FHLM APRIL 2022 NEWSLETTER

GREETINGS:

Sorry this Newsletter is so late but as the saying goes, “better late than never”. Early in the month the Seasonal Rains slowed down, but by mid-month we have experienced rain almost every day—and very heavy rains!  

DIRECTORS UPDATE:

Kampala Trip: I traveled to Kampala on the 9^th April. The next day I was also able to attend service at our Hilltop Church plant in Kabowa, a suburb of Kampala. It was wonderful to see my Senior Pastor, Sam, and hear him preach! 

The afternoon of the 10th was Babirye’s rescheduled graduation party. Pastor and I attended together as honored guests and key speakers. Babirye even composed a song for her two Moms, her biological Mom Jane and myself. It was such a blessing to be thought of in that was. Though I was rushed, because I traveled back to Masaka that evening, I enjoyed being with Babirye and celebrating her big achievement.

Thankful: Kellen Niyomukiza, our new Social Worker’s, first day of work with FHLM was on 4^th April. She spent her first week in Orientation getting to know our policies, procedures, and pouring over all of the youth’s files. The next week she jumped into work and created a Holiday Counseling Schedule. Every Tuesday she meet with 2 of the youth in order to have her initial sessions completed before they returned to school. She has adapted to the ministry and youth very well. To me she has been a God send and not only helped with running some sessions, but she also helped me write this report. 

Unfortunately from mid-April on I was out of the Office and Centre for several days dealing with personal matters. I praise God that He had brought Charles and Kellen to FHLM before all of this came to me. I am so thankful for them for their leadership, support, and wisdom with the youth. Fortunately the extra time they have spent with the youth has allowed them to grow their relationships and unity. “Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Esther 4:14b

SOAR YOUTH UPDATE:

Holiday Studies: Since Justine and Eddy are both in Secondary Advanced Levels and had missed a lot of teaching due to the COVID Lockdown we decided to have them take “Top Up Classes” on the subjects that they needed the most assistance with. Justine took Geography, and Economics. Eddy took Biology and Chemistry. 

Immy, who is a Secondary 4 Candidate this year, also took additional Holiday classes.

Seedlings: Since it is rainy season we, as a ministry, understand how important it is to help our Youth’s families to be sustainable. That said on the 26th we had a distribution of vegetable seedlings to the youth. The plants that Uncle Charles purchased for the youth included Egg plants, Spinach, Nakati and Carrots. Each youth received 10 plants of each for their family’s gardens. If the family did not have land to plant the youth planted at the Youth Centre.  

Reports: In the morning of the 28th the youth picked their report cards from school and brought them at the center for us to review. Most of the youth did well, despite being out of school the better part of 2 years. But we have to congratulate William for an outstanding performance in 1st Term!! Out of 612 Secondary 3 students he was in the top 50! May God continue to grant all the youth His wisdom & knowledge.      

YOUTH PROGRAMS:

1^st Term Holiday: The youth ended their 1^st Term on 8^th April. This was a week earlier than expected, but it was great to have the youth around again! We kicked off the Holiday Programs with a Movie Day and ended the month with a Painting Day!  Here are some of our Monthly Program Highlights:

Weekly Bible Study: Because this was the month of Easter our Holiday Bible Study theme was “The Resurrection of Jesus Christ”. Since the youth were out of school they had teams of two for leading each week’s study. Here is one of the studies that “stood out” and the lessons we learned from them: 

The leaders for the day were Justine and Pius. We started with a song, after wards Justine led us in Bible study from the book of John 20: 1-30. The theme was The Empty Tomb. We looked at how the disciples had closed themselves inside due to fear and how there are many things that people do due to fear. But when we look at Mary even death could not separate her from Jesus’ love because after His death Mary woke up early in the morning to go and see where his body had been put. Here are more of the lessons we learnt from the Chapter.

• Justine: When the spirit of the Lord is in you, you see what other people cannot see like Mary. Among the people that went there it is only Mary who saw Jesus.
• Kellen: Mary brought good news to the disciples who were in fear. We should also learn to take good news to all the people especially the discouraged and those that are in fear. When he resurrected, our sins remained in the grave. We are no longer slaves but set free by the power of Jesus resurrection.
• Eddy: Jesus is powerful, even death could not hold him captive. Even in the grave he is the Lord!!!!!!
• Pius: We should not be like Thomas who had to see to believe. We need to learn to believe in God and trust Him without seeing.

Movie Day: On the 9^th we had our monthly movie day. We started with a song and an opening prayer. This month we watched The Cross and The Switchblade. A real life testimony and of Pastor David Wilkerson’s evangelistic work and love with street gangs in New York City in the 1970’s. Here are the LESSONS LEARNT FROM THE MOVIE.

• PIUS-With God, everything is possible.
• PAMELA-God can change each and every person with bad or worst characters.
• WILLY-Always being firm and confident in whatever we do for God loves us.
• JUSTINE-Ministry is not an easy thing. You meet people with different hearts, some good and others bad. So we leant to always press on whatever the situation.
• IMMY-People that are not yet born again need to be loved. We have to show them love so as to attract them to Christ and his love.
• KELLEN-We should not get tired of ministering or doing well. Finally the preacher preached, people repented and forgave one another. They were united again.

We closed the day with worship song by Justine and a closing prayer which was led by Kellen. (Written by Kellen)

Good Friday Fun Day: It was a blessing to again be able to host a BIG community event at the Youth Center. We reprised our annual Good Friday event and on 15^th April we welcomed over 50 visitors! Though it rained in the morning and drizzled up to 1pm it didn’t stop people from attending. We started a praise and worship session from the garage, as we waited for the rain to stop. Aunt Rita welcomed visitors, said a few words, and prayed for our lunch. When the rain stopped totally, we went outside and the youth played games like bottle filling, sack race, advertising songs, and egg race. The youth were rewarded with sweets for having participated in the games. Games were followed by praise and worship that was led by FHLM SOAR Youth. Then our preacher for the day, Pastor Joel, was welcomed and introduced by Aunt Rita. He shared with the youth about The Fear of God. These are two of the verses he spoke on:

2 Thessalonians 2:7 which says; for the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way.

Matthew 10:28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Basing on the verses we read he encouraged the youth the following:

• Christ should find us spotless whenever He looks at us.
• We should prepare ourselves for the second coming of Jesus through repenting our sins.
• We should be well behaved as born again people.
• To be dressing decently while going to church plus other places.
• Not to hate people basing on different reasons i.e. he or she looks for me badly. He encouraged the youth to love all people equally.
• He asked the youth to fear God instead of fearing man because it is in God that            Knowledge starts from.
• Paul talked about the church that was not warm or cold. God does not like seeing us that way. He wants us to choose one thing and be blameless.
• To bear fruits even when no one is looking at us. He added that the same movies we watch while at the church are the ones we have to watch while at home in our rooms.
• The youth were encouraged to be the same person wherever they go. They were encouraged to avoid living chameleon style.

Pastor Joel concluded with a prayer and prayed for all of to reach home safely. Aunt Rita said a few words after and wished us a Happy Easter. (Written by Rita & Kellen)

Easter Sunday: I (Rita) hosted Easter Sunday Luncheon at my home. It was a wonderful day with 9 of our youth, Uncle Alpha and some of my family members in attendance. Of course we enjoyed a yummy lunch but we couldn’t forget the reason why we were all gathered, so we gave special thanks to Jesus for the life He has given us in His death and resurrection.

After lunch we all enjoyed playing charades. Oliver said she hasn’t laughed and enjoyed that much in a long while! After games we enjoyed all of the yummy treats we had baked on Saturday. Though no one wanted to leave it was getting dusk so we closed this beautiful day with a worship song and a prayer. 

Life-Skill:  On the 21^st Aunt Kellen led the youth through Life-Skill Topic: Handling Disagreements. She gave each youth a chance to tell her what they understood the word disagreements meant. Then she focused on the Causes Of Conflicts:

• Difference in ideas and opinions
• Difference in religious, political, cultural and/ socio-economical back ground.
• Difference in age or maturity level.
• Gender insensitivity.
• Prejudice
• Misunderstanding
• Criticism.

She taught that in spite of all these differences, we could learn to understand others’ point of view without necessarily abandoning our reasonable stand. I told them that many people who do not know how to relate with others on the basis of the above reasons resort to destructive criticism. They also looked at Constructive criticism instead of destructive criticism. They brought in an example of how one can make a positive criticism. They read from the book of Romans 12: 18….. Live at peace with everyone. She encouraged them to try by all means to be at peace with everyone. It’s a hard thing but the word has told us to live at peace with everyone. Hebrews 12:14 Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy….. All in all this life-skill resonated with the youth as many left the session talking about how it has impacted them. I thank God for Kellen’s teaching.

Pen-Pals: On the 25th the youth wrote Pen Pal Letters to the children of Harlan Christen Youth Centre, in my (Rita) home town in Indiana. They really enjoyed the session and most of the youth wrote to more than one child. They said it was fun writing, drawing, shading and putting stickers on the letters.

Painting Day: Though there were other programs throughout the month we ended the month with a Picture Painting Day! The youth enjoyed painting and drawing on a large piece of wood. Immy put her fine art skills to work and painted a scene from a story book, while others painted verses and sayings on the board. When this colorfully painted mural was completed we hung it in the main sitting room of the Centre for all to see!

BELA BULUNGI (GOOD-BYE):

As you have read April was a blessed month! I thank the Lord for all of the joy, protection, provision and love that He sent to the ministry and to me in April. I pray that God is blessing you with the same. Until next month may the Lord bless you and keep you!

In His Grip,

Rita Bulegeya & Kellen Niyomukiza,

Director and Social Worker-Faith Hope Love Missions

reetsindiego@yahoo.com