Having a Well is Wonderful during a Drought
There has been a drought going on in Uganda since April. Most traditional Ugandans are subsistence farmers who live off the produce of their own gardens. That means that a drought quickly turns into famine. Food prices also go up so that even those with jobs struggle to feed themselves.
Kingsway grows a large garden to defray their food costs for feeding a hundred students plus faculty, so they are affected too.
We asked Milly about what was going on. On July 27, she wrote:
We have a very severe drought this year! Even at Kingsway, there has been no rain since May up to now!
Due to the long drought, food prices are really extremely high. For example, the maize (posho) we used to buy a 50 kilogram bag at shs 75,000/-; ($19.89) we now buy at shs 130,000/- ($34.38)!
But praise the Lord for Genesis Waters! (who installed a well at Kingsway last year, to their great joy.) We have been watering our vegetables! Our kale and carrots did well. We are now serving them as our only vegetables. The carrots are getting done in two weeks. The kale will take us for some time. But for our cabbage garden and eggplants, they never responded well to the watering. They are just miserably poor! We will get nothing from them!
In the north the drought has been very, very severe! You cannot see any green grass anywhere. The crops which were planted early in the year just dried up completely! Many small streams from which people fetch water dried out. The boreholes are dry, they don’t pump out water! Older people and malnourished children are dying including livestock! The drought has been very severe!
Nevertheless, we are seeing signs of rain in the skies now. The clouds that bring rain appear and disappear without any drop of rain yet. But we are hopeful the rains will come down soon.
Update on Vivian
You may remember Vivian’s testimony from a few months ago. She is nearly deaf, so it’s been difficult to make friends and interact with teachers. Nevertheless, she is very bright and gets top scores in her classes.
Vivian’s deafness began after she came down with severe malaria, which was treated with quinine. The quinine caused her to lose her hearing in one ear entirely, and partially in the other. (Quinine is no longer recommended for treating malaria.) Her father also died, so her family had no money to pay for treatment of her hearing loss.
We shared her story and a few months ago, and one of Kingsway’s supporters asked if she could help Vivian get hearing aids. They arranged for her to see an audiologist who said that hearing aids should fully correct her hearing in one ear and help some with the other.
She has now been fitted for hearing aids and is doing much better. Her teachers report: “Vivian is doing very well. The hearing aid has done wonders. We are all excited and relieved that she can now listen clearly. In the first week the aid was given, she complained that it was too loud so we had to take her back to the hospital so that they could adjust the aid and now it’s perfect.”
Machine Knitting is Coming Soon
During August, we are anticipating that Kingsway will be receiving a gift of several manual knitting machines so that they can have a program in machine knitting. Hand knitting is slow, but machines can speed up the process immensely and produce professional-quality results in a fraction of the time. In addition, manual knitting machines don’t require electricity.
These machines are expensive to buy new, but a friend of Kingsway has some that she’s been wanting to donate to the school for years now. She is the owner of a company called “KnitIt” that makes innovative knitted products – swaddling garments for babies and even adults!
As of August 4, the team with these machines to Kingway has just arrived! We will share updates as we receive them. More details about our plans are in this post. It is exciting to think that Kingsway could have an innovative program that gives students an unusual opportunity to learn useful skills.
Prayer Requests
Please pray for Milly’s son Hope, who had a severe fall in their home late one evening a few months ago and fractured several bones in his face. Everyone was terribly concerned when he was found unconscious in a puddle of blood. Hope is a physician but he resigned his position at the hospital. Competition is high for medical positions in Uganda, so it will be challenging to find his next position. Please pray for his healing and the Lord’s next calling on his life!
Please pray for Milly’s mother, who is in her mid 80’s and is about 9 hours away in Arua, in the rural north where her extended family lives. She was hospitalized for quite a while but now has been released to be home with family. The family is certainly affected by the drought, which is very hard on everyone.
Please pray for the writing that Milly and Lois Tverberg are doing together on their upcoming book.
(More details at this link)~~~~~
We have more news, which you can read on our blog page.If you are interested in donating to one of the many needs at Kingsway Christian High School, take a peek at Kingsway’s Wish List.
Check out Kingsway’s Wish List