Feb 4, 2021
Of course, the big news at 2Roads is the wedding coming up in just 9 days! Amos, our Uganda 2Roads Director, will be marrying Tyra, our social worker and Missions director on Feb13th!! I will repost the picture of Amos proposing to Tyra last year at the source of the Nile. I hope next month to share some wedding photos!
I mentioned, last month, that the lockdown of Uganda has had a huge impact on our children and their families in Kabale. We are hearing now that school for everyone may start up in May. We are hopeful that will happen, but now that seems a long time away. Because we don’t want our children to fall any farther behind and because we want to stimulate their hearts and minds, we are starting a tutoring program. We have hired teachers who are from the schools our children used to attend and we will begin having primary classes in the morning and secondary classes in the afternoon at the Junction. This has started this week!
We have purchased the books we talked about last month to give our children additional educational opportunities.
Let me introduce you to Christine!
Christine has been sponsored in the past, but she lost her sponsor. We never drop a child once they are with us even if a sponsor is no longer able to help. So, we need someone to join us and sponsor her!
If you don’t sponsor or maybe know someone who would be interested in sponsoring please check out the website for all the children currently needing sponsorship. Sponsor a Child | Only 2 Roads
A quick review of 2020
We are still looking forward to a great year! But let me share just a few highlights from last year that Amos shared in his annual report. I have condensed it for this newsletter.
Sponsorship Program:
At the beginning of 2020, we moved the children to the best primary and secondary schools in Kabale. We believe that these schools can help bring out the best in our kids. The schools selected were Solberg College (Highschool) and Brainstorm for secondary and New Foundation, Child Africa and Winner’s Junior School for our 3 primary schools.
Sponsorship policy.
We developed a scholarship policy for Two roads that encompasses what is important to the ministry, what we stand for and the expectations we had from students, parents, our 2Roads staff and our sponsors. The policy was then transcribed to the local language which is Rukiga so our parents could read or at least hear it read and understand it.
Scholarship policy
We also developed the university student’s scholarship policy. This will help us as we move forward and have more students reaching college level. These organizational policies give us a firm foundation on which we can build.
Mentoring & Discipleship Program
At the beginning of 2020, we were very enthusiastic about what the future held for us. With the hiring of very qualified new staff, aligning the programs, having a plan for moving forward… then the pandemic happened.
Throughout this time, we kept praying for God’s guidance on how we could reach our kids and the parents. God moved us to do some home visits to encourage our children and have deeper conversations with them. When the lockdown was eased the government of Uganda permitted meetings of not more than 10 people while observing the standard operating procedures issued by the ministry of health. We invited our kids in small groups of 8 according to their classes. This concept of small groups has proven to be the most effective for Bible study! Kids have felt freer to ask questions and connected on a personal level. Throughout 2020, we held more than 100 small group sessions for Bible study and devotions. We went through the book of Colossians; Proverbs and we taught the 7 Habits of highly effective people by Steven Covey for our Senior 5 to university students. We hope to continue with the small group concept.
Accounting
Julie has been doing a good job in her role as our accountant this year. An annual audit was done in July and August to present audited books of accounts to the National NGO forum for consideration to renew our certificate of operation in Uganda.
New Hires
We hired a new cook named Enock Nuwamanya. He lives with his wife and together they have 4 beautiful children. Enock has a vast experience cooking for institutions of learning; among them includes Solberg College. He is punctual and exceptionally clean.
We hired a new Mentor named Conrad Mutesasira. He loves the Lord and is a passionate preacher. Conrad derives his passion for the kids from his own experience as a street kid. We are excited to see how God will use him for his glory this year.
Men’s Fellowship
We began a Men’s fellowship group with only a few men and it is a week-to-week battle, but we believe God wants to change these men’s hearts!
Food Relief Program
When the Covid19 pandemic hit the world, many of our communities lost their daily income and so did our programs beneficiaries. They were at a risk of starvation and when the government of Uganda made an appeal to donate food, we answered the call! We have donated 19,000 pounds of maize flour and 12,000 pounds of beans and several other items to our beneficiaries over the period of three months. More than 150 families were fed.
Even as we have made strides in the programs mentioned above, there is so much that still needs to be done! We are trusting the Lord for his direction this year.
Thank you for your support,
Greg & Donna