Samuel Mwesiwga – Kerith Ministries
I would like to thank you so much for the great work you are doing through Kerith Ministries. We know that God continues to use each of you in so many ways. Because of your support through Harvesters International Ministries, we have been able to accomplish much and create a lasting impact in the community and in the lives of individuals.
In addition to providing a home for 32 children, Kerith Ministries offers an outstanding Christ-centered education to more than 165 children each day in our primary school. Our school children, most of whom walk from one of five surrounding villages, receive breakfast, lunch, medical care, and a great deal of love each day.
We are thankful for a recent special gift that God provided so that we can begin a new, micro-finance program. We will be making small, but life changing, loans to widows and single mothers in our area. Currently, 18 participants are undergoing the screening and orientation process to receive loans that will help them purchase needed items to begin or enhance their small business enterprises.
God has blessed our evangelistic efforts with over 400 new believers accepting Christ so far this year. Our new church plant among the Mening people in far northern Uganda continues to grow. Please pray for the new pastor who has recently moved there to reach more of these people for Christ and to disciple the new believers there. The material needs are also great in this area. On a recent medical outreach, our team met an 18 month old boy named Amon who was suffering from malaria, pneumonia, and scabies. Amon’s father died when he was two months old. His mother, three sisters and two brothers struggled greatly due to poverty and mistreatment by her deceased husband’s family. When the team met Amon he weighed only 11 pounds. The team was able to take him back to Kerith where he is living with the other children in the ministry’s full-time care. He is receiving regular medical care as well as proper nutrition. We are so grateful for his tremendous improvement! Please be in prayer for him and his family.
I would like to share with you our urgent need to install electrical power to our ministry property including the orphanage, clinic, and school. For years, we have been using solar panels to provide power. Due to the growth in our work and our vision to expand the ministry, we need access to regular electrical power. Using solar panels has turned out to be very expensive and inefficient to run the lights and support our office work. We have faced several challenges because the batteries break down often and are very costly to replace. During the rainy season, they do not generate enough power for lighting. All of this results in several dangers and issues for us. We have too much darkness at night, which attracts thieves who have tried to break into the health center. We need security lighting to also increase the safety of our children in the orphanage. Likewise, improved inside lighting will help our children to read at night and complete their homework assignments. Dependable electrical power will allow us to use electrical appliances in the clinic to provide better care and service to our patients. We will also use power to train young people in skills like metal fabrication, use of our electrical sawing machines, and computers.
To have electrical power at our ministry, the utility company must construct lines that will pass by over 30 other families. Those families will then have opportunity to have electricity for their homes. The total cost of this project is approximately $12,000 and will provide great, ongoing benefits that will impact many lives and our community in a wonderful way.
We are trusting God in all these matters. Again, thank you for your prayers and support.
This summer, I had the privilege of traveling to Pallisa, Uganda, to meet and work alongside Pastor Sam and his wife, Mercy Mwesigwa, for two months. While there, I learned so many valuable lessons such as living a selfless life, showing the love of Jesus to others, and the way we should effectively do missions. As someone who has been on multiple mission trips, including those within the states and all throughout various parts of the world, it was interesting to learn more about creating a ministry like Kerith Children’s Home and what it means to be missionaries within your own culture and country. At times, it was personally difficult to see the poverty and the struggles that these people are faced with daily. Struggles that most Americans will never be able to comprehend. I believe that it’s important that people go on mission trips. It changes your perspective on life and what it really means to love and follow Jesus. I know it certainly has changed my perspective.
Pastor Sam has a heart for reaching people with the gospel, discipling believers so that they can grow deeper in their faith, and church planting. He has planted churches in places where people have never heard about the love, hope, and grace that we have solely in Jesus. Mercy’s heart for orphans and other vulnerable children is evident in the work of Kerith Ministries. In Matthew 25:35-40, Jesus instructs his followers that the world will know they are his by the way they treat others. Mercy and Sam are the living examples of these verses. Through their actions and kindness, they show Jesus to the very least of these. What a selfless example they are of being Jesus to a lost and broken world.
My life has forever been changed by my summer in Uganda. At times, I felt so inadequate being there. How could someone so insignificant as me make a difference in the lives of these children? I came to the realization while in Uganda that I can’t change the circumstances of every person I meet, however badly I may desire, because only Jesus can do that. However, I can be present in the life of that child and show love to them while I’m here. As a follower of Christ, I am called to simply love others just as Jesus loves me. So with every hand held, every cup of porridge served, smile and hug given, and every broken English word learned, I am constantly learning to simply be love.
Project Hope 127 takes its name from James 1:27 which says “Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress…” This verse expresses the same truth as many others do, that God’s love working through His people takes the form of life-impacting action.
