Providing Christian education for orphan refugees in Uganda.
John 14:27 NIV
Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not be afraid.
Imagine God hands you a gift; His peace. In return, He asks you to give Him your worries and concerns. That may seem crazy but that’s exactly what God wants from you.
Think about that as you talk to Him about what’s on your mind today.
Lord God Almighty,
Thank you for filling Your world with the knowledge of Your glory. Your fingerprints are everywhere! Your design is obvious, if we’ll have the eyes to see. Help is to be awake enough to notice Your work in the world – not only in nature, but in Your people. We can’t help but worship You for being the amazing Creator and Savior You are! In Jesus’ name, Amen
Bev and I have been blessed to spend a week with our family in Portland OR. We were able to attend our oldest granddaughters high school graduation, and we wish her all the very best as she continues her education in College. We have also been able to visit many of our Emmaus Gospel Outreach supporters here in the northwest and sorry we could not get to see all of you. It is always a busy time and we never seem to have enough time to do everything we planned or visit everyone we wanted too see.
We have recently launched the Emmaus Gospel Outreach website, thanks to the expertise of our son Gene. It is still a work in progress but we hope to be able to add updates more often than our newsletter. As we get more adapted at updating the site we hope to soon have all of the past newsletters on the website and also, to be able to write short blog posts as we receive them from Uganda.
The latest news from Emmaus is the doors and windows project for the new classroom buildings is about finished. We thank God for all the people that donated for this project.
Bev and I will be traveling to Uganda in August to visit the school and see her what been completed since our last visit. Bev will be teaching English and i will concentrate on what projects have been completed and what should be next.
HISTORY
A partnership began in 2017 when we became aware of children dying from water borne diseases at a primary school started by a dear friend and Pastor, Muhoza Lewi on the Nakivale Refugee Settlement in Uganda. The school ministers to nearly 400 orphan refugees, providing a free primary education with a Christ centered worldview.
These children have had to flee their home countries do to wars and political unrest, some have come with relatives or family friends, others made their way to the camp by themselves. Some know their parents have been killed, others do not know if any family members have survived. The one thing they all have in common is that they are refugees living in a foreign country with no means of support.
We praise God for the people He raised up that gave to provide a drilled water well for the school. This water is a life saving addition to this community. This water has saved many physical lives, as The Living Water of Christ saves their spiritual lives. Since that time we have asked the Lord to provide continued funding for teachers salaries, school supplies, children’s Bibles and maintenance of the facility. There are 10 teachers, 2 nurses, and 3 guards, plus Pastor Lewi as the sole administrator. The Lord lead us in finding a nonprofit organization to work with financial for accountability and providing tax deductible giving. (www.bit.ly/EmmausGO). Our organization is Emmaus Gospel Outreach with a focus on Christian training and high level primary education taught in English affording the children a distinct advantage.
The total cost for operating the school per month is $2500.00. As of now we are a long way from meeting that sustained goal. And as with most programs there are emergencies that arise. This past fall brought extremely heavy rains to the area, those rains basically dissolved the mud brick walls of the classrooms.
Just prior to learning of the building collapse we had received a large gift. The Lord was way ahead of us and had provided before we knew of the need. A new school classroom building has been completed with fired bricks and stronger materials. Praise the Lord for His goodness and we thankfully commend the people that gave for this project.
While being extremely grateful, I wish I could say everything now is fine, but the one building was only one of six that have been badly damaged and need to be rebuilt. We know that our Father owns the cattle on a thousand hills, we are praying that a few can be sold to fund this school and minister to these orphan refugees.
While a Christian education is our main focus another great advantage of the school is keeping the children safe from child traffickers. The refugee camps are a major hunting grounds for these predators. The most vulnerable children are those that have no accountability during the day. The school offers them a secure place and accountability.
Emmaus Gospel Outreach