An African Dream

London Marathon Triumph!

2009-06-24T20:18:00.001+01:00

A massive thank you to Mark Olsen who ran the London Marathon in aid of An African Dream and raised an incredible £509 - thank you to everyone who supported him - what a fantastic achievement.

Garage Sale Success even in the pouring rain!!

2009-06-09T20:08:00.003+01:00

Are the Brits ever worried by rain? - despite it pouring persistently throughout the morning the garage sale went ahead regardless last saturday - troops rallied with gazebos and tarpaulin and string abounding!! It seemed that nearly every punter brought donations to swap with their purchases and willing parted with their money for our friends in Uganda.
So far £795 has been raised with a few pennies (and maybe pounds!?) to come - thank you so everyone who supported the event.

Team preparations are progressing .................

2009-06-09T19:56:00.002+01:00

As you will have seen a team of 8 are preparing to go to Uganda on July 1st - last week they met up for final planning. Vaccinations are being updated and visas are being processed this week. Here are some comments from two members of the team who are going for the first time:

It is a huge privilige and a thrill to be a part of the team. I'm looking forward to meeting people who's experience of God and of life is so very different to my own. I hope our trip and the activities we have planned will be of value to those we encounter, and that it will begin to shape my understanding of Gods plan for my future.
Helen

From the moment God touched my heart to care for those less fortunate than myself, I wanted to do something tangible to help. In my daily life I deal with people who have so much material wealth, but it seems, are not as happy as those with so much less. Under God's guidance, I cannot wait to make a small difference where I can to the lives of those in Uganda, and in particular the school children.
Trevor

Youth conference ......

2009-05-28T20:36:00.003+01:00

Last week a conference for youth took place (that's basically anyone who isn't married!) - over 300 people attended to hear the gospel being preached and were encouraged in their faith.

Garage Sale coming up - don't miss out!

2009-05-21T20:55:00.001+01:00

Please pray for sunshine on Sat 6th June when a Garage Sale will be held at 33 Lodge Lane, Prestwood, Bucks 10 - 2pm to raise money for An African Dream - last years support for this event raised £700. Please come and support this year and see if we can do better. Do come and have a drink and a slice of yummy cake we'd love to see you!

3 Peaks Success ...

2009-05-21T20:52:00.001+01:00

A huge thank you to the team of climbers from Little Kingshill School who successfully climbed the three highest peaks in England, Scotland and Wales all in 24 hours and in the process raised an extraordinary £1000 for An African Dream - thank you so much.

A graduation approaches ....

2009-05-21T20:45:00.003+01:00

17 Pastors of the Full Gospel Church have now completed their Bible training and will graduate on the 4th July. The team of 8 from the UK going out will be guests of honour at this event which will very likely last a whole day and consist of lots of speeches and a big meal to celebrate at the end.

Rugendabara Full Gospel church now has a new roof which has been long awaited and was completed before the rains came which was perfect timing!

Fun, food and tricky questions!!

2009-04-23T13:46:00.001+01:00

A huge Well Done to Becca and Licy for organising a fantastic Quiz night on Saturday 18th April. The superb questions, delicious puddings and dancing to work of the extra calories indulged in made a brilliant evening. Thank you so much to everyone who came and supported - £300 was raised for An African Dream whilst Becca and Licy raised £150 each towards their flights. Well Done girls!

London Marathon

2009-04-18T16:24:00.001+01:00

The amazing Mark Olsen is running the London Marathon on Saturday 26th April to raise money for An African Dream - please do go to his webpage and sponsor him - thank you.

www.justgiving.com/markolsen1

Come to this Quiz night to raise money and have fun!

2009-03-10T19:22:00.005Z

There are 8 people preparing to go to Uganda to visit the work of An African Dream in July - two of them Rebecca and Alicia are organising a fundraiser -

"Quiz Night with puddings and dancing!"

Half of the proceeds are going to 'An African Dream' and the other half towards their flights!! They hope to see what has been achieved with the money from the Christmas Tree Collection and also to experience first hand some of the inspiring stories Sophie brings back from every visit!

Please come and show your support by coming to this fantastic evening of entertainment!!

When: Saturday 18th April 7.30-11pm

Where: Great Kingshill Village Hall

Tickets: £10 (£8 concession)

Bring your own drinks (and glasses!)


We're not being too strict about teams - there will be tables of tenish (with appropiate team names etc!) for you to join! So come in a team or come and join a team - it doesn't matter!!

Contact: anafricandream@wynter.org for further details

This is no walk in the park!

2009-03-10T19:15:00.005Z

Three Peaks Challenge
On the 2^nd of May, an intrepid team of Teachers and Parents from Little Kingshill Combined School are undertaking the National Three Peaks Challenge. This involves climbing the highest mountains in England, Scotland and Wales. These are Scafell Pike, Ben Nevis and Snowdon respectively. To complete the challenge you must ascend and descend all three peaks, and driv e (or be driven) between them, within 24 hours.

The team will start with Ben Nevis at 4pm on Saturday the 2^nd and aim to have completed all 3 peaks by 4pm on Sunday the 3^rd of May.

This is no walk in the park!
The money we raise from sponsorship will be split between
Little Kingshill School and “An African Dream”

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

Don’t worry you don’t have to walk up a mountain!!!

Please visit www.justgiving.com/lks3peaks and make your donation.

Thanks for your support.

Latest news!

2009-03-09T11:35:00.003Z

I am delighted to report that the guttering is now indeed attached to a water tank and both staff and pupils are enjoying the benefits of having water on the school site.

9 orphans who completed and passed primary education at St Mark's have now begun their secondary education at a school nearby.

After nearly a year of constant wear the uniforms of the 105 orphans are both too small and worn out so funds to replace them with new bigger uniforms will soon be sent out.

A team of 8 people are now booked to visit the work of An African Dream from July 1st to 12th to encourage those working there full time and see how the work is progressing.

Textbooks and Water!

2009-02-07T19:57:00.004Z

After many long discussions textbooks for St Mark's School have finally been purchased in Kampala and taken 5-6 hours to Pastor Lumika where they will be put in new cupboards which have been built in the classrooms. It is anticipated that these will be a great blessing to both the teachers and pupils. Thank you to those who gave generously to the Christmas tree collection.

Also there is great news in the form of water! Guttering on the classroom roofs has now been completed to enable rain water to be collected. This means there will be water on the school site and it will no longer need to be collected in jerry cans from the river 6-8 minutes walk from the school. The final piece of the jigsaw will come with the news that the guttering has been connected to the water tank - watch this space!

PA Pastors and Widows

2009-01-24T20:50:00.003Z

Following a very generous donation we have been able to provide PA equipment for Pastor Lumika and his district - Lumika writes:
"I have bought the equipment which is very powerful. Thank you so much. God bless you. Yesterday we had the district executive they were so happy and thanked the Lord together"
"Onice again I would like to thank you the instrutments the district executive were also happy and lifted up they hands and prayed for you for such wonderful PA thank you so much"

Christmas was clearly a busy but happy time for Pastor Lumika:
"Am happy to inform you that Christmas was so wonderful, we had so many christains over 400 which was amazing praise God, we hard some dramas in the church by the youth so the service was so wonderful. From 4:00pm to 7:30pm we had a powerful crusade whereby different people believers and non believers attended, I invited the speekers from different district and others from Northern Uganda and ended on 1st 2009. We also had a youth seminer from 26 -27th whereby many people attended they were very happy and 29th - 30th we had a big seminer for married couples whereby there were very happy with seminer. Reports have started coming from out that there is great changes in their families praise the Lord thank you for your contant prayers".

In addition, 51 widows have recently attended a seminar to encourage them and teach them - some have been given piglets already though many are still waiting.

12 Pastors will be coming for Bible training on 26th January - some will be graduating this year after completing 2 years part time studies.

A new term begins ....

2009-01-24T20:44:00.004Z

On Monday 26th January, St Mark' School will begin its 3rd year! We have just heard that P7 pupils who took exams in November all passed which is great news.

It is anticipated that the water will soon be available on the school site once guttering is finished and connected to the water tank - this will be a huge improvement on having to go down to the river to fetch water.

Awesome Christmas Tree Collection

2009-01-07T19:43:00.002Z

On January 4th, a bright but very cold Sunday afternoon, an amazing team of 30 volunteers from Little Kingshill Baptist Church helped to collect Christmas trees from 3 villages in order to raise money for An African Dream. An incredible £930 was raised and will be used to buy textbooks for St Mark's School.

Craft Sale Extravaganza ...

2008-11-13T12:30:00.003Z

Thursday 6th November saw a day of hard work, fun and awesome fundraising - Jan Wynter rallied her creative friends and laid on a feast of handicraft, hospitality and Ugandan gifts to raise money for An African Dream and £1961.54 was donated - thank you so much to everyone who came and supported.

Thank you .................

2008-11-13T12:28:00.002Z

Thank you to everyone who sponsored Abbie to do her amazing sky dive - she raised an incredible £1600 for An African Dream - absolutely fantastic - thanks Abbie!!

Abbie's back on the ground .................!

2008-10-21T15:46:00.009+01:00

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.

Would you be mad or brave enough for this?

2008-09-23T19:48:00.004+01:00

On Sunday 19th October, Abbie, the sister of my friend Vanessa, is going to do a tandem skydive to raise money for An African Dream - if you would like sponsor her or to know more, please contact her at abbieatanafricandream@wynter.org.

Pimms cakes and girls

2008-09-23T19:41:00.002+01:00

Last Saturday Sophie had the pleasure of attending a ladies event which involved drinking Pimms, eating delicious scones and meeting new people all the name of fundraising. After giving a brief talk on the work of An African Dream £90 was kindly donated by friends of Julia who hosted us a fantastic afternoon in the sunshine. Thanks girls!

Finance Training Course

2008-09-23T19:39:00.003+01:00

Today Pastor Lumika and his friend Pastor Yeye, who also the bursar of St Mark's school have commenced a five day course in financial training in Kampala. It is anticipated that this will equip them both to manage their responsibilities more readily as An African Dream continues to develop and grow.

Report on visit to Uganda in July 2008

2008-08-26T21:41:00.009+01:00

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.

Oli Griffiths and Hannah Kramers write...... after their first vist to Uganda

2008-06-24T19:08:00.004+01:00

Oli writes:
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!

2008-06-24T19:03:00.003+01:00

Saturday 14th of June began bright and sunny and with a very cluttered driveway. But between 10-4 a constant stream of visitors came, spent their pounds and reduced the piles of books, clothes, and toys to mere heaps and in the process raised £700 for An African Dream. Many thanks to all those who helped set up and sell up and clear up.