BENON KAYANJA

It was awesomely splendid meeting you in your local church settings while others in your residences and the opportunity you gave me to speak in your Churches was a perfect reflection of the unity of the brethren in Christ, much appreciated indeed. I do appreciate very much the hospitality, love and care you gave me and the encouragement and support that was clearly exhibited everywhere for the work we are doing in Uganda. I have since my return to Uganda moved very fast to the work here with your prayers enabling me and the outcomes in our engagements are massive. But for now, lots of thank you.

I'm so thankful to all of you BMS Staff who made my travel arrangements possible, it's very hard to mention names here because the list is long, the office has a few new faces, it was great seeing you all face to face, really looking forward to have you visit us in Uganda.

Thank you for the different church platforms and speaking engagements that you gave me, there were a few firsts- like getting the opportunity to speak to the BMS Speakers Team, I spoke at Stoke St. Gregory Baptist Church(Thank you Julia and Tim Spotswood for that wonderful evening at your residence and the beautiful morning at the church where I had a thunderous welcome by the saints), Horfield Baptist for a very short time that we put to very good use and for LongFleet Baptist church for a very wonderful evening we had together online with other believers, at Oakes Baptist Church (thank you so much Sue and Philip Clements, Richard Waller and Anne Rothwell for arranging my visit and definitely crowning my return after Houghton Regis Baptist Church where a lot is changing for the Kingdom of God, it was wonderful joining you that weekend for the food bank at church and the community prayer walks we did bringing the HRBC Church closer to the community in prayer and the Gospel, it was good to get to know you personally Pr. Raymond.

I returned to Uganda with a lot in package to apply, just to mention a few; thank God while with you, BMS put me in touch with a gentleman in Nottingham who had been in Malawi for 30 years doing Business As Mission, this gentleman enrolled me on a 12 week course which ends mid January 2025, I'm currently doing the course and once it finishes will equip me with the skills to biblically ensure positive change in the communities we are establishing sustainable businesses so as to make an impact on the surrounding society especially by providing jobs and changing the entire lives of the communities in a positive way. Please pray for me that I will be able to take the course, finish it and be able to apply it in our communities.

BMS also facilitated me to contact a wide series of networks much needed for our engagements here in Uganda especially with our Child Protection work. Safeguarding continues to be one of our challenges mainly because of the cultural set up, we therefore need wide network of other organisations so share information and knowledge so that we can create safe spaces for children. Out of this Justice Livelihoods has been registered as a member of one of the big Child Protection Network in the UK, this means a lot in terms of enhancing our level of expertise and responsibility to help protect children from abuse, exploitation and neglect.

As we get to the close of the year, a lot needs to be done especially with reports to our supporter, please pray for the JLH team and for me to able to work at all reports in time.

Please also pray for the 16 days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence which JLH has decided to embrace alongside BMS as a window that runs 25th November to 10th December 2024, the purpose of the campaign is to raise awareness and action to ending violence against women and girls. The JLH theme for the campaign is 'Ending Child marriages in Uganda, please pray for the activities during these 16 days, which will include a Walk, School debates, Football competition (girls and boys) and display of a Red Chair – 'A Place for them' in support of the Red Chair Project in remembrance of the missing girls in classrooms and women killed at the hands of their partners, we have among other things opted for a spiritual approach to this engagement and so, JLH will be running daily prayers for 15minutes on zoom believing God to bring lasting change that focusses on contributing to the development of a gender-just society.

Blessings

Benon