Last Day as a Go Team

June 2nd was our last day as a team, and we made the most of it. 

We went out to African Hearts Junior School to re-paint some of their buildings that needed to be freshened up. 

(Photo by Lindsay)

The "teacher" inside of me always loves to visit schools here. I love to see how the classrooms differ from America and I'm always amazed that the children here learn 2 languages (English and Lugandan). Of course, when we arrived at the school it was a sight the children didn't want to miss. They were peeking out the windows of their classrooms, until it was break time and they all came running up to us to greet us.

(Photo by Lindsay)

Pastor Dwight always draws a crowd! The kids love it when he calls himself "Big Jaja".
(Photo by Lindsay)

(Photo by Lindsay)

(Photo by Lindsay)

(Photo by Lindsay)

Being curious little kids. :)

I'm pretty sure some kids were skipping class to watch us paint. 

Having fun! (Photo by Lindsay)

Birthday Party Fun!

On May 31st our team joined with A Perfect Injustice to celebrate the birthday of 3 boys in their program. Every month they have a birthday party for the boys born during that month. 

It was an honor to help them prepare the food, join in with the games, face painting, and cookie decorating, as well as help serve them lunch. Here are the pictures from this exciting day!

Rachel and I cutting up fruit.

Carrying the food to the Gazebo.

Washing dishes (makes me appreciate a dishwasher)!

The boys playing with marbles.

Getting their face painted. 

Of course, we ended with their favorite activity, dancing!

Joy for the Street Boys

On May 27th our team helped at a program for street boys in the slums of Kampala.

Taking a group picture with the street boys.

We taught a bible lesson, gave our testimonies, organized games for them and finished off with face painting and coloring.

Rachel sharing her testimony to the boys.

Me telling the boys the story of Noah and talking about God's faithfulness in my life.

20 boys raised their hands to receive Christ after our testimonies and bible story! Wow!


It was amazing to see them all be able to be a kid again. For those 5 hours they didn't have to worry about being hungry, being vulnerable, where to sleep safety, or how to survive.

Photo by Linsay

They really enjoyed everything we did and we saw so many smiles. It was a privilege to see so much joy in them. They were amazing kids! So sweet and loving. I can't even imagine being in their shoes and living on the streets at night especially. Having no where to call home and no one to care for you. It was heartbreaking to think about. But today they were brought hope. Today they laughed. Today they were loved. The ministry that runs this program does such a great job! All their staff really love the children and are great christian leaders for them. What a great experience! 

Teaching School at API

Back on May 28th while the Go Team was still here we had the amazing privilege to teach the boys at A Perfect Injustice. These are boys who once lived on the streets of Kampala. Now they belong to a family, receive an education, and are shown the love of Jesus. They now have a hope and a future, and most importantly have the opportunity to be a part of God's family. It was amazing to go to the village where the boys live! It is a beautiful place with huge gardens, amazing homes, fun playgrounds, and beautiful views. The boys are home-schooled right on campus. The boys are all on different levels, some have never been to school, some have only been a few years when they arrive. So, in order to avoid embarrassment and shame from the other children in public schools the boys are taught everything here. There are also a few girls from the community that are enrolled in the school, because their families are not able to afford school fees. 

The classrooms are under these gazebo's that a past IVO team provided.  

Our team of 8 divided up into pairs and taught the children different subjects. This was actually considered a fun day for the children and the teachers were able to get a much needed break. We taught health/anatomy, agriculture, art/geography, and dance! The children were so excited to have us come teach them and they were so eager to learn. They were all so smart and worked hard. 

Theresa and I taught art/geography, where we drew a map of the world. It was so interesting seeing what each grade level knew about the world. We were impressed with their knowledge! I feel like some of them knew more than me! 

After a few hours of teaching it was time for fun! Theresa, who is a Zumba teacher in America, taught us different dances from around the world. The kids were so thrilled to learn these dances. I'm pretty sure dancing is any Ugandan's favorite thing to do! Of course, they wanted to teach us their local dances at the end.

James 1:27 In Action

On Monday we went to an orphanage far out in the bush (the country). This orphanage was started by Pastor John. It's not just an orphanage though, the model he makes is an orphanage attached to a church. This model is exactly how it's supposed to be according to James 1:27. The church would be the people in the village and they would support the orphans in the home and the caregivers for the children would be the widows in the church. Pastor John has built many models like this in so many villages around the Kampala area. I was so impressed with this model. I have not seen many like this before! I am sure God will bless them abundantly because of the way they are doing it.

We came today to set up the bedrooms in the home, so they could take in children in 2 weeks. International Voice of the Orphan supplied 11 bunk beds, bedding, nets, supplies for the kitchen, and chairs for the church. It was such an honor to help set everything up, carry in the beds, make them and pray over the children and staff that will be living here.

There was a small village school right beside the church/orphanage and the children were curious about what we were doing. So we took a break and went over to greet them. The children have not seen many white people so they were really excited. They loved getting their picture taken with us and seeing it on our camera screens. They thought it was the coolest thing ever.

There were a few children who didn't have the money to go to school and had no food for lunch who came up to us while we were eating lunch. We gave them our leftover sandwiches, and they loved them! They may have been a little confused as to what a peanut butter and jelly sandwich was, but they ate them anyway. Who knows when they had eaten last. The big smiles on their faces showed their thankfulness.

A Village Church

We began our first Sunday in Uganda visiting a church in a village about an hour outside of Kampala called "Christ Restoration Church". Going to a church in the village is always an awesome experience! So much different than any church in America.

If you look closely you can see a butterfly flying by at just the right moment!

Our pre-welcome. Soon after we were surrounded.

I am with a team of 8 (from the US and The Netherlands). Our team leaders Dwight and Emma Saunders started International Voice of the Orphan and The Gem Foundation. Dwight preached an amazing message today for the church and we also did a prayer time afterwords. You could really tell the congregation were getting a lot out of the message and were so hungry for God. We had them come up for prayer at the end if they had any requests. We had so many come up to us and ask for prayer for things like provision for jobs and land, wisdom in school, a way to support their families and for sicknesses. We gladly prayed for each of their needs and asked God to bless them in mighty ways. It's so eye opening to realize how hard their lives must be as we heard some of their stories. They were very encouraged by our prayers and thanked us many times. We heard later that one man actually received Christ during the prayer time! We were all encouraged by that and decided that made the day! It wasn't us that made the impact on them, it was God working through us that changed this man's life forever! All glory goes to Him! We are so thankful to have been a part of that!

Dancing, of course, and a lot of it!

And I want to thank all my supporters as well. If you hadn't have prayed for me or donated to make this trip possible this may not have happened! Because of you there will be at least one more in Heaven! How amazing is that?

Since this congregation had been so generous to our team leader Emma in the past (giving her highly praised gifts, such as a pig) and had welcomed us all so well we wanted to give back to them. So we brought gifts for the pastor and his wife and gifts for all the children. We handed out toothbrushes and lollipops to all the kids at the end. It's the simplest things that they are so thankful for! Their faces were beaming!

What an amazing day in Uganda!