Highlights

Dear friends of Father's Divine Love Ministries -

I will begin by apologies for not having written in a very long while, as my schedule has gone from busy to hectic, I have found very little time to do email to my own hurt. the other factor has been this Facebook site which kind of keeps one updated on a daily basis including giving one an opportunity to chat with friends.

However, the reasons above is not justification for my ineffective communication to very faithful friends regarding God's work through us here in Uganda. and what i will do now is to briefly break down a few highlights of the work as it has progressed through the year 2008.

1) RAPHA CHILDREN'S HAVEN: The Lord's Faithfulness has been so great to us in this children's home. We have witnessed God's faithfulness in sustaining 58 orphaned, vulnerable and abandoned children in Rapha. They have all stayed in school throughout the year. They have been clothed, fed, treated, loved, nurtured, inspired and blessed. We have had many that have gone down with such issues as malaria, typhoid, coughs, infections of some sorts, minor accidents during play times, etc. But in every case, the Lord has raised each and everyone up. We also have one who has gone from HIV to full blown AIDS but God has enabled us to administer ARV's and tuberculosis treatment to keep everything under control. We thank the Lord for sustaining the children.

2) MULTIPURPOSE HALL: This home has also experienced the Lord's provision through the construction of a multipurpose hall for the children's chapel services which also serves as premise for Divine Love Church services.

3) GIRLS WING: A new storied girls wing has been finished with a full capacity of 32 children. This wing however will take in 24 kids to allow 2 families use the wing to provide parental guidance. We believe that children don't need to just survive but receive full parental love and guidance.

4) PENIEL CHILDREN'S VILLAGE: Underway is the development of a small community in Nakanyonyi village which is about a 3 minutes drive north of Rapha Children's home. We named it Peniel deriving the concept from Jacob's encounter (wrestling) with God where he named the place PeniEl meaning "because I saw God face to face" (Gen 32:20). Our intention therefore is that the children who come through this place will experience God who will in turn give them beauty for ashes (Is 61:3).

In this development, 8 homes and a multipurpose chapel hall will be set up. In each 3 bedroom house, with full facilities, will live a maximum of 10 children under the care of a couple, or caregiver. The community will use a central kitchen and have devotions together with each family, having a day or week of "community leadership". They will serve in the preparation of meals at the central kitchen and lead the spiritual nurture of the base, etc. The challenge of developing this area has been a lack of water, but a borehole will soon be drilled to kick start this project; which by the end of next year will be a community with up to 80 former orphans.

5) LINGIRA ISLAND CHILDREN: Everything is possible if we believe (Luke 18:27)! I first visited this island in 2004 which is 1hr 30mins off the mainland in Lake Victoria. Many islands in Uganda serve as havens for people who ran from the mainland to run away from the law for the offenses committed. This gave rise to communities of lawless and apathetic dwellers, with the highest HIV prevalence in the nation. On this particular island there are 2000 people living in 4 communities. The biggest camp has up to 56% of the people living with the HIV virus. Over the last 4 years alone, more than 10 heads of family I was aquainted with have died as well as many others I didn't know. This to us was an indicator of an orphaned presence of children.

When we first visited in 2004, my wife Sarah and I started sponsoring 3 year old girl also named Sarah. then through kinder who is now in elementary school. She is now in elementary school. In 2006, Momma Sandy Williams from Madison, Wisconsin, USA extended her heart for the children of this community by sponsoring 32 children through school for the year. Another donation was given from our partner World Orphans to sponsor another 34 kids. Today we celebrate a year where 66 kids on this isolated island have had education and medical intervention including HIV/AIDS testing and routine deworming.

It costs only $1560 USD to put 32 kids on this island through school for a WHOLE year including the provision for uniforms and other scholastic materials. We have however noticed that the hungry aren't able to concentrate in school and we are daring to believe God for the provision of a meal a day next year. We are also praying for His enabling to build a children's home for the many orphaned and abandoned of this island.

6) FOSTER CARE CHILDREN: These are the orphaned and vulnerable children under FDLM's child sponsorship program who have relatives to live with. Currently, we are only providing education around Rapha Children's home. Thus far we have seen the Lord's hand in enabling 21 of them to be in school.

7) NEEDY HOUSEHOLD EMPOWERMENT: This program works to empower the widows and vulnerable women to meet of their basic needs with donated pigs and skills training. We now have a mechanic, 3 salonists, and 4 subsistence farmers supporting themselves and their families from this program.

8) CHURCH: Divine Love Church is blessed to be congregating in a new building at Rapha Children's Home. The hall, donated by World Orphans, has a capacity of 220 parishioners. We are grateful to meet this capactiy. On a given Sunday, this fills and spills over during our main services with over 30 people standing through the service due to having no place inside. While the Kingdom is not about numbers, we do celebrate the grace of God granted to us to reach out to the community and bring those that have been added to the fellowship into the Kingdom.

We continue to pray for increase, that the gospel will be shared and that the harvest will enlarge. Our evangelism department has not put its guns down over the year with several operations yielding lots of eternal dividends. We have managed to stage an outreach rally every Sunday night outside the children's home where the church meets with hundreds gathering to hear the Gospel through our Nigerian films cast on the walls via a digital projector and thousands gathering when we have guest artists. This has brought in many many souls into the Lord's house.

9) LIVE CONNECTION PASTORS SUPPORT: Some friends from Sydney, Australia have preferred partnering with a local rural church pastor to sponsor them with $45 AUD per month to help them have their basic needs met. 12 pastors have benefit ted and more will as the Lord enlarges their territory. We also conduct training with these pastors once a month to help facilitate discipleship having in mind that in Africa, we don't have to go through seminary to lead churches. So, since the Lord doesn't call the qualified but qualifies those He has called, these faithful men and women receive training once a month to help them add to what they have for the effectiveness of their ministries. We have been blessed by the visiting teams which have had such great impact on the work of all ministry departments of FDLM.

So to cut the long stories short, 140 kids plus more have been beneficiaries of God's grace of parenting through Father's Divine Love Ministries. The Gospel of the Kingdom has been preached and several families strengthened. 12 rural pastors have been supported and 20 altogether continue to benefit from our training programs. This last week was a highlight in the training with pastors Bill and Doug offering skills in leadership which was such an immense blessing.

Finally brethren, i get to visit UK and USA from tomorrow until Dec 15th. So, i will have to be gone for 8 weeks in a bid to raise resources for the priceless vision. Yes, I know its a very long time but I am willing to pay the price for the advancement of God's Kingdom on His beloved continent, the great Africa. I will be raising friends and funds for this work to invest in a transportation business to work towards self-sustenance of the ministry. This is so that donations will be supplements and not primary sources of ministry survival, so that not receiving donations won't mean dissolving the ministry. If there is an opening in your church or group for a possible presentation opening, don't worry about how I will get there, 10-20 minutes would mean the whole world to me. Now I pray that you may prosper and be in good health, even as your souls prosper. I look forward to your forgiveness for not writing when I should have and to your replies. I will keep in closer touch during my sojourn and am setting up a blog where you will receive constant updates. Every blessing be yours in His most everlasting service,

Pastor David Livingstone Zijjan

ACTS 5:40-42, 10:38,
FATHER'S DIVINE LOVE MINISTRIES UGANDA
P O BOX 1719 JINJA UGANDA
OFFICE TEL. +256 43 13 00 68
FAX. +256 43 121 322
MOB. +256 77 35 44 12
http://www.divineloveuganda.org/

Come check me out on MySpace at http://www.myspace.com/divineloveministries