Ugandan Jesus Village

November update, Meet Sam, Sylvia, Ronald, Alice and Emily

2008-12-07T22:41:00.000-08:00

The third and fourth homes are ready for trusses, windows, and doors. The power is hooked up and working. Praise the Lord!

This is Sam and Sylvia. They guard the guest house and are expecting their second child.

A close up of Patrick.

I'd like to introduce Ronald. He is a 15 minute walk from UJV. Alice is saying hello.

Emily was part of the team that birthed Lighthouse Primary School. She is currently working in another school, just outside of Jinja.

An update on construction and Meet Uncle Memory

2008-11-08T18:35:00.000-08:00

Work continues on the land. UJV is harvesting crops and building homes. Currently two homes have been completed and two more have been mapped out.

Meanwhile, back in Kampala, construction continues at Lighthouse Primary School.

The almost completed washrooms are connected to this sewer system.

Happy children with new desks!

We want you to meet Memory Tomusange. The children call him Uncle Memory. He is choir director, discipleship coordinator and father to the orphans. Memory was developing his musical talents but put his own agenda aside to become involved with the orphans of UJV. He answered God's call and became part of the team that received the children when they were initially rescued from the IDP camps. He cleaned them when they threw up or soiled and wet the beds, he broke up fights, comforted crying children in the night when they awoke screaming, counseled and loved these children into spiritual and emotional health.

Two and a half years later, Memory reports on the choir's current activities.
The UJV choir has now multiplied and given birth to 4 choirs and each choir consists of 16 children. God is challenging us to raise leaders and this is going to give every child an opportunity and their leader/trainers to rise up and bring out their gifting for the work of God which will involve discipleship. The Music & Discipleship Department has an office. Glory be to God. So Uncle Memory is running the Department and working as the Music Director for all the four choirs but each choir has a leader/trainer. Uncle Memory is also working with a specific choir of 16 children. We feel like God wants us to multiply and raise leaders. All these leaders have potential and they are given freedom to come up with their own goals and strategies for their choirs.God is taking UJV choir to another level. Please remember to pray with us and continue to pray for God's strength and passion for this mighty work.

Memory with Jennifer, Lydia and Maria on the way to the September crusade in Gulu.

Sunday Oketa preaching to his companions who are still in the IDP camp.

Happy children back in Kampala.

Finally, these stinky fish are a real treat to Ugandans and a little challenging for most foreigners.

Building, singing and preaching

2008-09-28T10:03:00.000-07:00

A visiting team of almost 100 members arrives in Uganda. They spent time in Gulu and Kampala. Here they are visiting the land and checking out the amazing progress of the building.
One roof ...

two roofs ...
and now we are working on the walls!
From the land we take a trip to Lighthouse Primary School where we are adding on two more classrooms. We want to be able to conduct classes for P1 - P7 classes (Grades one to seven) Preschool and kindergarten students are educated at another location.
These are the bathrooms ...
Here is the inside of the classrooms that are being built.
Here are the children and staff in Awe Camp Meeting Hall.
Meet Sunday preaching to the crowds.
The choir in their new costumes are singing and preaching. Two years ago they were digging for food together, but this day the children were imparting hope.

The trip started with adventure. Upon arriving in Gulu, the hotel did not have their reservation and were full. The staff scrambled to find some place to stay and were pleasantly and quickly accommodated! The second day of the trip, the children visited the IDP camp and reconnected with family and friends. The missions team joined them soon after and UJV students actively participated in the crusade. Below are some of their stories.

We took 12 of the UJV children and 5 UJV staff to Gulu for a crusade and a visit to their families after 2 years. Here are some of the testimonies of their trip.
➢ Sunday visited his uncle who is dying of AIDS. He shared his testimony with his uncle and he surrendered his life to Jesus. He also prayed for his healing.
➢ Sunday was preaching to the children in his old camp and many accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
➢ Concy has been continually praying for the salvation of her relatives while she has been living at the UJV. When she reached the camp and visited with them she discovered that they all had become saved.
➢ Alice (15 year old UJV girl), when she was reunited with her best friend (13 year old girl) in the camp, Alice was sad to discover that her friend was pregnant and not married. Alice felt bad for her friend.
➢ When returning from the camp, Alice made a comment in the van that her heart’s desire is to come back to Gulu to start the same work that Mama Suzanne started with them.
➢ Janet’s (15 year old UJV girl) best friend got married while she was away.
➢ The children were sharing the gospel in the camps in one of the homes. One of the families said that “these UJV children are the next generation to give them hope in their bad situations.” Sunday replied just to trust in God.
➢ 2 years ago these children were desolated and without any hope. Here they were standing on the stage of the crusade in front of thousands of their own tribe. At first the crowd didn’t know they were from their tribe, but when Sunday shared his testimony, the crowd broke out in excitement, realizing he is one of them. Even a greater testimony is that we never recited with them what to say. Sunday stood there and shared out of his heart, with the prodding of the Holy Spirit, the revelation of who God is for him personally. I didn’t know how he did this, but he would preach 2 minutes in Acholi (his own dialect) and then 2 minutes in English throughout his entire speech. They gave hope to Gulu through their testimonies.

Building, Building, Building

2008-08-25T22:57:00.000-07:00

You may remember pictures of the Land that was purchased earlier in the year. Children were out planting and now there is a road and almost two completed homes.
The field in front of the hill has been planted with maize, beans, cassava, potatoes, banana and sugar cane. UJV has already harvested some of the maize. Children and staff have been enjoying the fruits of their labour
As you can see, construction on two homes is underway. In fact, these photo's are three weeks old and one of the buildings now has a roof on it.
I was particularly blessed by the way UJV is blessing their neighbours. This man owns the well but it took him around 97 hand over hand pulls to bring up one bucket of water. Luke helped him out by buying this equipment and it now only takes him 19 turns to bring up the water.
You also saw pictures of the school being constructed. Lighthouse Primary school is located in Kampala behind Streams of Life Church. Here are the first five classrooms finished. The children began their second term here in May. Presently, two more classrooms are being built and a resource/administrative building will soon be added. The school is opening up to the community and to date have 5 children enrolled. We want to empower UJV to love their school, their community, their city, their country and then the world.

In anticipation of the Freshfire mission team arriving, the UJV choir (see Freshfire web site to obtain a copy of their CD) is presenting in their new costumes!
God is so good. Memory (choir director) and Maria (international volunteer) have been heading up the discipleship and sports programs. It is exciting to hear of the children sharing their testimonies, and beginning to preach in a variety of local venues. The children are hungry to hear the voice of the Lord and recently several have begun speaking in tongues.
There is a break in the school term and 12 students are leaving soon to meet the Freshfire Missions team in Gulu. They will participate in the crusade and then the team and the children will come back down to spend time at the UJV and the Kampala area.
If you are interested in volunteering at the UJV in Kampala, don't hesitate to contact Jennifer at Ugandajv@live.com. Bless you!

Reaching out

2008-04-21T14:09:00.000-07:00

A Stop at the Equator on our way to Masaka

One of the homes we visited

Alice Sharing a word

Simon Preaching at Church

Praying with the Sunday school kids

Church building

Story time in the room they have school

Teaching the children scriptures

Playing games with the kids

Memory teaching the kids a new song

This past weekend a group of 12 people loaded into a van and headed to a village near Masaka. About 100 km west of Kampala, Streams of Life Church has planted its first church plant back in January. The team was made up of members of Streams of Life Church, UJV staff, volunteers and 6 children. We came together with the goal of going and encouraging the new church. It was an excellent opportunity to work with Streams of Life Church and give opportunity for the children to preach and pray for people. We arrived Saturday afternoon and were able to spend our time ministering to about 80 children who attend their Sunday school program. We had a great time reading them stories, singing, playing football, teaching scriptures and praying with them. That evening we went and visited the different homes of those in the congregation. Entering into small round huts and being received so well as we prayed for the families and encouraged them. The team was blessed with 3 chickens, Matoke, sweet bananas, plates, cups and baskets. It is very humbling to receive such gifts from people who have so little. They were so grateful and so hospitable. We were able to gather clothes, and bring school books to bless the church with. I was so touched when the kids at the UJV came with their bag of clothes and toys to give to the people in the village that have so much less than them. Many of the kids in the village cannot not go to school because they cannot afford school fees, and the ones that can the level of education in this area is not the best of quality. You can find kids even in secondary school that hardly know how to read. The church has been given a piece of land to use until they can afford to buy land of their own. On this land is a small house where the Pastor stays in one room and in the other room they have begun a school for younger aged children. They have up to 60 kids that come and squeeze into the small dirt floored room to meet for school. The church itself consists of stick poles, and tarps for a roof. I remember commenting to another volunteer from the United States saying I have never seen a church like this in North America!

Sunday morning our team led the service and all the UJV kids took a turn sharing scriptures and a word. I was amazed to see them all sharing from the bible and preaching to the church. Keep in mind that less than two years ago these same kids were still in the IPD camps up north. They could speak very little english and certainly could not read or write it. With no parents or money for school fees they really didn’t have any hope for the future. But now, less than two years later they are reading, writing, and understanding the bible, so much so that they can share it with others. Wow! God has brought them so far in so little time. Now instead of being the ones in desperate need, they are going and ministering to people who have greater needs than them. Isn’t that how the gospel is suppose to be? I realized the real need for this church when almost ¾ of them put up their hands to respond to the question “who does not have a bible?” We are so blessed at UJV to begin to reach out and bless others as we continue to be blessed.

Just over two weeks ago the UJV received quite a shock. The morning staff came in to find that the office had been broken into. Three UJV laptops were stolen and money from the cashier’s drawer. Unfortunately it is believed that the ones who have taken from us were on staff with UJV. Certainly a disappointing turn of events, no one expected such a thing. We are praying that everything will be recovered! One of the greatest losses has been the amount of information and work that was on the laptops that were stolen. God is our redeemer and we are trusting in Him!

This week the children are doing exams at school. At the end of the week they will be off school for a four week holiday. During the holiday time we are able to offer the children different programs depending on where we feel they would benefit most. The children seem to be growing up so fast and we really feel it is time to begin to educate the older children on their bodies and the changes they are experiencing. Yes the UJV is going to be full of teenagers before we know it! We will also be helping some of the kids who need extra help in school. It isn’t all work on the holidays, there will be time for sports and choir events. As well as taking the kids to the new land to plant and dig. Speaking of digging we are proud to announce that the first seeds of corn were planted this past weekend on the new land! We are moving forward!!

Thank-you Team Abbotsford!!

2008-04-14T04:02:00.000-07:00

Team Abbotsford!

Freda with the Kids

Painting with the Kids

The Drama Team

Team handing out Easter Cards to the Children

Team Looking at the School Construction

Mzungu Tribe Presenting at Cultural Celebration

Drumming at the Cultural Celebration

Aggie and The Bride

The Team at the Wedding Reception

Blessing the wedding couple

Clearing the Land... getting ready to plant

We miss you Kathy!

I want to start this blog by thanking Aggie and the team from Abbotsford for coming out and blessing the UJV for 2 weeks. It was like Christmas when they arrived bringing so many things to bless the UJV. The team of 8 were joined by our newest volunteer Maria from Boston and they were very effective in ministering to the kids. They did a one week camp with the children including painting, choir, bible teaching and soccer. It was so beautiful to have a team come over and love on these kids and pour into them. I know they have planted seeds in these kids that God is going to use and grow in powerful ways. The team also really blessed the mamas by having times of fellowship with them and blessing them with gifts from Canada. I think the greatest things was all the time the team invested into everyone here. I know that each one that came took a piece of UJV home with them. The Jones boys were also really happy to spend time with the team as they knew them all from Sunday school back in Canada. I thank God that He sends us such amazing people to help with the work here at the UJV. The team was very blessed to be able to experience some unique events, getting a taste of the African culture. They were invited to an African wedding, it was certainly a day of celebration, fun and feasting. They also were blessed to be able to participate in something called Cultural Sunday at Streams of Life church. This is where every tribe comes in their traditional tribal costumes and presents song and dance from their tribe. We were asked to come as the Mzungu (white person) Tribe. We were well represented at 17 of us took the stage and sang a prayer for God to come and heal their land.

We have been amazingly blessed to be able to send several of our staff and volunteers to a place called Mto Moyoni recently. www.mto-moyoni.org This is a retreat center on the Nile where many of us have received deep ministry in our hearts. This has all been made possible through jewelry sales back home. Our mamas, and staff and volunteers have gone and taken time to hear God’s voice and really allow the Lord to transform us. It is so exciting to see how much God is changing hearts so we can better do what He has called us to do. We desire the children to be fully healed and walking in their destinies, and we know in order for that to happen we need our staff healed up so they can pour into the children.

God has begun to pour out at Streams of Life church in a powerful way. Last Wednesday we came to meet for our regular Wednesday night service and God began to stir a greater hunger in the people to seek His face. So Pastor Gerald announced that we were come back again the next night to seek God’s face. This has turned into coming every night since just to be in the presence of the Lord and seek His face. The older children have been joining the meetings and I can see a hunger in them for more of the Lord. We are not sure where these meetings are going, but we continue to seek His face and long to see the King of Glory come in.

We took our first group of kids out to the land to begin to clear the land and get it ready to plant. The van was loaded up with as many kids as we could fit in to go and start work on the land. They were able to clear about 1 acre of the land and plan to plant maize (corn) later this week. The reports from the kids about the land were all good reports. They were so full of excitement to go and see what I am calling the Promise Land. They can’t wait to be able to move out to the land and be able live there.

School is in full swing even in cramped quarters. The school construction continues to move forward and we are believing that after the May school break the kids will be in the new building in June. Maria has just begun working with our head teacher getting ready to open in the new building and train up the new administration. A big thanks goes out to Kathy Reich who was here working on the school and has once again returned to Canada.

In two weeks time we are taking the older children to a Father’s Heart weekend with the people that run Mto Moyoni. We would really appreciate your prayers for all the children going, that they would be open to receive the love of the Father.

Maybe it is time to update our blog!!

2008-02-27T02:13:00.000-08:00

STC AFRICA!

The New Land

School Construction

Farewell to Will, Ann, Abby and Lilly

The Boys Singing Goodbye to The Neale Family

The Teachers

There is so much going on at the UJV since the New Year has started! This is our excuse for not updating the blog. But we are realizing how important it is to keep people informed as to what is going on at the UJV. We appreciate your support and prayers so much! We apologize for the delay in blogging! Amy Toyota has agreed to take on doing updates on the blog at this time. So let’s catch up shall we!

Henry and Erica Schmidt from the Supernatural Training Center (STC) in Canada came to Kampala for 1 month early in the year to do the first STC Africa. In four short weeks we experienced the Holy Spirit in many different ways and many hearts and lives were changed. We really believe that God is restoring Africa and going to bring a new sound out of Africa that is going to touch the world.

It was so great to have Luke and Suzanne Jones and the boys come back from Canada. Kathy Reich and Marike Cooke, two volunteers at the UJV have also come back from a Christmas break. The local team really missed everyone who was away.

Will and Ann Neale and their two girls have been at the UJV volunteering for over a year and God called them back to the UK. It was a sad goodbye from the kids and team, they will be missed very much. We are so grateful for all they did here at the UJV. Before they left 2 of their friends Mark and Eleanor Croker came out to visit and help out for 3 weeks. We were so blessed, Mark brought some much needed computer skills and got all the UJV computers, networks, and stuff I don’t understand, straightened out. HUGE blessing!

2008 is a year of build build build for the UJV. We have acquired 35 arches of land to begin construction on to make the Uganda Jesus Village truly a village. Luke is working on plans for the development on the land and is eager to get out and start building. We have a vision of having traditional looking African style homes for the kids and mamas as well have having a church, school, medical clinic and shops. There are two hills on the land that have a beautiful view Lake Victoria and the surrounding fields. We are so excited for the kids to have a place to run and play.

Another dream we have for the land is to plant and grow food for the UJV and eventually be able to sell the produce. We believe in empowering the people here and really want to see the UJV come into a place where we will not be totally dependant of outside donations. We believe it is God’s heart for the UJV to become self sustained as a village. We are looking at many different areas to be able to develop self sustaining businesses with the Mamas and staff at the UJV. Then donations can be used for developing things other projects like the medical clinic, building more homes, and rescuing more kids.

We are excited to have our first new volunteer of 2008 come out. Maria Deardorff is from Boston and will be joining us for 6 months at the UJV starting in the middle of March. We also can’t wait for the team of 8 from Abbotsford to come and work with the kids and mamas for two weeks in the middle of March. Aggie Flam and her team from Global Harvest have watched God’s hand move to provide for them to come! I know God is going to bless the UJV and the team during their time here.

We began building a new school just before Christmas, it is still under construction and if funds continue to come in we hope to have it finished and up and running by the end of April. Eventually the goal is to open the school up to the community children. This will aid is making the school self sustaining as well as a great way to reach the community with God’s love and bring a good educational level to these children.

We are believing God for all the needs here at the UJV. We are in the process of finding a local accountant to add to the team. We really want to come along side the African people to empower them. In doing so we need people to come to help train up the locals in many areas, such as office and computer skills, school administration, health, environmental care, self sustaining businesses, just to name a few.

Please continue to pray for us and tell your friends to check out our blog! We will do our best to keep it updated with the happenings around the UJV. There is so much to tell you! Thanks for all your love, prayers and support. We really do need it!

Back in Africa

2008-01-30T14:15:00.001-08:00

We have safely safely arrived with our family in Kampala, Uganda after a 5 week visit to Canada. We had an amazing time connecting with friends and family.

Last night was the first normal night of sleep for us as the jet lag has been gross! I have finally unpacked all 17 suitcases and so there are piles everywhere. They had a gathering yesterday at 4 pm and it was really sweet as they all sang and danced for us. There was a change amongst the kids, Concy lead worship, Christopher said the opening prayer and Sunday was the MC. Will and Ann are getting ready to leave in a month. Pr. Robert overloaded the UJV truck and it broke so we are all down to 1 vehicle, it's so funny! I have yet to laugh, but I will have to fulfill my new years resolution of walking once a day. We had Henry and Erica over for dinner last night. that as a nice visit although the boys were a bit cranky. It was their first day back to school and Aaron really misses Blake. David's friend Jonathan did David's school work when he was gone- such a sweet boy! Of course Josh doesn't want to go to school!
Well, we have great memories of the greatest Christmas ever and you were a big part of that. Thank you for your encouragement and support. Although Aaron has already starting to ask to go back to Canada. Luke is off to the land and will spend the day there praying and planning with God.Well we pray you will get more joy, comfort, healing, and the great adventures God has for you this year will continue.

Much Love,
Suzanne

Christmas at the UJV

2007-12-25T11:59:00.000-08:00

What an amazing Christmas day. Full of singing, dancing, gifts and of course feasting! Every child woke up this morning to find a gift in their bed, a new stuffed animal. They also all received a new outfit for Christmas. After a breakfast of omelets they got all dressed up in their new clothes and headed off to church. In Africa they really know how to celebrate! Singing, dancing and shouting all for the King of the Universe who came down to be with us! Happy Birthday Jesus! After church there were so many smiling kids as they ate the Christmas feast. The mama’s worked so hard preparing chicken, matoke, irish potatoes, and rice. The children’s bellies were very happy and satisfied. We took pictures of all the kids in their new clothes. Some of the boys even learned how to tie the new ties they received. After our feast it was time for more singing and dancing! Another surprise for the kids, 14 flags in many colors were sewn for them to wave to the Lord. It was great to see how excited they were to praise with the flags, the Mama's really loved them too! At our local church Streams of Life there was an afternoon concert and the UJV was invited to perform. They sang two songs and even got the flags out to add to the celebration. The day finished off with a poi demonstration (fire spinning), a movie and Christmas baking for all to enjoy. Wow, what a wonderful day. Praise God for Christmas in Africa! Thanks to everyone who helped make this day so great for the kids! - love Amy

Home for the holidays

2007-12-17T14:32:00.000-08:00

We are home for the holidays. We left Africa last Wednesday and have arrived Thursday night in Abbotsford, BC, Canada.

The boys are enjoying seeing their Grandparents and we are enjoying seeing everyone again.

Feel free to keep in contact with us while we are in Canada. Amy Toyota, bless her, will be the lady in charge of the volunteers and our contact person in Uganda. Pastor Robert is overseeing the project.

We wish you all a wonderful Christmas season with family and friends and look forward to what God is going to do in the New Year.

We love all of you and thank you for your prayers!

2007-12-13T12:00:00.000-08:00

2007-12-13T11:53:00.000-08:00

We are doing a new thing

2007-12-13T11:20:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone!

We thought it would be neat to set up a blog so that people could e-mail Luke and Suzanne and you would receive up to date information from them on a regular basis that is more on a personal note. If you would like to leave any messages for the Jones family or your child that you are sponsoring, feel free to do that and we will try to keep this current!