Never say never...

Nampijja was a healthy 21 year old girl when she was involved in a serious road traffic accident, 2 years ago. So serious were her injuries that she was told she would never walk again – the doctors didn’t even feel it was worth trying to align the large bone in her thigh which had broken in two from the impact.

Living rurally in Uganda, there is no such thing as “disability living allowance” or “care packages” and Nampijja was left alone for most of the day, every day, in a small room her dad rented for her, with a visitor just once a day to help her wash.

She was not able to move around at all, so was limited to lying on her bed under a sheet, unable even to sit up, staring at the unfinished brick walls, or listening to her radio when she had batteries - which was not often.

Nampijja did not come from a Christian background, but a local pastor went to talk to her early in 2012, inspiring hope in her that she would be healed. However, with so many obstacles facing her, hope soon faded, and she became very depressed.

We came across Nampijja in May, through the medical outreach work of our very own Dr Sarah Crow, who was helping at a clinic in the village where Nampijja lives. On her return from the clinic, Dr Sarah was sharing Nampijja's story with Aunty Sarah - our girls' home "aunty". Sarah just so happens to be a qualified physiotherapist, with 7 years experience in neurological physio - exactly what Nampijja needed.

Sarah's heart was moved to help Nampijja, and she started visiting the village weekly to offer physiotherapy, and to pray with Nampijja. 6 months on, and Nampijja's recovery is nothing short of miraculous! She’s now able to walk with no walking aid or support, and has learnt to sew on a foot-pedal operated sewing machine.

Sarah says "I can’t believe it! I would not have thought that it was possible for her to even stand when I first saw her, let alone take some steps, but through everyone’s prayers, God is doing the impossible!”

Sarah's Story - Miracles, Mumbejja, and Mission

Hellooooooo!!!! I hope that everyone is ok. I’m doing well over here in Uganda. I’ve not written for a while, so let me bring you up to date with what’s been happening here......

First of all, let me give you an amazing update on Nampijja, who is the young lady that I’ve been doing physio with (- I mentioned her in my last Newsletter – she had a spinal injury and had been unable to sit/stand/walk/dress herself/feed herself/get out of her little room/etc. for over a year when I first began seeing her a few months ago)....

Well, I am constantly astounded by Nampijja’s progress, and she has so far WELL exceeded all of my expectations! She is now at the point where she is able to walk inside her room with no stick or anything, walk about 400 metres outside with 2 crutches, prepare and cook all of her own food, do all of her own washing, visit the local shops, and go and see her neighbours!!!!!!! WOW!!!!!!!!!!

Just to put it in perspective, 2 doctors and the previous physio all said that she would never stand again, and would not even be able to sit on her own without support, and that the most she could hope for would be for her to be able to feed herself if her hands and arms got stronger, and to be lifted into her wheelchair by someone so that she could sit out of bed.... so it is absolutely a miracle that she is able to stand and walk and get to the local shops and do so much for herself now!!!

In fact, when some elders from River of Life went with me to pray for her a few months ago, one of them – Elder Emily – told Nampijja not to worry because God would do a miracle and she’d walk again very soon, and I knew that this was absolutely impossible, and I kept on thinking “Shut up Emily!!!” (- because there’s nothing worse than an unrealistic patient who doesn’t want physio to ever end because of their completely unrealistic expectations, and who blames the physio for their lack of progress, when in fact it’s absolutely impossible for them to improve as much as they hope!) - Then I thought “Sarah, have faith in God!”, then the physio bit of me thought “Shut up Emily!”, and then the other bit of me thought “Have faith in God!”.... and so I went on and on in my head!!! Ha ha!!! ....Anyway, four months on, I can now say that I’ve seen God do a miracle!!! WOW!!!!!!!

Since I last wrote to you, there have been two new arrivals in the girls’ home..... One is an 8 year old girl, who was an emergency placement from the police, and the other is "Princess Mumbejja”, a very gorgeous, gentle, and cute 5 month old kitten (- see picture below)!!! Of the two, the kitten has been the easier to handle, and by far the less stressful to have in the girls’ home!!! The girls and Kitibwa absolutely LOVE Princess, and spend hours each day playing with her.... they’ve made some toys for her by tying a ball to the end of a piece of string, and then they all hold their string and balls, and run round and round the room while Princess runs round and round after them, chasing the balls. This usually goes on for about 3 or 4 hours, and then everyone collapses in a heap, ready to go sleep – so it’s working out very well indeed, as far as I’m concerned!!!

Since I last wrote to you, we’ve had the holiday programme at the project, which was really wonderful. A team from my home church, Flixton Fellowship, came to visit us, and ran the whole thing. It was really amazing, and all of the kids and young people enjoyed it so much. One of the things they did was a mural on the end wall of the girls’ home, which has brightened things up no end (- see picture), and we also had a trip to Lake Nabugabo with all of our sponsored kids and young people.

Straight after the team’s visit and the holiday programme, I had my own holiday. I went to Entebbe to meet up with some dancers from the UK who were ministering and doing a dance workshop in a church in Kampala, and joined them in their activities. It was really wonderful and restful, despite all of the dancing we did!

The final thing of note that has happened recently is the plan to resettle loads of our young men who have been living in the boys’ home. It is not legal to have young men or women living in a children’s home, but it’s been very hard to plan and help them resettle, so we’ve been taking things very slowly as we’ve worked with them to find the best solution... and we seem to have found it, as the plans are nearly all in place, and they’re well on the way to leaving us now – in fact, they’re all going to have left before the year is out. They’re all going to be followed up very closely when they leave, and of course their sponsorship is not stopping when they leave us – so we’re going to be continuing our support and hope to continue to see them thrive in every way and become productive members of society!

Anyway, that’s all of my news, I think.

I hope that you are all doing well!

Love Sarah

We're recruiting!

Are you a qualified Ugandan Social Worker? Are you passionate about children at risk, and devastated by the numbers of orphan and vulnerable children in Uganda? Are you a committed Christian enthusiastic about seeing the most vulnerable children 'fly high' and be everything that God intends them to be?

Then you may be exactly who we are looking for!

The White Eagle Project, under River of Life Church’s Training and Discipleship Department, supports orphans and vulnerable children through providing quality education, intensive mentoring and providing a safe and secure family home in two ways: 1) Resettlement, for severely at risk children, with a particular emphasis on rehabilitating street children through a purpose-built 30-bed centre for emergency temporary residential support, and 2) Community Support - through supporting at risk extended families to provide a loving home environment.
The Vision of the White Eagle Project (WEP) is to give vulnerable children hope, by loving them and giving them the very best so they are empowered to excel in all areas of life so they reach their potential and become responsible and productive members of society”

We are looking for an enthusiastic, competent, highly motivated and committed Residential Social Worker to join our White Eagle Team in providing top quality care to OVCs in Masaka.

If you are interested, you can download more information and the application form here.

Completed application forms can either be emailed to info@riveroflifeuganda.org, sent to River of Life Church, PO Box 985, Masaka, Uganda, or delivered to River of Life Church Offices, Plot 446, Masaka-Kampala Road, Nyendo.

Closing date for applications is 15th September 2012.

Sarah's Story - Physio, Robinah returns and more!

Hellooooooooo! How is everyone?!?!?! I'm doing great here, and things are going on well! The last two months have been relatively busy.....

One thing that you may be interested to hear about is that I'm doing some physio. I'm seeing two patients... one has a bad back, but one is a neuro patient, and I'm reeeeeally enjoying seeing her and doing some neuro physio! She's given me permission to talk about her to you, as we've become good friends over the last 6 weeks. Her name is Nampijja, and she's 24 years old. She was involved in a car accident just over a year ago, which damaged her spine, so she was left unable to stand or walk. She had some rehab at the time, but was discharged back to her village about a year ago, and for the past year, she has been lying on a mattress on the floor of her tiny room, with few visitors, and nothing to do but stare at the ceiling and listen to her radio (when she has batteries).

When I first saw her, she couldn't sit up in bed, she was very depressed, and she was doing nothing. I wanted to cry when I saw how awful her life was, and how little support she had from family and friends, and I could hardly sleep that night with thinking about her! Anyway, I've been going to her village once a week since then to do some physio, and she's gradually progressing, and, (most importantly!), she's getting some hope that her life isn't over, and she's smiling a lot more!!!! We've become good friends, as I said, and she's helping me with my Lugandan... actually during my physio sessions and visits, we speak in Lugandan only, because, (despite my limited Lugandan), she has slightly less English than I have Lugandan.

I've also enjoyed seeing quite a lot of one of the girls who used to live in the girls' home, and who returned to live with her family a year and a half ago. I miss her (and the other girls who've left the home), so it's been really nice to spend lots of time with her recently, helping her as she prepares to apply to our Leadership Academy for support to go to university. She's pictured below with her beautiful little baby girl.

Most of our kids have been on school trips and had various parents days and fun days recently. Kitibwa and Mercy had their faces painted at their school fun day. They were soooooooooooo excited about going to it beforehand – Kitibwa talked NON-STOP for two and a half hours (from 6am onwards!) about what he was going to do and how excited he was!!! I wanted to gag him!!! Anyway, luckily it lived up to their expectations, (-apart from the cake... apparently they were all expecting a huge cake as on previous occasions, and it didn't materialise... but all was fine, because we'd baked a cake for my birthday, so Kitibwa and Mercy ate that and then decided that the day had been a success after all!!!)

There have been quite a few talks and things that I've done over the last couple of months too... I spoke at the River of Life's Schools Conference in June, where children and young people come to us from about 9 different schools for the day. All of the children love it because they get fed good food by us, and especially because we don't give them beans, weevils, and posho (which they all get EVERY SINGLE DAY for lunch and dinner whilst they're at school).

In June, the White Eagle Project joined in the Day of the African Child celebrations, which involved a march through Masaka and then various performances by different children. The kids all found it very exciting, but I found it rather stressful, as I spent the day chasing after 15 children, and trying to make sure that we didn't lose anyone!!! (-No matter how many times we told them not to wander off without telling us where they were going, they kept on wandering off because it was just too exciting!!!). Anyway, we returned with all 15 children and no injuries, so the day was a success in my eyes!!!

Anyway, that’s all my news!

Lots of love,

Sarah

Operation JK:UK - A Home Away from Home

Well done Mr Julius Kintu! He’s taking our slogan ‘Flying High’ to dizzying new heights, having just completed the first year of a Diploma in Ministerial Development Training at Carmel Bible College, Bristol, UK.

Julius has done brilliantly - scoring 79%, while adapting to a very different life in the UK and being a long way from home - all the challenges of long-term mission! Due to Visa restrictions, Julius has just returned to Uganda, but hopes to go back to Carmel College for the second year of his course in September, hosted by and working with our good friends at Hope Community Church again. Julius says: “This year has been a year of new beginnings in my life... Going through Bible College has challenged me spiritually and in all aspects of life. Being in the UK has brought more meaning to life. I have been taught what dependency on God means especially when you lose all that gives you confidence - when you are away from all your loved ones, friends, home church and all those people that believe in you and think that all you do is cool! But I have enjoyed traveling the UK, food (especially roast dinners!) making friends, everyone has been very welcoming. UK has been a home away from home.

Julius is proving our vision that Ugandans can take their place in the international community and really make a difference! We REALLY want him to complete the diploma, but we have a funding shortfall of about £6,000. If you want to help, please get in touch.

How high can a White Eagle fly?

Our motto at the White Eagle Project, and one that speaks of our commitment to quality at River of Life is ‘flying high’. With the opportunity to do the National 3 Peaks Challenge, we decided to put it to the test (literally) with Mr Julius, former White Eagle Project Manager. Rob takes up the story...

“I couldn’t climb up or down stairs for three days afterwards, but I’m incredibly proud to be able to say we did it! Julius was seen, 'Flying High', from the top of Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon, all in 24 hours!

 Ben Nevis Summit conquered

The idea took shape in a small office in Manchester 2 months previously, as Rob and Miguel (a White Eagle Sponsor and long-term hatcher of madcap fundraising challenge ideas) wondered how they could make the already barmy idea of doing the 3 Peaks a little more eccentric. And then the thought of taking our very own White Eagle, who had never climbed a mountain before, to the highest peaks in Scotland, England and Wales dawned on them...

So, at 1710hrs, on 30th June, the River of Life Team started their ascent of Ben Nevis. By 0440hrs the following morning, they were on the slopes of Scafell Pike. And by 1330hrs, they'd left the minibus for the final assault on Snowdon...

Dan, Julius and Ming on Snowdon

Now, for the uninitiated, Ben Nevis is MASSIVE. Scafell Pike is a big heap of rocks - in driving rain and hail it’s the last place you'd want to be at anytime of day, let alone 5am. Reaching Snowdon, we had just 3hrs 40 to complete the challenge...

Stiff, sore and still wet from Scafell, the advance party, including Wing Commander Julius, made mincemeat of the climb, pushing through to record a fantastic overall time of 23hrs20. But with 10 mins to go, there was no sign of the rear guard...

Finally he hobbled into view, the rear guard being just me, and I reached the mini-bus (painfully parked at the far end of the car park!) with just 5 mins to spare! It was the most epic challenge, and has raised nearly £5,000!”

Made it! The Team at the finish

To all the climbers - Anna, Dan, Jeff, Julius, Mark, Miguel, Neil, Rich, Rob, Robin, Sandor, Tom, Tommy - well done! And to the wonderful support crew - Andrew, Phil & Meredith - thank you! And finally, a massive thank you to Rich Statham and his Dad Tony, for organising the whole thing and keeping us safe :)

If you would like to sponsor the heroic efforts of Julius (and the team!), please visit www.justgiving.com/riveroflife3peaks!

If you want to relive the adventure, all our photos and video clips are plotted on an awesome interactive map - check it out!

Operation ARK hits the streets once more!

May saw Operation ARK reach its fifth anniversary, as Tim and Gerald ran around like headless chickens organising over 100 youth from local churches, hitting the streets of Nyendo and Masaka...

Ready for action!

The point? To clean the filth, spruce up people’s houses and shops with a lick of paint, and give out boxes of food to some of the neediest families. Once again we were very well received, although having arranged with the Masaka town clerk to clean the centre of town on one afternoon, we discovered he had become worried about the possibility of publicity about “local volunteers doing what paid street cleaners should be doing”, and in a fervour of activity organised his staff to sweep, scrub and polish as if the Queen was about to visit, on the very morning before we arrived!

We have since decided that any time we feel the town is looking a bit shabby, we will simply tell the town clerk we want to come the next day with our army of youth to clean, safe in the knowledge that in a fit of panic he will then quickly mobilise his street cleaners to do it instead!