We have such great expectations for 2020!! January has certainly started off in amazing ways. We have had a mission team come, new staff starting and we are changing schools!
First, we have two new staff members who have started working in Uganda as of Jan. 1st!! Let me first introduce Julie who will be working as our accountant. She will be working closely with Rosette who will be focusing more on the procurement requirements. Rosette will also be taking the role of leading our Ladies fellowship which has really grown. Juliet is a committed Christian and has done social work as well. We will have her share more in our next newsletter.
Our Second new employee is Derick Kato. He is coming as our Program director and we are so excited to have him joining our team! See his introduction below in his own words.
Hello there,
Praise Jesus. My name is Derick Kato. I am not so good a writer but please allow me share my story with you.
I am Derick married to Ruth Mwebaza and God has blessed us with two beautiful boys to raise in his likeness and their names are Jayden and Jason. I grew up in a family of five siblings. I was raised in a Christian family but didn’t consider myself a Christian. I got to really know and walk with Christ 15 years ago, and I would say 100% my sister was the biggest influence and who God used to catch my attention from my love for football as a teenager. She always prayed for me and with me, at times she forced me to just sit with her and be quiet, read the bible with her and through all of this God clearly spoke to me to follow him. My favorite scripture was and is ”Psalm 34:8” that says, “Taste and see that the Lord is good” and yes I made a decision to taste Him. I tasted God through reading his word and following what he said to me and without a shadow of a doubt I saw my life change and more and more enjoyed reading His word. After my primary school I went to Jinja for 5 years for high school at a Christian founded school and there I really got time to read the God’s word and be mentored by our chaplan Dean. From high school I have walked, fallen and been picked up by God through love and grace. I always asked God what His calling was for my life and He always led me to serve teenagers. Since I joined college the Lord led me to use my talent of playing football and other sports like rowing to draw teenagers to Him. In 2015 I started training young boys and girls of 12-18 years in the sport of rowing. In 2017, God lead me to serve at the Amazima school up to 2019 as a football coach and a family mentor. In 2019 my wife and I started praying about joining the 2 Roads family. This wasn’t an easy season for us because we had so many questions. It meant me being away from my family. But God kept reminding us what life is and to us life is going all out and putting all that we treasure secondary and Him first, its loving people and sharing Him to the highest degree. It hasn’t been an easy one so far, I have missed my wife and kids, I have felt called like never before in my life and I have fallen sick with a bacterial infection. But God has really been strength and healer through it all.
Anyway, I am now currently serving as a programs Director at 2 Roads. It’s been a somewhat tough change on my body, I have been cold some days and showered the coldest water I want to think in the whole of Uganda ahahaha, to falling sick of bacterial infection just a few weeks into the role. But I have been in awe of what God is and will continue doing in on this side of his family. He daily breaks my heart of how Big yet good He is. I daily wake up excited to go and see what He has for the day for me to Praise Him and yes, I have seen that to many of us simple things such as new shoes or a new shirt wouldn’t excite us but seeing the kids and parents super excited about school fees and school requirements reminds me to always count my blessings daily. I really Bless the Lord so much for this opportunity of being His hands and feet.
Allow me to end this by asking you to continue to pray for:
- My family, that God will continue to keep them safe and provide for them.
- My aunt who has been in hospital because of a blood clot below his lungs which she got in an accident last year.
- My role here, pray for wisdom and understanding in my position.
- God’s word to go forth before us and change lives and bring transformation in the families we serve and every one He puts before us.
Thank you for partnering with 2 Roads to be a blessing in so many lives here. May God bless you.
-Derick
We are so blessed with all our great staff here! God has truly brought exactly the people we need to continue reaching toward our vision of “glorify Him through transformed lives”! Speaking of bringing people…let me share about our January team. We started the year with a 6 member team who left Oklahoma on January 1st and spent the next 2 weeks in Kabale working with our staff and children. That’s our team in the picture on the left (minus Donna & Greg) Everyone on this trip has been with us before and so they all hit the ground running!! They all have hearts to serve and did an amazing job! Leading in music, playing with the children, teaching, and really sharing God’s love! They left Greg behind in Uganda and returned to the states January 16th. We were able to also do a little ministry with the Batwa People as we explore what God would have us do there. One of the most rewarding things was taking some of our Two Roads children with us to visit the Batwa and be apart of ministering with them. There is a picture below of some of the Two Roads children (and some of our Staff) dancing during our visit. It is so amazing to see how our children are so touched to see that there are people who are even more needy than they are!
We are right in the middle of the back to school “crunch” paying school fees, getting supplies, and this time moving to new schools! I will elaborate on this a little more in the next newsletter, but we have decided that we need to move our children to better schools and to consolidate into fewer schools. Almost all of our children are headed to a new school next week! They start Feb.3rd. At one time we had children in 30+ schools. This new term we will be using 3 primary schools and 3 secondary schools! The primary schools are located in three different areas of Kabale and students for the most part will attend the school closest to their home.
To achieve our vision of “Glorifying God through transformed lives” we are really beginning to make some hard decisions to keep our Two Roads children close to home so they can (and must!) be apart of our Junction days. These junction days are when we really seek to do intentional discipleship. First coming to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, secondly through commiting their lives to Christ and then beginning the process of walking daily with Him.
An IMPORTANT announcement,
In order to get reasonable ticket prices and reserve our seats we will need you to pay your full airfare by March 1 if you plan to join us on a trip this summer, either in July or September. Please contact us for full details.
We appreciate everyone who is giving to make this work possible by His grace!
Greg & Donna
