24th September, 2017
Dear friends,
All the boys went back to school this week, including Derrick and Tony who have both started at Maranatha with Yusuf, Brian and Shaffick. The requirements for going to school are amazing, the boys at Maranatha need 12 pencils each, 12 exercise books, 2 brooms, 4 toilet rolls, plus a ream of paper every term. The boys at Kennedy don’t seem to need as many pencils but need everything else, so you can imagine the amounts of things that have to be bought. Thank you to all those who keep us supplied with pencils!
Monday morning I spent time sorting out paperwork. In the afternoon Karo one of the Emirates flight attendants who came with Ole a few months ago returned with three other friends, Albert from Spain and two other crew members. They had kindly bought some gifts for all the boys who were delighted. They played games with the boys and they thoroughly enjoyed their visit. Karo comes from Poland, she is a Christian, she came back and stayed the night at my home – we talked until midnight!
Next morning she left as she was flying back to Dubai and then off to London on Thursday – busy schedules these flight crews have.
‘Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it’ Hebrews 13 v 1-2. (NRS version).
We had a staff meeting most of the day Tuesday to bring me up to date on the boys. Abdul is going back to his family, who are keen to have him and he is happy to go, so the Probation Officer had to been informed and the paperwork in place.
We will obviously be involved in supporting and checking on Abdul making sure he is happy in school and at home. He is such a good, nice young lad, who came to us through the police. Peace, Bob and I took him back to his family on Friday, taking his mattress, sheets, blanket, storage box – all things he didn’t have at home and clothes. He is staying with his grandfather at the family house. We visited and arranged a local school for him to be attending with his cousins. We left him going off to Friday prayers, with his mat at the Mosque.
This week we went to see Faiza the young girl from South Sudan who is in boarding school, she was absolutely delighted to see us again. She is a lovely young lady. It rained all the way to the school but miraculously the sun shone when we arrived. We talked and prayed with her, sadly she has had no information about her family.
We also had a visit on Friday from Ole, his co-pilot and 4 of the flight attendants from his flight who also came with gifts. We have been blessed with so much recently we will take some of our gifts to share with the village children and the poor children in Kampala.
The boys are all well and happy – on returning from school, greeting me and the uncles, they wash their clothes, clean their shoes and start on their homework – occasionally kicking a ball in the compound or watching some television. Ole commented on how well settled they are now and the difference he has seen in them over the past year. We give the Glory to God.
Saturday afternoon we took the boys swimming; two, Paul and Antony spent time in the gym. Whilst we were at the pool a group of people came and stood by the edge – everyone was asked to get out of the water as a baptism was about to take place! Hymns were sung, prayers said, the pastor and the candidate entered the pool and the young lady was baptised. We joined in the singing and prayers.
With every blessing for a peaceful week.
Jane