S. C. F. Mission report – Kenya and Uganda August 2014.
Peter Burgess, Dino and Jacky Rossi travelled to Kitale in Kenya to visit 3 projects that Dino and Jacky had
visited several times previously. Child Rescue Kenya is a multi-layered approach to the Street
children/orphans problem in Kitale. We went to Street Smart, a drop in centre located in the back of a
lumber yard. This is a very basic premises – an office and school room, but
they have found that more children are inclined to come here as opposed to
the more plush surroundings of some charities; they feel they can trust this
place. The second stage of CRK is Birunda children's home, again not kitted
out as a 5 star hotel, but supplying the basic needs of the children, food
education, a clinic open to all. The whole ethos of CRK is that they work to
repatriate the children with their own family, extended etc. rather than taking
them into a children's home. They have staff trained in social work, and if the
Children in school-room in Birunda
children can be returned to family, CRK will continue to support the family
through their difficulties for as long as it takes. At Birunda they use bio intensive farming, and another
passion of the staff there is to train families to grow food using this method to become more selfsufficient. They have had considerable success with this. The final stage of CRK is Livinda Children's
Home, and if all else fails and the children cannot be returned to their families, they live here. Theresa,
who is our contact in Kitale, also runs a surgical fund, where children with birth defects or who have
suffered accidents and who need surgical intervention, are taken to hospital in Nairobi by a retired teacher
who stays with them during the procedure and brings them home.
We visited Challenge Farm, founded by Rick and Cheri Thompson in 1992 who had a connection with SCF.
Rick died shortly after they moved from Nairobi to Kitale. Cheri and her team currently home, educate and
care for and love 150+ children, from age 5 until 18. They are given vocational training to equip them to get
a job and move onto independence. CRK and challenge Farm work
collaboratively. The latest venture is brick making, and they have just built a new
girls dormitory. This is such a happy place.
We also went to a church run by Uncle John, who Dino met as a taxi driver during
a previous visit to Kenya. He heads up a church of 300, Dino and Jacky attended
the Sunday meeting which was really enjoyable, the worship was lively, and their
young people have produced a CD! Then with Peter we attended a midweek
Leaders in Faith Home Church
meeting where Peter preached and we ministered. John has a vision for the place
his church can play in their community, where they seek to serve.
Peter and Jacky continued their journey by road to Uganda, where we were met by Fred at the border. 10
hours later we arrived in Kampala, and were united later that night with the rest of the team - Chrissy, Isaac
and Elizabeth, Brenda, Lauren and Nicola, and we headed off the following morning to Masaka with
Immanuel, where the customary warm welcome awaited us.
On the Sunday morning the team split between Nyendo Full Gospel church, led by Immanuel, where Nicola
and Chrissy preached, and Lauren and Isaac took one group in the Sunday School and Chrissy and
Elizabeth took the 0-5s. Peter, Brenda and Jacky journeyed to Kirinda, which is a church led by Pastor
Fred; there is also is a Compassion project on site, where Fred is the Project Director. For Brenda this
was another chance to continue contact with Luyinda, who is supported through Compassion by her
school, and her pupils had sent gifts for him. Pete preached to a packed church on hope.
On Monday the work began. Every morning ‘Team Mzungu’ rolled up their sleeves and partnered with
‘Team Uganda’ to assist with the completion of a home for one of the families in the church. Our tasks
involved fetching and carrying water, barrowing sand, ballast and cement, tamping down dirt floors prior to
concreting, and sieving stones out of sand. Meanwhile the Ugandans got on with the building! Most of the
team had a try at plastering! S.C.F. had provided the materials and monies for the professional builders.
There was lots of interaction with the local children and many from the church were on site also.
From this . . . . .
. . . . to this!
Our new home!
In the afternoons, Nicola and Lauren had prepared four sessions of youth work based on the Bethel Four
Declarations used by SCF. These took place in the church, and included teaching time, soaking and
response, worship and ministry times. Each session had material to take home to reinforce what the youth
had heard, and they were all inscribed with prophetic personal words during the sessions. One young man
stood up and declared 'I am not a mistake, I am important and I was born for purpose.' Many of the young
people shared words they had heard from God and the resultant worship was Spirit filled. Charlotte
(Immanuel’s youngest child) led worship for the first time.
All of the team preached at least once, which was a great opportunity for us all to learn, and all were
involved in ministry, both personal and corporate.
Each morning the team met for worship and prayer prior to heading out to work, and then returned to be
wonderfully fed by Mama Irioth who daily provided, with her team, a table-full of Ugandan delicacies.
Another project we witnessed was the repair of a bore hole in Missari Hill, a neighbouring village. This had
been built by the Government and handed over to the locals, but after some years fell into disrepair and
then a part was stolen as it wasn’t working and they needed the metal for
something else. SCF contributed to the costs of the new parts, replacing some
of the worn parts and the services of an engineer from Kampala. The 10ft pipes
(18 in all) were transported on motor cycle (imagine a jousting knight!), and the
engineer worked all day to get the water flowing. This was on the Saturday,
and we were due a day out to Lake Nabugabo, which was really pretty, but we
called again on the way home and sure enough the water was being pumped
Lauren pumping water
up from 180 ft below ground by the villagers. Immanuel and Peter prayed a
prayer of dedication and blessing, and we all had a go at pumping, it was quite
hard! However, the villagers were delighted, as they had been hitherto using a shallow well quite a way off,
where the water isn’t great, or paying 500 Ugandan shillings to another facility who own their own borehole.
We had a wonderful time, with some never-to-be-forgotten memories, made new friends, met up again with
old friends, grew in God, and we wouldn’t have missed it for the world.
With our love – Team S.C.F. Uganda (and a bit Kenya)
2014.