What a Difference the Summer Makes

Our children anticipate the arrival of Ukids each year. As the bus pulls up to the village, there is a warm and overwhelming welcome with the kids waving palm branches, singing, dancing, laughing and extending hugs! We too anticipate their arrival each year as they set out to accomplish so much in their short visit to the village. We want to highlight some of the wonderful things they accomplished while in Uganda, but know that what we share with you only paints a small picture of what they have done.

Ukids was able to install a water tower with two tanks at the Lira orphanage. What a blessing it is for those children to now enjoy fresh water! Thanks to Rick Chowdry and the team, they were also able to install a transmitter for electricity in the village. While in Lira they also supplied the orphanage with some of the things they were needing: wheelbarrow, hoes, and more mosquito nets.

We are grateful that Ukids makes it a priority every year to have baptisms at the hotel. Around 125 children and moms were baptized this year, to God be the glory! It is nice to see how they really consider all aspects in regards to this event by ensuring they understand what baptism is, covering them in prayer and washing their feet. Thank you Lord for lives changed by the Gospel!

There was a team that hosted a tea party to bless the house moms. They enjoyed tea, cupcakes, and other delicious treats as they were poured into and loved on by the team. Eleven tables were donated to go in the homes so they had a drawing to choose where they would go. Debbie prayed over the names before they were drawn so that those tables would go to exactly who God intended them to go to. What a blessing to our house moms!

While we continue to work on the school, the team was able to complete many of the classrooms allowing our children to move into the new school. We celebrated all that God had done through them and prayed over the school and the children. What a blessing this school will be to the lives of so many.

A farewell party was thrown for the Ukids where they offered many gifts to the ministry on top of all that they had already done. Our head master was blessed with the things he needs to be successful at his job. Our school was blessed with much needed school supplies, and our children were blessed with clothing, shoes, and other fun activities.

The blessings we received are too big to be summed up in words, so just know that God has blessed us abundantly through Ukids' ministry and we are grateful to God for what He is doing through them for us!

See photos of their trip on our flickr account: Ukids Trip!

Because of Calvary,

Jackson Senyonga
Christian Life Ministries

Uganda Ministry Updates

My family and I, Pastor Jackson Senyonga, just returned to the United States from our summer long trip home. It was a glorious time of ministry on several fronts.

On the church front, I worked to cast the vision to plant 400 additional fellowship campuses accommodating 100 people each. By 2012, we are called to have greater Kampala saved. The people at Christian Life Church were very receptive to the vision. Their prayers for guidance turned into a line out the door of people volunteering to step up and lead these fellowships. Leadership training has commenced, and a leadership training manual of 200 pages is in print. I expected to have people step up, of course, but I thought there would be around 300 or so people. Surprisingly, we have over 700 people coming forward to commit to leading a fellowship. Wow!! Glory be to God! I started training these mighty men and women of God in the making for about 8 hours per week. We are planning to make hell smaller and heaven bigger by planting our first 100 of the 400 fellowships by December this year, Lord willing. If each fellowship can accommodate 100 people, we might as well have heaven throw a big party because the Lamb of God will again win the rewards of his sufferings.

Please help us pray for this Kingdom work and this project, specifically for these leaders, the training process which is still going on, and of course, the resources that will be required to launch this assault. Christian Life Ministries will seek help for Christian Life Church in this vision launch. Again, thank you for praying and supporting our ministry.

If you are interested in supporting this project, please let us know by calling our office at 972-307-5433 or emailing info@christianlifeministries.org. You can read more about our ministry by visiting www.christianlifeministries.org

Thank you for your love of our ministry and more importantly, your love for Christ.

Pastor Jackson Senyonga
Senior Pastor and Founder
Christian Life Ministries

Summer Missions

This time of year is always very exciting for me as teams begin to arrive in Uganda for their various mission trips. Visions that have been planted over the year begin to take place and transformation in Uganda becomes even more of a reality.

We had our first team arrive on Monday and our second team today. They are already on the ground working hard and ministering to our orphans, widows and the people of our church. We are excited to see what the Lord will do through these teams during their short time in Uganda.

Please pray for safe travels for these people. Praise the Lord for their safe arrival. Pray for their visions to come alive and things to be done in the time frame they had hoped they would take place. Pray that relationships would develop. Pray God would move among the people of Uganda and the people from here.

Can't wait to give you updates on what is happening in Uganda this summer!!

Straight from the mouth of Natalie on the Uganda Experience

Hear what Natalie Caminiti has to say about her time in Uganda:

I went because of the overwhelming need broke my heart. The idea alone of a 20 year war broke my heart not to mention the atrocities that Ugandans are living with as a result of the war. Poverty breaks my heart, and so does 10 percent of the world's orphans living in a country the size of the state I live in.

I thought to myself, hey I'm single without children why can't I take care of some kids who need love? I can only imagine what it must be like to bare a child, but it must feel a lot like being vulnerable enough to feel as if you would do anything to protect life and that's how I feel when I think of the orphans I've met there. I just can't fathom the hurt they have felt in their short lives.

I Ultimately went with the intention to "do good works by my faith," but instead of only being broken for the people of Uganda, I instead became broken for people back home (or in the Western world) because we are so caught up in materialism and schedules and selfishness. We miss the feeling of true community, the blessing of a simple life and the feeling of gratefulness, especially for the small things.

I've been forever changed by my experience and will continue to return as long as God allows.

Consider joining Natalie to Uganda for our summer short term mission trips, “Transforming Uganda 2010.”

Let me know if you are interested.

Pastor Jackson Senyonga
Christian Life Ministries

Dates for 2010 Mission Trip

We have finally set the dates for next years’ mission trips. For our general mission trip, the dates are July 22 to July 30. There will be other mission trips during the summer with specific groups going to accomplish specific things, but this one is a general mission trip. It is perfect for those that want to do a little bit of all of our ministries, including caring for orphans, planting churches, evangelism, etc.

We also have scheduled our winter mission trip to Uganda for December 29, 2010 to January 7, 2011.

We would really appreciate your inputs and expression of interest. Also, if you feel you would rather attend the mission trip with a specific group, send us the information of your church or group and we can send you more information and get you guys set up for your desired dates. If you don’t have a group in mind and want to know what groups are in your area, let us know that too. If we know of groups in your area, we will get you in touch with them. We are so excited for next year’s trip!

Pastor Jackson Senyonga
Christian Life Ministries