Dan returned to George’s Place on Saturday. After a late lunch the boys went for football and Heather and I dropped Dan’s father at Kajjansi following our visit to the home. Tim had been staying a few days at George’s Place, as he has been unwell but we took him back to his room near Banana Village. Tresor has arranged for a local cafe to be giving him food and juice. Prayers please that he keeps well.
I took Heather to the airport on Monday, early evening, she was flying to Cape Town to visit her mother. I managed to get home before it was too dark. Heather bought a cake which we shared at the office in the afternoon and the remainder was taken to the boys at George’s Place on Tuesday and thoroughly enjoyed. Heather wrote some thoughts on her stay in Uganda which are added to this week’s newsletter here.
All the boys returned to school on Monday. Tresor took the ones going to boarding school – Saidi, Brian, Musumba, Joshua, (Denis he took to the taxi park to travel to Don Bosco in Bombo). He then collected Bethel, his brothers (and mum) to take them to their school. Bethel had been staying with his family for the holidays. I spoke to him on the phone and he sounded very grown up! He is definitely more settled being with his brothers and family.
Judith is back from her travels and joined us at the Ladies Fellowship on Tuesday morning. Whilst she’s been in the UK/France a family of black cobras have moved into her garden – also a mongoose who hopefully will help removing them! Life is interesting in Uganda – Judith isn’t panicking but that’s probably because she been here 50+ years. When I arrived at the office on Tuesday Joseph had called in – he is doing well and managing to get plumbing work, hopefully he can have driving lessons next month as he often manages to get work with National Water and this will help him.
“My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry”……….
James 1:19
On Wednesday we did family tracing for Tony. We met Tresor and Tony at Kajjansi and then collected Peace. Tony thought he came from Gombe but when we eventually found the home it was nearer Mityana, a different district. Heavy rain set in as we arrived. There were three young children at the house, 2 girls aged about 10 and 12 years and a boy about 6 yrs. They are cousins to Tony. They seemed to be on their own – sadly their mother has passed away and the children were all in the care of an elderly grandmother who was living about 8 miles away. We gave the children biscuits that we had and the boy a tshirt – he had been wearing a dress! They had a phone no. for the granny so we called her and after a while we went to find her. We will look into how we can help this family. The grandmother gave us Tony’s father’s phone no. and Peace called him but he refused to meet us and advised that Tony was in his grandmother’s care. We decided we needed to return and do further investigations with the Probation Officer and LC1. It was a very sad situation.
On Thursday Petra and I were in the office, I did call at the bank and filled in more forms to enable me to access our bank account as I’ve been locked out of authorising transactions since June. I then needed Ian to sign the forms which he came and did, and I returned them to the bank on Friday morning. From what the Manager told me it could take a while before it’s approved.
Friday Tresor and I went to Saidi’s school as there had been some problems – he had been selling the snacks we give him and tripled his pocket money in a week!
The new head teacher was very understanding and he was very apologetic. He was wanting to save to buy a phone!
Today I went to Garuga in the afternoon and we enjoyed craft activities. The boys were being taken to the clinic, a few at a time, to find out their blood group for the Ministry of Gender forms. My friend Andrea (from Germany) and her daughter and son-in-law came to me for breakfast as they are staying at Yellow Haven and visiting The Queen Elizabeth National Park for a couple of days.
The rains have started this week, and there is plenty of mud around, it’s also been slightly cooler. Thank you for all your love and support. The younger boys are all fine and Ian has met with some of the older boys to talk with them and offer advice, if wanted!
With love and prayers.
Jane x
‘You are welcome”…will be one of my overiding impressions of the short time I spent in Uganda. You are seen, welcomed and appreciated – be it in the HoP office, George’s Place boys’ home, at church, in someone’s home or in a coffee shop.
I was fortunate to spend last week with Jane and the staff of HoP, experiencing what one might call a ‘typical’ week, although I realise there is no such thing…every day brings the unexpected. (You can read the details in last week’s newsletter.)
It was a week of many varied experiences…. food, transportation (boat, 4×4, walking, lorry and airplane), people from many different nations, heat, rain, worship and prayer, games and fun, poverty and fear…. many of these representing extremes. I have hopefully come away with a greater understanding of our need to rely on God our Father, daily.
It has been wonderful to see in person, the work done by the staff at HoP and the difference they make, not just in the lives of individual boys, but to their families and communities too. I was privileged to meet the father of a boy who was so grateful for all the blessings his family had received through HoP over a number of years – housing, food and education for his children as well as restored relationships and hope, even in the midst of much hardship and pain.
I have also experienced and heard of the many challenges that the staff of HoP face on a daily basis…. dust, mud, rain and heat…safety while travelling… knowing who to trust, how to be generous and wise, how to understand different cultural mindsets, when to compromise and when not to.
They need our prayers – they do make a difference.