It's That Time Again

As Term 1 comes to a close and April quickly slips by, I find myself closer and closer to a time when I'm out of funds to serve in Uganda. I currently am funded through the end of June. Although, I continually have been shown by God that I should be here at least until the end of Term 3, which ends early December. That leaves me unfunded for five months.

For the low cost of $400 a month, I am provided with room, board, and transportation to and from school three times a week. So to live here for another five months I must raise $2,000. And perhaps that sounds like a big chunk of money altogether, but that amount covers all I need to survive for five months. That's really not all that much if you think of how much we pay to live for just one month in the US. 

So how about I tell you how I'm serving here in Uganda:

I am a P4 teacher to a class of eleven at New Creation Centre School three times a week. At NCC we educate children from Kampala who do not have the money to attend school. They have sponsors who support them financially to go to school. And then I teach them! I also work with the P7 class once a week to review math. And then I also teach two P4 students in the New Creation Family Home twice a week. So I have a full plate of teaching and I absolutely love it!

Teaching is definitely my main focus here in Uganda. I teach math, English, reading, art, religious education and also lead chapel at NCC every other week or so. 

So $400 a month provides me with the opportunity to have food on my plate, a place to live, transportation to and from NCC, and the opportunity to educate the children of Uganda while teaching them about God and the Bible and making them into little disciples!

And that is that. Well, no, not really. I also began a bi-weekly football Saturday outreach. Every other Saturday I've invited all the students at NCC to come out and play football together. I provided them with lunch and the simple chance to get out to spend time with their friends and forget about the struggles themselves and their families are facing at home. And let me tell you, they love it! They beg me to go out every single Saturday. With the lovely support of a few friends I am able to purchase lunch, bandages, footballs, and ball pumps. But here's the thing, we live in Uganda and we are already on our fourth football. Each ball costs about 40,000/= which is about $20. So it adds up. And providing lunch also adds up. 

So although I do only need $2,000 to get by here in Uganda, any additional support to be able to continue football Saturdays would be such a blessing!

I ask for you to prayerfully consider supporting me financially to continue serving here in Uganda. 

From the initial though of coming to Uganda I've always prayed for God to provide for as long as HE wants me here. So I am confident that all I need will be provided for.

To support me financially, you may send a tax deductible check to the address below, or more conveniently donate at my Go Fund Me account that is also listed below. 

Webale nyo (thank you very much) for you support, love, and kindness.  I am evermore thankful to be serving God and for all he's provided me with. 

Go Fund Me:
http://www.gofundme.com/3g0r7o

Address for tax deductible checks:
Loving One By One
78206 Varner Road, Suite D-294
Palm Desert, CA 92211
(Please do not put my name on the check, but include a note stating it is for Kelsey Riddle)

Take Away

It's been a bit of time since I last posted, so let me get you up to date. In the past few weeks we have shifted to Graceland which is located in a village rather than in the city of Kampala. It's absolutely beautiful here, but leaves me with a rather long commute into school (I can finally say I've mastered Ugandan public transportation). Which leads me to the topic of school. I am now teaching Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at New Creation Centre (P4) in Kampala, and Tuesday and Thursday in the New Creation Family Home (P4) at Graceland. And on top of that I have begun giving extra math help, yes math, to the P7 class at NCC. It's a big change, but I know it's exactly where God wants me.

The sunrise from Graceland on my birthday

The lovely view of the sunset I have out my bedroom window

I have not posted recently, because I just haven't had anything worthwhile to say. Not that I do now, but recently I started doing journals with my P4 class at NCC and some of their responses to my journal prompts make me laugh quite hard. So I thought I'd share with you some of the prompts and the silly answers given.

What  is something you are scared to try and why?
Leonard- I am scared to sit on a donkey.
Suzan- I am scared to hit my brother because it is bad.
Emma- I am scared to swim because I will die in the water. I am scared to eat posho.
Isaac- I am not scared of anything.
Richard- I don't like to eat ladybug. Because it can smell bad.
Patricia- I would be scared to eat snakes.

If you give a _____ a _____, he'll probably want a _____ to go with it.
Leonard- If you give a mouse a cookie, he'll probably want a slasher to go with it because it wants to slash the grass. Because it does not want grass in its compound.


Life is moving on quickly these days. It's been three months since I've been back in Uganda which makes seven months of me living in Uganda all together. It's crazy to think about. Each moment here in Uganda has been such a blessing. I am so thankful to have been placed in such a wonderful place in this world. I am thankful to simply be serving in the Lord's army.

Football Saturdays are still continuing, although Teacher Milly kindly allows me to stay with her on Friday nights so that I don't have to pay to go home in the afternoon and return the next morning. The term ends this week, with exams starting tomorrow. Next week I will make report cards and then we will be on about a month long holiday. Erika and I would like to go to the equator or to see some waterfalls during our holiday. You know, some teacher field trips.

Everything is going well! Not anything too exciting to update you on other than the fact that I will be staying here in Uganda until the end of term three which ends in December. I am funded through June...so I will soon be fundraising to stay here the other five months. I'll provide more information on that early May.

Thank you for the continual prayer and support! I miss you all so much and I wish you could be here with me. Mama Sarah and the girls have been gardening like crazy recently and it's reminded me of my mom. I was telling Mama Sarah how much my mom loves to garden and she said that we need to bring her out here to help us! So mom, come to Uganda and help us garden!

Shafiga helping to garden at Graceland

Oh yeah, and we got a new puppy named Gracie