Christmas is coming

School here came to a close at the end of November but Special Needs Staff have been BUSY BUSY BUSY with Christmas preparations, our community party, trips to rehabilitation centres and hospitals as well as visiting some of our children in their homes.

Allen with her new keyboard. 

Matovu with his new leg calipers.

The Community party was a great success and the children and their carers/parents enjoyed a time of praise/worship and giving testimonies of how God had been at work in their lives. Uncle George (one of our staff here and an elder in our church) came to speak to and encourage the parents in caring for their children.

We then all enjoyed a great feast of matooke (savoury bananas), beef, ground nut sauce, rice etc. and sodas.

Enjoying the party food!

Allen downing the sodas.

Ready to serve the food!

Our precious Carol (and Auntie Kate) arrived just in time for this great meal having been discharged from Kiwoko hospital following Carol`s surgery to place a gastrostomy (feeding tube.) We are so thankful for all your prayers and for God`s faithfulness. Carol was fit for surgery and Dr Peter, Dr Steve from the UK and his fiancé (an anaesthetist) were able to place the tube using an endoscope so they didn`t even have to cut her (apart from making a tiny hole!) She obviously found it a bit sore at first but was ready to come home the next day and make an appearance at the party! 

Sharon welcoming Carol back from hospital.

The feast was followed by the presentation of gift bags for every child which were handed out by Kakande who took on the Father Christmas role. Unfortunately we didn`t have a Santa suit to dress on him but that wouldn`t really have been understood here anyhow. The gifts bags and their fillings were donated mainly by the small team that came from Harvest church last month to whom we are all very grateful!

In the days that followed the party Christine, Kakande and I went delivering gifts to the children who were not able to come......we were rewarded with some very happy smiles!

Hopefully I will get into town once more before Christmas to update this again but if not then I wish you all a very very happy Christmas and a wonderful 2013 :)
Will leave you with a pic of some of Hope Family and Special Needs enjoying time in the pool.....hope you like Jonnie`s green pants!

Visitors and amazing progress on the house

Hi everyone,
It has been a while since I last wrote but I am in Entebbe for the day after dropping friends at the airport so I am once again making the most of the amazingly fast internet and trying not to be too jealous of the peeps who live in places where they don`t have to struggle for hours with rubbish signals!
Last month (November) I had the Barrett`s (John and Liz) who I stay with in England to visit. Half way through the month 3 other guys from Harvest church joined them: Art, Ben and John number 2.

They all worked amazingly hard along with members of the New Hope Construction team. Dear Liz was slaving away at the sewing machine for hours making curtains for my new bedroom and sofa covers. The lads were constructing my kitchen which included concrete worktops. They also managed to tile the bathroom which, according to my compound worker James now looks like "heaven".

They also had time to spend with the children and staff, experiencing new foods and cultural experiences!
They enjoyed an evening with David family who fed them posho and beans (supplemented with a chocolate cake made by a very grateful Auntie Kate!)

Life also continued with my class and dear children at home including Mary, Jonnie and not so lickle Thomas Dendy (pictured below). They have been having a whale of a time in the paddling pool which Becca brought out when she returned to Kiwoko for a two week visit.....we can`t wait until she comes back next September for a year :)

School finished last Tuesday and we had a lovely party with the parents who gave testimonies of how their children had progressed since joining the class; this was a great encouragement to all of us staff!

We will be partying again this week on Wednesday with all our community children and families. Thanks to the team from Harvest church we have some lovely christmas gift bags to hand out to each of the children....there are going to be some smiley faces to photograph!

Please keep Carol (right) in your prayers this week as she is hopefully going to have surgery this week as there is a surgeon and an anaesthetist here from the UK. She needs a gastrostomy (feeding tube) fitted.

And please also pray for precious Mary (left) who I have been fostering part time......it looks like she may now not come to me full time as her Uncle may now be able to have her back sooner than expected. Please pray that she knows that she is loved and protected wherever she goes and that those involved in making decisions about her future will have wisdom and discernment.

I will leave you with a few pics of how the house is now looking and a classic shot of our dear Kakande.

Hopefully I`ll get a chance (and signal) to write again before Christmas but in the mean time I hope you all enjoy the fun and preparations.......