FHLM June/July 2015 Update-Director, SOAR Youth, Missionary, Youth Center

Hello from Masaka! Wow!! June and July were exceptionally busy months for us all at Faith Hope Love Missions, but through it all, the Lord reigned! Ephesians 3:20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us. Please read and enjoy.

Director’s News:
The month of June started off with me being sick with a throat infection that moved into my chest and ears. It took the whole month to pass, but with God’s grace I pushed through everything. The first week of the month I was able to get away for a much needed Prayer Retreat! As I missed my Retreat last year I had not been away for 2 years. Though I was fighting that infection, it was an amazing time with the Lord! He spoke to me about several things including the ministry, my marriage and the church. One of my prayers during retreat was for funding for a Furlough to the U.S. As you may recall that I had left the Furlough funding in God’s hands. Well low and behold, when I returned from Retreat I received a email from my home church mission coordinator saying that an anonymous donor from the church sent money enough for a flight ticket back to the U.S. God’s timing is perfect—He does not delay or hurry and has a plan for everything, so I praise the Lord. Wooohoo! I am coming to the U.S. in September and October!

All throughout June and July I had many trips to Kampala for letters, papers and meetings with Ugandan Gender & Labor office and the U.S. Embassy all to finalize the paperwork to obtain our Foreign NGO Certificate. Unfortunately I am still waiting on one more letter from the Ugandan Embassy in Washington, DC. Please pray for the letter to come swiftly. Thank you! Also while I was in Kampala I worked on the name change and renewal of my U.S. passport, and got my Ugandan drivers license. Such official business–smile.

 SOAR Youth News:
During my trips to Kampala I was able to meet up with David, as he is doing his Industrial Training/Internship with Oscar Ntege Studios until mid-August. He loves working with Oscar and has been learning so much about photography, video and design work. He kept saying, “Aunt, photography is all about the light”.  He has had chances to travel with this internship, going to Fort Portal and experience many upscale locations in Kampala.

Back in Masaka, we had Masaka Secondary School Sports and Visitation day on 20 June. It was a wonderful day with our SOAR Youth who attend the school, Babirye and Alpha. We also shared the day with four of the youth from Abbana Uganda that attend the school. We all took pleasure eating a delicious picnic lunch and had lots of fun and laughs with each other!

Big News: The Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni, came to Masaka SS for a visit with the students on 18 June. A few students were selected to perform for him and Alpha was among the students. He performed a song that he had composed and danced a bit for the president and his fellow students. What a BIG opportunity for him!

William has been doing well at Nile Vocational Institute, but in June he got sick with malaria. We were able to get him treatment and medicine and he recovered fine. His top 3 favorite things about school are; 1) The practical applications, like wiring 2) Cross Country Running with his friends 3) Eating posho (mingled maze flour)

Praise the Lord, Faridah is back home in Masaka after completing her courses for a Diploma in Accounting at Uganda College of Commerce in Pakwach!!! It was so awesome to see her. She has grown in the Lord so much in the last 2 years. She and I spent a few days catching up and working on her Resume, because she immediately put out applications for jobs. Please pray for the Lord to guide her steps and give her a position with a good company. Thank you!

Missionary News:
On 18 June Aunt Liz and I picked up missionary, Kristina Sargent from Entebbe after she had flown in from Ohio. She was in Masaka for 10 days working with FHLM. This wasn’t Kristina’s first time in Masaka, as in 2010 she came with 3 other friends, as FHLM’s 1st Missionary Team! This time around she put her master’s degree in Social Work to use and conducted a five-day training for 13 NGO Youth Social Workers and Directors. She also had Special Life-Skill Training Days all week for the youth that come to the Center. Babirye said, “I learnt how to control myself from the things Kristina taught us, like how to control the breath with the bottle filled with glitter and it helps me a lot when I am angry or annoyed.” It was an amazing time and such a blessing for us all! This is what Kristina had to say about here time here in Masaka, “It is so encouraging to see how Faith Hope Love Missions is truly a safe space offering consistent supports to help youth heal and grow in all aspects of their lives.” Thank you Kristina, we love you and look forward to next year’s visit!

Youth Center News:
June J.A.M. (Jesus & Me) Session was on the 27th. We had an awesome day with the youth. This is what Kristina; our missionary had to say about the day, “I was so grateful to be able to participate in the June Jam Session. It is a wonderful community event for youth to grow spiritually, express themselves creatively, and celebrate each other!”  July’s J.A.M. was a different one as Joseph, the youth leader of J.A.M., decided it was time for the youth too really “own” J.A.M., so he posed the following questions to the youth in attendance; What are your favorite things? Why do you like them so much? How does the community & society benefit from your talent? How does your talent glorify God? Does God like it?  This really made each youth think about how they as individuals glorify God! I can’t wait to J.A.M. in August to see what comes out of this session!

The next weekend, 3-5 July, Babirye, Angela, Alpha and Joseph were all off to the 3rd Annual Soweto Youth Fellowship Camp. This year’s theme was Flourish, Nourish & Thrive Colossians 2:6-7. Alpha told me what stuck with him was that all the bad roots of our lives were thrown away like bad friends and what remained were only the good. He also learnt that branches are those people who lift us up when we are down. Not only Alpha, but all the youth when they came back on Sunday evening and said camp was SO EXCELLENT and couldn’t stop talking about Praise & Worship night. I praise God that we are able to support and send youth to these life changing camps.

We had our 2nd Annual Young Ladies Tea; “Bloom” on 11 July. This day is set aside to give young ladies in the community the opportunity to be treated special, empowered and shown love. We began the day with the ladies making construction paper flowers with their feelings, verses and accomplishments on the petals. I than opened in prayer and read Luke 12:27 to them and talked about how God created them as beautiful as the lilies, we than enjoyed tea, finger sandwiches and cupcakes. After eating we were treated to a powerful talk by Emily Ojambo from River of Life Church; THINKING THROUGH YOUR CHOICES TO REACH YOUR DESIRED DESTINY.  Emily spoke to them about how life is a series of choices and how they have to have Godly wisdom, especially as young ladies, as they choose their pathway in life. During her closing prayer, Emily, gave an alter call and one young lady gave her life to Christ. What a blessed day it was!!

We had our Monthly Movie with a Message Day on 18 July and we watched Johnny, a very touching movie about a young boy that has terminal leukemia. This spurred much conversation after the movie about how Johnny knew that God has a special mission for him and no matter how sick he was, he was going to fulfill that mission. I’m going to leave you all guessing what his mission was and challenge you to watch this amazing movie!

On 25 July we had our Quarterly FHLM Board Meeting. It was a very good meeting with all but one of our new board members in attendance. Our main order of business was reviewing two new SOAR Youth candidates. After much discussion the board voted to accept Wamala Cephas into the SOAR school sponsorship program.

These past two months have been so full of blessings for the ministry and me that it has been hard to fit everything into this update. I am just overwhelmed by how marvelous our Lord is–my cup runneth over! Psalm 23:5. Thanks to all who support, pray and love us so!

I am looking forward to seeing you all in September and October in the U.S.! Till than may our Lord bless you and keep you!

God Bless,
Rita
Director-Faith Hope Love Missions