We returned to Mukono today for the Child Development Program (CDP) Centre Day. These Centre Days are attended by over 200 children dressed in bright green shirts and wide smiles, and most are sponsored by members of New Life. At Centre Day, the children eat together, sing together, learn together, play together, and leave encouraged.
Our team came in to work alongside the usual CDP staff and volunteers. We helped in classrooms, played games with children, passed out gifts from sponsors, and photographed several children. The children also ate breakfast (chapati, boiled eggs, and porridge) and lunch (beef soup and rice) during Centre Day.
It was warm today, and the hot sun was baking the red dirt that earlier in the week was a muddy mess. After lunch, the children lined up by age groups, and one by one they walked across the stage in the church to receive their very own gift basket — a plastic basin filled with notebooks and pens/pencils for school, bars of soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste, fruit snacks, and Snickers!
Every time we come to Uganda, we deliver gifts from sponsors to their sponsored children, but not every sponsor sends something and not every child receives a gift.
But not today! Our team has had a dream of being able to give every single child in the sponsorship program a gift, and by God’s grace and through the generosity of so many New Life members, every child went home with something today! It was a beautiful sight!
Their smiles said thank you. Their eyes revealed their excitement. The gifts were practical and purchased right here in their own community.
Pastor Davis was overwhelmed, and he leaned over to me and said, “You know, sometimes we preach the Gospel with words, and sometimes we say it like this. What you have done today is the Gospel at work.”
To the New Life members who gave to this project, THANK YOU! You were every bit a part of today as any of us here on the ground. We are grateful for the way you gave and the way you encouraged us to keep going.
New Life in Uganda 