FHLM May Newsletter 2018

Greetings from Masaka! I hope this month’s newsletter finds you all healthy, happy and enjoying your Summer!

Director’s Update:

2^nd Quarter Board Meeting was held on 12^th & 19^th May, yes we had to hold two meetings because we had so much to cover. But all in all we accomplished much in the two afternoons; ratified several new youth policies, approved the universities & schools for Babirye, William and Joseph, reviewed the budget for the next quarter, approved the logo for the Centre’s new sign post, just to name a few.  We are blessed to have such an active and wise board of directors. May God bless them all!

In the months of April & May we had a very fruitful Sponsorship Drive. I want to thank everyone that has been praying for sponsors for our SOAR Youth and I can’t thank enough those who blessed our youth with school sponsorship. Those persons & families that have chosen to give, have changed the lives of our youth forever and given the opportunity to continue with their education and even blessed them some of their daily necessities. May the Lord give you increase more and more, You and your children.
May you be blessed by the Lord, Who made heaven and earth. Psalm 115:14-15

With our new Centre we have been blessed with a beautiful compound and places were our youth and several others, including Aunt Liz and Aunt Jane & her husband, Febian, have been able to plant gardens. Also the matooke, guava, papaya, lemon and avocado trees have been providing us with food. God is GOOD!

Youthz Update:

Eddy, Oliver and Justine picked up their End of 1^st Term Reports on the 10^th. They have all improved their performances from last year. Justine is finally settling into Masaka SS and we can tell because her grades have vastly improved from when she started in 2^nd Term last August. To keep their “brains fresh” during Holiday, Eddy, Oliver and Justine met in the centre library almost every afternoon and revised their most difficult school subjects. Some days Joshua would help them out and tutor them in Maths and Chemistry.

Since Joshua is in Secondary 6 this year, all the S4 and S6 candidates had their term extended an extra 2 weeks from the other students for extra studies and specialized testing. Joshua ended Term 1 on the 11^th and then started prep classes in his two weakest subjects, Chemistry and Biology for the remainder of the Holiday. Guess there is no rest for candidates.

The Older SOAR Youth are still on Holiday. Babirye is continuing to do hairdressing training in the mornings and computer training in the afternoon. Joseph has been working on the finishing touches of his solo album and singing at a few church outreaches. Alpha spent most of May helping facilitate at Scripture Union camps in Mwerie & Kampala and with their outreach programs at the S.U. Campsite. William worked on his crops, built a fence for our centre, and helped out with construction at the church. He also started back to school on the 28^th. He has a re-take paper in Estimation & Management, so he will be at Nile Vocational for one more term.

Holiday Programs:

FHLM Term 1 Holiday Programs included many interesting programs, some old some new; jewelry making, annual picture collage, pen-pal letters to Harlan Christian Youth Center, crochet training and Bible studies. It was a full month of fun and learning!

Life-Skill Field Trip: On the 5^th we went to the Masaka Post Office for a behind the scenes Tour of the facility. Most of our youth had no idea how the postal service works and had never even been to the post office, so it was a great learning experience. They had many questions about P.O. Boxes; Why how and who can get a P.O. Box?  Foreign mail and packages; How they get to Uganda? And why do some items go missing? We even got to post an envelope of their pen-pal letters to Harlan Christian Youth Center and it was a first time they were able to walk through the steps of posting an item. I’m so happy that we did this field trip! I’ve come to learn that so many of the youth here have no idea how the countries social services operate, so this will be the 1^st of many trips for our youth! Next Holiday the banking system!

Our Tuesday & Thursday Chapter & Verse study was taken from the Linage of the King. This month we did a deep study on Bathsheba & Solomon. We learnt that God’s grace was present in both of their lives. That despite being an adulterous, Bathsheba, is given prominent mention in the lineage of Christ. And that God gave Solomon his father, David’s, throne, entrusted him to build His holy temple and gave him wisdom beyond measure. We ended the 2 week study by watching the section of The Bible about David, Bathsheba and Solomon’s lives. Each of the youth said these studies really help them with their understanding of the Word and with their Christian Religious Studies at school.

Life Skills: On the 9^th we made Jewelry; earrings and bracelets to be exact. I was able to source some beads and materials here in Masaka, but we were blessed with the pretty glass beads by the ladies from Impact Church. Than on the 14^th, 16^th, and 23^rd Martha Kintu trained the youth on how to Crochet. The 1^st day they got the basics down and by the last day they were making hats and scarves. It wasn’t just the young ladies that learnt, even Eddy, Joshua, and William got into the hang of crocheting scarves. The girls even took their hooks and yarn home at night and practiced! We are hoping that in the future both of these life skills can become income generating projects for our youth. Unfortunate we are lacking enough crochet hooks for everyone and GOOD yarn, so if you feel led to donate please email me; reetsindiego@yahoo.com. Thanks!!

Movie Day: The same day as our 1^st Board Meeting, 12^th May, we had our monthly Movie Day. This month the youth watched Wonder, an inspiring and heartwarming movie, about the life of August “Auggie” Pullman, a boy with facial differences who enters fifth grade, attending a mainstream elementary school for the first time and all the challenges he encounters with being “different”. After the movie Alpha led the group discussion with the youth and here are a few comments from them:

William-In every situation we don’t have to fear because God is with us and is there to help us.

Godfrey-It is always good to know what you want and fight for it until you get it.

Babryie-Do what you’re doing and do it with all your heart! Pour out love in everything you do at the end all people will turn to you.      

This movie obviously touched the youth and gave them a lot to think about. These are some closing words from Alpha. “Always in life there are going to be challenges, but you don’t have to quit, Auggie didn’t! You have to fight up to the end and believing in yourself is one of the weapons that can help you overcome that tuff situation. So be courageous in everything you do because God didn’t give you a heart of fear.”   

SYF Encounter Camp: The weekend of the 18^th all of the SOAR Youth attended Soweto Youth Fellowships annual camp-out at Lake Nabugabu. This year’s theme was Your Identity in Christ and the theme verse for the weekend was 2 Corinthians 3:17. They all came back and said they enjoyed the camp but here is what Justine had to say about it: “I enjoyed the camp and I got to know the word of God and believed in it. I was baptized and born again and entered Jesus’ family. Now I have freedom in Christ! I love my appearance because Jesus is the One who can give you a natural, good, comfortable appearance. I enjoyed Pastor Tom because he could preach to us the truth which is really in the Bible and he is a good Godly man. I enjoyed swimming, games, praising and worshiping God, praying, foods and where we slept. It was a wonderful camp.”  I praise God for all He did in Justine’s life that weekend and for all He did in the lives of all the youth that attended.

Back to School: Ehh it was a short Holiday and the Secondary SOAR Youth were already back to school by the 28^th! They started out their first week back with Beginning of Term Exams. Please pray that their 2^nd Term is full of wisdom, knowledge and God blesses them with high marks on their papers. Thank you!

Well it was a full month and we are looking forward to all that the Lord is going to do in the coming month and year! May the Lord bless all of you and keep you in His loving arms! Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’ Isaiah 41:10

Love and Blessings,

Rita

Missionary and Director of Faith Hope Love missions