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Family News: A Time to Rejoice with Florence Dongo

10/11/2019

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Family News
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It is with a celebratory heart and excitement that we share the news that our dear Florence Dongo is getting married on November 9, 2019. We join the whole Dongo family in Uganda in their support of their mom and founder of Buyamba as she prepares to start a new chapter of her life with a wonderful minister of God, Pastor Edward Lukandwa.

Florence asks for your prayers and blessings and has sent a message for all of us:

"After spending thirty-one years with Bethuel Dongo in a very happy marriage that God called together, I felt that after four years from losing Bethuel, for the good of the ministry and myself, I needed another friend/companion/support. No one can compare to what Dongo was to me, but I needed a shoulder to lean on, and God heard my prayer and gave me a friend. I feel he is the right man to move me forward and spend the rest of my life. We have decided to get married this year on November 9th, 2019."
Florence Dongo
Edward will be a companion and a husband. My children are in full agreement with me on this decision. He will not have a say in any of Buyamba and other ministry decisions, neither will he have any portion to share from Dongo's estate. His role will be in the power of his prayers.

I will stay as a senior Pastor at KPC as well, and a director in God Cares Schools and Buyamba Outreach Ministry... as my roles have been, they will stay.

As my children and family have accepted him and honored my decision with love, I pray you also do the same.

I'm personally happy and at peace.

Blessings,

Florence
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The U.S. Buyamba Story Part 3

9/15/2018

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Buyamba California

Part 3: Buyamba Finds Roots in California

While things continued to grow in Kingston, New York and Texas, God was igniting another Buyamba flame in California that started with a Ugandan woman named Samalie Malindwa. Samalie had been in ministry for years with Pastor Dongo and Florence in Uganda, growing Kabalagala Pentecostal Church. Samalie remembers the day that there was no church building and
they would be evangelizing in the streets of Kabalagala, knowing that God wanted ministry in the middle of the growing city. As the street church grew into a tent, then a building, Samalie served alongside the pastor couple as KPC’s accountant.
In 2000, Samalie moved in with her sister Milly and husband, Placide DaSilva, to Thousand Oaks, California. When Dongo visited the U.S. in 2001, he contacted Samalie, and she invited him to visit. Milly and Placide introduced their new Ugandan friend, Pastor Dongo, to their own Pastor, Larry DeWitt, at Calvary Community Church in Westlake Village the following Sunday. Milly recalls that they found Pastor Larry right before church started to make an introduction. Even though Pastor Larry met Pastor Dongo five minutes before the service, he recalls, “God put on my heart to be open to this Ugandan brother, and I also trusted the integrity of Milly and Placide.”
Ezra Dongo, Rebecca and Larry DeWitt
As Pastor Larry walked up to the platform, he introduced Bethuel Dongo as his Ugandan brother and shared Dongo’s mission to care for orphans. He asked the church to join him in prayer over Dongo. The next week, Pastor Larry invited him to meet the whole staff, and Dongo captivated their hearts as he told the story of his many children. Then Dongo prayed over them. Those two prayers that week, united their hearts and thus the 16-year partnership with Calvary Community Church began. Pastor Kirk DeWitt ran the Missions Department at that time and he and his father Larry began to strategize on how to help. Pastor Larry felt that there
needed to be photographers sent to Uganda to take pictures that could tell the story, so when Milly went to Kirk to ask if maybe Calvary should send a team of people to see the work happening on the ground, the church was ready.
Milly recalls that when she asked who should lead such a trip, Pastor Kirk said “This is a great idea and YOU are the leader to do it!” Milly and Placide led that first Calvary Community mission trip with a team of 26 people. More than half of these were high school students who were added to the team at the last minute. The planned high school trip to Zimbabwe had been cancelled due to the political climate at the time. The team returned called and charged to care for the children of Uganda, and the church involvement grew, sending teams every year, sponsoring children, and helping with significant building support for God Cares Schools.
God was also moving in individual hearts. Degna Horton was walking in the mall one day when she saw Pastor Dongo and the DaSilvas walking the other way. She felt the Lord’s connection to the three and felt that one of them was a pastor, but she didn’t know them. She prayed that if the Lord wanted them to meet, He would allow their paths to cross again.

She prayed that if the Lord wanted them to meet, He would allow their paths to cross again.

Degna Horton in Uganda
Degna Horton - Board Member
Degna ended up sitting in church that same Sunday that Dongo was introduced. She went up to him after service and told him the story of seeing him the previous day. She recalls, “Pastor Dongo took my hand and said, this is truly a divine appointment.” Degna had many connections, and she soon started making them. She became an ambassador for the ministry, connecting people both in California and other states. Pastor Dongo would stay with Keith and Degna Horton for years to come, and he affectionately called Degna “Madam Secretary” as she would schedule meetings each visit with different churches, schools and individuals that would evolve into lasting partnerships. 
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The U.S. Buyamba Story Part 2

8/11/2018

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Part Two: Growth in Texas and New York

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 When Bethuel Dongo flew to Texas from Uganda on his first visit to the U.S. in 1998 he called Brother Jerry Lehmann who was now home from his missionary stay in Uganda and living back in New York. Dongo fearlessly hopped on a train alone in Houston and made his way halfway across the country, to Kingston, New York to see him. Jerry introduced him to his Pastor at that time, Rev. G. Modele Clarke, and his wife Evelyn, who pastored New Progressive Baptist Church. The hub of church friends and co-laborers in Christ that Dongo met there, soon extended out to other pastors in that area of New York who wholeheartedly opened their doors to Pastor Dongo, their new friend from Africa. That meeting led Rev. Modele to visit Kampala, Uganda for a couple of months in December
Modele and Evelyn Clarke
of 1998. Modele shared, “The focus of that first team visit was ‘soul winning’ and I spent much time traveling to teach pastors how to evangelize.” Modele also noted, “There was also a little school off the church property that had a few kids with a chalkboard that Pastor Dongo was involved with, which seemed to be gathering more kids in the area.”
The following year, Rev. Modele sent two other members from his church, the Rev. Paul Worthington, and Sister Jamila Reid. A year later, one of Modele's friends, the Rev. Jesse Bottoms, pastor of Beulah Baptist Church, Poughkeepsie, NY, sent two volunteers to assist in the construction of the church on Gaba Road which would be called Kabalagala Pentecostal Church (KPC). It was clear, God’s vision for the children of Uganda was spreading to churches in New York.
Thanks Dongo
Thanks Dongo - The first sponsored child is now managing the 58 acre farm and leading worship classes for God Cares Students.
One of the new American friends, Kelly Clarke, gave Brother Jerry the first check to sponsor Dongo’s oldest son, Thanks Dongo. This was the first sponsored child and the first U.S. sponsor. Buyamba (which means “help”) was born. The original Buyamba organization birthed several initiatives that included books and clothing shipments, pupil sponsorships and fundraising campaigns for the school/housing complex. The new Buyamba Board of Directors in New York filed incorporation documents in 2002. The
While all this was happening in New York, God was also working in Houston to create a hub of helpers who would also grow to be a mighty force. This effort was led by Robert and Nicole Cockburn who first met Pastor Dongo in late 2002 at a gathering held to introduce Bethuel, who now had a larger group of children back in Uganda under his care. God had already prepared this couple’s hearts for Robert had just come from a church-planting trip in Kenya in which a pilot orphanage was starting to incorporate children living in a city
Nicole Cockburn and Pastor Dongo
Robert Cockburn and God Cares Students
dump into a home setting. As Robert shared the Lord with barely clothed children rummaging for food, he committed to the Lord that he would help any way the Lord willed. Six weeks later, Robert and Nicole found themselves at this gathering listening to Bethuel talk about his vision to empower the orphaned through education and discipleship.

They hosted Bethuel at their home that night, and by the next morning, the Cockburns had heard clearly from the Lord that Pastor Bethuel was a man after His heart and could be trusted. After a unanimous family vote, the Cockburn’s decided to empty their ministry account balance to buy the property for the first school/orphanage.

Over the next many years, Robert and Nicole traveled to Uganda three to four times annually, preaching and overseeing the construction of God Cares Nursery & Primary School. They continually shared the vision with their sphere of influence, bringing numerous pastors, school teachers and other interested people to Uganda, including a longtime friend of Robert’s, Bill Shepherd, who gave approximately half the needed funds to build the school in memory of his wife, Sue Shepherd.
Continue to Part 3
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The U.S. Buyamba Story Part 1

7/5/2018

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Part 1: The Beginning

Brother Jerry Lehmann, one of Buyamba’s founders on the U.S. side in New York, was stationed in Uganda as a Mennonite missionary from 1984-1987. Jerry told the story that during that time, he decided one Sunday, to walk through the streets of Gonzaga to find a church. As he passed a few people on the way, he asked, “Where do the saved ones meet?” Each person on the street he asked would smile and instruct him to keep walking for he would "run into them soon enough." As he approached Pastor Bethuel Dongo’s open-air church, Jerry heard the singing, saw the crowd, and listened as Pastor Dongo got up to share the gospel. Pastor encouraged the assembled believers as they sat under the crude sheets nailed to posts which offered a semblance of a roof over their heads to block the sun. It was then that Brother Jerry began attending Pastor Dongo’s church.
Jerry Lehman
It was 1984, and shortly after Pastor Dongo had lost his fingers in the confrontation with the soldiers of Idi Amin. Jerry tells the story that the newlywed couple, Bethuel and Florence Dongo, were in their home one night in Katwe when the soldiers barged in during the night and demanded all of their belongings. This violence had been going on in the area for some time, and the Dongos and other neighbors in the village around them knew it might one day come to their home.
The soldiers took everything…their dishes, their clothes, and even the bed sheets out from under them. They were terrified. While Florence, who was pregnant, sat weeping on the floor, the soldiers asked Dongo to step outside. When they were ready to leave, they told him to go back inside and shut the door. It was then that the Holy Spirit spoke to Bethuel, telling him to stand away from the back of the door and to shut it to the side. This positioning saved his life, as Bethuel reached from the
side to close the door from the inside, the bullets rattled through the door, shooting off two of his fingers. God had spared their lives as Dongo followed the leading of the Spirit.

The shattering of that hand became one of Pastor Dongo’s signatures later on in his life, as he was asked over and over to tell the story, from the littlest ones to the older people, both in Uganda and America. As Jerry used to say, “What other person would God have allowed his hand to be ‘reshaped’ into the sign language symbol for love?” And love is what Bethuel continued to do on both sides of the globe. His trust in following the lead of the Spirit in every situation would prove to be a faithful foundation in trusting God, both for himself and others.
Pastor Dongo
Continue to Part 2...
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A Christmas Greeting From Uganda

12/20/2017

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On behalf of the Buyamba Uganda board and office staff, we pray that you have a very Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year!

We are always encouraged by the opportunity to serve our brothers and sisters in Uganda alongside each and every one of you. May you be blessed by this special video message from the Dongo family on behalf of God Cares School, and know that your giving hearts have made a difference.
Merry Christmas,
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Executive Director
Buyamba Uganda

December 21, 2017 is National Crossword Puzzle Day. Just for fun we created a Buyamba Uganda Crossword Puzzle! Download the crossword puzzle, fill it out as best as you can and submit it through the form below. You will be entered into a raffle to win a mini drum, handmade in Uganda. The contest will end on December 25th, 2017 and the winner will be contacted and announce shortly after.
buyamba_2017_crossword_puzzle.pdf
File Size: 121 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

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    Buyamba Crossword Puzzle Entry

    *Only one submission per email address
    Max file size: 20MB
Submit
Contest Entry Rules: If all of your answers are correct and you have submitted this form on or before December 25, 2017 you will be entered into a raffle to win the mini drum pictured above. If your name is chosen you will be contacted by email and the prize will be mailed to the address provided in the form.
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  • About
    • About Us
    • Uganda
    • Financial Information
    • Meet Buyamba >
      • U.S. Team
      • Uganda Team
  • Get Involved
    • 25 Years of Impact
    • Share Buyamba
    • Event Page
    • Volunteer
    • Mission Trip to Uganda
    • Partner With Buyamba >
      • PR Material
  • Projects
    • Overcoming Rising Costs
    • High School Dorms
    • The Dongo Farm
    • Sports Courts
  • Donate
    • Bible Camp
    • Love Gifts
    • Ways to Give
  • Sponsor
    • Sponsor A Child
    • Sponsor A University Student
    • What is Sponsorship?
    • Send a Photo to Your Child!
    • Write To Your Child!
    • FAQ
  • News Page