Vacation

Merry Christmas!!!

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Greetings from Uganda.

On Tuesday this week, our youngest baby Lilly, turned 1, and Rille (our second youngest) is turning 5 on Christmas.

We were able to go for a short family vacation at Musana camps, a Christian campsite on lake Victoria with the kids. We were joined by Pastor Freddie and Sandra and their baby Irma. It was a relaxing time and a joy to be with family.

Our school year ended in November, and all kids that have extended family, were sent to them to spend time with family. Some church members have also taken some kids to their homes for Christmas break. We have only 22 people at the village, including the staff helping out.

We are using this time to do remodeling at the school. We are laying tiles in classrooms, painting, clearing the compound and laying pavers.

According to the police crime report of 2021, 17,000 sex abuse cases were reported and of these, 14,000 of them were aggravated defilement cases. (Childen under 13 years sexually abused by an adult.) 1 out of 3 girls have been sexually abused in Uganda, according to the US embassy in Kampala.

This year, we have been able to rescue 23 girls who were victims. Recently, we launched a community action team. We are working in partnership with the local district, police, state prosecutors and other stake holders to ensure that children are safe and that these offenders are taken away from society. We are also raising awareness about the whole issue of sexual abuse.

We launched the campaign last week and we hosted many of the local district officials and local press.

Your prayers will be appreciated as we continue to reach these girls.

Meet our newest kids at Mercy.

Namakula (English name not yet known) is 7 years old. She is extremely malnourished to the point where she cannot stand, she only squats. Maria, who is 3 years, can stand.

Namakula
Maria

We rescued them this week; the mother is a mentally sick person who has been living in a shack.

The mother would take food from the oldest and feed the youngest. They were referred by the district social worker who was informed by the community.

They don’t have any known relatives, but we will begin to search for them as we rehabilitate them. Your prayers are appreciated.

Like the kids above, we have 46 kids that are not yet sponsored but are already in our care.

We spend $40 to care for a non-residential child and $100 for a residential child or child with special needs.

You can make a one time gift or signup to become a child sponsor. You can also make a gift towards the ongoing construction and renovations. Your gift goes a long way.

https://childrentolove.givingfuel.com/sponsor-a-child

Merry Christmas!!

The Rugumba’s – Finally Home!!

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It’s been four months since we finally came home from California. Rille, the boys, and I returned home first, and Vena and Zoe joined us later. Thank you to everyone for your prayers and support during that journey. 

We found a lot of things changed, but we are thankful that we are finally settled in now. Rille started school and the other kids resumed school.

During the school break, we had a wonderful opportunity to go and stay at friend’s home. We were able to enjoy a short family vacation near a lake.

With the ministry’s standard operating procedures in place, our school has reopened and about 75% of our kids are at school. We now have 251 kids attending Mercy Christian Schools.

We have continued the construction on our learning center near Mercy Church. We have completed the ground floor, and the center includes a library, computer room, musical school, a science lab and several classrooms. Currently, we are working on finishing the classroom floors. 

We are still continuing to rescue many children. One child we rescued, Little S (name not revealed for her privacy), a six year old little girl, is always on my mind. Her father went to work and left in her the community by herself. This is very common as many parents cannot afford baby sitters, so they will just leave the kids to play by themselves. Little S was found sexually assaulted by an unknown man, but we have rescued her and she is now living at our transition rehabilitation home (Mercy Village.) At the village home, she is able to receive care and protection. Little S started school and is meeting with Vena to receive counseling. When she first arrived, she would run away any time she would see a man. Nowadays, my heart fills with such joy as I see her playing joyfully like other kids. 

Last week, we rescued 6 girls. One of the girls was baby Blessing. Blessing was found abandoned in a long drop, toilet hole. We are thanking God, that after being in there 2 days, she was found alive. 

On the same day we found Blessing, we also rescued 5 girls with special needs. They were found staying in an illegal shelter that the government shut down. 

Please pray for them to assimilate well in the new environment. 

We have opened up a new home at our village to accommodate for the increased number of kids.

Last month, we hosted a team of professors and students from Corban University, in Oregon. They help provide formal training to 42 pastors at Mercy Church. They also participated in a medical outreach, and we were able to see over 80 patients, who are unable to afford medical bills. We were able to share the gospel and offered them free medical care. 

We are currently looking for sponsorship for close to 50 children that are in our care, but are not sponsored. I am asking you to consider sharing this email/blog with friends and help us get these kids sponsored. Sponsorship for residential kids is $100 a month and $40 for our non-residential children.

You can also make a one time gift to our sponsorship fund to help us trace these children’s families and provide for these children. The link below will direct you to our sponsorship page.

Thank you for your prayers and support.

https://childrentolove.givingfuel.com/sponsor-a-child

Strength in Trials

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This week am attending the Shepherds’ conference (a pastor’s conference organized by John McArthur)

I have learned a lot about God’s love from different speakers, and He allows us to go through moments and trials because He loves us and He wants to grow our faith. In James 1:2, He tells us to count it all Joy when going through trials.

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For the past 3.5 weeks, I have been visiting the United States. This time, I came with Vena and the boys; we have visited supporters and spoke at churches in Oregon and California, and I had the privilege of preaching at Corban University. We have had a wonderful visit; the kids went to the ocean and sea world which they have loved. One of our supporters booked us a hotel, and Vena and I went away last weekend to Santa Barbara.


On the other side, a day after I had arrived, I found out I had malaria. I went to hospitals here, but did doctors did not seem to know how to treat malaria, as they gave me Malarone which is a prevention medicine. My situation worsened; my doctor in Uganda mailed me medicine which took about a week to get here and when I took it I was better.

Vena has been having pain and we arranged to see a doctor while on this trip. They ran several tests, including a Pathology report that revealed she has stage 1 breast cancer. This has hit us as a family, but we know God is in control, and He loves us and will give us the strength to go through it. The doctor says she will have surgery scheduled on April 1st, and then 6 weeks of radiation. I am flying back with the boys today, but Vena will stay. CTL and the hospital have helped us apply for insurance to help with the bills, and we are waiting to hear back.


In Uganda, by 2006, we had only one cancer radiation machine that broke down, and it took two years to get the two machines we have now. In a country of 40 million people, it is hard to use them and receive treatment. After seeing a local specialist, we have been informed that because of high numbers of patients waiting–it would take a patient at least 2 months for them to be able to start on radiations.

Here is how you can pray for us

  • Pray that Insurance to be approved.
  • Journey mercies as I travel with the boys today.
  • Comfort and strength especially for Vena as she won’t be with us for a while.
  • Vena is trying to find a local Christian school to volunteer at while she is waiting and is on treatment, so that she doesn’t get bored. But, also so she use her time here to learn new things that she can bring back to our school in Uganda.

Thank you for all your support and prayers.

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New Year Celebration in Uganda

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End of year service

When I was a child, I always tried to stay awake until midnight to celebrate as we would usher in the new year. At midnight, we would bring out our Christmas tree and burn it. People would start hitting drums and cans to make a lot of noise; those who had guns would shoot up, and people would run on streets burning used car tires. People would drink and feast at night, but it was also a time when some people would be violent and break into homes and do all kind of things.

The trend has changed since 2000. Churches started having End-of-Year night services, so that people can enter the new year in prayer.

New Year Celebration is the most attended service in Uganda, more than Easter and Christmas.

At Mercy Church and the Worship House, we held our third End-of Year service. We had fireworks, as we ushered in the new year. At Mercy, we had over 1,000 people in attendance, and at the Worship House, over 20,000 people attended. The venue was so full that security had to stop people from coming in.

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This service gave us an opportunity to share the gospel. We had a time for prayer, and we prayed for people. Several people came to me drunk, and they wanted to give their lives to Christ and they wanted to stop drinking in the new year.

Pray for them that they will grow in their faith.

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Thank you for your prayers. I came back from a wonderful family vacation in Jinja; it was good to spend time with family and rest.

It has stopped raining in the past few days and construction work has continued to move on fast, and I know we will be able to be done before school starts.

Happy new year!!

April Update

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It has been a while since I last blogged. A lot has been going on and am excited to share with you all.

Finally, Mercy Christian schools started. We now have 120 kids attending our school, most of them are the kids Mercy has been sponsoring in others schools. The kids are so happy. We are providing them a Christ centered education, but at the same time, teaching them practical life skills like computer, sewing, and music.

Mercy Church made two years. I am so thankful to God for how He has grown this church in such a small time. We had a big celebration and invited Pastor Wilson and the choir from the Worship House; they joined and encouraged us. We are now praying about planting another church plant in Bakka village.

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I had an opportunity to visit the United States with my wife to speak at the Children to Love International Banquet (our US Patner 501 c 3) in Bakersfield, California.

This was a good time to connect with some of our friends and supporters as we also visited Oregon, Los Angeles, Denver, Dallas and Orlando. We were away for one month. It was a great time visiting friends and making connections with churches. We took some days and went to the beach which was relaxing, but we missed our kids so much. WhatsApp Image 2019-04-04 at 10.10.59 PM(1)

I was also able to see Ruby, Josephine and Jonah, these are some of our kids that were adopted but now live in Oregon, California and Denver. They have grown so much adjusted well in their families and they are deeply loved.

Jonah

Since the beginning of this year, we have rescued the most number of kids, we are now at 20 kids. I will share with you Adam’s story; he is the newest child at Mercy.

Adam was found abandoned in a swamp by himself; he was rescued and later brought to Mercy where he is now thriving. He is just about 2 months old, and I can’t wait to see how his life will unfold. We have began to search for his family, but for such cases like this, there is a high chance of failing to find his relatives. If are unable to find them, our next step would be to find a local family to adopt him.

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Please pray for the following.

  • Pray for social workers as they look for these kids families.
  • Pray for more local families to step up and adopt these kids.
  • Pray for more child sponsors. Just like Adam, we have many kids that are not sponsored and for $40 and $100 a month you can sponsor a child.
  • Pray for more financial provision, we still have some pending construction projects at the school like paving the compounds, leveling and construction of the play grounds and we still need financial support.

Happy New Year!

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Happy New year!!

The last few weeks have been the busiest weeks I have ever experienced. Our school is set to start at the beginning of February, and our HR was tasked to hire staff. The first set of interviews did not go well as we had many applicants, but few met our standards, and I began to panic as time was running out. Thank God, we were able to do massive advertisement again, and we had another set of interviews which helped us get the teachers we need.

It has been stressful and sometimes I felt lonely, but I got encouraged each time I prayed and let God take charge.

My parents and sisters came to my home, and we celebrated Christmas together. We shared the day with our staff that was working such as our medical staff, Baby Home Mothers, and Security Guards, and we also shared it with our patients that were admitted to the Medical Center.

I took a few days and vacationed with my family after Christmas and that was energizing. In times when I am done, I just imagine the thousands of kids that will walk through this school, know Christ and be nurtured to become Godly leaders that will impact our country, and I am so humbled that God has called me to be a part of it.

A few weeks ago, nothing was up at our school, but I am thankful to God that we have built six classrooms, and they are now on the roofing stage. It is not just about the buildings, each day over 20 men come and work on our site, and I see 20 families that are cared for because of this building project. We have bought bricks from local villagers, and they are thankful to earn money so that they can feed and educate their families; our local businesses have also been boosted because of the cement and supplies we continue buying from them. Thank you for your prayers and support. Our goal is that the school will be done in 3 weeks pray for me.

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Our annual camp starts today; we invited all the kids that we sponsor to come to the Village for 3 nights. We will be sharing with them from Romans 12. We are blessed to host a team from Chicago that will be helping us in the camp, and will also be doing a medical outreach as the team has two nurses and a doctor.

We continue welcoming in new babies at the village, and each day we receive referrals for babies that need to be rescued. This breaks my heart knowing what these kids go through, but I am thankful we have a safe place where they can be. Our last set of kids that we rescued are twins, Kato and Wasswa. They are currently at the national referral hospital to receive treatment for malnourishment.

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Please Pray:

  • Pray for Kato and Wasswa that they will be fine soon.
  • Pray for good weather that our builders are not delayed.
  • Pray for me and my fellow staff that God will give us strength in this time.
  • Pray for the Camp that our kids will be transformed by the power of the gospel.

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The Rugumba Family on Family Vacation!