April 2026 Newsletter
What’s happening?
A dear sister in Christ, and a long-term missionary herself, Carol Ghattas, wrote a wonderful devotional for missionaries, “When Serving Gets Tough”, a couple of years back. I have been blessed by this devotional and dear sister more than once in my time, here in Uganda, and this month has been no different. I often go back to this book when different situations and scenarios come up, for a time of reflection and remembrance, as well as a gateway into God’s word regarding those situations. This month, the day that I continue to go back to, is titled, “Why Is There So Much Evil?” Carol has a specific section in the midst of this topic labeled “Recognizing evil has its purposes”. “The more evil raises its ugly head and Satan plays his cards openly in our world, the more opportunities we have to show the difference Christ makes in our lives. The trials Jesus spoke about will continue to increase as his return draws near, causing the love of many to grow cold (Matt 24:12-14). As evil increases, we must guard our hearts against our love growing cold. Instead, recognize that in the midst of the darkness, our lights for Christ shine even brighter. This is our time to live in contrast to the lawless, hateful mindset-and as we do, to share about the one who enables us to stand firm.” (Carol Ghattas, When Serving Gets Tough, p78)
This month has reared its head to an abundance of evil surrounding us in all directions. From laws that the government are trying to pass that could be detrimental to foreign NGOs, to continuing to find issues that my former staff and lawyers did while setting up the NGO years ago that were incredibly falsified to benefit them and potentially harm me which are becoming more and more expensive to fix, and now most recently in the last 2 weeks, an abundance of evil on the streets, bringing a drastic influx of wounded and broken boys to our gate.
In the last week alone, we have had 84 young men come to us severely beaten and/or burned, at the hands of local police. On Tuesday morning we had 39 severe burns come to our gate, all throughout the morning hours. While the young men were sleeping on the streets in various locations, somewhere around 2-3 in the morning, police poured fuel on them and then lit them on fire. When that didn’t appear to be enough damage for some, they proceeded to use thick metal wires connected to large brass padlocks to beat them, causing severe wounds, broken bones, and too much pain. This has continued every day since then, each day bringing more wounds, more pain, more brokenness. All for the sake of “clearing the streets” before the president is sworn in on May 12th. Some were arrested after being beaten and taken to prison for simply sleeping, others ran, and others weren’t so lucky. It angers me. It hurts me. It infuriates me honestly. It makes me want to fight, but I’m supposed to be the light, right? So what does that look like?
We pray. We tend to the broken and battered young men as they come in and we do the best we can, with the resources we have. We cover them with the love that we know our Jesus would and we pray that they can see their value in HIM alone, because the world tells them otherwise in mighty evil ways, each and every day. We meet them in the fire, and we believe that even when the evil continues to come day after day, Jesus will never leave us or them there alone. We welcome them with arms wide open. A kind and caring gentle touch to offset the battle they just endured. A calm and peaceful voice to offset the abusive language and words that were directed at them just hours or minutes before. A prayer of thanksgiving for their lives and for their futures to come. A warm and nutritious meal, a shower, clean clothes, a smile, a hug, an acknowledgment of their humanity. Love. Jesus. Peace. Hope. We use our voice to make theirs louder. We advocate, we speak truth, we fight for justice and human rights. We meet them where they are, love them, respect them, and tell them they are worthy. We try to be the brightest light we can be, because darkenss prevails around them every day.
We picked up all of our primary and secondary students yesterday for their 1st term, 3 week holiday. (Last week we picked up our little Edwin from his Special Needs school and one of our vocational students came home earlier in the week as well). They are all so very excited to be home for a break. Ugandan schools start as early as 630 am for some classes and finish lessons around 10pm for upper primary and all of secondary, with 3 meals and a small morning break mixed in there as well. This is another reason that boarding school is more conducive for our students, so they don’t have to also walk to and from school and worry about food in those few hours that they could be sleeping. 10 boys will be staying at the project house this holiday, either because their relatives are so far away or because we don’t feel like it’s a safe/healthy environment for them to be in for an extended period of time. 6 primary students will be going back to school on Monday for a holiday program since they are in the candidate class for primary school. And, the rest of the boys will be going to stay with family members for the 3 week holiday, while reporting to us daily, if they’re close enough. (7 of our students will be more than an hour away so they’ll have 1-2 pop in visits and every other day phone calls to check in) When we have boys stay home near Jinja, they get surprise, drop in visits from either myself or one of my team, and are checked in on regularly. 1 of our University students will be starting his internship in Kampala this holiday, so he won’t be returning to Jinja right now, and the other 2 University students are still waiting on their program intake to start, in July and August. On top of our 41 students who will be in and around Jinja coming for daily programs at the project house, M-F, we will also be continuing to hold our general bible studies and medical programs. These 3 weeks are going to be incredibly busy for us, but we are excited to have our students home for a brief time! Everyone did pretty well on their report cards for end of term, and we also will be having teacher Shifa come back this holiday for primary students to continue to help them improve, most especially in English, reading, and writing. Many of our kids had been out of school for a long time, or never attended before coming to us. So even some of our big guys are very far behind, academically. 2 of our secondary boys will also be attending a weekend long pastoral conference during this holiday period, and everyone will have designated study hours at the project for revision. It’s all hands on deck always, but, even more so during these school holiday periods. I’m grateful for a great team who also carries the burden with me in mighty ways.
Joy, Ben, and I made a trip out to Kakira recently to check in on our 2 boys who have finished their internship and work full time now at the local sugarcane factory. We are so very proud of them and they’re doing so well. We spent about 6 hours with them catching up and counseling them as well, on life, finances, and work ethic and responsibilities. While we were at their house, we noticed they were still using the small mattresses that we gave them 4 years ago when they first became roommates. (Which are now only about ¼-½ inch thick because they’re made of cheap foam). They’ve never asked for a replacement, or for anything honestly. So, after we left, Ben and I went in search of some twin sized beds to get them up off of the floor, and some bigger mattresses, as well as a few other things for their room to make cooking a bit easier. The room is not huge but we were able to make a few things fit and make it more homey for them. The boys were so shocked when Ben showed up with a trike full of goodies for them, and continue to send all 3 of us messages of gratitude and thanksgiving. We are so proud of these 2 and are excited to continue watching them grow and thrive. They now fully support theirselves, save money with me and also with the bank, and are beyond grateful for the jobs and opportunities they’ve been given. Both voiced to us the day we visited that they never thought they would be at this point in their lives. They had given up hope for any sort of future beyond the streets. Thanks to generous donors who help us so that we can rehabilitate these young men, send them to school, and set them up for success, they now have that chance! We at EHM are also ever so grateful!
I also got to go with 2 sweet friends to Sipi Falls this month! We were only there 2 days, but it was beautiful, restful, relaxing, and a sweet little girl’s get away. Sipi is about 4 hours from Jinja, but an easy drive on surprisingly great roads due to little traffic. We stopped in another city along the way and enjoyed a nice little coffee shop and lunch (that side of Uganda is known for its amazing coffee). We had wonderful, cool weather for hiking to all of the waterfalls when we arrived, then a beautiful 4.5 mile sunrise hike the next morning before heading back to Jinja, after the coffee shop stop again of course! Amelia had never been to Sipi before, so it was really sweet for Jaci and I to be able to introduce her to another beautiful part of Uganda. Thankful for sweet friends/sisters to do life with here.
What’s to come?
This month, during school holidays, all of our students, with the exception of the 7 who are staying far away in the village, will be at the house with us M-F for daily programs. We will be having paper bead/bracelet making times, holiday packet/school revision times, counseling sessions, small group discipleship programs, daily bible studies, and our general weekly programs. We want to try to keep our students as busy as possible with us so that they don’t have time to sit idle or get into trouble. We pray they make wise decisions during their holiday time home, and always.
Joy and Ben will also be leading a Trauma Healing class at our primary school, for all of the teachers and staff, the last week of the holiday. This term, more than ever, we have had several issues with the way students are talked to and treated (not even just our kids, but it’s been witnessed with others at the school also) and we want to take what Joy and Ben have learned and been teaching to our boys, also to their staff, to help them understand trauma as a whole and appropriate interactions. The Director and Headmaster are both very open and excited about this opportunity for their teachers and staff and we are thankful to have such a great relationship with them to be able to suggest it. We will be providing all of the teaching and training materials for them, as well as going to their school to do the teaching, so no one has excuses about money or transport preventing them from being there. The Director is making it mandatory for all of his employees, from the groundskeeper, to the cook, the askari, teachers and everyone all the way up the chain who lives and/or works on campus.
I also have some meetings this month with some upper level Police and Military officers who are based in Jinja. I don't have a lot of high hopes about the outcomes of these meetings, but I have a lot to say and pray it’s received well at the very least. It’s a fine line to walk, so prayers for the right words to be said and the right ears to hear are much appreciated. At the end of the day, my voice is stronger than the voices of the hundreds of young men I work with, and I won’t give up trying.
We also have a couple of school visits this month to visit Universities for one of my young men. He’ll be starting his college journey in August and we are between a couple of schools and have applied to both, however we want to go on campus and check them out in person as well. One is about 9 hours away, but the degree would be best suited there since it’s in Western Uganda, where prime innovative farming is located and the other is in downtown Kampala. While closer, Kampala is not the best location for an Agricultural degree in Agriculture Extension and Rural Innovation. He would be able to get more experience where the prime development in Agriculture is located, in the west.
Thank you
Thank YOU! Thank you for praying for us and with us! Thank you for donating, so that we can provide the great needs to these young men, that otherwise aren’t available to them.
Thank you to the seed sowers who have donated to help us purchase land soon, and we would be ever so grateful if others feel led to also give toward this great need so that we can purchase outright and not have a loan to pay. Prices have drastically increased over the last couple of years, but we know our time is near.
Thank you to those who donate to help us keep our boys in school, and add new students every year. Something that the students and families have given up on because of the great expense, but something so important to better increase sustainability in the community and lives of these young men..
Thank you to those who give faithfully to help us continue to do daily bible studies and feeding projects, keep boys housed, and provide both basic and life saving medical care for each and every street connected child/young adult we encounter.
These seemingly simple acts of love are life changing for the guys we work with. They now have a hope and a future in Jesus and in life in general, and for that we are grateful.
Chameleons everywhere at Sipi
Sipi Falls, Kapchorwa with sweet friends
Avocado season is upon us! Can you spot Morris climbing to pick them?
Bosco and Kodet’s room <----Before After---->
We are so proud of these 2 young men! Streets to success! Hopelessness to hope! Survival to thriving!
More and more new boys coming each and every day. We are thankful to be a safe place of peace and hope for them.
One of the boys with stripes on his back from police. The burns are too gruesome to share pics of here. -->
Welcome home students!
Baby shower for our sweet friend Michelle
How can you help?
Prayer requests:
URGENT NEED: Safe, secure, convenient project house, as soon as possible!
Prayers for the conversations to come with police and military personel regarding the issues with the young men we work with. For receptive ears and compassionate hearts. And, for wisdom in the words I should say and how to say them, so they’ll be received well.
Pray for God to continue to give us wisdom and resources to help the many many medical cases we continue to have dropped at our gate. For both physical and spiritual healing for the boys and strength to not go back to the streets
Prayers for our students as they’re home for their 1st term holiday. For them to make wise choices and not be tempted by old friends and old ways.
Pray for more seed sowers who can help partner with us to do the work that GOD has called us to. It’s only by HIS will that we are here doing what we are doing and we need financial partners to do this work. Tangible things such as a safe room, food, school fees, and medical care show these young men that they’re not given up on, like so many people here tell them. Education and Medical are typically our biggest expenses and both are life changing for these young men.
How is God calling you to partner with us?
Through prayer? Through financial giving? We believe that even as just one of these young men changes, there’s many more ready to start a new life also, due to the testimony of the one. God calls some of us to go, some of us to stay, some of us to give and some of us to pray. Where do you fit in? Please consider joining us in bringing hope and healing to these precious young men! So many in their community have given up on them, but we know that God has called them to more!
TAX DEDUCTIBLE CHECKS mailed to:
GoSendMe Global
PO Box 913106
Sherman, TX 75091
(Make checks out to “GoSendMe Global” and include a note with the check- but not written directly on the check- that it is for me, Tara Henson, Uganda)
VENMO: @Tara-Henson-1
PAYPAL: @TaraHenson
ZELLE: thens1213@gmail.com
How to Connect
EMAIL: thens1213@gmail.com
Isaiah 1:17 (CSB)
“Learn to do what is good.
Pursue justice.
Correct the oppressor.
Defend the rights of the fatherless. Plead the widow’s cause.”
