June 2026 Newsletter

What’s happening?

As I am writing this newsletter, I’m still currently sitting in the hosptial with Mama Zack (day 36 today, as I’m writing), the same place you found me last time I wrote. This has been a long and hard journey, and while we still have a long way to go, we are much better than we were a month ago, or even last week honestly. But the battle isn’t over, so we continue fighting.

3 emergency surgeries, 2 extra wash outs in theatre, 2 smaller I&D procedures, sepsis and a massive open wound we are having to pack from the first surgery, more than 30 units of blood and multiple other blood products and albumin given, a lot of trying to balance electrolytes and vitals, searching for strong meds that aren’t common here and having them transported to Jinja by taxi to try to give mama the best possible fighting chance, an abundance of good wound care supplies used and more brought from the US by sweet friends, lots of blood, sweat, and tears from all of us, oh what an adventure it’s been. But Mama Zack is alive, and she will be ok, in time, and we praise God for that! He has more for her, there’s no doubt.

We had many days of touch and go. Many days on our knees in prayer for even just another moment of her life to be spared. Many restless nights and days, brainstorming, praying, hoping, trusting. Many ups and downs. But, over the last week there’s finally more ups than downs. There’s more balanced labs, more improvement with the massive wound, more improvement with GI symptoms and nutrition intake. Mama is becoming stronger, she's laughing and is quite the comedian when she’s feeling good. Mama gave her life to Christ, she tells her friends and husband on the phone that God saved her so she can’t live the same life she had before. She tells them that she shouldn’t be alive, and honestly, God has allowed her to survive many things over this last month that she couldn’t have ever survived in her own power or ours. In all reality, she wouldn’t have survived even the first surgery if God didn’t have his hand on all of this. Burdening my heart for her, bringing Dr Derrick and Dr Christine and I together to fight for her, allowing us dependence and wisdom to care for her. In the Uganda medical world, without the first surgery, she would have died. During or at least after the first surgery she would have died based on what happened in theatre. She’s a walking testimony of God’s grace and God’s plans. While I may never see God’s full plan for all of this, I’m starting to see many reasons why God allowed it as we continue to improve. A new love for Jesus, rekindled relationships, bonds built stronger, trust grown, teams stretched and strengthened, space to mourn and space to celebrate, a hosptial and staff taught and grown so that they can better help the next patient, a village seeing Jesus first hand, from death to life. Dependence. Healing. HOPE. God isn’t done, and He’s always good, even when it’s hard.

We will still be in the hospital another few weeks to a month while we continue to address the massive infection and open, but healing, wounds in her stomach, before we’re able to go back into theatre for a secondary closure. 2x daily wound cleaning, packing, and dressing changes, a multitude of meds, increasing nutrition intake, movement, healing. But, we thank God we are going forward now at least!!! Then in 5-6 months, after we do the secondary closure, we will have to come back for another surgery to do an abdominal mesh, but Lord willing this will be a much simpler procedure and recovery, and Dr Derrick is the only one who will be touching her. This will be required due to the massive complications from the 1st surgery.

I am ever so grateful for the many people who have prayed for us, donated to help with Mama Zack’s medical bills, and bought great wound care supplies off of my Amazon list to help promote better healing and recovery. But, we aren’t finished. Medical bills continue to rack up, supplies continue to deplete, and we aren’t finished fighting for her. Right now this is our greatest need. God called us to it, and he hasn’t told us to stop yet, so we will continue until He tells us otherwise. We covered rent at their house for the rest of this year, as mama isn’t working and won’t be able to for another several months. This was an extra $165 USD total for the year, covered at once. We continue to provide dad and the small children at home with food and cooking supplies, roughly $30 USD per week, since mom is the caregiver and she’s in the hospital, unable to work. We continue to provide mama food every day and my staff with food and transport, while we are all in the hospital with her taking shifts, which is roughly $40 USD per week. Our total bill has now reached $13,258 USD, as of the 24th and it’s still climbing due to the severity of her condition and the length of time we will still be in the hospital before she can transition to the project house before going home. She will need to still stay with us at the project for about 4-5 weeks after we are discharged while everything continues to heal and while she has lifting restrictions so she doesn’t hurt herself at home trying to move dad or do too much before she’s healed properly.

We have had $7620 of the current bill of $13,258 donated so far. Any donation can help us to continue our care for Mama Zack and her paralyzed husband and young children during this trying time. But overall, we praise God for what he’s been doing in and through her during this terrible situation. And, we pray for Him to be glorified over all. We know that God isn’t finished with Mama Zack’s story and we are blessed to be even a small part of it.

Back to the boys:

Everyone seems to be doing well in school this term! We had visitation day for our secondary students this past Saturday and this upcoming Saturday (July 4th) will be Visitation day for our primary students and also for the special needs school, where we have our little Edwin. Joy and Ben are helping so much with everything, while I’m here with Mama Zack in the hospital. While I missed seeing our students, Saturday, I got to chat with them on a video call and hear all about what’s going on at school. It’s always refreshing to get good reports from teachers and the students about how the term is going. Everyone seems to be studying hard and improving their grades as the year progresses, as well.

Joy and Ben have told me that we have had many new boys coming to bible study as well. Earlier this year we purchased a large tent for the compound so that we had more space to have bible studies and could gather outside vs in a cramped small room. This tent has proven to be a huge blessing, because it’s brought many new boys, some intermittently, and some more consistently, because it’s a more open and welcoming outside place to them. Medical care continues to be a huge vessel to bring many boys to the project, where we can then meet both a tangible need and minister to them in mighty ways. Some come for simple colds or rashes, and some come for much more complex and emergent issues, but all are welcomed with open arms. Being able to provide such care for them, when they otherwise wouldn’t be able to receive treatment, shows them the love of Christ in a much deeper way. It builds trust and hope, allowing us to speak truth into them along the way. Even this week, when we were at a local park enjoying some fresh air with mama, a boy I’ve never met before came to greet us, with an older gentleman. As we were talking, the older gentleman asked my name. When I told him Auntie Tara, he immediately was so happy and said “Are you really the one? You have treated so many of our boys and help those of us on street all so much”. A little while later he brought droves of boys to meet me and greet me, just so they know me, if they didn’t already. He continued to explain to all of them if there’s ever any medical issue they should come to our gate and even told them where we are located. He narrated about some of the severe and emergent cases that we’ve treated, calling each boy by their street name, so that others knew who they are. We ended up having a small bible study with them after his introductions and speech, and got to know them all a little more. We want to be a place of hope and healing, comfort and peace for these young men. So if this is what it takes, then so be it. We have had tons of new street kids coming to Jinja lately, for whatever reason, so if part of this journey with mama is to meet them and get to know them on their own turf, then we are here to accept it with arms wide open. Here I am Lord, use me.

Uganda government has also passed some new laws lately that affect me, as a foreigner, so I’m also trying to research and navigate these new bills so that I’m compliant with what’s necessary to remain here. One law affects me more personally, and one is more directed at the ministry. Foreigners who live and work here, now not only have to have a work permit, we also must register for an “Alien ID”. All Ugandan nationals are supposed to get National ID’s, so we now have to register in the same way, which Ugandans report as a painful and long process on their end. National ID’s are free, however our alien ID’s are $100 USD and valid only the duration of our work permits. So every time your work permit is up for renewal ($750-$1000 USD), you will also have to renew the AID. Another way to get more money out of foreigners, but it is what it is. These kinds of things are usually long drawn out processes of corruption and headaches at government offices, so I’ll go deal with that in a few weeks after we hopefully leave the hospital. Right now, there’s only 1 location handling these id’s and it’s in downtown Kampala, so it’ll be an all day process at the very least. The other law that’s passed, which more-so affects the NGO, is the Sovereignty Bill, which is targeted at foreign money that’s brought in, which is what my NGO runs off of. There’s a lot of sneaky and confusing verbiage included in the bill, which has already been amended once, just before being quickly signed by the president, soon after, in May. There’s a group of lawyers from Kampala coming to Jinja, in July, to meet with those of us who are directors of foreign NGO’s in Jinja, to help us better understand the bill and how to best comply. There are many things that can affect our day to day ministry, and some things that seemingly we don’t have to worry about. We are all praying that it’s not as bad as it sounds on paper, but we will navigate whatever we have to, to comply. God knows the whys and the hows of all of this, and I know God isn’t finished with the work being done, here in Uganda. I just want to understand and do the best I can, because the consequences of not following this law includes years of Ugandan jail time and extremely steep fines, neither of which I want to experience!

We have spent a couple of hours a day at a local park behind the hospital, with Mama Zack, to get out of the hospital and get some fresh air. This has attracted many of our not so consistent boys to come sit with us and hang out. Moses and I have used this as a ministry opportunity for them as well. To counsel them, preach to them, and encourage them as well. It’s been really sweet interacting with them all, outside of the house, kind of on their turf.

I don’t know why things happen the way they do most times, but I know that God has orchestrated and allowed it all, both the hills and the valleys. Whether I see the fruit on this side of heaven or not, we give God all the glory for the many things he’s doing, here in Uganda through the ministry. From the boys, to the families, to the schools, hospitals, and clinics, to the towns and the villages, God is moving in ways we don’t even see him move sometimes. We trust that in these situations, He is still GOOD. Whatever the reason, whatever the circumstance, whatever the outcome, God is still good, all the time.

Thank you for the many donated supplies that sweet friends were able to bring for us to help aid in Mama’s recovery and also to help restock what we depleted at the project for the massive amounts of wounds we deal with on a weekly basis. Wound care supplies here consist of stringy gauze and iodine and non sticky tape. Quality items help us so much in recovery!

What’s to come?

We still have 2 more school visitations to attend this weekend. Joy, Ben, and Moses will be dividing and conquering while I stay at the hospital with mama a little while longer. She’s taught me some basic words of her tribal language and a neighboring language that’s actually Ben’s primary language, and she’s also learned some simple English words. We are pretty good at communicating now, and if words don’t line up, charades usually helps us out!

Dr Derrick is able to continue staying in Jinja through the end of July, before he has to go back to Gulu for the 2nd semester of the Medical School, that he’s a department head at. He’s been such a huge blessing and peace through all of this, and we are all so grateful that he’s been able to stick around. Another God alignment that he had a 2 month break and could stay here with us for this duration, because usually he has to rush back to Gulu for work, after our surgeries and can’t stay around very long. I’m so grateful for his wisdom, his character, and his presence in all of this. It’s refreshing to have someone to bounce ideas around with and collaborate with to provide the best possible care we can for Mama Zack. We pray for him daily and are so very thankful for God’s orchestration of us meeting 5 years ago at this very hospital and all of the help that he’s given us through the years.

Dominic, our student in a carpentry apprenticeship, has been working so hard and making some beautiful pieces. He made us another large table for our family meals at the project and has been making some smaller scale items for the house for practice. We have a couple of larger cabinets we are wanting to add for extra storage, at the project house, so we have given him the proper measurements and are eagerly awaiting his custom pieces to come! What a proud moment that will be to have something he created on display. Dominic has also been preaching at bible study every Thursday now for over a month. He loves Jesus so much and loves to share and preach to anyone who will listen. We are so proud of his transformation and life change, that all started with a life saving surgical procedure in November, and can’t wait to see how his life continues to unfold with Christ at the center of it.

Morris starts nursing school this month too!!! We have finished to buy all of his admission requirements, finished his medical physical last week, and have filled out all of the forms that he needs to start. He is now just eagerly waiting to report on the 20th of July. He’s another one who has had such a drastic change in his life over the last few years and I can’t wait to see where God takes him on this journey! He loves to watch me treat and care for the boys and has such great empathy and concern for them. So, we are excited for the day that he can pour back into the organization by helping with those things as well!

As we disciple and pour into the young men we work with, the goal is always for them to come back and pour into the next group of youth that come. Each one reaching one, testimonies shared, proof that change can happen. It all speaks volumes to their fellow street connected brothers. Coming from someone they knew on the streets as a thief and druggie, who’s now clearly transformed, changed, and successful, sometimes speaks so much louder than I could ever speak, so we thank God for those opportunities along the way. And, we continue to pray for all of the young men we work with for head and heart changes, so that they also can be successful young men.

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, and families, that otherwise aren’t available to them.

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. Something that they can’t access otherwise.

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.

And, thank you. Thank you to those who help to support us for such a time as this and to those who pray for us regularly. God is working in mighty ways here in Uganda, and we strive to answer those calls as He leads us. Whether it’s new territory or something we see day in and day out, we continuously pray for wisdom and discernment to go where God leads, prayerfully trusting that when we step God will provide everything we need to take the next step forward.

Katonda Mulungi! (God is so good!)

One of our sweet boys in University in Kampala used his own money to travel to Jinja to come pray for Mama Zack and us.

We called a friend to do Mama Zack’s hair to make her feel better! She loved being pampered!

Visits from boys in the park.

Koowa started working to sell juice and wanted to show us that he’s sober and now working hard!

Secondary visitation snack time term 2. Joy and Ben enjoyed their time with the boys

Reagan is always high but loves coming to talk and hang out with us. We’ve known him and loved him for years, but he still isn’t ready or willing to change

Peaceful park moments outside of the hospital walls to get fresh air and sunshine, or in this case a cloudy breeze.

How can you help?

Prayer requests:

• URGENT PRAYERS: Prayers for Mama Zack’s full recovery from 3 major operations and a major surgical infection and complication from the first botched surgery. Continued healing, endurance, patience, and progress. We still have a long road ahead.

• 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 halfway through the 2nd term of this school year. Prayers for wisdom for them and for them to make wise choices along the way as they finish well.

• Prayers for our new univeristy students who are starting this month and next. That they don’t take this opportunity lightly, work hard, and become successful and independent young men in the future.

• 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.”