August Camp 2023
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.