Report on the NBC-JCDC Family Visit to Spring Valley Nursery and Primary School 17-03-2012

NBC/JCDC FAMILY

REPORT ON THE NBC-JCDC FAMILY VISIT TO SPRING VALLEY NURSERY AND PRIMARY SCHOOL

Date: 17th March 2012

Family members expected: 20

Number of Family members that showed up: 5

Number of Family friend present: 1

Members present

1. Brenda Turakira

2. Mwase Allan

3. Patrick Mulindwa

4. Kamuli Patrick

5. Reagan Turakira

6. John Bosco Walusimbi (invited by Kamuli)

Number of children at the school that day: 100 (approx.)

The visit to the school was preceded by a venue visit at 19:00Hrs by Reagan and Allan (Chairman) on

Friday 16th March. The duo met with the Director, shared with the next day’s program and she

approved of it.

Program for the day was as follows:

TIME ACTIVITY

30 minutes Chat with school head/school tour

1 hour Games

30 minutes Inspiration moment for upper classes (P5-P7) Story telling for the lower primary (P1-P4)

10 minutes Skit about Christ’s love (for all)

50 minutes Sharing from the Bible about the saving blood of Christ (In groups as small as we can have them be)

Here are details of how it all happened:

The 30 minutes chat with the school director Lady Anna who by the way was very welcoming and

happy to see us was great. She briefed the members about the school and what they do and some of

their financial struggles as a school.

The school has an average total number of 280 students. It is both day and boarding.

She said tough the money from the children just twinkles in, when it does, priority is given to meals.

She however said that though that is done, sometimes the children find themselves going without a

meal when it is really tight but she added that the children understand. She said that for many of

these children from as far as Masaka, Mbale, Spring Valley is their home whole year around and they

love being there.

There were also some cases of parents neglecting their children that she shared.

She then took us on a tour of the school. Two things however stood out and left me wondering a lot.

One was in the girls’ dormitory where we were informed that on a decker with a carrying capacity of

3, actually 9 girls sleep on it. We asked her if the children ever fall off and she said yes they do but

eventually get used to the sharing and stop falling off. There in not much the school can do about it

because of the limited resources.

The other was their latrines which is so close to a stream of water. The rooms are so small we

wondered how the children use them. Patrick as seen in the picture below tried to get into one but

in vain.

If you feel touched to help in any way for this school please send us an email and we shall gladly

give you details on how you can bless these children.

The too much fun that was experienced during the games by both the children and the Family

members was memorable. We had too much fun and laughter.

The sharing for lower primary was done through an animation of Jonah’s story in the Bible which the

children watched and enjoyed. The film which was in English was translated by Reagan for the

children to understand.

The final sharing from the Bible was not done in groups as earlier planned due to space and time

limitations. This was done by Patrick Mulindwa who did the sharing assisted by Reagan who made

the alter call. Some of the children at the school (a good number) raised their hands as having

already accepted Christ as Lord and saviour of their lives and although no one came forward to make

that decision, we are glad God used us to take to those children the gospel of the Lord’s saving

grace.

The final activity which was done at the request of the school director was the removal of stones

from the children’s play area in a bid to create a safe playing environment for them. This was done

by all the children and the Family members present.

Overall all went well and we finished in time.

The trip to the school was partly facilitated by a friend who offered a lift and transported 5 out of

the 6 members to the school. His name is Henry.

In terms of expenses: 24,000/- was spent in total on both transport for the team back to Kampala

Baptist Church (which was our meeting point) and refreshments for the team.

As the organiser of this event these are my personal comments:

Many thanks to the team that showed up and may the Lord bless you. Thank you for the team

spirit, humility and love for the children that you demonstrated to those children. You blessed

those children and put smiles on their faces.

The pre-visit trip to the school made me more confident that in case something happened and I

could not show up, someone else knew all that was planned and could easily step in. I think we

need to do this every time we have an activity planned.

It was only Allan in the Family T-shirt, that T-shirt spoke a thousand words. I wish we could all

get one and put them on for Family events.

Many thanks to Catherine Kembabazi for sending out those Text SMS messages on behalf of the

Family at no cost. God bless you sister.

Kalenzi Godfrey and Wawire Godfrey acted in a way I think that all Family members should

emulate. Kalenzi for telling Wawire about the event and Wawire for calling me to find out more

about the event though he was in Jinja at the time. Also Tenywa Peter for calling to get details

about the event.

I was however disappointed by the individuals that received messages, emails and even saw the

post on facebook and yet did not bother to communicate back whether they would be coming or

not (even committee members). I think that was not good as it frustrated our planning efforts.

This is a Family in which we all have equal stake and we need to work as a body. Even a message

of “am praying for you guys” would have really gone a long way in strengthening those of us that

were going.Let us emulate Wawire Godfrey, Kalenzi Godfrey, Atto Nyakuru, Joannah Nanjekye,

Annah Mary Tusiime, Catherine Kembabazi and Tenywa Peter on this one.

More pictures from the event can be seen below:

In front of the Director’s office

Arrival at the school

Inside the Girl’s dormitory

Bottle Water Filling Game

Family Illustrating game

More Group Games

P1-P3 Watching Jonah’s Film

Patrick and Brenda Encouraging P4-P7 with their testimonies

Skit: Centurion (Kamuli) crucifying Jesus (Mulindwa)

Skit: Jesus (Mulindwa) on the cross

Skit: Jesus (Mulindwa) reconciling Man and Woman to God (Allan)

Mulindwa sharing the word of God with the children

Comments from members are welcome and can be emailed to [email protected]

Next event: Evangelism in Mpumudde on 5th April 2012. Please plan to be there.

Report by:

Reagan Turakira

In charge of the event’s organisation

Group Picture with the Children and school Director