FHLM August 2019 Newsletter

It has been a month of contrasts! Ups and downs emotionally & spiritually, but through it all God has been incredibly faithful. He gave me this verse at the end of July I think preparing me for what was to come and I have had to lean into it, knowing He is always by my side through it all! Joshua 1:9 “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

Director’s Update:

On August 2^nd Jane and I went out for a “fancy” lunch at Hotel Brovad and to celebrate her 4th Year Anniversary with FHLM. It has been so wonderful to see her learn and grow over the last few years, not to mention being a part of all her life changes from marriage to baby. She has been a wonderful asset to the organization, the youth and to me over the years. Congratulations Jane!

Then on the night of the 2^nd Jane rang me with the chilling news that our girls, Immy and Justine, were in a very serious boda accident involving a SUV. As soon as I heard I knew in my spirit that things weren’t good, so I rang Pastor Sam. Pastor came immediately to pick me and go to Masaka Referral Hospital emergency were the girls had been taken to receive trauma treatment. They were in serious condition.

Unfortunately that hospital was ill equipped to care for them, so at mid-night we had to transfer them by ambulance to a private hospital, St. Joseph’s Kitovu. Justine was knocked unconscious and received several deep cuts on her head and face. We found out after the CT Scan that she had a cerebral oedema, swelling on the brain, and a small bleed. She also had a lot of soft tissue damage, so her arm and hand were very swollen and she had lots of “road rash” on her legs. But praise God her arm was not broken, as she had been pulled from underneath the SUV that hit them. Immy has a broken pelvis and bruised ribs and back. From reports they say she was run over. Considering the reports of the accident their injuries were somehow not bad, but it is only because God protected them!! His hand covered them from death! Immy had no surgery but because of the pelvis break will be on bed rest for at least 4 plus weeks and doing pain management. She missed end of term exams, so she was upset. Justine went back to school for the last few days of the term. Since she is a S4 Candidate the school was gracious and made special compensation for the Mock Exams that she missed.

They were both discharged from hospital on the evening of the 4th. I have a friend that has a “mobile clinic” van and they blessed us with transport to the home that they are recovering at. Since then Justine is fully recovered and Immy is still resting and recovering at home waiting for the brake to heal. I thank everyone for your fervent prayers and continued prayers. God bless you all!

After a few crazy, busy weeks I was able to get to Kampala for a few days, for a change of scenery, a little rest, to see my friends, Sarah & Ricky, and also to get a few things finished before I travel to the U.S. in September. Speaking of my Furlough below is my schedule. If I’m in your area I hope we can meet up or at least you can come to one of my speaking engagements, because I would love to see you!

1. Fort Wayne & Harlan, Indiana 09 Sept- 04 October
2. Bethel, Ohio 04-07 October
3. Denver/Dacono, CO 07 – 11 October
4. Colorado Springs & Woodland Park, CO 11 – 21 October
5. San Diego, CA 21- 28 October

Due to the girls accident the FHLM 3^rd Quarter Board Meeting was re-scheduled for the 17^th. We reviewed 3 potentially new sponsor youth, re-established and set new policies and reviewed our current youth’s progress in detail. I’m so thankful for our board members and those that are committed to seeing this organization flourish for the community and in the Lord.

We had the wedding of Jordyn and Joshua on 24^th.  This is the couple from Hilltop Church that I have been counselling over the last 4 months. I also had a 1^st, Pastor Sam was out of town, so I had to fill in for him and reside over the Wedding Rehearsal on the 23^rd. But good thing he was back for the Wedding Day to officially marry them. It was a simple, but beautiful wedding day full of love, friends and family. .

Youthz Updates:

Babirye Scripture Union’s BF2 Camp at the SU camp-site in Entebbe from 02-05 August. Here is what she wrote about it: I am so thankful that you paid for me to go to BF2 Camp. It has helped me a lot and it happened at the right time since i was just going to start doing God’s work at campus as the mama for the Christian Union. I wasn’t sure yet if I would manage this new leadership role I have been given but what we learned at camp created confidence in me. It made me feel that I can do it! Since god is the one who appointed me, He will show me how to lead His people and will always be with me.

The camp theme was “Here I Am Send Me Lord” Isaiah 6:8. Camp taught me to always obey and listen to God when He calls us. We learnt from 1 Samuel 3:1-10 too about how we need to grow to a level of differentiating God’s voice from other voices. But this will only happen through serious study of the Word. We also learnt that we need the spirit of discernment by knowing God intimately or having an intimate relationship with God. Then we can never fail to know His voice when He calls us.

Then on the 6^th she was off to Ndejje University for her 2^nd Year! Time is flying by and before we know it she’ll be finished with her degree in Secondary Education. I’m so thankful for all those that prayer for Babirye and support her. May God richly bless you and increase your provision.

Back to Success was on 10 Aug and this time Aunt Faridah was not able to attend, so this month was youth led. We are thankful to still have Joshua around helping the secondary youths. Since the youths were in exam time they each had revision questions for Joshua. Oliver gave him a Geography question on Statistics. It was about changing the temperature into degrees and then constructing the pie chart. Joshua went through that question with Oliver and she got to understand how to answer. Oliver also posed Biology question on Transpiration and Temperature regulation, which she was having issues with. Then Hanisha had questions about Entrepreneurship. They discussed the five types of Entrepreneurs, qualities of a good Entrepreneur, and other questions. He advised Hanisha and all the students to know what classes are troubling them and to seek out answers to those issues if they want to get better grades. Since no one else had questions, he left them to revise for an hour before he closed in prayer.

That same day was Joshua’s 21^st Birthday! As you know we celebrate life at FHLM, so we had a little party for him with cake, soda, and popcorns. Joshua said he was surprised and so happy for the celebration!

Than on the 24^th Joshua headed to Western Uganda for his 1^st Year and 1^st Semester of school at Kampala International University. Please keep him in prayer that he has an amazing year that he finds good Christian friends, adapts to the new environment & people of western Uganda, and continues to stay focused on his goal of becoming a Pharmacist. Thank you!

End of 2^nd Term for our secondary students, Hanisha, Willy, Eddy, Oliver, and Justine (minus Immy) was on Wed, 14^th August. They all came to the Centre that Thursday for Bible Study and then on Friday we “kicked off” our Holiday Programs with fun games of ludo, checkers, and finally everyone joined in with  Uno. What a great way to start our Holiday off!

Movie Day: On 17^th Aug while we had our board meeting several youth watched Heaven is for Real. Here are the lessons that they learned from the movie:

• Just like Pastor Todd & his wife did when the boy Colton was sick and dying, we too should share our problems with other people, so that they can pray for us. Because together we can!
• God can use any person to let people know about Him, like Colton. No matter how he or she looks like or their age because in the eyes of God we are all equal, no one is old and no one is young. God loves us equally.
• We should not have envy upon other people because we gain nothing from it.
• Though Todd’s family had many financial problems they held onto what they wanted, family, God and their faith.
• We should have hope in us, hoping that one day we will achieve what we want.
• Having Christ doesn’t mean that you will not have problems, but what we have to do is to believe that He can take away those problems. (Written by: Oliver Namuwunda)

On the 19^th and 21^st I taught Worth The Wait to our youth. This is a life-skills training to help young people develop and learn who they are, make informed decisions, understand positive and negative influences, and encourage them to abstain from sex until married. During the two days I taught from one of the ten chapters; Relationships & Boundaries. In the Relationship Session we discussed in depth the different types of relationships they find themselves in and how those relationships influence their lives. In the Boundaries Session they learned how to apply boundaries in any relationship that will influence who they are and their future.

Holiday Bibles Studies: We continued with our walk through the Word of God with Tuesdays in 2 Kings and Thursday in Romans. But since it is Holiday we have more time to get into deeper teaching and discussions of the Word. We also added a Quiz at the end of every study to reinforce what we have learned.

On the 22^nd we were blessed to have three ladies from the Instruments Ballet Company at the Youth Centre. Because this was a special day many other organizations from around Masaka sent their youth and children to hear and see what the ladies had for them. Elena first shared from the Word of God in 1 Peter 1:3-5 and Ephesians 2:1-6 that our Hope is in Jesus and we are made alive in Christ. Ana than shared from Mark 14:1-9 and talked about how, even if we are poor we all have something to give Jesus. She than shared a bit about her testimony and how Jesus is the Potter and we are the clay. We than took an intermission and a snack break. Then it was time for Ana to perform. Each did a ballet dance with music reflecting what they had shared in the Bible study. Each performance was so moving, and beautiful! You could see that they were dancing for God! Afterward they taught a few of the children some basic ballet moves. We have to send out a BIG thank you to Aunt Fay from Nurture Children’s Home, who partnered with us and brought these ladies to us. What a special day and wonderful learning experience for all!

From 23^rd to 27^th Hanisha, William and Eddy attended Scripture Union Camp at Kako Secondary. This was Hanisha and William’s 1^st S.U. Camp so they were a bit unsure about what to expect, but when I picked them up on Tuesday they ALL beamed with excitement and were so happy they got to attend camp. This year’s theme was from 1 Timothy 4:16 “Watch Your Life and Doctrine Closely”. Anyway, these are a few things that they had to say about camp:

• Hanisha: We did aerobics in the mornings, eat good food and played games and sports, but one thing I learnt how to have Quiet Time. Quite Time is the time in which a person talks to God and reads in the Bible while sitting alone and in silence. I really liked the end day party in which people showed their talents, like singing, dancing, making poems, and playing comedy.
• William: We learnt in the scriptures in Ephesians 4:1 and 1 Corinthians 6:12 whereby we were told to “stop being slaves” with men and to the world. We also had a workshop about Scripture Union, its history and what it’s all about. I liked that but my favourite things about camp were the Bibles Studies!

I’m so thankful that we can send our youth to camps like this where they can get a Biblical Foundation and also become rooted deeper in the Word of God!

Praise God for the warm and sunny day that we had on the 30^th for our SOAR Youth Fun Day out at Elite Backpackers! This place is close enough to the Centre that we can walk and once we got there the youth were able to jump into their new pool and cool off! It was Hanisha and William’s first time swimming in a pool. After over an hour of swimming, and Eddy and William shivering but still wanting to swim, it was time for lunch. We all had chips and “fancy Rolexes”. When we were all satisfied Olive and Jus broke out the ludo and Uno and we played games till it was time to go home. I thank God that we can have days like these, and be able to give our youth new experiences and new adventures.

J.A.M. Re-Boot! We used to have J.A.M.- Jesus and Me- every month, but it was decided that we’ll now have twice a year during holidays and make them special days! On the 31^st  we had a wonderful afternoon filled with many songs, dance, instrumental performances, and even a skit by our youth. We want to thank the children from Nurture Children’s Home for coming and giving us a few songs and dances, Mr. Laban for all his beautiful songs and wonderful guitar instrumentals and all the others that attended. It was truly a special day! As it says in Psalm 33:1-2 we are to rejoice in the Lord and praise the Lord with harp and sing unto Him and that is what we did Praised the Lord for His goodness!   

As you have read it has been a month with many ups and downs, but through it all our Lord remains faithful! I thank everyone for their continued prayers, support, encouragement, and love! May you be blessed back 100 fold for this. I hope to see many of you while I’m stateside. Have a blessed day!

In His Grip,

Rita Bulegeya

Director-Faith Hope Love Missions (UG)