2017 So far

Its been quite some time since I've written a blog and it could be a little while before the next one comes. I have been very busy at hospital and Dr's appointments, and am now in a lot of pain and am now very heavily medicated which makes any form of brain activity difficult :)

We also had our laptop die when I returned to Australia and have found out its not worth fixing so communicating with you all can only happen when we can borrow a computer.

I returned to Australia in November to prepare for the birth of our next miracle baby ( and once again this baby has defied many odds to be here)

It was incredibly difficult to get on the plane that day.

I don't think I will ever forget the sound of my little man screaming mama, mama as we were pulled apart at the airport.

It was a very hard day.

I am very thankful that my brother Daniel and his wife Brooke and my nieces were still there.

they bought much comfort to Rob and Hezekiah during our time apart.

It was especially difficult to be apart for Christmas.

Christmas day - in two different countries. 

Rob was incredibly busy after I left preparing everything for our ministries, businesses and home to be able to come to Australia.

Dan and Brooke were an incredible blessing as they looked after Ziah most days. Hezekiah LOVED having his cousins to play with and it was beautiful to see the love and connection develop between them all.

It was incredibly hard being so far apart but I am thankful that God knew we'd need Dan and Brooke there at that time - because we had no idea how much we would need them then.

Dan and Brooke and the girls enjoyed getting to see more of the country and see a bit of what we do and their support in many ways has been a real gift from God.

Daniel and Brooke and the girls were in Uganda till the end of January, and we decided at the start of January that since we'd be in Australia for a few months it didn't make sense to be spending money on rent.

Soooooo we made the hard decision to pack up all our belongings and furniture and have them stored at our friends spare room while we are out of the country.

This is hard in one regard because it feels like once again we will be starting from scratch but saving the money makes great sense and we believe that before too long we will be able to have a place on our land so this will be last time that coming back to Australia means having to pack up all our items.

Once again we couldn't have done this without Dan and Brooke who did 99% of the packing.

I obviously did nothing since I was already in Australia when we made the decision to give house up once lease ran out at end of January.

I spent our time apart at the hospital and specialists and trying to rest and make sure this bub had best chance of being a better size and being safe.

I was also busy developing and working more on our Mbuyu Designs and Pacha Project - which I will share more about later. We've done a few fundraising stalls and BBQ since home which all helps. 

One of our Mbuyu Designs Market stalls 

Part of the PACHA PROJECT stall - all these items found a home very quickly - we cant wait to give the twin to a precious child in Uganda. 

We had a very successful day running a bunnings BBQ on boxing day with the proceeds going to The Mbuyu Foundation - very grateful to all those who came and helped out. 

Rob and Hezekiah were not meant to be arriving in Australia till the end of January and to be honest at the end of December we wondered how we'd make it another month. It was getting a lot harder and ziah was finding it harder also.

In a beautiful surprise on the 3rd of January my two men surprised me and literally turned up unannounced ! I had been stressing and getting quite frustrated why I hadn't been able to get through to them for a few days ( they were flying ). But it was an amazing surprise when they turned up.

It has been a beautiful thing to see Ziah spend time with his grandparents and aunties and uncles and all his cousins and our friends. When he left he was only a baby - not even crawling - and so for him to finally connect real faces to the photos we have around the house and who we talk to on the internet when reception allows has been great. 

There are been A LOT of changes for him - jet lag and the time difference, so many food options and choices, extreme heat ( something we do not have in Uganda) .... experiencing the ocean and a big bath, going to only speaking one language - we've had some funny experiences where he asks me for something in another language and I've had to call daddy for a translation because I've had no idea what he was saying :) one day when Rob wasn't here I even had to google it.

Loving reading time with nana

Trying all these new fruits has been a highlight for Ziah - he loves Pears!

Getting to enjoy a full size bath

First time at beach - playing with daddy
in the sand. 

Fun with cousins at the beach

Tasting what a watermelon should taste like :) 

I couldn't believe the change in him in 7 weeks - he had gone from saying individual words to saying sentences, counting in multiple languages and singing! He's always loved music and dancing - but now he sings! Aunty Brooke and uncle dan and his cousins have certainly helped his english and playing with the girls has bought a lot of development. 

It has been a huge blessing to be able to have Rob now to come to our weekly Dr's appointments etc.

Once again this pregnancy has bought HUGE challenges and pain and complications - but we have also seen many miracles. Complications they expected because I had them the first time or they thought I'd have because this is my second pregnancy and they'd recommended no more - haven't come about.

God has definitely been protecting us and this baby again.

THE MBUYU FOUNDATION MINISTRY UPDATES

Rob and I are certainly finding it difficult being so far from Uganda and our ministry but we trust our team and the people we have left in charge. We know we need to be here for the bub and that God is also using this time to help us raise much needed funds and spread the word about what God is doing in Uganda and what we are doing in our organisation but it certainly means we feel a lot more pressure to return as soon as possible with much work needing to be done! 

2017 is set to be a big year once again. 

We have many prayer points and plans for 2017.

Some which won't start till mid year once Rob and I are both back but others which will kick off once the school year starts.

READ FOR LIFE UPDATE

Our Read for Life program has grown so big that we had to have a break over the Christmas break while we looked for new facilities.

This has proved to be a HUGE challenge.

It all comes down to budget and facilities.

We found a perfect location right at the edge of the slums, in its own compound, with enough room for us to even have outdoor activities. It has 10 large rooms which would mean we could take all the students from last year and those on our waiting list, and keep our class sizes small which is our aim since we want to give the best one on one care we can. ( We have plenty of other teachers/social workers ready to come on board to keep class sizes small - just a matter of class rooms)

It would also allow us to have classes to be able to do adult reading classes during school times and would allow us to start skills training with the mothers/aunts/grandmothers connected to Read for Life.

We have women desperate to start this, and we have teachers ready - we just need the facility.

Its in great condition and has good toilet facilities.

But sadly it is out of our budget at the moment. It is approximately $2000 Australian dollars a month to rent. Even though it would be perfect and allow to do so much more and keep the children nice and safe, at the moment finances don't allow us to take this place. Unless God does a miracle - which we know He can if we are meant to have this place. 

Other than that everything within the slums area we have looked at is quite unsafe and unsanitary and very, very small. The majority of them aren't in compounds, so safety would be an issue and we'd be sharing the rent. Since the slums are so crammed we have only been able to find facilities where we have to rent buildings that are already being used ( except for the first place i mentioned that would be completely ours) 

Most of these places are nursery schools, or primary schools, which would mean we can only do our program on the Saturday and on the extra days during the school holidays.

We are still trying to see if we can find one that will be safe and sanitary at least and allow for the amount of children we have.

We only have a matter of weeks till we are due to start so we are in need of a miracle.

Our teachers, and even our students are ready to return. We have children turning up often to the previous site trying to find out when we are starting back!

So please be at prayer about this !

SKILLS TRAINING & MEDICAL CAMPS

Our skills training with the women will start as soon as a facility is found and Robert returns.

Our medical camps will be kicking off mid year again when Robert returns to Uganda also - we have Dr's and surgeons ready who have agreed to be on team and are excited about helping with our fistula and other medical repair camps. 

C-SECTION KITS AND SCHOOL BACKPACK FUNDRAISERS

Over Christmas we were able to raise enough money to buy new school backpacks for 50 children connected to The Salvation Army children's home. This was done through the generous support of many of you.

The children will receive their new bags when school returns next month.

We will be sure to have our workers take photos and videos as the children will be extremely excited and grateful for these bags.

We also were able to raise money to begin our Emergency C-section kits.

Through Rob's work as a Dr and his personal experiences and through his discussions with his other doctor friends and colleagues - one of the many reasons women are still dying from child birth, even when they are in hospital is because they can not get the emergency c-section they need. This is usually due to very basic items not being available in the hospital ( gloves, surgical blades, sterile cotton, catheters etc) Women die daily due to basic items not being available for emergency c-sections. Items that cost very little.

So we have come up with the idea of putting together emergency c-section kits and donating them to local hospitals.

We have worked out that for $50 we can buy all the items we need, and cover the cost of transport and everything in relation to these kits.

We were blessed when over Christmas numbers of our friends and supporters in Australia heard about this idea and got behind it - so Daniel and Brooke and Rob got to work with making up these emergency c-section kits.

We look forward to seeing these kits save lives and we know that this part of the ministry is going to grow and expand.

SEARCH FOR LAND FOR THE MBUYU VILLAGE & FARM 

Our search for land continues - Rob, Daniel and Brooke actually found an amazing piece of land not long before Rob returned to Australia. It is right on the lake and perfect for every aspect of the ministry. It is very large, and has amazing potential not only for our Mbuyu Village and work with children, but for farming and skills training for men and women.

It is above what we were planning to pay due to the location, the lake and the quality of the land and soil. But we intend to follow this through and trust that if it's meant to be ours God will provide the money.

We will look more in to this land when we return. We trust if its meant to be ours it will still be available when we return.

MBUYU DESIGNS AND PACHA PROJECT

Our Mbuyu Designs project has been going well - with us selling many beautiful Ugandan items made in Uganda by various women's and disabled young people groups.

We have sold them through Markets, events and on facebook since we have been home. This has given us a great idea of what skills are worth training our women in the most and all proceeds that have been raised from this project are going back in to the skills training for women from the slums.

along side of this our PACHA ( twin) project has been going GREAT - this is the project where women (or men) from Australia knit, or crochet various toys or baby blankets. We then sell one of the items here in Australia through our Mbuyu Designs stalls and then the other item which is exactly the same is donated on their behalf to a child or new mother for her new baby in Uganda.

This project is proving to be a HUGE success with every item selling within moments of me listing them online. We look forward to being able to return with these beautiful items and see the joy that they bring to the children.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

We have many other projects under works for later in this year but for now our current ministries will continue while we are in Australia having our baby and trying to do some fundraisers as well.

We have a movie night coming up in March as a fundraiser where we have booked out local cinema to show the Queen of Katwe ( a movie about Ugandan slums). 

If you are interested in attending this event please let us know and we will get details to you. 

We plan to have other fundraisers also before we return home.

We thank you for your continued support and we will try to keep you up to date with various ministry events and photos over the coming month, even though we are not there.

We will be having our baby mid February through a csection ( bub will be about 4-5 weeks early) and we will most likely have to spend a few weeks in hospital due to my condition and the bub and me having to be monitored in relation to the medication I am currently on.

We look forward to sharing the news of our next little miracle when they arrive!

GOD BLESS

Short break that turned in to an ADVENTURE

Well we had quite the adventure recently.

In fact since Dan and Brooke have been here - we've had NUMBERS of adventures, including visiting Rob's local village, and meeting lots of Rob's family I'd never met,
an African wedding, two flat Tyre's in the one day, other car issues and
even Rob being locked away in a prison cell for the day on the side of a highway while we waited for the police to talk to us.
(ask me about this -funny story 😊)

And lots more - we decided after all the busyness we had had that we would have a night away before I headed back to Australia and to celebrate little miss Paxy turning two.
So we decided to go to the closest Game park ( national Park) to see some animals and camp just outside the game park for the night  ( obviously you can't camp inside the game park due to the animals )

After a few hours journey as we turned off the highway we started seeing wild animals everywhere - It was very exciting!

Not long off the highway we started to see lots of animals - the kids loved looking out the windows to
 see what they could spy 

Uganda's long horned cows 

Zebras EVERYWHERE 

We stayed at a local accommodation place where we could camp while being close to game park. 

We got to enjoy a swimming pool which was so wonderful, nice yummy food, great service and stunning views of the Ugandan wilderness, and so many animals just wandering around the place including Zebras' through the night. 

The original plan was just to stay for one night - as we had appointments on the Friday - but we were having such a good time we decided to stay 2 and leave very early Friday morning. Well that was the plan...... but it turned in to a 3 night stay..... read on to discover why 😏

Campground where we camped - enjoyed sitting around the fire at night

The beautiful view of the African landscape from the accommodations restaurant bungalow

Hippo skull 

Enjoying the water after a hot day 

 We enjoyed a day driving through the game park and spotting the various animals and searching for the giraffes ( there are no elephants and not many Lions in this park - but lots of other animals  ) 

We also enjoyed a fun, relaxing boat ride on the beautiful lake spotting hippos and crocodiles in the water

Crested cranes

Mother and baby zebra 

Gorgeous Mataya next to croc

Ziah standing next to huge crocodile head & other various animals 

The beautiful Ugandan emblem - Crested Crane

Monkeys trying to get in to our car for food 

Hippo and croc spotting time & bird watching - whole boat to ourselves 

Hippos everywhere :) 

The beautiful lake 

 Well the adventure really begun after we had had a wonderful day exploring the area and enjoying the lake- we started to drive back through the national park towards the camp ground  - sadly even with all the looking we hadn't seen the giraffes but decided to head back and enjoy the pool and early dinner and get the kids to bed early. 

Then we spotted a lookout - Dan said lets try there we may be able to see where the giraffes are and enjoy the view - still plenty time of daylight left. 

well about half way up to the look out - the car started making VERY strange sounds - thought maybe it was flat Tyre at first ( even though we'd just put new ones on that morning ) - pulled over and we all had to get out so Dan could jack up the car and try and work out what was going on. 

It wasn't a flat tyre! 

So Brooke entertained the kids with the rocks and bits of food we had in the car, while Rob helped Dan, and I wandered around on look out. 

It was coming to dusk - the perfect time for leopards to start coming out and other animals so as it got darker I became more nervous - I've never been so nervous being broken down in Australia before. 

The view was stunning though. 

and thankfully the kids were rather content playing in the dirt and rocks. 

& so the adventure begins - kids playing in game park while boys try to fix car 

The beautiful view to look at while the boys tried to fix car 

After some time and as it started to get dark Rob says we need to make a decision to ring for rescue party, but Dan was keen to try and fix it - we considered ringing just so a ranger could come with their weapons and keep an eye out for us. 

Dan decided their was one thing he could try but wasn't sure how it would go but we all decided we'd give it a go - and if it didn't work then we'd ring for help. 

10 minutes later after about and hour and half of being there - we were able to get the car moving ( even with some funny noises) but hoped it was enough to get us back to our accommodation. 

We came down of the mountain and back in to the valley of the game park and we seemed to be doing alright...... and then nope - the car couldn't keep going. 

Dan and Rob jumped out quickly to inspect and it was decided the car couldn't go any further on its own - we'd need a rescue party and a tow. Or the parts and tools to fix it. 

The boys jumped back in the car as it was now getting dark. Only to discover we had no RECEPTION on our phones...... thankfully after some searching in the car for a spot Rob got just enough to call through to the manager of where we were staying to explain the situation - he said he would come and they'd tow us out. 

So we sat inside our car on the lookout to see if we could see any exciting animals - we had kids that were just starting to get restless but we obviously couldn't get out of the car now. 

Waiting inside the safety of the car for our rescue crew - was still a long time after this as it was
dark by time they came.
When our rescue party arrived after about an hour - it was discovered they hadn't come prepared to tow us just to rescue us and leave the car there.
They did have a very good jack though ( which our car was lacking - our jack wasn't great)
So they put all us kids and girls in the rescue car and Dan and Rob decided to try one more thing now they had a good jack and then decided they would slowly try and follow us back to campground - sadly we'd have to turn around and go the long way though because the rescue party said the road we'd been heading on was way to muddy.
After a short time and now being pitch dark we set off with the boys following in our car behind.... before too long we noticed they weren't following us anymore.
With no one in our car having reception and not able to get out because of the animals we sat trying to work out what they were doing. The car didn't appear to be moving.
After some time we saw little lights coming towards us - now they were a fair way back from us - so we were very nervous watching them walk towards us - praying for their safety.
They arrived to us safely and joined us in the car and informed us that the car would be staying their over night - the damage was so bad - the whole tyre had completely fallen off!!!
So we set off in our rescue car leaving our car in the middle of the game park..... only about 100m down the road - what should run straight in front of our car - A BIG LEOPARD!!!
It would not have been far from the boys at all while theyd' been working on the car or while they'd been walking to our car!!!
We sat and watched the leopard for a little while and then kept on to campground - over the next hour we had to stop numbers of times for HUGE hippos to cross the road - one we almost hit!
We also saw another leopard and the very dangerous Buffalo's.
By the time we got home to the accommodation the amazing staff had our dinner waiting and fire going.
Now we had to work out how we were going to get the parts needed to fix the car - Especially as we had Read for life Christmas party on Saturday ( this was Thursday night and we had about a 5-6hr journey home ) and I flew out on Sunday and still needed to finish packing!!
What had turned in to one night away was quickly becoming something else!! :)
It was decided that the boys would go to the next town and see if they could get the parts they needed - and then if they couldn't we would have to get them sent from Kampala - which wasn't going to be ideal because that would take a long time - so we arranged a friend to come and pick me up if that was the case so i could get back for the Christmas party and to pack to leave.
I was praying so hard that they'd get the parts as I didn't want the remainder of my time in Uganda to be separated from Hezekiah and rob or Dan and Brooke and the girls.
When the boys woke up they both realised they'd BOTH left their wallets in the car so the manager at the accommodation arranged for the boys to get a boda boda back to the car to get their wallets and work out exactly what parts would be needed for the car.
Then they'd go ahead on to the town.
Me and Brooke enjoyed the day at camp ground with the kids playing in the mud and swimming.
BUT THE BOYS GOT TO SEE THE GIRAFFES!! Which was a good reward for their hard work.
Long story short - they got to the next town about 45minutes away and praise God they found the parts needed and got back to fix the car.
Once again it was on dusk and Dan worked hard to try and get it fixed enough to get it out of the game park before it got dark again while the other men stood guard.
Dan's greatest concern was there was other damage done now to the car so wasn't sure whether what he would do would still fix it.
As Brooke and i and the kids sat down to have dinner - we got very excited to see our car coming over the hill!
Dan had done it!!
All before it got dark again..... what an adventure - the ranger said they'd never had anyone broken down over night in game park before and they were amazed that we'd been able to find any reception to get help.
Without that small reception we would have had to just sit and wait till the next day and hope someone just happened to drive along that road the next day!!!
Well what an adventure - by time car was fixed it was too late to travel home, so an early night and leaving at 5am to return back to Kampala - just in time to get to Christmas party!!
NOTHING in Uganda goes to plan..... but isn't that like life..... we make plans.... but God determines our steps.... and now we have a great story to tell....
We also worked out it was cheaper for us to break down, with all the new parts included then for us to do a night time game drive to see the leopards :) BONUS

The next day the boys went back riding on a boda boda through the park to inspect the damage &
work out what was needed  - this was where tyre fell off and our car spent the night - thankfully there aren't elephants in this area otherwise ranger said they would have pushed and toyed around with the car. 

Yep - wheel fell off

and what treat did the boys get for their hard work..... seeing the giraffes - numbers of times!! 

Something I'm sure Dan never thought he'd be doing - mechanic repairs in the middle of a game park
with wild animals all around - we would have been really up the creek if it hadn't been for Dan. 

READ FOR LIFE CHRISTMAS PARTY

Our last leaders meeting before I flew out

Well what an amazing 5 months we have had of read for life.

We started with about 35 kids – we now have over  120 – with a waiting list!

We have gone from starting with two volunteers – to now having a team of 5 – all being paid for the days they are on.

Our leaders in their christmas gift - read for life shirts.
From left to right ( Moses, me, Nuruh, Jonah and Juliet) 

We started with one class, moved to two, then three and now have 4 classes.

We now have a confident reader class, an intermediate, a beginners class and a special needs class.

We started with many children who could barely read, and many who struggled to sit and listen and behave, to seeing a great improvement not only in the reading but the behavior of the kids.

Its been such a great year we had to celebrate!

One of the biggest way’s we have motivated the kids over the past few months has been to promise them a Christmas party.

And so that’s what we did.

Some of the precious boys from Home of Joy waiting for party to start - first time they've all been early :) 

My last Saturday at read for life was our Christmas party.

Kids eagerly waiting for 2pm to come around - this was at 1.30pm - by 2.15pm the room was crowded! 

Waiting,.. waiting.... :) 

Lots of preparation went in to making sure it was a day for the kids to remember and for them to feel they’d been rewarded for their hard work.

The majority of our children come from the local slums, so celebrating Christmas would probably only mean going to church, for some they may get to eat meat, but majority of them would never have received a Christmas gift.

We wanted to find a practical way to give them something special.

So we came up with the idea of personalised library bags.

I wanted to use someone local to make them, so one of the fathers of one of our read for life students does simple tailoring and sewing at his business right in the heart of Katanga slums.

I took along a sample of what I wanted and met with him at his shop.

He didn’t feel confident to make what I was asking for, but with some simple guidance he said he’d give it a go – and he did a GREAT Job. I had him make 100 bags – thinking we’d have a lot left over because as of the middle of September  we only had 75 on roll book, within the next month, we had 100 and a week before the party we had 125, so I had to quickly ask him to make more which he did.

He was incredibly grateful for the business but was also so grateful for learning a new skill – you would have thought I’d shown him to make something extravagant, he was so grateful.

The leaders sat down and worked out the children for each of our groups who were always on time, best behaved, most improved, best reader, best listener and most engaged learner, best improved attitude and behaviour etc.

We also went through our library book register and came up with the children who had returned all their books each work in the best condition ( we keep a score of each book to motivate the children to take care of the book they borrow – the book gets a score out of 5 when it is borrowed and then when it is returned )

We also gave group rewards for best attendants and most helpful, best manners etc.

It was hard to choose some of these as we had seen so many children make improvements.

When we arrived to set up for the party many of the children were already there waiting, many of them in their Sunday best clothes. They’d been freshly washed and many girls had their hair done nicely.

They were very excited about today!

We had arranged some cakes, popcorn and soda.

We started off the party with some group singing and dancing before each reading group performed items for their fellow readers.

We had everything from gospel singing to gospel dances, drama’s about underage marriage and games.

It was lots of fun, and the kids did a great job.

The baby group performing their songs 

 

One of the older groups performing a drama
they wrote

Mine & Juliet's group performing their gospel songs 

Then we moved on to handing out the certificates – for me this was one of the highlights – the children’s face just lit up when they heard their names read, all for a piece of paper with their name on it. They were so excited. And so supportive of each other, even if they themselves didn’t get one.

It was beautiful – the children thought that was the extent of the gifts for the day – then we told them that everyone was getting a gift  - their eyes lit up.

We told them that everyone was getting an individual personalised library bag. They also got an exercise book and pen and pencil.

These were for a challenge – over the Christmas break we wanted them to write some stories, and practise their alphabets and draw pictures for the little ones and then return with them in the new year and we will share what we’ve seen.

The children were all very excited to receive their library bags and are excited to be able to use them each week to carry their books home and keep them safe and clean.

After they received their Christmas gift, I did a Christmas message and talked all about the real meaning of Christmas and how loved they are by God.

We then cut the cakes we had and each child received some cake, their own bag of popcorn and small bottle of soda.

This was a crazy time, many worried they’d miss out, so trying to encourage them to wait was difficult but they are learning.

I had many little one’s come up and excitedly ask could they keep the plastic bottle the soda came in J

It was a great party and we had lots of fun.

The children still have another 3 weeks of classes before they have a 3 week holiday, but we did the party early since I flew out the next day.

It was incredibly hard to say goodbye to the kids, I am really missing them, but am so thankful for such a great team who are keeping everything going well.

We look forward to the new year bringing bigger and better things for Read for life.

Showing Off their bags 

Listening to one of the children thanking us and praying. 

                                         The best attendants cutting cake 

Christmas cakes