Updates Mean Better Ministry

We are super excited with all the great changes going on with Rising Star right now. We know God has put his blessing on this ministry and we are honored to be chosen to oversee it. We want to highlight some of the great things to come in the next few months.

First is probably the most obvious, our family has moving to Uganda permanently. We left on May 4^th after spending weeks packing up, selling off, and shipping our personal belongings. We started a video blog to show all the work we’ve been doing to get ready and to come to Uganda. We encourage you to follow along via Facebook or YouTube.

Knowing that this move was coming, we decided not to take a trip to Uganda last year and save the money to allow us to move. With the savings we also purchased new equipment for our ministry center in Uganda to allow us to make sure we are giving the best educational opportunities to the kids there. Here are some of the upgrades we will make.

• New Bible Study Materials – We have found some incredible Bible study materials and small group lessons that we are really excited about. One of which was written by a Ugandan specifically for children in Uganda. This is a huge find for us as it will relate especially to the kids a lot better than most of the curriculum we find in America.

• New computers – In November we purchased and upgraded our computers which will allow the children to learn current technology instead of using the old outdated machines that we had and often broke down.

• Biometric Sign In System – It not only sounds cool to have a fingerprint scanner, but will help keep our children safer. We will know exactly when they are at Rising Star and when they are not. It will allow us to see how often the kids come and share the reports with their families

• New Education Tracking System – Currently the children at Rising Star are required to turn in a copy of their school reports which is kept in a large binder. This system creates a lot of extra paperwork and is easy to overlook when trying to help children. The new computer based system will allow us to input all the grades a child receives and compare them to previous school terms. Ultimately it will allow us to easily see where a kid struggles most in school and help them.

We also ordered new mission balls, which are soccer balls with scripture printed right on them, which allow us to take the gospel right to the soccer field in an easier way. Some of the balls are printed in the local language of Luganda.

In December our education assistant left Rising Star to take another job. We decided at that time not to fill the position and let Brecka take over when she gets there. See the way she has been so creative in the past with the kids in Uganda and watching her teach our own children, we are super excited to have her teach our students and guide our staff in that area of our ministry.

Finally we are giving our current home a face lift. We are putting in a new floor and painting the walls.

Please continue to pray as we make these changes, that everything will be well received and go smoothly. We’re thankful for your support in making this ministry possible. We encourage you to follow along with us on our social media pages and website; including our new video blog to see all the great things happening in Uganda.