the village of hope

meeting with damian,johann and robert.
















at the dinner with damian and johann plus robert and his lovely wife and me.































smiling faces of brenda,sharon, and doreen!
















When johann and damian visited the village of hope recently , it was a great time seing the vision unfolding right before our eyes. The timing was good, since they got to see the kids in their real state, no shoes,tattered clothes etc
Looking at the smiling faces of the kids day after day was something uplifting. Everyday the children' lives have changed.
At last these kids would have a descent meal and a bed to sleep,
We had a medical examination done on each of the kids and recommendations where made which we hope to work on.

kids getting thier heads shaved




Thanks to the village of hope, we had a case where a girl(fiona) who came with the typhoid fever, was treated and she is now fine,her situation had worsened and we had wondered what would have happened if we hadnt picked her since they barely would not afford the treatment for the typhoid fever,besisdes she had been the fending for the family.she is now very fine playing with other kids!!!
We also had the kids heads shaved now they look great.
As hopebuilders we are really interested in the kids holistic development, everyday the mothers have devotions with the kids. By this the kids get to talk to their creator, giving him praise for the great things he is doing in their lives.
Having the kids in,brings with it a lot of responsibility,financially,emotionally and physically,for a lot of input has to be put in so that we ensure that the kids get a good place they call home. Therefore a combined effort is greatly welcome to make this a great place where lives are changed and dreams come true.

Sadly our last full day...

Well its Friday!!! and yes Sunday is coming and we will be home. Another Uganda experince almost ended, but what an amazing week it has been, we have practically done all the things on our list BUT its all the stuff not on our list that has been amazing - what an AWESOME GOD we worship and yet again it has been reconfirmed to me that we are the priviledged ones to be CHOSEN BY GOD to be used in this work. This is so not our plan or our achievement it is GOD's - I will never ever forget that nor will I ever take any credit for anything that has been done here. Hopebuilders is a work of God and it is HIS HOPE and we are HIS chosen BUILDERS. Thank you for all your encouragement and prayers, it is humbling to be here representing ALL OF YOU.

We had the priviledge of speaking on BAMBOO FM probably the second largest radio station in Jinja which reaches most of the eastern region and Kenya - we had a number of callers who wanted to encourage us and also one who wanted to partner with us.. Joel also managed to get in a "Go Manchester United".

One of our fantastic friends over here who has helped us a lot with government processes and stood with us in paryer, is Pastor Moses, well his mother passed away on Wednesday - so please pray for him and his family as the have the burial today (Friday).

Today we will also be taking all the kids out on an outing - we will be using the Hopebuilders bus and we will take them to a park where they can play and enjoy some sodas and who knows what else. It should be a lot fun. Please also pray for soem of the kids who are not quite well, some have malaria and one also has typhoid - all are undergoing treatment and we are already seeing some improvement. Most of these illnesses were with the kids when they came to us - so it is clear that they may have not gotten much treatment had they have not come into our homes - again God's timing for these kids has been awesome. Both of our mothers Agnes and Lois truly amazing with the children - they have been singing praise songs with them and praying - which is awesome given that some of the children have come from muslim homes - keep praying.

We have made some great friendships over here - we would like to greet all our friends at STEPPING STONES and also want to encourage the work of SOUP - friends from Adelaide.

It will be hard to say goodbye but the blessings is knowing that God has His hand over and under and around the homes and all that are in them. We look forward to seeing you all soon.

We keep moving..

Life at the Village of Hope continues to grow in many different ways. An expedition to the market brought more new clothes, shoes, scrubbing brushes, underwear, basins and a few other bits and pieces. It has been amazing to see how the children have settled in after a few days. The first day they were unsure about this "new life", they were unsure about the 'mzungus' but now only 4 days later, they are practically jumping on us before we get out of Robert's car. we have even seen little Ibra (the 3 year old boy) smiling and laughing - Praise God. Young Fiona has been somewhat unwell with Malaria, but yesterday she was playing cath with me for nearly half an hour and she was smiling... Today we continue meetings with building relationships with our bank manager and the probation officer. This has been a true plan of God - through registering the children with this probation office, he has actually formalised us and certified us as a CBO - Community Based Organisation in Jinja. This is an important step towards having our organisation endorsed as a NGO. In fact, this guy will recommend us to the NGO Board - this is truly an answer to prayer and not something we thought we could achieve while we were here. There are still a few steps towards NGO but with God in control - it may just be one qiant leap. Our relationship with Pastor George has also yielded fruit of sorts -yes we will be bringing home more necklaces - but we will also be on national radio this evening - we have 15 minutes on what is supposed to be the second largest FM radia station based in Jinja, with coverage in the entire easter region of Uganda and all the way west to Kampala and as far as the northern border. We look forward to coming home and sharing HIStory - I am so thankful and priviledged that God has chosen me and the rest of the HopeBuilders team to be HIS instruments in this particular symphony of life - WOW - can it get any better?

the smiling faces of the kids

joel with the kids!!!!
















kids racing!






























mother agnes with her lovely kids

the kids are getting used to the thier new home!!!

the new kids!!!

The long awaited kids finally moved in a few days ago!

In the timing of the lord, the 18 children are here. finally the village of hope will shine with this little ones. the future of these children will forever be bright, because the cycle of poverty has been broken. we look froward to instilling displine and hope into their brocken lives.

the kids are reallygratefull for what you guys have done for them. A big thank you to rob,johann,damian,andrew,rob van,pastor glenn...and all teams that made this happen. your faithfullness has born friuts. we look forward to your continued support in all areas since the lord has birthed this great vision.

the visit by johann and damian and joel who will be with us for a week , has greatly boosted the village of hope. i must say theyve greatly blessed us and the kids, a riminder that this great vision was born by God.

The Village of Hope - August 14th - with children.

PRAISE GOD - as was said at the end of the last 'Race Across Australia,' "the race is not really over until we see smiling faces in the homes". Well now there are now 18 lovely orphans in the two homes of the Village of Hope. They are cared for by two wonderful matrons - Agnes and Lois (great biblical names). For Damian, Joel and Johann it was an awesome priviledge to see these children and their smiling faces in the Village of Hope 4 hours after they landed in Uganda, after 24 hours of travelling. The site looks great and Robert and Ivan have been doing some great work on behalf of HopeBuilders International. What we are witnessing now is a testament to all the prayers and hard work of many, the board members and the three teams that have already invested much in this work. We look forward to the future teams and the ability to complete more homes so that more of these wonderful orphans can be part of the campaign to "Break the Cycle of Poverty".