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 25^th of April, and then returning back to Uganda on the 6^th 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 24^th 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.

Empower, Elections and Ethan.

It is now Febuary so we have really started to get into the flow of the year! We have been organizing our tailoring class, and also looking at all we will plan out the next year here at YSU.

I recently ran an Empower program with my four boys from my small bible study group.

This is a group of guys that I have grown very close to and love dearly! I have invested a lot into them, mentoring and discipling them over the last year.

Instead of doing one big Empower, I wanted to try and see how it would work in a small group setting.

I think it went well and the guys got a lot from the program. All of them had never shared their life story before to someone in detail! The fact that I have earnt their trust over the year helped them to open up.
They were a bit more hesitant in opening up with each other, but in the end they did and I was very proud of them.

Many of their deep traumas are private, which I will not share. But what I will say is that the common theme which seems to be the root of so much pain is "Father hunger".

Meaning, a hunger for a father figure in life. This is also a huge problem in Uganda (and the whole world really) with fathers rather dying while these young men were babies, and so they never knew them.
For others it is case of the father abandoning his family, or if the father is still around, he is not invested into his children or even abusive.

So much of the problems that I deal with in youth here, stems from this epidemic of a lack of fathers.

As a new father it does push me and motivate me to want to be a father who loves his child and invests in his child to the best of my abilities.

It is always rewarding to see the people who go through the empower find healing at the end of it. All of the boys felt a burden taken off their hearts, and they were able to forgive people who had caused past hurts that had traumatized them.

In regards to the elections that took place recently in Uganda, there is a lot that I could say.

Elections are always a tense time in Uganda, since the president has been in power for 30 years. 

Although he did bring the country out of war, and has since done a lot for the economy and development of Uganda, many people feel he has overstayed and that his regime is incredibly corrupt and authoritarian.

What was interesting about the lead up to the elections was the amount of conversations I had with Ugandans who were tired of the current president and were voting for change.

The opposition leader here, who has challenged the presidency and lost over the last three elections (although many people say that previous elections had been rigged and were not fair) is very popular among many of the more educated Ugandans (although not all) in urban areas like the capital city Kampala.

Many of the uneducated villagers in Uganda are in support of Museveni (the current president) a big part of this (although not the only reason) is because they fear violence and war may break out if Museveni losses power.

With all of this in play, elections came to pass with a few skirmishes and riot police firing tear gas into crowds in the days leading up to it.

I was frustrated at seeing a number of concerning things like the nationwide shutdown of all social media platforms, police intimidation and arrests of opposition members and supporters, heavy handed police tactics and a show of force and weapons, inexcusable disorganized voting in areas that showed more support towards the opposition and also allegations of vote rigging and corruption.

Even John Kerry of the U.S called the president to urge him to stop some of these concerning undemocratic actions.

The current president still actually has a lot of support though, and perhaps, might not actually need to do these things to even get a fair win.

What is more frustrating for me though is seeing fellow Ugandans here feeling rather dejected after it all. Many of my friends here feel like they want change and want to have their vote and voice count, but that in reality the people don't have much power if they don't support the current regime.

Sometimes I feel like this show of democracy is a bit of a charade and an act. It is not that I am particularly 'for' any presidential candidate (whether the current president or the opposition leader) but that I really wish the voice of the people could be heard. It can feel like there is such a strong and unfair imbalance between the current regime, and any other party or candidate that a large majority of Ugandans may support.

I am actually quite politically opinionated among my close family and friends. And they have heard my views in detail over the last few days. But I am a bit more cautious about stating my strong views on public forums.

I was going to post quite a long piece of opinion on my blog, or on facebook. But after reading through it, I decided not too.

It was quite cynical and had heavy criticism and perhaps was not the wisest thing to post.

There are really three main reasons why I feel I should not be too politically outspoken.

The first reason is that, although I do live here, I am still a guest in this country and there are many Ugandans I love and respect who would hold strong opinions different to my own.

Another reason is that I often have this inner conflict within myself to be, on the one hand, drawn towards an outspoken rebellious type revolution, and on the other hand, wanting to honor, submit and respect the authorities, as my faith calls me to do.

I find this a bit of a balancing act, where sometimes I can be too hot and heavy and outspoken politically that I start demonizing governments or leaders while getting carried away, and I realize I am not being respectful and forgetting that we are all fallen sinful people who need grace.

I know I could easily refer to certain leaders as tyrants, but I need to also remind myself of the tyrant in my own heat ... the great tyrant, that is self.

On the other hand, we do need to be careful of being so respectful towards governments and authorities that we never speak out against injustice's that are clearly and plainly seen.

The last reason why I want to leave it here and not say too much, is basically because it is not wise for me to do so on public forums.
I am still a guest in this country, and I have influence (especially over the youth) in my community and I am on a government visa. Already I have seen how much the government takes notice of foreign nationals (even in my own case when applying for my own visa, and seeing how much info they already had on me) and so it would not be in my best interest to have too much of a loud voice in the matter.

In the end God is sovereign. We must all stand before Him and give an account for our life! Whether we are a poor laborer or the president of a nation, we must all face God who will see into our hearts.

As an old African American slave hymn goes "What is done in the dark, will be brought to the light"

In other news, more close to family life, we recently took Ethan to our doctor for an unfortunate and unusual medical condition that had to be dealt with.

Ethan has had a small pimple on his chest for quite some time now, and we always just assumed that it was a milk pimple as he has many on his face.
But the last few days the pimple grew and grew into what looked like a boil! It had a lot of pus and looked very red and infected.

We tried using some antibiotic cream, but it got worse. The other morning we had a closer look and saw a small hole going deep into the boil type wound.
Whenever Ethan would breath, a small yellow thing would come to the top of the hole, and then go back down into the wound.

We took Ethan to the hospital, already suspecting what the problem was.

When we go to the hospital the doctor had one look and our suspicions were confirmed.

Ethan had a mango fly maggot burrowed in his chest. The doctor told us that this dry season is mango fly season, and when we hang Ethan's clothes out to dry, the fly can lay it's eggs in the clothes. When the eggs hatch a little worm comes out, and if babies are wearing the cloths the worm burrows itself into the skin until it grows bigger and bigger (eventually turning into another mango fly)

We were told this is actually common for babies here as they have such soft skin.

We were also told the best way to avoid this is to make sure the clothes are out in the sun drying for at least 8 hours, and that we iron the clothes very well before using them.

Poor Ethan cried a lot when the doctor tried to squeeze the maggot out. The maggot was so deep that the doctor had to go to work with a small scalpel and a pair of tweezers! I was impressed with the size of the maggot that came out, it was quite large.

Aggie couldn't handle seeing Ethan in pain and crying, so she had to leave the doctors room!

Ethan's large pimple that ended up being a small maggot.

Ethan is doing fine now, and we will do our best to avoid this in the future! Otherwise he is very healthy and weighing in at 5.7 kg at 1 month.

He has a lot of rolls on his body and is quite the chubby baby. We still struggle at night with him and try to work out a system where we take it in turns to care for him (he seems to only be able to fall asleep at night when he is lying on my chest)

Otherwise we are well, and just sticking put in Wairaka until election season finishes. We will avoid the towns in case there is any political unrest in the next few days.

Our tailoring class is about to start next week as well, so your prayers are always appreciated.

Ministry request.

So I don't write these types of blogs normally (or at all)
But after a long time of thinking and praying about a particular need we have here on the ground, I have been encouraged by others to write up a request for anyone who would love to get behind us and support us in a particular area.

With the ministry expanding, and also our family growing (not just my own with the birth of Ethan, but new babies that have also joined us with the 'larger' family that we live with) we have seen that there is a growing need for safer modes of transport for our family in Uganda.
Agnes and I really feel, and have decided (alongside consultation with our missions mentor) that a small car is a responsible thing for us to have right now.

A recent event really showed us how important a car is. When Farouk and Beatrice's newborn son got extremely sick with blood poisoning, and almost lost his life, we had to race him to the hospital. We were lucky that my mother was borrowing the village of hopes car at the time, so we could race straight to the hospital.
If we did not have the car, we would of had to of waited around while trying to find a friend who was available.

The nearest good hospital is about 20 minutes drive away in a car. In public transport it can take up to 1 hour to get there.

Public transport has also got more dangerous to use, as we frequently need to go to town to buy things for our work here. The taxi buses and boda boda's (motor bike taxis) that are the only form of public transport, our regularly driving in a very dangerous way.
We have counted so many deaths, and severe accidents, on the road over the last year caused by these public transport vehicles.
Of course you can understand that Aggie and I do not want to take baby Ethan on the back of a motor bike.

Our only other option is to pay a high fee for a personal taxi car to come and drive us around. This costs a lot of money, and even still, if there is an emergency we need to wait for the car to come from town first, and then bring us to the hospital (which can take 45 minutes)

We have manged to use public transport for the whole time that I have been here in Uganda, and have tried our best to make do.
But with the birth of our newborn son, we feel we cannot keep doing this without taking risks that we don't feel comfortable about.

So taking all of this into account it seems wise and responsible to have a small vehicle for the family.

Cars can be expensive here, but we have a good contact for a small reliable car that Andrew has been able to look up and find.
We believe we can get the car for between five to six thousand dollars (maybe even a bit less)

As you know, we serve the people here in a voluntary capacity and our personal living and family costs are provided by generous partners ... many of you reading this!
This means that there is no 'pot' of savings to draw from in times like this, as each month is finely budgeted.
God has provided everything we need and often more through all of you and we are thankful for that.

People have also given us one off donations, which have been such a blessing! A lot of these one off donations though have gone towards the medical care of Agnes having a safe pregnancy and delivery! But we are able to contribute about $400 of money that has been accumulated from these one off donations to go towards a car at least!

We waited a time and prayed about asking for help on our blog here, and even though I really don't like asking for money, and prefer to see God work through people at the needed times, we feel that it is right to do so now.

If you are in a position to contribute and willing to help, we would appreciate any contribution that could go straight towards purchasing a small car.
We ask this knowing that you all have to budget each month as well, so we acknowledge that every donation is a gift and a blessing. We also thank everyone who has stood by us so far, not just financially, but also with your prayers.
If you feel, please pray about partnering with us in this, we value each gift.

Our heart is to continue to serve the young people here in Uganda and express even more of Gods love and his potential for them to be people of hope, and we love that we can share that with all of you.

If you can contribute, please contact Andrew on: aboonstra1@gmail.com or on 0400 488016 to let us know.
Contributions via bank accounts also can always work, but it helps to see where we are at and who has blessed us if you could contact Andrew.

God bless you and thank you.

From the Vandenberg family.

Little miracle boy.

Today is a good day!

Today Farouk and Beatrice little boy, Abraham (or Ibra), has come back from the hospital.
He spent his first week in this world fighting for his life from a serious infection of septicemia.

And to be honest, if you saw the boys condition, you would be amazed that he is still alive.

Ibra was born from Al-Shafa hospital early Sunday morning, and came home on Sunday evening.
The first night of Ibra being home in the house, I had heard him cry in the next room a few times, and Farouk had mentioned that it had been a rough night for them.
But it wasn't until Mum and myself came back from town at around 2 pm, that we realized the seriousness of the situation.

Beatrice had been complaining for a while that she thought Ibra was sick, and that he was too hot.
We had been telling her not to wrap the baby up too much, because here in Africa culture they wrap babies up in about 5 layers of blankets.
But mum and I decided to have a look at him at 2 pm on Monday to see what the problem was.

There was little Ibra, wrapped up in way too many layers, with bulging eyes and a panting mouth.
We felt him and automatically realized he was too hot. We then asked Beatrice when the last time he had fed was, which was 7 am that morning (7 hours)
This put up red flags straight away! I grabbed the thermometer and measured his temperature, which was at 40.5.
From there it was no messing around, we rounded them into the car as fast as we could to race Ibra to the hospital.

Remember a lot of the time people here are very ignorant of a lot things, especially when it comes to babies.
There are no such things as birthing classes, or being taught in the hospital how to look after your baby. People don't have access to education like we do on this matter, and a lot of the time people like Farouk and Beatrice are learning things as they go.
So they didn't really get how serious the situation was.

This happens a lot in Uganda, with people being taken to the hospital when it is too late.

Both mum and I felt sick in the car on the way to the hospital, we were both just praying that the boy wouldn't die in the car.
Mum drove as best and as fast as she could, we reached Nile International Hospital (where Ethan was born) and when they saw the baby at reception, they treated it as an emergency and rushed him to the doctor.

Ibra was admitted and put in the same room that Aggie and I had been in with Ethan. It took about 10 minutes before any kind of medical treatment came, but it felt like 40 minutes to us all.
It was suspected that he had septicemia (blood poisoning) or even meningitis.
During that time we all laid hands on Ibra and prayed that God would heal him.
At this point in time, Ibra had gone completely floppy and out of it, he was not responding to anything and he looked like he was on deaths door.

I believe that God worked a miracle on Ibra, when you see how he was, he should of been dead.
Even the doctor told us that he couldn't assure us that the boy was going to live.

And then the treatment came. A Paracetamol suppository to bring the temperature down, a shot of antibiotics for any infection that he had, a shot of vitamin K, a shot of medicine to help him with his breathing, and a IV drip placed into his arm.
He also had a blood test taken to see if they could pick up on anything.

All we had to do was wait and see how he would respond. It was horrible to see a day old baby getting so many injections and medication pumped into him, just to save his life. And perhaps there may be a price to pay later on in life for that. We don't know.

While he was getting all these injections, Ibra didn't make a sound, no cry, no flinch, nothing.

But after a few hours his temperature had gone down, and his eyes had started opening again as he started to stir.
By the next day he had finally gone down to a normal temperature, and he started breast feeding again.
By the next day he was pooing and weeing as normal.
The doctor had checked over the boy and had noticed that the umbilical cord had never been tied properly, and was extremely infected. He diagnosed that this was the source of the infection.
He also added that the way the cord was cut from Al-Shafa was very poorly done.

I won't go into too much detail about how horrible the care was at Al-Shafa when Ibra was born. But basically he was never checked over, and even when they were discharged, no doctor had come to check on them.

I did go to Al-Shafa in the following days to speak with the head doctor about everything, and give them a bit of my concern (opinion) .. but they basically denied that they did anything wrong and didn't seem too phased or sorry about it.
I won't be recommending anyone to go that hospital again.

But we are just extremely thankful to God, that He has spared the life of Ibra!

I truly believe that God worked a miracle. There were so many factors that worked out for us, like us having a car around to jump in straight away and go to the hospital (and not have to wait around trying to find one) the fact that we had filled up with petrol before hand (so we didn't have to do it on the way to the hospital and lose precious time) that we came home early from town, that we decided to have a look at Ibra and check his temperature.
All of these things could be looked at as coincidence and luck! Or you can choose to look at them as God's sovereign hand.

C.S Lewis talks about how there is two ways to view the world. One way is to see nothing as a miracle, and the other way is to see everything as a miracle.
I choose to see the world in the latter.

I don't believe anything comes down to chance or coincidence, and I have a little bit more confidence in the power of prayer for healing as well now!

So today is a good day! And we celebrate that Ibra is finally home!

Meshach visits his little brother in the hospital.

Baby

So I am writing this blog with weary eyes and a tired head, after being up all night with Agnes trying to sooth our baby boy who seems to have wind and is a bit uncomfortable.
So no sleep.

But I have to praise God for no sleep because the reason for no sleep is our little child.
For those who don't know, last Friday Aggie gave birth to a little baby boy, who we have named Ethan Lewis Vandenberg.

He has very light skin and looks a lot like I did as a baby! Although he has Aggie's hair color and Aggie's African nose.

We went into the hospital on Friday morning for  a check up, but after examining Agnes the doctor said that the baby is very ready to come, and so they induced her there.
Unfortunately Andrew just missed out on seeing our baby, as he left to go to Kampala on Friday morning! Typical, since he was waiting and hoping he would get to see the baby the whole time he was here.
But Friday was the day Ethan wanted to come.

Aggie was in labor from 12.00 to 7.00 pm.
Ethan came quite fast in the end, from about 6.30 it was all on, and the doctors barely had time to get her into the delivery room and ready before Ethan's head started popping out.

It was the most intense thing I have ever gone through (and I am sure Aggie could say the same haha)

Ethan was born very healthy, weighing in at 3.5 kilos.
The first thing I noticed about him was his eyes. I have never seen a new born with such active, wide open eyes.

It actually was all a little bit scary, because Agnes was on the delivery bed for about 45 minutes after giving birth.
She had some complications with the placenta not coming out, and so the doctors had to hurry and find the anesthetist to be able to put Aggie under so they could work on her.
During this time they kind of whisked me away to another room to be with Ethan. They never really explained to me what was happening, all I knew was that there was some problems with the placenta and that they needed to put Aggie to sleep to work on her.
When I asked the Ugandan nurse if Aggie would be ok, in the typical blunt and casual way which can be normal among African nurses, she simply said "Yes she is ok, but if they leave her too long she could bled to death"
I've never been more scared in my life! And I have never prayed harder in my life as well.

Afterwards I got to learn that it can be quite common for this to happen to women during delivery, and that with the very skilled doctors in the modern hospital we were at, Aggie was in good hands and they had it under control.

But we still praise God that He protected Agnes and the baby. And although Aggie is quite sore now with a lot of stitches, she is happy and doing well (although very tired after last night)

It was an amazing experience to be with Aggie as well, and to be there by her side. There was actually a funny moment (in hindsight ... not at the time) where the Ugandan nurse tried to make me leave the delivery room during birth.
In the culture here men never attend the birth of their children, but leave the women alone with other women.
The nurse told me I have to leave now, to which I said "No I am going to be here with my wife" .. She looked at me strangely and said that I have to talk to the doctor about it (our doctor is a lovely woman from Turkey) to which I told her that we had already organized it with her.
I had to just let her know very firmly that it may not be a part of her culture, but this is the decision we had made, and we want to be together for it.
A few strange looks, but hey no one was getting rid of me from that room! Aggie told me afterwards she was so glad I was there, because she was so zoned out from the pain, she didn't understand or hear anything the doctor was saying, and she was taking all her cues from me (as I repeated to her what the doctor wanted her to do)

I am very proud of Aggie, she did so well! And she didn't have any form of pain killers throughout the whole ordeal. Straight up dealt with the pain on her own (with some help from my massages)

And I should say, that it is official ... Women are stronger then men.

We are both looking forward to the joys of parenthood. And although we can be scared and nervous at times (Ethan seems to hate having nappies changed, and hates being bathed ... which Agnes finds hard) I think we are doing well.
Especially considering we have had no classes or training or anything in how to deal with a baby. The hospital doesn't really do that here either.

We were out of the hospital the next day at lunch time, and sent home to start trying to work out how this parenting thing works.

The good thing here about the culture is that Aggie and I are not alone. We live in a big house with many women (some who have their own children) and so there is always someone to take the baby and give us a rest. Plus Aggie's sisters are doing all the cooking and washing so that Aggie doesn't have to lift a finger (which is good, because she is still struggling to walk around)

Mum has also been here staying with us, which has been a real blessing. She has helped Aggie a lot in showing us how to bath, change nappies, feed, burp etc.
And the good thing about Mum is that she is not forceful like the Ugandans in our house ... who just take the baby from your hands and say this is how it should be done (which Aggie and I get a little frustrated at)
Mum simply gives us advice and watches over us and helps us where we need, while we do it ourselves.

I know Mum is over the moon about her first grandchild, and Aggie and I both love having her support here.

So now we begin the long journey of Parenthood! What a huge change to our lives. But what a huge change that will be such a great blessing!

We thank everyone who has loved and supported us, prayed for us and sent us messages.
May God bless you.

The other day I read this passage in church, and also showed it to mum. I thought it was beautiful.

Grandchildren are the crown of the aged, and the glory of children is their fathers. Proverbs 17:6

Merry Christmas and a happy new year.

Merry Christmas everyone.

It is the end of the year, which means celebrations and feasting and time with the family.

We are doing well! Agnes is getting a lot of rest because she is getting ready to give birth any day/week now (we have been told to expect anything after the 5th of Jan, but the official due date is the 17th)

She gets very tired and uncomfortable, and can be in a lot of pain, so please pray for her.

We also went for our visa interview a few weeks back, which went very well. The Australian man who interviewed us said at the end of it all that we had passed the 'genuine relationship' test, and he couldn't see any issue with Aggie getting a partner visa to Australia.
We thank God for a safe journey to Kampala and a good interview (even though Aggie felt very nervous and thought she did badly ... she actually did fine though)

We also had our annual YSU Christmas dinner here, where we invite many friends of YSU to come and share a meal and a celebration and we look back on the year.

It is always a positive experience looking at all the people who we have touched over the year! Many of the people who come started in our programs and now they are looking after themselves. Even though they have finished, they still come and join us, but instead of participants in our classes, they now come as friends!

We looked back on many of the things that had been achieved over the year. This included.

* A group of tailoring girls who have graduated, and many young women now taking care of themselves through work and small business initiatives.
* A passionate group of young guys who always come for bible studies.
* A talented group of youth who practice and perform hip hop dancing.
* Running two Empower Trauma rehabilitation programs to bring healing to young peoples lives.
* A new Boda Boda donated to us, to help us with out work.
* A new chicken farming structure at the YSU block with 600 chickens now being reared.
* The development of the block of land, including the building of a fence, store room, toilets, chicken houses, solar power, water tanks, two new guards and our new guard dog Spurgeon.
* A weekly fellowship every Wednesday with many people coming to worship.
* Two new babies on the way to join the team early 2016.

Of course there has been hardships this year as well, tensions with people, sicknesses and even deaths of people we love.
But through it all God has been good and continues to work.

Our Christmas day celebration was a nice time with the family as well. Agnes, her sisters, her brother and myself all went to church in the morning and then ate a massive meal of chicken and rice!
We were all very full afterwards and all ended up falling asleep.
We also shared presents with everyone. Agnes' sisters were very excited to get a present (as the were not expecting it)
A simple Christmas gift here can mean so much to someone who has never had the experience of Christmas presents before.

The day before Christmas our youth also ran an outreach. A couple of the young guys had it on their heart to help someone in need. They had found a woman through a friend at a local church, who lived in a nearby village but was doing it tough.
She lived in a very small mud house up on a hill in a remote part of a village.
One thing that she really needed was a toilet. She had no where to go, and so her and her children had to make do with small bushes around the place.
Our young guys really felt like they wanted to build a drop toilet for this woman.
So YSU contributed the money for the materials, and the youth donated their own labor. A few days were spent digging at 15 ft hole, and then a big group of us came to build this woman a drop toilet.
Afterwards the young people all prayed for the woman and her family. A few of the youth had spent a few days there, sharing about the love of Christ to this woman and her neighbors.
And many people around the village were so impressed to see young people giving up their time to go and labor in the sun, for free.
It was a great testimony.
These are the sort of things I love getting behind. Youth initiated outreaches, where local Ugandan youth are the ones helping to build and reach out to others in their own community.

Please pray for us as we expect our new baby soon! We appreciate all of your love and support.
Another thing we request, is if there is anyone who is interested in sponsoring a young woman for the next tailoring class that we hope to get started in February to get in contact with HopeBuilders. It would be great to get people who would commit to sponsoring one of these girls for one year.
It is a $50 a month donation for the course of a year. This pays for teaches wages and all materials and resources to run the class. The young women learn a bunch of valuable skills during this time, including tailoring, business skills, English and Maths.
The young women also get mentored and discipled, and go through various programs including trauma rehabilitation and healing.
At the end of it all they have a bunch of new skills, a tailoring machine and a new outlook on life!
If you are interested please feel free to contact HopeBuilders on info@hopebuilders.org.au
or to my personal email on ooeeluke@hotmail.com

Thank you and God bless you.

Schoolies visit and visa interview.

Just a quick update here!

School holidays have just arrived which means 'Busy Busy Busy!'
We have holiday programs, dancing groups, fellowships, Christmas time, chickens, young people popping in all the time, not to mention hopebuilders teams!

It has been good though, it means time goes fast and January and the baby will be here before we know it!

We had the Schoolies Revolution team come and visit us the other day which was great! I shared about some of the vision for YSU, and the team came and prayed for us on the block of land. They also prayed for Agnes and I in the coming weeks with the birth of our baby, which we appreciated from them.

Then the team were treated to lots of dancing performances from our young men and women.
Our tailoring girls shared about what they do, as well as offered some of their products for sale.
Then we had our boys dancing group perform a dance for the Schoolies.

My good friend Solomon also shared a message about following Christ at all costs, and how in the end we never really make a sacrifice because of what Christ has offered us in Eternal life.

Solomon also shared some of his personal testimony which I wrote about here:
http://lukev-uganda.blogspot.ug/2015/07/how-much-would-you-give-up.html

Afterwards all of the schoolies got up and tried some of their own dance moves, much to the amusement and excitement of the Ugandan youth.

The Ugandan youth also got to pray for the schoolies and bless them as well.
Usually we have always done it the other way around ... where the teams come and give a message and pray for the Ugandans and come to bless them!
But I have had a bit of change of thought on how things can be done, mainly because of a great book I have read called 'When helping hurts'.
Instead of having the foreigners always come and do everything to bless the locals, this book suggested flipping that on it's head.
So even though the Ugandan youth had no performance, no prayers or no message given to them to bless them, I believe they felt more empowered by being the ones who had something to offer to the 'Muzungus'.

When I had explained to the Ugandan youth I'd like to do it this way, they were so excited .... it made them feel very valuable!

Agnes and I will also be travelling to Kampala on Monday afternoon so we can go for an interview early Tuesday morning.
The interview is in regards to Agnes' partner visa to Australia. We have no idea what the interview will include, but we appreciate your prayers ... especially because right now it is a difficult time for Agnes to travel with her very large stomach, and her feeling rather sick the last few weeks (although the large stomach is the best proof we can provide of a "ongoing relationship")

We pray it goes smoothly and that this will help in granting Agnes access to be able to live in Australia when ever we please.

We thank everyone again for their love and support.

You can check out our young guys dancing for the Schoolies here:

https://vimeo.com/147750348