Forever Homes Update!

Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Today, if only you would hear His voice, Psalm 95:6-7

Our forever family in Bombo!

Hello all!  We here at API pray that you are all doing well.  We thank-you so much for your continued support of the ministry.  It is truly such a blessing for us and we couldn't do it without you.  We just wanted to send a little update about what God has been doing in the ministry in the last few months and let you know how He has blessed us through your prayers and gifts.  He has been so good to us the last few months and the following are just some of the new changes in our ministry:

We have opened our discipleship house! We now have a 2-3 year discipleship house and program for our older boys 17-21 years of age, who are severely behind in school and unable to finish where they can learn how to handle independence, work, learn vocational job skills, take adult education classes (because they are sooooo far behind in school and we want them to be able to read and write!) be mentored, have daily devotions and save their money before they launch out on their own. The boys learned the skill of building as they were trained to build the discipleship house themselves. They did a great job and are looking for other building projects where they can be hired to build as well!

The d-house boys

We have started a bakery out on the land in Bombo.  The boys in the discipleship/vocational program have been learning how to make bread there and then they have been going into the village and town to sell it. They recently received bikes to peddle the bread on, but have received driving instructions and so they are hoping one day to have a vehicle to drive and sell the bread from. Having a bakery also means that the boys in the homes now get fresh bread with their breakfast.  Such a blessing!

It's no wonder we are selling our bread with such charismatic bakers as Sadic!

 

Monday showing off his bread

Now that we have the discipleship house, it has allowed us to bring in an older boy, Albert off of the streets. Albert had been on the streets for over 7 years. He was tough and very street smart. However, he accepted Christ into his heart and began to desire to get off of the streets and out of the "thug life". He began coming to our programs, working hard to be a good example, working odd jobs in the slum(for hardly any money) and turning his life around. Albert is 17, has never been to school before and is used to being independent. When we asked if he wanted to come to Bombo to be in our discipleship home and vocational program he rejoiced at the opportunity. Albert has no script on what it looks like to be merciful, a godly man, etc- but it has been beautiful to see his heart to please and become a godly young man!He is doing great and growing spiritually each and every day!  Older boys on the streets have a difficult time getting vocational opportunities or getting jobs (because no one trusts them) and so many of them give up and give in to the "ghetto life" that they find themselves in in the slums. Every time that I see Albert my heart fills with joy to see him off the streets and happy!

 Albert showing off his bread by the ovens

 

We have had some new boys enter into our forever homes and forever family. The newest is a sweet young man named Luke! Luke had a hard time on the streets. The other kids were constantly hurting him and picking on him, he was so shut down he could hardly speak or look at you. He would always simply shadow me around, silently sitting close. When his family rejected him to come home, we celebrated the addition of him into our family. The eight year old boy who was so shut down on the streets has come alive and is now an impish and happy young man! Who knew?! God is definitely at work in his life, every time I see him, my heart melts at the joy it is to see him safe and happy at home!

 

Luke Kafero

Luke is in gray on the left on the trampoline

We were recently able to take our boys from the homes on a safari trip to Murchison Falls. For so long we had wanted our Ugandan kids to be able to see their national wildlife and the beauty of their own country! We were able to go on a couple of wildlife excursions to see national wildlife, we took a hike along the waterfalls, and then we took a boat ride on the Nile back to our base camp. The boat ride was a huge hit among the boys! We also had elephants, wart hogs and baboons all around our campsite (and yes it was a big job keeping the kids from trying to ride/feed/befriend them).  The boys were also given disposable cameras and they were able to take their own photographs.  The boys had such a great time and it was such a blessing to be able to be able to take them.

Setting out!

A hartabeast?

Buffaloes!

Hakim is not going under!

The lake (there were loads of hippos!) and my beautiful mom (and my dad who was not in the picture)

 

It was kind of a long drive...

We now have a chicken project of close to 150 chickens that we raised as small chicks. They chickens are being tended to by Mama Joyce with the help of the younger boys, and very soon when they reach maturity the boys will be eating eggs everyday and the discipleship boys will be selling the remaining eggs at a nearby trading center. Needless to say, the boys are very excited for the chickens to start laying eggs!

 

Bwogi showing us the chickens

Solomon

We have also started homeschooling some of the boys out on the land.  We have hired some amazing teachers who are teaching the boys for us.  This program is specifically for the boys who need to catch up in school.  While they are on the streets the boys cannot go to school and they often fall far behind.  Being home schooled though, they will hopefully be able to make up about 2-3 years’ worth of school in 1 year’s time as well as learn in an enviornment where they do not feel ashamed for being so old for their class. The kids have been loving it! We have also been able to add some other needy children from the village to study with the boys which has been great! We want to be a light for all of Bombo!

Finally, it has been a long prayer of our ministry to be able to bring married couples to work in the homes out in Bombo as full-time caregivers, to love and raise the boys as well as give them a script of what a healthy marriage/family/father looks like.  Many of these boys do not have a good or accurate view of marriage or family because of their history which has often included neglect or abuse.  It is so important to us that they see how God intended families to function.  Our prayers have been answered and we have brought three married couples into each of our three homes. We now have a married couple and older "grandmother figure" at our two children's homes which has been a perfect combination of parenting for our kids, in addition to outside mentors like our music teacher, counselor, etc- 

Please continue to pray for a smooth transition for the families and the boys and that God would use these families in such a way to truly minister to these boys.  We praise God so much for the lovely people He has brought together to care for His children. We ask you to pray for us that we will continue to minister together in unity and that God will fill us up with love, peace, patience and understanding for His children.