April 6^th.

Hey Everyone!

Thank you so much for all your prayers and emails so far! The last six weeks has been equally incredible if not more than the first six. The routine is firmly set in now – working in the schools from Tuesday to Friday, street children projects on Saturday and Sunday mornings and Monday as our day off/prep day. Life feels very normal out here now though I’m not sure I’ll ever get over the beauty of this country and the sheer generosity of the people we meet daily – every day at school we bring home bags of avocadoes, mangos and handmade jewellery from the children – think a mzungu fan club will be set up any day now!

I’ll try and make this easier to read and get some subtitles on the go…

Schools (Kiti)

 Spending time in the school with the surroundings of banana plantations and the green country interrupted only by the odd dirt track never tires. Developing relationships with the children and teachers so much so that we had 3 teachers back to our house for dinner last week, Josephine and Godfrey (married couple awaiting birth of there first born in under 2 weeks!) and Rose – one of many highlights! Not realising the English lack of talent at dancing they endeavoured to teach us the Calypso – we returned the favour by teaching them the Macarena! Other highlights include a typical country schools style sports day where the sudden opening of the heavens meant that 700 of us had to shelter under banana leaves and inside an old Catholic church. Recently, Rosie and I have had trials and have been training our netball team in anticipation of a match against Glory for Education – a rival school nearby where Jon, Sam and Freya are teaching. We narrowly lost the football 1-0 despite 200 children walking an hour to the pitch and chanting ‘Ugandan style’ for the entire match! The netball, however, was another story, the girls were demoralised and we were gutted. Due to having posho and beans daily as opposed to a cup full of watered down flour, the netball team at Glory were giants so it was an easy win for them.

            3:16 (our C.U) is going well, doing two ways to live with the two oldest years and they always come up with interesting questions at the end. It is a challenge to do bible studies when the language barrier and there respect for teachers makes it hard for them to question what we are saying. Child Evangelism sessions are brilliant – such an opportunity to tell the children about Jesus and the meaning of the Cross.

Street Children Projects:

Saturday mornings are really hit and miss – I’ve had such great chats about Christianity and how we should respond to what Jesus has done for us. Looked at Jeremiah 29 vs 11 yesterday with a few of the older lads about how Gods plan for them – albeit very tough – are to prosper them and not to harm them in the long run. Other weeks are really hard, the conversation turns very serious and revolves around them asking us questions about money and demanding us to take them back to England. The last few weeks have been hard as due to the clean up in Kampala the street kids have been taken off the streets and put into prison without a release date. 

            We are going through parables in the New Testament on Sunday mornings and last week we had a great session with them. I spoke on the Great Banquet – relaying to the kids that Christianity is not just for the British, the Rich, the Mzungus, the clever – all are invited! Spent some time afterwards chatting to a guy called Kevin – incredible – he is 14 and had to leave home in the summer because he family tried to sacrifice him!

As well as all of this we have also managed to squeeze in some time to travel this incredible country, including doing a 144ft bungee jump, over the river Nile followed by a full days white water rafting down the white Nile on grade 5 rapids – never felt so close to death! Spent our long Easter Weekend at Queen Elizabeth National Park on Safari seeing 4 of the big 5.

Prayer Points:

Thanks for:

• A Great Church with fantastic teaching and a real sense of community.
• Brilliant team.
• Relationships with teachers and pupils at school and so many opportunities to tell them the gospel (Child Evangelism x2 per week, Staff prayers, 3:16)
• Chats with the street kids – their willingness to be open with us.
• No major health issues.

Please Pray for:

• The street children in prison – for their release and fair treatment.
• For 3:16 – pupils would be questioning us rather than just accepting what we say with limited understanding.
• Holiday Clubs start next Monday – I am doing the first of the 4 main talks over the 2 days on Jesus calming the storm – please pray for creativity when planning them, crowd control with over 400 children expected at each school and that the children would listen to us and take on board what we are saying.
• For continued health as life is very busy with little time to relax or be ill!
• More opportunities to have conversations with teachers, pupils, street kids and other people we come into contact about what Christianity is all about.

Please do reply with your news, it would be great to hear from you.

Thanks again for all your thoughts and prayers,

God Bless

Sarah x