News - Agape Children's Village

Agape Children's Village
Filling the Heart of a Child with HOPE!

CCSE Makes an IMPACT at ACV!

By admin - Wednesday 16 May 2012 - 15:19:39

The last 10 days seem like a blur! We had so many things going on at once that we barely had time to think. The team from CCSE has gone back to the USA, but their mark will be left here in Uganda for a long time to come. We spent the last few days since the team has gone, sleeping just to get rested up for the next adventure at ACV.

In 10 days, the team did 4 outreaches, spent 2 days at the safari, finished the church floor, finished 8 cubbies in the kids rooms, repaired the electrical in 8 outside kitchens, 8 shower houses, and 8 toilet houses, installed 115 fence poles, and ran power for Agape Chapel, WHEW!!!!!

With 10 members from CCSE and a crew of Ugandans, much was accomplished. On the final Saturday we had a huge Agape Festival at Agape Chapel to celebrate all the LORD had accomplished through us. Then Sunday, Dave Chaffee preached, the team packed up and headed home. It was a sad day to see them go, but praise God they came! Here is some pictures to give you a look at the adventure!

Sunday Awesome Sunday

By admin - Monday 07 May 2012 - 05:20:08

Yesterday was an amazing day! It was Sunday here at the village and we had a busy day planned with Sunday School, church, fellowship, work and a trip to town. Jim and Jan shared at Sunday School for the adults, Linda taught Sunday School for the kids and Kevin taught at the church service. We were all blessed to be allowed to serve God here in Uganda. During the service, the team was introduced to the body here at Agape Chapel. Bill and Dave shared a heart felt moment about their times with Agents for Christ and the body of Christ warmly welcomed the team! Kevin taught a message out of Jonah that really moved in the hearts of the people in Bukerere, Uganda. At the end of the service many came forward for prayer and then Jaques Masiko (Elder at Agape Baptist) shared some amazing stories about how ACV began.

After service, the leadership from Agape Chapel and the team all shared a meal at the James' home. It was a great time of fellowship for all. While we were all meeting, a local team of Masons worked hard to get more of the church floor accomplished. After the meal ended, we all loaded onto the bus and headed for Kampala. We took a few of our friends from the village with us and we headed to the big city for a night in town. We went and got a bite to eat, a little ice cream and some supplies for next week. We arrived safely home and a few of us went and looked at the progress on the church floor. We were amazed at the progress the crew made and we were excited about the progress God is doing in our lives!

Great accomplishments

By admin - Saturday 05 May 2012 - 17:42:50

Today has been such an awesome day! It has been so productive, PRAISE GOD! The guys doing the fencing had set out with a goal to complete a certain number of fence posts and did about 3 times more than they had planned on! It was a great success. The guys doing the first wing of the church floor made a great start, although they anticipate that it will take a lot more time than what they thought, so they need prayers as we will only have 2 1/2 days to complete this project before the team leaves. The guys working on the electricity made some good progress and some of the outdoor kitchen areas have lighting now. YAY! And last but not least, the guys working on the closet organizers for the kids room almost completed them in the first house they were working on. We give thanks to God for enabling these hard working men to have the strength they needed to accomplish what they did today! "The desire accomplished is sweet to the soul." Proverbs 13:19. Tonight is outreach, so we will let you know how that turned out very soon! Keep the prayers up as the LORD leads! We are in need of them and definitely feel and appreciate them! We love you faithful friends and family!

A sweet story from our outreach

By admin - Saturday 05 May 2012 - 17:05:55

Last night at outreach, all of the teams had a great time preaching and sharing Jesus, but one of the teams from America had a particularly good time as they were invited in to one of the homes as they went door to door. The women inside the home had 5 small children and was expecting another. Although it was a small and simple home, the team was welcomed and made comfortable. The team had the privilege of sharing the gospel and what it really means to follow Jesus as Savior. Although it seemed a little out of their comfort zone having to use a translator, and although it felt as if the words weren't coming out as the person on the team who was sharing thought they should, after talking with the young Catholic mother for a while, she said that she wanted to receive Christ. First she prayed, and then her children wanted to pray too! What a great reminder that being used by God has nothing to do with us other than being a willing vessel and it has everything to do with the Holy Spirit working in someone's heart! It was an exciting night all in all and before the team left the house, they were given a parting gift of delicious mangos. Even though this family didnt have much, they gave what they had, as a sweet way of saying thank you! God is so great!!

DayTwo

By admin - Friday 04 May 2012 - 19:45:39

We started out the day with our team prayer and devotion followed by breakfast! By 7:30am our teams were hard at work moving fence posts, drawing plans for the electrical repairs, making plans for how to do the church floor, and sawing the wood for the closet organizers. The teams worked hard until lunch and then afterward, went back to work - however by this time, it was pouring down rain. Despite the cold and wet, and despite the challenges with the power going out everyone worked hard and kept up their good spirits! We finished working around 3:00pm and then everyone prepared for our evangelism outreach in Mukono, which is a small town a few minutes from ACV. It was an awesome night of outreach! Several people surrendered their lives to Jesus and many seeds were planted! The older kids all came home from the Youth Camp this evening and were excited about what they had learned and about the fun they had while they were there! They all concurred that the class on "self awareness" which focused on knowing your strengths and weaknesses was the best class and that it had been the most applicable for them. We are thankful that they all returned safely and that God was glorified! We are excited for what God is going to do tomorrow, so please continue to pray that we all stay healthy and that God meets every need as we work again on the projects and have our 2nd outreach where we will serve a FREE Agape Feast to all those who were invited from the community! We thank you for the prayers and appreciate you all so much! God bless you :)

Day One with the Team

By admin - Thursday 03 May 2012 - 13:57:05

Today was day one with the visiting team from Calvary Chapel SE in Portland, OR! We praise God for their safe arrival on Wednesday night and that they arrived today Thursday to the village! Upon arrival, they were warmly greeted by the children and house moms here at ACV with some special songs and sweet smiles! After getting settle into their rooms, they took a brief walk around the village, we had some lunch and then just played with the kids and relaxed a bit. Tomorrow the work begins on all the projects we have lined up including the fence poles, church floor, electrical problems, and the closet organizers in the houses! We are so excited for what God is going to do through this team! Please keep them all in your prayers as we will all certainly need God's grace and strength to accomplish all that He has for them to do!

ACV Update

By admin - Wednesday 25 April 2012 - 17:33:19

It seems like forever since we have had the opportunity to write, although it’s only been a little over a week. The last 2 weeks have been very challenging for us because we have been without power A LOT! It hasn’t been the normal outages that just go out for a couple of hours during the evening, but rather it has been out for several days at a time, then it will come back for several hours and go out again either all night or all day long. We don’t mean to sound as if we are complaining, we really aren’t. God is so great and even during the outages, we have been having a nice time! The unfortunate part has only been that we haven’t been able to keep in touch with those of you back in the U.S.A. as much as we would like to, and we have been unable to do our important work on the computer. Nevertheless, it has been a good week overall and we have so much to share!

The most exciting thing is that ALL the kids are home from boarding school! We welcomed them back on Friday afternoon! After everyone ate a nice home cooked meal by the house moms, we had a welcome back party with music, a movie and lots of fun! Since being home, we have been having a lot of fun playing volleyball, playing games, watching movies, and just having an all together fun HOLIDAY (that’s what it’s called when you’re on break from school in Uganda)! In May, before going back to school, ACV kids will be doing a special benefit concert at Agape Baptist Church in N’Tinda which is the parent church of Agape Chapel here at ACV. The kids have been practicing songs, dances, poetry, etc to prepare for this great opportunity! The funds that they raise will be used here at ACV to help the kids! They are so amazingly talented and we are excited for them to be able to share their many gifts with others in the body of Christ. Please pray for them as they prepare and perform in a few weeks.

Also during this holiday break, the older kids from ACV will have the privilege of going to a week long camp through the Scripture Union of Uganda. Compassion Int’l and Embrace Uganda (a mission organization here) is sponsoring them to go. It should be a great experience for all of the kids!

We are pleased to report that we began replacing the ceiling tiles in one of the houses this week! This repair has been long awaited and it’s looking good! Two of the ceiling areas are completed now which means that those who live in this particular house, no longer have open rafters! The bats are gone and the ceilings are almost done in this first house! We praise God and thank Him for all that He has done. We also thank God for the house mom and kids who have been so patient as they have waited for their house to be made more livable!

We are also happy to say that through God’s provision through many of you back in the U.S., we have been able to make much needed purchases for the projects that will begin the first week of May. We have a team coming from Portland, OR to begin working on the fencing, the electricity, the church floor, and the closet organizers in the kids’ rooms! We are so happy about the work that God is going to do through this team that is coming! The schedule will be very busy and they will be working ever so hard! Please pray for them as they travel and as they are working here, and please pray for all that is going on here at ACV! We love you our faithful supporters. God bless and keep you we pray!

God is GOOD!

By admin - Monday 16 April 2012 - 17:46:40

This past week has been great, yet certainly not without challenges. For 4 out of 7 days, we had no power and unfortunately we weren’t able to accomplish some of the projects that we had hoped to do. On the other hand, it has been a great week in many ways and we are praising the LORD! ☺

It was our second week of serving lunch to the kids every day at school, which went very well! I just cannot say enough how blessed I am to see their faces light up as we are serving them, and to hear them say afterward that they are very satisfied and thankful for the food to eat! God is so great!

We had our first opportunity to use the new baptismal that was made – it was a very exciting day! 15 people who had attended the baptismal classes at the church made the choice to follow after Jesus’ example and they got baptized. Bill shared a mini conference at a high school of 650 students on Friday evening and all day Saturday in Western Uganda. At the end of the conference, a large group of kids came forward and made a commitment to Christ! It was an awesome time - Glory to God!

It’s now Monday and the power outage has been fixed. So on that note, we are up and running again! We definitely don’t take power for granted here. It is a gift and a privilege to have it! We pray that this week will go smoothly and that we will be able to accomplish many of the things that we are hoping to get done!

The older kids will be coming home from boarding school this week and will be home for about 3 weeks. During that time, we will be sending them to a week long camp at the Uganda Scripture Union, which is being sponsored by Compassion Int’l. It should be a fun and encouraging time for the kids!

We are also preparing for the arrival of a Calvary Chapel team from Portland, OR to come on the 3rd of May. We have work projects and outreaches that they will be helping us with while they are here and we are so excited to see them!

Please keep ACV in your prayers! Our adversary does not like what God is doing and the spiritual warfare is evident. Despite the attacks of the enemy though, we know that nothing can thwart the plans of God. As it says in Job 42:2, “I know that you can do everything and that your plans are unstoppable.” GWT

THE LORD IS RISEN – HE IS RISEN INDEED!

By admin - Monday 09 April 2012 - 16:03:08

Resurrection Day was truly an awesome day – for the obvious reasons of course, but also because it was a great day at church and in fellowship with everyone! We had been practicing with the youth for a skit they were presenting during the Sunday morning service at church, which went amazingly well! Many people were touched and encouraged by it. The service as a whole was a blessing as we ministered to the kids at Sunday school and the adults were ministered to in the main service. After church we had a potluck celebration dinner at our house with everyone from ACV plus a few others who came to partake. After eating, we watched a movie and just had an altogether great time! God is so good! We are grateful for the time we spent together in fellowship on this special day, but we are most grateful that, according to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for us. 1 Peter 1:3-4

DIVINE APPOINTMENT

By admin - Friday 06 April 2012 - 18:12:18

A few days ago, Patrick (my assistant) and I went to the hospital in Kampala to visit his aunt who had recently had surgery and was having complications. We wanted to pray with her and encourage her in the LORD. Before being allowed into the room to visit anyone, you have to go through security. After a brief interrogation as to why we were there, I explained to the security lady that I was a pastor and that I wanted to see the patient and pray for her. The security guard said, “You are a Pastor? I want to get saved!” Of course I was filled with joy when she said that, so I proceeded to explain the gospel to her and make sure she knew what it meant to be saved and to surrender her life to Jesus. She understood, and prayed to accept Jesus as her LORD and SAVIOR! Then she thanked us for coming. It was truly a divine appointment. After that, we went in to see Patrick’s aunt and prayed for her. I might add, she is doing well and recovering from the surgery! PRAISE GOD!

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