DOH Outreach with Gospel Truth Ministries in Rakai District

May 24, 2009

DOH Outreach with Gospel Truth Ministries in Rakai District

Door of Hope had an amazing village outreach yesterday in the Rakai District. This district was the 1st place that AIDS was found in the world so there is still a lot of pain suffering and loss of hope there. :( But we brought them the faith, hope and love of God!

The Door of Hope partnered with Gospel Truth Ministries which is lead by Pastor
Moses Umar Zzimbe. Pastor Moses has a church in Masaka and a daily morning Christian radio program on Equator Radio 93.0- Masaka. I’ve worked with Pastor Moses before on the 2006 Believers World Outreach (BWO) evangelism team outreaches in Masaka. He is a great man and has an amazing testimony from being a Muslim to becoming a Christian, but that’s another blog! :)

Our day started out at 10am when all 15 children, 4 adults (Jim, Robyn, Julie and I), and Pastor Moses boarded our hired “mini-bus” taxi. As we drove through Masaka town we picked up Dr. Mawana and another Pastor. Gees I thought the “bus” was crowded already then we packed them in too! So down the road we all went with the packed mini- bus of people and supplies for the outreach.



We arrived in the village of Rwamba in the Rakai District about 45 minutes later full of energy, excitement and anticipation of what the day was going to bring. We pulled up to the village church and all climbed out thankful for the safe journey and to be able to move our legs again. Immediately we were introduced to some of the church members and the people that were going to guide us on our door to door evangelism. We broke up into four groups, each going north, south, east and west, to cover the whole village area. The Pastor prayed for God’s favor and then we were off to spread the word of the Lord!

Our team was Pastor Moses, Shadia, Rock, little John, Barbra and me. As we walked down the dirt road I couldn’t help but notice the natural beauty of the area. Laid out before me were lush green hills, the village gardens of; matooka (banana) trees, g-nuts (peanuts) and tomatoes and the beautiful wild flowers. How could an area of such beauty have had so much death surrounding it? I pondered that as we walked to the first house.


To Be Continued……..Look for the 2nd part of the posting tomorrow

The Door of Hope Families is Doing So Much! by Jessica Winblad

Sunday, May 24, 2009
The Door of Hope Families is Doing So Much!
I just wanted to share how impressed I am with all the amazing things Robyn and Jim are doing at the Door of Hope. Until I started getting involved in updating the website recently, and receiving pictures from Jim for the website, I had no idea they were doing so many projects!

They're really doing an amazing job of not only providing for the physical needs of these kids, but providing a house of discipleship. They're teaching the kids servant-leadership by example, taking the kids out into the community to pray for the sick at the hospitals, to clean up the trash on the road, and many other things. I couldn't get over how many smiles I saw on these children's faces at Door of Hope, because I'd spent a lot of time with some of these children when I was in Uganda, and yes, I've seen them smile, but now, I see radiant smiles. And it makes me so happy to see photos and updates that they've been going on outings to visit the relatives of the children when they are able! They really act like a family!

By Jessica Winblad- Technical Assistant to HWP Ministries/DOH

I also wanted to share a few of my favorite pictures of Door of Hope and their ministry actives:
Look at the Dormitories at Door of Hope:


Those bright pink beds in the girl’s dormitory look so inviting! And no only are the beds new and not in disrepair or otherwise dangerous, the beds are properly outfitted with sheets, blankets, and pillows. Maybe that doesn't sound so amazing from an American mindset, but I saw more than enough beds that did not have so much as sheets that could be washed on them, and pillows were quite few and far between.

And did you notice the beautiful painting on the walls inside and outside the dormitories? Volunteers painted the walls in the girl’s dormitory with butterflies, flowers, and scripture. It looks so inviting and welcoming!
Volunteer art teacher came to paint the girls dorm Volunteer artist came to paint the girls dorm



The kids are all receiving a quality education at local primary and secondary schools. They look so sharp (or "smart" as the Ugandans would say) in their school uniforms!
Kids at the school with Daddy Brian Shadia, Winnie, Sara, John, Jennifer, Barbara, Rock, Imelda, and Moses


They celebrate birthdays at the Door of Hope. Can you see those bright smiles? I think many of those kids have never had their birthdays recognized, let alone gotten treats like blowing out candles on a birthday cake!
Happy Birthday Winnie'


Some more favorites:

Robyn is the cheerleader Barbara family pictures 055.jpg

And the kids even go on outings, such as this one to the beach. They look like they are having soooo much fun!


Door of Hope family Cleaning trash of the street for an outreach project:


Babra praying for the sick at the hospital:

Speke Rd Clean Up Outreach

May 5 and 9, 2009

Speke Road Clean Up

On Tuesday and Saturday last week the children and staff of the Door of Hope did another community outreach program! We started the morning off with an introduction by Jjaja Jim of why God wants us to keep our world clean. Genesis 2: 15 states The Lord placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and care for it. He said, “This world has been given to man to take care of and us as a family need to do our part in our neighborhood and in the community to take care of it.” Jim also talked about how one little “sweetie” wrapper that you throw on the ground starts to grow into all the rubbish that we see on our road today. So look for the smallest thing and pick it up!

HWP Speke Rd Clean Up Outreach!

Market Day in Masaka

Dr. Sam Leading the Door of Hope Hospital Outreach

Market Day in Masaka

May 8, 2009
Market Day in Masaka

It Friday and it is market day in Masaka! Robyn and I are taking the younger boys, Moses, Little John and Rob to the market to get some t-shirts and shorts. We’ve just turned the corner onto the main street and the crowds appear before us. There are vendors on the median, and the sides of the road. Their tarps spread out before us with every kind of cheap Chinese ware you can imagine on them for sale. When we walk by into the main market place I hear the calls of mazungo, mazungo what are you buying from me. As we enter the market to head to the second hand cloths stalls all you can see are people, colors, sounds of chickens, and the barkers shouting their deals for the day. It is controlled chaos at its best!

We reach the first stall and Robyn and I start picking out shirts. Do you like this one?, we ask. No, no, no are the boys responses. They start sorting through the piles and don’t find anything either so we are all off to the next stall. John and I start weeding through the piles of shirts and ahh we’ve found a match, and another. I find out John likes strips on his shirts! We bargain with the lady and get the 3 shirts down to 2,500 shillings a piece. But Moses and Rob are another story; we can’t seem to find anything they like yet, so we are off. We push our way through the crowds down the slope to another stall. This lady we’ve bought from before and know she has good clothes. The boys take over the small wooden stall and start picking up shirts left and right, Auntie do you like this one or this one? Moses finally comes to me with 2 shirts, which are both great! He has such different taste then John in clothes, football jerseys and shirts with pictures on them. So off we go with a Sea World t-shirt and a Manchester United goalie jersey!

Market day doesn’t end there; we still need to get our fruits and veggies. We all head over to our usually veggie stand and buy 8 onions, 2 green peppers, 8 tomatoes, all for about 1,000 shillings a piece. The guy we buy from is great; he and his son run the stand and always greet us with a smile! Then it is over to the fruit lady to buy bananas, a big bunch for 1,500 or 2,000 shillings depending on the ladies mood.

We pick up a few more things for the boys, a belt for John and school socks for Moses and then we are headed back to the house. What a day at the Friday Market!! :)