From the beginning of the Lighthouse Church team trip to the end, I experienced Jesus in practically everything at both campuses of God Cares School. He was in the firm hug of a teacher welcoming me into her classroom. He was in the bold, enthusiastic worship voices behind the microphone at chapel. He was in the quick, but careful hands of a school cook who worked to feed hundreds of students, but still warmly welcomed me into the kitchen to chat. He was in the full brown children’s eyes that spied me and came racing over to grab my hands. He was in the faithful comment of a Dongo family member as he stated matter of fact, “We believe God will provide.”

Not only did I see Jesus in God Cares Schools, I saw overwhelming evidence of Him in the communities. God was present on the billboards and in the names of businesses. His name was literally tacked up on the walls of homes in the slums where many of the God Cares children go home each evening. His name was written, spoken, and sung with joy and confidence every time I turned around.

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

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

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.

Stepping cautiously across a footbridge, I am careful not to slip into a small stream choked with discarded rags, empty water bottles, scraps of shredded plastic too small to be of use to anyone. Pungent, acrid smells seeping from black charcoal contrasting the fresh, bright sun-soaked weeds clinging to the river’s edge. Plump brown chickens scratching through the filth as fluffy chicks follow closely behind. Small shards of beige straw protruding from handmade bricks, fingerprints still evident, with bamboo lashed to the exterior of the hut for strength. These are some of the images seared into my mind as I returned to the slums of Busaka.

So much contrast. My eyes are drawn to the cramped shacks constructed out of scraps of corrugated steel scraps and discarded wood as I duck underneath turquoise and magenta shirts draped unceremoniously over a clothesline. I marvel at how clean the laundry appears after peering into the small blue tub used for washing.

So much poverty, yet beautiful, bright smiles welcome us joyfully with squeals of delight as news travels of our arrival. I’m braver this year. Gone are the tennis shoes I wore last summer as protection against disease. I consciously chose to wear open sandals beneath my long skirt, symbolic of my desire to break down barriers with the people I have grown to love. Also gone was my hesitation to engage strangers we met along the path. Although a curiosity, we are greeted with love and acceptance as children show off their ability to roll a bike tire over the rough terrain.

 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

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

In the summer of 2017, I was given the opportunity to travel to God Gares School and Orphanage with the mission team at the Met Church and was equally blessed to be doing it with my mom by my side. Preparing for this trip was a tedious process that required lots of time, commitment, and money, but I knew, in the end, it would all be worth it because I was going to do the Lord’s work and change some lives…but little did I know that it would be me whose life would be changed instead. When we arrived at the orphanage on the first day, the squeals of the kids accurately reflected my feelings of excitement, as the trip of my dreams was finally beginning! During my time in Uganda, I met a handful of children and lifelong friends (no matter how far apart we may be) who left a lasting impact on my heart and my life. I prepared to show each of these people the unconditional love of

Jesus and teach them His righteous ways, but miraculously they managed to show me a side of Him I never knew. As the days evolved, I quickly realized that all some of these children had was Jesus and each other. That’s it. Some of them had deceased or terminally ill parents, nowhere to call home outside of the orphanage, or were abandoned because their parents couldn’t handle the burden of caring for a child. This broke my heart when I heard some of their stories and personal experiences, but in a strangely beautiful way, none of that seemed to matter to them because they had Jesus in their hearts and therefore they had everything they could ever need and from THAT is where their joy stemmed. The moment I realized that is when I knew that nothing would be the same when I returned home, where I had everything and more that I simply take for granted. My lifestyle would be shifted in such a way that I stopped putting my happiness in the hands of material objects or people and started putting it in the hands of my Creator, Jesus Christ, where I would find an everlasting joy I’ve never known before. Furthermore, God was calling us to sponsor a young lady, and He placed Waldah in our path.  This was our opportunity to continue His work and give back each month as a constant reminder of where our joy comes and to keep shining our light wherever we go.