FHLM JUNE 2021 NEWSLETTER

Greetings:

Hello from Masaka! I hope you are all enjoying your summer! The rains have finally stopped and it is now dry, dusty, but pleasant. 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. You will understand why I chose this verse as you read on…..  

Director’s Update:

Up & Down Month: This has been a month of continual change, challenges, emotions, and uncertainties, but through it all one thing remains the same, our Father God! For He never changes and is always faithful.   James 1:17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. (NIV)

Partial Lockdown to Full Lockdown: COVID19 is on the rise here in Uganda with both the South African and Indian Variants being very prevalent in the country, so on 7^th June Uganda went into partial lock-down for 42 days. At that time President Museveni & COVID19 Task Force decided upon immediately closure of ALL schools & universities, sending our youth home again! This caused a mass chaos with our public transport system! Our Secondary 2 students, who had just started school after a year of sitting out, had only able to study for 2 weeks. Since we were only 7 to 10 maximum at the Centre we remained open, so the youth could study and also continue to have activities.

Than on 18^th June President Yoweri Museveni addressed the nation again, as the daily number of COVID cases and deaths were skyrocketing!  In the first 21 days of the ‘partial-lockdown’ we had 21,000 people infected. This is devastating to a county with an insufficient health care system. We have also lost friends, family members, and prominent members of the community in this 2^nd wave of the virus. Hence we were added an additional 42 days, ending 30 July, and given additional restrictions to fully stop people from moving about.  

Here are just some of the 29 restrictions:

1. All none essential businesses are closed and refer back to the March 2020 lockdown measures.  
2. All places of worship churches, Mosques etc. suspended for 42 days. 
3. Public gatherings of any nature are suspended for 42 days.
4. Weddings & Burials are only allowed 10 persons max, following strict SOPs  
5. Use of Private vehicles suspended and not allowed to cross districts unless they have a Local Council and Regional District Council letter.  
6. Cargo transit of goods is still permitted and to follow strict SOPs and seclusion area restrictions
7. Curfew changed to 7:00pm to 5:30am
8. Bars, clubs, cinemas remain closed
9. Boda bodas used for cargo—carrying goods only– and allowed to operate unto 5pm
10. All Teachers to be vaccinated before going back to school.

Therefore the Centre is once again closed! However, we have put our 2020 COVID measures back into place and are in daily contact with our youth and their families. Also on 28^th June we did our first lot of Family Food Support to our youth’s families. I am also continuing to send daily verses, commentary and songs to our FHLM WhatsApp Group and encouraging texts to the youth. We ask you all too please keep Uganda, its people, and its government in your prayers! Thank you!   

Social Worker Hired: Please help us to welcome Sarah Nakayima Kwagala to the FHLM Family! Sarah has a Degree in Secondary Education and briefly worked for a charity organization at their secondary school. But her heart lies in Social Work, especially in the counseling and guidance of youth. She also has a large background in ministry and serving the Lord. We believe that she will be a wonderful addition to the FHLM Family!

Unfortunately, her first day of work was 18^th June and the next day we went into lock-down, and the closure of the Centre. But she has continued to put her best foot forward and is trying to build relationships with the youth daily via the phone. She is also eager to learn and is committed to praying for the youth and their families.     

Praising God: The beginning of the month started with Rogers being sick. My husband is not one whom stops or slows down, and this flu stopped him in his tracks for a week. Of course, as his care giver, a week later I was down in bed. Thank God that it was the first week of full-lockdown, so I was able to rest and heal. We don’t know if we had COVID, as we didn’t pay the money to get checked, but I’m thankful to the Lord for the provision and the healing of us both! We praise God for that!      

FHLM Board Meeting:  We were scheduled to have our 2^nd Quarter Board meeting on the 26^th but it has been postponed to a date to be determined.   

Centre Happenings:

New Bible Study: Since the youth were supposed to be back in school we decided to start a new Bible Study—doing a deep study in Galatians. On 1^st June I did the Introduction to the chapter discussing the author, overall theme, and the key verse Galatians 5:1.

Eddy led the study on the 8^th in Galatians 1:1-24. His key point about the chapter was that Paul was warning about false teaching and teachers who were telling the wrong gospel. He shared with us that we should be careful and alert now that churches are closed because of lockdown. He said false teachers are going to use this chance to deceive people, on the radio, and coming door to door sharing false religions, or prosperity gospels. He stressed to us that we all need to stay in the Word of God and look for God more than ever!    

On the 15^th Oliver led in Galatians 2:1-21 and taught us that people who bring a different gospel destroy what Christ brought to us. She shared from verse 4 and had this to say about it. “We all have different callings for God and in those callings there will be challenges that occur when we minister. Maybe a person will be jealous and try to stop us, but we have to stand firm and stand for God!! There will be a tug-o-war between you and them, but stick to what God is calling you to do.”

Milly commented on verse 11. “We get abused and criticized by non-believers, false teachers say bad things and can talk down to you, but stand firm and stick on the Truth of the Word.”

Babirye continued by addressing verses 12-16. “No one will be saved by obeying the laws. Many think that just by obeying the law they will go straight to heaven. The only thing that saves is Jesus. When you don’t have faith in Christ you can get swayed by small things. Don’t let that happen to you!”

As you have read our Bible Studies exhort and expound on the Word of God! I am so thankful that we can share these times with our youth so they can learn, grow, and be transformed by the Word! Please keep them in pray that during our lock-down they continue daily Bible Studies and learning the Word of God. Thank you!

Movie Day: On the 5^th we had our “Double Feature Movie Day”! We watchedVeggie Tales- Dr. Jiggle and Mr. Sly. The lesson of the cartoon was, “You’re special the way God made you and do not be afraid to be yourself, the person God made you”

Our “Feature Movie” was Evan Almighty about Evan Baxter who becomes a U.S. Senator and his campaign slogan was “Change the world”. He moves his family to Washington D.C. area were they get a big, fancy new home, and expensive car, hoping that all these new things, and opportunities can bring his family closer together. On the first night in their new home his wife tells him that his boys were praying for the family to be closer. She asks him, what would you pray for? He asks God to please help him to change the world. So God does just that when He asks him to build an ark! Genesis 6:14 Make yourself an ark of gopherwood, make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch.

Here are some of the youth’s comments about the movie:

• William- We should hear the instructions that are given us. God may be using that person to warn or protect us. Be sensitive to God’s voice!
• Benita- We are called to serve. Though Evan was annoyed when God asked him to build the ark he realized that he shouldn’t chase away his blessings. She shared that In Habukkuk 2 it talks about how the just live by faith and God’s plans, so we should too.  
• Immy- Change in our lives is not easy. Evan wanted to change the world but he wasn’t willing to change himself. If we want change we need to be willing to change and pray and ask God for his plans for our lives.

New Schedule: Because of the school closures on the 7^th the youth and I sat down and revised the June Schedule of activities at the Centre. They discussed and voted on the programs that they wanted and came up with many fun and interesting programs. Here are a few of the programs that we were able to have before our Lockdown Closure:

Life-Skill: On the 11^th Uncle Rajab from Scripture Union UG came to the Centre to talk to the youth about ”CROSS TALK”–one of the ways of preaching the Gospel to the people. By using the paper cross evangelism hand out, he taught us how to share about God’s love for us. He mentioned that some of the indicators of His love are; life, protection, provision, promotion, guidance, knowledge.

He continued with the next section on the CROSS and told us that our big problem as Christians is SIN. He defined sin as all act of the flesh which are in Galatians 5:19-21. He told us that our punishment for sin before Christ came, was a very big gap between us and God. But because God loved us so much, He sent His one and only son to bridge that big gap. We saw that indicated on the CROSS. That’s why John 14:6 tells us that Jesus is the way, truth and life no one will reach to the Father except through Him. He also warned us about those false preachers that don’t recognize Jesus yet He is the one that connects us to God. Then we were done talking about the CROSS and he encouraged us with more things.

He also told us that as youths, we should pray so much to God to give us self-control to avoid the
sin of sexual immorality that has destroyed many youths. ‘Cause if we lack self-control, we may end
up getting a disease that may control us the whole of our life. He also told us to go on encouraging our age mates to keep their purity even if we have never experienced consequences of sexual immorality but we can still do that ‘cause a person doesn’t have to first die to teach about death. He also gave us a short form or a summary of things we must do if we make a choice to follow Christ and he called it the 5Ds, standing for; Decision, Desire, Determination, Discipline and Devine help.
He meant that, the decision we make must be final, have that strong desire for Christ, have the
determination, have a discipline as believers in order to set a good example to non-believers
and finally to ask for Devine help ‘cause we can’t do it alone. (Written By: Eddy Hategekimana- Director’s Assistant)

Bible Quiz Day: On the 14^th we had another Quiz Day! The youth really enjoy learning more about the Word and competing with one another.  Justine was our quiz host and led team Josiah and team Victory through Old and New Testament questions along with “lightening rounds”. Lightening rounds consisted of competitors from each team squaring off against each other to see who could find a Bible Verse faster and then reading it. She also gave them a verse and one person on the team had to recite it from memory. Team Josiah won but in God’s eyes we are all WINNERS!

Picture Collage Day: Regrettably the 18^th was our last day together at the Centre. This day we worked on our Annual Picture Collage; taking pictures from the last year, cutting them and placing them on a board for all to see as they enter into the Centre. It is a wonderful day of remembering all of our fun times, God’s faithfulness, and His provision to us.    

SOAR Youth Update:

Joshua: Though we are in lock-down, Joshua has decided to stay in Ishaka at school. He has been given Godly favor with some new relationships with the doctors of the University Hospital and is continuing to do practical work with them at the hospital. He is also continuing to serve God in the community in which he lives and grow his relationship with God. Please keep him in prayer for protection as he serves in the hospital and in Ishaka. Thank you.  

Please also pray for Joshua as he lost his pastor and spiritual father on the 17th, do to covid19. Pastor Kalibbala was the senior pastor of Full Gospel Nyendo, Joshua’s home church. Pastor’s passing will leave a big void in the church, the greater Masaka community and in Joshua’s life, as he was also his mentor. 

Babirye: Unfortunately Babirye’s secondary school internship was cut short when schools closed, so she headed back to Masaka on the 7^th the last day for students to move to their districts. Though the transport system was in chaos and fares were being tripled we were able to contact Uncle Moses, our taxi driver friend, and she got a seat on his mutatu (taxi) at a normal rate. Praise God for Uncle Moses!

Since she has been back she is volunteering at C2C on Monday and Wednesday afternoons teaching the youth computer basics. She is also taking more computer classes at Aunt Betty’s Secretarial to keep her skills fresh and updated. This all came to a halt when on the 20^th her Great Aunt (whom she called grandma) died. Her aunt had been ill and succumbed to the illnesses. The family had to get the body transported from Kampala to the family land in Luwango during this lockdown. Since all our district boarders are closed it was quite an ordeal to get authorization from the local governments. After the burial Babirye traveled back to Kampala to care for her Mom, Jane, as she had malaria and is also in poor health. Please continue to keep her, Mom and Sister Sophie in prayer.

Other Youth:  Please keep Immy in prayer as at she had been sick with malaria in the first week of lock-down and now she has flu. Also Justine’s Aunt Prossey has flu and a serious cough.  We have been trying to support them with medical expenses, but mostly with the power of God’s healing with prayer! Please continue to lift them up!! Thank you!

The other youth are all healthy and trying to stay busy at home studying and revising school notes. Hanisha is also doing crafts every afternoon with her cousins. William is staying active with caring for the rabbits and riding his bike to his uncle’s house a few days a week. Oliver, Eddy, Milly and Benita are well and staying at home with family and helping out around the house.  

bela bulungi (good-bye):

As you have read it has been a whirlwind month, but I thank you all for your continued prayers, love, care, and encouragement!! You are all such a blessing to the ministry and my family and I thank you!

May God bless you and keep you in the palm of His hand!

Rita Bulegeya

Director-Faith Hope Love Missions

www.faithhopelovemissions.org