Thursday, November 13, 2008
Craft Sale Extravaganza ...
Thank you .................
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Abbie's back on the ground .................!
I am delighted to let you know that Abbie has successfully completed her incredible skydive - below she writes about how it went:
"Well I have now undertaken the most exhilerating thing I have ever done in my life. Jumping from a plane some 12,500 feet up was the most amazing thing ever and not being one who feels particularly confident flying I'm so chuffed that I managed to do it. So going up in the plane had to be the scariest part for me and my nerves really kicked in when they opened the door for us all to jump out! Seconds before it was my turn to hurtle myself from the plane and freefall, for what seemed like ages, a slight feeling of doubt crossed my mind but there was no turning back. With my whole body shaking and my heart pounding, I managed to give my camera man a wave and a smile before leaping into the great expanse of sky in front of me and all around me. From that moment on it felt like I was dreaming. Words cannot describe the next 45 seconds or so.
Once the parachute had opened and we were floating down to the ground, I took a sneaky peak directly beneath me and the view was breathtaking. I caught my breath, took in the sights around me and after a few minutes landed carefully and softly thanks to Andy, the skydiving pro who had to listen to my ear piercing shrieks the whole
way down.....poor chap! ;o)
WOW!!!! What a rush."
Thank you to everyone who supported her.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Would you be mad or brave enough for this?
Pimms cakes and girls
Finance Training Course
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Report on visit to Uganda in July 2008
This time we were a smaller select group of five and after a slow start at Heathrow with a 2 hour delayed departure and a certain amount of anxiety about whether we would miss our connection in Dubai we arrived only an hour late at Entebbe and spent a comfortable night at a guest house before our 6 hour bus journey west to Kasese.
We were met at the roadside by Lumika and a pick-up filled with the church choir who carried us home – boys comfortably in the front of the vehicle while the girls travelled in the back singing along with the choir inhaling a lot of dust and waving greetings to a million children along the way.
Saturday - We spent most of the day in Kasese buying cups and plates to equip the new kitchen at St Marks School, funded by enthusiastic face painting by our church youth group at Little Kingshill School fete.
Sunday – Kirsty and I travelled by motorbike to Bulindiguru Church – in fact as it had rained we walked the last 20 mins on foot up an unsurfaced road gathering thick layers of red mud on our flip flops. At the top of the hill we were met by church elders and once inside the church I quickly realised my carefully prepared notes would be no use to me at all as it was completely dark due to the new church being built around the present one and blocking out all the light – Plan B came to the fore (blagging it!) This was my first visit and as ever I was enormously humbled when each member of the congregation wanted to shake my hand in the service and brought a monetary offering amounting to approx £2.60. (£2.60 is approximately what a pastor might expect to receive as his salary in a month.)
Monday – involved a long day at St Mark’s for the parent teacher meeting with speeches and entertainment from pupils doing drama, singing, dancing, reciting poems and reports of the school’s progress. It was a special joy for me to see the school kitchen now not only completed but fully functional.
Tuesday – having sent Paul and Andy off to Kasese with Lumika to buy barbed (!) wire for the school perimeter fence, Liz and Kirsty went to see the 10 piglets purchased byAAD to support very poor widows and help them to get an income. Prior to our visit a meeting had been held to which 67 widows from only half of Lumika’s diocese had come who were apparently very excited and encouraged about the pig project being developed. It is hoped that we will be able to arrange training for them in pig keeping from the Send A Cow charity, which has a base at Fort Portal about one and a half hours from Lumika. Kirsty and Liz then went around the classes at St Mark’s to observe the teachers and participate in the lessons. I spent the morning establishing the names, ages and classes of all 100 or so orphans most of whom I had photographed during the April trip.
Wednesday and Thursday – were spent at Nyambuko church about 1 hours walk from Lumika’s house. It was great to see the church completed as funding had been sent to finish the church roof in Oct 2007??? We had been invited to speak and to encourage the church regarding marriage and parenting – we all did our bit quite capably, though none of us felt that Bible teaching was perhaps our natural forte!! I was presented with a noisy goat (my first!), which was later sold and provided funds for two pig pens. By the end of the second day and having visited both Rebecca’s parents and several orphans’ homes on our way back, we were ready for a break with my friends Dave and Dani who live in the next valley about 1 hour away by car.
Friday - Paul and Liz headed for a break in Jinja via Kampala and would meet us at the airport for our return journey. Kirsty, Andy and I went with Dani to Queen Elizabeth National Park for the day seeing some incredible wildlife including lions, elephants, hippos, buffalo, Uganda cob, warthogs, crocodiles, lizards and numerous beautiful birds.
Saturday – We made our way back to Lumika’s to prepare for Sunday and to greet the orphans families who came to see us.
Sunday – spent at Maliba church followed by visits to two orphans families who both blessed us with chickens and pineapples.
Monday – this was a long and exhausting day spent going a short distance by car, then motorbike and then a lot further on foot. Over the day we visited 17 orphans’ homes. Most of these were high and dry! Families have to walk about 2 hours each way to collect water and the children walk up to an hour each way to school. In several homes I was given gifts – e.g. chicken, eggs, rice, and sometimes a gift for the UK sponsor. Families we visited were caring for between 6 and 14 children per household.
Tuesday – the morning was spent in a meeting with Lumika and Rebecca to discuss the work of An African Dream and our vision for its future and how things are run. We also made a final visit to St Mark’s to see the fence very much underway (now completed) and lunch for 100 orphans in full swing.
Wednesday – an early rise saw us catching the 6.30 bus back to Kampala and a smooth journey brought us safely to the guest house. We were privileged to be taken to Alpha and Omega School, run by my friend Robinah who owns the guest house, where we were entertained by an amazing group of children who sang and danced and played a wide variety of musical instruments (similar to the African Children’s Choir). It was vibrant, uplifting and very moving.
Thursday – we whiled away the morning at the craft market before meeting up with Paul and Liz at the airport.
Friday – home at last – a successful and happy trip from my point of view, both in terms of friendships being developed with those on the team, and in Uganda, and the progress made at St Mark’s and with the start of the micro-enterprise pig project.
On behalf of the team we want to thank you for your prayers and financial support. We had good health, safe travel and significant progress was made as I hope you have seen from this report.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Oli Griffiths and Hannah Kramers write...... after their first vist to Uganda
As first time visitor to Africa, the trip to Uganda was amazing but definitely overwhelming. Our culture and theirs are so different, the way people think, the way they come to decisions, family life, everything. A few things have stuck with me since i have come back, firstly the number of children. Everywhere you go there are children who are largely neglected and shown very little love, their only hope for transformation in their lives is our Lord Jesus and the love he has for them. Also, i've been struck by the enormity of the problems there, social and economic. It would be far too easy to see these problems as a mountain that can't be moved, but nothing is impossible for our God, he told us that faith the size of a mustard seed would move mountains. If this sort of work of God is needed anywhere, its Africa!
Hannah writes:
We put on a church conference for leaders from the surrounding area. One of the most powerful moments for me personally, was when we taught them the song 'Our God Reigns' and were worshipping Jesus together. To be in a room full of people who were unified in their desperation for God was very stirring...It opened my eyes to what it means to belong in the body of Christ and made me praise God all the more!
Garage Sale Success!
Monday, May 26, 2008
Report on Trip to Uganda April/May 2008
Well for those of you who kindly read and took in my itinerary you will know that I have been back from Uganda nearly 3 weeks and as my next trip is in less than 8 weeks I thought it was high time I let you know how we got on. As always the best place to start is with a thank you for all who remembered the team and I and prayed for us while we away. We had a brilliant time and on a practical level it all went very smoothly –Godfrey (who we had not met before) kindly came to collect us from the airport and drove us all over Uganda without incident – we only had one stop to repair four punctures in one tyre but fortunately no accident took place!
We reached Kasese (W Uganda) late on Sat 26th and after a little sleep had a long service at Maliba Church we arrived around 10.30 when the first Sunday school session ended and we remained there all day til around 3 or 4 pm the time being filled with worship led by several choirs, various offerings, lengthy announcements, welcome visitors from other areas who all get a few words, followed by our team being introduced and Pete (my brother in law) speaking. We ended with the food offerings including sugar cane, avocados and bananas being auctioned off to raise more money!
The following 3 days Mon- Wed primarily consisted of the teaching conference for leaders of youth and around 450 people attended. The team from Chorleywood delivered some powerful teaching and there was opportunity to pray for people after each session. Despite the language barrier it was evident that lives were being touched and transformed. It is hard to articulate how encouraging these conferences are for men and women who serve in churches with mostly no training and no Bible even to help them. It is a joy to see so many enjoying hearing God’s message explained so clearly.
For me I had other ‘duties’ so didn’t attend all of the conference. I visited quite a number of orphan’s homes around 12 in total (some included siblings) – it is always humbling to see the deep faith of those who have nothing materially and are often struggling both with difficult family situations and significant illness. One lady Louda had seven children – her husband had been abducted in 1997 by rebels from Congo. He returned home in 2000 by died in 2002. By this time her eldest daughter had got married but to an alcoholic so had returned home to Louda with 5 of her own children. Louda’s son Charles is sponsored to attend St Mark’s school. He walks 2 hours each way to school usually with no breakfast – he has lessons for at least 2 hours before he gets a mug of porridge at breaktime. This kind of story is repeated on some level in every home you go to so when I am presented with a chicken as a gift (worth £3), which I was on two occasions, it is enormously humbling.
I also visited St Mark’s School,which was wonderful. The school had been painted since I was there last summer. I could see for myself the completed latrine block – not very glamorous but a very necessary part of school life with 300 or so pupils attending. Other completed buildings included a room for the night-watchman to stay in, a storeroom for food and a kitchen building. So all in all pretty amazing progress in the last 10 months.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Other developments ...
The kitchen building at St Mark's school is now well under way.
A team of 9 from the UK who will be going out to Uganda on April 25th for 10 days will be visiting St Mark's school and also running a conference for young leaders.