Happy New Year to you all. I hope that you had an enjoyable Christmas and have had a good start to 2010. Thank you for your continued prayers, support, emails and cards (a few have reached me in the last fortnight which was a lovely surprise!) Christmas here was definitely ‘different’ but enjoyable all the same. It was actually relatively cold here and we had torrential rain which meant we had to have our lunch together in the church rather than outside as planned. I was very thankful for the rain however, as my water tank was completely empty on Christmas Eve and I had spent several hours that day collecting jerry cans of water with the children, tipping it in the tank until there was enough to allow me to pump some and give me some running water! Sadly, since then the hot, dry season has started properly and once again my tank is dry so I`m paying some of the kids to bring me jerry cans on a daily basis. Psalm 63 which we memorised in the institute is becoming more and more relevant…….this land is certainly very dry and weary at the moment!

As most of you know, my Gran passed away last week and I want to thank you all for your prayers and encouragement which have definitely made a difference. Obviously I was devastated and desperately wanted to go home and be with my family. It really made me aware of what I had sacrificed to be here and a part of me just wanted to give up and go home! However, God has provided me with such a loving family here at Kasana and has given me a real peace in my heart that Gran is with Him and that one day I will see her again. It is hard not to be able to go to say goodbye at the funeral which is on Tuesday (2^nd Feb) but I am planning to go and visit her grave and some of the places we used to go together in the summer when I come home for my sister`s wedding.

These last couple of months have been a challenge for Hassan and I as he has been in and out of the hospital with Malaria and various problems with his feeding tube(s.) However, this last week he had a proper gastrostomy tube fitted that someone sent out from the UK. Hopefully this one will stay in for longer (a year, we hope!) as it is being held in from the inside rather than by a piece of flip flop and elastic bands taped to his tummy (don`t ask!!!) I had to help the two surgeons insert the tube last Wednesday which was another bizarre ‘only in Africa’ experience; they didn`t have the endoscope that they were meant to use so they had to get Hassan to swallow a magnet……thankfully he was surprisingly calm throughout and was laughing all the way home from the hospital in the clinic vehicle. The road is so bumpy at the moment it is probably like a mini roller coaster ride J

Hopefully Hassan won`t be getting Malaria again for a while as we were able to screen in the verandah of his house thanks to money that people raised – thank you sooooooooo much! We are still waiting for a door to be made so in the meantime you better pray that the mozzies stay away!

Thankfully I have remained healthy but I have been really struggling with the lack of privacy here, not getting any time to spend alone as well as being overwhelmed by the many needs people have here and being seen as a ‘rich mazungu’ (white person/foreigner) who can solve everything by giving out cash. God has really spoken to me about giving out of love and in obedience to him and NOT out of guilt. I`ve also been reminded that money is definitely NOT the ultimate answer to people`s problems.

I was very thankful to be able to spend 5 days away in Entebbe with another English lady called Jill in January; we just booked ourselves into a lovely guest house and did very little other than sleep, read and sunbathe at a nearby pool. I have also decided that in the next few months I will spend my days (and hopefully nights) off away from Hassan`s house – I will either stay at Nancy`s over on the secondary site or (probably once per month,) I will go spend the weekend with my friend in Kampala. Hopefully this will stop me getting totally exhausted and make sure that I get some time to really focus on God and remember why I am here and what he has called me to do.

The new school year started today (February 1^st) and I joined in the chaos as all the classes shifted rooms. I will be helping in pre-school and P2 (accompanied by Hassan,) although I found out this morning that the pre-school teachers think I am taking the class for them which could be a challenge as most of the kids don`t speak a word of English. The lower school are still taught in Luganda which will hopefully help my language skills develop further but could be a struggle to begin with.

I still feel very strongly that God has called me out here to minister specifically to children with disabilities and am really praying that God will open more doors in this area in the coming year. New Hope are really struggling financially at the moment so new projects are understandably being put on the shelf for the time being. However, I am certain that if God wants us to begin a class / day centre for special needs children next year, He will make a way! Whatever happens, it is clear to me that God wants me to be out here for at least another couple of years and I feel comfortable committing to that but obviously it is largely dependent on people continuing to support me.

As I`ve already mentioned above, New Hope as a ministry are facing difficult times in regard to their finances at the moment and we have all been asked to look for ways in which we can reduce our expenditure, make better use of what resources we are given and become self sufficient where possible. In the family meetings we have had regarding the situation, the leadership have really encouraged us all (including the children,) to really seek God at this time and remember that ultimately HE is our provider and the one who sustains us. It is all too easy to trust in ourselves or in other people rather than in Him. Before Christmas, we were asked to send out an email to our supporters which, due to the situation with Hassan, I never actually got round to but I shall send it out now as an additional attachment.

I know that many of you are already supporting me financially and I am very grateful for that but if any of you (or anyone you know) would be interested in becoming a sponsor for Hassan then please let me know and I can put you in touch with our sponsorship office. Due to his multiple disabilities and special needs he needs at least 8 sponsors to cover his expenditure and he currently only has 3.