of the admin building wanting to enter to read, draw, do homework, do puzzles, or just hang out. They still have things to learn as well, like "LEAVE MY CAR ALONE" as they draw in the dust or play with the doors and windows and locks.

Seriously, the life of the village is totally different now and we can only imagine what it will be like when we have 6, 8 or 14 houses full of children.

At the moment the children are still on holidays from school for another 2 weeks. Despite this they are getting lessons most days in the admin building, and learning much through being able to write all over the blackboard without fear of messing things up in their books if they get something wrong. For many of the children who have not previously been to school, this holiday has seen them come on in leaps and bounds in things like learning the alphabet. Last week at the Sunday night devotions, there were great celebrations when all of the children, including the 3 year old twins, were able to sing the alphabet song on their own.

During the holidays, the children get to do some of the chores that there is not the opportunity for them to do during term time. For some this is preparing meals, for others it is helping out in small ways with the building project of the time. Last week a group of the older girls spent days in the garden digging and planting a crop of maize and other vegetables.

On the building front, great progress has been made on "Mission House". This is a house being built on another block close to the village that will function as a guest house to raise income for the village. Future teams that come from Australia will stay in this house. It now has a roof, and currently the internal walls are being plastered. In the next few days the plumbing and electrical work will begin, and then windows and doors will have it liveable in plenty of time for the team coming in July.

At the village, house 5 is still awaiting its roof that is in the container that is now only a day or so from being delivered (I really am a man of faith!) A slab for house 6 awaits the July team, and there will also be work on the kitchen slab in the next week or so to make sure that we have plenty for them to do.

On the 'mzungu' front, some personnel changes are afoot. Luke who has been here since June last year, is now in his last month in Africa. To the surprise of many here, he has finally booked a ticket home and will depart in early June. He will be greatly missed both inside and outside of the village. Trudi who has been with us for 10 weeks, departs on Sunday. She also has made a big impact during her time here, not the least of which happened last week when she accompanied a team from YWAM on an outreach to western Uganda. The mothers, the children, and even the dogs will miss Trudi when she goes! In June we have some new visitors coming, then in July we have a team so exciting times lie ahead.

Roof contractors preparing to put the spouting on the roof of Mission House

The finished roof!

Charles working to plaster the walls in the lounge room

Ibra and Sharon in the new clothes brought by their Jadja (grandmother) on their way to church.

Its a Busy Village!!

2011-04-30T04:20:00.004+10:00

Life at Village of Hope always has something of interest going on. With 32 children, there is never a dull (or even quiet) moment, particularly now that they are all on 5 weeks holiday.

We have had our own little dramas at times. Steven, one of the new boys, broke his wrist when he fell over. An xray was followed by a plaster cast, although it was off in 2 weeks and he has been fine since. I think he enjoyed the daily ritual of having his arm wrapped in a plastic bag so that he could bathe, then coming back to have the sling applied again.

Then there was John who bit his tongue when he fell over. He managed to take quite a chunk out and so we decided to take him off to a clinic to get it checked. With service that you could only dream about in Australia, John had been registered, examined by a nurse, who called in a doctor for a look, who scheduled him for surgery and in he went, all within 25 minutes. After the surgery to put several stitches in, they decided to keep John in overnight and he was very brave through it all. A couple of days without solid food and then all was well for him too. It only kept him quiet for the first day, then he was back to his old self.

Easter was chocolate free, but was instead celebrated with special meals of chicken and rice for lunch and turkey and matooke for supper. There were sodas as well and during the afternoon we went on an outing. The park turned out to be a part of Jinja golf course, so we had to move when balls started flying over our heads, but eventually another space was located close by and several games gave those who weren’t climbing trees some fun.

This week there has been opportunity for different groups of children to get some extra classes in (much) smaller numbers than they get at school to learn some of the basics that they may have missed out on. The admin building is usually abuzz in the mornings with puzzles and reading and writing and drawing and practising number recognition and even letter recognition. To see the faces of children as they begin to understand is amazing.

As well as this learning, many of the children are eager to help with various jobs that are going on. Anne usually has ‘help’ preparing dinner as the children want to learn about different ways of preparing food. The moment I look at a ladder or pull out my keys to open the tool shed I am swamped with willing helpers. These kids have held tools while some repair jobs have happened or walked down to the site of ‘Mission House’ to carry some tools home or to clean up off cuts of timber to be used for the cooking fires.

Another group of girls have been quite amazing. This group of 4 teenage girls have spent each afternoon this week in the garden, digging the ground with hoes and planting seeds. Now is the time to do this with wet season upon us. I’m not sure where I would have to go in Australia to find 4 teenage girls who on their own, with no pressure from anyone else, would show the dedication necessary to work so hard in the garden for so long to achieve their goal.

As well as all of this good stuff, there have been times of sadness as well. Last weekend we heard of an accident at the lake where 2 children had drowned. Today we found out that one of them was a boy that Trudi, our visitor, had made some connection with. On Thursday morning we received a phone call from a friend at YWAM informing us that a boy of one of the families who live and work at the YWAM base had died the night before, collapsing suddenly after playing football and eating supper. The boy was well known to the children of the village as he attended the same primary school as them. Again we are reminded that even more so here in Africa, you cannot take life for granted, and we should all be thankful for the life we have.

Some photos of our outing - games being played and children with delight on their faces

Hoppo Bumpo!

A human pyramid

Peter and Maliko

Sebudde and Purpose

Another Weekend of Celebration

2011-04-11T16:49:00.005+10:00

Saturday

This weekend there was yet another birthday to celebrate. Trudi, a visitor from Oz, had a birthday and organised a trip to Lake Victoria for the children.

Trudi has made some connection with a couple of fishermen, and arranged for them to take the children out in their boats for a short ride. For most of them, this was their first visit to the lake and they were all very excited.

As well as the boat ride, they amused themselves on the foresore with various games and just watching those in the boat.

Ronald, the fisherman, also put on a short display of fishing with his net, and despite being in the wrong place at the wrong time of the day, managed a small catch of 4 fish, which we blessed the neighbours with.

As the rain arrived, the children retreated to the bus and returned to the village for an ice cream.

Sunday Night.

On Sunday, Robert Kafeero, the director of Uganda Hopebuilders made an appearance at devotions to talk about the role of the family. He entertained the children for quite a while and engaged them in his lesson very well.

Another reason for having Robert come was that the village presented bibles to all of the children in primary 4 or older.

One or 2 already had small "Gideons" bibles, but 8 children were each presented with a nice new hardback NIV. The mothers presented the bibles, and Pastor George and his wife Jeska were on hand to pray for the children as they received them. It was a great night.

A Cause for Celebration

2011-03-20T23:39:00.002+11:00

Yesterday we had at the village the opportunity to celebrate with Ooee Luke on the occasion of his 24th birthday.

Luke has been here at the village since July last year - I think he is looking into permanent residence. In that time he has made a number of good friends and they were invited to join with us for a party.

Luke purchased some special food, including Matooke, Beef, 2 Chickens (prepared for cooking by the boys) and sodas. Anne made a pair of chocolate cakes complete with the required number of candles and the mamas prepared the food.

When we gathered there were 63 in all. A delicious meal was served up, followed by the cake and the sodas, then the children were given the opportunity to wish Luke a happy birthday. Many of them took the chance to speak up, in english of course, and testify of the great friend that Luke has been to all of them. After the children, many of the adults also wished Luke a happy birthday and thanked him for his friendship, especially his good mate Farook. Luke was really moved by it all.

Clearly he has had a big impact on the lives of the children and also others from the community.

Happy Birthday Luke!!

Singing "Happy Birthday" as the cake arrived

Enjoying a Soda

Luke distributing the birthday cake

Peace, Jackie and Prossie from next door performing an item.

A few new faces

2011-03-06T23:34:00.002+11:00

Here are a couple of the new kids, enjoying watching the computer

This one is Rachel, She is the second youngest of 5 sisters.

Here is the ever smiling Joshua. We collected him on Wednesday from a village about 50 kms east of here.
And this is Maliko, who came in on Monday.

One Week In

2011-03-06T21:58:00.001+11:00

32 kids are a whole lot more joy than 16, but also a whole lot more interesting, adventurous and hard work.

14 children arrived last weekend and then one on Monday and another on Wednesday. Since then there have been times of outfitting them all with new clothes and shoes, trips to medical clinics for treatment and then all of them for testing, enrollment at the local schools (we have one secondary student) and preschool, and lots of time just getting to know them and watching all of the mischief they get up to. Some are learning rapidly the ‘rules’ whilst others it is going to take longer for. Without exception, they are all excited to be in the village and part of a new family.

The houses are gradually being set up - the new cooking stove is finally ready for use and tables and benches have been made to make the dining experience possible in two separate groups. Tomorrow we should get the solar lights up and running - very important since we are still without power after more than 2 weeks. When the lights finally come on I’m sure the new children will be quite surprised.

The integration of the old and the new kids has been amazing. After the initial infatuation and treating the smallest kids as toys has worn off, new friendships have been made and there has been no indication of any disharmony between the two groups. The experienced kids are very helpful in explaining things and helping their new friends.

It has been a bit of a shock for the two mothers, Rose and Persis. They are coming to terms with the work involved in caring for 8 kids, but with the support of the other mothers, Agnes and Loyce, they are getting on top of it.

Some things that have been highlights of the week:

The smile on Maliko’s face on Monday when Ivan, Luke and I collected him from the Kikaramojo slum. Mailko is the boy who we couldn’t get on Saturday because of the recent death of his mother. He has been amazing all week and is so enjoying the comfort of the village.

The sight of children playing on the swings - a simple little thing but probably the first time for most of them.

One new girl sharing her new clothes with another who we hadn’t been able to get enough dresses for.

The way that all of the kids have participated in the nightly devotions and singing.

The kids discovering that they don’t have to hide away some extra food in case the next meal doesn’t come.

If you are not yet a sponsor of the village, please consider it. There are sponsorships available for the two new houses. Check out www.hopebuilders.org.au

New Kids Are In

2011-02-28T06:45:00.002+11:00

This will be very brief (haven't had power for the last week and still don't), but 14 of the 16 new kids arrived in the village yesterday to much excitement -the others will follow soon. A long day in the bus was spent collecting them, and this was followed by a clean-up and the giving out of new clothes, then a fabulous welcome supper of Rice and Beans, followed by sodas and lollypops.

We prayed for the kids and robert gave one of his great welcome speeches, and the whole of the village sang worship songs and prayed together.

It was one of those really, really, special times.

The week that was

2011-02-13T00:51:00.003+11:00

Despite all of the hype surrounding the presidential elections coming up next Friday, which includes more posters than you can imagine posted on any object in sight that either does or doesn't move, and streams of trucks with music and propaganda blaring travelling past the village, we did get some work done this week.

Around the village, the children have been at school for a couple of weeks now and are well settled in their routine. Rose, Shamina and Ibra started their pre-school this week, so the village was very quiet in the mornings. Once the children come home they have lunch and then get stuck into their homework, so it is very different to holiday time.

On the building front, work started on building that is currently being called Mission House. This is a mzungu style house being built on a block about 1 km down the road, which will house teams when they come over and will possibly generate some income at other times. We will move into it as well, freeing up the admin building to do what it is designed for. So far we have dug the foundations in some very hard ground,and as I write, the workers are laying the bricks that will support the concrete slab floor.

If you are wondering about things you could be praying for the village, please consider the new mothers and children that are to come into the village soon, and also for the release of the container of materials sent from Australia which is held up waiting for a document from the finance ministry here that at the moment is more concerned about the election than us.

Setting out is complete and the digging commences.

Digging done, hard core is put into the trenches.

A sugar cane break (smoko) I'm becoming African!

Why we are here

2011-02-05T05:47:00.002+11:00

Today I paid my second visit in a week to a village called Masese III or Kikaramoja. The purpose of the visit was twofold. Firstly it was to take two of the children, Doreen and Grace, back to visit their Grandmother who had been looking after them before they came to Village of Hope. Both of these girls are quiet, and so it was interesting to watch how they would handle the visit. They were very keen to go, but when they arrived they seemed very uncomfortable and took a long time to warm their grandmother. Neither of them were quick to go off in search of old friends either. Both of these things were in stark contrast to last weeks visit when we took some of the other girls, admittedly slightly older girls, to the same place. Eventually Grace and Doreen managed to break through their reticence and away they went and we had to track them down when it was time to go. These visits are an important part of allowing to keep an understanding of their history and relationship with what family they have. We take some photos that they will be able to keep and to share with their families.

The second part of the visit was to confirm the names and ages of some of the children who will form part of the next intake. I found a lady whom I met last week with a little english and she took me off to locate the children in question. They were not immediately to be found, so after waiting for a while, I managed to meet two of them, the youngest two, and then we gave up and returned to where Anne was waiting with Doreen and Grace’s grandmother.

I went off to find Grace and Doreen so that I could take a photo of them with their friends, and was approached by a man. He pleaded with me to look after two more children, not his he assured me, and introduced them and their mother to me. He was concerned that these kids were about to reach school age and had no hope of getting to school if they were to stay in that village. As sad as that sounds that a mother would be prepared to give up her kids to what they see as an orphanage so that they could be educated, that was a clear measure of the despair that pervades this particular village. If we could, we would love to be able to do something for every child, and adult, who live in that place. I was given an article by one of the ladies last week in which the village was described as “the shame of Jinja”.

Just before we were about to leave, a lady arrived with a whole bunch of kids in tow. She turned out to be the lady, possibly an aunt, who was caring for the 5 children in question. These children lost their father to illness and then their mother was electrocuted. The aunt caring for them has three children of her own and is quite young. She has very limited resources to care for her own children, let alone five more. Two of the children had obviously large bellies, the tell tale sign of malnutrition. We managed to get all of their names and ages, and as we returned to the Village of Hope, we felt a new sense of urgency to get everything needed in place to be ready for the next intake of children so that these new kids that we met could come and find some hope in their lives also.

The scary part is that there are many, many children all over Uganda like this, and we can only scratch the surface. But if you can help or contribute in any way, please do so that we can keep scratching.

Doreen and Grace with their 'Jadja' (grandmother)

What's been happening?

2011-01-26T05:57:00.004+11:00

The slab for the next house is now complete. Last Thursday and Friday a team of very hard working young men mixed and poured all of the concrete for the slab. Alas, they were not able to call on a truck like this one . . .

(image from www.constructionphotographs.com)

but they had to do it much harder. A couple of guys mix it all - first the two types of sand are piled up on the ground, then bags of cement are poured on top.

This is then shifted to another pile several times to mix the ingredients. Then the pile is spread out and the stones are spread out on top. Finally, water is added and then the hard work really begins. A hoe is used to push and pull the mixture to get it thoroughly mixed, then its loaded into wheelbarrows

and pushed over the rough stones in the foundations to the spot where its required, tipped out

and spread by a couple more guys.

We had a team of about 8 on Thursday, including yours truly (who spent the day pushing a wheelbarrow) and then only a small section was left to be completed by a few guys on Friday. Now its all done and dried out, ready for the bricks. Some of these workers, particularly Nick, David and Charles have been very much a part of village life whilst we have been here and are becoming good friends. Maybe soon we will tell you more about each of them in a post.

Actually the slab is likely to wait a while before any bricks are laid on it as there should be a container arrive within days containing the roofing for house 5, so those trusses will be made up on the slab where there is a nice, flat surface. Again getting the container released is proving slightly elusive, although there are few of the dramas associated with last years effort. Just waiting on a letter of exemption from the Finance Ministry, but with elections due in 3 weeks, getting someone to write and sign the letter is a tad difficult in the midst of all the campaigning.

The children are readying themselves for the return to school next week. All of the uniforms have been brought out and tested for fitting and any required repairs done by our resident seamstress ("the wife" - thats how she has been referred to on several occasions by others when introducing us or talking about us.) They have also muscled in on several of our Skype calls with friends and family at home - so if you would like to meet them, give us a call on Skype, we're usually available at lunchtime here or about 9.00pm EDT.

The next group of children are almost ready to move in. We have a couple of minor things still to do on houses 3&4 and then in a couple of weeks the village population will double. Everyone here is looking forward to that day very much. The current children in particular are often talking about how they will be able to help the newbies.

Work Continues

2011-01-18T16:12:00.008+11:00

Since the departure of the wonderful team last week, work has continued on. The bricks above the ring beam on the house have been completed so it is now ready for roofing. A great job to have this done so quickly.

In the meantime, the foundations for the next house are well on the way. I discovered why this work is always done by the locals, not the teams - its seriously hard work! The rocks that go into the bottom of the foundations are not called "Hard Core" for no reason.

The children have coped well with the departure of the team. There was a little sadness for a while, but there is enough in their lives for them to move on quickly. They have a lot of fun playing with each other and are very creative in their games. Most afternoons a young man, Emmanuel, comes in and teaches them some singing and dancing. One of the exercises he was using was "Doe Ray Me.." This was being heard all around the village, then for their Friday movie treat, they had the chance to watch "The Sound of Music" which caused much excitement. Now they are adding "So long, farewell . . . " to their repertoire.

Rex and Robert celebrating the commissioning of the new bus as the last team members were about to leave.

The children saying farewell to the team

Paul in the doorway of the newly built house

Nick and David do the "hard core" work of building the foundations of the next house

Charles sets the levels for the slab

27 children pack into the TV room for The Sound of Music

2011-01-07T01:05:00.002+11:00

Two weeks back,we had a very great team visit us with an aim of building a house! They have been able to do this and meet their goal in just two week, its been a unique wonderfull team full of team spirit hence they've been able to accomplish all this great work within a short time. A special thanks to all the team members who have dedicated their time, money to see this building set up!!
at the moment the team members are doing final touches on small things that need to be fixed around the village!

Yesterday we just blessed the village near by us with a mosquito net per house hold, we also said a prayer for each house hold,the people in this village really saw the love of Christ flow to them,by doing this, malaria is somehow curbed in this slum area. Hopefully next time every one will get a mozzie net so that the rate of malaria infection is prevented ofcourse as we teach them other preventaive measures to reduce malaria. Malaria is becoming a number one killer in uganda. This should not worry you since your time here you are to take anti malarial drugs.

With dedication,all things can happen and with team spirit,things go very fast! If youve been contemplating coming over here,please do,because ive seen wonderfull team who may be older than you laying the bricks and building a wonderfull house,where the kids will be staying.

Christmas Day at the Village - a little late - sorry!!

2011-01-04T06:22:00.000+11:00

What a priviledge to spend a Christmas Day at the Village of Hope in Uganda. After being there almost two years ago as a family, when we were with the first team that started the building of the homes, to now return and see children living, laughing and enjoying life in the homes, was amazing!

Christmas Day dawned and seemed to be shaping up to be a hot one. After breakfast at the Village together with Luke we set off for church (a short walk) together with the children. The church service was quite an experience – we had a great time of prayer and then some special items including one with a group of young children singing, this group included many of our VoH children. It then started raining with thunder and lightening – this meant that we couldn’t hear the speaker, even though he was yelling – as well as his interpreter. Then the roof started leaking and the preacher continued oblivious to all that were moving and trying to avoid getting wet. Yes this was Africa and a Christmas service not to be forgotten.

The service was followed by an amazing feast prepared by our mothers with the help of some of the older girls. The whole tribe gathered in the Admin building otherwise known as “Uncle Luke’s home” and there we had rice, matoke, cabbage, irish potatoes, beef, chicken and chapattis, and after eating we had a treat of sodas – yes fanta, coke, mountain dew and other flavours. After lunch we were feeling like a siesta, however the kids had other ideas – it was time to dance! So we were then treated to some amazing performances – these kids certainly know how to move and music and rhythm is definitely “in the blood!”

As far as the children were concerned this had been a ‘perfect’ Christmas Day especially as they had sodas, they weren’t expecting anything more, they just wanted to keep dancing and singing. So when we brought out the ‘shoe boxes’ which had been beautifully filled for each of the children, the mothers, Ivan, Robert and Michael our farmer, it was incredible to see their faces. The simplest things in these boxes were bringing so much enjoyment and happiness – WOW! Thank you to the members of WCCC and Bakers Delight in Wellington Village for filling these boxes and bringing so much joy to these awesome children.

We ar now looking forward to the arrival of the Vandenbergs (Luke’s family) tomorrow and then the Vanderzaags and the team on the day after.

The Popps are now in India - more amazing kids!!

Powering on

2011-01-03T20:53:00.005+11:00

Under Damian's leadership, the team is powering on and the walls are rising at great speed. After less than a week they are 2/3 of the way up to door and window height. I think the way some of them are going, they hope to Join Damian on his next big bike ride.

We have been helped by some new friends of ours. Emmanuel, Charles, Nick and David are all good workers who keep us going and provide lots of good conversation. They are also helping us with learning some basic phrases in Lugandan

Yesterday we enjoyed church with the children at Abundant Life and then went to town for a swim at a pool at a hotel. Lots of fun was had by all, and some of the children are learning how to swim on their own.

Team updates

2010-12-30T01:22:00.002+11:00

Theres nothing more rewarding than reaching out with love. thats why this team came all the way from Australia to give back! As you may realise this is done to hel break the cycle of poverty so that kids who were once in the shackles of poverty are saved and given a descent place they call home. we mant to ask you to pray for them as they do this great work!! pray also that the lord will touch you and speak to you to support the great work here!

2010-12-30T01:09:00.000+11:00

The Dec/Jan 2011 Team

2010-12-29T23:48:00.003+11:00

Since their arrival on 27th dec,the team members look energized,fully ready to give their all in the building work here! this will yet another of those memorable teams weve had. All the team members are looking forward to being a blessing to the village. The lord has been so mercifull. damian is leading the team. the unique thing about this team is that damian travelled with his children who are having a wonderfull time building together with the team.

Richard working on the rock, this will bear the cross that is symbolic of the great work of hopebuilders,coming out of the cycle of poverty through the cross of christ.

the kids get interested in what the team is doing.

Joel with the spademan, jirrawat and ashley working very hard in the scorching African sun.

progress

2010-12-18T19:42:00.002+11:00

the first slab of the first house is completed already! we are now counting days to the arrival of the december team! we are looking forward to recieving the teams!

href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZuwDscB79SU/TQx3DnIJhqI/AAAAAAAABXk/DqRsbnqDpKs/s1600/P1050749.JPG">

village updates

2010-12-14T00:43:00.003+11:00

the foundation of the next two houses is moving very fast.

village updates

2010-12-13T22:48:00.005+11:00

We are counting down days to the arrival of the December/January team. Alot of preparations are being made for their arrival. The foundations for the next houses are being laid and will be ready for the teams to start building! K eep them in your prayers.

The children are excitedly anticipating to meet their new friends,since some team members will be coming with their families,it will be wonderfull exp for our kids to interact with kids from another country. we pray that one day you will make it here with your family too!!

Sandra a teacher from Australia volunteers her time at the village to help kids during this holiday, shes here for a few weeks. already her work with the kids has been fruitful.

2010-12-06T11:19:00.005+11:00

Not long now and the 2nd December group will arrive ready to contribute yet more to the life and progress of Village of Hope. They are looking forward to meeting all the children, Mama Loyce and Agnes, Michael and his family and not to forget our 2 mighty men, Robert and Ivan!!
They will celebrate Christmas here then fly off the next morning off to Uganda.
Please pray for their safety, their health and that they will settle into the village quickly.
Check out the picture of the team!!

2010-11-25T16:14:00.004+11:00

The Village of hope is in preparation for the december/january 2010/2011 teams who will be here to bless the village once again. The two teams come with one sole aim of being a blessing to the village. While here the team help build two more houses so that the children can have a safe enviroment where they can stay away from the biting poverty and risky enviroment.
All is well at the village,Luke is still with us,though at the moment he is in Rwanda filming the work Hopebuilders is doing there; he will be back on 2nd dec till march 2011 or even stay longer! next year we shall also have Ron and Anne(who have been here before) they will stay for a whole year working with the village. They will be serving God here,being a blessing to the children and the village. KEEP THEM IN YOUR PRAYERS.
The children will soon break off for their holidays,this school term sees them go to another class. our children are now comfortable in school,its been a whole year since they joined school. It was hard at first for them but they perceivered and held on, worked hard. We are so optimistic that they will all go to another class. Different people have played a great part in their education,this includes ofcourse you guys who help support them,the teachers and volunteers like Eli and sarah and jeremy, and luke. we cant forget the mothers who teach them good morals and who provide a good nurturing enviroment for them.Thank you for all you are doing partners.
Our children.

THE KIDS(shami(in the striped dress) was trying to say cheers,she is simply interesting)

THAT IS OZZY AND QUEEN. They get along well.always sisters!

FAREWELL TO JEREMY AND SARAH

2010-11-14T20:37:00.006+11:00

The village will greatly miss jeremy and sarah who've been part of the village for almost 5 months.! They had indeed become part of the Village of Hope. Their time here was a great blessing to us and the community. With their stay here, some kids had learnt to construct sentences in English! the community too has been blessed in many amazing ways! with a farm up and running we are optimistic that it will grow!
the most important important aspect with this couple is that they valued people,sometimes going out of their way to fix stuff:) thats the spirit we want to remain in the Village of Hope, so that the first impression pple see is hope when they walk into the village!
As you may well know its expensive coming over here for a longer period,it takes God and a strong will to step out despite the stories(like the threat of malaria etc) you might hear about life in africa! The jeremies percivered with great faith despite a few challenges they faced.
The 13th Nov(the day we bid farewell to them), begun with taking the kids out for a swim and later in the day we had a great feast with the jeremies.
it was difficult for the kids, the mothers and the community to say bye to the jeremies! the mothers,kids,the pastors,robert shared their experiences about their experiences with the jeremies. We only wish them a great,safe journey back.

At the moment we have a new pregnant or encalfed cow,that makes two plus ozzie. The milk production is expected to go up. the new cow has gotten used to her new home.
with the jeremies success story,you can also venture out in the unknown and belive the lord for provison, just obey his still small voice and come and be a blessing to the village! your coming could make poverty history!!:)

jeremy and sarah share their last words of farewell to the village!

kids bid farewell to the jeremies with a song!

the village prepared an african meal which the community shared with the jeremies

the community lift up jeremy and sarah in prayer,so that the lord continues to use them wherever he sends them!

robert our director here speaks final words of farewell to the communtiy

kids at jeremies farewell

pastor and wife shared too!(this is where our children go for prayers every sunday.

all kids had a great time swimming!

The village.

2010-10-26T20:38:00.004+11:00

Life in the village goes on normally! with the children safely in school,we have to be thankfull to God,weve seen the lord take us from those down moments to a once vibrant life,the jeremies are back and very fine now,the farm at the village has been going through abit of restructuring,we want to have a great farm that will see the village become self sufficient!
thanks too your prayers,jeremy and sarah's church are adding to us another cow! that will give us milk,thats what we call sustainable development, because we believe God will bless the works of our hands and build more children homes.
Today,i and luke went over to the primary school where our kids go, he is documenting the work hopebuilders is doing here,( hes doing an amazing work). i got some pics of our kids with their friends playing. its great seing these kids in school, and seing thier lives improve day by day! thanks to your support!

jane,winnie and a friend pausing for the camera.

some of our kids during break time!!

our kids having a great time out of class!

prayer request for jeremy and sarah

2010-10-18T16:26:00.002+11:00

greetings once again! we got some sad news from jeremy and sarah, while on their way back from sipi falls(eastern uganda)where they had gone to tour, their car got involved in an accident.the vehicle they were in knocked a cyclist.. both jeremy and sarah are well but they are abit traumatised...keep them in your prayers. prayer for their driver richard,the local community nearly had him thrown into jail plus beating him up. jeremy and sarah are safe in a hotel,pray for their journey mercies back to jinja.

The village!

2010-10-06T21:06:00.004+11:00

The village becomes a great place to live daily!! with the houses completed we are now working on the process of having the kids in!
As i informed you earlier on, the dairy cow was recently secured,she's called Ozzy!she has been a blessing already to the village,supplying milk to the village and we hope soon she will be providing an income to the village when more milk is produced, big thanks to jeremy's church, they saw the need and acted immediately,thats how Africa's problems can be solved!
Ozzy has a capacity of producing more milk! we are doing all it takes to make sure it gives us alot of milk!!
The chickens arent dissapointing too! we are optimistic that they will give the village enough eggs to make an income,an egg from a local chicken is far exp than an exotic egg!!
With all this said, we pray that the village will become more self sustainable. just as jeremy's church moved one step at a time with one cow, it takes one step, to raise money for a piece of land that will see the village grow food so that we wont need to buy food!
It also takes one step to see one more house sponsored! to see more children helped.
otherwise is well down here!

Katula the farm manager,milking ozzy!

our guard dogs! they are getting oriented to the new farm!

the revived veggie garden. a drip irrigation would really be handy to provide enough water to irrigate the garden.

ozzy in her new home.

jeremy and sarah!

Winnie,fiona and jane. Thanks for making their dreams come true!!

UPDATES FROM THE VILLAGE

2010-09-23T23:42:00.009+10:00

I bring seasoned greetings fromt the village! lots of stuff has been happening at the village, thank you for your generous gifts to see the children in school and having a place they call home!

We thank God for the great friends village of hope gets, ever since jeremy and sarah and luke decided to stay with the children, there has been a great improvement in the lives of the kids,they've been great role models to the children.
With luke filming the great work hopebuilders is doing in Uganda and Rwanda, Jeremy and his wonderful wife sarah have embarked on setting up a farm enterprise to benefit the village, through the generous gifts of their church,Jeremy are working day and night to see this farm that will see diary supply the village and even sell some to the community,hence sustaining the project!
The goats and the chicken will have a permanent shelter atlast! we are soo excited about this venture and will do all it takes to see this come to pass!
this village has trully become a great haven for the children!
Plans of settling in the next set of the lovely children is underway! Pray that this whole process shall go smoothly as planned! As you realise the need here is too great! at times we feel getting countless children in the fangs of poverty and risky enviroments,commit hopebuilders into God;s hands! so we can see more villages come up and bless more and more lives!

The selection of mothers is also taking place, pray that the lord will lead us to the right mothers who were predestined for this wonderfull place!
Just like jeremy and sarah and luke,God could be speaking to you to come and be a blessing to his lovely children in Africa, it takes an obedient heart! your gifts can also be a big blessing to see the next set of vulnerable kids get a decent and safe enviroment away from the risky enviroment that greatly affects these precious children. you can even be part of the teams that come to build here!
God richly bless you.

jeremy,luke mix the concrete for the cow pen!

"forever friends" thats jessica and Ibra...in their great moments!

The farm from a distance!

jeremy and his powerful boys getting dirty! these boys love helping!

Luke gets time off from his camera to help with the kids! A great thanks to jeremy,Sarah and Luke for the great influence theyve hard on these kids,they now mutter some words in English!!! they are picking the queen's language very fast!!!

recently i got a parcel from Eli from Austria,this wonderfull young lady had spent most her time ministering to these children,helping them with their home work! since then she became part of the village,recently she sent over pencils,stickers and coloured pens,you cant imagine how the kids were happy!! some gifts make a day in the life of a child and she wont forget such love! it means alot to these precious lives

kids excited about their gifts!!

at the village we encourage our kids to play and have fun,this hels them forget the past and make them work together! thanks to the generous hearts that donated the swing,basket ball court,balls! we greatly appreciate!

sarah guides the children in their homework!

the cow,goat and chicken shed! it will be complete very soon!

2010-09-05T01:09:00.002+10:00

With every passing day,the village of hope gets a new positive change added to it! the roofing of the two newly built houses is being finalised! while the cementing of the houses has begun!!thank you for loving and supporting the Village of Hope.

News frm the village!

2010-08-31T20:27:00.003+10:00

The house in the process of roofing. by the end of this week,the roofs will be on boh houses.

jeremy in the office.

sarah busy teaching kids with memory cards

Roofing

2010-08-28T20:16:00.003+10:00

Roofing will begin next week,after the wood preservative is put on the timber!!
Watch this space for more updates from the village of hope!! We love you!

From the village of hope!

2010-08-28T00:22:00.005+10:00

Glad tidings from the the village!!
Ive had sometime with the Jeremies and Luke(luke(fondly called "jesus" because of his close resemblance with jesus is here to make a documentary showing what HopeBuilders is doing in Uganda and Rwanda! He is here till january)
Here they share with us some important aspects of their experience here, what they look forward to during their stay! We encourage you to pray for them and encourage them!!!
they have been a blessing to the village already!

How has this trip impacted you?

Luke - I've realised that one person really can make a big difference. I've also grown in my appreciation for what I've been born into, the opportunities I've been given and I won't take things for granted when I get back home.

Jeremy - It has given me a good insight into what the majority of people in Uganda possess and also what they view as important or essential in their lives. So far we have visited many peoples' homes, in one instance a man we visited owned only a Bible, a mattress and a few clothes. I've also been impacted on a spiritual level - Uganda is such a spiritual country and it seems a lot more noticable because there are many things that are stripped back, the lives of people are not clouded by the distractions we have in the Western world.

Sarah - It's challenged my faith. Challenged what I think is important. There is so much to be learnt from these beautiful people - their faith and trust in God is genuine. Their dependance upon Him as their Provider is genuine. Their humility and servant hearts continually blow me away and put many of my selfish efforts to shame.

What do you hope to accomplish during your stay?

Luke - To grow as a person and to do what I was called here to do - to get everything I need on film to make the documentary.

Jeremy - To see the 3rd and 4th houses finished and children living in them. To have the farm up and running and a full-time farmer employed. To develop a close and long lasting relationship with the mothers and children. To develop policies which will ensure structure and smooth running for the Village. To see a real improvement with the kids at school as a result of the extra tutoring we've been doing.

Sarah - The same as Jeremy and also to be a part of seeing the children grow - spiritually, behaviourally, in their studies and speaking english.

What vision do you have for the Village of Hope?

Luke, Jeremy & Sarah - To see the Village of Hope continuing to play a part in breaking the cycle of poverty for children, mothers, fathers and the wider community. To see the Village become self sustainable through micro-enterprises, with all the houses built and full of happy healthy children. We also hope that it won't stop with this village but will spread to other places and even other countries.

Any messages for people at home - words of encouragement

For people who have felt a call to come here to Africa, take a leap of faith, and come. It's easy to make excuses and think of reasons why you shouldn't come but you only live once on this earth and if God has called you He will provide for you.

Prayer requests
-Please pray for protection over the Village of Hope
-Please pray for the children as they begin another term of school on Monday
-Please pray for our continued safety and good .

2010-08-19T03:15:00.003+10:00

Roofing the houses is on, we would like to thank all men and women who are making this happen!! soon this whole place will flourish with special children whose future will change forever!

a view of the house during the roofing process.robert's men are working hard to make this happen!

brick making has been quietly going on behind the scene, its these bricks made by these special ladies that we use to build the houses, in so doing these widows are able to supplement on their small income, they survive on one dollar per day,so this helps them make an extra income! we welcome many ideas you may have that can see these widows break out of the cycle of poverty.

mama jane from the community busy

some of the bricks awaiting the december team!!

2010-08-14T15:05:00.003+10:00

Leaving the comfort of their nice home and church, back in Queensland, jeremy and sarah are here till november to help nurture the kids spiritually and academically,i will also work with them to make the village a great place!!Its been a great experiance for them getting oriented with the way of life here and getting accustomed to the new african exp, they have meals,devotions with the children and play games with the kids. they begun teaching kids and helping them in subjects they find problems in,,there surely will be a big improvement in their perfomance next term
keep them in your prayers so that the lord will use them far more than they can imagine.

farewell to team 7

2010-08-06T21:33:00.003+10:00

with great gratitude,we would like to thank team six and seven for the great service they rendered while here. its such a great honour to be part of what the lord is doing here. you can see the smiles on the faces of the children and the fact that they will never go back into the cycle of poverty..never again.
the mothers asked me to say a big thank you to all team members who came ove. the children greatly miss you!!
jeremy and sarah and luke who plan to remain behind for a few months,look forwad to having a great time interacting with the children and the mothers.
thanks for your prayers and support.
we look forward to recieving many men and women who will come and be a blessing to us here..there are teams coming over in december and january,you could be part of them,pray about it.

children posing with team members a night before they left.

Rob and lynette!

Farewell from team 7.

2010-08-03T17:56:00.006+10:00

This will probably be the final post from Team 7. We are completing our time here at the Village of Hope.
Some of the team left this morning and the rest of the team will be leaving for safari on Thursday.

We have been continuing to work hard to complete the admin building in preparation for Jeremy and Sarah to move in. We have broom rendered the walls, put in solar and electric lights, the bathroom is almost complete and things are progressing well.

We took the kids to Kingfisher resort for a swim on Sunday afternoon. It was a good chance to bless the kids and to continue building relationship with them.

We are all very pleased with amount of work we have achieved. It has been great to be part of the work in the Village of Hope.

And to finish off, a few photos of THIS IS AFRICA.

The sign at Kingfisher resort

Who let the sheep into Rob and Lynettes room

Would you buy here???

2010-07-29T16:35:00.006+10:00

Hi again from Team 7.

Today some of the team have gone rafting on the Nile, some have gone shopping in Jinja and other are enjoying a relaxing day here at YWAM.

We have been continuing to work hard laying bricks on house 4 as well as setting up solar lighting in the guard house, kitchen and admin building. We will be working on the admin building on Friday in to get it ready for Jeremy and Sarah to move into soon.

It hasn't all been hard work though, on Sunday night we went out for dinner to Gately on the Nile and enjoyed some time in the lovely gardens there. We also took Farook (one of our labourers) our for dinner on Tuesday night in celebration of his 21st birthday.

The team at Gately.

We had a little rain (massive tropical storm) on Monday morning, so the first job was to get the water out of the house. Its always fun building here when its wet as you end up with and inch of mud stuck to your boots.

Jackie and Sam working on the walls

Rob making it all work

Danny at the mixer - good job

Photos from the village.

(Shamina is too cute)

JOB DONE

The walls in house 4 are now complete to top of door hight - well done team.
We can now focus all our attention on the admin building. We are also looking forward to taking the kids swimming on Sunday.

More from team 7

2010-07-25T23:13:00.011+10:00

Greeting from team 7.
We have been having fun here in Uganda, working hard but also taking time out to play with the children and see the sites.

The building work has been going at a cracking pace and we hope to complete our work on house 4 in the next few days. We can then turn our focus to completing the admin centre.
We had the opportunity to visit Joy Primary School for their devotions time and present a bible story to the kids there. Half the team did the story of Jericho with the older kids and the story of Noah's Ark was shared with the younger children.
As a team we decided to take a half day off and head to Bujagali Falls where we had a relaxing afternoon.

We have been really enjoying hanging out and getting to know the kids at the village of hope.

And work on the site continues.

Please pray for good health for all the team and that God will continue to bless the work we are doing here in Uganda.

2010-07-20T20:49:00.003+10:00

prayer points for you down here.

pray that the team will stay in great health while here

pray that as the team will be working,that the work they are doing will impact many people in many ways!

pray that the team spirit shall increase every day!

pray for the children yet to be brought into the houses. pray that they will be safe wherever they are till we shall get them from the cycle of poverty.

pray for the nation of uganda that the peace we are experiencing shall continue.

pray for the mothers and the children in general, that the lord will continually make them a blessing to village of hope!

pray for jeremy and his lovely wife,plus luke,who are willing to stay till November that the lord will inspire them to do bigger things in the lives of the children!!

finally we shall keep you updated on every thing happening here! thanks again for your support!!

More action pics

2010-07-20T20:32:00.003+10:00

ibra seems to say something,with this smile!

That's Jackie making sure everything is accurate!!

team learder Rob planning!!

lynnette painting!

Team 7 starts building!!

2010-07-20T20:17:00.006+10:00

On Monday,we begun the work at the village on house four, we all worked hard all morning and got the fire bricks laid-fantastic job!!
in the afternoon,we went to jinja for a bit of shopping and looking around. today we work on the site again-beginning the brick laying. we are well and the team is getting on great.!!!!

Team 7 arrives in uganda!!

2010-07-20T17:24:00.004+10:00

Thank God that team 7 arrived safely on saturday night after our long journey!

sunday we went to abudant life church where our village children go and had a fantastic service.

its great to see the children and mothers and to worship with them. the children are all well and the mothers have welcomed us!

2010-07-17T17:07:00.003+10:00

Well, after a well earned short break at Murchison Falls, Team 6 has ended it's time in Uganda (as team 6 that is as 2 members are now in team 7!). Andrew is back in Australia and the other 6 members are having a few days in Thailand, (why not since you're going through there anyway!)
Some of you may have heard about the terrorist bombings in Kampala last weekend. As it happened we had to drive past both sites on the weekend, which was pretty humbling. We were reminded as a team not to take our safety for granted and stopped to thank God for His protection for all of our time there!
Leaving the kids was hard, as we have all grown attached to them. But we were also excited to tell them about team 7 arriving soon. We prayed for team 7 and for their journey and welcome. They will surely be inundated with attention as we were.
Our last team meeting during our safari days was great! There was so much to be thankful for, so many surprises, so many stories to tell and so much had happened in our hearts. We realized that whilst we came to 'give' something to Uganda and it's people, we were actually leaving with more, much more than we received! We've laughed with the kids and the mothers, cried with them, laughed with each other, worshiped together, prayed with and for each other, celebrated a baptism, had some awesome 'God' moments both as a team and as individuals (one of our team members said to me .." As you spoke I felt an incredible sense of God that I've never before) and saw God answer our prayers! (Peter next door is still running around laughing and smiling!) Oh and we built a house! Well almost!
We look forward to hearing how team 7 fares and to sharing their stories.

Blessings... Team 6 ....not "in Uganda" anymore..... but all planning to be back!!

2010-07-10T15:44:00.000+10:00

Today is our last day on site working on the site. It seems to have gone so fast. Yesterday we got to the top of window height on the 3rd house which was our goal, and the slab for the 4th house was completed! We're actually pretty impressed with ourselves considering we don't have a builder amongst us! The task of getting something like this done together is such a great team building activity, and seeing God work amongst us and through us is precious. Apart from building, we've been busy with a few other things too. We went down to the Nile river at sunset to baptize Teagan. That was amazing! Teagan has felt for a while that God was calling her to make a firm decision to live for Him, and that he was asking her to be baptized. It was a great team event. We worshipped on the banks for half an hour, then got into the water to baptize Teagan, finishing off with prayers, scriptures and words for her. We also went to a local hospital to pray for and encourage the sick and wounded. Pretty confronting! We went to the local primary school that our children go to, to do the morning devotions. Boy can those kids worship and pray! Last night we went to the high school to meet with the young people there and to have supper with them. We finished off the evening with them in their prayer and worship time. These young people feel so priviliged to go to school. They get up at 4.30 am to have a cup of tea and have personal devotions, they study from 5.30 till 7.30 when class starts. School goes ti,, 4.30pm, then they have supper at 6.30, prayers at 7.00 till 7.30 then study till 10pm. And they love it!!! Humbling.

But, it wasn't all work. We went white water rafting on the Nile for a day on Thursday too. that was huge fun, and we all made it back whole!

Tomorrow we're off to a local church to preach and worship with them, then it's pack our bags for the trip to Murchison Falls early Monday morning. Supper and devotions with our children tomorrow evening will be our final time with them..... It'll be sad for us all. We have had such a great connection with the children and the mothers......

Well, for now that's the Team 6 update.... Check out just a few photos to get a small impression.

Blessings from Team 6 in Uganda!

moments with the june team

2010-07-07T21:22:00.000+10:00

Andrew pays a visit to the primary school where our kids go.

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the wall up! 2-3 levels left. this will be completed very soon!

mellisa busy in the african scorching sun!!!

jasmin building the village of hope!

Ayden at the mixer!

some moments with the june team

2010-07-07T21:01:00.000+10:00

its evident that the June team has exhibited lots of energy and great enthusiasm while on mission! with every brick added daily on the new house,something new changes about the village! a sign that the village is growing day by day! they've endured the African sun to make this happen,the house looks fabulous! with 2 levels left every thing should be fine by Saturday! the team is working tirelessly to make this happen! the sacrifice these guys have given can only be rewarded in heaven! with a good balance of spiritual and the physical activity,there has been a good balance,many lives in the community will not remain the same!!

here the team was praying over the village,during the devotions every morning,we believe prayer is central in everything we do here!! keep those prayers going up and changing things here!!

2010-07-06T03:34:00.000+10:00

The progress so far!!!

The view from the hill....

Another update from team 6 in Uganda...
Yesterday started very early for some of the team as they decided to climb the hill behind the base to watch the sun come up. Departure was at 5am to walk the hill. Unfortunately the morning was cloudy so no sunrise could be seen, but the view was amazing and the trip was still worth it. That was until they were sitting in church later that morning realizing what such an early start does to you when the church service goes for 3 hours! To add insult to injury, there were 2 sermons! One that Pastor Andrew from Australia was asked to give. Then to our surprise the Pastor decided that he would still do his too!!! TIA!! ( This is Africa). After a quick lunch, we loaded all the kids form the village into our bus and headed to a Motel/Resort to take them all for a swim. It was huge fun. The kids here don't go swimming at all so the times they do it is hugely funny and for them a great memory. We took some crates of soft drink along and a big birthday cake that we had made for Jasmin's birthday, that and a play in the playground just capped off all the fun. A rather tired and quiet bus was a surprise coming home. As a team we spent a quiet few hours having dinner at a small restaurant by the Nile.
Today the building began again in earnest. We are determined to get the 3rd house bricked up to the top of the windows, both outside and inside walls. So we decided to skip lunch break today and work through.(Keeps the momentum up). We got heaps done and should reach our goal by tomorrow all being well. This will give us time to do some of the other jobs that are waiting and of course time to take a day out to do white water rafting! Ahh, what motivates!!
As you can see on one of the photos, the slab for the 4th house is well on the way too.
Late this afternoon Jasmin, Melissa, Ivan and Andrew went to pray for a girl in the village behind us named Christine. She is 12 or 13 and the right side of her face, has begun to sag and lose feeling/control. She can close her eyes, but only one closes and she can't keep food in. She has been to a doctor (of sorts) who said she has high blood pressure and gave her some tablets (only as many as she had money... 2 days worth). We prayed for her, but all of us felt that we should help her to see a 'real' doctor and get some treatment as it could be the beginning of a tumor or a larger issue.
We will try to take her tomorrow. Mel is a nurse and will go along to ask lots of questions.
Other than that, all is well!! We appreciate your prayers and thoughts. Please pray with us and for us!!!!
The photos should explain them selves... Enjoy!
Blessings.............Team 6 in Uganda!

2010-07-03T23:18:00.000+10:00

It's Saturday afternoon and we've got the 3rd house up to window height. We decided to take a few hours off to go to the Source of the Nile and have a look. The rest of the team is out on a boat trip while I update the blog. We have a great praise point. Peter (the boy I asked you to pray for) was on site yesterday afternoon playing with the other children!! How cool is that? God is good! It has been so long since he's been able to get up. Please keep praying for him. We're hoping for complete healing. Tomorrow, I (Andrew) and a few others will go into the village after church to pray for a young girl who is having her face contorted from right to left and the other way (randomly) each day. Not sure what's going on, but we're going to see what God says!

As I said before, we're up to window height and that's a great achievement! We're hopong to get the house up to the top of the windows. The slab for the 4th house is also well on the way under the capable supervision of Chris and Aydan. We're also planning to get a few things done on the Admin centre next week too! The team is doing well, apart from a few small sicknesses and tiredness. Please keep praying for us! I (Andrew) had a (somewhat) successful trip to Kampala (the capital) and I had a good, safe driver!

We appreciate your prayer and will keep you updated.

I've attached a few photos of the progress and a few team shots.....

Blessings

Team 6... In Uganda.

2010-07-01T22:45:00.000+10:00

It's Thursday afternoon, and we worked a long morning so that we could come into town to celebrate Jasmin's birthday! We had a little rain this morning, but now the sun is out and it's hot and sunny again....sigh!!

So far the building is going well. We seem to be getting into the swing of brick laying and everyone is either laying bricks or cleaning up the mortar joints behind the laying team. You'd be impressed to know that one of the brick laying teams is all girls... and they're good! Missed calling?? Yesterday Jasmin, Melissa and Andrew went into the surrounding village to pray for a few sick people. We must have prayed at 6 different homes. Some people weren't necessarily sick (physically) but needed some encouragement. One family we prayed at was a family of Mum, Dad and 8 children. Both Mum and Dad have HIV and are beginning to suffer failures physically so we prayed for them and especially that the children (who are all HIV free!) would be well looked after, but we also prayed for healing. One elderly (80) lady we prayed for was so ill and suffering so much neither of us had the heart to pray for healing. She had a broken hip, a broken leg, was blind and her stomach wasn't working. I think we all prayed silently that God would take her home! She lives in a room not much larger than a toilet in Australia and she could not take care of herself. Lastly we prayed for a young boy (Peter) next door to our village, he is 9 years old. In fact he worked with our teams last January and wears a Bowens T'shirt with pride! He is very sick. He has sickle cell anemia and he is urinating blood. He has medication from the doctors but cannot afford to stay in a hospital. He has no energy and lies under a blanket outside, his outlook is not good. he needs a bone marrow transplant and heer you may as well hope to go to the moon! This broke our heart, and we prayed heaps for healing! Can you pray for Peter! He needs a miracle and you could be a part of it happening!

Apart from all these impressions, the team is doing well. It's exciting to be in Africa, making a difference and sharing Jesus with them. We are giving out, but also receiving so much!

Please continue to pray for our health, and our safety, we don't take these things for granted. Pray also for Andrew as he goes to Kampala (the capital) tomorrow so take care of a few things. Travel is not always smooth or safe here!

Blessings

Team 6 in Uganda!!

2010-06-30T21:25:00.000+10:00

After rain yesterday and no water (ironic hey) slowing us down, we got right into it today and layed bricks flat out this morning. It's hot here at the moment and the team is having a well earned lunch break and a few cold 'sodas'! This afternoon as few of the tem will go and pray for a few sick people that are in quite a bad way. We're hoping we can bring healing and encouragement to them. Apart froma few headaches and tummy upsets, the team is doing well. We are enjoying Africa and especially the attention from and fun with the children. Check out the photos form this morning!!

2010-06-28T23:22:00.000+10:00

The photos in order.......................

Team breakfast time... Rolex's... can't get a better breakfast at the Hilton!!!

House 3 has it's beginnings!!! exciting!

Matt & Teagan sifting dirt for the 'majenga' mix... It's a dirty job, but someone has to do it!!

Chris and Aydan setting out the slab for the 4th house...... Now for someone to dig it all???

2010-06-27T21:55:00.000+10:00

I'm sitting here at "Flavours", a cafe in Jinja town where you can get a decent coffee and internet that goes a little faster than snail mail... It just rained and now the sun is out.... steamy!We went to church this morning with the children from our village. The service went ofr 3 hurs so some of us had sore hands from all the clapping, some sore butts from the benches and yet some of us sore voices form all the singing and cheering!! It was so nice to see the children from Village of Hope sing and do items in church as well as see them pray and intercede with passion and power. Hmm... perhaps we have things to learn!!
We had our first team meeting last night to see how we are all tracking and what our impressions are of the country and the village. It was so encouraging to hear how full of faith each team member is, and the expectations we have for our time here. God has been so good already... We had a great prayer time for each other and were able to encourage one another.
We feel as though God wants to use us for healing while we are here. We have had a number of words to that effect, so our (spiritual) eyes are peeled!!
We appreciate the prayers of all at home. Please pass on the Blog address to those who'd like updates. I'm hoping to upload a few photos in the next day or so.

Blessings........Team 6

2010-06-27T21:44:00.000+10:00

Today began with a fresh load of bricks and a ready team! After yet another hearty breakfast of “rolexes” we got into the work. Chris & Aydan have done a great job of setting out the footings for the 4th house with a bit of help from locals and Adam & Matt together with some local guys have started laying bricks on the 3rd house! It's fantastic to see the house taking shape in just a few courses! The girls finished organizing the tool and equipment shed (how many of us guys would let girls do that to our sheds at home!!), and now we can see what we've got and how many of them! This afternoon the girls spent time fitting out the children with 'new' clothes out of the container. The excitement in the kids was full on! Robert is back and we were able to do many preparation type things both on the site and in town today too. Tonight we had a team get together and we're all so full of excitement and faith for the coming weeks. Tomorrow we'll be off to church with the children then have a lazy afternoon in town.,
We appreciate all your prayers and support. Please keep praying that God will use us and grow us as we serve Him here!!

We made it!!!

2010-06-27T01:01:00.000+10:00

After about 30 odd hours of travel we arrived in Uganda!
We were settled into our accommodation at YWAM and spent a few hours catching our breath and setting up our rooms.
The first night was spent visiting the kids at Village of Hope and having dinner with them... our first African dinner!! the children had been waiting all day to see us and were so excited. We played with them till we ran out of steam (pretty quickly!) then went off to see if we could get some well deserved rest.
Bright and early Friday morning we got to the building site to survey the job ahead. Of course we could only do the work with our stomachs filled with "rolexes". These are delicious african chappatis with egg, tomato, cpsicum and onion rolled into a filling roll. Those and a cup of coffee or tea helps to get going. (if slowly at first due to the larger stomach!) The girls set about attacking the storage shed and documenting all the tools, equipment and supplies. A battle was had with the remains of dead rats and the result of thir lives in the shed! The boys got started with setting out the 4th slab and preparing the 3rd slab for bricks. This went on till lunch. After another hearty meal at YWAM we went into town to check out the sights and smells of Jinja. A few hours of discovery and checking it out was completed at the Source Cafe for a great coffee or fresh juice. Then back to YWAM. Robert arrived back this evening from Nairobi witht he bitumen, so we'll look forward toa full day of work tomorrow...
The team are doing well and are all in great spirits. We are comfortable and keeping healthy. We are having a great time with the children and are excited for what God has for us over the next few weeks....
Please keep us in your prayers for health, safety and protection.....
Till next time...

2010-06-21T18:34:00.001+10:00

It's less than 2 days now till we leave as a team for Jinja! The excitement level is high. We were prayed over and commissioned by our church yesterday, and it's so great to know that we have prayer covering! For those of you that follow the blog we'd like to ask you to continue to pray for us during our time, for the team coming after us and of course for the children, mothers and our wonderful staff (Robert and Ivan). Our prayer is that we will have a productive and fruitful time whilst we are there and the God would use us..... Next post.... from Uganda!!!

June Uganda team

2010-06-08T16:14:00.000+10:00

This is the team that is coming in just over 2 weeks!! We are all looking forward to seeing all the children and both of the mothers. We look forward to being able to contribute to the building work and the children's lives. Please pray for us in our last minute preparations and for our journey to being in Uganda. Pray for safe travel and a sickness free time in Uganda too.

the village

2010-06-08T05:50:00.000+10:00

recently we got additions to the village of hope! the number of animals is growing..these goat kids are cross breeds...the kids are always around them.

paul holding another kid,shes been so playing at the site,u have to watch her lest she eats all the spinach(thats her favorite) from the vegetable gardens:)
pray that we get a very big piece of land for a farm and growing more vegetables and food for the village, its possible!!!

these are lovely sisters Ida Svenson from mombasa kenya and Emily Klitzsch,they are visiting ywam and they have been with us for 2 weeks,they will be leaving on friday, they have been assisting kids in their home work!!! they have been a great blessing to village of hope. keep them in your prayers!!

Eli's farewell

2010-06-08T03:36:00.000+10:00

its been one week since miss Eli left for Austria..she had been with us since february!! during this time we saw a big change in the perfomance of our kids! she had been a great blessing to village of hope. The kids greatly miss her.
we greatly thank God for bringing us closer to YWAM(youth with a mission),it has been a great blessing to our children and we hope this healthy relationship will grow!!

Here are some pics of the last dinner we had with her!!!
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here Eli was sharing the gifts with the kids plus a special message for each child!

mama lois watches as fiona puts a necklace round eli's neck...

mama agnes adds another necklace onto eli

here she was sharing a meal with the kids.