FHLM SEPTEMBER 2024 NEWSLETTER

GREETINGS:

After much dust and waiting we praise God, because the seasonal rains have finally started! Acts 14:17 Nevertheless, He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons filling our hearts with food and gladness. (NKJV)

DIRECTORS UPDATE:

PRAISE & PRAYER REQUESTS: I thank God for the journey mercies, provision and His grace during our annual outreach & ed trip with the youth. We serve a faithful and good God and I praise Him!

We are praying alongside many of you for the victims, families, communities and states that have been devastated and deeply impacted by Hurricane Helene. 

I also have prayer requests for the Impact Church Team from Woodland Park, CO. The team of 20 will be coming to Kenya and Uganda from 21/22 Nov to 01 Dec.  Can you please lift up their provision, spiritual readiness, and journey mercies in prayer? May you also pray as God prepares them for all the things He is going to do in and through their lives while they are in both countries?

Also for Pastor Kennedy on the ground in Kenya and myself in Uganda to be ready for the team. As I have been developing the team’s outreach program, along with all of their logistics scheduling for their time here in Masaka, I pray it is according to God’s will. Thank you for ALL your prayers!        

ANNUAL YOUTH OUTREACH & ED TRIP:

This year for our annual trip we went to Gulu in Northern Uganda from 07 to 12 September. This was our longest trip to date, both in time and distance, as Gulu is 461 kilometers (286 miles) from Masaka and we went through 9 districts to reach. As in years past each youth took on leadership responsibilities; Immy-Trip Coordinator, William-Food Manager, Pius-Transport Manager, Charity-Sports & Games, Ruth-Nurse, Pamela-Praise & Worship Leader & Preacher, Mark-Sports & Games, Ronald-Time Keeper, Shakirah-Morning & Evening Glory Coordinator. I’m thankful for the team and proud of how they all executed their roles!  

DAY 1 Travel: The 12 of us departed Masaka about 7am and traveled 11 ½ hour via a private hire taxi from Masaka to Gulu. On our way through Kampala we picked up Justine and Olivia. It was great to have them join us, especially since this will be Olivia’s last youth trip. We arrived in Gulu at Comboni Missionary Animation Center about 6:30pm, and were greeted with a warm welcome from the sisters of the Centre. We were all very tired, but thankful for the journey mercies. Each night while in Gulu we took dinner at Bishop Janan Luwum Institute. Our dinners were prepared by the catering students of the institute. Their meals were very tasty and we were blessed to be a part of their practical training

DAY 2 Church & Outreach: After breakfast we were met at Comboni Center by Pastor Kent and Rebecca Nolly. The Nolly’s are Calvary Chapel missionaries and have been serving in Gulu for the last 9 years. They assisted me in all the outreach planning and I’m very appreciative to them for all their help.

We were off to Calvary Chapel Gulu for church service. We were blessed because it was a special day for ordaining new pastors. Kent preached from the Old Testament about the ordaining of Levite priests and the tabernacle.  

After church and lunch we were escorted by Pastor Fred from CC Gulu to Gulu Remand Home Juveniles Centre. This is a prison for juveniles, 18 years and below, is housing about 170 youth. Pastor Fred introduced us and after some praise & worship songs led by Pamela, Immy taught about the faithful Life of Joseph in Genesis chapters 37 to 50. Her theme was Finding God and Making Him Your Foundation. She shared 7 points with the youth

1. Don’t be shaken by your circumstance
2. Make God your rock—build your lives on Him
3. Seek God—He’s always with you
4. God can create a new path for you
5. Forgiveness is key—don’t become angry and bitter
6. Trust God in every storm
7. Persevere 

After William shared a testimony about how friends can influence us in both good and bad ways. He said, “Friends are good but they are not always right for us. “ He gave a personal testimony of how a friend in primary led him to do a very wrong thing against the head teacher. In the end he had to make a decision to choose not to hang around that boy anymore. He realized he had a bright future and he had to move ahead. He said that the person you sat next to can make you rotten. Then he encouraged the youth and said, “Don’t give up, because God has hope for you, and a future. “ Then he asked them to think about these questions: What have you learned today? Does my life need to change? What’s my 5 year plan?       

DAY 3 Outreach: After a lovely breakfast made by the sisters and our morning glory Rebecca again meet us to escort us, this time to Gulu Community Park. This park is a massive undertaking by World Embrace. The vision is to change the lives of the children in Gulu, impacting them physical and spiritual. The park is still under construction, but over the last 3 years they have been able to open sections of the facility to the community. Mr. Ren, the director of World Embrace, gave us a tour of the entire park and shared the vision for the buildings that are yet to be completed. After our tour we all donned sun hats and grabbed brooms, mops, rakes and hoes and went to work helping to clean. As the Bible says you’re more blessed to give than to receive. By mid-day the sun was so intense that even the workers were taking shelter. By the way, Gulu is a semiarid climate and at least 10 degrees warmer than Masaka, so we all received tans from the sun!  

After lunch we gathered about 50 community children together, broke into 4 small groups, and shared Bible stories with them. Each group shared different stories, i.e. the 10 Commandments, Joseph & The Dream Coat, David & Goliath etc. We were thankful for a few older guys that helped the groups translate the stories from English to Luo (Acholi), the local language. They all received a pictures of the various Bible stores and sweeties for participating.    

Then it was time for games and songs! Charity and Mark led the children out to the football pitch and began playing games like balloon bust, musical chairs, and sack race. Pius, Ruth and Pamela took the little ones under a canopy and they led them in a few fun songs—Jesus loves me and head shoulders, knees and toes. Of course every winner received sweeties! It was a lovely day of helping, sharing and fun!     

DAY 4 Outreach & Fun: After breakfast and morning glory Rebecca escorted us an hour outside of Gulu to Adak where their ministry base, Terebinth Bible College and farm are located. We spent a few hours helping 35 widows, which are assisted by the ministry, plant a field of corn (maize). Afterwards we gathered under a mango tree for a teaching lead by Pamela about “salvation”. She broke down the 6 colors of the salvation bracelet, and taught us the related verses.

After we had the practical experience by making the bracelets. We broke into 6 teams with each of our youth leading and teaching the widows. I’ll never forget the BIG smiles of each women and their eagerness to show everyone the beautiful bracelets they had made. It was a special treat for them and a special time for us!      

By 2pm we were off for the 2 hour journey up to Aruu Falls in Pader District. The long journey was worth the wait, as when we arrived at Aruu Falls Tourist Site we could already hear the roar of the waterfalls! After most of us changed in to our swim ware, we hiked down a steep slope, to a watery rock crossing, to get to the falls. This was a bit precarious, so I was thankful for our guides help! Finally the trees gave way to an amazingly, beautiful set of waterfalls! Some youth along with myself got into the water. Of course the guys headed to deep waters but because of the high pressure they quickly moved down with me. All the youth were excited by the experience and enjoyed! Of course, many, many selfies and pictures were taken! I thank God for the majesty of His creation and His protection to all that got in the rushing waters of the falls!  

DAY 5 Fun: Early in the morning we packed up and said bye-bye to the sisters and to Gulu, and traveled 1 hour south to Karuma. Right before the Karuma Bridge crossing we entered the Eastern side of Murchison Falls National Park-Chobe Gate. After a bit of a drive we were elated to see about 15 giraffe in a clearing having breakfast! We were all excited at the sighting, but Ronnie was over joyed! Naturally William climbed onto the roof of the taxi to take better photos. After viewing a few more animals; impala, crocodile, and monkey, we entered the gate at Chobe Lodge.

We were welcomed by the lodge’s General Manager for our tour of the grounds, rooms, kitchen and dining areas. Chobe is a 5 star lodge situated on the banks of the Nile River and a gem of a destination for us to tour. William said he is aspiring to one day have his honeymoon at this lodge and Pius said he will someday take me for a holiday there. I was humbled by their words. As we toured the grounds and rooms we saw hippos and the elephants chilling in the river. What an amazing site! The staff were so kind to us, and they surprised us with an afternoon tea.    

DAY 6 Travel: After an early morning glory and a good breakfast we headed south towards Kampala. On our journey home we were fortunate to have no traffic jams, so we reached Masaka by 7pm.  We give all the glory and honor to God for all the blessing upon our lives and having answered our prayers in each and every facet of our trip. My special thanks goes to our beloved friends and donors who blessed us both spiritually and financially to make this trip a reality. May the Almighty God you abundantly.

YOUTH UPDATE:

EVENING GLORY: Each night during our trip teams of two led our Evening Glory. The evening that was special to me is when we all gathered in the garden at Comboni and Pamela & Ruth led from 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 about Discovering Our Spiritual Gifts. It was my favorite study because the study and the questions from the leaders provoked and invited us into a deeper insight and conversation of the passages.

What are our spiritual gifts? How can you use them to serve? Does everyone receive all the spiritual gifts? Pamela said that God is waiting for us to unwrap our spiritual gifts and that when we unwrap them is with great expectation. Oliver added that it takes a while, but when you find the treasure of your gift it is special and exciting. Pamela continued that we all have a “gift bag” in our hearts and every person’s bag is different. She expounded on verse 4, stating that the Holy Spirit is the source of every gift. Shakirah added and read form Romans 12:6-8 we are given gifts in proportion to our faith. Many others contributed and we were in a good discussion, but unfortunately we had to end to go to dinner.   

BACK TO SCHOOL: On 16^th September the secondary youth returned to school for their 3^rd and final term of the school year. Immy and William in Advanced Levels and Pius, Ruth, Charity, Pamela and Mark in Ordinary Levels. On 14^th October the O-Level Candidates, Pius, Ruth and Charity, start their Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) National Exams. These very important set of exams determine if they move onto Advanced Levels in education or move to a technical school. I request for you to please keep them in prayer for health, safety, wisdom, and knowledge. Thank you! May God give them success!

BIRTHDAY: On 28^th September we celebrated Immy’s birthday. Though her actual birthday is 27^th we still wanted to celebrate the 20 years of life God has blessed her with! As usual we had cake, balloons, and a rousing round of Happy Birthday! We are thankful for Immy and her leadership, joy, love, and laughter. May God bless her with many, many more trips around the sun!

YOUTH PROGRAMS:

FARMING & PHOTO DAY: On 21^stSaturday we cleared out the weeds on our garden plot in order to prepare the garden for this season. We did our digging in shifts because some youth had Saturday classes.  So far, we have decided to plant vegetables plants like spinach, Sukuma and green peppers. We haven’t planted yet but soon we will be purchasing our plants. After lunch some of the youth and staff finalized their digging and Pius did a good job of cutting back the shrubs near the house.  The team all worked well together to make short work of the farming and cleaning. Afterwards I showed everyone my photos and videos of our Gulu Trip. We all enjoyed and had a few laughs. 

MOVIE DAY: On 28^th Sept we watched ‘’Ordinary Angels”. This movie was inspired by the incredible true story of a hairdresser, Sharon, who single handedly rallies and entire community to help a widowed father, Ed, save the life of his critically ill 5 year old daughter, Michelle. This drama was very moving and by the end there wasn’t a dry eye amongst us. Here are the youth’s comments and what they learned from the movie.

• Immy said that despite our challenges, we are there to help people, like Sharon did, so let’s allow to be helped by good people and be good and help others.
• William said that there is no situation that is permanent in our lives and God can use anyone to help you. God used Sharon to help Ed.
• Ruth said that Ed was lacking faith in God, because he had many worries and things on his mind, but in the end his faith came back and he finally trusted God.
• Precious said that just like Sharon, your actions can change your reputation and build your reputation from unloved to loved.
• Charity said that we shouldn’t lose hope, Ed lost hope when all the ways were closed. When we make friends they can help in our need.
• Ronald supplemented that we should not lose hope. Sharon’s son had grudges with her, but later on he came back cause he realized she changed.
• Mark said that kindness can come from anywhere like from Sharon, Ed didn’t expect her kindness.
• Pamela said that God has all what it takes to save you. God had prepared a better life for Michelle, the young girl. Love is powerful and it breaks down walls and chains.
• Immy said that God can do everything in our lives if we don’t break His ways.
• Shakirah shared on the persistence kindness Sharon had. Even when she was chased by Ed, she remained faithful. We also saw the power in unity and the need for reconciliation.

BELA BULUNGI (GOOD-BYE):

As you can see the Lord is moving and shaking in Masaka and around Uganda! We are so thankful and excited to be a part of all He is doing!

I pray that all of you are doing wonderful and are truly Blessed by the Lord! Thank you for all your prayers!

In His Grip,

Rita Bulegeya

Missionary & Director -Faith Hope Love Missions

reetsindiego@yahoo.com