Plenty!

In 2015, Brent Flynn, a Taco Bell franchisee that operates restaurants throughout California, decided to sponsor 26 children for each of his 26 Taco Bell stores. He did this in honor of his good friend Mike Benson who passed away. Buyamba sent each of the restaurants a picture and short bio of a God Cares School student, and each store manager put it up on their employee wall so the staff would have the chance to be involved in helping orphaned and needy children in the Buyamba program.

Each store also receives the monthly newsletter, student letters, and annual photo that is shared by all. Brent reported, "Some of the store managers get really into it, and the staff reads the letters and have actually written back to their child."

This giving model has been so successful that Brent and his team have continued to sponsor all the kids every year since then! Not only that, they have increased their sponsorship numbers as they have acquired new restaurants. Today, they sponsor 33 children in the Buyamba program, and two of their sponsored children have graduated high school and gone into universities. Tracy has now entered Makere University Business School, and Enoch has almost completed a three-year program at Kabale School of Nursing and Midwifery. Brent and his team continue to support part of their tuition through the Buyamba program. They have decided to keep sponsoring these past few years together for they believe they are called to children in desperate situations wherever they are and as Brent said, "To be a father to the fatherless."

Yes, it is true, there is a delicious chili named after Buyamba, and it was released this fall at Oaks Christian School’s Chili cook-off by one of our faithful donors, Leslie Matthews. Leslie is an amazing cook and great friend of Buyamba, and the two elements together made an excellent chili!

Leslie invited Buyamba to host an information table, along with sponsorship opportunity, at her chili booth at the Oaks back to school event, and many came by to taste the chili and find out more about Buyamba. The Mathews family have been involved with Buyamba for a long time, with their oldest daughter Rachel going on a trip with Oaks Christian School in 2008, which led to her son, Joe Matthews, going on a Buyamba trip two summers ago. Joe shot a documentary of a former God Cares student, his best friend Ivan Jepsen, who was going back to God Cares School for the first time since he was adopted five years earlier.

The documentary, From the Land In-Between, not only highlights his story, but it also shows the work being done at God Cares School and brings awareness to the work of Buyamba in the lives of orphaned and needy children.

The Mathews family are a great example of using their talents to help introduce others to Buyamba…this time while having a delicious bowl of Buyamba Chili!

One Friday morning, the Buyamba team set out from the Glory House to spend the day at God Cares High School. This was our second time visiting the school, and we were looking forward to going to the Chapel with the students. As we drove through the gates of GCHS, the Bethuel Dongo Assembly Hall stood out in the center of the campus, and that day there was a lot of foot traffic as it was being rented out by another school in the community for a conference... Not just any school, but a Muslim school.

After the message, songs of praise and worship began to fill the campus. We were all singing, "I surrender; I surrender; I surrender all to You."

Led by the Spirit, Sam invited students to come up and give their lives to the Lord. That's when it happened... I realized a young girl from the Muslim school must have snuck over to our Chapel, and that day, she gave her life to the Lord! She boldly stepped up to the stage alongside 30 other students and prayed the prayer of salvation. "WOW!" I thought ... "God, you are so good!"

Susan was raised by a single mother who could hardly afford a daily meal at home, Buyamba started helping her since Primary three (Grade 3) class. She comes from one of our bush communities called Buwama (in southwestern Uganda). Susan has experienced a lot of hardships in her education journey to the point of giving up, given the fact they couldn’t afford a casual meal and the basics at home. But while at school, she was encouraged by the teachers and the environment at school, which gave her hope to keep pushing on. After her S6 class graduated in 2017, she had passed her national examinations well, but she thought that was the end of her education journey since there was no hope at home... But now, she is the family’s pride, for she is the first child (and a “girl” at that) in the entire family to go University. She is giving hope to the girls in her community that it is possible to make it as a girl! She is a living hope.