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.