2024: A Tapestry of Celebrations and New Beginnings
We kicked off the year with a visit to Uganda together with our founders’ church family which has been a great support system in our work in Uganda. Among many other things, they got to hear the story of a beneficiary of our Paradigm Shift Training who leveraged on the few resources at his disposal to support his family through animal and plant farming.
Godfrey Muhumuza (TCI’s Community Development Officer) passionately sharing the impact of Paradigm Shift Training in his life at Jerusalem School
This was followed by the unfortunate death of a beloved grandmother called Pedo Anna from Kachakatom Village in Karamoja: may her soul rest in peace. The distress of caring for her family and herself with old age in a hunger stricken environment must have been overwhelming. We continue to thank God for having sustained this family to the very date that the grandmother went to meet with the creator.
A medical examination of Pedo Anna by Gilbert Beingana
(TCI’s Operations Manager and Health Officer)
Around the same time, on the other hand, we got to celebrate with a famine survivor, our beloved Lomonyang Nachap from isolated Kamera Village, as she joined school. Her words ‘I want to go to school and I want to be a teacher!’ as we were admiring her Food Always In The Home garden previously had impressed on us what felt like wisdom from heaven not to neglect the task of educating the upcoming generation in our five partner villages in Karamoja.
You can read more of Lomonyang’s story and other education success stories here.
This ushered the way for more success stories in education like the construction of new brick classrooms in Kanara Gospel Primary School (one of our five partner Christian Schools in West Uganda).
In the mean time, our monthly food relief to Karamoja villages had been going on consistently thanks to the support of our donors. On the flip side, this region flooded after many years of drought and this destroyed crops like corn and sorghum which the villagers had been laboring to plant.
Following this tragedy, the God who diligently cares for His people, provided the much needed blankets, clothes and food to the Karamojong people through our donors. For context: the Karamojong sleep on makeshift beds made of animal skins and hides which offer little protection from the rain. The loss of body heat mainly through conduction to cold surfaces therefore exposes them to the risk of hypothermia which is a life threatening condition for starving people who lack the calories to maintain their body temperature.
August was a month of new beginnings and poignant farewells—one friend married, another departed. Gilbert Beingana, our Operations Manager and Health Officer celebrated not only the amazing work God has done through TCI in Uganda with the visiting US team but also the beginning of a new chapter in his life - marriage. Soon after that, we were informed about the death of a dear friend, Pastor Lauben, a beacon of hope in Jerusalem village. His vision was to serve God through educating and instilling Christian values in his children and village.
Your prayers and financial support have been instrumental in advancing this vision_ ensuring the school continues to thrive and providing the much needed support to Pastor Lauben’s family. Additionally, our other partner schools continue to thrive in implementing the Bible Story Telling lessons taught by Samuel Davis when the US team visited Uganda. The video below shows the students of Brainstorm School (One of our partner schools) narrating the Bible story of the raising of Lazarus:
October was a special month as we celebrated one of our founders, Sue Robb, turning 70 and looking absolutely fabulous. This was followed by the transformative Heaven Touches Earth Conference in November, where people from various parts of Africa (including our Uganda team) gathered in Kenya. Besides, we continue to witness transformation among the Karamojong back in Uganda particularly in their efforts to enhance food security; vegetable growing skills are starting to be actively passed down through generations. In November, we also celebrated Thanksgiving and our other founder, Frank Robb, who turned 80 as a good and faithful servant of God.
December has been another eventful month! We are thrilled that a wonderful group of women initiated a fund raising effort to provide a well to bring clean and convenient water to the village of Kachakatom in Karamoja. This village has had no clean water and has been unable to do any vegetable gardening and now we have hopes to get a well in for them in 2025.
Thank you so much for investing in Ugandan children and Karamojong families through your generous contributions or heartfelt prayers. We’ve also had the privilege of celebrating the achievements of our pig project beneficiaries, as well as the birthday of the chairman of our board of directors, Ubaldo Ahimbiswe.
Thank you for journeying with us this year; your support has been invaluable in growing transformed, healthy, empowered, and food-secure Ugandans who take control of their lives and the future of their next generation. May you have a joyful celebration of the One who came to: proclaim good news to the poor, bind up the broken hearted, proclaim freedom for the captives and bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning and a garment of praise instead of a Spirit of despair!
_ by Gloria Nderitu