Interview with Shawn Zimmerman – Enterprise Farm Project Manager

Can you please describe Enterprise Farm?

Enterprise Farm strives to support and financially supplement New Hope Uganda ministry as well as provide a place to demonstrate, educate, and impact the surrounding community. That is our goal. We provide jobs and seek to promote profitable and sustainable agriculture in the community. We want to excel in each of our farming practices and in our business endeavors. We want to increase New Hope’s ability to provide for itself. We believe this is a testimony to the children of New Hope and ultimately a blessing to the community.

What are the goals of Enterprise Farm this year?

We have introduced a five year plan for Enterprise Farm, and this year our concentration is on three things. First, we want to manage everything in the best way that we can. Secondly, we are focusing on our dairy. We want to make sure we are able to produce enough milk for our entire organization. This would help us internalize a significant cost. Thirdly, we are expanding our vegetable gardens, and gradually moving towards a district farmer’s cooperative.

First of all, it is one of my goals, to make sure the quality of our work reflects the glory of God, and that we treat our workers well for their hard work. We have offered our workers micro-finance loans and bicycles, and we seek to care for them and meet their needs where possible. This year, God has really blessed the farm and we are sitting on a significant harvest. In the past, we struggled with droughts and other problems, but this year we’re going to succeed. We praise and give God all the glory for His blessing on Enterprise this year. While, we don’t really have any salvation moments, there have been times when we have ministered to our workers. One time, after speaking about the universe, planets, and solar system during a morning devotion, a fascinated Muslim working for us, said “I always thought that the Earth is the floor of a house, and the sky was a ceiling.” Essentially, we thought the world was flat and it really made me see how simple education can turn the glory back to God.

We’ve had petty theft, mechanical and maintenance issues, and some cattle damage. Also, there have been some employee issues that we needed to deal with, but overall it has been a fairly easy year. There really have not been a whole lot of problems.

I think our biggest prayer request – as is with farming – is that God would show his favor on us. While, I think we’re seeing that this year, we still need prayer. God has been showing us His favor, through the rains that He has sent, and the yields we’ve been able to get off our crops. Another item of prayer is that we need educated and qualified people working with us at the Farm. People with degrees in agriculture/business, qualified people, with a ton of initiative. Another prayer item is that, while there have been a lot of people that have supported us from the US, I pray that that group would continue to grow. and that when they come over, they come to help the farm. Finally, I pray that all our employees can succeed both financially and spiritually as the farm continues to grow.

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Interview with Steve Brown – Investment Year Coordinator

Can you please describe the Investment Year program?

Investment Year is a year-round program (we’d explain it as a gap year in the UK, and maybe the US) designed to invest skills, knowledge, and character into our children so that they may be better prepared for further training and future career, as well as their personal lives. The ultimate goal is to be better members of their community and family and nation.

What are the goals of the Investment Year Program this year?

One of our goals is that each of our 31 students will have a better awareness and understanding of what they’re designed to do. Another one is that each one of them knows that they are known and cared for, both by God their father, and this family. The last goal is that each of our students gets an opportunity to experience life, family, and work outside of Kasana, whether that’s in Kampala or somewhere else.

What are some ways you’ve seen God working in the lives of our Investment Year
sons and daughters?

God has opened up new opportunities for this group – new internships. This group has experienced things no other previous group has. I think God is working in the hearts of this group, particularly in the area of relationships with each other. Especially in the first six months, we’ve seen God softening their hearts – seeing them build each other up, instead of tearing each other down. One of our young men went to an internship with a church in Kampala, and at the end of his internship, they really honored him by saying he was obedient, respectful, faithful, honest… he was all of the things this group is about, and that was really encouraging to hear.

What challenges has the Investment Year program faced this year?

At the end of last year, we moved IY to Kampala. This has been  fantastic, but it’s raised a greater challenge on our income. The benefit of moving has increased opportunities, but it’s made it more financially strenuous. We also have 31 students this year, which is almost double our previous biggest size… so that’s put a strain on having enough internships and opportunities. Our biggest challenge has been financial. There’s an ongoing tension between what we want to do and what we can do.

What are some ways people can pray for the Investment Year students and staff?

You can pray for our staff as we seek to motivate, encourage, and mentor our children through the year. For increased opportunities for our sons and daughters, for more internships… and for this group of young people particularly that God would continue to work in their hearts, especially with how they treat each other. And lastly, every August we go away with our children to Father Heart retreat, which is an opportunity for them to experience God as a father. I pray their hearts will be ready for it.

[interview by Harrison Scott]

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Interview with Jessica Nabagesera

Can you please describe the Post-Kasana program?

Post-Kasana handles all the children after S4 (O-level secondary school)  who go to S5 (A-level secondary school) and other institutions, colleges, and universities. Basically, it handles everyone who continues school outside Kasana.

What are the goals of Post-Kasana this year?

Making sure every child gains a skill, but with character – so that they are able to be self-sufficient and useful to their communities.

What are some ways you’ve seen God working in the lives of our Post-Kasana
children?

Quite a big percentage are studying courses which are in the line with how God designed them to be.

What are some specific success stories of Post-Kasana graduates?

We have several in the NHU staff now! We have some who did nursing and were taken in by the local hospital. We have one who has joined a children’s organization to serve vulnerable children. And some of our graduates have now become parents to make families, which is the core value of this ministry.

What challenges has the Post-Kasana program faced this year?

This is a continual challenge, really – some students don’t want to be different. Many want to take classes they don’t need to take, because their friends are taking it. There’s quite a bit of denial of what they think God wants them to be. They want to do what everybody else does.

What are some ways people can pray for the Post-Kasana children and staff?

I think the following is the general prayer we need: The children’s hearts need to be open to what God has for them. And for staff, guidance and wisdom as we walk with them through the necessary steps of discovering what God meant them to be and to do.

Interview by Harrison O’Neil Scott

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Interview with Simon Katabazi, Essubbii Eppya Vocational Primary School Headmaster

What are the top priorities of Primary School this year?

We have three goals. Our first is to focus on building relationships, both vertical and horizontal (with God and with each other). Second, we want to focus more on promoting and sustaining quality academics in our children, so they master all the basics, and can move on. Third, we want to ensure all our kids acquire basic vocational skills – having them learn how to use their hands, to draw, to be creative, to create things. We want them to be as exposed to as many games as possible, so they develop their physical bodies as well.

What are some ways you’ve seen God working at the school this year?

As per our theme, ‘God With Us’ (Mt 1:23), I’ve definitely seen God with us in a number of ways. One is that for the very first time, on mybirthday, I led 36 students to the Lord. I don’t think I have ever led that many at once before! Secondly, I have seen God softening hearts – children coming in repentance and asking for forgiveness, to reconcile with each other. I have seen children caring for each other more deeply than ever before. When one is absent or sick, the others want to know why he or she is not there. There is a general desire to know God, and it is stronger than ever before. God has been at work – we’ve seen a higher degree of openness.

What challenges has the school faced this year?

One has been sicknesses. A number of children have been sick. Another one has been a water crisis. Our water pump broke down, and it has been hard to get clean water. Also, having many new staff members – in one section of the primary school, we have had four new teachers this year – this is a challenge. It’s hard to have them adopt the vision of the school and meet the standards. And also children, adjusting to the new way of life.

What are some ways people can pray for the staff and school?

The prayer that has been on my heart for both students and teachers is Ephesians 1:17 – where Paul prays for the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that people may know Him better. Secondly, to pray for health and stability, and good hearts in general. And then praying for those who have committed their lives to the Lord, to grow deeper. Pray for a real hunger for God. And last, pray for provisions – we still need some staff members, materials, and other buildings.

[interview by Harrison Scott]

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What and amazing week and a half. I had the opportunity to spend a week and a half at Musana Camp and Kobwin Children’s center in Uganda Africa. 15 of us college age kids, teamed up with 30 kids from Kobwin Childens Center and ran outreaches within the village of Kobwin, sharing the Gospel and making Jesus famous.

We focused on using our gifts and talents to serve God the first three days at Musana Camp. It was important for all of us to understand that we are all valuable, and have been given gifts to serve the body of Christ. After three days of being together and searching God’s word for truth about using these gifts, we left for Kobwin to actually do it. We arrived in Kobwin and the first full day we all built a house for a widow in the village. It was beautiful to be able to provide something for someone who was in real need. We left with everything being done except the very last part of putting mud on as the walls to the house.

The next two days we focused on outreach within the schools. For the outreaches we went to a primary school (elementary) and a secondary school (high school) and performed music, drama and also shared the Gospel and prayed with the kids at the schools. As great as these outreaches were, as we saw some come to Christ, nothing could compare with the relationships that we formed with the kids at Kobwin Children’s Center. We learned so much from the youth at Kobwin and were blessed to make great relationships and share in faith together. We were able to encourage them in their walk with Christ, as we were humbled by the attitudes and gentle spirit’s that we saw from most of these kids who had been through terrible darkness due to Joseph Kony’s uprising.

It was hard to leave the people that we met after such a short time, but we felt that God had done and awesome work knitting us together as family through Jesus. My hope and prayer is that many of them continue to do the work that we all started as we were there, and that they would continue to know Jesus in increasing measure.

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Listening, Loving and Letting Jesus Heal

BY KIM PETERSON

Kony 2012. Posters. Internet blogs. National news. It all becomes so real as I look into the eyes of the young man beside me. I have shared meals with him, sat beside him in a game of Uno and heard him laugh. My daughter has been teaching him guitar and my son played on his team in a soccer game. Yet what he experienced as one of Uganda’s “Invisible Children” and in his 3 years in Kony’s army is beyond anything we can imagine. Paul (all names of Kobwin children have been changed) was only 10 when he was abducted by Kony’s soldiers. That is just one year younger than my son Micah. He was beaten, starved and made to carry a gun and kill. And that is only the beginning of the story. “What does that do to a boy of 10?” I wonder. “What would that do to my son?” And the most important question. “What do I possibly have to offer to this young man?” So I sat with him in my inadequacy. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. We had come to Kobwin Children’s Center to bring God’s love and healing to the children there. Kobwin was started with the vision of providing care and education for those coming out of Kony’s army. Often after children escape or are released from Kony, they are not welcomed back into their families or communities. Without education or a support system, life can be close to impossible for these traumatized kids. Kobwin was the compassionate response of the leaders of New Hope to the needs of these children. For 11 years my husband and I had met with people in counseling situations and led them to Jesus for hope and healing. Why did this seem so different? We came to Kobwin with a team of people. Because we knew it was often hard for children to open up painful memories, we had brought with us Chris and Rachel and Leslie, artists from New York City. Together with Constance Dobbs, a New Hope Missionary involved with Kobwin since its beginning, we had put together a program to facilitate getting to the heart of the children. Our desire was that each child feel known, loved and led to Jesus, as they were willing, for comfort and healing. So the artists had put together various art projects to help the children open their hearts.The staff, led by Manager Ikwarit Charles, had agreed to let us take up a week of school to work with the children. The first two days we led the staff through the same process that we would later lead the children through. We had them draw out the path of a day in which something good happened, complete with pictures and colors representing the emotions of that day. The next day we repeated the process with a day something very bad happened. Then we had the staff members share their stories to each other. It was an amazing time as we saw the staff reach out and care for each other as the difficult stories were shared. We also had the privilege of bringing Jesus into some of the painful memories and see healing happen. Now that the staff were prepared for what we were going to do, the last 3 days of the week we repeated the process with the children. Every child created a drawing of the path of their good and bad days and every child sat with a staff member to tell them about both. As the children were willing, they were either prayed for or led in a prayer to Jesus for healing and comfort. It was amazing to see the tears stop and faces brighten as Jesus touched their hearts. There was Donna and Sarah who were abducted to be ‘wives’ of Kony. Sarah’s body still bore the marks of the witchcraft done to her. There was Alice who was in the army 3 years, the stories she told were almost unbearable. Part of her body was missing because of a grenade thrown at her ‘just for fun’ by some of the soldiers.The effect of these experiences have haunted her many nights. There was Jacob, Ronnie and Abraham in the bush with Kony for years before escaping, each with stories worse than the last. And then there was Paul.

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