Greetings from …

Aside

Greetings from a rainy Uganda, brothers and sisters in the Lord.  It’s so good to finally get a chance to update you in what the Lord has been doing here at Sonrise. The Lord has truly been good to us and we have seen him manifest himself in many difficult situations.

As many of you may remember God provided a permanent house for Sonrise.  We were able to purchase a decent house but it needed a lot of work like the ceiling, flooring, plumbing, windows, secure doors, painting, and fencing.  God provided a chunk of money we needed to renovate the Sonrise house. Of course we were jumping up and down with praises to God. It was a miracle indeed.  Even as I write this builders are busy working on the house and we hope to be in the house by July 2012.

I know many of you are anxious to hear about my wedding. We received so much support and for that we are really thankful to you all. You encouraged us and prayed for us through it all. Thank you so much. We had a beautiful honeymoon in Mombasa which was a miracle because we could never have been able to come up with the money for it had it not been for a very generous special person in our lives. I am happy to say that I am now happily married and loving married life. It’s a lot different of course because I have to divide my time between being in Kampala with Felix and being at Sonrise with the babies.

I remember asking many of you to pray for Innocent’s adoption and I am happy to let you know that he was finally given his American visa and is doing well with his forever family in the states. It was truly a work of the Lord. We were beginning to lose hope but our God never sleeps he was working out the details all along.

We are devastated that Edwin had to leave Sonrise. His Mom who is still in the prostitution business decided that she wanted to remove Edwin from Sonrise and go take care of him at her place where she prostitutes herself.  This really broke our hearts knowing what kind of things he will now be exposed to. Please pray for him. He was doing so well. He came to Sonrise 3 years ago very malnourished and with all kinds of complications. She would give him alcohol to go to sleep. So a year ago when she saw Edwin looking so nice and healthy she decided she wanted him. We tried to caution her that she is really not in a condition to have a little kid while she is still prostituting herself. She would not listen and in our country the mother always has the final word. So we had to let Edwin go. He was not so happy and he was on the verge of tears when he was leaving with his mom. Please while in prayer don’t forget to pray for this little one.

Several needy babies have joined our Sonrise family in the last month. We thank God for their little lives. Nathan is two years but looks like he is six months his mom abandoned him and left him with his drunkard Dad, his main job is to burn charcoal in the forests he hardly could make a living to feed himself let alone feed Nathan. Nathan became stunted and was becoming very weak because of hunger. The village people called me about his situation. After he arrived at my door step I could not say ‘NO’. His father continues to drown himself in booze but the church in that village is trying to reach out to him.

Phillip’s Dad disappeared one morning and there are some rumors that he left to go live on the islands of Lake Victoria. No one has ever heard from him. He left when Phillip was a new born. After a while Phillip’s mom grew tired of waiting so she also abandoned Phillip at his grandfather’s place. The grandfather of Phillip is so crippled and cannot take care of him. Most people in Uganda survive on the land so if you can’t dig or grow crops then it’s usually very difficult for such a person. So Phillip began to starve because his grandfather couldn’t support him. The neighbors would give them any leftover’s which of course is not much. He had so many jiggers in his feet. We decided to rescue him as well. He is now doing so much better and so happy.

Kyeyune Matthew’s mom died in January this year. Ever since her death Matthew was not doing well. His Dad couldn’t take care of him. He would leave him in different homes everyday so that he can go do casual labor in the village.  Because of economic hardships it’s difficult to find any work. Concerned neighbors in the village called me after seeing that Matt was becoming quickly malnourished.

Joseph was discovered by a dear friend Stacy. She had come on a short term mission trip and discovered that he had no one to care for him. He was staying with the school’s head teacher who is not even related to him.  She paid for him to be treated that day. He recovered but he still needed a family. We recently welcomed him into the Sonrise family. He is doing so well. His Mom and Dad are separated and they both want nothing to do with him. Well we love him and we know Jesus loves him too.

A bunch of our babies have been affected by measles. Jane had it and has recovered now Marie has it and she is really struggling with it so please pray for her. Asharaf too is showing signs of it. This is such a big storm for us but please stay close with your prayers. 

We are sad that baby Angel passed away in April. Nakato one of the babies we care for in the community also passed away. We miss them a lot but we know that someday we will see them again in Heaven. We know that they are in a place of no suffering or disease.

Thank you so much for your prayers for our babies who have had measles last month and the whole of this month. Several of the babies are still sick with the measles so please continue to pray.

 

We thank the Lord for friends: Kim’s team and April’s team from the states, Tammy’s team from Canada, Uncle Randy from Canada, Glenn’s team from Canada, Richard Symonds teams from UK and My parents from the states.   Jamie and Miss Angel also joined us in April  serving the Lord.

Thank you so much.We thank the Lord for you all and for your support financially, prayerfully and morally.

 Peace to you all

Damali and all the babies

Need Your Help!

I receive a lot of requests and questions on how to help Sonrise Ministries. Today I have a new opportunity for you that you can help with.

A lady who is HIV positive came by with her very sick twin daughters and shared her story with me. Her husband left her as soon as he found out he had infected her with HIV/AIDS and that she was pregnant. She is a young girl, not even twenty. She was sobbing the whole time she told me her story as her babies lay sick on her lap. They have malaria and very bad diarrhea. She said she came to Sonrise because she knew I could find ways to help her. She has heard that the lives of many babies have been saved at Sonrise and that she wanted her babies to also live. By this time, I too had tears in my eyes. I called Richard and asked him to tell me how many tins of milk we have left. He said we only had 3 tins left and we are only in the middle of the month, formula has become very expensive here. I told him to bring one so that we could give it to this lady. We also gave her 6 bottles as well because she had been feeding the babies from a broken plate. She was not supposed to breastfeed because of her HIV, but she ended up breastfeeding the babies for 3 months. The babies are now 4months old. I gave her all the extra money I had in my purse, which was about 10 dollars. She needed to pay rent, to feed her babies, and to also buy food for herself. After hearing her story and looking into their eyes, there was no way I could ask her to leave without sharing with her. Even if it was just a little bit from what we have here at Sonrise. Please pray for this young lady and her babies. If you feel led to help this young lady for a few months, until she can get on her feet or if you would like to sponsor her babies so they can get healthy, please let me know.

You can make a donation for this by going to http://www.sonrisebabies.org and clicking on the donate button. Please make explain in the comment box that it is for this lady. Thank you!

Damali

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Update On Our Travels

Greetings Dear friends and family,

I just want to share with you what the Lord did for Sonrise  while I was travelling in Canada, USA and England.

It was an amazing trip. God surely did many amazing things.He continued to show me that He is in charge of Sonrise Baby Home and that He will take care of his children.

PRAISES AND SPECIAL THANKS

 NEW SPONSORS:   I really thank God that many of you are now sponsoring the babies. We were able to gain many new sponsors every place we spoke and that really helps us out a lot because it increases our monthly support.

A PERMANENT HOME:  Grandview Baptist Church in Canada donated money to enable us to buy a permanent home for Sonrise.  As soon as I arrived back in Uganda, I began negotiations with the landlord to buy the house.  Praise God!!!

NEW COWS AND A PIGS’ HOUSE:  Altogether now Sonrise has five cows, three are calves which are milking everyday.

NEW VAN, MICROWAVE AND WASHING MACHINE:  As many of you who have been to Uganda have seen, we had a very very old van and it kept on breaking down. We traded it in, added some money, and are soon getting a new one. Even as I type this it will be at Sonrise anyday. It’s still in Kampala where they are working on a number plate but in Uganda everything takes a long time.

SPECIAL THANKS TO IVAN AND THE STAFF AT SONRISE:    Ivan has done an amazing job with all the babies while I have been gone. All the staff have worked extra hard to care for the children. I am really blessed with a wonderul team. All the children have changed so much it’s unbelievable. It was so lovely to meet baby Kevin for the first time and baby Sue. Please pray for baby Kevin because the doctor told us that he may have problems with his eyesight.

OLD AND NEW FRIENDS:  I really thank the Lord for all of you who took me in and showed me so much hospitality. I am thankful for all the churches and schools that gave me an opportunity to share about Sonrise and the work we are doing here in Uganda.

NEW BABIES!   Two precious new babies have been rescued and added to the Sonrise family – Baby Kevin and Baby Sue    Be watching our website soon for their photos and stories.

 

PRAYER NEEDS:  We are so thankful to have you on our team to support us with your prayers.

·         Please pray that negotiations go well with the landlord.  We are excited to be able to purchase a permanent home instead of renting each month.

·         Pending adoption for baby Innocent. He was not given a visa to the states though he got a positive ruling from the Ugandan court .  The American embassy has not granted his visa yet.  Please pray for him that God will move hearts as Emma and I are working so hard to prove that Innocent is a needy child and deserves to have a family.

·         Funding to build a new sewage system at the baby home ($500)

 

 ·         Motorcycle to travel doing adoption paper work and surveys or when searching for the babies surviving relatives. Some of the roads are very difficult.  ($2000)

·         Kitchen for Sonrise – currently we are cooking from a shed outside so when its raining cooking becomes hard .

·         More Sponsors- we still have many children who are not fully sponsored.  ( $30 a month)

 ·         We will need  $5000 to complete the purchase of the new van

Praise be to God for His faithfulness, 

Damali and all the Sonrise babies

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Update on Musa

Musa has changed quite a lot since being a baby when he first came to Sonrise. He is growing very tall and loves to be loud. He is so happy all the time expect when he does not see food. He loves smiling and laughing and has developed such a funny way of laughing that leaves every one wondering where exactly he got it from (like HEY HEY HEY).

 
He is obedient and whenever he is called he comes quickly. He is very energetic and strong, and pulls apart many things. He especially  likes messing with clothes and diapers and has fun pulling and throwing them in every way. He can’t stand wiping his nose, you have to chase him down and hold him still. He likes to hang out with the baby girls.

Musa is getting very fast, When he walks he has a big smile on his face. He has a lot of fun just walking around the house outside. He laughs so hard and sometimes ends up leaning on some one’s hands or toes and bites them. We are teaching him not to bite so he is learning to behave. He is too loud for the house but so fun to be around that it makes it OK. He loves bathing in cold water, playing in potties, and messing up in bathrooms.

He is starting to  learn baby talk and is learning to express when he wants more food, sweets or chocolate. He loves candy and chocolate and keeps saying more in a very loud tune. He pulls his blanket and covers over himself at night. He messes up his covers at bedtime and plays a lot in them, but always remembers to cover himself. He loves eating rice, watermelon, bread and milk. He likes drinking a lot and takes around 4 bottles each night.

 

 

 We have a small play ground for the babies and Musa loves the tire swing. He loves making noise at class time but does not like practicing the alphabet. He loves coloring because he gets to eat paper. Musa is growing stronger every day and loves going to the kitchen every morning because he knows there is food. He loves screaming and pinching his face if food does not come quickly enough. He loves shoes and when he wears them he thinks about going to a place where he can move around in them.

We are so blessed to have Musa at Sonrise and watch him grow from a baby (from 1 week old ).  Thank you for all the prayers and support to make this possible!

How You and a Necklace can change Lives in Uganda

Looking for a great way to support the needs of Sonrise and change the lives of orphans in Uganda? We need you! Our staff has made necklaces by hand in order to raise more money for the orphaned babies we care for. We need more people to sell the necklaces to friends, colleagues, neighbors, social/church groups, or in any other place where people may purchase. The necklaces come in different colours and sizes and are a beautiful Ugandan design. They have been prepared with recycled magazine paper, beads, string, and glue, all with love and dedication by the staff at Sonrise. These women sacrifice countless hours every week to care for the babies, and have dedicated even more time to make these necklaces. Part of the proceeds will support them and their families who are in extremely poor situations.

By taking part in this grassroots project, you are assuring that every penny from the necklaces goes towards the work at Sonrise. We hope that these necklaces can be sold around the world so that the story and hope of Sonrise can be shared with the necklace wearers and the people they meet. The number of orphans in Uganda is growing every day, making a desperate situation even more desperate. These orphans need a home, and we need more financial resources in order to assist more children. Selling necklaces is a great way to help.  Each necklace will be sold for a minimum of $10, but any extra contribution would be greatly appreciated.  Please don’t hesitate to respond to this opportunity to change lives for so many babies and women in Uganda.

Respond NOW simply by sending an EMAIL with your postal address to: sonrisebabies@gmail.com with the subject “Necklace of Hope”.  Please indicate how many neckalaces you are willing to sell. We will send you a confirmation email and send the necklaces in the mail as soon as we hear from you. Of course, you will not be charged anything for shipping costs. Once sold, please send all the proceeds (minimum $10 per necklace) back by donating through the website at  www.sonrisebabies.org. We look forward to hearing from you soon. Thank you so much from Sonrise!

Sonrise Diaper Drive- We Need Your Help!

Check out this link for detailed information about how you can help us! http://www.gogreenbabyshop.com/donations

“Do you have cloth diapers that you don’t use? Have you potty trained your youngest child? Would you consider donating your diapers to a good cause? Sonrise Baby Orphanage in Jinja, Uganda is home to a large group of babies and infants who are not able to live with their families. Hopefully, many of these children will be adopted and go to live within a family. In the meantime, these babies are in desperate need of diapers to cover their sweet bums. The use of cloth diapers in these baby orphanages reduces the spread of infections and improves sanitation. Furthermore, they do not have the luxury of washers and dryers so all their diapers are washed by hand and dried in the sun, lengthening the time it takes before a diaper can be put back on a baby. Without donated cloth diapers the babies might be diapered in a small towel, the staff will have to spend their limited resources on purchasing disposable diapers, or the baby will go without a diapers.”

“We are collecting any used cloth diapers of any type or style, as well as covers to send to Sonrise Baby Orphanage. If you do not have cloth diapers to donate, would you consider purchasing some prefold diapers that we can send to them? All donations are tax deductable. After you purchase them, we will send you a receipt for your donation, wash and prep all of the diapers and they will be hand delivered. At this time our greatest need is for prefold, fitted or any diaper that can go under a cover. Many companies including Bummis, SunBaby, Go Green Pocket Diapers, and Crickett’s Diapers have made generous donations, particularly of covers and we need some diapers to go under them.”

If you follow the link, at the bottom of the article is the contact information for Kim Moody. She is going to be working with us to coordinate getting the diapers, covers and inserts to the teams that are going over the next several months and throughout the summer.

From everyone at Sonrise, Thank You all for your support and overwhelming response, and most importantly, your prayers!

 

 

Updated Pictures of Baby Mark

We Need Diapers!

Hey everyone!

Thank you all so much for your support and your interest in Sonrise. We wanted to share with you one of our big needs and how you can help.

As you can see in the pictures we dont have enough cloth diapers so the babies are always wet. We really need some people to collect some good quality cloth diapers and plastic pants for the babies. When it rains it’s a nightmare because after washing the diapers, none of them have time to dry so all the diapers stay wet and then we have no diapers to use. There are so many babies so we really need alot of diapers. Another reason we go through a lot of diapers is because of all the Ugandan red dirt, they really get dirty. We have to wash them often which wears them out really fast.

If you could please collect some cloth diapers for the babies it would greatly help us. Or you can make a donation towards the cost of purchasing more diapers at http://www.sonrisebabies.com/donate and put ‘diapers’ in the comment box.

Thank you all again for your support and encouragement! May God bless you!

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Baby Mark

Mark  has really changed a lot in physical appearance and character. He is so muscular, strong, and energetic . He is always the first one ready to do new things. We are always surprised by how fast he learns. He has such strong legs that he is so firm on the ground and balances really well, which is usual for babies of his age. Mark is a special baby that has a very welcoming smile, and leaves you quickly attached. He is a very nice baby to play with because he is so funny. His big smile always brightens your day.

He is so kind to all his friends. He always tries to pat them but his hands are so big and he is so strong that it always seems like he is hitting them instead! He is really generous- he is always sharing his bits of food.

Steven has been very active in learning new words and so mark has started picking up a lot from him. He can now say words like No, NANGE (meaning me too), bye , Go, Auntie  Santi,  Auntie Loyce, kitchen, water, pant . He is so cutie when saying all these words and it melts our hearts with great joy to see little Mark saying so much.  He also really loves animals! He has been chasing all living creatures that crawl on two legs (especially the chickens) in the compound. Chasing chickens shows how brave and bold Mark is. He acts like such a little man around the house.

Mark loves singing a lot and he can be a very good musician in the morning during potty time. He is very active in singing and clapping. Potty training at Sonrise is dead without singing and clapping of hands! We believe that through singing, potty training is flexible and EASY for our dear loved ones that are still growing at the baby home. Mark really loves singing a song that says BABY JESUS, I AM A FRIEND OF JESUS. It’s  such an amazing moment whenever Mark sings to us every night in the room before sleeping.  It just makes every one wonder and fall in love with him.

One of the things Mark really loves to do is to go swimming.  We have a small pool that our babies play in and have fun with water. It’s so funny for the babies when they fall and roll in the pool! Unfortunately because of too much excitement, some of the babies have bitten it and it is always leaking. Every morning when we prepare the swimming pool, we have to glue it up!  Mark has always found it fun to open the gate and always be close to it ,this makes it easier for him to get to go somewhere with Richard, Joseph, Ivan, or Damali when they are going to town. He especially loves shoes a lot because shoes are a sign that there might be a trip to town.  This morning he had on a watch and he felt like he was on top of the world, he really loves looking cutie and all dressed up. He kept his hand up so that the other babies could see what he had on his hand, making sure it was clearly noticed and appreciated.

He is also a good teacher, he points to the wall where we have all the charts of numbers. He is beginning to get some letters in his head like A, B, D, G  and some of the last letters in the alphabet. He is such a sweetie  pie to be around. He also loves reading , and looking at picture s and the different books that we have. He’s getting good at playing soccer though he falls down when he kicks the ball. But the smile that he always has shows that he is enjoying and loves what he’s doing .

Update on Steven

Steven is growing into a little man. He is such a caring baby and looks out for his little friends in the home. We just moved all the 3yr olds to the children’s home and we have some more room now. Steven has been moved to one of the rooms and now that he is grown and is able to talk a lot, he thinks he runs the home! He is turning into a baby sitter nowadays at the baby home. He loves all his fellow babies and he is so passionate about always comforting his friends when they are upset. He has recently been moved the room where baby Randy is and he has been watching over Randy all the time. If Randy is upset, he will say to him ‘Quiet…You are fine. Go to sleep.”  He says a lot of words to make sure Randy feels ok and goes to sleep before he will go to sleep himself.

He is speaking a lot and dances to every song no matter the rhythm. It has been really great to see steven do lots of things at his age. He is adorable when it comes to music and dancing . He dances for Jesus and loves saying the name of Jesus. We have put up a music system in the baby home for our babies to learn new songs and dance for Jesus. This has attracted Steven so much and he dances while looking up at the system. He loves to lead the dancing and it is so fun to watch him while he’s directing. He has a strong leadership personality and we always cheer him on to go for it .

Steven is still young by age but so so smart. He grasps every thing that adults do. Yesterday, one of the ladies was mooping with her feet  and steven happened to spill water down on the floor. He was told to clean it up and he actually did what the nannie did- he used his feet to clean up! He gets things like this in his little mind so fast.

Steven is  treat lover! He loves candy, sweets, chocolate and sodas. This morning, I (Betty) gave out some treats to all the kids and Steven swallowed his like nothing- he does not even chew!  I called him over and asked him to pass some chocolate to baby Paul and baby Randy. (My expectations were really high as I thought that he would hand that chocolate to the two babies.) Steven walked with the chocolates and once he reached half way to the two babies he stopped and ate the chocolates! Oh my goodness, we all busted into laughter when we saw him chewing the chocolates. he had a on this big beautiful smile that implied ‘bless you for sending me with the chocolates!’

Recently, we had some balloons for the kids at Sonrise. Steven is has a special expression towards balloons- he thinks they can walk and run. This morning he was talking to his balloon and he ordered it to move and go a head of him. When it didn’t move, he kicked it ahead of him and it ended up busting. This is where the fun began. Steven is the kind of person that loves enjoys peace and quiet, he doesn’t like loud noises. So when this balloon busted in front of him, he started screaming his head off! He loves attention so much. And of course he looked so sad so he was cuddled and we all said ‘Sorry Steven!’ He loved the attention. After a few minutes he was fine again and he stood up, smiled, and walked away.

Potty training: This has not been his interest since the Christmas season when all the toddlers started their potty training. When you call him for potty time he is so bold and says “NO!” Since about three weeks ago, he has tried his best to respect potty time and now his “No!” is quite less forceful. He resists but he loves potty time if  you sing , clap, and maybe read a book. We are trying to make potty training fun for all the kids so we sing different songs and clap our hands to Jesus. It kind of distracts them and they seem to be getting better at it. Yay!

Steven has been learning new words and he is mixing them together. He speaks both Luganda and English, you justhave to be a little careful to understand what he is saying. Some of his favorite new words are AGUDE (meaning he is falling , he is about to fall, he will fall), GENDA (meaning go away),  BUKKA ( jump over), calling his uncle Richard (UNCLE COME), FOOD, SORRY, MOMMY, DADDY, ADDI SANTI(swahili meaning thank you).

Steven  is a very good singer (musician). He sings EVERY morning in the bathroom. If you walk past the bathroom you will hear him singing his favorite song that says “BABY JESUS I LOVE I LOVE YOU ,YOU ARE MY SAVIOUR.” It is so sweet  hearing him sing every morning to all the babies. The baby girls think he is a HERO. He is a good brother to them all. We love him so much and we pray that he grows in the knowledge of God and continues to sing to Him everyday.