Sunday, December 30, 2012

Congratulations Peter!

Peter at work!



Here is Peter Muwonge, the first API graduate from our forever homes!!!

Peter is such a sweet kid, he is steady and hardworking, with a perpetual "deer in the headlights" expression (that I love!) Although he was the oldest and largest boy in our home. He never used his strength to get what he wanted but instead was a quite role model for the other boys. He had a heart for service and for medicine.

Older street kids have a very hard time because people do not want to hire them for decent work and homes don't want to bring them in.

 Although I had never intended to have older boys in the home, I continually thank God for bringing Peter and the other older boys in our home because they have brought so much stability, especially for the younger kids.

A year ago he did a terrific job translating for a dental clinic that we put on and he would come for his school holidays to help do the first aid at our street programs.

Peter is 19 and because he missed so much schooling, he still has 5 years of high school left. However, his dream is to be doctor. We recently talked to him about graduating from the home and going into a vocational school. We told him however, if he was really serious about becoming a doctor, we could hire him to work and he could continue going to school. We told him it wouldn't be an easy option but that he was determined and smart enough to do it. He told us he would think about it.

 A couple days later he told me he wanted to talk to me about something and he took me aside to tell me, "I have thought about it and I have decided that I don't want to give up my dream of being a doctor. I want to work and continue going to school."

He finished school last semester, his last semester of school at the Forever Homes. He scored very high in his class and after it he went on a mission trip to Karamoja with another boy in the home, Kaeteregga Derrik and one of our uncles, Peter. They were able to preach the Good News to MANY people and Peter came back and told me stories about praying for people and about the people that accepted Christ into their hearts. He had a great trip and says he wants to go on more mission trips to share about Christ.

After coming back from his mission trip, Peter started working at our Volunteer House as a security guard so that he can continue school. Peter is saving a large portion of his salary each month, and after 5 years, when he graduates college, he will have enough money to put him through

Irene interviewed Peter a few days ago about his new job and his future plans and this is what he said...

"I was on the street for one year and I started attending the street program activities where I met Abby and David and the rest of the team. I was taken into the home where I have been for four years while studying and I learned a lot of things especially about God's love, care and protection which I did not see while I was with my parents.

I have graduated and am working at the Volunteer House, am happy with my work because the nature of the job am doing is not against God's will and it encourage me to save. The idea of saving I got it from Uncle David when he told me the importance of saving which was interesting.

My future plans are, to become a doctor so that I can be able to help many people as much as I can, I want to preach good news about Christ and also build homes for those in need like street children. I would also want to become a leader in any ministry.

My prayer request is to complete my studies successfully, being righteous with God, achieve all my goals, not forgetting God where He has brought me and I want to be exemplary to others."

We are so proud of you Peter!

Monday, December 24, 2012

Legos, books,

Hey all!

So I was wondering if anyone out there wanted to donate an item or two for our children in Uganda! 

There are a couple of things that I would just love to give to our boys this coming winter and I was wondering if anyone out there wanted to help? These are the items that David and I would love to bring back to the boys...

Legos The boys, especially in our younger boys home just LOVE to build, experiment and tinker around! If they find anything thrown away with a chord or a battery attached to it they begin tinkering and just can't stop! I would love to be able to give them some legos as I just know they would have a blast!

Children's books, with pictures: The children in our homes and street programs just LOVE to be read to! If you have a children's book, especially a short one with photos for children 8-15 years of age to enjoy, the boys would love it! We will read it to the kids not only in our homes but in our street programs too! After reading the books in our children's home we will then give them to another children's home for their kids. 

Puzzles, flash cards or card games: Because the kids in our homes are used to being on the streets all day where they can zone with drugs or sit in movie halls all day, we love to give the kids interactive things to do when they come into our home.  Our boys LOVE to play!

David and I will be leaving the States in late Feb. if you are wanting to send/donate an item, can you please send it by that time? The address is: 

Abby and David Kakeeto
6912 SW 67th Ave
Portland, OR 97223

Friday, December 21, 2012

street child prayer request

Patrick


Name : Kanyerezi Patrick

Age    : 9 years

 I live on streets, the things I like most are playing soccer, riding a bicycle and I enjoy eating rice and chicken. The reason as to  why I ended up on the streets is that my mom divorced my dad. My dad is a drunk, he would always be drinking and then he would come home and beat me. My mother left him because he beat her too much. I then lived with my stepmom who also mistreated me. She used to deny me food, gave me heavy punishments like fetching water and I had no time to play with my fellow children. One day my dad was very angry and was trying to kill me using a machete so I left home and came to the streets. I cannot go back home.  My prayer request is,  I would like you to pray for me to go back to school and make sure I finish school in order to get a good job so that one day I can be able to help other street children.

Saturday, December 15, 2012

I love my kids!

David and I with the younger boys home

David and I with the older boys home

So... David and I are going back to the States soon and before we left we wanted to throw Christmas parties for the street children and for the kids in our home.

Our party with the street kids was fun and hilarious, the kids were quite surprisingly well behaved. We had them get in groups to decorate sugar cookies and they sat like little angels waiting for us to tell them they could begin. They played games and ended things by acting out the Christmas story. We told the boys that the best actors would be rewarded with candy, they acted their little hearts out- at one point I and uncle Abbey were laughing so hard we cried. Then we shared about Christmas, the gift of Jesus and they asked some terrific questions!

Sometimes it is hard for me being their in the programs, with so many children that come up to me and beg me to bring them into our homes. It is also hard when we bring a boy into our home and I realize just how long he was in our street programs before I had noticed him as a candidate for our home, prayed for him and then brought him home. I struggle a lot with the fact that Kato Charles and Frank where on the streets for so long and in our programs before they came home. But I have to remind myself that I am only one person, (albeit surrounded on all sides by so many who do this ministry together with us) and I can only do what I can do, I have to minister to my amazing kids to the best of my abilities and allow God to do the rest. The kids had me pray over them before leaving and it left me with so much peace. I am leaving them but God never, ever will.

We then had a Christmas party on the land with the boys and we had a lot of fun. I tried to make lots of special Christmas treats with my team of happy, cute helpers in the kitchen. There are several boys (Bob, Kato Charles, Monday, Dirissa, Solomon, Hakim and Ibra among others) who just love helping me cook and they are they sweetest things ever whenever they help! We made fudge, no bake cookies and I brought sugar cookies that they could decorate and give out to their neighbors in the village as a way to witness to them with a "Merry Christmas, Jesus loves you!"

It had been a really exhausting week and I had wanted the day to be very special but I think that all my emotions caught up with me about leaving and I began getting a massive headache about 30 minutes before we arrive at the boys homes.  By the end of the Christmas party I was really sick and was even sicker by the time we had to leave the boys the next morning. Saying goodbye to them broke my heart, especially when some of the younger boys began to cry.

God has given me an extremely adaptive personality which I am very thankful for. The only downside, is that whenever I am in a place with people that I love, I feel so instantly at home that it is really really hard for me to leave. It is like that every time I leave Uganda and every time that I leave the States.

My mom says that our bodies are often show us what our heart is feeling even if we are not conscious of it and I definitely believe it. After leaving the boys, going home and resting, although I felt pretty bummed about leaving the boys, I wasn't sick anymore. It is just so hard to say goodbye.

I love my boys so very very much. They are so sweet and caring, smart and just well amazing! The younger boys are really into writing letters, and I literally had a stack of them in the morning as we said goodbye. They were all sweet but some of them made me cry as I read them, I am going to find them so that I can post them because they are so sweet. Looking back over this last year it feels crazy to think about ALL that God has done and how many boys we have been able to bring off of the street. God has been soooo good to us



Friday, December 7, 2012

I see you



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Come come come
We say, He says
Stay stay stay
We plead

But so often you slip into the night
Out of our hands that try to hold on so tightly
And forever we wonder

You thought you were invisible
Because you left and no one noticed
You hid and no one sought you out

But I see you now
and you were never lost from His sight

I think sometimes it can be hard for you
To look through to the other side
Of us who sleep in beds at night
And don't have to fight to survive
Who get food from a fridge rather than a trash can
And to believe that we could possibly understand you
That we could possibly be someone you could trust

But we do
We love you

Please jump
Off of the cliff
That you have so many times before
And trust that this time it will be different

And we will wait here
Watching you
Our faces turned up
     and our arms raised
To catch you as you fall

We will be here
For however long you need it

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

 


Sometimes when I think about my life, it feels hard to believe.

 I have over 30 children, amazing beautiful kids that I love. They have a home now, a family and hope. They fill up my life and my heart.

There are also so many kids that I have lost too. That have disappeared, that have died, that have run away.

It's been a really hard year.

A good year in many ways, a heartbreaking year in many others.

It's been a hard week too.

The boys are at Bible camp this week and its given me a little more down time (something I haven't had much of in the last couple of months)

I think sometimes that there is a time to laugh and a time to cry, a time to rejoice and a time to mourn

Maybe this is my week to grieve over all that has been lost. All that my kids have gone through, had done to them and have done. And maybe it's not bad to cry every once in a while