WELCOME HOME HEZEKIAH



WELL WE HAVE ARRIVED HOME IN UGANDA



Hezekiah was wonderful again on the plane with two long haul flights again plus a domestic one and two long layovers....... even with cutting two more teeth he was wonderful . 


   

      

Hezzy playing with his friends at the airport AND ON THE PLANE



CRAWLING AROUND AIRPORT MAKING FRIENDS - CONSTANTLY AMAZED BY HOW PEOPLE ARE DRAWN TO HIM



He is such a wonderful traveller we are so blessed and he has taken everything in his stride - all the different time zones, food, locations and people.

He is such a joy bringer and attracts people wherever we go.

I love sharing the joy that he is with other people and that people see what a miracle he is when they hear his story.... I pray people always see Jesus through him.

He is such a blessing

ARRIVING BACK IN UGANDA

It was so incredibly awesome to fly back in to Uganda.
As much as Australia will always been apart of me and my home too.... this is home as well and I feel that when we fly in.

I have many homes.... mainly wherever Rob and ziah are or where family is.... but I am blessed to have two countries to now call home.

I am excited that for Hezekiah he gets the blessing of having two countries to call home also. The beauty and culture of both.
There are times of sadness when you have two homes as it means you are always missing someone... or somewhere but I think the beauty outweighs the pain.
Hopefully since he will be doing it from the beginning it may be more natural and not so difficult for him.
I guess home sickness or missing family means you are blessed because at least you have someone or a home to miss in the first place..... many don't have that....

Flying in to Uganda and seeing the sparkle from all the tin roof huts up against the red soil I was filled with excitement and fear for the unknown. Not really fear - just an awareness that now so much has changed being a mother.
We have such big dreams and so much ahead of us.... but at the moment the road is still very unknown.... we didn't even know what sort of place we were staying in that night......
Its all apart of the adventure and making memories.
Rob and I have such wonderful, funny and sometimes scary memories from our first few years married here..... now we get the blessing of adding Hezekiah to those memories.


I thought Ziah may find the airport here very overwhelming. Its very small but crowded.... very very crowded.
He was again handled it very well.... .
We quickly had to strip hezzy down to his nappy as the humidity hit us.

FIRST TIME IN CAR WITH NO SEAT BELT
JUST LEFT AIRPORT ON WAY HOME

Hezekiah loved meeting Robs brother who came to meet us - Rob and Geof resemble each other especially when they smile so Hezekiah very quickly went to Geof and loves him already - I think he knows he is a safe person.... he knows he is family already which I love.


UNCLE GEOF

After landing we headed straight to the place we had arranged to rent up country in a place called Mityana.
It Is not somewhere I have ever been before but was an area a few hours out of the city where we feel maybe we may be able to find the land to set up our ministry.
My brother in law managed to rent a small unit in a compound for us for a a month or maybe a few months.
We hadn't seen it before until we arrived..... when we arrived in th dark - being that its new...there was no bulbs in the lights ..... that's something you have to do yourself. So we ended up a very basic motel down the road late that night with a very tired baby.






We have no furniture at the moment as we are starting from scratch again as it was too expensive to store our items. We only stored a few bags ...... which bedbugs got in to .....

So our first week was spent washing and boiling and laying things in the sun to kill the bedbugs.

Our house is empty besides our bags...a little gas cooker and our mattress and mosquito net. But it is full of love.

 Mityana has a lake near by so we went for a boda boda ride... about twenty minutes to see it.

Rob and I and ziah all sat on the back of the bike together.

 It Was Hezekiah's first boda ride and for us both it was very special.... the last time rob and I had been on a boda boda together we were on our way to put me on the airplane back to Australia..... with all the complications the pregnancy was having Rob and I didn't know whether we'd ever have a baby to bring back to Uganda... But God knew.

So instead of rob holding me and my preganant belly here we were holding our miracle baby boy.

I was also more keenly aware of the dangers involved in boda boda traveller so I pray even more when we travel like this now.

The lake was pretty but not much access to it - just a little fishing village that still fish with the traditional nets..... they all looked rather surprised to see a white women and her baby and her Ugandan husband there.... just to have a look.

They offered to take us out in the small tiny boat..... the ones with the water all ready in them and they aren't even out in deep water .... haha

We said we'd come back another day with some friends and pay them to take us in the bigger boat... it looked a bit sturdier .

SOME OF THE PHOTOS FROM OUR HOUSE TO THE LAKE

CHILDREN WAVING AND LAUGHING ON SIDE OF THE ROAD

THATS A SMALL MOTORBIKE CARRYING GRASS TWICE THE HEIGHT, WIDTH AND LENGTH OF THE BIKE

Weve had to spent a fair bit of time in the city since we came going to Immigration and sorting out Hezekiah's citizenship and things with our permits, banks and looking into registering our organisation.

I have been reminded quickly that time is different here and things move slower - not necessarily a bad thing ... sometimes its good ... just something to get use to again.

We are still doing paper work etc for the registration of The Mbuyu Foundation and have already been in contact with some people regarding purchasing land.

PLAYING IN THE DIRT INSIDE OUR COMPOUND

PLease pray with us as we look for the right land - we are also in need of a car so we are praying that God will find one for us within our budget.

Travelling is much harder now with a child especially as we live up country a little way.

Road safety is not a big thing here.

And Rob certainly understands the risks being a doctor here.

Although travelling on the back of a boda boda or in an overcrowded taxi is apart of the adventure and I would say something that we will always have to do to some extend..... it is certainly not the safest especially in certain places or times of day so this is our prayer at the moment for God to find us the right car.

Traffic has gotten worse here - its beyond crazy... its ten times worse than anything you'd see in Australia.... mixed with everyone going all over the place doing their own thing....

you can imagine what a sight and danger that can be when on the back of a bike.

Hezekiah thankfully loves all these adventures and just snuggles in to mummy or daddy in his wrap and smiles as the wind blows his hair.

One of the challenges of where we are living now is lack of phone and internet reception.
 It is much weaker reception than where we lived before although we are closer to capital city - it is a much smaller town.

I will post some photos and info about our town in the next blog.

One of the beautiful things about being back in the city a few times is that we got to fellowship at the salvation army and take Hezekiah to meet everyone there.

There was much celebration at our return and Hezekiah clapped and bopped along to the music.

He Is Ugandan in every way.

He loved getting to play in the dirt with the other children in the afternoon and had a lot of fun making new friends.

SOME OF HEZEKIAH'S FIRST THIS WEEK

- TRAVELLED IN CAR WITH NO CARSEAT.... travelled and slept from airport to our new home on daddy's lap

- STARTED HAVING BATHS IN COLD WATER - I boiled water first few times but tried him on a cold one and he has taken to it very quickly

STARTED HAVING BATHS OUTSIDE

- STARTED LEARNING WHAT IT IS TO HANDWASH - mummy has to learn how to hand wash with a baby around... we have discovered its much easier outside when you have a BABY

- EXPERIENCED HAVING TO SLEEP UNDER MOSQUITO NET EVERY NIGHT -

and being lathered in mozzie cream

- TRAVELLED IN HIS FIRST TAXI VAN... THIS IS AN EXPERIENCE - ONE HE HAS DONE MULTIPLE TIMES NOW

- WRITTEN ON BACK OF BODA BODA BIKE... NOW AN EXPERT AT THIS

- EXPERIENCED HIS FIRST POWER OUTAGE.... AT DAY AND NIGHT - HE SCREAMED WHEN WE LOST POWER FIRST NIGHT.... IT IS EXTREMEY DARK HERE WHEN YOU LOSE POWER. There are no street lights or anything and the stars aren't as bright so it is pitch dark.

Amazingly after it happened first few times he has now adapted and as long as he knows your in the room he is quite ok. He has better night vision then me.

Much more like his father - must be his Ugandan genes coming through.

- EXPERIENCED A COMPLETE STRANGER COMING UP AND CARRYING HIM OFF and playing with him and walking around with him... mummy knows this happens but just had to remind herself and get use to the idea again. Children are dearly loved here and raised by the village so people come over and pick him up and play with him a lot.

- HE HEARD DADDY SPEAK ANOTHER LANGUAGE - AND MUMMY TRYING .... or multiple languages..... first time he stared at rob.... now he is completely surrounded by it.

- HE TRIED MANY LOCAL FOODS FOR FIRST TIME.... AND LOVES THEM ALL.

- HE ALSO STARTED USING THE POTTY AS IS THE UGANDAN WAY TO START PUTTING BABIES ON POTTY AS SOON AS THEY CAN SIT.... he is doing great and so far mummy has had to wash a lot less dirty nappies due to learning his habits and using some local teaching on toileting .

- HE ALSO IS STARTING TO LET GO WHEN STANDING AND HAD  MORE TEETH COME THROUGH SINCE WE ARRIVED ALL WHILE BEING JETLAGGED
.. and coping with the humidity which has been his hardest battle ... especially at night we have no fan and our windows are all stuck shut .... hoping to buy a fan in city asap.

HE HAS HANDLED ALL THE FIRSTS SO WELL ESPECIALLY WITH MUMMY AND DADDY BEING SO BUSY HAND WASHING EVERY SINGLE DAY ALMOST SINCE WE ARRIVED.

WHAT A BLESSING

WHAT A BIG TWO WEEKS FOR SUCH A LITTLE GUY

PLAYING WITH UNCLE GEOF AND JOSH

OUR MINISTRY AND FOUNDATION BEGINS

THE MBUYU FOUNDATION

WELL ITS TIME TO SHARE SOME IMPORTANT NEWS FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN'T BEEN KEEPING UP TO DATE WITH OUR PLANS FOR THIS YEAR.

ROB AND I HAVE NOW OFFICIALLY LAUNCHED OUR MINISTRY AND GOD GAVE US A NAME.

THE MBUYU FOUNDATION.

MBUYU IS A SWAHILI WORD AND I GUESS IN OUR ENGLISH IN THE WEST WE PRONOUNCE IT LIKE MBOOYOU.

OUR FLYER HOLDS A BRIEF EXPLANATION OF WHY WE CHOSE THIS NAME AND WHAT OUR GOALS ARE IN THIS COMING SEASON.

AS MANY OF YOU WILL KNOW OUR DREAMS FOR THE FUTURE AND OUR DESIRE TO BRING CHANGE IN UGANDA AND AROUND THE WORLD MEANS OUR DREAMS ARE HUGE.....

SO WE HAVE NARROWED IT DOWN TO TWO MAIN FOCUS'S FOR THIS COMING YEAR.

BEGINNING OUR HOME FOR STREET CHILDREN AND ABANDONED BABIES AND OUR KIMONO MATERNAL MEDICAL CAMPS.

OUR WEBSITE AND OFFICIAL LOGO ARE CURRENTLY BEING WORKED ON BY SOME WONDERFUL FRIENDS.

YOU CAN SEE SOME OF THE INFO THAT IS INCLUDED IN OUR RECENT BROCHURE BELOW.

FOR THOSE WHO ARE INTERESTED IN BECOMING A PRAYER PARTNER OR SIGNING UP TO OUR QUARTERLY NEWSLETTERS PLEASE EMAIL US AT

thembuyufoundation@gmail.com or contact us and we will add you to our email list.

We will be updating our blog regularly in the days ahead as we return to Uganda to start from scratch again and purchase the land to start our childrens home and as we obtain all the necessary things to begin our free surgical camps for women.

We ask for your prayers as we embark on this big dream... it is a big dream... not only will it cost a lot financially but emotionally and physically.
But we know it is where God wants us and we are determined to see lives changed and know He will provide all we need to accomplish this task.

DID YOU KNOW?

Uganda is known as the Pearl of Africa after Winston Churchill named it this because of its spectacular beauty and landscapes.

Uganda holds the beauty of all of Africa in one small country.

It has beautiful freshwater lakes, breathtaking scenery and delightful animals. It is one of the only places you can still see Gorillas in the wild.

Its greatest asset though is its people and culture.

 But although it is a place of great beauty

 there is great suffering and sadly this is what we usually here about.

OUR DREAM IS THAT ONE DAY - UGANDA WILL ONLY BE KNOWN FOR ITS BEAUTY - AND NOT FOR ITS SUFFERING.

To ensure this there are some major injustices that need to be eradicated.

1 in every 150 women still die in childbirth

That’s approx  16 women every day

Or 1 women every 90 minutes.

6 out of every 10 women will suffer life long complications from pregnancy that leads to spousal abandonment, social isolation and rejection - which means they usually end up on the street with their children.

There are approximately 2.2 million orphans in Uganda with this number rising and many of them ending up on the streets.

WHY THE NAME MBUYU?

Mbuyu is the Swahili word for

baobab tree.

The baobab tree Is only found in

Africa and Australia.

It is known as the TREE OF LIFE due to the fact that water can be stored in its trunk.

Its leaves have medicinal values and its fruit is seen as a super food.

It creates great shade and has strong roots.

They can grow to be so big that houses have been built in the trunks.

We want our ministry to be a place where people find shade, where they find  life, where they find healing, where they can develop deep roots, just as the baobab tree has.

We feel lead to this from a bible verse

found in Revelation 22;2

The verse talks about the tree of life  having healing in its leaves and bringing life and

healing to the nations

WHAT ARE WE ABOUT?

We have huge dreams and goals for the years ahead-

but our main focus to start with will be maternal health and the welfare and plight of the orphan and abandoned child.

Below is our first projects that we will be focusing on over the coming years

CHILDRENS HOME FOR STREET KIDS  and ABANDONED BABIES

We plan to do this through the purchasing of land and the building of a children’s home for

abandoned and street children.

This place will not just be an orphanage but a home.

When possible and safe we will help children to be re –established with their family or

family relatives.

When not possible we will take on the care of the child.

Our home will be a place where the child will find education, love and care.

Where they will not just be another orphan but a unique child with  a unique destiny. 

Along side of this will be our advocacy work  to the government to increase the help and care for the orphan and abandoned child.

We want to see this generation of orphans and abandoned children not seen as a plight on the

society but rather the foundation for a great future and country

FREE SURGICAL CAMPS FOR WOMEN

It breaks our heart how many women are still

dying in child birth and how many suffer the life long complications of pregnancy and childbirth.

A time that should be so joyous is still a time of great fear for women in Uganda.

Our dream starting in 2016 is to run free

surgical camps all over Uganda.

We will travel all over the country offering free surgeries and treatment.

We aim to operate on 50-100 women every month.

While also treating other women with medications and education who may not need surgery.

The cost we need to raise for each surgery is approx $500 or Approx $ 7200 for 100 each month.

These surgeries will allow the women to

regain dignity, social acceptance, and in turn help them to find work and the ability to care for the children.

In the near future— we would like to

provide these women with skills training

alongside this.

ABOUT US

Roberts Makanda is a doctor who is passionate about seeing all people find freedom from the things that enslave.

Rob was born and raised in Uganda. At the age of  7 he lost his mum during childbirth and his father two months later from unknown causes.

This left him and his 6 siblings on their own.

They were all separated between family but eventually Rob found his was to a Salvation Army children’s home.

He found love and a future there.

Through hard work and sponsorship he was able to get a good

education and eventually made it to uni to study medicine and surgery.

His passion now is to use his skills as a surgeon to help others—especially women like his mum. He is also passionate about seeing orphans like himself find a life worth living and find hope.

Leah Makanda has been passionate about orphans and

Africa since she first heard God speak to her at 12 asking her “was she willing for Africa to be her home one day. “

Since then Leah has worked in childcare and social

justice  and as a foster mum while doing many mission trips to Africa  where she eventually met her husband. A whirlwind

romance and marriage quickly followed and resulted with her packing up and moving to Uganda.

 Leah is also passionate about  good health services as she was born with a rare medical condition and has known what it is like to need good medical care and surgeries from a young child.

This became especially clear recently when  Leah

suffered severe medical complications during a

miraculous pregnancy. Leah and Rob know first hand that if they had not had access to get Leah home to Australia during their pregnancy—Leah and their beautiful son would not be here today.

This has made them even more passionate about ensuring that all Ugandan women have the same access to quality antenatal care.

Over riding all of this is their deep love for God and their desire for all people to know the love and acceptance a relationship with Him brings.

And the desire to show His love in practical ways

OUR BREAK IN PHOENIX ARIZONA

We have had the wonderful blessing of being able to spend the last month here in Phoenix Arizona visiting with the people who sponsored Rob through senior high school and university.

Their gift of the flights here and the past month has been a blessing we felt so incredibly humbled by.

We have loved getting to know them more and having the opportunity for them to see what their support has meant over the years and where Rob is today because of that support.

Its been lovely for me to get to know them and for them to have the time with Hezekiah.

We have loved all the adventures and sight seeing we have done while here.

As they are cattle ranches we got to enjoy some time at a few of their ranches enjoying the country life and Rob got to do some firsts like riding a horse and other fun things.

The grand canyon has been a HUGE highlight for us both - the handiwork of God on full display that's for sure.

We also have loved the colder weather and getting to have fun in the snow.....

and exploring Indian ruins has been great fun  ... we even found some old pottery pieces and arrow heads in the indian ruins on the sponsors ranch.... was very cool

Besides those highlights we have loved spending time with robs sponsors and other new friends like Randy and Julie who Rob met many years ago when they came to Uganda .... and we have been so blessed by Ten40 church where we have been attending while here. We have made some great friends and felt so much support from their Pastor and the whole church. We are excited about how God ordained this meeting with them and to see where God takes it.

We have been making memories that we will cherish for a lifetime.

Hezekiah has grown so much in the last month and has started crawling and pulling himself up on things.... our little man who dr's kept saying was quite behind in some areas has taken great leaps this month. Every day we are reminded of what a miracle and blessing he is.

We have also been so blessed to be able to share our dreams and visions for our ministry in Uganda and to be able to receive the so much support from churches and people here.

This has been a huge blessing to meet with people who see our heart and vision especially as they've never met us before.

The support in Australia has been huge too but to see that translate to here also has been a wonderful blessing.

Rob and I have been able to spend some time dreaming and coming up with some of the finer details of our next chapter and what the days ahead will look like.

We are excited and nervous all at the same time.

We head off from here on Monday back home to Uganda.
I am very excited for people to meet Hezekiah and for ZIah to see his homeland.

He was such a wonderful flyer on the long haul flights to USA I believe he will be just as wonderful on the three flights to Uganda.

Thank you for your continued love and support

FOLLOW THE LINK TO SEE MORE OF OUR PHOTOS FROM OUR ADVENTURES HERE IN PHOENIX

 https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10156564678595615&type=1&l=8c87024d97 

Christmas Gifts for Kids at Home of Joy

What a privilege it was to be the hands and feet of God and so many amazing people as we blessed the Salvation Army children’s home in Kampala with some Christmas gifts.

The home of Joy is a home for disabled children.

Their disabilities range from severe mental disabilities to severe physical disabilities.

Many of the children are missing feet, arms or legs due to either birth complications or sometimes bad malaria shots as babies!

Every one of the children are unique in character and so very special. Many are funny and cheeky and love to laugh!

They love card games and soccer and dancing.

I am constantly amazed at what they can do with their limited physical abilities. And there’s never any complaining.

They work very hard at their school work every day and dream big for their future.

Some are orphans, or have been abandoned. Many have families who cannot financially afford to care for them or who live in remote location so they would have no hope of any schooling due to their families location and their physical disabilities.

What an awesome thing it was to be able to surprise the kids and tell them we had a BIG surprise for them in a few days! You could feel the anticipation in the air.

Rob and I spent days shopping for unique individual outfits for the close to 40 children. Many of them would have never had a brand new outfit or received a Christmas gift so we wanted to make it as special as we could.

We also bought gifts for all the workers – many who also have disabilities of some sort who grew up there and now work in the place. They all work so hard and love the children. Some of the workers even have families of their own who they have to leave in the village while they work to provide money for their families.

The children were EXTREMELY excited on the night of their surprise.

Robert explained to the children that they were so special and unique and so very loved by God that people from the other side of the world wanted to let them know how LOVED and SPECIAL they were, that they wanted to give them a gift each for Christmas.

This was met with much cheering J

ALL THE CLOTHES LINED UP READY

I then delivered a Christmas message and talked about the true meaning of Christmas – which to these kids is not hard to grasp because for them – Christmas is simply about God loving us enough to send Jesus and loving family and friends.

It was great to show them that love in a practical way.

We called out each child’s name individually and you could see the joy on their faces as they received their gift..... They then waited until everyone had their gifts before they could unite the bow and see what they had received.

There was a lot of tears of joy and lots of laughter – especially from the workers – some who had never received a Christmas gift in the 40 or more years of their life!

What a gift it was to see the joy on all their faces.

We told the kids that not only had we had enough money to buy them all new outfits but we also had had enough money to fix the water piping (the water system had broken down – and the children had to fetch water from down at water pump – very difficult with their various disabilities – was special seeing the way they helped each other and those who couldn’t do it).

This news was met with MUCH cheering!! J

But the biggest cheer came when they would no longer have smelly LEAKING toilets! That we had paid a plumber and been in contact with sewage department to have it all fixed – YOU would have thought we had given them all a trip to Disney land they were so happy and cheering so much!

More joy was expressed when we told them we were going to have a movie night with ice cream included! And that they had to all get dressed up in their new clothes.

A few days later we were blessed to see all the children in their new clothes. All scrubbed up ready for a fun night.

All the workers came and we started of the night with the kids leading us in singing and praise to God! What an amazing experience this is to watch as these precious children with such limited physical bodies, allow their minds and hearts and souls to completely connect with God, someone they know and love deeply.