October 2025 Update

 Hatchery Bulletin

October 2025 “From Mud to Miracle: Building a Future, One Pond at a Time”

🌿 From Groundwork to Growth

This month, our team transformed raw land into thriving hatchery zones:

✅ Natural ponds fenced with wood and plastic-lined sealed to protect fish from predators

✅ At the 2meters by 3 meters nursery pond, we cleaned the tank and monitored for algae balance

✅ Manual excavation we also dug one pond this month.

“We shape the earth, and it shapes our future.”

💧 Water & Fertilization Update

•  Cow dung drying. We got cow 600kg of cow dung from a local farmer and applied it in to the pond in order to fertilize and encourage growth of natural plankton for the fish underway for natural pond fertilization
•  Green water monitored to balance algae and oxygen levels. Too much growth of Algae will block the air circulation hence encouraging accumulation of ammonia gas which will kill the fish.

🐠 Fish & Feed Trials

•  Yellow tilapia spotted—a sign of healthy pond conditions
•  Feed trials launched using local materials which we purchased cheaply at the local market we were able to make fish feed. The ingredients we purchased include, 10kg soya beans, 5kg cassava flour, 5kg, sunflower cake, 2kg salt, 2kg premix, 10kg maize bran, and 20kg Mukene . these ingredients are mixed and cooked with 20 litters of water then dried on tappoon for 5-7 days . then grinded to the required size for the fish
•  Raised drying trays introduced to improve feed hygiene and reduce mold

📚 Training & Tools

• ✏️ Youths trained on pond measurements,  we measure 1.5X2 meters demonstration pond and also calculated the feed conversation ratios, and stocking plans
• 📒 Handwritten logs used to track daily routines and monitoring water parameters

💬 Voices from the Team

• "Working in the mud is tough, but seeing the fish grow makes it worth it." 

— Grace Bagalwa (Deaf).

"We’re not just farming fish—we’re building futures and Making Jesus Known" 

— Afayo, Coordinator

📌 Next Steps

• Digging  water reservoir to supply fresh water in the pond
• Making 40kg of Fish Feed which will last for 2 months.
• Sampling to be done in order to monitor growth rate of the fish to avoid predation
• Slashing around the pond to prevent intrusion of predations into the pond

 

 SEEING THE HAND OF THE LORD IN MY DARKEST TIMES

    The month of December 2024 was one of the darkest times of my life. My dad suffered a stroke and his blood pressure rose so high that he almost passed on. Money was needed for a quick cerebrum scan, but I didn’t have any money and I came to a point where there was nothing more I could do; so I left everything to God.

    I thought I should reach out to my friends for help, but all those I tried to reach out to were also going through rough times. I was left with only one option, to look to the heavens.

My mother and I standing behind my dad the day
he was discharged from the hospital.

    God worked miracles for my dad. The doctors offered to run the cerebral scan for free and they found that the right side of his brain was damaged, affecting his memory.

    The necessary medications were very expensive and I didn’t know what to do. My whole family was looking to me for help, expecting that I had money because I was in the mission field. In fact, it is the very opposite because I choose to trust God with my daily needs for food and other provisions. 

    So one morning, as I was doing my morning devotion, I read James chapter 5 and verse 15 caught my attention.

"Prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven’’ JAMES 5:15

    I never stopped praying for my dad and asking friends to pray. After a week my dad’s memory started to come back, and he was discharged, though not totally recovered yet. I want to thank you for showing up for me in this battle.

Mario and I arrived at the base.

    After the new year, I started to prepare to travel back to the Isiro area of the Congo to plan a DTS. I was determined to see that the DTS, which the team in Isiro was longing for, came to pass.

    My friend Mario was with them and was also ready to travel with me to the Congo. We left Uganda on January 8^th and traveled by motorcycle across the border to DRC. We then boarded a bus to a town called Duruba where we spent a night at DISSA. Early the following day, we left by motorcyclist to Isiro. It took us 10 hours to reach it but God was so faithful and provided us a way, for the first time, to complete our journey.

JANUARY 2025

    When we arrived at the base I was warmly welcomed by kids from the surrounding neighborhood. These kids brought me so much joy and I missed them almost as much as they missed me. Three days later I was with them teaching Bible stories. They love to color pictures after hearing the stories from me.

Kids showing off their work

    After giving the kids the opportunity to color I am able to look at each kid’s picture and speak words of encouragement over them. Several parents from the community approached me and thanked me so much for what I was doing for their kids. Those who were shy are now becoming brighter. They have learned how to pray and they pray every day in their homes. Some have even shared the stories I tell them with their parents.

Sharing ideas

 

The kids express joy in being together.

A mom and her children travel home after a King Kids program.

PIONEERING THE LONG AWAITED DTS

 

January-March 2025 update

    It is a wonderful privilege to be part of this great team. God has been doing amazing things as we transition between old and new staff. 

    In the past, the base has had trouble growing due to fights among team members. This delayed the fulfillment of God's purpose and it took them 9 years to build and pioneer their first DTS. But God, through the old team, prepared the ground for the new team and it is wonderful to see how God's plan isn't man's plan.

                                          

The old DTS team and God's work

    Well, we were supposed to run this DTS in June 2024, but there was resistance. None of the speakers were available to teach at that time, we had no students, our classroom construction process was so slow, and the team struggled to decide who should lead the school. After we came together to pray, we felt the peace of the Lord leading us to move the DTS to February 2025. 

    In these few months, a lot of changes took place. One old staff member dropped off, so I stepped in to replace them. A few months later another member dropped off so another local staff member came to join us. Towards the start of the DTS school, God added Roger and Lucia to our staff, a couple from the local community. These two did their DTS in 2016 in Arua and have been very actively involved in the Church and led all the churches in the province. It was amazing to see how God prompted them to be part of this DTS.

STUDENTS of 2025

    Processing the students was another thing. We prayed for each student who applied and on their arrival we heard testimonies from each student on how God prompted them to do this DTS. Five students were admitted and three of them tried their best to pay for half of their lecture phase. This was a huge encouragement to us as a staff.

Student reporting for their first day of DTS.

Leading worship and Intercession.

Praying for our visitors who had to be evacuated due to the war in the Eastern Congo.

GOD SPOKE TO OUR FIRST SPEAKER THAT CAME TO TEACH.

   The journey was very hectic and it took Leo, our first speaker, 3 days to arrive at the base. God spoke to Leo and prompted him to come and bless the opening of the base, but he was delayed on the road when their bus broke down. He came and taught on the nature and character of God in the first week and then in the second week he taught on hearing God's voice. You could say it was God's voice teaching through him. 

    We had a wonderful two weeks with him, and the lord spoke to Him so powerfully. By the end of the two weeks, the students were receiving dreams and visions and felt that God was already speaking to them.

Students and staff praying for God's will to be done in their lives to reach the communities

Thank You!

MY TIME WITH THE DEAF IN UGANDA

At some point in life many people become deaf, the cause of deafness varies from person to person.  some people are born deaf, others become deaf due to sickness and strong medication such as quinine, Deafness might be caused due to environmental factor such as Loud explosives, thunder and Lightening, Loud music and Old age.

Other than all the languages we all speak, I encourage Sign language to be learnt by all as a medium  of communication.  its so sad to see how society at times view deaf people. But there is a lot to learn and explore in this silent world. the world of signs, when you know it you gone rock it...

Those people who are able bodied and have the heart to bridged the gap between the deaf and hearing, we call them Sign language interpreters, Who knows you will be one of them. They help the in coordinating the flow of information from one world to another, what I call them as " Delivery Angels" they play much important role both in the Deaf and the hearing world. without a bridge no one can cross to the other side of the River.

To be honest this interpreter have the biggest job of all, as the bridge carries the weight of all the heavy loads on it so are the sign language interpreter 

MY TEAMATES

Ywam Arua Deaf Ministry

If you would like to learn sign Language and volunteer in the deaf ministry, please  you can visit Outreach — YWAM Arua , 

Currently Dorcus and Grace are the main key leaders spare heading this ministry I do assist them from time to time. Dorcus is a female young youth, fluent in Ugandan Sign language Interpreter and has huge heart for the deaf people you will defiantly enjoy working with her alongside Grace who is a male Youth, He his deaf and a fluent communicator of Ugandan Sign language. and in case you need more information please free to contact me.

 

Reciting the Creation Story in Sign language

Play the video to watch 

CURRENT ACTIVITIES

• Signed drama's.
• Bible studies 
• Sign language Class.
• Sports through school visiting's
• Song creation

We would like the deaf to know the goodness of God through the inductive bible studies such that they develop a close relationship in their lives and family to walk with Him 

we also guide them to create songs of their own in sign language to express their heart to enable them to grow spiritually.

we are still seeking resources to see how to Impact the deaf community in these areas.

• Tailoring
• Agriculture
• art and graphics
• home visits to offer guidance and counseling.

with an aim to impact the deaf community with skills that will enable thrive their Niche.

LESSON, I LEARNT DURING MY DTS

 

MY DTS STORY

During DTS I felt like the Lord was speaking to me about something’s I am  to do after YWAM. I was so excited and early wanting to know what God was going to tell me, that made me not to miss my quite time.  I  just made my heart open to the lord and waited for him patiently, sometimes I go for my time expecting him to speak to me about what He wants me to do after DTS but hen He tells me other things. well When He speaks I had to obey it though it wasn't what I was expecting of Him.  It was until week 8 of my DTS when He finally Opened up to me about the nation of Congo. We had a long conversation wit God, The lord begun to show for me my childhood memories and I found my self deeply self immerged in those memories  

Side effects DTS: you have spent six months crazy scheduled  and controlled you time was predesignated. Quite time was built in and you became accustom to it. It kept you strait and sane most days but now you have excuses. So this article is or you. Or if your the person who knows what it's like to plan out your Monday and use it as your fresh start then you need to read this too. 

Mondays, another one has come and gone. 

But before you can get to Mondays you have Sunday. And (most) every Sunday you go to church, you sit in the service, you go home and on Sunday nights you lay in bed and vow to do better this week, physically, spiritually, mentally, and personally. Tomorrows a new day! You lie in bed contemplating the mountains you are going to concur this week (do 500 crunches every day, re-train the dogs, re-do the kitchen, do more paintings, plan out future, start a wildly successful Etsy business and grow closer to God, closer than anyone else!) and you perfectly measure the miles you must march tomorrow in order to reach to top of success by the end of the week. You go to bed counting the number of rocks you have to climb an hurdles you must jump. ...work out, do the laundry, wash the dogs, clean the kitchen, make bed, make dinner, work on project...etc, oh yeah and have some bible time. Then Monday morning comes and it's harder to get out of be than usual, you finally crawl out and find your gym clothes wet in the laundry, because that was something you were supposed to do last night. You wait for your pants to dry and make your bed, you get dressed and think. I need to do my devotions. But then you hear the dogs, oh I need to walk them, and well if I'm going to walk them I might as well workout too. You get back, it's time for lunch, I should read my devotions with lunch, oh but there is a new Greys episode, an hour later your done with lunch. Okay now I'll do my devotions, but wait the kitchen is a mess, and I need to take a shower but I should really wash the dogs before that. Before you know it you need to make dinner, then you think now I will do it but you realize the premiere of your favorite show comes on tonight so you find one more thing to push it away with, then your back in bed, thinking about tomorrow. You wish today had gone differently, you know you want a closer relationship to God but there just seems to be no time. You can't stay up and do it now because you have to get up early and do something in the morning, so that knocks out then too. So then you pray God help me, help me make time for you and help me grow closer to you. Help me stick to my diet and workout routine, help me be more positive, help me not worry, help me find a job, provide the money for my trip, can I get a new car, I could use some new jeans, can you do this and that etc, then you feel guilty about asking for so much but giving him virtually nothing, you beg him to make your walk more than Sundays. You give him thanks for his grace and then you put on worship music and write a blog about Mondays and how your spiritual life needs to change. And here you are, at the end of the article, in bed with your thumbs cramping not sure how your going to fit your devotions into your busy day of nothing tomorrow but still know that God heard your prayers and he hears this, and he would still love you if all you did was push him out of the way and ask him for things, but your smart. You know that you wouldn't be happy in that relationship. So you look ahead to make a change, you don't know what its going to be, but your committing to it,

even if every day is monday, because you need this, and you know it. So,

tomorrows a new day, another day of grace,

another chance to figure it out. 

Tomorrows going to be different.