Acts of Random Kindness 2009!

115 youth, 1 week, and a place who's name translates literally as 'rubbish'... it's Operation ARK 2009! Tim, our Youth Leader has just updated his blog with all the news after a very successful week of clearing, cleaning, feeding, washing - you name it, they did it - with the youth of local churches. Go check out the story here

Healing the divisions of the church

This week something is finally happening that we have been waiting for for YEARS! We're all extremely excited about it, and full of hope of what could happen...

Back in 2002 Duncan started to pray into why there are so many splits in the church in Uganda - between denominations and even within denominations. Like in many countries first evangelised by Europe, the church had been divided in Uganda right from day one through Catholic and Protestant missionaries. But the famous East African revival of 1936 was also characterised by division. And then the first Pentecostal church which was planted in Kampala in 1958/9 through Elim, also split and another Church was established - Full Gospel. A bitter rivalry between the two broke out, and by 1968 Elim Church split again and Deliverance Church was started. God has worked mightily through these three churches in Uganda, but for the last 50 years, many churches in Uganda have experienced splits and divisions.

In prayer God revealed to Duncan that that first split in the Pentecostal church had brought poison into His Body, the church, and most, if not all, churches in Uganda have been negatively impacted. One of the effects has been that most churches are powerless in the face of the terrible cancer of tribalism and racism. And yet the church, with the healing power of the Holy Spirit, should be leading the way.

So back in 2002, Duncan went to the leaders of Full Gospel Church and said we need to sort this out - and this is why we are so excited! Because 7 years after that fist conversation, and 50 years after the division of the Pentecostal Church in Uganda, in the very church that it all started, Friday will see the last day of a 3 day conference of 300 church leaders devoted to "Total Restoration" - reconciling the past through repentance and forgiveness. We hope and pray that it will have an immense impact as our disunity is transformed to unity and the poison is drained away!

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!

Actions can speak louder than words!

James 2:17 says “Faith by itself, if not accompanied by action, is dead.” OPERATION ARK is all about taking the challenge of this verse and putting our faith into ACTION in a practical way.

Operation ARK 2009 is just around the corner! We started this outreach programme last year in May 2008 with 20 of our youth, and it's all about doing Acts of Random Kindness to bless those in our local communities, first and foremost by meeting their practical needs; painting their shops and houses, cleaning their streets, repairing their buildings, helping them with chores and providing food for the neediest families. The only pre-requisite for someone being helped is that they have a need. It doesn’t matter whether they are young or old, Christian or Muslim or even a witch doctor! Our aim is to show the love of Jesus to all that need it. These practical acts of kindness will show our communities the heart of love that Jesus has for them and will help open the door so that we can witness to them about our Lord and Saviour!

In last years Operation ARK we blessed the people of Mabera. Many people were shown the heart of Jesus, some gave their lives to Christ and we even have one lady, who after being blessed, has become a valued member of ROL Church! This year Operation ARK is bigger and better as we unite together with 3 other churches in the local area to hit the streets of Nyendo and bless the community! One of our focus areas for this year is Kakyafu which literally translated into English means “rubbish!” It is a notorious slum known for being filthy in every sense of the word. We hope to re-name it for Jesus!

In order to make Operation ARK as successful as possible there is various equipment and resources we need. Our target is to raise £750 before Operation ARK 2009 starts during the school holiday in May. Please help us bless the community and show our neighbours the love of Jesus!

Some of the things your money can buy:

• A-Box-a-Blessing including food for a needy family - £5
  
• Lunch for 50 youth - the Op ARK team - £15
  
• A jerrycan of paint, a brush and roller - £12
  
• 2 brooms and a pair of gloves to clean the streets - £2.50
  

You can donate securely online here through JustGiving. Just let us know it's for Operation ARK in the comments field. Thank you!

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!

The newest members of the family...

We've just taken in an abandoned girl who was 8 months pregnant... i say *was* because this week she gave birth to a wonderfully bouncy baby boy! Tim's written all about it on his blog - check it out here

Kelen and Kelvin are doing well, and the other girls in the Girls House are really impressing us by getting involved and making Kelen feel part of the family.

It's quite a big deal to support Kelen and Kelvin as you can imagine, so if you would like to help, click here to get in touch!

Happy New Year!

We're sorry we've been a bit slow to keep this up-to-date, but a new year is always a good time to make new resolutions, and ours is to get better at this! We returned to Uganda just before Christmas having spent 4 months in the UK, visiting friends and supporters, attending conferences and also taking a break at the insistence of our trustees.

Whilst we were in the UK our team here have done a great job keeping things running, but as you might expect we returned to a fair few challenges which have kept us busy since we got here.

January is a massive time of year for us. It's the main holiday - the equivalent of our summer holiday in the UK - the LMC Cup of Uganda football tournament gets underway (watch Tim's blog for updates on that), we set the budgets for the coming year and analyse the expenditure for the previous year, and of course it's the new year - a time to refresh ourselves with the vision, to renew our commitment and to plan for the future!

So, this month we have visiting us two of our trustees, Rob and Margaret - who are going to work with Emily (the White Eagles Manager) on all the finance stuff, Rob's wife Katharine, Rob and Katharine's friend Nick, Tim's friend Josh, our friend Florence, who is coming to get away from it all to write a book she's been working on, as well as our daughter Josephine and her husband and two kids - John, Jonah and Georgie!

We've brought 3 of the girls up from the girls home - Robinah, Judith and Veronica - to help out, and give them a chance to earn a bit of pocket money.