The holidays were filled with a lot of great quality time as my sister and her family came to visit for a week and my parents came to visit for 3.5 weeks. It was a whirlwind and we are so grateful for the time together!
Since January, our routine has started back up in full swing. Patrice is getting back into our days of homeschooling with the children and Matt has been pushing to finish portions of the project.
At Amazima, we are currently working on 21 buildings in an assortment of stages spread over more than 70 acres on 4 separate locations. 5 of those buildings are nearly complete while many are just being excavated. When the new year started, more than 100 additional possible workers showed up to the gate hoping for some sort of work. This is in addition to the 160 or so that we had before the holidays. We have had over 200 men and women onsite for most of January and early February. This means 200 men and women who are learning more skills to better provide for their families, 200 men and women who are able to have a continuous income for their families, and 200 men and women who are hearing about Christ's love each week.
With the massive manpower onsite everyday, we also handle weekly payroll, HR issues, chapel, distribution of meals, and everything for construction. With the increased labor, we have increased our staff within eMi and brought on 3 more assistant foremen to help with the task as official staff of eMi. Over the last couple years, these individuals have learned and grown through eMi projects as day laborers and have earned their position on staff. These guys continue to be examples of hope and encourage those around them. Below is our current staff, minus 1 who is struggling with malaria and chicken pox (Edison, Ssemujju, Cossy, Yusuf...and Matt)
We thank all of you for partnering with us to be here and supporting us in this ministry. I get the privilege of seeing lives changed everyday and we couldn't do it without all of you.
-Matt and Patrice
