Saturday, June 18, 2011
Pictures from Uganda, from John Skeel on 6-18-2011
Thursday, May 26, 2011
After Action Report for Spring Trip – 15 February to 15 May 2011
May 1, 2011
Accomplishments:
• Student Assistance Program
• Christine has finished her three years of computer classes at APTEC.
• Joyce is in her final semester of a BBA degree program in business from Kyambogo University and is working for a telecommunications Company
• Louise is completing her final semester of computer classes at APTEC and is now employed with Security Services – similar to our Wells Fargo.
• We are helping five children with school fees at the senior level – S1 to S6.
• We are helping five children with school fees at the primary level – P1 to P7.
• Lilian and Laban have been accepted at Michigan State University for this fall. They recently completed S6 at Makerere University High School. Now we have to find first year school fees for both of them - $42,000 each.
• Vocational Training Program
• We have 16 students enrolled and attending our sewing/tailoring classes. We are running two four-month classes this year.
• We have completed the second classroom and expect the construction /carpentry class to resume in August with 6 students (already registered).
• We have initiated a two-month summer program where our students can work on various farm projects in order to earn school fees for this fall.
• School fees for the fall have been raised to $5 per week for 16 weeks per term. That fee will allow us to have one teacher for every 10 students.
• Foster Home. We assist Michael and Patience of Kabale in running a foster home by paying school fees for three of the children. They run a Vocational Training program similar to ours where they have 10 students in their sewing/tailoring class. Also, Patience runs a Saturday morning Bible study and leads a choir of 25 children.
• Experimental Farming and Forestry Program
• Trees. Nine of the 20 trees planted a year ago are still alive. Of the 2000 cypress trees planted in December of 2010, 1500 have survived – some are already over 3 feet tall. In March 2011, we planted another 20 Musizi and 5 orange trees. Justice is now in charge of daily weeding, fertilizing and watering.
• Animals. We purchased 4 calves that are about 3 months old that we castrated. We purchased 3 sheep – Emma is pregnant with twins, Olivia has a beautiful black mask, and Louise is the only all white sheep. Plans are in progress to construct a 12’ X 12’ chicken house. We will start with 100 chicks in the fall. Eggs sell for 25 cents each.
• Land. We cleared over 10 acres of the 150 acre project farm. This eliminated plants that are competing for water. The water is needed for the grass that feed the cows (26), goats (80), and sheep (3).
• Water. We are working on enlarging our water tanks that provide drinking water for the animals. The water tanks that we use for drinking, cooking and bathing consist of one 10,000 liter and one 20,000 liter. Since the rainy season has begun, we have been blessed with full tanks.
• Servants of the King (SOK). For the past ten years Kemper Crabb and I have been working with Peter Isabirye, a native of Iganga, Uganda. To date, we have built, rebuilt, or completely renovated 800 Christian Churches in Uganda and Kenya, as well as numerous schools and orphanages.
• This trip Kemper and I inaugurated and dedicated 15 new churches. We also visited another 19 church sites who are requesting a grant or our assistance.
• I left Kemper with Peter to spent four days by myself in a remote area of western Kenya with Mark Ndinyo, a local pastor who currently has a working agreement with us. We visited 14 rural, small churches that meet our criteria and have formally requested assistance from SOK in building/
rebuilding their church sanctuary. One of the churches we visited also has a church primary school with 325 students. Much to my surprise and delight, 50 of the students were able to recite the Ten Commandments.
• Last but not least, Kintantalo Presbyterian Church near the town of Palisa has been completely renovated by us inside and out (in memory of my good friend of 50+ years, Douglas Riddiough). Additionally, we are in the process of adding a three-room school house to the rear of the church building. We delivered two of twenty new school benches to be used by some of the 125 students. At the dedication of the new sanctuary, we enjoyed wonderful music by their school choir. Twenty-five students recited the Ten Commandments and the 23rd Psalm from memory. What a blessing to be in their midst.
• Hand in Hand – an NGO in Mukono.
• I met with Age Bjerkeand from Gran, Norway on my last day in Uganda. He is the director and founder of Hand in Hand. Age is a personal friend of my second cousin, Anne Marie Havattum, on my mother’s side of the family. He has been in Uganda with his NGO for 21 years. It was fun to compare notes on our mutual challenges, successes, and failures. I hope to be able to partner with his organization during a future visit to Uganda.
Thank you all for your prayers and continued financial support.
John Skeel
John Skeel, Director
JOHN SKEEL MISSIONARY FOUNDATION
101 Cherry Avenue
Winona Lake, Indiana 46590-1607
"But when he saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd." -Matthew 9:36
Accomplishments:
• Student Assistance Program
• Christine has finished her three years of computer classes at APTEC.
• Joyce is in her final semester of a BBA degree program in business from Kyambogo University and is working for a telecommunications Company
• Louise is completing her final semester of computer classes at APTEC and is now employed with Security Services – similar to our Wells Fargo.
• We are helping five children with school fees at the senior level – S1 to S6.
• We are helping five children with school fees at the primary level – P1 to P7.
• Lilian and Laban have been accepted at Michigan State University for this fall. They recently completed S6 at Makerere University High School. Now we have to find first year school fees for both of them - $42,000 each.
• Vocational Training Program
• We have 16 students enrolled and attending our sewing/tailoring classes. We are running two four-month classes this year.
• We have completed the second classroom and expect the construction /carpentry class to resume in August with 6 students (already registered).
• We have initiated a two-month summer program where our students can work on various farm projects in order to earn school fees for this fall.
• School fees for the fall have been raised to $5 per week for 16 weeks per term. That fee will allow us to have one teacher for every 10 students.
• Foster Home. We assist Michael and Patience of Kabale in running a foster home by paying school fees for three of the children. They run a Vocational Training program similar to ours where they have 10 students in their sewing/tailoring class. Also, Patience runs a Saturday morning Bible study and leads a choir of 25 children.
• Experimental Farming and Forestry Program
• Trees. Nine of the 20 trees planted a year ago are still alive. Of the 2000 cypress trees planted in December of 2010, 1500 have survived – some are already over 3 feet tall. In March 2011, we planted another 20 Musizi and 5 orange trees. Justice is now in charge of daily weeding, fertilizing and watering.
• Animals. We purchased 4 calves that are about 3 months old that we castrated. We purchased 3 sheep – Emma is pregnant with twins, Olivia has a beautiful black mask, and Louise is the only all white sheep. Plans are in progress to construct a 12’ X 12’ chicken house. We will start with 100 chicks in the fall. Eggs sell for 25 cents each.
• Land. We cleared over 10 acres of the 150 acre project farm. This eliminated plants that are competing for water. The water is needed for the grass that feed the cows (26), goats (80), and sheep (3).
• Water. We are working on enlarging our water tanks that provide drinking water for the animals. The water tanks that we use for drinking, cooking and bathing consist of one 10,000 liter and one 20,000 liter. Since the rainy season has begun, we have been blessed with full tanks.
• Servants of the King (SOK). For the past ten years Kemper Crabb and I have been working with Peter Isabirye, a native of Iganga, Uganda. To date, we have built, rebuilt, or completely renovated 800 Christian Churches in Uganda and Kenya, as well as numerous schools and orphanages.
• This trip Kemper and I inaugurated and dedicated 15 new churches. We also visited another 19 church sites who are requesting a grant or our assistance.
• I left Kemper with Peter to spent four days by myself in a remote area of western Kenya with Mark Ndinyo, a local pastor who currently has a working agreement with us. We visited 14 rural, small churches that meet our criteria and have formally requested assistance from SOK in building/
rebuilding their church sanctuary. One of the churches we visited also has a church primary school with 325 students. Much to my surprise and delight, 50 of the students were able to recite the Ten Commandments.
• Last but not least, Kintantalo Presbyterian Church near the town of Palisa has been completely renovated by us inside and out (in memory of my good friend of 50+ years, Douglas Riddiough). Additionally, we are in the process of adding a three-room school house to the rear of the church building. We delivered two of twenty new school benches to be used by some of the 125 students. At the dedication of the new sanctuary, we enjoyed wonderful music by their school choir. Twenty-five students recited the Ten Commandments and the 23rd Psalm from memory. What a blessing to be in their midst.
• Hand in Hand – an NGO in Mukono.
• I met with Age Bjerkeand from Gran, Norway on my last day in Uganda. He is the director and founder of Hand in Hand. Age is a personal friend of my second cousin, Anne Marie Havattum, on my mother’s side of the family. He has been in Uganda with his NGO for 21 years. It was fun to compare notes on our mutual challenges, successes, and failures. I hope to be able to partner with his organization during a future visit to Uganda.
Thank you all for your prayers and continued financial support.
John Skeel
John Skeel, Director
JOHN SKEEL MISSIONARY FOUNDATION
101 Cherry Avenue
Winona Lake, Indiana 46590-1607
"But when he saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd." -Matthew 9:36
Thursday, February 10, 2011
John Skeel Missionary Foundation, Our Budget Plan for 2011
The John Skeel Missionary Foundation (JSMF) is a non-denominational Christian organization. JSMF stated purpose is to promote self development by providing local teachers for vocational training and adult literacy classes. These classes will be primarily taught in remote rural areas of Uganda at low or no cost to attendees. Our plan includes being a "green" corporation by having JSF plant a minimum of 1,000 musizi trees each year on our own land or land adjacent to churches built by Servants of the King (over 400 of them have been built to date in Uganda). These trees will be suitable for timber in approximately 10 years. This project alone should produce enough income so our classes can eventually be self funded. Our basic philosophy is to give people the skills for self development and not just a hand out that might be gone in a week or two.
(To read our vision and mission statements, please click here.)
Our plans for 2011:
1. Two trips to Uganda
a. First trip – 15 February 2011 leave for Kampala, Uganda; return to USA 16 April 2011.
b. Second trip – leave 10 September 2011; return 10 November 2011
2. Continue to work with Servants of the King building churches and schools in Uganda and western Tanzania (14 churches planned in Kenya alone). We still are on schedule to complete/dedicate one church a week. I will be working with my good friend, Kemper Crabb (78 years old).
3. John Skeel Missionary foundation has three core programs;
a. Tuition assistance for needy children and young adults – estimated expenditure is $5,000.
b. Continue to develop Vocational schools in Kiruhura and Kabale. Construct two three room school buildings: the first one is located within a Presbyterian church in Palisa district where there are approximately 125 students using the church to go to grades P-1 to P- 5. The second three room school building is located on our leased land in Kiruhura. Estimated expenditure is $5,000 for the school building in Palisa and $10,000 for the three room school room already started in Kiruhura. We will continue to lease space in Kabale for our sewing classes for about $500 a year.
c. The third program is our Forestry and Farming program that we run on approximately 500 acres in Kiruhura. This year I want to plant another 2-5000 trees (last year we planted 2000 cypress trees). I also want to add to are farm animal program – sheep, turkeys, rabbits and castrated bull caves (we already have 20 chickens, 30 cows and 40+ goats). Estimated expenditure for this program is $3,500.
d. Total planned budget excluding my travel and fund raising expenses (currently - $3,500 for each trip X 2 = $7,000 + $1,000 for fund raising in the US (postage, fuel and motel costs).
= $8,000 and is NOT included in the budget.
· Total for three programs for 2011 is estimated to be $24,000.
Submitted by: John Skeel, Director
Date of this report: January 20, 2011
Sunday, December 12, 2010
After Action Report for the final trip of 2010 to Uganda
Date: Wednesday, December 1, 2010, 10:37 AM
Hello All,
Thank you all for your support and prayers while I was in Uganda.
For the first two weeks, Kemper and I dedicated 13 Christian churches that we completed or built from the ground up. We visited another 18 that were requesting grants for assistance from us to build a small sanctuary that is often used as a school during the week. We were not able to go to Kenya because of the political unrest in the western area we currently working in on the eastern side of Mt Elgon. Each day we traveled in our van about 6 hours or 300 km; over half of the time we could not safely drive over 20 km/hrs. because we were on bicycle trails. What an adventure.
The last four week I was on my own with our staff of 8 people who are contracted with John Skeel Missionary Foundation vocational school.
- We have completed two water collection tanks- one 20,000 liter and one 10,000 liter.
- We constructed a new latrine for the school.
- We have started the next building complex for three more classrooms.
- We completed two fence projects of 1000 ft. each with barb wire and planted cactus on the fence line for all of that.
- We have a new road between the school and the orphanage so we do not need to use our neighbors land.
- We completed the rough cast (stucco) of the orphanage as well as a covered walkway between the main house and the orphanage.
- A veranda was added to the perimeter of both the school and the orphanage to protect the foundation.
- A covered porch was added to both classroom entrances.
A total of thirty students attended classes at the school for tailoring/sewing classes. The carpentry class had eight. We care for approximately 40 goats, 12 kids, 30 cows and 5 calves on the farm.
We gave away nine goats to needy families – the cost has risen to $50 US now so I had to make up the difference. Total goats given away this year is 12.
All of the students we are assisting with their education fees /tuition/boarding /books/uniforms /transportation have advanced to the next level successfully.
- One girl, Christine, has completed APTEC – a computer programing school – and now is employed at a law firm in Kampala as their resident expert and will upgrade their systems.
- One girl, Louise, has only two more terms to complete her studies at the same school – APTEC.
- One girl, Joyce, has only one year left to complete her studies in International marketing at the university to receive a diploma.
- Kasheja and Bridgette are both doing well in their respective primary schools. Kasheja is taking a test to see if he will qualify to attend a better English speaking school in Kabale. Bridgett walk three km each way to and from school with neighbors. She attends bible studies on Saturday. Kasheja’s foster Mom, Patience, works for Compassion International but, also teaches bible study on Saturdays in her home to over a dozen children.
- Pheona is doing well and will progress to senior 1 in January.
- Aida and Emanuel finished senior 4 and will start on senior 5 in January.
- Lilian and Laban (twins) are applying to universities in the US. We have paid for their fees to sit for SAT testing. They sat for three subject tests in Nov and will take the standard SAT this Saturday the 4th. They interviewed with several Universities that were on campus last week and all encouraged them to apply for acceptance and full scholarships.
Last but not least we were given 2,000 cypress tree seedlings to plant by the mayor of Kiruhura with a promise to give us the same amount of Musizi trees when they become available next month. We have a full time person now taking care of the trees on a daily basis – watering/weeding.
We have added 50 acres to our project for a total of 150 acres. Mary Karungi has signed a thirty year lease with option to extend (if we are still around). Total cost of the lease is $5 per year after we contributed $5,000 to acquire the additional 50 acres that are contiguous with the rest of the land.
Respectfully submitted,
John Skeel, Director
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