FHLM October 2018 Newsletter

Greetings to you from emerald green Masaka! Oh my, the rains have come to Masaka and we are Praising God and thanking you for praying for rain! Now everything is green, growing, and the people in the villages won’t go hungry!  “If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments so as to carry them out, then I shall give you rains in their season, so that the land will yield its produce and the trees of the field will bear their fruit.” Leviticus 26:3-4

Director’s Update:

Now that the youth are all back in school, Jane and I haven’t been bored, it has given us a bit of time to catch-up on administrative work and also work on the programs for the next long school term holiday.

Hallejulia and praises to our living God for He is good! Oliver’s sister, Stella, has had ALL charges dropped and was released from prison on 02Oct. Oliver told me with tears of joy in her eyes! We ALL give God the glory and thank Him for answering our persistent prayers over the last year and a half!

Some of you may remember, Faridah, whom went through the SOAR Program several years ago. Well we have exciting news! She will be having her traditional introduction (Kwanjula) on 08^th Dec and her church wedding on 15^th Dec!! Please keep her, the fiancée, their families and all their plans in prayer!

Well it is so true, “A man’s heart plans his way, But the Lord directs his steps.” (Prov 16:9) After the 7^th time Rogers went to the South African Consulate for a visa interview he was denied his visa! He was told that since the change over with the ambassador and all the issues with Uganda’s over staying their visas they aren’t issuing many if any and it would be best to reapply next year. That said it has been decided that it will be only me taking a short Holiday to Kenya not South Africa. I thank all of you that prayed for him and I know God has a plan in all of this.

Youthz News:

Alpha Update: Well he is officially co-leading the Children’s Ministry at Hilltop Church. Also we have another big Praise to God as he got a job with a partner ministry, Soweto Youth Fellowship, as a Program Manager. He is working part-time and we are hoping that this position will help him to see which is his true passion, ministry or video editing & photography.  That said we are asking you to still pray for funding for him to get a laptop so he can continue with video editing and photography work over the weekends. We would need around $690.00 U.S. to get a computer that would be able to have the capability to handle the video editing & photo programs. Thank you in advance for keeping this in prayer and if any of you are moved to assist please contact me via email at reetsindiego@yahoo.com. Or better yet if anyone has a core i5 or i7 laptop with a graphics card & at least 5GB RAM and would donate it to us it would be a tremendous blessing!

Joseph and Babirye are both doing well at university. Babirye stays in touch a lot despite being very busy with projects and mid-semester exams this month. She misses everyone in Masaka, but is happy to have made good friends at school.

National Exams Are Starting: These exams determine 2 things for Joshua; his future for going on to university or college and the course of studies that he will be taking. On Monday, 12th November, he and all the secondary 6 students around the country started their exams. At that time, William will also be sitting for his re-take UBTEB exam in Estimation & Management.  Please pray for both of them during the lead up to their exams and through the 3 weeks of exam time. Thank you!

After School Bible Studies: Since term has started we are back to our Tuesday evening studies in 2 Samuel & Thursday evening studies in Acts. The youth said that they are excited to be in the book of Acts and to learn about the early church and Paul’s missionary journeys.

Back to Success was held on the 06th. Though Faridah came late due to work conflicts, Jane started the class by having the youth work on their Maths assignments from last month, functions and the concept of curve sketching. When Faridah arrived she took over teaching them on quadratic equations, which Justine had brought up as challenging to her. So Faridah had Justine work through a few equations on the black board. By the time she had them explained and practiced she got the concept.  Oliver didn’t pick up on how Faridah got the formula of completing squares, so Eddy showed the group. Though we ended there, Faridah thought this was a good assignment for them as many were still struggling with the concept. Through these days all of our secondary youth are strengthening their understanding and slowly improving on their Math skills. We praise God for giving us strong Maths teachers in Jane and Faridah.

Masaka SS Visitation Day for 3^rd Term was held on the 13^th. Jane and I met the secondary youth, Oliver, Justine, Eddy and Joshua at the registration tent and checked them all in. Then Jane went with the guys and me with the girls to pick up their beginning of 3^rd term exam results and talk to their class teachers. After a bit of searching and redirecting I finally found the teacher that was filling in for the girls’ class teacher and giving out reports. Over all the girls’ reports were fair, showing them still struggling with Maths, Chemistry and Biology and the guys’ reports were above average.  Since I had a few administrative things to complete with the bursars office and the deputy headmaster, Jane took the youth for a walk around the school campus. After we all met up again and headed out for our visitation day lunch at Chris’ Restaurant. The guys love to order half Palau and chips (fries) and we ladies enjoy their pea soup with rice and matooke.  As we all chatted, laughed and told stories it reminded me of how blessed I am to be a part of these youth’s lives and to see them grow into the men and women God has purposed them to be.

Movie Day was held on the 20^th and this month we watched Faith Like Potatoes. Though we watched this movie several years ago many of our new youth and even Jane had never seen it, so it was a good choice. This movie is based on the life and testimony of how Angus Buchan, evangelist & pastor from South Africa, came to know Jesus, was healed by God and how his faith grew simply yet very strong. Here are a few comments that the youth had about the movie during our discussion time:

Oliver: I learnt from the movie that many people in this world don’t know the truth and they have a lot of stress. But what I learnt from Angus is that when you give your life to God and you surrender all your problems to Him, He can make a way for you. When he gave his life to Jesus things in his life got better and he had peace.

Justine: This was a really good movie and a teaching one. I learnt many things. I got to know that everything that happens is on God’s plan and will and if we happen to get anything good or bad, we should first inquire from God what to do, what was He fulfilling in doing this, and thank Him for His will to be fulfilled on us. Like when the boy was run over by the tractor, it was so horrible, and everyone questioned God and was sad. Angus even blamed himself, but continued to pray for himself and the family. But we see that the boy’s dad had a dream that the boy, Alistair, was ok because he was in heaven and happy.  Jesus says in John 14:14, “if you shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it”. If you are in trouble do not think that God doesn’t love you anymore and that you are abandon. Pray!

Visitors:  On the 27^th we had a Special Afternoon with Grace & Dave Ziegler from Louisiana.  We were blessed to have them share about themselves, life tips and also in God’s Word about “Servant-hood”.  We opened in prayer and then introduced ourselves and told 2 things about ourselves. Then the youth asked Grace & Dave questions about themselves & their ministry work. This brought out Lagniappe which is Cajon for “something given or extra”. They talked to the youth about these points:

1. Hang on to your dreams
2. Choices & Decisions Matter
3. Prayers by your parents & ancestors are answered by God
4. Your dream can be a fulfilment of prayer
5. Your prayers are safe with God

The next session was led by Grace and she spoke to the youth about the day’s main topic, “Servant hood”. She read from Matthew 20:20-28 about the servant hood of Jesus. She explained that many leaders, like the Pharisees, want to be treated different by being exalted & privileged. Though we are to respect those God put over us we are not supposed to act like that, we are to humbly serve others. She also made a point of how there is so much beauty in this world but there is also death & rubbish. That is why God left perfect heaven to come to this earth to serve us. As a perfect example we to are to be servants like Him. Dave brought in the next session by reading John 13:4-17 and talking more about humility in service and how we are to live servant hood. He brought a point about these passages that struck me, as people are dying they share the most important things with their loved one right before they pass. Jesus shared His most important point with the Disciples’ right before He died, “most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor he who is sent greater than he who sent him” (vs. 16). Jesus was sharing the heart of a servant. Praise God!

I can’t thank the Ziegler’s and God enough for this wonderful day of fellowship, learning, and love that we were blessed with. May God continue to bless them are they reach out to the people of Uganda!

As you can see God has blessed us with lives full of interesting challenges, events, excitement, and knowledge! I love to see God move everyday in the youth and the youth I come into contact with at the centre, in church, or in town. That said none of this could happen without the prayer and financial support of our donors.

Have a blessed month!

Love,

Rita Bulegeya

Director-Faith Hope Love Missions