It's been a while since I sat down to write a blog again, a year to be exact. A year that has flown by in so many ways. A year of joy, happiness, testimonies, and success stories, but also a year of loss, heartache, struggles, and unknowns. With every situation and circumstance that the Lord has brought me through, I continue to praise Him for the work he is doing here. I have seen people healed and people killed. I have seen progress and set backs. I have seen good and evil first hand. But, God. God has never failed me, he has never failed this ministry, he has never failed these boys, and most importantly He won't start now!
As always, I have so many stories and so many things to share, especially after being silent for some time on this platform. I hope to start sending monthly newsletters and at least quarterly blog posts with more detailed updates. Time tends to escape me, but I'm going to set reminders and try to do better! There's always so many God stories, every single day!
When I first came to Uganda, I went to a sweet friend's house for dinner with her and her family. One of the things that she told me was that every day they go around the table and say how they saw God that day. From that day forward, I adopted that practice. I like to call it my "God wink". In doing this, even on the most stressful of days, the days I come home saying "Uganda got me", I am forced to stop and look for God's goodness that day. I've never had a day pass where I can't see something amazing God has done here. As we enter a new year one thing that continues to be laid on my heart is that God has done amazing things here, he is doing amazing things here, and he won't stop doing amazing things here as long as I walk in obedience to HIM.
Let's start with a few big events that happened in 2023.
January/Feb- We were able to send 32 new students to boarding school. This was a huge task and a huge celebration for so many! Boarding schools here literally only provide a bed frame. Students are tasked with bringing everything else from basic school supplies for 3 months, a mattress, bedsheets, mosquito nets, bathing soap, laundry soap, toothpaste, shoe polish, vasoline, cleaning products, reams of paper, brooms, mops, and more. We pack their metallic cases full and load them up to drop them off. All of our students performed very well this year, improving each term! We had some even in 1st and 2nd position in their class by end of year. We had 9 finish vocational training and go for their end of program internships, where they are able to stay and have their first job earning money. We also welcomed in 40 new boys to the project. 40 more boys who now have access to the word of God weekly! Praise the Lord for that!
March/April- These months held some of the highest highs and lowest lows for us. 2 of our boys graduated their year long bible college! These are boys who are also house managers for the project house. They disciple and lead so well and we are so thankful for them! Ivan was in the English course and Abraham took the Luganda course. They both learned so much and were able to finally graduate a course, complete with caps, gowns, and a whole ceremony. They were both gifted study bibles and cherish them so much! We held a pastors training conference around the same time of graduation and had 120 pastors in attendance. We were able to teach them truth that some of them had never heard before. With so much mixed theology and false teaching here, we have been blessed to train many pastors throughout the 3 years I've been here. In April we participated in International Day of the Street Child, here in Jinja. This is where all of the street connected children and organizations come together to have a parade, assembly, and food together, while also providing medical care, HIV testing, and games for the children. This is always a huge event and a large task to take on, but it's so fruitful and such a blessing to be a part of. This year we witnessed many of our older boys helping to set things up, organize the function, control chaos, take drugs from other children, and help to serve their fellow brothers and sisters. It's always an honor to watch how much they've changed, only by the grace of God! April also brought one of the hardest events of my time here. One of my boys, who had been with me since the beginning, was shot and killed by police. Unfortunately the police here are very brutal to the street children and their first course of action for a guilty person is either shooting or beating to death. While he was doing something he shouldn't have been doing, he never deserved to die. Ashlaf was only 19 years old. He was a humble kid and was trying to change but kept hanging around bad peer groups and falling into temptation. He made a very poor decision that night that lead to his death. When I found out the next morning, myself and one of my partners went searching for where he was taken. We were told he lived for about 2 hours while in the emergency department, but they didn't work on him because no one was there to pay, so he died. Unfortunately healthcare is like that here. If you can't pay, you don't even get the slightest care, even at the government hospitals that are supposed to be free. All I kept thinking was, in that 2 hours of suffering did he confess his sins, repent, and ask Jesus to save him? I won't know this side of heaven, but that bothered me so much for a few weeks. Was he suffering alone? Or did Jesus take his pain away? There were many more horrible things that revolved around Ashlaf's death and burial that I won't go into detail about. But it was things I never thought I'd have to do, or see, or experience. It was really hard honestly. I had vivid dreams for a couple of weeks, no one understood what I witnessed, and it was hard to talk about. But God knew and he let me cry out to him, and he used it all for his glory. We were able to talk to the other boys about what happened and why it happened. We were able to use Ashlaf's story as a warning for them. We had several boys come to Christ in the following weeks, and still to this day they are different young men! We praise God for that!
May/June-In May I had an intern with me for several weeks, to show her what long term missions looks like. We stayed busy all day, every day, while she was here, but I think she realized it's much different than a short term team trip. We had to order, pack, and prepare for second term of school, and I was super thankful for the help this time! We also had 5 boys graduate from a faith based business course! They spent a couple of months, every day, learning how to run a small business, save money, how to treat their customers and so much more, with one of the local youth pastors I know here. He began the course with a trauma training session to help the boys realize what traumas and unforgiveness they were still holding on to. All of the boys said it helped them so much and they were able to forgive their parents or people who had made them come to the street. After they graduated we were able to start their small businesses. All but one are doing very well still. It's amazing to see the change and growth in them, and the hope that that they now have in Jesus! We also had a boy that was seriously beaten and ended up with 3 skull fractures and a pretty large brain bleed. We spent several days in the hospital before he came to the project to continue recovering. I'm thankful for the medical wisdom and background the Lord has given me, for just a time as this.
July/August- In July we went for second term visitation for our school boys and they all had been performing very well. Everyone's grades had improved and we got such great reports from the teachers and directors. We had a team here who spent 2 days on one of the islands in Lake Victoria evangelizing, and a day with the street kids in our project doing bible study and worship together. It was one of the shortest team trips we've had here so we crammed everything in just 4 days and sent them home as tired as they were from jet lag. In August I went back to America for about a month. It was the longest I had been gone from here, but my partners did such an amazing job maintaining the organization and only had a few issues we had to solve when I got back. I'm so, so, blessed to have such an amazing group of leaders working with me! I have 4 Ugandan partners and 4 boys who are in leadership roles at the project. I couldn't do any of this without God and them! My time in America was honestly hard. At that time I had been here about 2.5 years and there was a lot of culture shock, hot/freezing cold that made me sick, I had some hard conversations, and it was just flat out busy. Uganda is a different type of busy. A slow, hurry up and wait, busy. It's not the same. I was overstimulated by lights and temperatures. I was overstimulated by choices in the grocery stores and having to pump my own over-priced fuel (not a thing here in Uganda). I did have such an amazing time with family and close friends though. But in all honesty, I felt out of place. The weird in between of that being my home country and the changes of being gone for so long that people didn't know how to interact and things were so different. I struggled being back there for that long, but my partners kept giving me encouraging reports from here and everything was handled very well! They also got all the boys picked up at the end of 2nd term and back to school again for 3rd term in that time period. It took a lot of team work, but we have a great team! Praise the Lord!
September/October-In September we started the process to upgrade from a CBO to an NGO. We have been registered as a Community Based Organization since 2021, but needed to upgrade to a Non-Governmental Organization because my current visa expires in April and I needed to get a work permit to continue staying here and working. It's a long drawn out process, but it's almost complete, Lord willing! In October one of the boys came to me with a pretty severe pain in his upper abdomen. We went for scans because he didn't seem ok. All of his scans looked fine, but he had a significant bout of Malaria. We ended up staying in the hospital for 2 days getting infusions, but the morning we were supposed to leave the Lord laid it on my heart to ask for another scan. Something just didn't seem right and I wasn't comfortable taking him home yet. This scan revealed appendicitis. The surgeon I usually use was about 6 hours away, so I called him to come. He has done surgery on 12 of our boys and they have all had amazing outcomes. I wanted my preferred doctor to perform this one as well. That week, while my boy stayed in the bed, and me and my partners alternated staying on the floor, we were able to do bible study with him, pray with him, play worship music for him, and he gave his life to Christ that week! I've never seen such a drastic change in someone so fast. He said God saved him from dying so how could he not follow God? Ibra had his surgery, we stayed a few more days, and now he's at a teen mission program sharing the word of God in the village. God is so so good to us!
November/December- In November we had another team and soon after picked up all the boys from their last term of the year! We had 2 who performed 1st in their class, 3 who performed 2nd in their class, and the rest were all within the top 15 in their class! We were so proud of all of them for trying so hard. Several of our students were also in elected class positions throughout the year, which was super rewarding for them. I was able to spend Thanksgiving with some friends from my weekly Bible study, which was super sweet and a special evening for all of us. They made some amazing dishes that reminded us all of a true American Thanksgiving spread! December was very busy for us. We always do a big Christmas event for the street kids of Jinja to feed them, give them clothes and shoes, and a day of fun and relaxing. Planning starts as soon as Thanksgiving is over, for me. Along with planning for Christmas, we also were sending 30 boys to a bible youth project for 5 weeks. At this project they do a bible boot camp for a week then they are sent out in teams to villages throughout Uganda to do evangelism, community service, and preach the word of God. So far we have heard amazing testimonies and I can't wait until they come back to hear more! God has connected us with so many amazing organizations around the area that continue to build up our boys in Christ. We are so thankful for these connections. God is good! December also brought year 39 for me (at least I don't look as old as I feel most of the time!). I never in a million years thought I would be here, in Uganda, doing what I'm doing, but I also can't imagine being anywhere else. December also brought a separation from our funding church, but God has already opened so many doors for the way forward. I know he's not done here. I keep having a vision of pruning and after this season of stripping and changing, I can't wait to see the beautiful things he brings to us as we continue to walk in obedience. God is good to us. We praise HIM! We ended the month with such a sweet weekend of Christmas celebrations with the boys. We got to take the house leaders out for a special dinner, had a Christmas party with all of our boys, I had Christmas eve/morning with my sweet friends from bible study, and 2 of the boys came over for Christmas spaghetti, ice cream, cake, and soda on Christmas night. It was one of the best Christmas seasons I've had in a while. Such a sweet time of reflection and togetherness. We also welcomed in 30 new boys to the project and I can't wait to see the Lord change them like he has so many others!
So, what's to come for Experience Hope?
We began this New Year with the same vision and mission the Lord has continued to give us. To continue to show these boys the love of Christ through bible study, church, discipleship, mentorship, education, medical care, and housing. God continues to grow us and provide for us in ways we could never imagine and we know he won't stop now. In this new season of change I'm now more focused on fundraising and reaching out. I got really comfortable with the funding we were getting, and God helped me to see that when everything happened in December. He helped me to see that I depended on that monthly deposit more than I depended on him to provide it, but if I turn my eyes back to him for financial help, he will provide an abundance more. I admit that fault, and repent of that, and I now see clearly the way forward. Fundraising is hard for me! I love telling everyone what God is doing here, but I hate asking for money to support it. But is that really fair? I read the book, "The God Ask" a few years ago, and I recently pulled it out again in light of the current situation. One thing that the author, Steve, said is "I stopped thinking of it as the 'Steve Ask' and started thinking of it as the 'God Ask'" He goes on to share that our responsibility as missionaries is to simply be faithful and ask. The responsibility of accruing the funds is up to God. My calling and all things he provides me with belong to God. My job in raising support is to ask God for provision and trust that where He guides he will provide. And after talking to God, my job is to ask others to join in what God is doing, trusting that God will guide the way. It takes the pressure off of me in a way because when I trust God to provide, he will not only provide the funds but also the people who send them.
So, I'm asking you, as we step into 2024, will you partner with us as God continues to work in the lives of so many street children? Will you pray with us that they hear the good news, that they feel the love of Jesus and that God provides for us all along the way? Will you pray about giving so that we can continue to provide a safe place for them to come, proper medical and dental care and surgeries, nutritious food, housing, schooling, and basic needs such as clothing, shoes, and hygiene items? You can reach out to me thens1213@gmail.com for any further questions you may have. The ways to donate are listed on the side of this blog.
Prayer requests:
-Health and safety for my boys and my partners and their families
-Wisdom in the way forward as I seek to join a missionary sending organization, not only to provide a tax deductible link for donating, but more importantly for member care for me as a missionary.
-Wisdom in who to reach out to and how we can bring more people on board with this beautiful journey God has me on
-Housing for myself as I need to leave the current place in Feb
-Overall provision
Katonda Mulungi (God is good)
Blessings
Tara
Isaiah 1:17 (CSB) “Learn to do what is good. Pursue justice. Correct the oppressor. Defend the rights of the fatherless. Plead the widow’s cause.”
