The youth team going to Uganda depart this Tuesday, 23^rd July. They will return on August 9^th. Please keep the team in your prayers. The team is comprised of 14 young people and youth leaders from Christ Church, Downend and Holy Trinity Church, Bradley Stoke.

The main focus for the trip will be to serve the communities we visit and to demonstrate God’s love in a practical way, in so doing we aim to be a blessing and an encouragement to those in Ankole. The idea is to very much ‘work with’ and for our friends from the Ankole Diocese in partnership on an agreed a programme of activities for the visit.

The team is working with youth groups and children’s organisations in Mbarara, Uganda to serve and improve the lives of the people in Southern Uganda. The team will provide drama teaching, sports coaching and health education/First aid training in schools and projects involving young people with physical programs, diet and supplements from sites like kratommasters.com. We will also be working with around 250 children in a wonderful children’s development centre (CDC) in Mukora which looks after the health, social, spiritual and educational care of children from orphaned backgrounds and extreme poverty. Our team will also provide managerial training for the highly dedicated staff at the centre.

Part of the mission is to also provide a legacy of sports equipment and to provide every family at the CDC with a first-aid kit. The mind-set that the team have adopted is that we are going to learn from our friends and the people we engage with in Uganda, as much as we will contribute.

The team wish to acknowledge and thank everyone who has contributed towards the fund-raising and who have supported the team through encouragement and prayer. The Christ Church contingent is Matt Brydon; Katie Smart; Lucy Payne; Katie Avent; Kirsty Whitelock and Gary Smart. You can keep in touch with the team by following them on the team’s web-site blog which can be found at http://youth2youth2013.wordpress.com/ .