12th March, 2017
Dear friends,
This week we have been trying to locate young Brian’s relatives and Yusuf’s mother. On Wednesday, Peace, Bob and I went with the two boys to Masaka where we found the village that Brian comes from and thankfully found some of his family. An uncle agreed to sign our papers so that we can be responsible for Brian, he was also happy for Brian to go and stay with his family during holiday periods to start building up a relationship. We found out information about Brian’s mother who could be in Kenya – we need to find out more.
On the way back to Kampala we went to look for Yusuf’s mother. We found the nursery school he had attended, though at first he wasn’t sure, it all looked very different to him as it was a few years ago when he was there. Bob took him for a walk around the area and things became clear to him, sadly the home where he had lived with his mother and aunt had been knocked down. But amazingly they found a young man who was a relative and who informed us he would find out the telephone no. of the mother – which he did the following morning. We are now hoping to meet her in Kampala next week. God works in mysterious ways! We didn’t even have a name for the mum.
The rain has been terrible especially early mornings so we have had to invest in rain coats for the boys. I will look at buying cagoules when I’m next home as I’m sure they would last longer than what we can buy here and would be more waterproof.
‘……love your neighbour as yourself.’ Leviticus 19 v18
We visited the boys in vocational training in Mbale on Friday and Saturday, checking on them unexpectedly. Taking them out for supper and breakfast. They all seem to be fine, it was good to see them – we took shoes, jackets, vests, pants, socks (which came in the boxes from the UK) (a hammer for Augustine and more hairdressing products for Sam).
Whilst we were in Mbale we visited the local hospital to give out some of the new knitted baby clothes that so many of you have made. In the Maternity High Dependency unit we found 40 babies, with an American doctor and a Ugandan doctor making their rounds. We visited the wards, handing out more of the baby clothes, the hospital was absolutely full, women and babies sitting outside as well as inside. There were 4 sets of new born twins. We will take more of the baby clothes to them when we next go to Mbale as there was a real need.
The Archbishop from South Sudan who we delivered rice, beans and posho to a couple of weeks ago telephoned me whilst I was in Mbale, the situation there is very desperate as well as in the refugee camps here – I am looking into seeing how Homes of Promise can help and will keep you informed.
Life here can be very difficult for so many people – you prayers please as we seek to be guided as to where we can help.
With love and prayers
Jane