5th December, 2021

Dear friends,

On Monday this week we were getting ready for the Management meeting which took place on Tuesday. Ken kindly chaired the meeting – all the members attended, the Health Inspector, Probation Officer, Government Official, Revd. James, Nora, (our lawyer) and Ken as well as staff, also Ian Wardle who is very involved at Kampala International Church. Ian is British and has been in Uganda for 30 years mainly working with youth. It was a helpful meeting and as we only got halfway through the Agenda we are meeting again this coming Friday.

Sadly Tresor lost a brother-in-law in a car accident on Monday, when an army vehicle went into the passenger side of the car he was travelling in, he died on impact. This was a terrible shock to the family as he has four young children. They are refugees from Congo and the burial had to be in a designated area, so Tresor has been off work for a few days this week.

“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” 1 John 3 v1

Tresor forwarded me some more photos of the knitted clothes we took to the medical centre in Mbale being distributed and the bunk beds he took to Kodet’s family the previous week.

We had a visit this week from the landlady of the small house who bought some ferns which Anton and Uncle Sam planted outside the front wall. Augustine had painted one of the bedrooms in the small house which she appreciated and asked if he would paint the outside of the house which he will start on this coming week.

We called all of the older boys who are in Independent living to come along last Thursday. Homes of Promise have been helping them with an allowance towards their rent during the lockdown but this will be reduced in the next few months and finish next March. Most of them are working and managing well and it was interesting to see how mature many of them are. Anton is returning to the village on Monday – he and Augustine are really good role models for the younger boys. Paul has been busy sewing and made two pairs of short trousers for Dan.

On Saturday the boys went swimming, most of the time they had the pool to themselves. Dan really enjoyed the experience, I am sure he had never been before. He has been going to the clinic daily this week as he had a nasty skin infection when he first arrived but this has now cleared up.

Friday was Petra’s birthday and we celebrated with cake and sodas, which everyone enjoyed. Mary the art teacher was there and showed the boys how to be painting with soil on hardboard, which was very effective. I gave Mary a couple of large boxes of knitted baby clothes and blankets as she was travelling to a rural area this weekend with a group of friends to run a mission.

This coming week we will be looking at how many boys will be going back to their villages for Christmas and will start planning how we shall be celebrating at George’s Place. I had hoped to return to the U.K. but have postponed my return until later in the New Year.

With love and prayers.

Jane