It's with much sadness of our hearts that we share the loss of another friend from Bethesda International, in Jinja Uganda. On Christmas Day 2009 Rebecca Kimbugwe, home foster mother of 30 children and young people at Guardian Home, passed away in a Kampala Hospital. It was quite painful to hear the news since we just saw her in early November on our last visit to Jinja and we spoke about seeing her again on our next visit. It has been a tremendous shock and heart ache to everyone since her death happened so suddenly and unexpectedly.We met Rebecca in 2003 when we first met Ruth Mirembe who founded Bethesda International. Ruth and Rebecca were both foster mothers to the first children of Bethesda when it first began. Rebecca has spent most of the years of her adult life caring for the orphans and vulnerable children of Uganda by working with Bethesda International. She was an amazing woman full of energy and passion for life! The kids and I just visited Bethesda Int'l. in early November and were able to see Rebecca for a short visit where she shared her excitement of their home church where her and her husband were pastoring. She was a woman who was full of faith and wanted to share her love for God with everyone she met! I will so miss our conversations about life and family, and about our dreams and ideas for new projects. I will miss hearing her call my name, "Kate". She was one of my only Ugandan friends who called me Kate, not Katie and it always brought joy to my heart to hear her friendly greeting. We will miss her dearly!!
Please be praying for her husband and her family and especially the many children that have now lost their mother! Although many of her children are sponsored by a German NGO, Bulungi e.V. (http://www.bulungi.de/index.php?id=55 ) there are kids that are in Guardian Home that are not sponsored. If you would like to help this family financially during this hard time please contact me, the above address, or http://www.bethesdainternational.org/.
November, 2009
Crafting at Thanksgiving! Thanks Aunt Lois for the sand art pilgrim people. We had a fun time making them on Thanksgiving!
This is our wonderful friend Alice! Last year she helped our family live our life in Arua by working at our house. She has taught me how to shop in the market, cook, understand Lugbarra culture, and a million other things. We are so grateful for Alice in our lives! As soon as we arrived in Arua, Alice was eager to have us over to her place for lunch one Sunday afternoon. We had a wonderful meal with her and her family and toured around her community.
Katie and our friend Anna that we've been working with and praying for as a family and a church. She has had to deal with some hard circumstances in her life but she is strong and continues to trust God with her life and her children's lives. 
This is our friend Jocelyn, Sam's wife, and the sweet and adorable baby Katie!! She has grown so much since we left in April of last year. After just one visit she had already warmed up to me and let her Auntie Katie hold her!! Even Uncle Jeff got the chance to play a bit with baby Katie before she fussed for her mama. 
