Christmas and New Year's Missions in Uganda & Rwanda

Christmas in Wakiso...  New Year's Missions in Uganda & Rwanda... Opportunities to Sponsor a Child... Raising Support for a Computer Lab... There is much news to share!

Our Uganda Bridge trip was scheduled for the first two weeks of May this past year. We were so excited to reconnect with our friends there, visit with Communities of Hope children, and begin setting up a computer classroom at Destiny Bridge Academy, Kampala Children’s Centre’s (KCC) primary school. However, due to violent protests that erupted in Kampala the day before we were scheduled to leave, related to the extreme levels of inflation in Uganda, our team trip was postponed.  Needless to say, we were heartbroken, and mourned the loss of a much-anticipated trip.
Our trip is rescheduled for January 1st - 14th to run a children's camp for 150 kids at KCC; mentor 30 teenagers who live at or are associated with KCC; connect with the Communities of Hope (COH) children and their guardians; and establish a computer lab.

COH Sponsorships Opportunities
Michelle Wuesthoff and Dave and Torrie Long will be interviewing and photographing the children in the COH program for sponsorship updates, and will conclude the program with a special COH “Family Fun” day. This time spent with the children and their families is very precious and rewarding, an important time to connect our two communities--sponsors and families. We will be teaching and leading games around the theme of encouragement, sponsors will visit with their children and families, and gifts and vitamins will be distributed to every child. COH-USA currently has 68 children in our program, and more than half of our Uganda Bridge team are sponsors, so this promises to be a memorable time!
Currently we have two children who are in urgent need of sponsorship: Trisha, 4 years old, and Joshua, 6 years old. (These children now have sponsors -- thank you!).  Please prayerfully consider sponsoring children in the COH program, and contact Michelle Wuesthoff at coh.usa@gmail.com or 860-582-3493 for more information.

Ministry in Rwanda
A new door has opened for part of the team to minister in Rwanda while in Africa. Rwanda is an hour flight from Uganda and six team members will be taking a three day excursion to post-genocide Rwanda. The Rwandan people are thirsty for God and they also love to create art, so the team will bring a prophetic art’s conference to them. Wellspring team members will minister God’s love and hope through God’s Word, prayer and by releasing and teaching prophetic art.  The team will be ministering at The Evangelical Restoration Church.  www.yoshuamasasu.org/churches/erc-remera

Wellspring is covering the team in prayer, if you would like to pray for the team, please join us in praying for an open heaven, God’s presence and protection for the team.

Christmas in Wakiso -- The "Long" Journey

David and Torrie Long will be blazing the trail for our trip as they leave for Kampala Children's Centre on December 11 to set up the much needed computer room at KCC, train teachers and administrators to use and teach the computers, to partner with KCC in growing sponsorship responsibilities, and to gain a better understanding of where their passions fit with KCC’s mission and needs.  We previously raised approximately $4900 towards the computer room, just over halfway to the $9000 needed.
This is their story:

     We are so excited to spend the holidays with our Ugandan family. We are very expectant about what God has for our initiatives, our friends, and us as we step into where God has called us. We are even more grateful for the growth our plans have had since last year. For the May trip, we planned to have four computers in a classroom that would be set up. With the prolonged planning time and time we will have on the ground, our vision has grown to nine or ten computers in a classroom that will be connected to the main office through WiFi. Our vision has also grown to enrich KCC and the village of Wakiso’s resources: to teach KCC staff and other trusted members of the community the steps of wiring and setting up the computer room and WiFi network. Furthermore, we are planning to fully train the teachers at Destiny Bridge Academy as well as office staff at KCC how to operate and teach computers to children as well as how to manage Internet security. Our hope is also to gain more in-depth updates on children sponsored through Communities of Hope and to hand-deliver Christmas gifts from their sponsors here in the U.S.             
     As we make our preparations to leave for Uganda for a longer period of time, we ask that you join us in surrounding our plans with prayer. Please pray for peace through Uganda as the economic situation has become dire: people are making less money and the cost of basic food items has more than doubled in the past year. Please pray that people will find their provision and will not result to drastic measures as they become more deeply dissatisfied with their government. Please pray for wisdom of the Ugandan leaders that God would show them how to serve their citizens. Please pray for the safety of our transport and that all our luggage will arrive on time and intact. Please pray for good relationship development between us, KCC, and the people we hope to purchase computers from.
     We know that not everyone is in a position to donate towards this and we appreciate your emotional and spiritual support more than anything. However, if anyone would like to donate towards Destiny Bridge Academy’s computer lab, checks can be made out to “Wellspring,” with “KCC Computers” in the memo line.

           We’d like to thank you all in advance for your love and support as we prepare for our trip, as we travel, and as we carry out our initiatives. We have also set up a blog that you may have access to in order to read about our travels and the things we are able to accomplish day to day as well as view pictures of the computer lab as it is being set up. You can find our blog http://Uganda.DaveJLong.com. Thank you all.