1. Christ’s family 2. Continuing to follow
3. Current needs 4. Donations received since last email 5. Mbago 6. Orphans 7. Please help! Dear friends, The dean of St. John Chrysostom School, my father, Stephen Lunagula, has been gently asking for support with food for students returning in one week. You may wonder why I call him, “my father." I don’t know whether anyone can see the family resemblance below???
Do you see it???!!! My brother, Phoola Lunagula, sits between us. I trust that the family resemblance will be there when we all stand before our Lord Jesus. That is the hope of every Christian, to be united into His family. Because we don’t seek to do anything in our own name, but in Jesus name, for His glory and Kingdom. Christ’s family Here’s a great passage from the Gospels in which Jesus invites us to join his family:
There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s, but he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life. But many that are first shall be last; and the last first (Mark 10:29-31).
I just got these photos below. Here’s my father with his grandchildren and other children at his home in Nawango village:
Continuing to follow After my last letter, someone told me that I would be taking a risk to continue on with my fundraising work now. And I understood his point because I originally visited Uganda and started 1savior.org under different circumstances and with different emotions. I was compelled by the urgency of the needs presented to me and I was fearful. I was caught up into the work. And, now that it has ceased suddenly, I have felt a little dazed. The extreme urgency is gone, since my father, Stephen, and I have no orphans or vulnerable children at this time who are completely dependent. And my fear is gone. Instead what I have now is a pleasant relationship with a family in Uganda, the Lunagula’s, with whom I wish to maintain my Christian fellowship. Yet, this family is in ministry and there is an opportunity for me and you, my readers, to serve with them. It’s not as if there are no important, time-sensitive needs. Uganda is still Uganda. The median age of the population is 16, making it the second youngest country in the world, behind Niger. And if I followed Jesus this far, why not farther? I think that I must feel like the disciples felt when their boat was nearly swamped with water and finally they woke Jesus and he calmed the storm, and they said, "What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!” I feel huge relief, with increased love and fear of Jesus, and awareness of God the Father and the Holy Spirit. So now the decision I am confronted with is either to (1) yield to powerful temptations which distract me from the relationships that God has given me (including everyone I know and hold dear, and not excluding the Lunagula’s) or to (2) go forward in trembling faith in Christ’s ability to meet all my needs through these very same God-given peaceful relationships already in my life. And I must chose faith. After all, I’m not putting my faith in myself and my ability to manage anything. I’m not putting faith even in other people who are in the boat with me, such as my father Stephen, but in the living God, with whom I have a relationship. By now I’ve witnessed His answers to my cries for help! As for the risk, there are risks in every part of my life. I took a risk when I got married, started my job, and even when I got into my truck today and drove. Following Jesus, in the practical fullness of what that means, is agonizingly difficult compared to those risks, but perhaps only because the reward is not immediately tangible.
Here are the current needs: 1. Food for returning students 2. Completing six-room house 3. Drivers license for Phoola 4. Monthly teacher salary contribution The 2019 school year starts for our students in Nakyaka, Uganda, on February 4. But due to the timing of the maize and bean harvests, many families who live some distance away, and who want their child or children to board at the school, may not be able to send them with food or with money to buy food. So, as a result, the children stay home and enrollment at the start of the year can be very low. For example, a family may reap a harvest in August and then that food runs out, or they sell part of it and the money runs out, and then they are just struggling to find labor to live day by day; so they don’t have enough food to send with their child to board at the school. Some families choose to ration their food carefully to have enough until the next harvest, although this can lead to malnutrition. This is where we can help. By pitching in for food at the beginning of the term, we can greatly increase enrollment, which not only helps the individual children, but also advances the school. Greater enrollment leads to more income from tuition collected before the end of term one. Families are motivated to pay their tuition before the end of the term, whenever their harvest come in or as they get paid in other means, in order to receive their children’s grades and to enroll them in the next term. Our Dean, Stephen Lunagula, is requesting about 1000 kg of corn and 500 - 700 kg of beans to be divided between both the primary and secondary school. The price for unground corn now is about 800-1000 shillings per kg or about $0.23-0.28. And the price for beans is about 3500 shillings per kg or about $0.98 per KG. Totals requested: • $230-$280 for corn • $500 - $700 for beans
In 2017, the total number of students at St. John Chrysostom Primary by the end of the year was 136. But this year the number rose to 174 and there was less turnover in staff due to the assistance of $250 per month. Please donate any amount $15, $25, $50, $100 or more at 1savior.org in order to help the whole community! You will be updated with photos of the food purchased and news regarding how our help impacts enrollment. Also please help with the roof of the six-room house! We need just $950 more to complete the roof, mostly for the cost of the iron sheeting. Designate your gift as for the "six-room house” if you want to donate for this. The Lunagula’s will move into a couple of these rooms! Here is Elizabeth Lunagula awaiting the completion:
(Eventually I would like to help the Lunagula’s to build their own separate house on the church land, but they are willing to move into this as soon as possible.) Here’s some lumber being delivered and stored in the now empty dormitory to prevent theft. But we need to use it up to free up the dormitory!
Also Phoola took a driving course. See the certificate below. But the drivers license costs 850,000 shillings or about $240. Would anyone be able to help with that? I’m not sure exactly why the fee is so high. But Uganda has no income or sales taxes and so fees like this may serve to pay for various services provided by the government. Please designate your gift for this if you so choose.
The fourth need listed above is to continue contributing to the primary school teacher salaries. Again, this creates a base pay of 100,000 shillings per teacher ($28) per month to which my father, Stephen, can add some further income as families of students pay tuition. I took this photo in February, one year ago. Please set up an automatically re-occuring donation at 1savior.org to help with this!
Donations I’ve received three donations since the last letter. $101, $60, and $50 for a total of $211. I sent $148.50 of that for Mbago to visit a hospital, including gas money. The remaining balance is still on the PayPal account. Mbago As you saw in the last update, Mbago visited a clinic for treatment for his lips. And he has taken the medicine the doctor prescribed, but the problem has not gone away yet. So, thanks to your donations, I sent an additional $148.50 for him to visit a larger hospital in Kamuli Town and receive a second opinion. These photos were sent just on January 17. Stephen: Mbago is now very friendly to me. Though still with pain of the mouth. We had lunch with him happily Martin: Sorry to hear that his mouth is still bothering him Stephen: Hooo yes. He is ever disturbed by young children, who enjoy his funny way of talking. And when he gets annoyed of them, he cries terribly. And the mouth gets cracks time to time. Martin: These photos with Mbago seem to be at St John C school Stephen: We were at the kitchen on veranda at primary school
Please pray for Mbago’s lips to get better, whether through the doctor’s expertise or through another means. Orphans Of course the Bible says to take care of orphans.
"Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world” (James 1:27).
But how do we identify which children have lost one or both parents, whether through death or abandonment? Unless my father, Stephen, encounters street children who are obviously alone and suffering, or orphans who are known as such in a given community, perhaps banded together and led by older boys, then the only way to know who the orphans are is if a guardian brings them to our ministry, usually a relative. Then we can consult with the village chairman of the child’s home village and he or she will certify that the child has lost one or both parents. Please see the registration form below:
If a child is not someone’s biological child, they tend to not receive the care and status that they would otherwise receive. As I understand it, they will not inherit land and they will likely not receive any schooling, and, in Uganda, that seems to everyone to mean no future. So they are a good candidate for being a part of Christ’s family, the Church. In Christ they have a future. God owns all the land in the world anyway, so we just need to teach the children to trust Him! As I see it, caring for these orphans is a tremendous opportunity in the Kingdom of God. The question is, would you, my readers, be willing to help care for such children? Before losing support from an organization in Greece, my father, Stephen, was caring for over 20 such children (see the documents below) and he would like to begin again, but it’s impossible for him to do it without support.
Please help!
Thanks for taking the time to read this letter. Of course I am hoping for your help. Please let me know if you have any questions! I’m super excited for what this year has in store. What can we all do together? All of you my readers and myself are the only people supporting my father, Stephen, and St. John Chrysostom School. I have and will continue to encourage my father to seek additional support, but there is no large organization standing by to help. But we can help. Please donate at 1savior.org! Blessings in Jesus, Martin