The Birth of Hope Alive! Part 4: Masaka Site is Established

A neighbor told me of a pastor in southwestern Uganda, an older man with an amazing servant’s heart, who had shared with her the significant needs of many of the children in his area. I traveled to Masaka with my friend to meet Pastor Aloys.

The result was Children of Hope (now Hope Alive!) opening Masaka Site in partnership with Masaka Baptist Church in July 2005. We began with a part-time coordinator and 11 students. Within a couple of months, we added another 23 students. Of those 23, all had lost their father, five had lost both of their parents, and all but one was living with a caregiver who was uneducated and unskilled, meaning the family had little or no income. We thanked God we could help. 

A highlight from the second visit was the first 11 students coming as a group to greet me, wearing their new school uniforms, carrying their school supplies and beaming. One, a teenage girl, who we had been very concerned about due to the abuse she had suffered, wore a calm and peaceful expression. I was later told that the Saturday before, when meeting with her mentor, she had accepted Jesus as her Savior. Praise God! One of the boys had also given his life to Jesus that same weekend. That is always the best news!

As Masaka Site grew, we needed a full-time site manager. Rose was highly recommended; she impressed me, and I hired her. That was 11 years ago. Her faithfulness, stability and wisdom has made Masaka Site our most steady. God gave Rose and Beatrice, the site assistant who soon joined her, the gift of finding kids in the most terrible of situations: a young girl, whose mother had abandoned the family, trying to care for her paralyzed father and younger siblings; a youngster who was left completely alone for weeks on end with no money for food; a small child who was seriously beaten by her father; children with Sickle Cell anemia whose families couldn’t afford healthy food or medical care; a young girl, sold by her father to a bar owner, with devastating results that I won’t write about here. On and on it went. Rose and Beatrice found them, enrolled them, loved them with the love of Jesus, and, along with the site’s mentors, have been used by God to transform their lives. It is not unusual for caregivers and other family members to accept Jesus, as well. I thank God for the faithful servants He has given us in Masaka! Masaka Site became our largest and most stable.

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I am deeply grateful for all of our staff and mentors who are such faithful followers of Jesus Christ and who share His transforming offer of salvation with our students, their caregivers and their families. Every year, each site has stories of those who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior. Such joy!