Family News

Laurence:  Hi. My past few months have been quite hectic with exams. I'm very glad to say they are all done. I am currently looking for work in August to cover missions/holiday travel  expenses that my parents have helped cover.

     In a week’s time I will be heading of to Western Ukraine to a city called Ternopil on an outreach mission which I will be leading for the first time. We will be working with orphans, gypsy children and the youth of local churches as well as joining in with planting of three new churches in villages in the surrounding area. I am looking forward to it, especially now that someone in a life group in my church has covered my outstanding accommodation costs.   

     If you would like to hear any more about it, or partner me in finance and/ or prayer,  please contact my Dad. It would be a huge blessing to my team and I. After Ukraine I will be going to visit my friend in Korea, (after having found, tickets for a fantastic price back in March) where we will also be working in orphanages (South Korea has the lowest adoption rates in the world) as well as enjoying the culture. Traveling/mission work is something I would love to do full-time way in future..

Jerome: Hi There! There isn’t much to say as recently I have been busy revising for exams. However, I have now just finished my second year of University and it’s a great feeling to have a short break from education. After exams I went on a field course visiting producers and growers of field crops around the UK for a week. I got to see; Sugar Beet, Field Beans, Vining Peas and even rhubarb production. I also went to the Lake District for a friend’s birthday for a bit of walking and socialising. 

    I am now in Uganda with my Girlfriend, Fiona, catching up with my parents and mucking in where I can. Shortly my friend Zak will also be coming to visit and we plan to climb Mt Elgon.

Maria: A few weeks ago a friend and I went on a short break to Madrid; we had a fantastic time! We enjoyed a walking city tour, rowing on the Parque del Retiro' lake, watching a Flamenco show, eating tapas,drinking sangria, dancing and meeting other travellers from all over the world! It's become my favourite european city so far! 

   In Hull I have been working for the same social enterprise as before and will be finishing with them at the end of this week. 

   Then I start a 5 week intensive TESOL course (Teaching English as a Second Language) near Oxford. Half of the course will be in Hungary so I'm really looking forward to that! My hope is to teach abroad in Spain whilst becoming fluent in Spanish in preparation for the rest of my international career! Watch this space...

UK Assemblies of God Conference, Marriage Enrichment Course

Adam: We enjoyed and were encouraged  by both of the above. The AoG conference included some really honest and personal presentations on topics such as the male mid-life crisis, and leading with transparency and integrity amidst the sickness or moral failure of a loved one or colleague.  Examples  & benefits of working together with other groups Christian & non Christian to address pressing  community needs were also given. On our marriage weekend for church leaders and missionaries, we received teaching on the biblical  meaning of oneness  ie the emotional, intellectual, spiritual and physical implications. A refreshing time 

May 2015 Update

Dear Friends & Partners, 

We trust this update covering March and Aprilcontinues to encourage you. Shalom. Ad/Helen

Increased sign fluency, literacy/numeracy levels

Increased sign fluency, literacy/numeracy levelsare now a strong shared priority amongst many of our local partners. Following lengthy consultations and trials we have drafted the six-step plan overleaf with the above partners. Steps two and three of the plan overleaf are shown above too.  We are increasingly convinced that this plan can benefit both deaf and  hearing students,  teachers  & family members  more than any of our other partnerships so far- both individually & collectively.

How we hope to unite deaf and hearing members at Eruba Primary School

Children’s Ministry - Parent Child United Village Reading Programme

This has gone so well. Three villages are involved  with the programme. After assessing the reading  levels as we did some group reading and small

 family group readings according to ability.

 We discovered very low literacy and two dominant local languages Lugbara and Alur. Parents and children did not want to develop  local language but they  chose to learn English instead. 

   It soon became apparent that parents and children were confused about how to pronounce vocabulary and we realised that we needed to develop the reading by teaching phonics and the break down of words into sounds.    By using the big book bible stories i.e. Joseph, Noah and David we started to break down the words into segments for  easier reading. ‘J’, ‘o, ‘s’,

 ‘e’,’ph’ ’’Joseph! This is easy” exclaimed one mum as she started reading for the first time. It’s so exciting.

   Eight adults and forty children turned out last week and there was a village funeral to contend with so numbers will be higher next week. But because we are using an inclusive approach to learning with parents and children working together the programme works with big numbers.

   Songs and games are also a valuable part of this programme and we have committed staff. Both enjoyed being with children/youth and happily helped us encourage Eruba Primary School’s deaf and hearing through sport/drama. 

   Our good friend Walt also enjoyed being a part of our efforts to unite parent and children through the PCU programme Helen is leading. We really enjoyed Walt’s our son Laurence’s visit.

Family News

Maria

   We worked in the project with the school, nursery and social enterprise. I specialised in the business side and led on the sales and marketing strategy. I am pleased to say we smashed every single target - we attained the highest monthly sales record by any team and  got 8 new businesses stocking our products. We recorded a tv interview on the product and secured a free radio advertising space. We also provid-ed enough income to cover all the unexpected extra costs that a new government policy had imposed, so no women were let go.                         As you can imagine I didn't want to leave!  

Jerome: Hey! Well apart from university and all the coursework that comes with it which I'm submerged in at the moment I do have a few interesting things to let you know about! Me and my girlfriend Fiona went on holiday to Ireland for just shy of a week and learnt a lot about the troubles in Belfast + how to make Guiness + that it does'nt always rain in Ireland.

   I also spent two weeks in Scotland helping Ian and June with a bit of milking as they were trying to get to grips with a new milking parlour. I've got exams coming up but quite looking forward to finishing my 2nd year of university and going to Uganda for a dose of sun and to see old friends. I also have a placement year to look forward to and my 21st birthday celebrations :) 

Visits from our son Laurence and friend Walt



Adam: Laurence  enjoyed sharing his passion for football, volley ball. Walt enjoyed sharing his passion for  gardening, helping children laugh and learn. They, Helen, I and several  YWAM youth also really got into chess,  too.  I have adapted the game, re-naming it the Kingdom Game to help our base youth to learn to play it and related to its characters.