November News

Dear Friends and Family,
As we approach Thanksgiving, we have much to be thankful for, from Caleb’s health, to our time in the States with family and opportunities to spend time with many of you. We have been blessed this past year by the outpouring of love, concern, care, and prayers on our behalf by the family of God here in the U.S. and by our community of believers in Uganda. We have rejoiced with one of our Pacific family young man who received the gift of salvation and has committed to becoming a disciple of Christ, and we thank God in advance as we proudly anticipate the graduation of 5 secondary school (high school) students in our family next month. We have also seen our Father’s hand of grace and provision in countless ways in the lives of so many of you… we remember and celebrate the works of His hand!
There is indeed a time and season for every purpose under heaven, and we have been blessed this season to have spent 2 ½ months in California and look forward to our remaining 2 months in Indiana. We continue to enjoy watching our boys get to know their grandparents, aunts, uncles, and some of our dear friends. Here in Indiana Caleb is working part time for the YMCA, Nicolas loves attending preschool 2 days a week, and Nate and Mama are reveling in their together time (a direct result of the activity of Daddy and big brother). We are very aware that the next 2 months will go by fast, and so we are preparing for our return to Uganda, by speaking at churches, with small groups, and Sunday school classes.
We are currently raising support for a solar powered water pump for New Hope’s secondary site and for the ministry to equip our family units with solar powered lighting. If you would like to help with either of those projects please contact us via email at calebandalair@hotmail.com You can also give to support us personally by going to the website at www.newhopeuganda.org and clicking the donate button on the top right hand corner. Select the appropriate giving category and write our names in the comment box.
Please pray that we would… look carefully then how we walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of our time (Ephesians 5:15&16). Giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 5:20).
The Mitchells,
Caleb, Alair, Nicolas, and Nathaniel
Ps 68:5-6

Through It All

Psalm 124:1-8

”If it had not been the LORD who was on our side,” Let Israel now say––
“If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, when men rose up against us,
Then they would have swallowed us alive, when their wrath was kindled against us;
Then the waters would have overwhelmed us, the stream would have gone over our soul;
Then the swollen waters would have gone over our soul.”
Blessed be the LORD, Who has not given us as prey to their teeth.
Our soul has escaped as a bird from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we have escaped.

Our help is in the name of the LORD, Who made heaven and earth.”
The words of the Psalmist above, make lots of meaning to us as Musana Radio as we come to the close of our second year of service. We praise God for your love and support through the prayers, encouragement, counsel, giving and the many ways in which you have been part of what God is doing here at Musana Radio.

If it had not been for the Lord, Musana would not have survived this year.
Twice last year, our station was hit by lightening and our consuls were damaged. We are so thankful to God that some of you responded and we got urgent help to replace them. What we did not realize was that the transmitter had been affected and was gradually losing power. By the time we realized this, it had dropped from 1000KW to 15%, literary only reaching that fraction of broadcast. We had to close the station. Experts took it for repair and found out that the damages were big and that we needed to replace it. This was a big blow to us and to our listeners who had become so used to their Radio that it had made them one big family of Musana. Incredibly, we were off air

for three weeks ONLY and through your very generous support the Lord provided for us and we replaced the transmitter. This was a miracle!

By the time we went off air, we had started a teaching on witchcraft which stirred a lot of issues and many people were being set free. This has been a big issue in our country and there has not been a clear voice to address this matter. Musana Radio has been a tremendous tool in addressing this and many are testifying of how they have been set free from witchcraft ever since these teachings started. The teachings have been very vital in preparing the Nation for the 49th Independence celebrations which we had on October 9th as we ushered in the year of Jubilee for our country.

For the big part of the year we have not had enough electrification. We have mostly depended on a generator and fuel to power our station. This has also been very costly.

But through it all we want to thank God for you, our esteemed supporters. Thank you very much for standing with us in our mission of “SHINE AND TRANSFORM”. Through your prayers, encouragements and financial support, we can say, Ebenezer!

We are also thankful for our listenership. Despite the circumstances of being on and off air, our listenership has continued to grow. And more so in terms of what the Lord is doing in their lives. Again and again we hear stories of how people have learnt how to work hard, invest money and start up small projects like poetry, fish farming and others. All as a result of the teachings that we do on Radio, in which we promote three main values, that is, Hard work, Integrity and Love.

To mention but a few, we cannot fail to be thankful for our team that has worked tirelessly and patiently with little pay but believing in the growth of the station. This team of young men and women, most of whom were not believers by the time we took them on, we are grateful for what the Lord is doing in each of their lives. Some have come to know the Lord from there, some have sanctified their marriages, others have got married and others are continuing to amaze the community in which they live because of the big change those who knew them before are seeing in their lives.
By Godfrey Kyazze, Head of Curriculum Development

Construction Help Needed

Praise God that we have almost completed our Standard of Living Matching Funds grant. This grant is already starting to be used to help in providing some much-deserved raises for our national staff and to do some home improvements. Unfortunately, we have had to go very slowly on the home improvements simply because we currently have a serious shortage of construction staff.

While we continue to look in-country for construction help, we could really use construction experts and handy-man types help over this next year. We have 40+ solar units to install (this reduce our reliance on the unreliable grid system here) and a number of water tanks and indoor plumbing to install. If could help us install these items or do general maintenance and would be available to volunteer here for a week, one month, three months, six months etc., we would love to talk to you.

Please contact us through our website.

Restoration at Kobwin

Recently, a team from Moorpark, CA spent a week serving at our Kobwin Children’s Centre. The team worked alongside the kids to help fence the property. This helped in developing relationship. As our week at Kobwin progressed, I saw hearts open and real transformation happen. Each day that we were there, we covered a certain topic. Faith, Hope, Forgiveness and Love. In the mornings, small groups would assemble to pray and discuss how we see fruit from each of these issues. Then, in the evening, each of the men from the team would reflect on it with a story from the Bible and personal illustrations.

One night that really stand out to me was the night we spoke about forgiveness. Many of the kids, especially boys, came to a point where they faced the fact that they hadn’t forgiven someone for taking their childhood and forcing them into a war driven society.

Their stories and testimonies were heart-breaking, but in the end they were thankful the Lord brought them through those times. For without turmoil, they may never have turn to Him for strength!
Mallari Page, Assistant Teams Coordiator

Musana Camps First Baptism

Alea Haywood (age 10) and her family who go to Andrea Spark’s home church in Williams Bay, WI, have been praying for Musana Camps since it’s humble beginnings. A few months before her family left for a 5-week trip to Africa, Alea felt God prompting her to get baptized in Africa. She thought the perfect spot would be Lake Victoria! But after talking with Syd and Andrea about the Bilhartzia parasite, her parents were a little hesitant. They agreed to play it by ear and follow the Spirit’s prompting….maybe there would be a baptism service in one of the churches they were visiting along the way.
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit....
Well the Spirit led them down a steep hill, past a little fishing village, and down to the water’s edge of beautiful Lake Victoria. Joey, her father read Acts 2:37-41, Alea shared her testimony, they prayed, then waded out past the seaweed to where it was deep enough. When they got back to shore, everyone sang “Our God is bigger, our God is stronger, God you are higher than any other, Our God is healer, awesome in power, our God, our God….” (that was Alea’s special song of choice). Then the Haywood kids swam with the Bouffard kids for about an hour! A very sweet, simple baptism, for a very sweet, simple, shy young girl who followed the Holy Spirit’s prompting…parasites and all!

Emmanuel Youth Outreach

Emmanuel Youth Outreach, in short EYO, is a youth ministry at Kasana Community Church with the sole purpose of reaching out to the youths in our community and Uganda at large (to be a blessing as we have been blessed). We believe that the young people are the future of our nation and if they are reached with the word of God and trained in the ways of God, Uganda has a bright future. We are a chosen generation to change the world and changing the world starts with reaching individuals who will not compromise with evil.

EYO ministry began in 2008 and has touched the lives of many youths both here at Kasana and across Uganda. These young people are reached out to in several ways which include youth camps, youth seminars, youth debates, discipleship and outreaches. In EYO we believe in being practical with the Gospel such that whatever is learnt is required to be put into practice. Therefore, opportunities are provided for these youths to be involved in building the Kingdom of God. After reaching out to the youth they are required to reach out to other people too. We normally have community outreaches where we go and weed people’s gardens, build houses for widows and orphans, share the word of God with other people and also share physical things such as clothes, shoes , soap etc with the needy.

We thank God that each time he has provided amazingly and we can gladly say we have never failed to reach out to people because we didn’t have provision. The youths here at Kasana have always worked hard to see to it that they raise money to support this ministry in several ways. One of them is the EYO bazaar. The EYO Bazaar is more like a market that is held at Kasana once every year. In order to have this bazaar, different people give things from their homes that they may not need but yet are still usable. As time has gone on, people no longer give only what they do not need but out of a heart that is filled with love toward the needy, they now even give their valuable things.

When we have finished collecting this stuff, we then buy some more and top it up in order to satisfy our customers and then we sell all of it at the bazaar. We invite all people from Kasana and those who are interested from the community around Kasana. When the bazaar is over, we evaluate how much profit we have made and all of is used to fund our annual outreach to the poor, lowly and those who have not yet been reached with the good news of the gospel.

This year, we held the bazaar on the 16th of July 2011 at Kasana. We invested Shs 1.5million and made a profit of Shs 2.2 million. This was a very big improvement in comparison to the past years and we thank God for that improvement.

The money we made from this bazaar will be used for funding an outreach which is going to be carried out in Masaka. We will be preaching the good news of the gospel and doing community work helping the poor and the needy in this place. This will run from the 21st to 26th of August.
By Ronald Mugabi, New Hope Son and Recent University Graduate