The Joy Centre was blessed with a visit from the Kigezyi Ankole Anglican Youth Missioners (KAAYM) on the afternoon of October 4th.  (KAAYM is a ministry of St. Francis Chapel, Makerere University.)

It was a great time of fellowship and fun. The energetic KAAYMers worshipped God as only people from Western Uganda can.  Using an empty jerrycan as a drum, they sang their throats hoarse, clapped their hands sore and levelled the Joy Centre grass with their exuberant dance.

It was a wonderful, blessed afternoon… and here’s the evidence!.

Visit our gallery pages (link on the right hand menu list) for more pictures of the afternoon.

The Joy Centre loves visitors. Come see us soon, will you?

By Benoni Mugarura-Mutana

It usually takes Joy and me between 30 and 45 minutes to travel from Lweza, where our son Peter and his wife Fiona live, to the Joy Center in Wakiso.  But the evening of 10^th September 2009 was different.  What started off as a quiet day of reflection on the goodness of God ended in madness!

Riots in Kampala (Photo credit: The EastAfrican)

Joy and I spent more than four hours driving through back roads in the middle of swamps and valleys and over strange hills to find our way out of the riots that engulfed Kampala city.  We and hundreds of other Ugandan were trapped in the confusion that broke out when the Uganda Police Force and the Central Government prevented the Kabaka of Buganda from visiting a district to the east of Kampala. More →

Many students find the holidays a big challenge for many reasons. They go back to their communities and villages and the only thing they know how to do is to go to school. Many of them have never been shown how to spend spare time profitably. The tendency therefore is to try and find out what other young people are doing and imitate them. This often leads to behavior they themselves have not known.

Most times Communities and societies we live in try to make us conform and unless we stand up to them and only do only that which is good and right, we will end up looking like them. The illustration is when all the guys and the girls want you to do what they think is good in their own eyes. Often they try to get you believe that what they are offering is better than what you know. Or they show you that what you know is not good enough or completely ignore your opinion. What we need to know if we do not know it already is that those people are trying to devalue you and suggest that until one is like them one does not have a life to be excited about.

Shadrach, Meshak and Abednego Stood for the Truth
But the truth is often the reverse of what they are suggesting to you. An excellent example is a story from the Bible in the book of Prophet Daniel chapter 3. This is the story of three Hebrew boys who had been carried into exile when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon destroyed the country of Judah in 352 BC. Shadrach, Meshach and Abedinego were serving in the palace of the King when he had a dream and acted upon it. He built a golden statue and put it in the plains of Ono to worshipped by the whole of his Empire. More →

By Benoni Mugarura-Mutana

Joy and I have gone kookoo!

Earlier this year we decided to raise free range chicken at the Joy Center in Wakiso. We were prompted into this venture when a friend brought us a hen that hatched seven chicks.  You cannot imagine our excitement at the thought of starting our own chicken farm.

Joy hired a young man in our village to keep our small food garden and take care of the chicken.  However a few months later the young man fled with the hen and all, but one chick.

The lone chick quickly grew into a proud cock and needed a friend, so we decided to buy another hen. The new hen grew in popularity around the Joy Center.  A tryst with larger cock in the neighborhood led to seven new chicks! More →

Highlights:

• Inaugural Schools’ Worship Service
• Teens One Day Camp
• Building, Business and Ministry

Joy Centre view - glorious sunsets everyday!

Construction of the Joy Center conference hall has been quiet for a few months, but fundraising is in earnest following the completion of roofing of the boardrooms, offices, kitchen and restaurant. The plan is to complete plastering, wiring, plumbing and furnishing this annex which can be used as money for the main conference hall is raised.

As we wait for finances, the incomplete facility is not lying redundant.  Not at all!  It is a venue for regular meetings (see the Teens One Day Camp and the photo gallery below) and it serves as a constant reminder of the faithfulness of God. More →

By Benoni Mugarura-Mutana

How many times are we taught lessons before we are changed by what we have learned? I am talking about the good things that change our lives for better.

Perhaps many of us are never changed by what we learn because of the way we are taught.  Perhaps we have become accustomed to ignoring important lessons, choosing to live our lives as we please.

Think of the last seminar, workshop of conference you attended.  Were you changed or did things return to normal?  Was it back to the same routine, back to old habits until the next conference or seminar?

Consider our situation in Uganda.  Our education system is based on passing examinations.  Educationists have debated this problem for years, but the change is yet to come.

Why, for instance, would any child growing up in Uganda be taught in history about the Boston Tea Party, the geography of the Rhine River or the Canadian prairies?  There are many subjects taught in Ugandan schools that are inapplicable to our situation and so the information given is forgotten as soon as it is taught.  It does nothing to increase real knowledge or give skills to the learner.

Strangely the teaching of real skills subjects – those that can prepare students for the world – are ignored and relegated to select vocational colleges and the School of Life.

Unfortunately the teaching and learning of the Word of God is often approached in the same way. It is not unusual for people to go to church every Sunday and to ignore the Word of God. More →

By Benoni Mugarura-Mutana

The morning of Wednesday March 25th, I woke up prompted by the Holy Spirit to write this message to the Church of Uganda in particular, but to the Church of Jesus Christ as a whole. Here it is based on the two scriptures:

Matt 26:45 - Then He returned to the disciples and said to them,“Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour is near, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.”

Mark 14:41 - Returning the third time, He said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.”

Are you still sleeping? As if to say, don’t you see what is going on? The day was very dark for the Savior and He had to wrestle with the whole idea of death that was coming very fast. He had been fighting with the flesh and had told them that the spirit is willing but the flesh was weak.  It was a very difficult time for the Lord and yet the disciples were sleeping. More →

The roof has started going up, as we continue to believe God for more funds to complete the roofing of phase one.