When He calls me, I will answer...

Time flies when you are having fun.  This holiday from school has been one of the busiest that I can remember.  But I am grateful to embrace each moment and what it brings.  From crusades to chameleons, here is a recap of what has been happening the past month at Lulwanda.


(Sorry for the formatting.  It was not cooperating with me)

Jesus Love's Children Ministry

The LCH children and I were blessed to be a part of Jesus Love's Children Ministry's first Crusade.

The vision behind this ministry is to teach children about the love of Jesus and how salvation is a free gift given to us by our Father in Heaven.   Hosting nearly 400 children everyday, God showed up in a wonderful way as groups of child performers from 12 different churches came with their friends.  Unlike most crusades that are held, JLCM's crusade allowed children to lead praise and worship songs, testimonies, translating language, and prayers.  Each morning hour children were taught on the theme, ''Children are gifts from God'' and every crusade was closed with the gospel presentation of Jesus' love for the world.                      



            

 While the performers were organizing, hundreds of children gathered around the Mzungus to hear their funny accent.  But they also learned songs and motions to Jesus Loves Me This I Know. 

And at first they did not know what to think about the giant parachutes that were brought out but they quickly became a hit.



                               

Children praying for one another.

Perfect love comes from the Father through Jesus Christ, our Savior!

If you would like to know more about Jesus Love's Children Ministry or to help financially support one of the future crusades, please contact me for more information.

 
 
St. Kizito's Babies Home

As holiday approaches, children begin asking me daily, ''Teacha, when are be going to St. Kizito's?''   Usually I take three groups each holiday to visit their little 'brothers and sisters'.  The LCH children love to
play with the babies as well as help feed and bathe them.  I always encourage them that whatever friend they made at St. Kizito is now their baby to pray for because there might not be anyone else praying for them.  It is such a joy seeing my kids serving the Lord and loving these little ones. 

The Lulwanda children are very grateful to East Lake Fellowship in Burnet, Texas who graciously offered to sponsor this holiday’s visits to St. Kizito.  Thank you so much!

SWIMMING

And one of the highlights of the holiday for many of the children was a special outing planned as an appreciation and motivation for all the LCH performers and singers.  If you have ever visited 


LCH, you know that we have some very talented children who love to give glory for what God has done in their lives through songs, skits, and dances.  As you can imagine, their polished performances take many hours of learning and practice.  Therefore, the performers and singers were blessed with an outing to Mt. Elgon Hotel for a day of swimming and fun.  Shouts of joy and excitement never ceased as the children jumped in and splashed around the cool water.  Children played and swam until exhausted and then walked to Tr. Natalie’s house to eat lunch and enjoy a movie.  Praise God for such talented children (and leader) who work hard to be a voice of gratitude for the whole family of Lulwanda Children’s Home. 

During free time children could be found playing hopscotch.

The Good Neighbor Program

Lulwanda is blessed to be a blessing to 110 children that live in Bulolelo village.  Thanks to our friends at MDPC, every term LCH children are able to invite their TGN friends to come for a day of fellowship and fun.

Sharing porridge together for breakfast

S2 boys catching up after some time apart

This TGN day was extra special because all LCH and TGN children received gifts thanks to Operation Christmas Child.  

It was fun for me to have been part of filling a box in the States, wondering where it might end up.  And now to be in Uganda on the receiving end and seeing the sheer joy and excitement as children received a gift in May, for no great reason other than the love of Jesus.  (I know these gifts are meant for Christmas- hints the name- but the reality is that they are not delivered until about April, so it makes them fun gifts 'just because'.)

Children playing with their friends on the playground

Showing off their goodies.

BEST PERFORMERS TOUR

The students of LPS and Nursery school who were the best in class for various topics were rewarded with an outing.  Children excitedly entered the new coaster and headed off to the next town beyond Lulwanda- Tororo.  After passing through a million potholes, our first stop was to see our furry friends up close and personal.  

Passing (or throwing- depending on how brave they were) bananas out the window, our bus became quite popular with the baboons.

Look Auntie, we're in Kenya!  That's right.  Lulwanda Children's Home is only 45 minutes (if the road is in good condition) from the Malaba boarder to Kenya.  Children were excited to be able to go home and tell people that today they went to Kenya.  They were also interested in the differences that were noticeable even at the boarder, such as license plates, police uniforms, road conditions, money, and language.

Here we are crossing over 'no man's land'- the river/bridge dividing Uganda and Kenya

Of course everyday activities also happened while children were on holiday.  Here Davis, Betty, and Ivan are helping the Aunties to wash dishes.

We always enjoy the holidays because our secondary students come back from school.


As I mentioned at the beginning,

Our holiday has been wonderfully blessed, from crusades to chameleons and everything in between.  

The boys found this little guy moving casually across the field in the front lawn.  Trapping it under something one boy came running to my office to get me. 'Teacha we caught a chameleon.  And it is BIG.  And mean.''

Not really thinking they knew what a chameleon was, I went outside to see what they had.  Sure enough, there it was.  Unfortunately, the boys had been throwing stones near it so it was quite frightened and making hissing noises.

I told them to wait while I found something to keep it in.  But this was definitely against their advice.  ''Teacha, you are going to touch it?!?! Its tongue is long and it will slap you with poison and bite you.''  Someone had obviously been telling them some untrue stories :)

Having commented on how yellow it had turned, I suggested that we put it somewhere else with another color to see if it would change.  Sure enough, it did.  The children were all really excited to watch its colors change before their eyes.

Later, we freed it in the garden of Pastor David where it hopefully is roaming free without any other encounters of little boys who throw stones.