Thank You

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Hello to all my Friends, Family and Sponsors,
This year of 2016 has been very full with many visitors and events. It seems to have really gone by fast. On February fifth we started the construction of Amaani Rwenzori with a colorful bricklaying celebration. Now it is completed and the grand opening has been held last Friday, It was an amazing day and I am thanking God for what He continues to do for our program and the kids of the area. I will be sending more pictures of the center when it is active and students are being trained. The organizing and work of Theo of Welthungerhilfe and his staff have been huge and I feel that we have the most unique training facility in the area with the very first ceramics training in Western Uganda.

The Manna Rescue Home is doing well and the kids have been really enjoying their band instruments and they have been hired to play at many year end functions. This is a huge boost to their self esteem. They will all go to be with their extended families for Christmas and New Year. My social worker visits these families teaching them that AIDs is something that they have to live with but that they can be healthy and face a good future as long as they adhere to their medication and have proper nutrition.

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I am looking forward to 2017 with anticipation of many more visitors and many students finishing studies or training and moving forward with successful and fulfilling lives. It is always so rewarding to hear from graduates of the program and learn about what they are now doing. One of my first students from 1996 is now a surgeon with a master’s degree working at a large hospital in Kampala. He and his sweet wife Nadiia have two beautiful girls and now a baby boy has been added. I have so so many kids who I am proud of. Early in my life when I found that I would never have children the Lord showed me Isaiah 54:

“Sing, O barren one, who did not bear;
break forth into singing and cry aloud,
you who have not been in labor!
For the children of the desolate one will be more
than the children of her who is married,” says the Lord.”

That promise has been richly fulfilled.

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I am also seeing God answering my prayers for help in running this program. This year I have been helped with much office work by Jessica Dupree, and a family from the US, Daryn and Brooke West and their four children, just arrived to work alongside me and see how they can best fit and help with this active program!

Along with the new and exciting vocational training program, Amaani Rwenzori, our ongoing program of  (YES) Youth Encouragement Services is very demanding.  It is rewarding yet hard work keeping everything running smoothly. Even as I type this my friend and helper Jessica is at the Manna Rescue Home teaching the head matron how to enter her accounts on a computer instead of doing everything by hand. We also have close to 280 kids in over 65 schools around the area. They range from primary to secondary to different vocations. If anyone ever feels led to sponsor any child of any age the need is there and huge. I can not express enough gratitude towards so many of you who continue to remember these kids with prayers and financial help. Today I just received notice of a generous donation that has enabled us to buy food packages for many of our desperate families for Christmas as well as the ongoing needs of this program. I praise God for all of you!
My dream of a vocation school is coming true and my biggest wish beyond the ongoing program is a scholarship program for students who finish Secondary School well but have no possible way to go to University.
Let me wish all of you a blessed Christmas season or a happy holiday season as we head into 2017.

With much love and gratitude to all of you,

Carol