MERRY CHRISTMAS 2010

"For unto us a Child is born..." (Isaiah 9:6)

Merry Christmas to all of you, our dear friends!
We had a glorious time here, the service at Revival Tabernacle was wonderful and exciting. The members of the church contributed funds to have a cake, which we shared after service with a soda. This made the day especially for some who could not afford a soda on such a wonderful day.
Christmas in Africa has always been characterized as a day when every one has to go to church even those that have not gone there for months. Then after church, traditionally, Christmas is a time for family members to come together. Normally around this time transport fares are hiked to take advantage of the many people traveling up country to join their families. Families, share together big meals on this day. it is normally a time to change on food menus to special dishes and different food you have not eaten in a while; many families eat beef, rice and Matoke. After food family members gather in groups and start telling interesting stories, both from history and current events.
On this day many dress smartly(fancy and neat clothes). Normally on Christmas eve, shops are jammed with people shopping for Christmas.
In our childhood, this is one memorable day we always looked to with great excitement; for we knew we will dress well and put on shoes, we also knew we will eat beef and rice.
As a church, God has called us to minister to the poor and hurting children of our community. Because most of the children in our community are orphans or from very poor families, most of them cannot afford a good meal on Christmas and they always feel bad and move around begging for food. I feel a burden to feed as many children with good as possible.
This year, my desire was to feed 150 children but we were not able to raise enough funds to do this but thanks be to God with support from our friends we were able to feed more than 100 children at my house.
It was hard to determine which children should come, but we finally had to consider the children that are already in our children program. The children were very excited to know that they are coming to our house for Christmas. Children who have been coming now for the last three years, know what to expect, they always tell their friends about it and many children always ask us to come, unfortunately we cannot invite more children than we able to feed.
We prepared enough food with different food stuffs to give our children a good meal. We had beef, chicken, goat meat, cabbages and green beans with Matoke (African dish), rice and potatoes. Each child was also given a soda (coke).
Children were very excited! Children who came for their first time said that this was their first time to have a soda! One girl said that, "my mother has been promising to buy for us rice but no matter how much we have waited, i had never tasted rice until now" The boys from House of Hope children home said that they almost failed to walk back because they were so full. One boy said, "i wish every day was Christmas!"
Thank you dear friends for putting a smile on the faces of these precious children. We are so grateful for your support that made my dream come true! Thank you for being a blessing to these children.
May the good Lord bless you.
"for i was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you took me in" (Matthew 25:35)

TRIP TO THE USA

USA 2^ND TRIP 2010

After I returned from my early trip to the USA in summer, children who got sponsors were very excited and happy for my return with the good news. Children in our community love school, for they know that hope to get a job and self sustenance is in their education. And yet education in our country is paid for at all levels and is expensive for poor children as is the case with our community.

We went a head and enrolled into school all the children who had been adapted through Kabale House of Hope. We bought for each of them shoes and a school uniform and when they new school term started, they went to school. I will never forget this precious child with tears running down her face, after she had seen another child from her neighborhood putting on school uniform and going to school. She run to her mother and asked her, “Mum, why can’t I put on school uniform and go to school like the child of our neighbor?” Her single mother started to cry because she knew that she cannot afford to pay tuition for her child to go to school.

This burdened my heart more and I prayed to God to give me another opportunity to travel and get more people to help our poor children especially to go to school. And sure enough, God provided funds for my ticket through friends like Jon and Yvonne Valasek. And on October 26^th 2010 I boarded the plane back to the USA. Thank you Jon and Yvonne and all of you friends who supported me to help my dream come true!

And now more children including Christine, the girl who cried after seeing her friend putting on School uniform, got sponsors and have an opportunity to go to school next year.

We feel as the ministry God has called us to help these precious children go to school as we aim to transform our community and country.

As little as $35 a month, you can make a dramatic change in a life of a poor child, by giving him a bright future through education.

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS COINCIDENCE WITH GOD!

I will never forget this story Barbara Nichols told me. Barbara who now supports a child through Kabale House of Hope is a friend of Anne Simmons another friend from Georgia. On this particular day Barbara went shopping in a certain store with her husband and grandchild. She is mother in-law to William, a Ugandan. After her shopping as she left the store she realized she had forgotten something behind. Going back she met Anne. They chatted about family and friends and Barbara suggested that Anne comes with her to say hello to her family. Then Anne told Barbara that, “by the way we have a friend from Uganda called Pastor Johnson and he is coming to visit with us, don’t you think William may love to meet him?” Barbara was excited and arrangements were made and I went to visit them. We shared about our orphanage and child sponsorship program, now she supports a child, her daughter also took up another child and one of their friends took up the third child!!! This is what Barbara had to say, “With God, there is nothing like coincidence!!” God is always behind the scene, connecting dots for his purposes and for his glory.

Thank you all our precious friends who signed up to support children through Kabale House of Hope.

To get more information on how you can help support Kabale House of Hope or support a child for education, please write to us at: jbakashaba@gmail.com

Or call any of these numbers: (580) 225-0719,

(510) 889-1304

60 PEOPLE GET BAPTIZED

Last Sunday, we baptized 60 new converts! We normally baptize two times every year, but this year there was a need to baptize more because of the growing numbers of new believers into our church.

Thank God for the children programs we have in the church especially AWANA and the children support programs; Children sponsorship and House of hope children home. These children program have been so influence to bring more and more people to the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Through these programs, we have touched our community with the love of God. Recently an old woman came to church and asked us why we were doing what we are doing to her grand son, we told her it was all because of the love of Jesus! Today she is a member of our church. People come in every week to discover the force behind our acts of love and compassion. Many people in our community have given their lives to Jesus. As a result the numbers of our church are growing every week.

Please pray for us that God will give us more land and that we will build a House of worship where all these people will come to worship and grow in the knowledge of God.

Last week we decided to baptize all the new converts. 60 people registered to be baptized. Though the only water available is dirty, one by one they were willing to go into the water and be baptized. Joy filled the community as many people in the neighborhood came to witness our baptism service.

Keep praying for these new converts that they may grow into good disciples of Jesus and make a difference in our community.

KABALE CHILDREN RECEIVE MOSQUITO NETS

"He who has pity on the poor, lends to the Lord, and He will pay back what he has given." Proverbs 19:17

Last weekend, our children were all smiles after receiving mosquito nets. You would have seen them throw the packs in the air with excitement. With the experience of what they go through after mosquito bites, they could not afford but express their joy and appreciation!
These nets were donated by our friends from Oklahoma Jeff and Whitney with contributions from their friends.
During my last visit in May 2010, i received bad news from home that my daughter was sick of Malaria and needed urgent attention. Normally when one catches Malaria he has to be rushed to the hospital for treatment, if the family can afford. Many families in Uganda are so poor and can't afford this treatment and therefore their patients end up dying. Many children in Uganda today die of Malaria. According to statistics, Malaria is the most killer disease in Uganda next to AIDS.
As i shared this, Jeff and Whitney wanted to know more about Malaria and how they can help. I told them that the best way to help was to help children sleep under mosquito nets. You cannot get mosquito bites while under the net. There are too many mosquitoes in Uganda and our mosquitoes carry Malaria parasites. It is these mosquito bites that cause Malaria. But when you sleep under a mosquito net, it keeps these killer mosquitoes away. These mosquitos move out of their hiding places at night and it is under the cover of darkness that they move around and bite people since they depend on blood for their feeding and reproduction.
Thank God they immediately bought the idea and started sharing the story with their friends. By the end of the month, we already had enough funds to buy 100 mosquito nets!!! Thank you friends for making this project possible!
As children picked the nets, most of them started telling stories how they received Malaria shots after catching malaria and how painful it is. Thank God that with support from sponsors, we are able to pay medical bills for the children in our Child Sponsorship program. However the sad part of these children stories was about their siblings and neighbors, who are not sponsored and died of Malaria because they could not afford hospital bills.
We cautioned the children to make sure that they cover their beds with mosquito nets every night before they sleep.
Thank you Jeff and Whitney for supporting us to put mosquito nets in the hands of these precious children. We appreciate all our dear friends that contributed to donate these mosquito nets. You are such a blessing to us and to these children. Thank you for making a difference in our community.
There is still a need for more nets to reach out and help more children who did not receive a mosquito net in our community. Many families here are too poor to afford a net or hospital bills. Please help us, to stop Malaria from claiming more lives of these young children.
In case you feel that you want to help a child with mosquito nets you can write to us at: jbakashaba@gmail.com. Or write to Jeff and Whitney at:whitney-123@hotmail.com
Each nets costs only $10.
God bless you.

MISSION TO KYENJOJO DISTRICT

"How beautiful are the feet that bring good news"
Last week we had a Mission to Kyenjojo district. This is situated in western Uganda. We recently planted a church in this community and it had been the prayer of the people living in this community to have us visit them with a big team for a revival conference.
We were amazed at the hunger these people have for the word of God, most of them travel walked for more than 20km to come to the church, others walked further than that. They were so glad we came.
Only the pastor owns a bible plus a few others, but as we taught the word of God, they were very attentive and from the responses you could see that they had learnt all we were teaching them.
The people living in this community are basically peasants and very poor. But to our surprise, they had bought a piece of land from their had earned money and set up a simple house of worship, they were still raising money to put a roof on the church.
I was so moved by the dedicated and commitment these people have to God. The community has a lot of witchcraft and devil worshipers, but the few that has come to Jesus are determined to preach the gospel to the rest of the community.
By the time we left we had planted a church in another neighboring community.
These people need prayers and support especially to buy more land for the new church and complete their church building as well as build a house of worship for the new church.They also need Bibles. Bibles are very expensive for these people each Bibles costs around $10.
As we moved around in the community, i couldn't imagine that they have no facilities like schools, medical centers or clean water. Many children die of disease and women often die as they give birth. It is a terrible feeling to know what these people go through every day.
I couldn't help look at what the children go through, with no opportunity to go to school, the children are treated to hard labor of cultivating bushes for crop planting. Many young girls and boys get married and marry at an early age.
Most of the children have never put on shoes and many have no clothes to put on.
I told my friends to start praying for this community so that God will provide funds to build for these people a medical center and a school in this community, so that these children are given an opportunity to go to school and get medical attention. The medical center would help both children and adults especially women giving birth.
Please pray for us and help us where possible to reach this community for Jesus.
Write to us at: jbakashaba@gmail.com

OUR CHILDREN COME HOME FOR HOLIDAYS

KABALE PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN COME HOME
Yesterday, we had a great time as we watched our children make presentations on their last day of school before they broke off for a brief holiday.
Children made presentations before parents, before they were give report cards and sent home. Many parents attended the occasion and we were glad to see our children perform many items that included traditional dancing, singing and poems.
Revival Outreach Ministries supports over 150 children. We appreciate all our sponsors that have made this possible. It was a joy to see our children happy and participating.
With so many children in our community and many especially orphans not able to afford school fees and cannot go to school; children who are given the opportunity to go to school value it so much. They know their future lies in their education. Children who can't afford going to school normally resort to go to the streets to search for what to eat. These eat thrown away food in garbage bins. Others become thieves and girls who are the most affected resort to prostitution, in order to get some thing to eat and clothes. The pain of hunger to the poor children in Africa is unbearable so much so that many children resort to sniffing glue, and gas (petrol) and some take drugs like marijuana. They say this helps them to forget sorrow and pain at least for a moment.
It is our prayer and desire to see more and more children given an opportunity to go to school. Children who have attained education normally are able to get jobs after education. Education helps to unlock the God given potentials of children. Education develops the minds of children to handle different challenges in life, such children develop mentally and are successful and effective in life.
It was a joy to see our children smiling and happy that someone has given them this opportunity to go to school.
The children sang several songs and made presentation of traditional dances. It was exciting to see how talented most of these children are. There was wild excitement as the children took to the floor in Kikiga dance! Most parents felt like joining in but their was limited space.
Later on the children who performed well were given awards and thereafter they received their report cards and went home. This holiday will be shorter, so they will return in the first week of September.
We were happy to see our children come back home. Most of them have improved on their grades and have big dreams!
Thank you friends for being part of what God is doing in our community! Thank you for the sacrifice to take these children to school, despite the economic situation today.
May the good Lord bless you for your commitment, love and sacrifice.
If you want to know more about our children and community or if you want to support children to go to school, please write to us at: Jbakashaba@gmail.com

A VISIT TO NEW HOPE UGANDA-KASANA

Last week we had an exciting visit to Kasana children centre. The arrangement was made by our friends Jon and Yvonne from Dallas. Yvonne happens to be working with a cousin sister to one of the administrators of this children home called New Hope Uganda, through whom the connection was made.
I went with Patience, our children home house mother and Evelyn the social worker, together with Jon and Yvonne and Lutaya and Junior from African Hearts organization that takes care of orphans and street children. The intention was to learn from New Hope Uganda's experience, since they have done this kind of ministry for quite some time.
New Hope Uganda started in 1987 with a few children, mainly orphans from the Uganda war of 1980-1985. They have now grown to over 160 children living in 7 families.
At the first sight, we were amazed at the great work done here for all these children, you could literally see God at work. Caleb another administrator at this children home took us around for two days, it was a learning experience to see what God can do for such little children. The word of God say that God is a father to the fatherless!
We had an opportunity to meet Jennie Dangers who wrote the book "The long road to hope". She being the daughter of the founder of this ministry, told us her experience at New Hope Uganda over the years; what it means to grow up in Uganda and taking care of all these children.
Jones Bakimi, Ugandan co-founder of New Hope Uganda narrated the challenges they have gone through over the years and the joy of raising these children in a family environment. He told us how they made sacrifice to become fathers of these children. Some of the children they started with have now become responsible leaders in the community and some are members of the staff to help other children. New Hope, he said emphasizes fatherhood to orphaned and destitute children. He said children who grow up in a family setting normally grow up into responsible leaders.
New Hope Uganda, started a school that now has 600 children, 70% of these come from the community and most of them are given free education. Constance one of the teachers shared with us a lot about teaching children with a Christian perspective, and making the best out of the vulnerable children. She showed us around; it was such a great environment for these children to learn, with visual aids and learning charts in every classroom.
New Hope Uganda has started income generating projects. The main project being crop farming. They grow a number of crops mainly maize, beans, ground nuts and vegetables. New Hope Uganda has 7 families and each family owns a garden and grows their own food. Part of the crops are sold and funds used to pay workers, teachers and staff, and also meet family needs.
One of the family fathers took us to one of the gardens where farmers were using oxen to cultivate. He taught us a lot about using oxen to cultivate, and how children have learnt to use oxen to cultivate their own food.
Caleb took us to more ministry projects like cattle keeping, piggery, fish farming and chicken farming. They also have a milling machine that also meets community needs.
New Hope Uganda run a vocational school where different classes are taught like cloth weaving, mechanical classes, wood work, building and tailoring. Not all children make it to the University and some are gifted differently, this school helps children to discover their talents and be able to make a living.
The ministry also runs a Christian radio station. The station manager told us that the proceeds from radio announcements pay staff and make income for the ministry. It also helps the ministry to reach out to the community with the word of God besides other community development programs.
By the end of our tour we had all learnt a lot and encouraged that we should not despise small beginnings, God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or imagine!

CHILDREN MADE THREE YEARS AT HOH!!!

"Religion that God accepts as pure is to look after orphans and widows in their distress..." James 1:27

April 1st is the day the children at Kabale House of Hope will never forget! It was on this day when all these children first came to House of Hope. After the news reached them from their hopeless situations, where most of them had no place to call home, no food to eat, no beds or bedding to sleep on and not going to school. They knew God had answered their prayers. They packed their few, old clothes in polythene bags and one by one they entered the gates of Kabale House of Hope. We will never forget the joy on their faces and little John exclaimed, "God has remembered me!"
Last week, as they gave praise reports, they recalled all the good things God has done for them and thanked God and all the friends God has used to be a blessing to them. They don't take it for granted that they now have enough to eat, they have tuition for their schooling and they sleep in good beds with bedding, with support from friends we recently bought for them new mosquito nets.
They now know that God has good plans for their future, they have hope and they are looking forward to what the Lord is making out of them. It is amazing how these children have big dreams and are excited that with God all things are possible.
We are so grateful to all our dear friends and partners that support us to raise these children as into godly leaders.
The children were glad for the visit of Pastor Tracy and Mary Wolfe from Modesto CA over the weekend. Their church sponsors 5 children at House of Hope. Those children were so glad to hear from their sponsors and to write back. Pastor Tracy and Mary's church partners with a school in our city and visits here once every year. We had a good time with them on their visit to House of Hope. They children sang for them and shared with them exciting stories of what the Lord has done with them. Tracy and Mary were surprised to hear how some of the children would run away from school to school for failing to pay school fees, before they came to House of Hope. Some of them changed school five time! God has done great things for these children!
It is amazing how they have grown both spiritually and physically in this short period of time. They have grown bigger and taller.
However as they grow older this came with a challenge of discipling them into godly leaders. And it was so evident that Evas the house mother being single and with little education back ground, she could not cope up with the many challenges to discipline and train these children especially so that i have become so busy and traveling most of them time besides a family and growing ministry to take care of. Plus Evas was over stretched with her family problems and had to be away most of them time to save her late husband's property from relatives mishandling it.
So we prayed about another House mother and at the end of last month, God sent to us a more capable lady, Patience Kaija married to Pastor Nathan Kaija. The two have been ministering in another town, Kisoro but they felt a call to come and serve with us. Patience is a qualified teacher with a Diploma and Pastor Nathan has a Diploma in Business administration. God has used this couple in a short period of time to organize the House, discipline the children and help the children with school work, even little Isaac now is able to speak English.
Evas will be helping with other departments in the church after she has settled with her family challenges. We will miss her at House of Hope.
We need prayers and support, we have two more children that are home less and need our help urgently. Support of $50 each for every month will be enough to meet their tuition and additional needs for them to stay at house of hope.
Easter was glorious for all these children, they had good lunch together and rejoiced together in the Lord.
We appreciate all our partner friends that have made it possible for us to take care of these children. May the Lord bless you.

CHRISTINE GRADUATES

It was a joy to attend Christine's graduation on Friday March,26th. Christine Mahoro is one of the children i take care of, and i was so happy to see her graduate with a certificate in comprehensive Nursing.
Christine's parents failed to raise her tuition after she completed her S.4. I then started to raise her support for her to continue with her education together with several other children. When she completed her S.6, it became too expensive for me to pay for Christine for University education. I advised her to take a technical course and she applied for Nursing education. After a lot of prayers, i shared Christine's story with friends from Texas and God touched their hearts to help her complete her course.
We do appreciate all the dear friends that supported Christine to complete her course in Nursing.
She graduated with several other young people that were attached to our church and it was a great joy to see their dream come true.
The graduation ceremony was very colorful and it was presided over by the State Minister for High education together a number of Principal tutors from various other schools of Nursing.
Christine is already very supportive to our ministry especially to help sick children in our community. she is already using her skills to be a blessing to our church and community. She is also our church administrator.
Christine's dream to help more and more sick people especially children and mothers. We pray that God will provide enough funding to set up a medical clinic in our community as one of the ways to help the poor sick people in our community. Many people in our community are so poor and they cannot afford the medical care that is expensive n our country. As a result many parents and children have died of diseases like Malaria. Many children suffer with untreated wounds, ring worms and eye diseases. Many are infected with intestinal worms. We pray that God will touch hearts for people willing to help us. We welcome people willing to come for medical missions to help the suffering people in our community. We also appreciate donation of medicine or funds as God provides.
God bless you.

PASTORS RECEIVE BIBLES

A few weeks ago, our Pastors had a story to tell when they reached back home, after 5 days of the Leaders' conference in Kabale.
The conference code named "The Pastors' friend conference", was organized by Pastors Tom and Sandy McElfresh from Virginia. They recently incorporated this ministry as The Pastors' Friend International, with a main goal to equip the Pastors and leaders in developing countries. They will be holding Leaders' conferences in Kabale every March.
Around 500 Pastors and leaders attended this year's conference. Most Pastors in Africa have not had formal training, therefore such conferences help to train the Pastors and leaders for the work of the ministry.
This conference started on Monday and ended on Friday. It was unique in a way that Pastors' Friend international donated Bibles to the Pastors and Leaders. Bibles are very expensive to the Pastors who come from villages, especially Rukiga Bibles which cost around $9 each. Most of these Pastors earn less than a dollar per day, and therefore it is so hard to save for a Bible. One Pastor told us later on that;they had only one Bible in a church of about 50 people and it could be shared among the Leaders.
Thank God for the friends who were touched and donated these Bibles. You would have seen the joy and the smiling faces of the Pastors as they went wielding their new Bibles, thanking God for his goodness and provisions. They went determined that they are going to use those Bibles to preach the gospel of the kingdom even to the last person in their villages.
Thank you friends that supported this conference and especially those who donated Bibles.
May God bless you.

OUR KIDS GO BACK TO SCHOOL

This week has been a very busy, as our children were going back to school. The school term opened on Monday and children were excited to go back to school. Our children are grateful for the opportunity given to them to go to school and so they always look forward to the time to go back to school. Thank all, dear sponsors for putting joy on the faces of these children!
I was moved to see the joy and excitement of the children who had dropped out of school and some who were going to school for their first time! Some children got sponsors during my trip last year. Children who don't go to school feel so bad, they feel that they are less privileged. One mother came to our office and told us that one day her child asked her why he was not going to school like other children. "why don't i put on uniform like other children?" asked the 8 year old boy, "why do i stay home when the children of our neighbors go to school?". Many of such children wonder whether they will ever go to school.
Education means much to these children and to us. To these children, this is pretty much the only way they will be able to sustain themselves. In our country, it is so hard to get a job if you have not gone to school.
And to us as the church, education is the way to train and equip good leaders with a Christian background.
Most of our children are now able to speak and communicate in English. There is a big difference now in our community as we send more and more children to school.
Thank you friends for making a difference in our community, one child at a time.
However, we need more labourers to join us for this cause. Hundreds of children still need help to be able to go to school. Many children are still homeless or live with poor grandmother and are without food for days. Many need clothing and medical care. We feel bad that children here still die of Malaria for lack of mosquito nets. We need more prayers and support.
Please pray about supporting a child or send a gift of any amount to help these children in need. You can mail your tax deductible gift to our partner church in California at:
NEW LIFE CHRISTIAN CHURCH
20394 SAN MIGUEL AVENUE
CASTRO VALLEY, CA 94546
They will send us your support with in days. New Life Christian church volunteered to help us until we have registered our ministry in the USA.
Your prayers are also very important to us. We will send you information on how to pray for us or support a child, on request.
Blessings.