A call for partnership.

Grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. This week, my intention was to beautifully write about the beauty and awe that I saw and experienced during our trips to various places around the country; but, somehow, that got changed. As we lay in bed after prayers, I couldn't sleep, I kept thinking and talking to the Lord and asking Him many questions regarding His call upon us, what He wants us to accomplish this coming year, how He wants us to do it and where He wants us to do what and when to do it.

For starters, this year, the Lord has expanded the scope of ministry that He has called us to do. Now, we are directly or indirectly involved in ministries that touch the heart of the Lord as some of you whom we have met have heard from us. In Soroti, we started the much needed sexual purity clubs in two elementary schools and one high school. These are very needed going by the latest statistics in the country. Just last week, the new statistics released indicated that even though abortion is illegal in Uganda, each day, over 800 illegal abortion are carried out and every month, over 1500 women die from abortion related complications! And over 50% of these abortions and deaths are from teenagers. In October, the HIV/AIDS report indicated that each week,over 575 teenage girls are infected with the virus every week! And I am not surprised at these statistics, actually I feel the statistics under represent the real magnitude of teenage sex in Uganda. And one reason why all these are on the rise is because every day and every where, campaigns against HIV/AIDS centers around condoms and how to use them effectively, few, seldom talk about abstinence at all and so, kids get the notion that sex is ok, as long as you use a condom. Many organizations and all public hospitals give out free condoms, in fact they take them to schools and universities; where everyone can easily access them.
After one year of doing purity activities in our three piloting schools, the results have been encouraging; in fact,more than we expected. Participation has been high, over 400 young people have come to the Lord and are being discipled and some are happy church members serving the Savior. We have had students come out and confess they used to be devil worshipers and devil agents in the high school we are in; they accepted the Lord and are still serving Him.

Last week, I got the greatest news that all the top students in all the three schools in every class are members of the purity clubs! In the high school, the school administration recognized the impact that the purity clubs have had on their students and they actually encouraged all students to join the purity clubs! We are bracing ourselves for the coming school year!

Also, in Soroti, we reached out to a community school that half of its population are orphans and started a sponsorship program mainly targeting Ugandans to participate in sponsoring Ugandan orphans. Twelve months down the road, we only have one committed Ugandan still faithfully paying his monthly support. Three Indian shop owners and one Indian Bank manager have also been faithfully sponsoring their kids. We have 45 children in total and we have 15 of them sponsored already and 30 of them still waiting for someone to sponsor them. We opened up sponsorship from people in the States who are willing to commit to $15 per month to sponsor a child and we hope the 30 remaining kids will have someone sponsor them.

When the Lord called us to Jinja in April, we left the ministry in Soroti in the hands of two committed full-time volunteers and four other part time ones who have faithfully kept on doing the ministry without any pay, the only help we are able to render them is to allow them keep staying in our former house in Soroti together with seven other youths that the Lord brought into out care. Most of you recently contributed to help us buy furniture and other house things in Jinja so that these young people can keep and use what we had in Soroti And for that, we are very grateful!
In Jinja, the Lord called us to join Kingdom Life Training Center, under Welcome Home Ministry Africa. We are involved in training and equipping rural pastors and church leaders, most of them illiterate and poor, and yet are called and are involved in the work of the ministry. We also feel privileged that we are being mentored to take over the running and managing of the school from our aging mentors! One of the first things that happened when we joined Kingdom life was that a bigger property became available to us and our landlord (a Chinese brother); enrolled in the school!

The previous place could only house 18 students at a time and the new place can hold up to 50 students. The previous class of students that graduated in July had 16 graduates, and now the current class has over 36 students already and more students have been coming and we may have to add a new class in March! And we also love visiting, playing with and praying for the orphans at Welcome Home Orphanage. The orphanage has more than 60 adorable angels; we love these kids and there's no way you can fail to love them once you set your eyes on them!

These are all ministries that are so dear to God and we feel very excited and privileged to be hand picked by God to be involved in all these amazing ministries; reaching and touching lives, one at a time!

As we have journeyed, we have met several people who prayed for us and the ministry and more than twice, the Lord spoke through different people about the great things He's going to do through us this coming year! And why I am writing this post, is a result of prayer. As I said in the beginning, we had prayed and I couldn't sleep because there were a lot of things running in my mind and I kept asking the Lord many things, the biggest being the finances to be able to do the work. Right now, the support we get covers 20% of our monthly ministry and personal expense. We still need to raise 80% which is about $6,500 monthly support to help cover the ministry in Jinja and Soroti as well as our personal expenses! That means we need to add up new supporters. And we must mention that we have been blessed to have great supporters! Most of you already increased your monthly financial support for us and we are so thankful! As I was talking with The Lord, He told me to write a blog post and He said: "write it now!" When I checked the time, it was already past 1:30am and my wife was fast asleep when I reached out for the iPad to start typing. When she was awakened by the light from the iPad, I told her what the Lord had told me to do. I don't know why He told me to post this here, but I trust that as you read this, let Him tell you what to do, may be to share this call for partnership with someone else, may be to become a partner yourself, may be to know how to pray for us and to actually pray for us, I don't know, but He knows!
If you do feel called to partner with us financially, the way you can do that is send a check written out to Calvary Life Fellowship with a note in the envelope that tells them it's for Ruudy and Beckie, you can send it to:
Calvary Life Fellowship
Missions:UG-Ruudy & Beckie
PO Box 1161
Brea, CA 92822

Thank you, and God bless you!