www.HinesKids.org - 2008 January Newsletter "You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance." Psalm 32:7 It is good to be back in Uganda in my home again, however, I always enjoy visiting my brothers and sisters in America! I enjoyed getting a chance to meet with some of you that make this ministry possible. I wish that I could have been able to see all of you. I anticipate visiting America every fall and hope to see all of you as time permits, even if it cannot be every year. I give praise to our Lord and am thankful every day of my life for all of you who support and pray for this ministry. We have found ourselves very busy and yet having a lot of fun. Christmas is always a joy. It is a good time to remember the Lord's birth and the reason for the season. The children all had a wonderful Christmas here in the village of Kamonkoli. We spent two days giving clothes to non-sponsored children - around 650 of them. These were second hand clothes that we bought, washed and ironed and they looked like new. It was a lot of fun. We then had a big day for a party for all of the AWANA children and youth. They were all fed rice, beef, chapattis (bread like), cake, candy and soda. We praise the Lord for all He provides for them, as we fed 834 children. The sponsored children then received their new clothes, as well as many other goodies such as deodorant, lotion, bathing soap and washing soap and other such items. They also received a lot of food items to take home for Christmas. We are very thankful to all of you who made this possible with your contributions to our Christmas fund. You can see below some pictures taken in Christmas clothes. We are now beginning the New Year! It is exciting to see that the Lord has brought in most of the matching gift of $10,000. If you still want to give to this, please send in your funds soon. These funds are going to the orphanage property to finish the house built for me and my 11 children and youth, and also to fencing the property for the orphanage. We would like to develop the land that the Lord has given us and have all of the project located on this land. We have plans to begin building a ministry outreach center soon. God bless you all for your great support, and your prayers too. Many of you have heard about the problems in Kenya. Many have written me asking if it affects us at all. Uganda depends on Kenya for their port in Mombasa for all of their imports, including things like gasoline. We are now having a hard time receiving the trucks with gasoline because of the unrest. As a result, the cost of fuel is now 24,000 Uganda Shillings per gallon, which is around $14.29 a gallon. This makes travel impossible. We also have many Kenyan people flooding into the area as we are about an hours drive from the border. Please pray that it is solved soon for the sake of very many people. I am happy to say that the Ebola virus that was going on in Western Uganda is now contained and seems to not be a threat at present. When I first returned everyone was wearing gloves. This is not the first time, however, in the 12 years that I have been here. We had Ebola in Gulu territory in 2000. I am asking you to pray for child sponsors for the ministry as well. We had many people who took packets to sign up to sponsor a kid but never sent in funds. It is our prayer that with the New Year they will do so and help these children. If anyone is interested in sponsoring a child, or you know anyone else that would like to, please let us know. I love you all and God bless you, Katherine