In September 2021, the Lord provided Tendo Bible Camp with a piece of land in the heart of Namayumba, which was formerly a banana planation. Once the land was purchased, we went forward in making it useful for the ministry. With the help of our friends from GR.Church in Grand Rapids, MI we were able to put up a meeting hall, a small kitchen & storage room, and toilets.
Fallen & Rebuilt
February 2024 – The winds and the rains blew, and our temporary meeting structure fell down. Thankfully it happened at night when nobody, but the grounds keeper was around, and nobody was injured! Prior to it falling down, Denny was already looking into the cost of making it more secure and even expanding it to make it larger for the number of campers we get. After Denny shared with a guy from one of our supporting churches what had happened, this man anonymously gave the amount needed in order to rebuild the meeting hall. With his sacrificial gift we were able to reconstruct the building with cement beams, added a new roof, a stage area and to expand the hall. This coming January, we have another friend who is planning to come to help install all the electrical work, so that it is prepared for when we have electricity.
Water & Electricity
Being out in the village, far enough away from the main city, we ran into main problems – 1. No running water and 2. no electricity. We began praying for the Lord to provide us with both as it was extremely expensive to keep hauling in water for each Saturday and every camp.
Running Water
In May 2023, the Lord provided us with a Well through the generous giving of several different individuals. The drilling truck was brought in, they went down 85 meters deep and we have water! Praise the Lord! And because it is our own well, the water is clean and drinkable!
We still need to construct a tower for the tanks to sit on and to make it more functional, but we praise the Lord for clean, running water. This water is a huge blessing for this community, as this area is a very dry area!
Electricity – Still in the Dark
We are still currently off the grid and without electricity. The nearest transformer is located on the property of a politician who does not want anyone tapping into his supply, so the people in the area suffer by remaining in the dark. We are praying for the Lord to provide the provisions for us to be able to put up our own transformer and get connected to the power grid. This would open so many doors for the gospel to go out in this community. Would you pray for the Lord to provide us with electricity.
This is the 6th camp edition at Tendo Bible Camp just amazing at what God has done. 150 from Monday to 320 by Saturday the last day of camp. We had it all from siblings carrying their littles siblings to teenage mothers and parents dropping off their little ones. These campers were all amazing and very energetic. One of our young men who used to live in the area, but his family relocated, walked 3 hours one-way, every day to come!
Games, soccer and volleyball. Singing new songs to the Lord and learning from the Bible everyday. Stories kept us on the our seats learning about a surrendered ife from Eli, Samuel, King David, King Saul, the cross and eternal life. We praise the Lord for keeping all the campers healthy and safe, we only had one case of Malaria. Emma, came to camp not feeling well. He had spent the night before at an overnight at his church, where he had already not been feeling well. His pastor told him he would be fine and that he would anoint him with oil. But when he came to camp in the morning, he was in bad shape, Denny ended up taking him to the hospital with server Malaria. The hospital was a local government hospital so he had to go around looking for medical supplies – syringes, gloves, medication, etc, Imagine going to a hospital – yet you still have go find your own treatment. But we praise the Lord, Emma made a quick recovery and was discharged on Sunday.
One of our big challenges in the ministry is most of the local churches and pastors in the community are apart of the health, wealth and prosperity gospel movement. They do not teach a true gospel, but they use the young people and brainwash them to do whatever benefits them, mostly to make money or have a following. Please pray with us that we will stand firm in teaching Biblical doctrine and for the young people to see the truth as they are studying God’s Word. Also, pray for a Bible-Believing, Biblically-sound church to be planted in the area, where we can send the young people, knowing they won’t be wasted by false teaching.
We praise the Lord for the 13 campers who gave their life to Christ, we give God all the glory because this is what it means for all involved in serving! Again we are thankful for Dustin, Layne, Maci, Alexis and Sadie for joining us for the this week. They did an amazing job ministering to the kids with big love, compassion, with great smiles and big hearts for the kids and energy! They brough the heat and boosted the campers at Tendo Bible Camp. The Ugandan team – Derrick, Becky (Music), Isa, Geoff, Jacky, Jackie, Irene, Pr Dan, Duncan, Charity, Roger, Mary, Ivan and Okama, all made it look effortlessly easy, they are the best team to have and work with. We thank the Lord for allowing us to serve along side of them.
We are also so very thankful for everyone who has partnered with us in making this a success every year and every camp so far! Your faithfulness in praying and your generosity in giving of your finances are the reason we are able to do what we do at Tendo Bible Camp in reaching the youth for Christ. Thank You! Our next Bible Camps this year will be in May and August.
On Wednesday December 20th, Tendo Bible Camp was able to hold its 3 annual End of Year/Christmas celebration. It is during this time that we get to celebrate all that the Lord has done through the various discipleship programs and camps here at Tendo in Namayumba. The turnup was overwhelming with over 400 children and youth in attendance this year. With the help of our team and 15 volunteers’ children and youth had a wonderful time. The grounds were filled with laughter and rejoicing as the day was filled with various activities which included football (soccer), volleyball, board games, face painting, music and drama.
Through the generous gifts of our partners, we were able to have a table filled with food, where everyone was able to have enough to eat and drink.
Amongst all of the festivities and food, there was a time of praise and worship to the Lord and the gospel was presented. It was a beautiful day of rejoicing.
On Friday, December 22nd, our team from Tendo Bible Camp were able to take 80 of our young adults from the Sunday Fellowship to a beach in Entebbe. It has been a joy to walk with these young people this past year, seeing many of them make decisions for Christ and to watch them grow in their faith. We pray that the Lord will give us more time and opportunities in the New Year to continue to have an impact in their lives for Christ.
At the end of every year, we love to celebrate with the children and youth what the Lord has done throughout the year.Youth from our Monthly Sunday Young Adult Fellowship enjoying the day at the beach.
We are so thankful for all of our partners who have supported us this year! It is because of your generosity and faithful partnership that we have been able to have an amazing year and eternal impact in the lives of these young people. We look forward to what the Lord will be doing in 2024!
What an amazing week of camp at Tendo Bible Camp this past August! The team in Uganda did an amazing job running the show and making sure the campers had a wonderful week filled with fun and growing in the Lord! We praise the Lord for the great work He has done in the lives of the campers, staff and volunteers this week! The games, the music, the food! Everything was on point! When we have 14 young people, some being as young as 6 years old willing to walk over 15 miles to attend Bible Camp… To God be the glory, great things He has done!
The theme for camp this week was Resolve to Follow Christ: Lessons from Daniel. Our wonderful Bible hour teachers for the teens were Pastor Zeddie Muzungu and Rev. Azarias Nelson Kibaya. The Children’s lessons were taught by Teacher Mary, who has been our children’s teacher since our very first camp in April 2022, and on Friday, Teacher Florence, one of the volunteers who came with Pastor Zeddie stood in.
Throughout the weeks, the campers had the opportunity to learn lessons from the life of Daniel, what it means to stand courageously and faithfully, even when the society around you doesn’t. Each day, the teens had the opportunity to discuss and act out different ways they could apply the lessons they were learning. The children learned several verses throughout the week and had different crafts to go along with their lessons. On Friday, the children learn the Wordless Book and were able to go home with their own copy.
When asked what they had learned one camper, Jasime Matovu 8 years old said “From the story of Daniel, I’ve learned that God does not want us to worship idols any other gods. He wants us to worship Him alone.”
We praise the Lord for His work in the hearts of this young people!
Come Rain, Come Sunshine, Camp Must Happen.
The week began out slowly because of rain. On Monday there were we only about 150 campers, which we know that when it rains things will be slow. We have learned to adapt to the community we are serving here, rain means families go to the garden until the afternoon and when many of our campers live as far away as 7 kilometers or more, the rain affects their movements, as they walk from home to camp. When we first started out here in Namayumba, the rain meant no one would turn up at all, but praise God we can now say come rain, come sunshine camp will happen! Wednesday was another rainy day, but praise the Lord on this day the young people still showed up in big numbers as we had around 250 campers! Even on the rainy days the campers remain joyful and energetic to play the games with each other and participate in the discussion during Bible hour. of 250+ campers! Even through the rain the campers remained joyful by playing with each other in games and participating in group discussions during Bible hour.
Tuesday, Thursday, Friday & Saturday were Hot Sunny Days!
The rest of the week we averaged 250+ campers each day and on Saturday we had well over 300, pushing 370!
Each day, we drive to Busunju Village and pick up about 50 young people. On Friday, 15 of these young people walked the 12 Kilometers to the camp because they did not see us at the usual meeting place and they thought they were going to miss out on camp!
The remaining week, we averaged 250 campers each day and on Saturday, we had well over 300 campers, pushing 370!
We are excited about the numbers of campers, because that is the number of individuals coming to hear the Gospel and how to have a relationship and how to grow in the Lord. We have seen real spiritual growth in the young people who have been with us since the beginning. Their knowledge of scripture has increased, and they are allowing what they have been learning to take effect in their lives. To the glory of God, we have parents who have visited us to give testimony of the transformation of their children and how sitting under the teaching of God’s word has impacted them and it is transforming families! Praise the LORD.
There are a lot of preparations that go into putting on a weeklong camp, with us in the USA raising support, we had to heavy depend on our team in Uganda to take care of all the details and to run the camp! We could not be prouder of our team! We praise the Lord for His faithfulness and for their faithfulness to serving these kids.
We are also so very thankful for those who stand behind us with their support both prayerfully and financially! You are the real heroes, as we would not be able to put on these camps or run our daily/weekly programs with your continual support! May God bless you!
Tendo Bible Camp is only possible by the generous support of our partners in the ministry! For us to continue with the ministry at Tendo, we need to raise $3,000/monthly support! That would be 30 churches or individuals giving $100/month! If you can’t do $100/month, maybe you can $50, or $25. Every bit adds up! If you would like to partner with us, you can give at abwe.org/give account number 0170261 or you can send a check to ABWE DONOR SERVICES, PO BOX 8585 HARRISBURG PA 17105; MEMO: Account #0170261/Nuwagaba. Every gift goes towards reaching youth with the gospel in Uganda.
We have a busy but exciting month ahead of us, as we have two weeks of outreaches planned for the community. Over the last month, we have been moving up and down getting things prepared. We are pumped to see all that the Lord does over the next few weeks for His kingdom and for these communities!
Medical Camp
Our goal is to tell the community about Christ. Many of the people in these communities live in extreme poverty and can’t afford to go to the hospital or visit a local clinic, so they will often go without treatment for simple things, such as colds, or cuts – but with the poor conditions and poor access to clean water, minor illnesses and cuts can often turn into more serious conditions. One of the ways that we can connect with the community and open doors to share the Gospel is by meeting their physical needs. We see that even in Jesus’ earthly ministry, when He and his disciples went from villages to villages preaching the Kingdom of God, they would heal the people, or he would feed them and then share His message with them.
Our first outreach this month is a medical camp. We have invited the community and 4 other villages for a free medical checkup. Over 1000+ people are expected to turn up. And everyone who does come will personally hear the Good News of the Gospel.
A team of 9, including two doctors, are coming from the USA to work along side of a local doctor and his nurses to treat the patients. The others on the team and a few local churches and their pastors, will be assisting with sharing the Gospel with each person and counseling them.
Pray for us as we prepare to receive and serve the people.
We will be posting daily updates on our Facebook page (Nuwagaba’s in Uganda) and on our Instagram (TendoBibleCamp).
Youth Camp
Youth Bible Camp 15th – 20th , August 2022 The Armor of God
Second Term Break is here. Kids and youth are home for a month! Camp is coming! Over 200+ students ages 5 to 17 will be coming each day.
Our theme: The Armor of God from Ephesians 6:12-18!
Guest Speaker: Pastor Zeddie Muzungu, from Calvary Chapel Kampala
Pray for us as we continue to prepare! Pray for the student’s lives to be transformed by the preaching of the Word. For decisions to be made for Christ.
Pray with US
We covet your prayers as we proclaim the Gospel to this community! Pray that we will be bold in speaking the truth and will have wisdom in discipling each person that God leads our way!
Namayumba is a small settlement along the Kampala-Hoima road in Wakiso District in the Buganda Region of Uganda, approximately 47 km(29 miles) northwest of the capital city, Kampala. The nearest large town to Namayumba is 7 km (4 miles) away in Busunju.
village life, open market
families open small shops to sell products to earn a living for their families.
There is an estimated population of 22,100 people, with a little more than half being female. Over the last several years with the expansion of Kampala and people leaving the city, Namayumba has been growing in population at about 6.67% per year. Being in the Buganda Region of Uganda, the main language spoken among the people is Luganda. Most of the people living in the community live in poverty. They live in small one or two room homes with little to no access to electricity and water. Kids wearing the same clothes -day in and day out – from Monday to Monday. Access to food is limited to what is grown in their small gardens and what they can afford at the small open markets along the main road. Along the way, we will be sharing more stories to help you get a glimpse of what it’s like to live in Namayumba.
How did we get to Namayumba?
Denny grew up in Kiwatule-Ntinda, Kampala, we met in Kampala and have spent much of our time before getting married in Kampala. There is a lot happening in Kampala regarding churches and ministries, Bible schools, etc. But once you leave the city access to the gospel begins to dwindle. Biblical training and education become quite limited. We knew the Lord put it on our hearts to what to serve in a community that was indeed in need of the gospel and Biblical training.
In 2014, we came back to Uganda to hold a reception for our family and friends as we got married in the state and to also follow up on some ministries we had going on. Denny had friend he had grown up with in church that was connected to a pastor in Namayumba and he knew we had a desire to serve out in a village setting. One Saturday, our friend took us out to visit the Pastor and the church. Denny had the opportunity to preach the congregation and Cassie had the opportunity to share with the ladies. It was from there that our hearts were drawn to the community. As we went back to the states, we continued communicating with the Pastor and staying connected with the church, with hopes that one day we would return and serve there. We made another short visit in 2017, by that time the land that the church was meeting was taken back from the landowner, leaving the congregation without a home – so they began meeting under a tree at Pastor Patrick’s home until they could relocate. After some good time the church was able to relocate and we were able to help them buy the iron sheets for the roof of the church.
Our first visit to Namayumba, Uganda with Victory Community Church
Denny and Pastor Patrick
Fast forward to 2021, after many delays, we made the move back to Uganda fulltime. We arrived in May, while the COVID pandemic was still messing up the world. When we arrived things in Uganda were slowly opening. Denny jumped right into making plans and meetings with Pastor Patrick. There were still some restrictions, schools had started to reopen, life starting to return. We had made plans to begin a youth fellowship at the end of June. Everything was going as planned, but then on night in June the president of Uganda announced that due to increase in COVID cases and hospitals being overrun by patients, there would be another 48 day lockdown. All transportation stopped, both private and public, only government and those with special permission were allowed to travel. Schools and churches were closed. Everyone one stuck at home. This was the 2nd lockdown in Uganda. Life was extremely hard for people, as most people work to live. There were no stimulus checks, no government assistance. We began counting down the days until we could pickup where we left off, after about a week the president came back on-air and said that he was restarting the 48 days, so where we thought we’d be free in July, now running into August.
Some people had given donations to a benevolence fund – through their giving we were able to bring food supplies to some widows and Jjajja’s with small children who had been struggling to provide for their families due to the lockdowns. They were extremely grateful and praising the Lord that He had not forgotten them!
In August some of the restrictions lifted allowing us to drive again. Schools and churches remained closed. In fact, except for the small window of time between February and May that some upper primary and secondary classes were allowed to open, schools had been closed since the beginning of lockdowns in April 2020. And schools would not reopen until January 2022, making it the longest closure of schools in all the world because of the pandemic. In the two years of school closures, teen pregnancy and child marriage increased dramatically. Kids were 2 years behind, the older students had given up on returning to finish school and instead turned to jobs and making money. Kids were isolated at home. Many among the youth were distressed and depressed suicide rate increased.
We spent 40 weeks going from Genesis through Revelation, sharing the Redemptive story of Christ with the students.
With schools and churches still closed, the Lord opened the door for us to begin reaching out to the youth in Namayumba. Groups were only allowed to meet up in certain numbers. We found a small Garden/Restaurant/Club that had enough grounds and space to rent, where we could meet. We decided to hold it away from the church property for number of reasons – churches were still technically closed, and we didn’t want to get them in trouble, if we held it at a particular church then others from the community would not show up as they think it was just for that church, and also the church property did not have enough space for playing. On the first Tuesday, we had 20 students show up- we brought some meat to roast, played games and then shared a message from the Bible. Each week more and more students showed up – at one point we thought we were going to have to cut it and turn some away in fear that we would be shutdown by the local authorities due to COVID restrictions. But nobody ever did and the kids kept coming. We went from 20 to 70 -100 teens. WE originally had plan to keep it to just the older students – ages 13 and up, but they continued to bring their younger siblings, so eventually, we had to do something with them as well. In September, Denny began walking through the Story of Hope with the teens – beginning in Genesis and going through Revelation – sharing the redemptive story of Christ. Most of the students did not have Bibles of their own, so we reached out to friends and family back home and we were able to by over 80 Bibles to give out to the students, which help them as they walked through the study. Later, we started the Adventures in the Story of Hope with the younger children.
playing games at our first youth meeting in August 2021
We began with 20 students and each week the number kept growing!
We spent 40 weeks going from Genesis through Revelation, sharing the Redemptive story of Christ with the students.
A Place To Call Home
Seeing that we were quickly out growing the space we had been renting and desiring to have a permanent place among the community, Denny began looking around for land. And by the grace of God, He led us to the perfect place to call home. In December, we were given a gracious amount of money from our home church in Grand Rapids, Michigan to help put up some structures to make the place functional.
Tendo Bible Camp located in Namayumba, Uganda
Pavilion – Meeting Hall for Camp and Youth Fellowships
The students learned about the Fruit of Spirit during the week of Camp. Each day we had a guest speaker.
We shifted to using our new place at the end of April 2022 with the opening of our first weeklong camp! Since then, we continue to meet each Saturday for our youth fellowship. Many of the teens have shared with us how thankful they are to have a place where they can come not only to have fun but to learn more about God and to grow in their relationship with Him. With the opening of our new location we thought and prayed over what we should call this special place and with the help of some of our ministry partners we have come up with Tendo Bible Camp. Tendo is the Luganda word for praise. It is our hearts desire for every person that comes to Tendo Bible Camp leave praising the Lord for His work in their lives.
We are beyond excited to see all the ways that the Lord is going to use this place for His glory. Follow along as we share stories and testify of the goodness of God in the lives of the youth here in Namayumba.
Hello,
Greetings from Uganda!
We are, Denny & Cassie Nuwagaba, missionaries to Denny’s home country. We have four young boys – Asher, Korbyn, Jaden and Rhys. We love God and desire to serve Him. Our passion is to reach the youth of Uganda for Christ and to see them discipled in Him.
Having been born and raised in Uganda, Denny is able to relate with many of the struggles and hardships that most of the young people here face on daily basis. Coming to the Lord at a youth camp, Denny has always had a heart for the youth in his home country to know and love the Lord. When he dedicated his life to the Lord, he asked God for someone to walk along side of him, to do the work with him – I came to Uganda June 2009 on a short-term mission’s trip. We both loved the Lord and desired to serve Him and His people in Uganda. After a few trips back and forth to Uganda between 2009 and 2012 – Denny arrived in the US April 2013 and we were married June 2013. We spent 8 years in the States. In those 8 years we worked to build a home in Uganda, joined ABWE – began support raising, we also welcomed 3 boys into our family – Asher, Korbyn and Jaden. After 8 years in the US, we made the move back to Uganda in May 2021. Two weeks before we moved back, we found out that we were expecting another baby, Rhys joined our family in January 2022, here in Uganda.
We currently live in Kampala but serve in a small village community about an hour and half northwest of Kampala, called Namayumba. We have been partnering with one of the local pastors and his church in this community for several years now. When we relocated back to Uganda, we knew that we wanted to continue working to reach this community with the Gospel. By the grace of God, since we have returned the Lord has opened up doors for us to setup a community center in the village, called Tendo Bible Camp.
We have a great tasks set before us in reaching the youth of Namayumba for Christ. Uganda has one of the youngest populations in the world, with nearly 70% under the age of 25 – most of these young people grow up in absolute poverty and face extreme adversity from a young age – abuse, abandonment, limited access to clean water and electricity, limited to no access to education. Living in such conditions leaves people feeling hopeless and desperate for a way out. They become easy targets for those who want to take advantage of their situation. Through Tendo Bible Camp, we desire to share the love of God with the young people that come that they may learn of their value in Christ and that they would live for him. We pray that God will use us and Tendo Bible Camp to transform the community of Namayumba, for His glory.
Please stand with us in prayer for the Lord to open hearts and transform lives through the preaching and teaching of His Word.
In our next post, we will go share more details about Namayumba, how we got connected and the vision for reaching the community with the Gospel.
