This is my second time to Uganda and I have now been here for 6 weeks working with Revelation Life. From a young age I have had a burning passion to live with the poor and to be part of transforming their lives. Each week we have been going into different slums, teaching health care to parents, treating sick children at mobile medical units and bonding with families showing them Gods love. I have met so many beautiful children in the slums and just through loving them and spending quality time with them I have built some amazing relationships.

In the past 6 weeks God has really changed my heart and shown me some incredible things through encounters with him. One of the main things God has been speaking to me about is trusting in him in every situation that I come across. I can see how we are all protected by his immense love and power wherever we go and that we are surrounded by his angels. Two weeks ago Revelation Life started working into Banda slum which was so exciting for all of us!! As we walked through the slum as a team to do our first street club with the children there I really felt the protection of God surrounding us. I felt all we needed to do was trust in him and believe that his authority and love was with us as we started this new path of our journey. Proverbs 3 verse 5-6 says:

‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you and he will direct your paths’

Three days ago I went to the land that is owned by Revelation Life, where plans are currently being made to build a children’s village. We will be moving children from slum life with poor living conditions to a place they can call home, which is safe. When I got to the land and stood on the top of the hill looking over the most breathtaking view … I was just blown away. Not only by what God had provided but I could also picture the beautiful children I have met living here. Knowing where they live currently and what they go through each day to survive and then to picture them living here was incredible. They will live where I was standing, where Gods peace was so evident, where there was freedom.

Being out here, working in depths of poverty, with children who have nothing, who run to us with hope, who trust us and who just need to embrace the love of Jesus Christ has really changed my life. And to think that the key to all of this is just to TRUST in God and to LOVE the beautiful children here -To be a part of transforming their lives.
Love Natasha

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Last Wednesday we ran a mobile medical unit in our biggest slum of Kinawataka.

It was the first time we had taken a Ugandan doctor who works at our local clinic with us into Kinawataka.

We had a slow start with some challenges getting all our team and all our equipment there and then through the slum to the site where our mobile medical unit was to be placed.

We saw around 40 children that day and gave free consultations to all and free medication to those who needed it.

We were thankful we had been that day as we met 2 children who had serious conditions who we’ve since seen for follow up care. One was a 3 month old baby boy Moses with severe malaria – not uncommon in Kinawataka whose name translates as smelly waters and it most definitely lives up to its name. It is an area of land next to the railroad tracks which has no clean running water but has plenty of dirty sewagelike water running through the passages between the houses.

Another was a lovely little 3 year old girl, Shakira who hadn’t been able to sleep for 4 days and whose condition was something we hadn’t realised was possible. Initially we thought was a severe abscess on her lower bottom but on closer examination the next day at Wellspring clinic we discovered that it was not an abscess. But that the “abscess” was actually the little girl’s intestine showing outside her body! All caused by a bacterial infection.

After several hours at our clinic and an antibiotic drip, with her intestine safely back inside her body we were able to take Shakira and her mamma back home and we’ve seen her since running and playing with the other children.

Moses the young baby with malaria has since been admitted to Malago, the government hospital with associated anaemia and dehydration but has been making a good recovery after nurses were able to insert an IV to deliver fluids.

Praise God that we were able to meet these children, love on them and help them to heal. Some days our love looks practical, meeting sick children and treating them. Other days our love is a kind word and hugs and kisses, neither is more valuable than the other but each is just as important.

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Well its been a long time since I have written a blog and it has been a while since we last posted.
 Nicola, the children and I have been back in the UK. Nicola was speaking at Epidemic Life and did amazing  (I am her husband so I get to say that!) whilst James, Chantelle and I spent time in London with Family. I came back to get some rest and to see a Tropical medicine specialist in London. As many of you will know I was very sick for almost 3 months. We are still not sure what it was that I had but I am doing well now just having to rebuild my strength. Thank you to all who prayed for me and the family, it was a difficult time but we have come through it knowing Gods protection and covering, even more resolved that Uganda is where we are called to be and that He is in control!

We got stuck in the UK because of the Ash Cloud, this was frustrating to begin with but turned out to be a blessing as we had some extra time as a whole family to rest some more without a Schedule!  We were considering however a route back to Uganda if the cloud continued, we had ideas of driving, Jonathan volunteered to be security and navigator or maybe we could have hitched a lift on a Navy ship to Mombassa! However we got out a week later using good old BA.

Whilst we were away our team did an amazing job of keeping things running, the even began our programme of Primary Health Care Training. 
Our very own Timothy is leading this ministry and is doing a great job.

We are moving our offices down to be in the Wellspring compound. We have done this as we are growing as a team all the time and also to strengthen our relationship with Wellspring.
We are so grateful to wellspring as they have made so much of what we do possible. So as the say in Uganda “Wellspring thank you for all that you have done! Wabale Nyo”

We have finally raised enough money to buy our car. This will be such a blessing to ministry, making our mobile medical Unit so much easier to do and will release the team to reach more children more of the time.

Thank you to all who have suppoted us in that.

And Finally :

Exciting News Nalongo has given birth to a beautiful baby girl. The birth went well and she is back home with her family. Nicola has been given the honour of naming the baby!
This is her seventh child and we are believing her last!! As a family they are making such good progress and Revelation lifes sponsorship programme is making it possible for 3 of the children
to go to school. We are all very proud of them.

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The week before I left for Uganda, I was lying in my bed really chewed up at the fact that I was going to be leaving my family, my home and everything that was familiar to me. As I lay praying, I really felt God say that I shouldn’t worry: he had a new family for me to be a part of for the next 6 months that he had prepared already; that I didn’t need to worry about leaving my home because he had prepared a bedroom for me in Uganda and had blessed it for me already. I felt at such peace that God had ‘gone before me’. Its coming up to two months since I have been here, and God has been so faithful to that promise!

A few weeks ago, I was able to visit the land Revelation Life have purchased, on which they are going to build a children’s village. On the car journey, I really felt God said that, just as he had done for me before coming to Uganda, God has prepared a room, an individual bed, a family and a home for many of those kids living in the slums whose childhood has been robbed from them. As I stood at the top of the hill and looked over the beautiful and fertile landscape, I felt like God was giving me an opportunity to claim that promise for the kids and the families living in the slums too: that God has ‘gone before them’ and that he has ‘prepared a new family, bedroom and new blessings’ for them also. Seeing the potential that God has provided ‘Revelation Life’ with gives me so much excitement for the future! Within minutes of stepping onto the land I kept thinking: ‘WOW, how amazing is this!!!’ I couldn’t help smiling at the thought that right now, they have no idea how their lives are going to be totally transformed, how many more blessings God has got in store for them, and how God’s dreams for their lives are bigger than anything they can even imagine right now! I was so amazed at the tangible presence of God in that place. It was so evident that God is already working there, preparing the way to bring dreams into reality. I left just so overwhelmed with excitement for what God is going to do and just how much he is going to transform the lives of so many orphans and widows!

Lisa

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Many parents are completely unable to afford any form of treatment and can do nothing but worry. It was amazing to watch them receive a proper diagnosis from a doctor and for their worry to be changed to peace. In the last 3 weeks in Kasubi, we have given 6 toilets, a couple washing areas, hundreds of shoes, and medical care. Slowly we are building trust in the slums and bringing hope and the amazing love of Jesus into the darkness that has been there!

Amy

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You what is exciting about Revelation Life is not only have we changed lives of numerous children by giving out food, clothes, medical care and school sponsorship. We are starting to build and leave a mark on the Land.

Yesterday was the official opening of our first block of Toilets into a slum. It was for Kasubi Slum and the whole community looked so different from when we first walked around over 6 months ago! For many this was the first time they had received something so big. I thought all in all the gift of Toilets were bring Dignity into that place, and the place just changed and looked different. They may be Toilets for you but for them its was Hope.

I’ve been given the Task to get the Project of Land moving so we can start building on it this year. Honestly i couldn’t be doing something more exciting, it brings back all the satisfaction of working in Construction.To start building the Foundations for something i know is going to be there for the rest of my life! Its a real honour to sow into this and i can see the vision growing of Revelation Life’s heart when I’m walking on the land. The land is already bursting with life with many mango and avocado trees.

WIth the toilets being handed over to the community and into the future our land becoming something bigger. The saying ” Build it and they will come” keeps running through my mind when ever i see them. We are building a place where Psalm 68 is a truth that everything we do is coming from a heart of serving the Orphan and Widow but Im prophesying that the Land that we are going to build our Children’s Village on will become not just a atmosphere but a Territory of Hope that spreads over the hills of Uganda that God is a Father is everyone.

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I’ve been here for about 6 weeks now and I’ve met loads of beautiful kids and been a part of their stories. Some of these have been dramatic medical stories, children so sick or malnourished they should have died but have lived. Others are less dramatic but none the less important.

Every weekday morning we try spend 2 hours in one of our slum areas spending one-on-one time with the kids, giving them love and cuddles and getting to know the families personally. It’s lovely to spend time just holding the children, sitting with them, talking to them and loving them.

God has really speaking to me about the importance of love being central to everything we do. We are seeing children that a few weeks ago would run away and hide behind their mamma’s skirts now running towards us. One lovely 4 year old girl called Tracy has really captured my heart, we met her and her mamma a few weeks back when Tracy was sick with an unexplained fever and a swollen face. She’s a quiet little girl and we hadn’t seen her before so we were checking on her regularly after her visit to the clinic.

This week we’ve seen dramatic changes in her, from running AWAY when she sees us coming she now runs TO us and this tuesday for the first time she came with us to street club which is a half mile walk from her house. As we sat on the ground she hugged into my chest and despite the noise and commotion she fell asleep in my arms. Now when we see her she races to us and loves to be hugged and cuddled and knows that she’s safe and loved.

It’s amazing to see the transformation in the lives of these little ones as we love on them and introduce them to the perfect love of the Father.

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Monday I went into the slums for the first time, but it wasn’t until my second experience on Tuesday that the reality of what I was seeing really hit home. On the Tuesday we spent about an hour or so of the afternoon in Kakajjo playing with a group of kids I was meeting for the first time.

Among them was a kid called Fig, whose story I had heard before I arrived. As soon as he saw us a smile beamed across his face and he was full of energy and loved interacting and playing with us. It was an absolute joy to be able to hug him and talk to him and play with some balloons with him!!! He was absolutely adorable!!!! Another child I met that day stood on the outside of the group we were in and didn’t say a word the whole time. When I reached out my hand to him he responded but his face was gaunt and expressionless. I tried for the whole hour to see if I could get him to smile or see if he wanted to play with the balloons too, but he just stood at the side and observed what was going on. Even trying to find out his name was impossible, this gorgeous little boy about 4/5 years old didn’t wouldn’t say a word. For me, the stark contrast between the two kid’s natures just demonstrated to me what God’s love can do!!

It was so exciting to see how God’s love and affection that the revelation life team have shown to Fig over the last few months have impacted his life. I long for so much, that the other child I met, and others like him, can experience that too!!! That evening I went home feeling overwhelmed by what I witnessed and just in awe of how simple it is- God’s love and compassion is the answer. As I cry over the injustice that I’ve seen, it’s a small reflection of how God feels about it. As I long for the kids to experience the transformation of God’s love, God LONGS to be able to show more of his love to them; he longs to take away their fears and pain, and longs to give them a hope and future. I am SOOOOOO excited to be such a tiny tiny part of what God is doing in these Uganda slums and can’t WAIT to see how his love transforms lives over the next few months. My prayer is that that little boy I met yesterday would over time know the love of God and be completely transformed by his presence, just like Fig!!!

Lisa xxx

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SCHOOL!!

Hello friends!  Greetings from the team at Revelation Life, A recap from the last two weeks we have had:  we are launching a sponsership programme soon so in the last two week registered the children in a school called Sena, on the out skirts of kasubi slum.

It’s a good school, and we are glad that six of the children on our sponsership programme have today, the 1st of February 2010, begun school. Early this morning we fasted our morning nap as we were hitting the road at 7 am to take them into school and have them fully registered to begin their lessons. I guess to the children also the exitement about school kept them awake early morning as I guess it is every one’s exitement to begin a new thing.

It has been so exiting to see them all come to school with enthusiasm.  To watch them get all dressed up in their uniforms has been exciting for the children and the team at Revelation Life.

Thank you so much for supporting the work at Revelation Life.  Your endeavours are highly appreciated. God bless you lots as we look forward for more support from you and partnering with us to change lives and cast a wave of hope in the slums.

On the list we had

Aida and Viola, (twins).

Brenda

Harriet,

Ian

Maureen.

They are all exited to be in school for the first time and it seems nothing matters to them than the exitment there is right now.

Please pray for their teachers that they may have the patience to handle them and cope with their apparent unawareness and their endless cries to see mummy.

It has been after further consulations that we chose Sena School because we moved about looking and comparing with other schools. This became our choice and as a team with you our friends we believe to see lots of changes in the lives of these children.

W e are there fore looking forward to the terms end and looking also much forward to being able to send more children to school which will be so exiting and to us.   Changing a life means alot to us. That is why we have endeavored to persue this task to change a child change a community and change a generation.

As one man said, some people refuse to do any thing because they can not do every thing, light a candle because they cannot light up the whole world.

So that is why revelation life keeps going with hope and firm confidence that we can do all things through Christ who gives us the strength. Phillipians 4:13.

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We made a schedule; we were carrying it out, but then we got a phone call. An orphaned baby had been brought to the clinic by a neighbor. He was being raised by his 14-year old sister who was unable to give him the care he desperately needed.  When we reached the clinic we found him gasping for air.  But he was severly anemic, his blood unable to carry oxygen to his body.  His hands, lips, and tongue had no color.  His limbs failed, panicking and desperate for relief.  We were told to rush to the hospital for a blood transfusion, the doctors on both sides not sure we’d make the journey on time. We held him in our arms desperate but unable to soothe the dying baby. We declared that he would not die but live and tried not to think about the reality of what was happening.

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