The First Three Weeks

Alair with Kintu Obadiah (child we are sponsoring)


Past Sons and Daughters reuniting with current ones

Nathan from the baby house


Dear Family and Friends,

It is with much excitement that we write to you. Our transition time has gone smoothly and we are adjusting to the culture quite well so far. This month New Hope celebrated 20 years of bringing the “Fatherhood of God to the fatherless”. It was a three day celebration where older brothers and sisters were welcomed home by their families (children here are raised in a family setting), and joined present and former staff in thanking God for his faithfulness to individuals and the ministry. It was a sweet time of reunion, forgiveness, and hearing testimonies of the on-going goodness of the LORD.
The family we are attached to is Pacific family. There are 21 children in our family (7 boys and 14 girls ranging in age from 4 to 16). We’ve spent evenings in family devotions and Saturday mornings working in the family garden. I should warn you to hear the term “garden” loosely because the family gardens include banana plantation, and over three acres of plots for sweet potato, beans, cassava (a white yam-like vegetable), and maze (corn).
Another exciting aspect of our time here has been the teaching we are receiving in the institute. We have been challenged to detect where our cultural world views clash with kingdom world view, and to recognize the lies in our deceitful heart Jeremiah 17:9 and to renew our minds with truth Romans 12:2.
We were able to visit the land for the camp on our 11th wedding anniversary which was July 1st. It was a four hour trip from the Kasana site to the property on Lake Victoria. There are beautiful views of the lake, trails through the bush, a fresh water spring, and 600+ meters of beach front where a squatter’s village of fisherman and their families are living. The two initial priorities are fencing of the property and further developing the roads leading to the camp. The next priority in camp planning will be to build a structure that will first serve as housing for both us and the Sparks and be used in the future for either programming or storage. The next step will be to begin developing camp programming.
We feel very privileged to be serving with New Hope Uganda. Thank you for your on-going prayers, and support. We will keep you up to date as things progress.

In His service and for His glory,
Caleb and Alair

Our New Home

London


Lake Victoria Property with Syd and Andrea

Our New Home

Well, we made it safely to Uganda with little to no problems. We had a 12 hour layover in London were we were able to visit with Caleb’s cousin Mike (who lives there) and Alair’s cousin John who happened to be on business at the time.
We have been settling down nicely here in Uganda. We are learning many new things about the Ugandan culture and have met many new people. Our next door neighbors while we are in the institute are Syd and Andrea Sparks who we are partnering with on the New Hope camp endeavor.
We have had two days of great class lectures from Keith McFarland and are learning about how different world views effect how we see life. We have also talked much about the Kingdom world view and how it is unchanging even within the different cultures.
We had a wonderful Fourth of July celebration with many of the western staff. The food and fellowship were great.
Saturday was our first opportunity to work in the gardens with Pacific Family. We learned how to slash. In other word how to cut down tall grass and weeds in preparation for ox plowing. Alair’s longed promised ox plowing pictures will be coming soon.

Ready, Set, Move

Family and Friends,

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of activity, but time spent visiting family and seeing friends has been a blessing. Caleb completed his time at the YMCA the last week of May, and thanks to frequent flyer miles, was able to travel to California to visit Josh his brother, Vanessa (sister in-law) , Cy our nephew who just turned two (Happy birthday CY!) and Alair’s sister Janea. He had a blast with CY, who enjoyed riding the elevator over and over at the office while waiting for dad to finish work. They had fun swimming, playing outside, and chasing eachother around the house.
While Caleb was in California, Alair was wrapping up the school year. We had one weekend to do a lot of filing, some shopping, packing, putting things in storage at Caleb’s parent’s house, and getting our international driving permits. We were blessed to have many churches pray for us over the past month including our home church. God has also added new partners in ministry who are passionate about the fatherless in Uganda.
This past week we were able to visit with Alair’s parents in Connecticut. We enjoyed a family BBQ with aunts, uncles and cousins, celebrated her dad’s Birthday, Father’s Day, Aunt Gladys’ birthday and even had a private Salsa dance lesson from Cousin Josiah and his girl friend Michelle. Fun times, but not without some frantic preparations for Uganda. We spent a day on the phone before finding a clinic that would administer travel shots still needed. Despite the frenzied activities we had a great time with the family.
We had a wonderful break yesterday as we were able to spend a nice dinner with Caleb’s mom Dianne, dad John, grandparents Wayne and Martha, and Uncle Brent. For all of this we are truly thankful.
As our departure date quickly approaches the word busy doesn’t quite describe the atmosphere. We have complete most of the things needed to leave the country and have done a lot more packing and cleaning out of the apartment.
To give you a quick update on our support level, we are currently at 65% of our monthly support and around 60% of our start up cost. Our prayer is to be at 80% by the end of our five month training at the Institute.
We want to thank all of you again for your prayers and ongoing support. We will keep you posted via e-mail and our blog as new developments occur.

Blessings,
Caleb and Alair

Saying Good Bye

We are having a wonderful time in Connecticut visiting Alair's family before we leave for Uganda on June 25. We've spent time helping the Brown's plant their summer garden (in preparation for farming in Africa). We also had a cook out with all the aunts, uncles and cousins. It was a very fun time as we will not see them for a very long time...

April News

Dear Friends and Family,

God has truly blessed us these past few months. We have continued to feel His leading as the details of our departure are being finalized. God has given us peace, direction , and growing anticipation as we get closer to being on the field.
It is exciting to be part of the team that will be developing a camp on the 715 acres recently purchased by NHUM. This beautiful site is located on Lake Victoria in the southern part of Uganda. We believe that God will greatly use this camp to impact the lives of the youth of Uganda for Christ. The new youth camp and training center will play a vital role in bringing the Fatherhood of God to the fatherless children with whom we have been entrusted.
Our goal is to establish a camp that will work with our current children’s centers, other children’s centers in Uganda, as well as other Christian ministries working to further the gospel of Christ. The camp will provide opportunities for people to come to know Christ, grow in their relationship with Him, and grow in their understanding of what it means to be God-honoring men and woman in their culture.
We are excited to see the truth of God’s Word transform their lives and compel them to live for Christ. There is much work ahead of us and we cherish your prayer support. We trust that God will work all things together for His glory.

Blessings,
Caleb and Alair

Prayer Request
A strong financial and prayer support base as we continue to seek new partners in ministry
For wisdom as we make decisions and raise funds for the land.
That we will continue to clearly share the vision of what God has called us to.

Updates
Our plane tickets have been purchased!
Our departure date is June 25th.
Thanks to ministry partners, New Hope Uganda has signed a purchase agreement for 715 acres of the 1,100 acres of land on Lake Victoria for the camp!
Prayer Support- We are very thankful for those of you who have committed to pray for us and this ministry either daily or weekly!
We are grateful for those who have given financially to this ministry.

Monthly Support Covers
Personal expenses such as:
food
house maintenance
insurance
fuel
Ministry expenses such as:
air travel
savings for furloughs
correspondence
NHU admin. expenses
hosting groups
community needs

Start Up Expenses
initial airfare to Uganda
work permits
visas
shots
printing and mailings
camp housing to be built
vehicle in Uganda
emergency fund
phone
language school
NHICF training

Support and Donations
New Hope Uganda Ministries
PO Box 154
Belle Fourche, SD 57717
1-800-611-6486

Land for Camp Site

Dear Family and Friends,

Thank you very much for your prayers! God has heard us and acted in a very strong way! We have a signed purchase agreement for the land and money to back it!

A couple days ago we sent out an email requesting prayer for the negotiations we were going to be in the very next day for the purchase of 1100 beautiful acres of land on the shore of Lake Victoria for our Manhood/Womanhood/Youth Camp. I have felt strongly that we need that land but we didn't have any money with which to negotiate. God has provided! The night before we went for the meeting, I received a call from a dear friend wanting to invest in this venture. Because of circumstances he isn't able to donate the money but he is loaning/investing the money needed for the down payment. We also got another significant donation from another dear friend. So as we went into the meeting we were able to talk with confidence.

Negotiations went well! We have now signed for 715 acres of the land. As I understand it, because of the pressure the cooperative is under, they have offered the second plot that would have made the offer 1100 acres, to someone else and said they thought we weren't interested. I assured them we are interested, so they are promising to bring that title to the negotiating table soon.

We have put a small down payment down and promised the rest after the two weeks it will take them to have the boundaries verified and an amicable agreement made with the squatters.

Thank you so very much for your prayers! Please keep this in prayer. We still need to raise approximately $120,000 to complete the purchase of the 715 acres. We also need approximately $150,000 more for the remaining pieces of land It is a lot of money for an organization our size.

Some of you may be wondering if the equatorial heat has been affecting my brains in trying to get such a large piece of land. Others have wondered about the size of the land and if this is in line with our mission of "bringing the Fatherhood of God to the fatherless. These are very valid questions. Below are my copied and pasted answers to those questions.

It is obviously a very large piece of land and is much bigger than we would be able to use in the near future. However, there are several reasons why I hope we will be able to buy all of it:
· Land prices are going up continuously in Uganda. Foreign investors from Arab Muslim nations, China, and other Asian countries are buying up land. The land is far enough away from Kampala that the price is still not very high but the land grab is spreading. Getting land of this quality and size in the future will be difficult.
· This is an investment in the future of ministry and the Kingdom of God here in Uganda.
· Ugandan culture is very different from US culture. Here there is only one volume on any radio or PA system and that is maximum. It is not uncommon for us to have our sleep disturbed by blaring music from “discos” that are several kilometers away from us. If I buy a relatively small piece of land it is likely that in the future someone will put in a disco on the beach near by and keep our campers awake through the nights to all kinds of bad music. It would be very difficult for us to do anything about it. If we own this whole piece, the nearest neighbor would with two possible exceptions, would be on the other side of a hill or quite distant. Without this whole piece of land, we could end up with a piece of property that was unusable for our purposes because of the neighbors.
· There is a fairly large piece of forest on the land. It is being encroached on by sawyers and charcoal makers. It would be wonderful to be able to preserve the beauty of the site.
· There would be much land available for hiking and nature trails.
· The population of Uganda is growing very fast and the market for the kinds of facilities we would provide would continue to grow. We would be looking at increasing the types of services we provide to include things like a retreat center and could have camps for different ages or groups.
· When we talked to the leadership of Hume Lake, one of the foremost Christian Camps on the west coast of the US, they told us to buy as much land as we could get a hold of. Hume Lake is what it is today because many years ago some young men with forethought made a big investment in a large piece of land in the mountains of California.

Our purpose is to bring the Fatherhood of God to the fatherless. We have been very aware of the need for a Manhood/Womanhood/Youth CampTraining Site and have been planning that direction. We saw that if we don't strategically train boys and young men to be true, godly men, many of them will grow up to produce children that are in effect fatherless if not in actual fact. Now we see even more that we need to make bold steps into this area if we are going to play the role we believe God has given us in reaching the fatherless, being a part of transforming Ugandan society, and reducing fatherlessness.

We are learning to look way into the future in our planning and are that much more aware of how strategic we need to be in preparing for the future. This isn't just about now or the next few years; it is about 20 and more years from now. The site is very strategically located to serve children's centers, churches, schools and needy children - often fatherless, from Kampala, Mukono, Lugazi, and Jinja and beyond. A significant portion of the population of Uganda comes from those areas. Those towns and the surrounding areas would likely include as many as a million fatherless children not to mention the many thousands of other children who could benefit from the programs we could offer.

Thanks again for your prayers. Goodbye for now.

In Christ,

Jay
Director
New Hope Uganda

California

We had a great time visiting family in California during Alair's Spring Break. We were able to see Alair's dad (James) and sitster (Janea) as well as Caleb's brother (Josh) and sister in law (Vanessa) and nephew (Cy). We spent one day at the Santa Barbara Zoo. We had a great time seeing everyone as we know this will be the last visit before we head off to Uganda for two years.