Providing Christian education for orphan refugees in Uganda.
Thanks to a very dear friend of Emmaus GO who purchased sports equipment for the children. As you can see in the photos and videos, they were very excited. Only a limited amount of the equipment was given out, the remaining items will be stored at the school office and given out at a later time.
Thanks to Gene and Tara for the purchase of solar lights. I will post photos of the shelters these refugees from Congo are living in. No person should have to live like this. There are many y, many shelters of this type and others that may be a little better or a little worse.
These are the refugees that have been processed into the Settlement. Now they are given a small plot of land to farm and build there own home.
We are having major problems with the WiFi, which is making it nearly impossible to upload photos or videos. We will be in Mbarara on Saturday, so maybe we will have better luck then. On Sunday, we will be driving to Entebbe and will be flying out Tuesday late night.
Bev is spending the day teaching the teachers a better way of teaching English to their students. The better their English, the better prospects for a job when they graduate.
The Nakivale Refugee Settlement was set up as a joint venture between the Ugandan government and the United Nations. The U.N. used to have a visible presence on the Settlement, but now there is almost no presence, with the exception of the initial intake center. The intake center is an area where all persons first coming into the settlement have to stay and be processed. They stay in tent camps for about three months. During which time they receive a food allotment based on the number of adults and children in their group.
After their processing They are given a small plot of land that they will need to cultivate (hoe by hand) in order to grow their own food and build a shelter. These shelters are merely a tarp or plastic held up with a few sticks and poles. They are now basically on their own with very little help from the government or the UN.
Everyone on the Settlement used to receive an allotment of food for the number of people in their household. That program has ended and now there are many people going hungry everyday. These poor people have come great distances to reach these refugee settlement areas, the transportation is provided by the UN. They have not wanted to leave their homes and families but due to wars, genocides, and political unrest they have had to leave or face starvation or death. Now they are in a strange place with only a few items that they could bring with them and are facing much the same conditions as they left.
We were blessed to be able to do some small thing for a few of these ladies and children that are trying to eek out a living. We gave them a simple solar light. You would have thought we had given them a million dollars.
If people in the United States were caught treating their animals this way tehy woudl be in prison for animal cruelty. They have no medicine, no food, and no money. It is simply inhumane to treat human beings like this. This country is in a huge uproar over how our government is treating illegal aliens, and the condition of the accommodations they have to endue. I can tell you first hand, if the people on the Nakivale Refugee Settlement, had what these illegal aliens have, they would feel blessed beyond their wildest dreams. I do not know why people worldwide are not up in arms over this. Why are these abuses not on the evening news?
What is wrong with us? This country, the supposedly enlightened and civilized people, are upset over not letting men compete in women’s sports events or not calling someone by some ridiculous ungodly pronoun, while thousands of people in these camps are starving and dying of preventable diseases. We are so rich and privileged, but think only of ourselves. We have to have the next new iPhone or newest car model, or just more stuff. We have so many toys and things that we have no place to store them, so storage units are one of the fastest growing businesses. We throw away more than most people in a third-world country will ever have. And I am not pointing a finger at you without having three fingers pointing back at myself. I probably spent more on coffee in a month than what it takes to feed a whole family in a Refugee Settlement.
Well, I have ranted long enough. I don’t have the answers, but I hope you will think about what you might be able to do to help someone else today. As Pastor Bernard says when he gets on a passionate side track, “I’m over it.” But I hope and pray that I am never over it. There is simply too much injustice in our world today.
Bev spent a very hot 3 hours in 3 separate classrooms with over 80 children per class and very little ventilation. She was nearly sick by the end and very dehydrated.
But, of course, the childern loved her, and she did a great job.
The students were very attentive, listened eagerly, and interacted well. Before sharing The Gospel Message and The Plan of Salvation I asked many questions of what they knew of God, His love and the purpose and plan of Jesus Christ in God’s plan for us/ all mankind. They were able to answer easily (which blessed my heart) glory to God! Then I shared the specifics of Romans 6:23 and drew it out in a diagram, explaining the meaning of each word. Seeing Jesus Christ as the One Who rescues us/ paid the price for our sins and bridges the gap so we may be forgiven and have a relationship with Father God and one day go to be with Him in Heaven forever. I taught the message of the salvation bracelet. They were able to recite it back to me. They were encouraged to share this precious information of Jesus Christ with everyone they know. They were all smiles and very excited to tell others The Good News!! Before receiving the bracelets I prayed for them asking them to repeat, after me, the sinners prayer. Please join us as we trust in the Lord to do a work in each heart and life.
Blessed Lord’s Day, dear friends. It was a glorious day! We arrived at Emmaus Global Church around 10 AM. One of the choirs was practicing. People were coming in steadily and finding a seat in their areas. The Young Unmarried Adults in one area, the Married Women in their area, the Men sit in their area closer to the children’s area. Babies sit with their Mama’s or maybe on the backs of an older sister in the children’s area.
There were four choirs, each singing several songs with a very loud electric keyboard accompaniment. Then the children’s Choir. When the choirs are singing everyone moves to the music. They are alive and happily praising God! Then there are announcements and greeting of guests before the Bible Message. Ken gave the sermon, with was titled, “The Aroma of Christ”. II Corinthians 2:14-16, along with other Scripture passages.
The service ended at 1:00 PM. The people leave for lunch but will return around 3 or 4 to continue their worship into the evening.
The childern are drawn to Beverly.
We had to come into Mbarara to purchase more Bibles for the school. Also, exercise books for the students, these are what they do all their school work in, and then the teachers review their work.
The Cafe Havana sits above the main street. The traffic can get very busy at times.
If you struggle with speaking to a group, you are not alone. But when you have to speak with a translator it is even more difficult. Then, there are times in Africa when you have to speak with two translations. It can be very difficult to keep your train of thought as you wait for each translation before you speak again. And, of course, you have to keep your sentences short to ensure the translator can keep up with you. And at times, you must stop and explain the meaning of a word to your translator.
This conference operates on African time. It is said here that Americans have watches, but Africans have time. The start time was set for 10am, and at noon, there are still women coming in. There are over 100 women in attendance.
When you put on a conference here, you are expected to provide a lunch for those attending.
The kitchen to prepare the meal is one of the school classrooms. They simply dig a few pits on the dirt floor and build the cook fires in them. You can see in the below photos how thick the smoke is. I could hardly stand it long enough to take the photos.
Bev had a day off to rest up at the hotel.
I went into Mbarara to get an estimate to add a solar pump and water storage tank to the water well. We will also purchase Bibles and school textbooks and other school supplies.
The estimate for the solar pump is 16,500,000 million, or about $4,600.00 USD. It is expensive but really not as much as I was expecting. The hand pump that we have now gets so much work that it fails, and then it is expensive to replace. The solar pump will pump into a large water tank with taps for the people to draw their water.
We were able to purchase all the lastest textbook versions for the teachers, and those will supply them with the up to date curriculum for the next year. We also found other school supplies that will benefit the students in their studies. The students need new exercise books. These are used by every student to record their work. The teachers will then review the books to ensure they are learning the subject matter. I will have to review our trip expenses to see if I will have that amount to spare.
We were able to purchase 40 Bibles from the Ugandan Bible Society. They are in English, so they will serve a dual purpose of reading God’s Word and helping them with their English language studies.
We were able to purchase the exercise books on our next trip into Mbarara. The large white bags are the exercise books, each bag holds a dozen books. The small car we have for our daily use was well loaded on our return trip.
Emmaus Gospel Outreach