16th April, 2017

Dear friends,

Wishing you all a very Happy Easter.

We have three new boys – Tony, Emma (Emmanuel) and Derrick. Tim, Sam and Godfrey also came back from Mbale for a few days to celebrate Easter. Augustine has gone to stay with his mum in the village and William took Shaffick to visit his mum for a week.  That leaves us with 15 teenage boys in George’s Place for a few days.  Everything is fine – quite noisy and a bit of a squeeze at the table during meal times but a good atmosphere.

We picked up the three new boys at the International Day of the Street Child on Wednesday.  Our boys had a day off school to attend and met up with some of their ‘old’ friends.  Sandy, Daniel and Ivan were there as well.   I also met Eddie who we literally carried to hospital a couple of years ago, (his photo and story are on the website), he just came up and thanked me for our help.  We all Marched through the streets of Kampala with brass bands, there were plenty of speeches, games, new Tshirts for all the street boys, food, and boys entertaining.  Brian prayed – giving thanks for the lunch and Shaffick, Yusuf did the rap with the help of Yusuf and little Brian – we had a good but tiring day as we arrived about 8.30am and I got home about 6pm.

‘God is our refuge and strength an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear……..’. Psalm 46 v 1-2a

The food has been bought for the South Sudanese refugees, it took a while to find as there is a shortage of food in Kampala due to the drought earlier his year and  prices kept rising but there are now 2,700 kilos (rice, beans, posho 900 kilos of each) – taking up a large part of my garage. Revd. Erineo has been busy as his friend died and they have been taking the body back to South Sudan through DRC, hopefully we will meet up early next week to arrange the distribution of food through the Mothers’ Union.  At our Easter service Jacob preached and told of the hardship in the refugee camp he has been visiting in the north.  A school had been started in the camp with about 2,000 children, he told them the story of the lost sheep and many related to being lost, he was very emotional when he was telling us, but he had shared the Hope we have in Jesus with these poor lost children. So many of the congregation at KIC are missionaries and it isn’t always easy for them to return even to the relative comfort of Kampala let alone home.

The new boys have visited the doctor and dentist and seem to be in good health.  We had to buy more mattresses, sheets and blankets and of course they have large appetites!  Today the boys are eating some of our ‘home grown’ chickens – I didn’t want to choose which ones and have left Halima the weekend cook and Sam making the decision.

So life carries on in Uganda, no one is moaning about the thousands of refugees pouring into the country, even with the shortage of food.  People are trying to survive as food prices continue to rise and thanking God for the little they have.

Please be praying for the work of Homes of Promise, the people of Uganda and the refugees – life can be very difficult for many children and adults.

Love and prayers.

Jane