Dear Shining Hope Family,
“I have been able to eat and get full on every meal—and I have grown!”
Seven-year-old Kate describes the difference eating lunch at our home has made in her life. This sweet, playful neighbor girl can be very shy, but sitting next to Kalungi, her little heart opens wide.
Kate lives alone with her jajja (grandmother), but she spends most of her time at our home. Every day, she eagerly anticipates coming for a meal and playing with the other neighborhood children gathered there.
Let’s continue listening in to their conversation!
“What makes you the happiest?” Kalungi asks.
“Eating,” Kate replies without hesitation. “Going to the garden to dig makes me the saddest.”
“Do you have any dreams for what you’d like to do when you’re older?”
“Yes, I want to drive a car! And if I see a hungry child when I’m older, I will give them food because I want to be like Jesus.”
“Special friends from all over the world make these meals for you and your friends possible. Do you have anything you’d like to say to them?” Kalungi asks.
“I want to board a plane! I want to eat cookies and chocolates!” she says exuberantly.
“Have you said thank you to them?”
“Thank you, bazungu (a white person),” she sweetly replies.
Kate isn’t the only neighbor child you blessed this June! Through your provision, you also brought FULL TUMMIES and HAPPINESS to about fifty growing kiddos.
Their young lives are marked with sorrow and hardship. Every morning, except Sunday, the children spend about four grueling hours hoeing in the garden alongside their parents or guardians. Sometimes they will return in the evening. It’s not easy to live on the food they grow. Many times, there is only enough for them to eat once a day, but even then, their stomachs are never fully satisfied.
What you have done for these little ones is of UNTOLD WORTH! Truly, this daily lunch is such a bright spot in their lives.
Our 21 kids are all healthy and so thankful for the gift of life . . . and, of course, food!
They are enjoying school and continuing to learn many new and exciting things. Kalungi shares, “Happy school times for our children. God is good that this is possible, and the future is bright for them. Thank you all, our dear donors, for providing a future to these young ones.”
Here are some of our beloved pupils! Starting in the back row are Drake (the boy turning his head), Jonathan, Harriet, Mark, and Edrine. And in the front row are Ronald, Wilber, Nagayi, Caroline, Ernest, Scovia, and Dalton. (Isn’t it incredibly precious how best buddies Ernest and Dalton are holding hands?!)
Sometimes after school, the children want to do so many things all at the same time! In this picture, a few of our boys couldn’t wait until after supper to play a game of Snakes and Ladders.
Nakitende, the 65-year-old woman Kalungi rushed to the hospital in May, is doing so much better! PRAISE GOD for answered prayers!!! After spending a month in the hospital for treatment of tuberculosis, she is now back home. Nakitende and her loved ones would be greatly encouraged by your continued intercession. They are in a very difficult place financially. Thank you very much for your prayers!
If you were to talk with Kalungi, you would hear this phrase frequently on his lips: “God blesses us to bless others.” There is so much TRUTH packed into that simple statement, but we want to share one aspect in particular! When you give to others from what the Lord has blessed you with, God—THROUGH YOU—makes a channel for others to experience His goodness. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your faithful sacrifice—and for being the reason these dear lives were touched by the Heavenly Father’s love this month!
We love you,
Kalungi + Rachel
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” James 1:17
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