Shepherd's Love

I have not written for awhile because Rick and I have not been able to go to Uganda since Christmas of 2017 due to Rick's health. Not sure when we will be able to go, but hoping..... Fifteen of our kids are now going to Secondary School, and two of them have opted for trade school - and we are really happy about that. Too many people in Uganda spend a lot of time and money getting a college education and never find a job. Trade school is a good alternative, and they real...ly need skilled tradesmen and women desperately. Some of the kids have had health issues but all are healthy right now. Five of the children lost their sponsors to death in the last two years, and we need sponsors for those five kids. Please contact me if you feel God is urging you to help. Please keep Rick in your prayers for the cancer and heart issues to be healed. Sadly, we also lost one of our board members to an untimely death this year. Frank was not just a board member, but a long time good friend also. We miss him very much.

We now have 17 kids in secondary school ($600.00 per year in school fees), one headed to college ($1200.00 per year). The government of Uganda continues to add stifling "regulations," making it more and more difficult to care for these kids. Fortunately, we have a very savvy Director who deals with all these things in ways a non citizen of Uganda would be unable to do. Thank you, Isaac! In spite of all this, the kids continue to thrive. There is not a lot of "news" to sh...are, which is actually a good thing. Education is our main need for donations at this time. The buildings are paid for. We have a huge rainwater storage tank, solar power, a well, computers, playground equipment and many things most orphanages there do not have. The orphanage is now 11 years old, however, and will probably start needing additional maintenance. Hopefully, now that Rick's health is fairly stable, we will be able to make one more trip and get some up to date photos and information this year. I look forward to sending those out and keeping you all up to date. I will also keep the web site as up to date as possible with not being able to go there as often. We still are praying fervently for someone to step forward and take on this project from us. If you are interested, please contact us to learn more about what it entails. We have already made the decision to not take any more kids in, so we are looking at needing to keep going for about 10 more years at least to get our youngest through high school. If you or anyone you know is interested in taking the baton from us, please let us know asap. Love to all, April

We are leaving tonight for what may be our final trip to Uganda. Stay tuned for pictures and reflections.

I have not posted for quite some time. Not a lot of "new" news. We now have 8 children in secondary school (the equivalent of high-school in the U.S.) and right now everyone is healthy. Shekam survived his brain tumor surgery and is recovering well. Samuel is recovered from hernia surgery. The Emergency Medical Fund could always use a boost, and we need second sponsors for about 15 of the 41 kids. It costs about $100.00 per month to provide the kids with everything they... need and we ask sponsors to send $50.00 per month. So we need two sponsors for each child, or a sponsor can send the whole $100.00 which actually quite a few are doing. And we are so incredibly thankful for all sponsors. Without them we couldn't do this. The fireworks booth is happening again this year, even though Rick is still recovering from chemo and radiation and is facing surgery right after July 4th, and Joe was laid off his job of 15 years and is actively job seeking right now. So we REALLY need help this year. If you live locally to the Sacramento area and can help with any number of hours during the week of the fireworks booth (28 June through 04 July, 9am to 10pm) please let us know right away. Rev. David's dear wife, Constance, passed away in March. He came here to visit us for 3 weeks in May for some R&R and to reconnect with old friends. Please keep him in your prayers for grief. I'll try to be better about posting. :-)