Monday 28 March 2016

March

It has been a long time since I last wrote a blog. Sometimes the time can slip by and before I know it, one month has passed before I have updated anyone. I apologize for the long delay.

Basically here at YSU we have been preparing for Agnes and myself to leave for two months.
Agnes and I will be coming to Australia (with Ethan of course) on the 25th of April, and then returning back to Uganda on the 6th of July.

We are very excited to come back for two months. We look forward to family and friends getting to meet Ethan! We also look forward to catching up with our sponsors and all of those who have supported us.

I’m particularly looking forward to seeing my church family at one hope again! I also look forward to some peace and quiet. It seems to be that after a year here on the ground I get a little bit weary of living in a full community house with all the issues that need to be dealt with.

I am also looking forward to some soul filling, spirit refreshing times in the Australian bush and by the ocean side. I would be lying if I said that I don’t miss the ocean. These will all be times of rest for my soul! What great peace I find in God’s good creation! No wonder the Psalms describes God’s rest as Him ‘laying us down by green pastures’. 

And as last time, I also look forward to coming back to Uganda, refreshed and with some new perspective.

There is always something valuable about taking yourself totally out of the ministry environment to be able to have some reflecting and introspection on all that you are doing.

So for those who would love to catch up with us! Be known that we will be around for two months from the 24th of April!

In regards to YSU running on the ground while we are gone, we feel confident about the team we are leaving behind.
We have a new team at YSU at the moment, with two extra teachers. Agnes’ brother Douglous, who has studied community development and is a very faithful friend, will be taking on a management role while we are gone.

We are confident with Douglous management skills, faithfulness in handling money and ability to sort out issues and conflicts.

We also have a new older woman teaching our tailoring girls alongside Beatrice. Christine is a tailoring teacher, but has also studied social work, so she is very capable of running classes while we are gone.

The next month will involve sitting down with Farouk and Douglous and training them up to be able to take control over the months that Agnes and I are in Australia.

The tailoring girls are also doing very well! They are very committed, and because of the structures and policies we have put in place this time around, we feel that this tailoring class is going to be our best yet.
With new teachers, new contributions, new policies, new areas of learning, we see this class as a very holistic way to help break the cycle of poverty in these young women’s lives.

Even simple little things that we are doing differently will make a big difference.

Previously we had supplied everything for the girls in the old tailoring classes. This was due to the fact that the girls were extremely poor and so we thought we should just provide all the resources.
A negative result of this was that we created an environment where none of the materials we provided were treated with respect.

Materials and tools would go missing, and girls would just expect new things to be provided for them.

This time around we are making the girls provide simple materials (books, rulers, pens) for the course.
It may be a bit of an effort for the girls to search for the money to provide this simple things … but it is certainly not in the realm of impossible.
As a result, on the first day of class, every single girl came with a new book and new ruler and a new pen.

They will treat their materials with much more respect now.

They also know that if any of the materials that YSU provides get broken or lost, the girls will have to replace it themselves.

These are the just some of the small and simple changes we have implemented.

The whole idea is that instead of creating a class where we are doing everything for them, we want to create a class where we partner with the girls and work together for a new future for them.



The last few months have included lots of paper work as well, as I have been organizing Ethan’s Australian certificate of citizenship and his passport!
I am happy to announce that Ethan is officially now a citizen of Australia, and his passport is about one week away from coming.

Agnes has also been granted her partner visa which has been a great blessing!

At the property we have also started a new lot of chickens! We have changed breeders and are getting our chickens from Kenya now.
So far so good, these chickens look much healthier than our lost batch (which had a lot of stunted sickly chickens)

God has been very good to us, from all our legal documents being taken care of and approved, to seeing young people being changed and healed through YSU.

We continue to see young men growing passionately in their faith! I have one particular young man I am discipling who finishes his high school education at the end of his year.
He’s hope and dream is to go to bible/theological school next year. He has such a passion for the word of God and I see this young man as a very strong leader, with a very humble character, who God has a strong calling on his life.
It would be very difficult for him to afford bible school, but perhaps if anyone ever feels the heart to help him, he will be able to pursue his dream.

We also continue Wednesday fellowships here, and more and more people come for simple worship and bible readings.

Ethan is also doing well! The boy keeps growing and is getting very fat!
The other day he got his vaccine for TB, and we were at the local medical clinic. A little 16 month girl was also there getting her injections, she was walking around and talking and quite developed. When they asked to weigh her she was 8.5 kg’s (quite small for her age) then when they asked us to weigh Ethan (who is 2 and a half months) he weighed in at 7.1 kg’s. We all had a laugh in the hospital room, and the nurses joked that Agnes must be providing good milk.

It does get a little bit heavy to carry him around everywhere though! He certainly is a big boy.





All in all, we are a bit busy as we prepare to come back to Australia. We ask for your prayers as we continue to prepare, and that we have a safe trip back to Australia.
We do look forward to seeing you all when we come back.