Jesse & Hannah Van Gorkom serve with Engineering Ministries International, Uganda.
Greetings from the VG-5 in Uganda! Thank you for your prayers for our transition back to Uganda in November! We continue to adjust back to life here but, as they say here in Uganda: “God is good. All the time! And that is His nature. Wow!” We have a great place to stay and good friends close by. Our kids seem to be doing well and are making friends. Addi is loving homeschool, and Asher loves causing as much havoc as possible at all times. 🙂
Our work with EMI has picked up almost like we never left, though a lot has changed at the same time. We are wrapping up work on the next phase of the Amazima Secondary School in Jinja and are installing accessible playground equipment for the Gem Foundation (working with severely handicapped kids). Our components include a wheel chair spinner (merry go round) and a roller slide. I believe this will be the first accessible playground in Uganda!
I’m also managing construction on a building at Africa Bible University, where we now live, and the kids enjoy having one of my work sites within view of home.
Please continue to pray for our family. It can be challenging at times to focus on the goodness and faithfulness of God in the midst of chaos in a foreign country without family members two minutes away (the part we liked most about our time in Washington!) Pray for the work of our ministry partners, Amazima and Gem, and the many children especially who are hearing the gospel through their work. Also pray for the workshop team as we have started a new discipleship format which seems to be going well so far. Our goal is to train some of our Ugandan staff to lead and facilitate those discipleship times.
Praying you find joy in the chaos as well! Thank you for praying!!
Blessings,
Jesse, Hannah, Addi, Asher and Kiira