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!

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

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.

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

thanks Amy!

So... Simeon finally did it! 

I see you

-->

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

 

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

Simeon

Simeon and I at camp when he was still staying on the streets

Simeon on the street

 

Simeon at home

Tried to get a smile, this was the closest we got! We'll get there!

Ibra, Simeon and Bob

Meet Simeon the newest addition to our family!

I will admit that it took a long time before I noticed Simeon in our street programs. He was so quite and always slipped in behind the scenes.  He never fought or tried to get his way but stayed at peace with others, mostly by being quiet.

I don't think that I have ever met any child as shut down as him. It was hard to simply draw out what his "real" names were. He had given several names to David that didn't quite match up and it took a long, slow conversation to discover which names were ones he had give himself, others had given him, and his mother had given him when he was born. It was the same trying to find out what his history was and to figure out the clear path of any of his memories. 

Simeon was on the streets for over two years.

I think that the most exciting part of bringing Simeon home is going to be watching how Christ, love and safety "draw him out". I am so excited to see the boy that God created him to be!

Also, Junior and Hakim are doing great! Sweetest, cutest things ever!

Hakim celebrating his birthday for the first time

Hakim at home

Love these boys!

Ibra M., Ibra W., Junior and Bob

Monady, Kato, Sadic and Shafik, they are getting so tall!

Hakim

It has been a tough and heartbreaking week. However, God is so good to us and we are amazed at all the blessings He continues to bring into our lives. We are excited to say that we are bringing one more blessing home tomorrow morning. An adorable boy named Hakim, he is spirited and has a dear heart. Here is a video we took of him at our programs, he is saying hello, his name, and that he wants to go to school but doesn't see how its possible. God works in surprising ways!!!

Update on Hope House Ladies

Thank you to everyone who has purchased a piece of jewelry, prayed for these ladies, visited them, or just plain old loves them!!! Here is an updated on how some of the ladies are doing (and what they would appreciate prayer for) that have graduated from the Hope House!

Jennifer showing off one of her books

Jennifer's products (its her on the jelly label!)

Jennifer, after the programs she wanted to open up a store and sell produce but she did not have enough saved. She used some of the money to pay for her school fees. Then she spent half of her savings on jewelry, jelly, and book supplies. She has sold lots of jelly and school books because it is the beginning of term. It took a while to start business; she is working from home, and looking for a customer base. She has lots to sell, she has a whole packet of books ready to sell, and that will go for 25,000 shillings. When she realized her book making skills weren’t up to par with the store standards, she sought out additional training to improve her books. She started with 50 jars of jelly now she has seven. Jennifer supplied to us all of the books that we needed for our boys to go back to school.  She enjoys making the jewelry. She wants prayer for a strong customer base and that she will be able to save enough to but a place to sell produce.

Gertrude at home with her produce

Gertrude, she says she is finding it easier to sell jelly cans and books then jewelry. The program has taught her a lot about hard work and God. She is still saving the money she is earning in hopes she can buy a piece of land someday. She said the program has changed her life so much she will never go back. She asks for prayer for her children, business, for a house, and for a location for her business. 

Kate in front of her boutique (she built it herself!)

Kate infront of her "blouse" section (she has tops, jeans, skirts, jewelry and purses)

Kate in front of her jewelry display case

Kate, most of her savings went into building and decorating her shop. She wants to buy her own land so she doesn’t have to live with her mother. She has regular customers and is thankfully she can provide for her children. She mostly sells tops and skirts. She recently bought a fridge and is now selling soda as well. She wants to be able to fill her boutique with all sorts of stuff. She asked prayer to be able to send her kids to school.

Joy showing off some of her jewelry

Joy has made 130 books to sell; she is just kicking off her business so she needs to find a customer base. She wants to have a boutique someday. She makes jewelry at the foot of her house to advertise. She wants prayer for customers, that her house won’t fall down, and her son has been missing for 5 months.

Beatrice infront of her every popular shop (it's all about location!)

Beatrice with her baby Joseph in her shop

Beatrice wakes up early to open her business at 7:30. She built her shop with her savings from the program and purchased a small plot of land that she eventually wants to build a house on. Her shop location is very good and she gets a lot of customers. She is usually very busy. At first fixing shop up was a problem. She runs out of produce to sell sometimes. She sells the clothes washing soap from Kenya; the one she used to buy didn’t sell well. She wants prayer for her business to grow so she can build a house on her land.

Harriet with some of her jewelry and jelly

Some of Harriet's clothing that she sells

Harriet in order to save money on renting a shop to sell from, moves around a lot to sell clothing so sometimes it hard to find costumers. She is looking for a cheap place so she can sell things. She is believing in God helps her move on. People compliment her jewelry and they say it is very hard to make. She wants prayer for a store and for her children to be well.

Rose at her sewing machine holding one of her coin purses she has made

Rose's sewing machine

Rose has been selling produce at the local market. She still sells jewelry and loves to make it. She learned so much about the bible from the program, she tithes what she can. She wants prayer for confidence to work, for her 4 children and the she be able to buy some land and a house someday.  Rose received a sewing machine from the program and has been learning tailoring. She now can make beautiful bags. Her kids sometimes go around Kivulu telling people, "that looks like a rip in your clothing... I know a great tailor that can fix that for you!" helping to find business! =-) Rose couldn’t start working at first because her brother became very sick. She plans to buy a “finishing sewing machine”. She is getting connections with a school to make their school uniform. She also wants to learn to sow traditional clothing. She wants prayer for training so she can sow better and different things.

Jolly in front of her restaurant

Jolly spent most of her money on making a building to start her restaurant. She is going to start making jewelry to finish up creating her restaurant. She wants prayer for enough money to keep going.

Mama Cook showing off her chickens

Some of the chicks

More chicks!

Mama Cook, after learning to make a chicken coop from a friend, she started with 250 chickens, she bought them at 1,300 shilling each and after a month she can sell them for 10,000 each. She has hired a boy to help her with chickens. She has to buy medicine for the chickens and coals to warm them. At the moment she is just selling chickens for meat but she hopes to be able to sell eggs someday. She said she is slowly learning to spread out her income because at the program it was a steady income but now she gets more money but it happens less often. She has learned to be patience. She asks for prayer for serious customers and for their Agape Church meetings where the ladies who have graduated from the Hope House still meet.

Growing together

Being a twin, I have shared my birthday my entire life. I remember when I went away to college our first birthday apart and sitting in the hallway of our dorm at midnight, and crying because I missed Luke so much. (I still do!)

For me birthday's are meant to be shared, otherwise they are completely lonely and somewhat stressful (because ALL the attention is on you).

One thing of many that I love about Africa is the sense of community- everyone sticks together. If it rains, everyone rushes into the closest home, shop, gas station, any place that they can find. I have sat in a small, one room house and watched wedding videos with a large group of complete strangers as we waited for the pouring rain to die down. If someone is mistreated, a group of people will always come rushing to their aid. If you want to see a friend, you don't need to call, you just go over to their house to visit. I love that sense of community that is so strong in our boys as well, in our entire, big, API family.

Last Saturday was my birthday, (again... sigh...) and David organized an event at a rec center so that all of our boys could go swimming, ride bikes and play soccer. They had a blast! All of the boys from the younger boys home wrote me letters. Evidently this birthday has changed some things as some of the boys began signing their letters as "my grandson"... I'm not too sure how I feel about that.

When boys come into our home, they don't know how old they are or their birthday so we help them choose one. They  love to share with a friend or an auntie or uncle they feel close to. I have put a cap on my birthday (one addition per year seems about right, especially since I am here for quite a while!)

 Looking around the boys I realized that for the last 4 years, every birthday that I have celebrated, God has brought another amazing child into my life to share it with me, first Wasswa, then Sadic, Davis, and this year adorable little David 

David on his way to church

David in front of the home

I love him so much.

When we told him it was his birthday his eyes got as big as saucers and he grinned from ear to ear. It was his birthday! David had his first birthday party and birthday cake. He got to listen as all of the boys went around and shared what they loved and appreciated about him. He ate it all up!

 Sometimes it is hard for me to grasp why anyone would reject kids as amazing and sweet and talented as the boys in our home. And sometimes when I look at the scars on their faces, arms, legs, and ribs it makes me a little angry to think about. 

But then I realize, only God knows the heart. And only God knows the wonderful plans for each child. That only He can turn what others meant for evil into something good.

No matter what their biological parents did or gave up, we are the ones that have the blessing and the honor of knowing, loving, and raising these kids. Its an honor and a huge responsibility and I wouldn't trade it for anything!

Update on Kato

 It's hard to believe that Kato, the boy who was so sad and miserable on the streets, who went through so terribly much is the same boy in the home now. Kato doesn't stop smiling- ever. Not since he came home. 

For so many kids, most, the streets make them hard. The longer they are on the streets the more they fight, the more they act out, and the harder they are to reach. Kato suffered a lot on the streets and was unable to go back home.  He got sick with malaria and typhoid, he was bitten by dogs and slept outside in the cold. I can't imagine how the streets wouldn't make you tough, you would have to be to survive! But God transformed his life, he was on the streets close to 7 years and has come out of it as one of the sweetest children that I know. He loves to play and he LOVES to smile, he has a huge heart. Kato Charles is a miracle. He is a boy that challenges me and has taught me so much about the goodness of God and his power to transform lives!

Last weekend

(Two) Second Chances

Kato

Kato listening to music

Kato

Kato

Now, because this is a blog, and the general impression of blogs is that they are where people are... honest about their feelings and their lives, I am going to be as honest as possible. Sometimes it's hard to admit my faults in public, but I think sometimes it's important.

I love street children, I really do. I love them to pieces. They bring so much joy and excitement and heartbreak into my life. No matter how wild or crazy or troubled they are, God has just given me a special love for street children!!!

The ones that do drugs and fight- no problem!

The ones that have attachment problems and say I love you when I come and then how much they hate me whenever I have to leave- yep, love them to pieces

The ones that are "tough" and aloof- love them too!

But there was a boy in our programs who manipulated, lied, stole and complained, and that child, that child I had a really hard time loving. He drove me crazy! He had actually been in our home when it had first opened. He had been in the home a few hours before stealing a large sum of money from a house uncle and running away with another boy from the home. Once back in our street children programs, if we gave him a t-shirt he would complain that we hadn't given him a pair of jeans too, then he would turn around and sell the t-shirt and brag to everyone about how he had gotten money out of us. He refused to bathe or change his clothing, so much so that all the boys called him "insecere" or "body lice"

It was so hard for me to love this child and I felt extremely guilty for disliking him. I was a Christian- a missionary! I should love every single child in our programs just like Christ did! Although Kato was frustrating, I knew he was really hurting too. He was so shut down. On his request we had taken him back home to his mother. As soon as we got there she told him and the uncle resettling him that she didn't want him, that he should just return to the streets because she wanted nothing to do with him.

I knew that the way I felt about Kato was not right and I asked several people to pray for me, that God would give me a heart for Kato like His, that I would see Kato through the same lens that Christ did.

In my own strength I was weak but after much time and prayer, God gave me a deep love and compassion for Kato. I saw the hurting child in him, the boy that felt forgotten and hopeless.

Kato went in and out of homes, slums, and our programs for over 3 years. After some time, I began to see a slow and steady change in him.

His heart of stone that he protected from everyone that had shattered into a million pieces time and time again, began to come back together. The boy who had stolen from our home became one of the most trustworthy boys in our programs. If I ever wanted to play soccer but needed someone to carry my purse, I began trusting Kato to do it. He would hold my bag/backpack/money, whatever it was as if it were his child, on his stomach with his arms wrapped firmly around it- desperate to prove himself and to show that he was a good boy. He knew that he had a special place in my heart.

Kato lost the small glitter of hope that used to be in his eyes, and although he was sinking, he put his trust and love in a God that radically changed his life.

God put Kato on my heart as well as others in our ministry and on Monday, Mama Joyce (my mother-in-law the mama of the younger boys home) came to Kivulu to tell him that he was coming into our home. The moment he was told this and he saw me he came running up to me and nearly knocked my over with a hug of excitement.

"Auntie Babirye! Auntie Babirye! I AM GOING HOME! I AM GOING HOME TODAY!!!" Kato shouted jumping up and down.

"I know Kato, I am so happy for you! We love you so much, and God loves you so much and we want you to be home with us!"

He then looked at me seriously and said,  "Auntie Babirye, back in the day, when I went into the home, I stole a lot of money and I did a lot of bad things that I shouldn't have but I am not like that anymore..."

"Kato" I told him, "That was in the past, all of those old things, we are putting them behind us, we are throwing them away forever. In Christ you are a new creation, you are a new, a good boy, and that is the boy that we know now. Kato what are you?"

He looked up at me with a grin, "Auntie, I am a new boy"

"That is right Kato, and I know that you are going to be good mannered, because you are a good boy."

Kato just looked at me and grinned with the biggest smile that I have literally ever seen on his face. He had something there that I have never seen before on him, joy. Pure joy!

It reminds me of the parable of the lost sheep. I KNOW that there is rejoicing in heaven of one boy who first found his way to Christ who then showed him into a home.

There was a second boy that we also brought home that day. A tattered, quite boy in a huge blue shirt. Enoch. My precious, wild little Enoch.

Enoch was in the home only a few weeks before all of the trauma he had gone through caught up to him. Unable to cope with his past without drugs, he had run back to the streets. It was a long road, and it took a long time, but finally he was able to come to a place where he was ready to come back home. He asked us if he could return, and Mama Joyce, came promptly to pick him up. With tears glistening her eyes she told me how much she loved him and how she had prayed for him as he was gone.

We are rejoicing at our two boys that have come back home! Please pray with us that as God begins the slow and painful process of healing their hearts that they will be able to trust and love and stay home, no matter how scary it feels to risk being loved (because they think they may be abandoned if they trust anyone). 

Update on Moses

Hey all, soo... since some of you have been asking for an update, Moses is doing wonderfully! He went back to school last week and has just settled in so well to his Forever Home and his Forever Family! We love having him with us, he is SUCH a sweet child! Here are a few pictures of him from the last week! 

Moses on his new bed 

Moses Painting

Moses Painting

Moses painting a picture

Moses jumping on the trampoline

Juggling the soccer ball like a champ!

And also, the boy that we brought into the home before Moses, Ibra (nicknamed Engineer) is also doing great! Here are a few photos of him!

Ibra getting off of the swing

Ibra (with medicine on, he got chicken pox)

Ibra with his new watergun (thanks  Lauren!) blasting away Uncle Peter

Thanks Lauren for all of the pics!