Hi From Village of Hope and Udates

Jackson before

JACKSON NOW

poultry structure

fencing project

Ashiraf reunited to his parents

Hi to all our readers,
Its so surprising that we have come to the end of Term 2, Glory be TO OUR GOD for whatever he's done.
The village is so jovial because all most all the children are through with their  Exams apart from those
of Jinja Christian School who promise to break off this week. Hope Land pupils got their report cards on
Thursday and the performance is really promising. Joy, Jinja, Hope comm will have theirs this week.

About entertainment, the trainer is now on ground and the practices have resumed in all aspects of music dance and drama.
New Children;
The new children are doing well and growing up so steadily to the extent that the clothes we gave them no longer fit them because they have put  on weight  Jackson who came as a little baby a month and some weeks back is now a big boy  and he now runs around the whole Village.
VOH projects
Team 14 blessed us with donations to start a poultry project and fence up our land ...see the progress of these in the photos.

Lastly, a while ago V O H  received  a child named Ashiraf who claimed to have lost his parents, but after the Village of Hope administrators carried out a private investigation, we found out that he had parents and we Reunited him to his parents.
kind regards

Ivan
 
 

Village of Hope updates 2013

Greetings to all of you out there; we are so grateful to inform you that the village is doing well though have
not been updating for a while.
We thank God that most of our Team 14 members reached safely in  AUSTRA LIA  and we still have
Renay and Anne at the village...We really miss all of you guys and so you are i believe.
At the Village, we have had some restructuring with shifting here and there..Mama Loyce house 1 is now
in house 7 with her family and Mama Lovisa occupies house 7,  Mafabi Samuel 2 is now in 8,Paul 2 is now in 5,Juma 5 is now in 3,Derrick 8 is now in 2, Phiona 1 is now in 6,Jane 6 is now in 1,Steven 3 is now in 2.
We believe that this shifting is for the well being of the children and the village as a whole because we gave
the children a chance to choose where they feel at home in the village and fortunately  all most  each one
chose the mother we had suggested for...we  are so happy for that.
In house 2, a new mother (Mama Harriet)  has reported to replace Mama Agnes.
              God Bless you all.

Mama Prossy

Mama Lovisa

Mama Harriet

               Ivan

Team 14.. our final day before safari..

So today was our final day in Uganda!!!  :(
Some of us got up at 5am to trek up monkey mountain and check out the sunrise....  It was a while in coming, but eventually we saw the sun popping it's head up.  While waiting though, we enjoyed a magnificent view!!
A quick breakfast where some of us enjoyed our last rolex's, then it was up to the village for a prayer walk around the village and to chat about our reflections!!
Then it was off to town for our last quick shopping trip.  This was to get our last souvenirs, hit the banks for some last minute cash and have a relaxing lunch...
After getting back to Suubi house, we got together for a debrief session.  Considering some of us are staying on for a few days or doing different stuff, we wanted to spend some time together to listen to each other and hear reflections of our time..  It was so nice to see and hear how close we had grown together, and how much we were able to achieve in just a short time together.  Suffice to say that we will always share a special bond as Team 14!!
Later in the afternoon, we headed up to Village of Hope to see the kids put on a great program fo dance and song and ceremony.  We had speaches, thank you's, sodas,  food and as we said farewell lots of tears and hugging.  Letters were exchanged, facebook addresses were exchanged and promises of emails were made....
Back at Suubi, the big pack and clean began (and is still going as I write).
Tomorrow morning at 5am we'll hit the road and head on to Kenya to the Masaai Mara.  Hopefully we'll see the 'big 5' animals and have a relaxing time.
For me (the Author) it has been a privilege to lead this amazing team.  Motivated and hard working, passionate and compassionate are all words that describe this team!!

We have appreciated your prayers and ask you to keep praying for safety as we travel and as we head home soon

As usual, check out the photos below....  adios!

Team 14 update.. the end draws near!!

Sunday today...  that means a sleep in and a later start!!
Off to church for our 2.5 hour service..  Lot's of singing,  clapping and dancing.  It's always fun for us to see our children leading in worship and praising God the way they do!! And, we even had our very own JaJa John sing for us too!!!
After church and a quick lunch, we headed to the village to play with the children at Village of Hope, and hand out the Hygiene packs donated for each child by Hallmark Cards.  It was so much fun to see the children's excitement as they received a toilet bag full of things they can use.  They were so blessed with such a small gift...  truly humbling!!
Tonight we went to the Black Lantern to celebrate Corey's birthday just gone and Nikki's coming up.  A wonderful relax before dinner looking over the Nile river, than a great meal to end off the evening.
Tomorrow is the last day for most of us, so we'll be doing our last minute shopping tomorrow, doing a team debrief and spending time with the village kids to say farewell...  Then it's off to Kenya at 5am Tuesday morning.
It's gone so fast, and yet we have been able to do so much.
We're well aware of God's protection and care that we've been blessed with during our time.  We're continuing to pray for the rest of our time here in Africa and especially as we do a lot of travelling.
We appreciate all of you reading the blog and really appreciate your continued prayer...

Got a few pics for you today...

JaJa, rockin it up in church!

Team 14 news catch up....

Time to catch you up on the last 2 days....
Yesterday began with us visiting Home of Hope, which is a home for severely disabled children.  For most of us this was very confronting.  Edith, the manager has a disabled child herself, and felt that God called her to help other children as well.  They have 26 children living at the home full time, and they visit many more in their homes helping the parents to learn how to cope with their disabled children, and trying to develop micro enterprises and training to help them earn money.  Their goal is to encourage parents to actually 'keep' their children and not leave them at a home.  We began by giving them 4 large bags of gifts and clothes donated by Casey CRC, which was hugely celebrated.  Many of the children had their new clothes fitted right there and then!  Huge excitement!!  Then we were able to put the children into all sorts of wheelchairs and take them out for a walk.. That was enjoyed by both the kids and the team.  Again, it was a confronting and impacting time, but we were glad we'd been able to be a part of it.
The afternoon was spent at Jinja Christian school, doing sport with the children there and having a tour of the school.  After that we enjoyed an afternoon tea provided by Anne and Ron.
For supper we went to Robert and Rachael's home and enjoyed a great meal supplied by them and head from Robert of some of the needs and challenges for Village of Hope.  Again, a really nice night!!
Today was our last day of work at Village of Hope.  Some of us were helping to clean the building site, and some of us helped Ivan in planting seedling trees around the village.  Each tree was assigned to one of the children to help looking after it. 
This evening, we had our movie night at the village.  Hallmark cards donated a projector and screen, so we were all able to sit in the community hall and see Lion King 2.  So great seeing all the children watching the big screen!!!
We're in our final days here and doing lots of wrapping up things.....
Keep us in your prayer as we wrap up and prepare to travel to Kenya.

Lots of pics today.. check 'em out!!

A different day for team 14!!

Today was a rest day for the team.
Half the Team decided on living life on the edge with a rafting trip down the Nile, while the half opted for a much more relaxing day shopping and sitting by a resort pool.
For the relaxers the day started with a late get up and breakfast followed by an hour sorting out the health packs ready for handing out to the Village on Saturday. We then went into town for banking, window shopping, and cool drinks at the Source of the Nile cafe. At lunch time we were driven to the Black Lantern restaurant where we relaxed by the pool, ate lunch while monkeys danced in the trees above our heads, and drank freshly squeezed fruit juices to views of the Nile river below us.
As the day wound to a close no one wanted to leave the tranquility of the resort or the fresh relief of the pool, but home we went.
On reflection, we felt we deserved a bit of pampering today.....

Check out the photos of our day!!!

We did it!!!!

Today was another building day at the Village. We all went with a goal to get the bricks past the window line. Hard but not unachiveable with all worked together.
What a day, it started with the whole team lining up to get bricks into the house to complete the inside walls.  Once this was completed the Team broke into three, some went to finish painting the doors and windows, some worked to make the mud to cement the bricks, and others worked to lay the bricks. By lunch we were 2 courses down and 2 courses to go, right on target.
Tired bodies came back to Suubi House for lunch, the challenge was still in front of us to walk back to The Village of Hope to complete the work. But after another great Juliette lunch, a 2 hour rest, and more supple encouragement from staff-sargent Chris, we all trudged back to start the work.
I think one of the great experiences of the trip has been the way the team has jelled and worked so hard for each other and with the Ugandan builders who were working with us. Today was a great example of this. All dropped into their tasks like a well oiled machine and by tools down the outside walls of the house had reached to top of the windows goal achieved.   
A lot of very tired bodies walked slowly back to Suubi happy in the knowledge of task accomplished.
Whilst we were busy building Helen and JaJa John (aka John Haartsen) had the opportunity to share with the HIV mothers group run by Judith.  They were able to listen to their stories, pray with them and celebrate with them what God is doing.  They were able to see how the micro finance system operated by the women works, and that it has changed so many of their lives. It was a privilege for them to see it!!

Again..... Photos below..  Enjoy!!

White man can dance!!!