The Road to Namayumba

About Namayumba

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

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.

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 2^nd 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.

 

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.

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.

 

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.