Warm Greetings to our friends...
 
We have to admit to you that we feel a bit guilty sometimes at being so privileged to see the smile on the faces of the beautiful people here...or to have someone shake our hand and thank us...or when someone shares with us how One City Ministries has changed their lives. We wish we could share every single minute of that with all of you...every smile, every handshake, every tear of joy.
 
We are continually blessed by you who  are walking alongside us and allowing us this amazing life in Africa to 'be the difference' and see lives saved and changed.
We hope these letters give you at least enough of the story to encourage you that you are making a difference!
 
With love from Uganda,
Mike and deb






  
 
It's planting season throughout Uganda; simply, this is the time that will allow the people to eat or starve during the harvest season. As we drive from village to village, we see women with babies tied to their backs, some men, and lots of children, some quite young, out in the fields with their hoes and machetes...all the farming tools they have.

Last seasons crops were not so good, and now the food has run out, and their harvest is gone leaving many nothing to sell.
 
One of our challenges has been creating a healthy economic environment and practical training to empower our people with marketable skills. And believe us when we say, Manafwa sub-county has a lot of skill!
 

We will be laden with beautiful, brilliant African art and handcrafts made by these very special people when we arrive in Tampa in just a couple of months. And there are plenty of stories to go along with them.
 

We have interviewed hundreds of the local villagers...heard their stories, listened for their passion to be empowered to change their lives, and drew out some magnificent artistic abilities. You will be amazed at the results!


The artists have been paid for their product and are learning to be a good steward of their earnings. The profits from this project will all go back into their village funding the medical clinic, the women's clinic, an artisan workshop and vocational school...and as many other projects as we are able to fund.
 
If you want some beautiful, affordable and fun original African art and products, without traveling 9000 miles to buy it, we promise to make it easy for you to indulge...at the same time assisting people in Manafwa to stand on their own two feet! 
 


 
Six months ago, if you were one of the 10,000 villagers residing in Sibanga or Nangalwe and you came down with malaria, or any other illness, your options were not so great for health care.
 
A structure made from sun-dried bricks, a mud floor and dreary, gray crumbling walls greeted the patients that were able to make their way to the clinic. There were no beds; people brought their own grass mats. Nurse Irene's stock of medicine and supplies was less than most all of us have in our home medicine cabinets.
 
 Thanks to so many of you, this little clinic now has beds equipped with IV poles and mosquito nets; much needed medications and medical supplies have been stocked. Lives are being saved. And equally important, the people are learning ways to prevent malaria and other preventable diseases that have been killing them needlessly.
 

What a joy it is to walk into that clinic when we visit the area and see folks being taken care of; to have the opportunity to pray with the concerned mothers, to hold a sick baby.
 
The walls are painted, the floor is concrete, and MOST exciting is the construction of a latrine being built on our next trip there next week! Imagine being so ill and not having a latrine to use.
 
There is still much to be done in this village. We believe a women's clinic is a project that is desperately needed. There is not a place for expectant mothers to go for any kind of prenatal care...there is not a sanitary place to go to deliver a baby. I don't know about all of you, but I was a pretty big baby when it came to labor and delivery. Walking 10 or 15 miles while in labor seems an impossible task. Sometimes the pastor is able to give expectant moms in labor a ride over the crater covered dirt roads on his motorcycle. Imagine being in labor and bumping along the roads here.

 


For now, though, join us in giving yourselves a big round of applause for all you've accomplished in Manafwa. We are so grateful...and so are the people here who feel your love and support in tangible ways. 












 
Cleaning and making villages safe and healthy has been a huge focus for us in the months we've been in Uganda. Training the villagers about safe water, good hygiene, proper nutrition, disease prevention and basic first-aid is part of the holistic approach to saving lives.
 
We have been privileged to be invited into so many areas to train the residents. In Manafwa, we graduated 42 Emergency Responders after over 100 hours of training. The last week of April, we graduated a class of 27 'Train the Trainers'...those who are now ready to go out and train up other villages in basic healthcare and disease prevention.
 
There have been many amazing testimonies from this class already.
 
Meet Mukhwana Joshua. He is in senior 5 in Mbale Town. He has gone through the training with his parents, both pastors of a church in Mbale Town. A week or so after he had completed his training, a fellow student was injured with a compound fracture of the femur while playing futbol during school. Just as improper, life threatening measures were about to be taken by school officials, Joshu took control of the scene and applied his newly acquired first aid principals, possibly saving the boys' leg and probably his life. School officials were so impressed, they let him move to the hospital with the injured friend AND paid his transport home. A very big deal in Uganda! He has become the official medical responder at his school.
 
This is just one of  many stories shared that we were thrilled to hear about. So far we have received word of three precious lives being saved and many more helped as a direct result of our responders quick actions. We continue to monitor the grads and have consistent refresher courses and advanced training. Providing all of them with proper backpacks filled with first aid supplies is something we're still trying to work out.
 
 




Thanks for spending a few minutes with us catching up. We have more to share than we possibly can via email. Check out our website or blog...and if you're a fan of facebook, you can join us there too!

 
www.OneCityMinistries.org
www.OneCity-Jambo.com
 
Looking forward to seeing you in July.