World Mission - Uganda

Uganda
Support of the orphans, students at the Diocesan Training Centre and special projects in Bunyoro-Kitara, our link diocese in Uganda

The diocese is the size of Wales.

Visit our Hoima Picture Gallery.
page 1 - general pictures
page 2 - Orphanage Christmas Feast 2003
page 3 - Orphanage Christmas Party 2006

Link person: Jane Fell

December 2006
January 2006
March 2005
June 2004
January 2004
August 2003
June 2003
January 2003

earlier news

December 2006

19 December 2006

Dear Friend of Bunyoro-Kitara,

Please accept this very special Christmas Greetings from Hoima, and all of us here in Bunyoro-Kitara Diocese. All of us pray that you and every member of your family have a Blessed Christmas Season and that all of us are blessed to be able to stay close to our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ all through the coming year.

Aside from this personal Christmas Greeting I would like to share with you a few of the wonderfully awesome blessings that our Lord is bringing to us here in Hoima as we enter into this season of remembrance of the unmanageable blessing that our Creator gave each one of us nearly 2000 years ago.

The weather here in Uganda has gone completely crazy! For the past seven years, by this time my water tanks have run dry, I am buying water, the temperatures have reached their highest point in the year and everything is covered with a very thick red dust that has worked its way into every nook and cranny. However, this year is different; my water tanks are overflowing, the temperatures are cool, many of our roads are impassibly flooded, cholera is rampant in the flooded slums of Kampala and the Government meteorologists tell us that we are experiencing a mild El Nino. That’s the bad news.

Now, for the wonderful news:

1. Last Sunday we had our annual Children's Christmas Party here at Grace House and it was ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC!!!

The day began with very heavy rains, something that I have never seen at this time of year, and something that normally would have thrown me into a severe panic. However, this year I wasn't disturbed at all by the bad weather; because, this year we had the new and larger children's building that I knew was large enough to hold all of the kids and still give us the room needed for our games, singing, praising, and of course for our big feast. We had nearly all of the St Peter's Sunday School children, all of the Mustard Seed Kids and most especially we had the beautiful and happy Sharon as our guest of honour. You may recall that Sharon was the beautiful little five-year-old girl who had been so badly broken and abused by her step-mother and father.

Kids started arriving at Grace House a little before 7:00am to help Mary and Dorcus blow up over 200 balloons and to decorate for the party. Needless to say, this year because of the heavy rains, we decorated Faith House rather than all of the Grace House Compound. As soon as the decoration was completed we all had donuts and juice for breakfast. Needless to say, it was a ton of fun and we all had a great time. Joseph Aleguma started bringing Sharon and all of the Mustard Seed Kids over at about 10:00 and at 11:00 we all walked over to St Peter's Cathedral through a heavy drizzle for Sunday Services, where all of our kids were allowed to present the programs that they had been working on for weeks.

By 1:00 we were back at Faith House and the party began with Bishop Nathan leading all of us in a prayer of thanksgiving and then in a bunch of songs. The catered feast arrived and at 2:00 all of our kids began to eat. The meal consisted of stewed beef, fried chicken, Irish potatoes, matoke, greens, rice, chapatti and a soda. This is a huge meal that most kids here never experience.

At about 2:45 God gave us a very special gift that he had planned especially for us on this blessed day. The sun came out and the sky miraculously changed in just a few minutes from a dark and dreary gray colour to a sparkling bright, clear and cloudless blue; and by 3:00 we were able to have Father Christmas greet all of the kids out under this beautiful blue, God-given canopy. Father Christmas gave each of the Mustard Seed kids a brand new pair of shoes and several of the other kids, including Sharon received special gifts; then, Father Christmas had another surprise up his sleeve. Every one of the children was then given a special chit, which they were able to take to our Grace House children's store to exchange for a small gift (balls, squeaky toys, dolls and toy cars).

Then, we had games and finally we forced all of the kids to go out into the Grace House compound to harvest the 40 pounds of hard sweets that the rains had apparently scattered all over different parts of the compound.

I have attached a bunch of photos to this e-mail in the hope that they will allow you to share in some of our joy. In one of the photos you will see a beautiful little girl in a green dress sitting in a chair hugging some balloons; this is the Sharon that I have written so much about. If you look closely you can see how badly bent her arms and legs are. However, if you also look closely you will see a big smile and a very happy face. I believe that this photo shows us the true meaning of what the Bible is saying with the phrase "The peace which passes all understanding." At the age of five, this little girl has been more badly broken and abused than anyone I have ever known, she will never be normal, she will always be in pain, she has AIDS and she will probably have a very short life; however, in spite of all of these huge problems, she is now very happy, and joyful, and bubbly, and she now knows and experiences the Love of God and she knows and experiences the love of many of God's very own people.

2. On the 20th, Our St Peter's Cathedral Sunday School kids will go out into the community to deliver some very special Christmas food packages, prayers and songs to many of the older people in our community and to many who are in dire need of help. These packages will include all of the food essentials that will allow them to have several Christmas season meals.

3. On the 25th, our Computer School Hospital Ministry accompanied by Shirley Morris, and I think Bishop Nathan, will go to Hoima Hospital to serve our annual Christmas Feast to all the Hoima Hospital patients. The feast will be the same as what we served the kids at their party.

4. On the 28th, Town Church has been able to arrange transportation for their huge Children's Sunday (should be over 600 kids) to come to Grace House for a special Town Church Christmas Children's Movie Matinee. I think we will start off with a Watoto Children's choir sing along, followed by "Home Alone" and ending up with several Mr Bean episodes.

We really do have an awesome God.

I pray that something in this long and boring e-mail has brought a smile to your face and I am certain that the photos will.

Please keep us in your prayers and especially please keep all of our friends, who have answered God's gentle whisper to make what you have just read about a reality.

Yours in Jesus,

Thad

January 2006

Christmas Message from Bishop Nathan Kyamanywa

To all our friends,

Here is Christmas once again! It is a time most of us long for, because of the celebrations associated to it and the family reunions for those with family. But we must remind ourselves that the actual event in Bethlehem was not pleasant for Mary and Joseph; it meant anxiety vulnerability, insecurity, isolation and rejection in the middle of pain. What was God doing in the middle of all this? God is love and love is God! Love like God is immaterial, physically intangible. God was transmitting himself to us in the tangible world. Christ's mass celebration is a constant reminder to us and the entire world of a generous God who gives life, food, and all the good things of this life but who gives himself to us. In giving himself to us he made himself vulnerable and open to humiliation.

The church has to be with that attitude that God had when he gave himself at the risk of making himself vulnerable. A church that is preoccupied with self-preservation cannot be a light to the world because such a church will compromise the truth for its survival but it will have lost its mission. In the birth of Jesus God was giving himself to us; this reminds us of Jesus' words when he said [Matthew 10:39] "whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."

Although this is talking about martyrdom, this statement is as well directly connected to God giving himself to us as can be seen in John 1:11. "He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him." In Jesus' birth God gave himself up to us and consequently became vulnerable. The other day a friend of mine asked that "why the Bother?" Giving is a powerful and effective way of telling someone that we love them and that they matter and that is why God gave himself to us. He is telling us, we matter, we are loved, we belong and we are valuable.

This Christmas, Bunyoro-Kitara Diocese will celebrate very mindful that we have received so much love from our friends as a way of telling us that we are loved; our diocesan headquarters look fresh and new, that is love; many Orphans have been helped, that is love; many friends have come to visit, that is love; we have lighted and cried together, that is love.

It is this love that is the driving force behind our decisions to offer ecclesiastical oversight to those outside our geographical jurisdiction, to offer ourselves so that they come to realize that they are loved, they matter and they are valuable. In doing that we make ourselves vulnerable to all kinds of insults and criticisms; but is that not what God did? He went beyond the natural "jurisdictions" for the sake of love.

Let us all love to the extent of making ourselves vulnerable; vulnerability exposes you to dangers and insecurity but that is love. Love which does not risk is not love at all. Sure enough our Lord's vulnerability led him to the Cross; his mission was the good of others. If we look by when the world is destroying itself and we don't love them enough as to risk rejection and speak out, we have not loved yet. It is not of God to think that since I love you I will allow you to do anything you like, so that you are not mad at me.

That is why we are saying: God through the birth of Jesus expects us to make ourselves vulnerable. Our message is that, scripture is where we find fully how God all along has made himself available to mankind. Let us therefore keep to scripture. May God keep you all.

Bishop Nathan Kyamanywa

March 2005 - Uganda

Easter Greetings from Uganda

PEACE BE WITH YOU

I am pleased to greet you in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and wish all our friends at St Luke's a happy and blessed Easter. Be assured you are continually in our prayers, your support and help is very much appreciated and makes such a big difference to the lives of our orphans and people in dire need, such friends as you are indeed a gift from God and we love and value for each one of you. As our Lord rose on Easter day, let us rise with him in humble service to our God and each other. God bless and watch over you dear friends.

Bishop Nathan
Bunyoro Kitara diocese, Uganda

June 2004 - Uganda

Bishop Nathan is coming to visit us at the beginning of July for four days, and we are looking forward to his visit and further news of what is happening in Hoima. The Crossroads project is still ongoing and is getting bigger and bigger, We hope to have some photographs of the project in the near future.

We had recent completion on the new dining room at the Mustard Seed Orphanage with their first cooker and fridge, which stand in pride of place in the new kitchen. There is also a new dining area with table and chairs. Before this opened they would cook outside on an open fire and eat outside on the grass, they will never have known such luxuries before.

Thad Cox has now got a new goat project up and running and it is going well. He is going to open goat farms in a number of remote villages. The goats will be used for milk for children and eventually butchered for meat or sold on, with all proceeds going to the local people. The goats are bred in a way to make them bigger and more resistant to disease and should be an excellent community project, hopefully as successful as the ox plough project which goes from strength to strength.

The mission hospital, run by the Revd George Hope and Sanny is still ongoing, visiting the patients every couple of days, offering prayerful support, and, where money allows, support with medicines and dressings. As Hoima is in the malaria belt, sickness and disease are ever present. Malaria is the main reason why one in five Ugandan children die before they reach adulthood. Please pray for all these projects. Thank you for your ongoing support and generosity for the people of Hoima Uganda.

January 2004 - Uganda

A Christmas message from Bishop Nathan

To: All friends of Bunyoro-Kitara Diocese at St Luke's
From: Bishop Nathan
Christmas Greetings
Date: 24/12/2003

Dear friends in the Lord,

The angels said to the shepherds in the fields of Bethlehem that night our Lord Jesus Christ was born: "Do not be afraid." The arrival of Jesus was meant to remove fear: fear of the unknown, fear of strangers, fear of the unpredictable; fear, fear, fear!

This is the message that we want to share with all of you. We celebrate this Christmas during the time when our Church (Anglican) is undergoing events and decisions, which are very frightening.

Let us all listen and receive that message of the angels to the shepherds: "Do not be afraid." At global level there is fear and at local level there is fear. We are not called to fear but to the courageous spirit, which causes us to call God Abba Father. There are local situations which cause us in Uganda to fear or be afraid; the same message is ours "Do not be afraid." These situations range from insecurity; poverty; ethnic strife; domestic incompatibility; indecent behaviour, etc. All of this causes fear. But the angel's message still sounds clear "Do not be afraid." So as we celebrate this Christmas let this message be received afresh in our hearts, Churches, societies, homes and communities. To lift us up from the depths where fear can push us. And as we look towards the New Year, a year with fresh challenges, let us continue with that message. We love you all and pray for our continued co-operation without fear or favour. May God bless you all now and in the year to come.

Bishop Nathan

A New Year Message from Bishop Nathan

Fr: Bishop Nathan
New Year Message from Hoima (Bunyoro-Kitara)

Dear Jane, John and all of our friends at St Luke's

We greet you all with the angels greeting to Mary "Peace be with you" and I greet you all on behalf of the entire Diocese of Bunyoro-Kitara. As we celebrate this Christmas I would like to thank you all for journeying with us through the year 2003. We deeply appreciate all of the help extended to us throughout the year. I would like to point out the help that goes to our Diocesan Training Centre and the help that goes to the orphans among others. Your help fills a very big and important gap within it. It would have been very challenging for us, but with your help you made it easier for us.

In the course of the year we have had the privilege of having Jane Fell as one who comes to continue the work of a link person that Brother John Morris has been doing for many, many years between us and St Luke's. We welcome her with open hands and heart. We look forward to our continued fruitful co-operation and we pray for Jane that God will use her in this new capacity. I welcome Jane, Paul and their family, and we look forward to meeting them in person at some point.

We thank God for the tireless efforts of John Morris and his lovely wife Brenda to help us in Bunyoro-Kitara. We will always cherish your love, commitment and dedication to Bunyoro-Kitara as a Diocese and to us as individuals. Besides other important projects, John has been at the forefront of the New Crossroads Hoima, which at this time is being constructed. When it gets completed it will be a Land Mark in Hoima Town as a witness for Christian unity and therefore in the lives of people. "It is a baby that is dear to us and we would like to see it accomplished."

The angel's words to the shepherds on the night of our Lord's birth are "Do not be afraid" (Luke 2:10).

My friends I would like to end with those words, which we will need as we go through 2004.

May God bless you abundantly,
Bishop Nathan

News Update

This past year or two has seen a lot of changes in Bunyoro Kitara ("Bun Kit"). They have a new Bishop, Bishop Nathan Kyamanywa, supported by his wife Peace. They have settled into their new role in life very well and are very anxious to maintain and strengthen the link with St Luke's.

The building of the new "Crossroads Hoima" has begun. The site has been purchased and paid for, all the formidable formalities are done with, materials are on site, and spades are in the ground. "We are off." There will be more news about the progress of the project later. Please pray for the project.

We continue to help support and feed the students at the Diocesan Training Centre each month, feed, clothe and educate the orphans living out (with relatives or carers) and at the Mustard Seed Orphanage, where we have been able to assist with the building of a new dining room and kitchen. Both of the old buildings were mud huts and fell down. The Christmas party for all the orphans was again the highlight of their year (see page 2 of our Hoima picture gallery). Thanks to our friend and brother Thad, "our American in Hoima", who organized it. Everybody takes part, cooking, entertaining and playing with children who are in dire need of a big hug and lots of love.

Lord, in our abundant lives keep us ever mindful of the needs of your people less fortunate than us and teach us to share your bounty.

Bishop Nathan has invited us to send a party, preferably ecumenical, over to Uganda this year. If you have a feeling for Uganda or are interested in going please contact Jane Fell or John Morris.

Thank you so very much for all your prayers help and support in the past. To maintain and strengthen our special link with "Bun Kit" we need your continued prayerful support, help and support in all we try to do in the name of St Luke's.
Our ongoing efforts for Uganda Orphans include

• our Uganda collecting boxes,
• Smarties tubes to take home and fill, (both available at the back of Church),
• collection of scrap jewellery to sell for salvage,
• selling bulbs and plants,
• raffles,
• and many more projects,

all of which would be useless without your support.

God Bless you all.
Happy and Blessed New Year.
For further information please contact Jane Fell

August 2003 - Uganda

The latest news from the Bunyoro-Kitara Diocese - 1 August 2003

Crossroads Hoima

At long last the registration of the site for the new Crossroads Hoima project has been made. The ground work has begun, the site is fenced off and the work is due to start.

The purpose of the Crossroads project is to be available for all peoples irrespective of denomination or tribe, to offer help where help is needed and to be a centre of peace in a troubled country. The staff will be a comfort for the distressed, a companion for the lonely, and a helping hand where one is needed, and they will co-ordinate the information centre.

The site is opposite the hospital, on the main road into Hoima from Masindi and Kampala. It is the perfect place to serve the needs of the people who have to travel great distances, often on foot or bicycle, to get their sick children and relatives to the hospital. They have to stay with the patients to feed and care for them, as admission into hospital only means medical advice and application of drugs or treatment, which the relatives have to supply to the doctor's prescription. They often sleep on the floor under the beds but with the hospital working at 188% patient capacity the place is very crowded. It will be a great relief for relatives and friends to be able to go across the road to Crossroads for some food and non-alcoholic drinks at affordable prices, or even find a bed for the night.

Diocesan Clinic

Another great happening in Hoima is the reopening on 1 August of the diocesan Clinic which has been closed for the past ten years. The old dilapidated buildings have been completely rebuilt and restored. A vehicle for the doctor and a van (to be used as an ambulance) have been purchased. The doctor and his wife, who is a nurse, have come from Ghana. The American Christians who financed the project received applications for the doctor's post from all over the world, but the Lord put in place Dr Emmanuel Tsegah from Ghana. He is a missionary doctor from the other side of Africa who has come to work with the people of Uganda. This has been made possible by the gift of love from people in the USA on the other side of the world. Only the love of Jesus could bring it all together.

With all the turmoil of preparation of the clinic and the doctor's house, refitting and refurbishing, the doctor's name signifies the hand of the Lord on the project, as Emmanuel in Hebrew means "God is with us" .

	Bishop Henry Orombi

A new Archbishop for the Anglican Church of Uganda.

Archbishop Livingstone Nkoyooyo will retire in January 2004. The Archbishop-elect is Bishop Henry Orombi who was elected by the House of Bishops after two days of prayer and fasting. Bishop Henry is a powerful speaker and a great evangelist, but he was totally unprepared for the honour laid at his door; he did not even have an acceptance speech prepared. He is a true man of God and his favourite verse from the Bible is Jeremiah 1:5 "Before I formed you in your mother's womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart: I appointed you as a prophet to the nations".

He became a born again Christian while teaching in Arua, he has preached the word of God to all men and now Bishop Henry finds himself in the Archbishop's shoes.

Please keep him in your prayers.

June 2003 - Uganda

supporting

• Orphans in the Diocese,
• Students at the Diocesan Training Centre,
• Special Projects, and now
• Crossroads Hoima - a new and exciting project for all the people.

Bishop Nathan sends his blessing and says,

Thank you, dear friends at St Luke's for your love for us. You still actively support the orphans who grow in number all the time, you feed the students at the DTC whose number has doubled since we started, and provide general support for the diocese, the orphans' Christmas party and private projects, supported by individuals.

Now the newest exciting project is "Crossroads Hoima". We look forward to, and ask for your prayerful support for the creation of this most needed project in Hoima.

God bless you all.
Your friend
Bp Nathan

The Crossroads Hoima Project is based on our Crossroads and was born after Bishop Wilson and then Bishop Nathan saw the benefits to the people of our Crossroads. They were so impressed that both of them put forward the idea to start their own project.

So far they have bought an ideal site and await the final registration of the site by the local authority. It is on the main road into Hoima opposite the hospital, the very place for people in need, there, ready to serve the Lord and his most vulnerable and needy people.

Please pray for the project and its ultimate success as a place of peace and rest.

Blessed are they who serve in the name of the Lord.

Hospital Hoima

The start of a regular hospital visiting service was the work of the Revd George Hope, a young pastor, and a young lady named Sanny who runs the computer school. They saw the dire state of the people who were admitted into the hospital. In Africa what you get in hospital is just medical advice and application of dressings or administration of medication, all of which has to be provided by you or your relatives, along with food and bedding.

Patients are cared for, fed and washed by relatives who stay in the wards and sleep on the floors - no relatives, no care.

George and Sanny visit the hospital two or three times a week in their own time, to pray with and comfort the needy. With a small budget provided by American donors, they try to buy drugs and medicines for the poorest people who have no money to care for themselves, but they can only help a few people with their small resources; there are always more in need than there is money.

Yet the patients and staff, along with the visitors, are secure in their belief that the Lord will provide. They are happy and cheerful and make the best of an almost hopeless situation.

Please remember the patients and the visitors in your prayers.

Thank you and God bless you for your support.

Interested in Uganda?
Would you like to visit there?
Really want to help?
Take a box from the back of church to fill with your change.
Take a tube of Smarties, eat and enjoy, fill with money and return.
We are still collecting old jewellery to sell as scrap gold or silver.

Contact John Morris (e-mail: john.morris@stlukecrosby.org.uk).

January 2003 - Uganda

supporting

• Orphans in the Diocese,
• Students at the Diocesan Training Centre,
• Special Projects, and now
• Crossroads Hoima - a new and exciting project for all the people

UGANDA 2003

A happy and blessed new year to all our brothers and sisters in St Luke's, we pray the Lord will bless you, watch over you and keep you, as you walk in his way this new year. We thank you for your love and care of our people, life here would be so much harder but for the love and support of our dear friends in St Luke's. Thank you and God Bless you. Bishop Nathan

Another year of opportunity for service in Jesus's name.

Father we thank you for the opportunity of service in your name and pray that you will continue to send your Holy Spirit to bless us, touch us, heal us and remind us of our favoured and fortunate position in this world. Keep us ever mindful and supportive of those less fortunate than ourselves.

Uganda Reflections

We still actively

• support the orphans, who grow in number all the time,
• help feed the students at the Diocesan Training Centre, whose number has doubled since we started,
• provide general support for the Diocese,
• support the orphans' Christmas party and
• support private projects, funded by individuals.

Now we have the project CROSSROADS HOIMA. We look forward to and ask for your prayerful support for the creation of this most needed project in Hoima.

News from Hoima

The past year has seen great changes in the Diocese of Bunyoro-Kitara, with the retirement and visit to the UK of our old friend Bishop Wilson and his wife Sayuni, and the election, consecration and enthronement of our friend and brother Canon Nathan Kyamanywa as the new bishop. The privileged visit of the Revd David Trollope, the Revd John Patterson, Brenda and John Morris to Hoima to represent St Luke's at the consecration of the new bishop and the inaugural meeting of the "Crossroads Hoima" committee was a wonderful and gratifying experience.

To be able to contribute to the start of this much needed project, which emulates our own Crossroads, is a tribute to all who work in or are involved with Crossroads here in Crosby. Such a project in Hoima, where the need is so great, will be a true blessing for all the people.

Other projects in Hoima:

• The creation of a tiny Christian school for the poorest children called Land of Canaan school, with wooden classrooms, no windows or doors, mud floors, rough wooden desks. The dedicated Christian staff work on, often without pay, in the service of The Lord and His children.
• The start of a regular hospital visiting service. With their tiny resources they try to buy drugs and medicines for the poorest who have no money to care for themselves but they can only help a few people.
• The start of an education programme for all the orphans, under the care of the Revd Sam Kahuma, vicar of the cathedral; every child will get their chance. Your support enabled the first distribution of books, pencils and uniforms, at the Cathedral which we were asked to attend.

Thank you and God bless you for your support. Interested in Uganda? Want to help? Contact John Morris (e-mail: john.morris@stlukecrosby.org.uk).

Earlier news from Uganda is here.

Contact: John Morris
e-mail: john.morris@stlukecrosby.org.uk

this page was last modified on 6 June 2004