The Christmas Gift that can't stop Giving

This year's Advent Adventure is the Awesome Alternative Gift that just can't stop giving!

As announced in our latest newsletter, for £20, you can buy the farm a piglet and fund its care for six months. In that time the piglet should be worth £75-100. We will then buy another, and in six months time... you get the idea! You will get a Gift Certificate for each Piglet, and all proceeds go to providing food for the White Eagles. Our Farm has been breeding pigs for some time now, so we know it can work! We're even going to be posting updates on our blog so that people can check up on how their piglet is getting on :)

This year the 'Gift Certificate' is in the form of an A5 Christmas Card. You have a choice of three different designs, and on the back is a short message with details about River of Life and the piglets. On the inside the card is blank for your own message. We can either email you the design of your choice so that you print it yourself, or we can print and post it to you.

The three designs are 1. Little Pig, 2. Cheeky Pig and 3. Beauty Pig

On the back of each card is more info (the colour matches the design on the front)

How to buy
It's easy to purchase a Piglet. Simply make an online donation here, or send a cheque made payable to Uganda River of Life Ministries to UROLM, 136 Essex Road, London, E10 6BS.

Then send us an email saying how many piglets you would like, which designs you would like and whether you would like us to print and post them to you, or whether you would like us to email them to you (that's a pretty good option if it's getting close to Christmas!). If you would prefer a different message on the front of the card, let us know - it can easily be personalised for you.

The money raised through the piglets will make the world of difference to the orphaned and vulnerable children in our White Eagle project - please consider buying all your friends and family a piglet!

Can you join the Gideons?

The Gideons? What's that? Well, faced with a powerful enemy of 120,000 swordsmen, God got Gideon to raise an army of just 300 to fight for freedom. The rest is history… (read about it in Judges 6!)

When faced with the challenges we face in Uganda, it can be easy to feel similarly outnumbered. And yet the opportunities to change lives, to see communities transformed and individuals flying high have never been so great! From the tiny babies on the Baby Unit to the budding nation-changers of the Leadership Academy, we know that we can dare to dream - but only if we dream together!

So we're recruiting ‘Gideons’ - people who want to be part of this dream and are ready to fight through regular prayer and regular giving, so that we will see more lives transformed.

We want to be snatching hope from the jaws of despair - as a Gideon you'll be on the frontline of the action! You will get regular prayer updates and the inside track on our news, and we also want to hear from you and be praying for you. Please consider signing up today from just £10 a month. It's easy - you can set up a regular gift on our BT MyDonate page.

Synergy FC are Champions!

A new force has exploded onto the scene of African football. It's a force that plays with poise and steely determination, that respects the referee, and scores beautiful goals. It's Synergy!

The Synergy Senior Team have stolen the show this season, remaining unbeaten in the league, winning the regional tournament and therefore promotion, despite some seriously dodgy refereeing decisions (which were respected!).

But Synergy is not just about playing the beautiful game. Manager Tim, Head Coach Brian and their team invest a huge amount in the programme. Mentoring, Discipleship, Life Skills, Physical Training - it's all about trying to get Masaka's down-trodden to step-up and realise their God-given potential. 16 Synergy Members are currently on full bursaries for secondary education - nine at O-Level and seven at A-level - whilst three have completed A levels. We even have one member who has won a half bursary to University!

And then there's 'Synergy Away', a weekly programme focused on a local primary school delivering health-checks, sports training and life skills to a class at a time. A Ugandan School class might have upwards of 50 children, so it's pretty full on!
Synergy is proving Nelson Mandela's assertion that "Sport has the power to change the world... the power to inspire... to unite in a way that little else does". And do you know what, we’re certain that one day we'll be seeing Synergy players on the world stage... How amazing will that be!?

But of course, none of it could happen without the generous and sacrificial support of the wider River of Life family. Earlier this year Tim and Rob were musing on a fundraiser that could get together some much needed funds for Synergy. "I know," says Tim, "Let's do a Football Marathon..."

Over 60 players, 16 hours, 246 goals, 4 twisted ankles, some horrendous looking blisters, and days and days of planning later, and the Synergy Football Marathon Team has raised an awesome £2,437.57!

The teams kicked off at 9.15am, and staggered over the finish line in the wee hours of the following morning. Jon, who has done some of the more extreme fundraising events for River of Life, including cycling from Manchester to Milton Keynes, said it was by far the most grueling and knackering challenge he had ever done.

So, we want to say a massive THANK YOU to the Synergy Marathon Team. Your sterling efforts have not been in vain - the money you've raised will help Synergy Sports impact hundreds of children's lives. If you would like to sponsor them, go to their Justgiving page

Team Tentastic make Fundraising Fantastic

With 24 hours to go, just six tickets had been sold. Six! And with a venue that could comfortably sit 90, it was looking like the Fourth (or is it Fifth?) Annual Flixton ROL Quiz Night was going to be a bit of a quiet affair. At least everyone would have been guaranteed a raffle prize.

But as the doors of Flixton Cricket Club opened, it was clear it was going to be anything but quiet. As more seats had to be brought in and the guests topped 100, the organisers gave a sigh of relief and set about making it a night to remember.

And what a night it was! The room was gripped by the double-act of quiz masters Juan and Dan, but after a General Knowledge round, Music round, Acronyms, Records (of the Guinness Book of variety) and Picture round, the winning team - "Where's Wally" - emerged! Miriam was particularly pleased, having not answered a single question, to find herself clutching a bottle of bubbly.

With photos and videos showing the impact of the work being done by River of Life, a raffle of prizes donated by local businesses, and local celeb The Sumo Guy who caused quite the stir for some excited guests, the night just got better and better!

Thank you to all those that donated prizes - Helen Parsley, Haworth's the Butchers, Krispy Kreme Donuts, David Lloyd Fitness, Proctor and Gamble and others. And thank you to Team Tentastic, Flixton's 2012 Mission Team, who made the night happen!

So, what DOES VHS stand for? No googling folks!!

Join the New Year +ONE Campaign!

Do you believe everyone can do something for someone?

We do! And we know we're not alone, because thanks to you and everyone else who has given to River of Life, we're able to do a tonne of stuff for some of the neediest people in the world.

Like open a new Neonatal Unit in our local hospital because too many children were dying. Or help nearly 50 orphans and former street children 'fly high' through the White Eagle Project. And that's not to mention the hundreds of children and young people that are getting a chance to realise their potential through Synergy, our community sports programme, or the 10 (so far!) young people we're putting through University as part of our Leadership Academy.

If you haven't been able to join us in the +ONE Campaign, we'd love to invite you to in 2013. There's a whole host of things you could do, from donating directly to fundraising through crazy events. The whole point is to recognise that everyone can do something for someone - whatever you choose to do, please know that every penny makes a difference!

Have a look at some of the ideas below, and if it takes your fancy, click to download the form for more info. Of course, if you have any questions, please contact us.

• Sponsor a place at the Synergy Sports Academy and help youngsters realise their God-given potential
• Sponsor an Orphan or Vulnerable Child to 'Fly High' with the White Eagle Project
• Improve Food Security by "Giving the gift that can't stop giving" and developing the River of Life Farm
• Become a regular donor and keep the new Baby Unit open, saving dozens of poorly babies' lives.
• Raise a new generation of leaders and by sponsoring one of our Leadership Academy members

If you want to join in, and would prefer to set everything up online, just head straight over to our donation page (MyDonate by BT). All of these ideas have recommended gifts, but please feel free to give as much or as little as you can, and together we can make 2013 AWESOME for someone. So, who's your +ONE going to be?

We’re coming of age - help us celebrate!

1st January 2012 marks River of Life Church’s 18th Birthday! Help us mark this wonderful milestone by fundraising for our work now and in 2012!

From recruiting sponsors for the Sponsorship Challenge through to arranging a Fundraising Event, we’re delighted to give you the opportunity to do something a bit different in the next 3 months to help us ‘come of age' in 2012.

We’ve got solid plans to expand our impact in Masaka - to support 300 orphans through the White Eagle Project, protect and purify Nyendo’s community wells, partner with the local hospital for a community-based nutrition and healthcare programme, finish building our Children’s Centre and Church in Nyendo, take part in mission trips to Northern Uganda and continue praying and working for peace and reconciliation, develop the new Prayer Mountain, build up our healing work in the villages through our Roots Ministry...

But none of it is possible without you! We’ll keep you posted to inspire you with ideas, or contact Rob direct on rob@riveroflifeuganda.org

Presents with a Purpose! Our Alternative Gift List this Christmas

It's that time of year again where we offer you the fabulous opportunity to purchase a present with a purpose!

We are still fundraising to develop our site to be a Children and Community Centre that will be a beacon of hope for Nyendo! Brick by brick we’re moving forward... We have now agreed full Architectural Drawings for the whole development, which is a major step forward. Our number one priority is to raise funds to build a secure perimeter wall in time for the February 2011 elections, so plenty of bricks, sand and cement are needed to keep the children safe! Please consider making this a Christmas to remember...

You can visit out special River of Life Alternative Gifts Justgiving page here

Or you can download the PDF flyer by clicking here

Our maddest cycle challenge ever to raise £21k!

This is going to be our biggest challenge ever... after the exploits of Manchester to Blackpool in 2008, the Great North 'Try'Athalon in 2009 we've set our sights higher... a non-stop team endurance ride from Manchester to London! 185 miles of batty-punishing, thigh-knackering, madness which will see us riding in pairs from Manchester's Albert Square to London's Big Ben in one go!

The madcap scheme was inspired by Jon Room, who liked the look of the London to Paris 24 hr endurance ride. Jon has already run a Marathon, cycled from Manchester to Liverpool and back and swam 2 miles in aid of River of Life, and was clearly wanting more of a challenge... He nearly bailed when working out the route he thought we'd be going most of the way on the monster-road, the A5, but has regained his enthusiasm with the revised route which will takes us from Manchester, over the Peaks to Derby, down through Nottingham and Milton Keynes to end up under Big Ben. Hopefully.

Jon has been a tower of strength in our challenges over the years - you can check out his motivational talk 60 miles into last year's bike-ride here.

So this year, we really are going one better. We'll be riding 185 miles non-stop in pairs - 3 hours on, 3 hours off the bike - all the way to London. We have some awesome team members - some familiar faces from previous years, and some new ones: Ming the Merciless,  joining us in his jesters outfit; Mark "I'm not waiting for the rest of yous" Cartmell, Dan the Man (who can forget his yellow leotard of the Blackpool Ride?) the legendary Tim 'Rabu' Crow and the unforgettable Andy "I'm ready to throw my bike into a ditch and catch a taxi" Rous. New to this cycle challenge we also have Will, James, Richard and Leigh - all of whom i'm sure will provide unforgettable memories!

And why are we doing this? For the poor and needy, and the Orphans and Street Children of Masaka, Uganda! The 50 orphans and vulnerable children that we're helping 'fly high' and reach heights they never in their wildest dream thought possible all need extra funds. But there's thousands more children that need help, so we've set ourselves the fantastic challenge of raising £21,000 in 21 days to help establish the next phase of the White Eagle Project and rescue more children from a future of despair in Masaka! The money we raise will also go towards running River of Life's other ministries - wherever the need is most.

You can be part of something amazing, and save a child from neglect and poverty. Please give generously on our JustGiving page - click here!

Can you do a sponsored event for River of Life Ministries this summer?!

With 4,000 Orphaned and Vulnerable Children on our doorstep, and the vast majority of the people around us living on less than a dollar a day, there is a MASSIVE need to be met. Can you help?!

Cycle, Swim, Run, Walk, Auction, Quiz Night, World Cup BBQ - whatever it is, be inspired by our new Fundraising Pack with ideas to do something this summer that will make a massive difference to some of the poorest people on the planet. Whether you raise £100 or £10,000, every little bit helps to keep the River of Life Ministries running. The target is that between us we raise £20,000 this year from fundraising events, that will help the River of Life Team on the ground continue to reach out to the neediest children, care for the poor and sick, and help put the destitute back on track. Together we can do it! Download your fundraising pack today!

If you want to chat to someone about your plans, please email us

Anyone up for a Cycle Challenge?

In 2008 we cycled Manchester to Blackpool. In 2009 we cycled Manchester to Liverpool and back, climbed a couple of mountains and swam the combined total of about a million miles. But we've not managed to do anything quite as impressive as the guys that helped kick this all off back in 2000, when they cycled Lands End to John O'Groats to raise money to build the first section of the Boys Home. Until now...

This is an idea, only an idea at the moment, but it's gathering momentum. We're thinking of organising a Bike Ride - Edinburgh to London. That's 400 miles, which is pretty impressive in itself - but we want to do it non-stop. Yes! That's right non-stop Edinburgh to London. It's madness! The way it would work is that we would cycle in teams of two for four hours at a time, one on the bike the other resting in the support car, on, off, on, off all the way down the East Coast, through Newcastle, York, Scunthorpe, Lincoln and on to London!

And to make it that more exciting, we've got one of the guys, Richard, that did the original bike ride back in 2000 interested. It could be immense - if you're interested in joining us - for all of it or perhaps for some it - drop me a line! It's likely to be sometime in September...

It's time for Operation ARK once again!

Watch the Operation ARK 2010 Promo on our website!

Remember the amazing Operation Acts of Random Kindness (ARK) where we gather together the youth of Nyendo and Masaka for a week long programme of social action in some of the poorest areas of MAsaka? Well, it's coming to town again! In May we hope to bring together 100s of Christian youth from across the churches in an act of unity to help bless the poorest in our community. Faith without action is dead, and we believe we must show the love of God to the poor through deed as well as word.

When we launched in 2008, 20 young people, almost exclusively from River of Life Church took to the streets of Mabera, a notorious local slum. In 2009, 109 young people from six different churches in Nyendo joined in the action for Kakyafu, a local area which when translated into English literally means 'rubbish'.

You can read all about last years efforts here on Tim's, the Operation ARK Coordinator, blog

We also need to help raise £1,200 to make it happen - so if you would like to donate, please visit our JustGiving Fundraising page. Every penny helps!

Buy a gift with a difference this Christmas...

Back by popular demand, we have updated our Alternative Gift List... this year, it's all about boosting the bog fund! As you know fundraising has been continuing apace all year to keep on building the boys home. In January, we opened the new sitting room, dining room, kitchen and store. And now it's time to build the washrooms and toilets! Our estimate for this section of the boys home is about £15,000. With all the fundraising that's been going on we're hoping to have raised about £13,000 - can you help us push it up to the target?!

Our vision in the White Eagle Project is for a qood quality home in the middle of Nyendo. Somewhere that some of Uganda's most destitute and vulnerable can call home, somewhere that can help us give a standard of care which will release the White Eagles to fly high!

So, please do download the all new Alternative Gift List here , go straight to our online donation page here and be inspired to buy someone a washbasin, a toilet or even part of a cesspit!

Time for a little swim...

The 'Try'Athlon Team have finally finished their challenge! 12 River of Life supporters met up at the Manchester Aquatics Centre to see how far they could swim, most having not managed more than 20 lengths since before time began... Collectively they managed 13 miles, with 8 year-old Eva the star of the show, putting in a very handy 50 lengths at about twice the speed of everyone else. Others who couldn't make the Manchester swim did it where they are, with a particularly impressive 150 lengths from Kath Room the following morning, and the extraordinary exploits of Brenda Davies, who is training to swim 300 lengths - just shy of 5 miles - next week!

Most excitingly, the White Eagles themselves joined in! Emily, our Director, writes: Thirteen children and two staff were able to swim last Saturday and the rest of us were just giving them morale support - I didn't know we could actually have world champions in the White Eagle children! Eight children - Mujuzi, Nicholas, Ssemakula, Tony, James, Ernest, and Nakawuki - and Julius were able to swim lengths and five children - Judith, Daniel, Namatovu, Kisakye and Kevin - and Rhonnah swum widths. The 1st group swum a total number of 129 lengths and Ivan was the best and swum 30. The 2nd group that swum across did 20 widths. We were all shocked at Ivan's speed!

Who'd have thought it, the White Eagles swimming well over 2 miles between them! You can sponsor their heroic efforts by donating online here.

Spread the word on Facebook!

We're starting a campaign this autumn to spread the word about River of Life on Facebook. We're developing a fancy new Facebook Connect Gizmo that will help us easily tell all those hundreds of Facebook 'friends' most of us have by posting a message to our walls...

You'll see a little Facebook Connect button appear on the homepage, and throughout the rest of the site, and the idea is you just click on the button, write a short message like "I'm checking out the River of Life website" or something, and submit it to your wall... that then turns up in all your friends' newsfeeds, and they get a chance to click on the link and go check out the site. Ultimately we want to spread the word and gain support for the work :)

We've also got a Facebook Group you can join, and our own Facebook Page which I'm beginning to build...

Let me know what you think about it all, either by emailing me or leaving a comment below!

Latest newsletter is out!

We've just produced our latest newsletter which you can download here. It comes complete with a sponsorship form for the 10/10 hike - where the White Eagles will be doing a sponsored walk in Uganda and we can all raise sponsorship for them!

It contains some of the stories you can also read on this blog, plus more including prayer requests, 'news in brief' and more about the 10/10 hike.

Please do download it here and share it with your friends and family!

Join in with the 10/10 Hike!

On October 10th across the UK and Uganda we're organising sponsored hikes to commemorate 10 years of the White Eagle Project! The White Eagles and all the staff themselves will be walking 16 miles from the church to Lake Nabugabo and back, and we're hoping that there will be a number of hikes organised by different people across the UK too!

So, if you would like to organise your very own sponsored walk, please let me know. We can give you all the advice and materials you might need, and you can get your friends and family to join in the fun!

To whet your appetite and encourage you to organise something if you can, the guys at LUXSON who do our website and have helped River of Life in so many ways have decided to organise a hike for the 10th October, but also a bike ride and a swim as well - the The Great North Bike Hike 'n Pike Try-athlon! It'll be spread over 3 months to maximise the number of people who can be involved (and give us a chance to recover). They've set up their page on JustGiving - check it out here. The events will all be in the North Wales / Manchester area on the 5th September, 10th October and 7th November, so if you want to join in the madness, drop me an email.

Fundraising Update...

We have a big challenge facing us to raise all the money we need to keep the marvelous ministries of River of Life going, and to increase our impact with the poor and marginalised of Uganda. But we're rising to it! I told you last time about Mark, who's run across the Gobi desert in China. He came in a very respectable 90th - you can see his official finish position here. There's pictures on that site too - it looked like the most incredibly hard endurance race! Mark's well on his way to raising his target of £2,500 - if you haven't sponsored him yet and want to, go to his Justgiving page.

And we've also had our Charity Quiz night on Friday 19th June, which went swimmingly well, and once all the money is in we are expecting to have raised £2,000, which is brilliant. The art work done by some of the older boys proved a big hit - you can still support this event by helping Ivan with some bricks by donating here

Coming up we have a Summer concert of Classical music and Jazz on the 7th July, and there are rumours flying around that some crazy folk are going to be attempting what they're calling a 'Try-Athlon' - Bike, Hike and Swim...

And don't forget the 10/10 walk - put 10th October in your diary - for the biggest sponsored walk we've ever done. We'd love as many people as possible to be involved - there'll be more details nearer the time.

Come to the Charity Quiz Night!

On Friday 19th June we're having our first ever Quiz Night, with comedy, a top DJ, an African Art Sale and even a chance to build the boys home (out of lego). It's being held at the John Alker Club in Flixton, Manchester - click here for directions

It promises to be a top evening of great entertainment, so come on down! If you can't make it, we're selling barrow-loads of bricks for £1, or 6 barrow-loads for a fiver, so you can still support the event! You can even buy them online through this special JustGiving page - click here. We're still fundraising to finish the boys home, with the next phase being the toilets and washrooms, and then the extra bedrooms and bed-sit for the house-mum, Mama Kat.

You can download a flyer about the event by clicking here. If you'd like to buy tickets, please email us by clicking here.

A new look website!

As you can see, we've done a bit of a spring clean of the website! We wanted to develop some new features to help bring the work of River of Life Uganda alive for all our supporters and visitors. So there's a fresh new home page, with our priority fundraising appeal and the latest news headline.

At first glance the biggest change is the addition of our new gallery at the foot of every page, which we'll keep up to date with little video clips and pictures. We've also brought much more of the latest news on to the site, so that you're better informed with what's going on, and made it easier to subscribe to Crane Mail, our monthly email newsletter.

The thing I'm most excited about is is the new login section, which now shows video! We've put together short videos by the White Eagles to really show the impact your support is having in Uganda. Go and login and tell us what you think!

Buy some bricks for the boys home!

We're still working hard to build the new sections of the boys home. The sitting room, dining room, kitchen and store are complete, but there's still 6 washrooms, the bedrooms and the House Mum's bedsit to build!

So we're continuing the Alternative Gift List to help raise the money. You can buy Iron Sheets, Bricks, Bags of Cement, Windows, Doors, Toilets, Sinks for the White Eagle Boys, and get a beautiful certificate to give to the person you want to give a gift to. We can make them for any occassion - Birthdays, Anniversaries, Thank yous - anything!

Just click here to email us for more information - a link to download the leaflet and order form will be posted here soon!