On Monday the Home Again students that attend boarding school in Fort Portal loaded up their belongings into the Bringing Hope van and headed back to school. The students were required to report back to school on Monday as the term begins on Tuesday.

Excitement was in the air as the students filled the van and headed off for a new term. Murda, bringing Hope to the Family’s driver, was a trooper as he played bus driver all day.

The local primary and secondary schools will begin in a few days, so soon all of the Home Again children will be back in school, and ready for everything the term will have for them!

We recently painted a 4 square court on the back of the new basketball court. On Thursday, we taught the kids at Home Again how to play (no bobbles!).  The kids loved it and have been playing ever since, and wanted to share the fun with you. Think you have what it takes to make it to the king’s square?

Today we wrapped up week 9 of our second leadership class. We will be finishing this class in the next 3 weeks. We’ve lost a few students from when we began the term, but for those who are still remaining they are really enjoying the content and seem to be getting a lot out of it. Having the opportunity to share and invest in others is a great privilege and we are enjoying the chance to share.

A quick update: the ceiling in the lower house of Home Again is completely finished and painted now. We want to thank everyone who donated toward this project and all of our volunteers that helped install it. You all are awesome.

With our volunteer teams back home now and with just less than a month until we take a trip to the US, we are busy trying to ger our ongoing projects wrapped up. Now, just so you know, work here will continue while we are in the states, as GSM will be left in the very capable hands of MOses, our fellow GSM employee here in Kaihura.

We began painting the ceiling that we installed in the lower house of Home Again today. We had several willing helpers with the painting, which is always nice. We even had one helper from Austrailia, Barbara, who has been volunteering with our Australian friends here in Kaihura for a few weeks now. This holiday break has been a wonderful learning experience for several of the boys at Home Again. As seen in other posts, these boys were instrumental in the installation of the ceiling. Now they are getting an opportunity to hone their painting skills.

I also added a couple of photos of the kitchen/bathroom addition at Home Again. Progress is still moving right along on this project.

On Friday, Village Art held its official grand opening! There was certainly a lot going on, and a lot worth celebrating. Thankfully, through Know.Think.Act., Village Art has it’s own generator, so when the power went out, it did not slow down the festivities even a little. Between the pedicures, hair weavings, sodas, PA system, and dancing, there was definitely a lot of excitement in the air.

This project means so much more than just creating a salon, a craft shop, and a bridal boutique. This income-generating project is not only designed to provide jobs to several women in the community, but it also helps sustain Bringing Hope to the Family. It is actually bringing hope to everyone involved. No one here thought shops like these were possible in a village setting, and the success of Village Art is expanding and reshaping the minds of those around us.

We praise God for this blessing to Bringing Hope to the Family! We praise God that we can connect communities here in East Africa with people from around the globe who are investing in real change. We pray that it will be a successful business and a blessing to all who come.

Thank you to everyone who made this possible, and we can’t wait until you come and take advantage of all our services!

We, with the help of our volunteers, Village Art staff and several other helpers have been extremely busy this week trying to get the salon ready for it’s grand opening! This has truly been a team effort getting the salon and Village Art as a whole to this point. We are excited to have the salon completely set up for business.

As you can see in one of the photos, business has been steady despite the salon being a work in progress.

We will post a blog after the grand opening to let everyone know how it went. We are very excited for what’s next for this business and community!

We want to highlight three beautiful things that are progressing here in Uganda.  Last year, through the generous giving of many individuals, we were able to raise enough money to construct a house for a widow and her children in a nearby village.  Their living conditions were dreadful and we knew we had to do something.  Prior to raising all of the funds, Bringing Hope had a donation come in from a donor in Poland.  So, with that money they began the project.

After raising all of the funds, we ended up with an overage, which is never a bad thing. This past September, we met another woman who was in dire need of help.  With the extra money raised, we have begun building her a house as well! Through it all we have been able to assist 2 families with a new house.  James 1:27 is this, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and windows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” We are humbled and honored to partner with people around the globe who are willing to put this verse into action, to care for the orphans and widows and to love well. Praise God for all that is being accomplished!

As to the third item, I want to update everyone on the progress of the bathroom/kitchen addition at Home Again.  They are currently putting on the roof!  Work has been moving along very quickly with this project.

We are thrilled to be a part of the great work that is happening here and grateful for each of you who are living out your faith and changing the world.

Our latest team has been with us for nearly a week now. This team is made up of volunteers who have been here before. This place – and what God is up to here – has a way of getting in volunteers and bringing them back again and again.

The main focus of this team’s trip is completing the setup of Village Art’s salon. Over the last couple of days the team has been training the staff on how to give pedicures and manicures as well as massages. Also, today the team helped paint the ceiling in the salon and plant shrubs around the street sign.

We have a lot of work planned for next week, so more updates will be coming.