June 2025 Newsletter
What’s happening?
It has been an incredibly busy month around here! 2 surgeries, 5 trips to Kampala (2.5-3 hrs each way), 2 trips to our secondary school an hour away, 4 home visits, 2 new patients to manage at the house, house hunting for a new project house, Bible studies, birthdays, and more.
Let’s start with the surgeries. Thank you so much to those who donated to help us cover surgery fees for our 2 young men who needed operations. We were able to do them about a week apart at the same hospital. I stayed at the hospital from around 530am until around 10pm and Ben stayed there at night so I could go home and rest. Hospital stays/surgeries here are much different than in America, to say the least. I’m thankful for a good partnership with a local private hospital and the doctors and nurses who help to care for my boys, but establishing that trust and partnership was difficult in the beginning because of the population I work with. I’m thankful for changed hearts and minds so that these young men can get better care. Both boys are home with us, recovering fairly well. Nico has a little infection that we’re trying to treat and some difficulty with one spot on the incision closing on his leg, but doesn’t have much pain. Willy is almost fully healed and recovered already, as his surgery was not as intense as Nico’s. Both young men are soaking up the special post op treatment they’re receiving at the house!
Between the 2 surgeries I had to go back to Kampala multiple times to get a new visa extension. It was a bit more tricky this time, and took longer than I liked, but I’m good for another month at least. I’ll have to leave the country in July, but was already planning on it anyway. A sweet friend of mine here gifted myself and another missionary sister a trip to Cape Town, South Africa, for a Thrive Women’s retreat. We are both super excited about this opportunity. Thrive puts on several retreats a year to cater to American and Canadian missionary women all across the world, who are currently serving on the field. It’s a time of respite, refueling, and refilling. Our friend paid for our airfare, the conference, hotel, and 4 extra days of vacation/tours after the conference is over. I am praying that it’s truly a time of respite and renewal, because we’ve had a lot of heavy stuff going on the last few weeks. I’m still waiting on my work permit that was supposed to take 3 weeks, yet it’s been 8 months. It seems to be a general issue, because I know many people also waiting for renewals, longer than usual.
On June 17th, also in the middle of both surgeries/hospital stays, we were told by our project house landlord that we have until July 1st to leave the house because he sold the property. This was very unexpected and we had no idea he even had the place up for sell. We’ve been looking for a new place for a while just because of growth, but everything in town, where we need to be, is over budget by a significant amount, or is missing important things we need (like a high wall around the compound). I’ve had my team out and about searching for new places, because prices go up when a landlord sees a white person, but we haven’t had any luck yet. There is an old, yet the most up to date, tenant law in Uganda that states a landlord has to give 90 days notice, unless there’s instances of unpaid rent (we are up to date and I always pay 3 months in advance) or extreme damage to the property (it’s still in the same condition we first rented it in 4 years ago). I’ve consulted the local chairman and a police officer friend, so we are trying to fight the 2 week notice he gave, as well as actively look for a property. The problem is, the landlord knows some very high up people in town, and corruption and bribes run deep here. So we keep praying and searching for where to go and what to do. We have 7 patients actively recovering at the house right now, so it’s important we have a stable place for them to stay.
There have been 2 suicide bombers in Kampala this month alone. No one seems to know the rhyme or reason behind the attacks, but both occurred at very crowded events, during the day. One was at a Martyr’s Day celebration in early June, then this past week, the second attack was at a very crowded outdoor market near the Northern Bypass expressway around the city. As tensions rise in many parts of the world, they also are becoming more frequent here with political rallies and nominations happening. Jinja, where I am, has less crazy than Kampala, generally speaking, but tensions have been rising around party nominations and events even here. We are grateful that we know who the one true King is, and seek his guidance and protection always, while also trying to instill that hope in the young men we work with.
We also had Visitation Day for our Secondary school this weekend and we are so proud of the grades that our boys are earning this year! Everyone is doing great overall! Even 2 have become prefects this term.
What’s to come?
We still have a full house of recovering boys for the month of July, but Lord willing, by August we can start putting some of them in school or vocations. Some of them finally see the light at the end of a long tunnel of recovery and are counting down the days to their next big thing! In the mean time, they’ve all taken such a great responsibility to teach the word of God to all of us at bible study and encourage any other brother that enters the house. Granted, theyr’e still teenage boys/young men, so they bicker like brothers too. We are excited to see them continue to recover and where God leads them next.
We have our Primary school visitation day this coming weekend also, and can’t wait to see how our little guys performed in their classes. We have 2 who fight for #1 every term and it’s fun watching the competition happening between them. We pray that all of the boys have improved this term after having a teacher multiple times a week during their 1st term holiday.
2 of our Vocation boys have a huge, end of course, certification test in July also. The results of this test will determine if they get certified in their trades, as well as position them to enter a 3 month internship. They are both very confident and ready to be done with this test and go on to their training and get jobs in their chosen fields. I was able to get them connected with one of the largest sugar cane factories in Uganda, for their training and Lord willing, they will get good jobs after their training is complete, at the same place! It’s amazing how far many of these young men have come! We are so proud of them and their desire to to better for themselves!
I leave July 11th for my conference and trip to Cape Town! I work with an amazing team so I have no doubt that things will be managed very well while I’m away. Please pray for them that things are not crazy and for wisdom so that they can handle anything that comes their way, while I am being refilled to come back!
Thank you
Thank you is only a small phrase that we can say to all of you who pray for us, support us, and help us to continue the work we do with these young men. We have many challenges every day, but God continues to give us wisdom and discernment to pour into the guys we work with. Sometimes we see failure and it’s easy to get discouraged, but then God always shows us a wink of success and renews the hope we have for these young men. While there are still many who are not ready to change, there are many who can’t turn back to their old ways. We count each successful transformation a great blessing from God. Thank you for standing with us in this gap as we serve those that God has called us to work with here in Uganda. May God bless you!
Our house ward is getting full of recovering boys!
Nico’s post op IV
Home visits
Home visits
Avocado as big as your face!
Messages on trucks and taxi’s make me laugh
Hospitals are NOT handicapped accessible!!!!
Home visit
Hospital/surgery stays
Happy birthday Ben!
Auntie trying her hand at trimming hair!
Sometimes the only peaceful sleep these young men get is while sitting on a hard bench during Bible Study
Meet our new chairman!
Shirt modifications for Uncle Ben’s bday
Got to spend the day snuggling my friend’s 2 dogs while she went out of town.
Uganda traffic Jam
Burning fuel that the boys huff when they come to the project with it, as well as some dead grass
So proud of these 2 young men and the way they’ve surrendered their lives to Christ.
Jonathan’s hand, from the story of the burn in the March newsletter, has FINALLY closed! Now we are working on scar release. The hosptial wanted to amputate, but GOD brought him to us! A terrible wound, now closed, and a heart now healed, in Jesus name!
Can you help?
I will be heading stateside in October for about a month to do fundraising for the next year. During this time I’ll be in Tennessee mostly, but will also travel to Jacksonville, Florida for a week or so, and possibly Ohio again. I’m also willing to travel other places but my own personal funds are limited on travel. I’m also in need of a few things during my time there and ideas/help with fundraisers.
I will need to borrow a car to get around while I’m visiting. Anything automatic and reliable is perfect. I will fly down to FL then drive around there, but will need to drive all around TN for the majority of my time.
Does anyone have any connections with businesses, coffee shops, restaurants, etc who may be willing to do a fundraising night where part or all of the proceeds can go to our ministry here in Uganda to support the young men we work with?
I would also love to come share with others what God is doing here. If you have a church or small group, or even a group of friends who would love to hear more about the ministry and what we do, I can arrange it!
If anyone has ideas or wants to connect regarding any of these things, please email me thens1213@gmail.com. Also feel free to please share my newsletters or email with listening ears who want to support/pray for missions.
How can you help?
Prayer requests:
Pray for a new project house, within budget and centrally located, sooner than later.
Pray for healing of hearts, souls, minds, spirits, and physical healing for all of my current and future patients to come. Medical care has proven to be a huge gateway for drastic change for so many young men recently.
Pray for our students who are at school to make wise choices and study hard as they finish their second term of the year.
Continued prayers for my work permit to be processed with no more delays or problems.
Pray for safety as we enter the season of elections and rallies.
Pray for my travels and my team while I’m in South Africa on a missions retreat
Pray for wisdom for myself and my team as we work with the street connected young men. Trauma, survival, and past abandonment are thick chains to break.
Pray for financial donors 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. We spend about $19,000USD on school fees/requirements per YEAR for 40 students and approximately $1000-$1300 USD per MONTH or more on medical care.
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.”
