Happy New Year – 2019
Amigos Internacionales • December 31, 2018
The best is yet to come!
As I sit and reflect on the goodness of 2018, and expectantly await the coming 2019, I am overwhelmed with sadness and at the same time great joy. We have much to be thankful for yet so much to be done in the coming year.
Uganda: We are working today on getting a water drilling rig shipped to our partners in Uganda to begin drilling water wells for the much needed Ugandan refugee population. God has provided the funds to ship and to drill up to six wells this year! We are so “pumped” (pardon the pun!). Our orphan scholarship program is going well and the first week of January, we will unveil three additional orphan children that need our help. Please continue to pray for our children over there that need a much needed touch from your goodness to them. Patrick will be sharing a blog soon I’m sure…(right Patrick????).
Guatemala: We will continue to feed over 7.5 million meals to the impoverished people of Guatemala. El Nina droughts have devastated the farming communities and our food is helping! On my most recent trip to Guatemala, Roberto, our distribution partner, shared this news clipping from the newspaper that morning. It shows that Chiquimula was the second highest area in Guatemala in farming crop failures due to drought.
In fact, Chiquimula has as many as most of the areas combined. We are working in the mountains there to help fight the food security issues there! We are also working with Pastor Jorge of MIES church in Puerta Barrios, Guatemala as they serve the community around them feeding the homeless at the dump in Piteros and giving the children there a good healthy meal each week. We also are working with Larry and Karol Smith in Belize to deliver food not only to our Manna Bus which serves the Punta Gorda area, Larry delivers food to Pastor Jorge and Casa de Guatemala, an orphanage located on the Rio Dolche river in eastern Guatemala, only accessible by boat, we provide hot soup for the children there!
So, you can see that many things are being done… but much more is needed. Our goal is to expand our feeding into 3 additional countries in 2019! We have been invited to help provide food for refugees in Thailand and in Syria. We have distribution partners in place and are looking for funding to provide those needs. So, hang on to your boots! We are RUNNING into 2019 with our goals and dreams in hand!
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In a small rural village in Tanzania, a man sits quietly outside his home. His body is thin. His shoulders are tired. And rising from his back is a painful tumor that has slowly stolen nearly everything from him. His name is Zakaria. For years, Zakaria worked as a boda boda driver, carrying passengers from village to village on his motorcycle. In East Africa, a boda boda is more than transportation. For many families, it is survival. Every ride meant food. Every mile meant provision. Every long day on rough roads meant another opportunity to care for his wife and continue moving forward. But suffering often enters quietly. What began as a hitching pain in Zakaria’s back slowly became swelling. At first, it was manageable. Like many men trying to provide for their families, he pushed through the discomfort and kept working. But the pain continued. The swelling grew. And over time, the tumor became impossible to ignore. Today, Zakaria lives with constant pain and uncertainty. The disease has robbed him of strength, dignity, income, and peace. The motorcycle he once depended on has already been sold in a desperate attempt to find healing. And yet, in the middle of suffering, something unexpected happened. Hope arrived.
In many parts of the world, turning on a faucet is so ordinary that it barely deserves a second thought. A glass fills. A child drinks. A mother does the dishes. A shower runs before work or school. Clean water is simply there. In Northern Uganda, that reality still feels distant for thousands of families. In many villages scattered across rural East Africa, water is not found in a kitchen sink or flowing from pipes beneath the ground. It is carried in yellow jerrycans across dusty roads and narrow footpaths. It is gathered from muddy ponds, shallow holes carved into the earth, or stagnant pools shared with livestock. Sometimes it is brown. Sometimes it smells foul. Sometimes it makes children sick. For families with no other option, it is all they have. The water crisis in East Africa is not only about thirst. It affects health, education, safety, opportunity, and dignity. It shapes how children spend their mornings and how mothers spend their days. It determines whether girls attend school consistently or remain trapped in long daily walks carrying heavy containers of water under the scorching sun. At Amigos Internacionales, this reality is not theoretical. Staff and partners have sat beside families in remote villages. They have watched children scoop water from contaminated pits after rainfall. They have seen entire communities transformed when clean water finally arrived. That transformation is why water remains one of the most urgent and powerful parts of the MissionPoint model across Northern Uganda.
For seventeen years, Bridgette has carried a burden no child should ever bear. What started as a small red spot on her face when she was just a baby grew into a massive vascular tumor that doctors across Uganda refused to operate on. Too risky, they said. The tumor could bleed too much. She might not survive. Come back when she's older. Come back when it's smaller. Come back, come back, come back. Bridgette and her mother, Rose, heard "no" for seventeen years. But today, something has finally changed. Bridgette is now on medication that is actively shrinking her tumor. Dr. Paul Mulyamboga, Amigos Internacionales' Director of Medical Services and founder of Doctors on Mission, is monitoring her progress. When the tumor reaches an operable size, he will refer her to Mulago National Referral Hospital in Kampala for the vascular surgery that could change her life. There's just one problem: surgery can only happen if the funding is already in place . If we don't raise $12,000 before Bridgette's tumor is ready for surgery, she will have to wait again. And after seventeen years of waiting, we cannot let that happen. How It Started — A Small Red Spot
Baby Godfrey couldn't eat without pain. His family couldn't afford surgery. The Bethel Smile program gave him free cleft lip surgery at 4 months old.
Free Medical Camps in Burundi: What Happens When a Doctor Walks Into Gisuru | Amigos Internacionales
Inside the Gisuru medical camp in Burundi — surgeries, eye care, and spiritual ministry delivered by volunteer doctors. See the full impact report from 2025.
East Texas journalist Jennifer Scott traveled to East Africa to cover Amigos Internacionales. Read the full Tyler Morning Telegraph feature from April 2026.
Learn how church missions in Africa, through partnerships with Amigos Internacionales, can bring lasting change to communities in need. Get involved in education, healthcare, and development projects.
Discover the resilience of refugees in Northern Uganda and how Amigos Internacionales is providing medical care, education, and empowerment to help rebuild lives.
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Missionpoint Malawi aids flood victims in Mulanje & Phalombe. Help us provide food & support to families in need. Join our efforts today!
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In a small rural village in Tanzania, a man sits quietly outside his home. His body is thin. His shoulders are tired. And rising from his back is a painful tumor that has slowly stolen nearly everything from him. His name is Zakaria. For years, Zakaria worked as a boda boda driver, carrying passengers from village to village on his motorcycle. In East Africa, a boda boda is more than transportation. For many families, it is survival. Every ride meant food. Every mile meant provision. Every long day on rough roads meant another opportunity to care for his wife and continue moving forward. But suffering often enters quietly. What began as a hitching pain in Zakaria’s back slowly became swelling. At first, it was manageable. Like many men trying to provide for their families, he pushed through the discomfort and kept working. But the pain continued. The swelling grew. And over time, the tumor became impossible to ignore. Today, Zakaria lives with constant pain and uncertainty. The disease has robbed him of strength, dignity, income, and peace. The motorcycle he once depended on has already been sold in a desperate attempt to find healing. And yet, in the middle of suffering, something unexpected happened. Hope arrived.
In many parts of the world, turning on a faucet is so ordinary that it barely deserves a second thought. A glass fills. A child drinks. A mother does the dishes. A shower runs before work or school. Clean water is simply there. In Northern Uganda, that reality still feels distant for thousands of families. In many villages scattered across rural East Africa, water is not found in a kitchen sink or flowing from pipes beneath the ground. It is carried in yellow jerrycans across dusty roads and narrow footpaths. It is gathered from muddy ponds, shallow holes carved into the earth, or stagnant pools shared with livestock. Sometimes it is brown. Sometimes it smells foul. Sometimes it makes children sick. For families with no other option, it is all they have. The water crisis in East Africa is not only about thirst. It affects health, education, safety, opportunity, and dignity. It shapes how children spend their mornings and how mothers spend their days. It determines whether girls attend school consistently or remain trapped in long daily walks carrying heavy containers of water under the scorching sun. At Amigos Internacionales, this reality is not theoretical. Staff and partners have sat beside families in remote villages. They have watched children scoop water from contaminated pits after rainfall. They have seen entire communities transformed when clean water finally arrived. That transformation is why water remains one of the most urgent and powerful parts of the MissionPoint model across Northern Uganda.
For seventeen years, Bridgette has carried a burden no child should ever bear. What started as a small red spot on her face when she was just a baby grew into a massive vascular tumor that doctors across Uganda refused to operate on. Too risky, they said. The tumor could bleed too much. She might not survive. Come back when she's older. Come back when it's smaller. Come back, come back, come back. Bridgette and her mother, Rose, heard "no" for seventeen years. But today, something has finally changed. Bridgette is now on medication that is actively shrinking her tumor. Dr. Paul Mulyamboga, Amigos Internacionales' Director of Medical Services and founder of Doctors on Mission, is monitoring her progress. When the tumor reaches an operable size, he will refer her to Mulago National Referral Hospital in Kampala for the vascular surgery that could change her life. There's just one problem: surgery can only happen if the funding is already in place . If we don't raise $12,000 before Bridgette's tumor is ready for surgery, she will have to wait again. And after seventeen years of waiting, we cannot let that happen. How It Started — A Small Red Spot
Baby Godfrey couldn't eat without pain. His family couldn't afford surgery. The Bethel Smile program gave him free cleft lip surgery at 4 months old.
Free Medical Camps in Burundi: What Happens When a Doctor Walks Into Gisuru | Amigos Internacionales
Inside the Gisuru medical camp in Burundi — surgeries, eye care, and spiritual ministry delivered by volunteer doctors. See the full impact report from 2025.
East Texas journalist Jennifer Scott traveled to East Africa to cover Amigos Internacionales. Read the full Tyler Morning Telegraph feature from April 2026.
Learn how church missions in Africa, through partnerships with Amigos Internacionales, can bring lasting change to communities in need. Get involved in education, healthcare, and development projects.
Discover the resilience of refugees in Northern Uganda and how Amigos Internacionales is providing medical care, education, and empowerment to help rebuild lives.
Deadly floods and landslides have displaced families in Malawi’s Mulanje and Phalombe districts, leaving them without shelter or food. Learn how emergency tents and food relief can bring hope—and how you can help today.
Missionpoint Malawi aids flood victims in Mulanje & Phalombe. Help us provide food & support to families in need. Join our efforts today!
Perpetua’s story in Tanzania reveals the daily reality of living with sickle cell and how compassionate medical care and faith bring hope to vulnerable children.
Learn about the water crisis in rural Uganda and how Amigos Internacionales is providing sustainable, clean water solutions to transform lives and communities.
Learn how child sponsorship in Africa transforms lives in Uganda through education, healthcare, and long-term community impact.
Support community efforts in Loyobo, Uganda, for a medical camp. Join us in fostering care, unity, & youth engagement.
Discover why children in rural Africa lack access to life-saving surgery and how Amigos Internacionales is providing hope through medical missions.
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Understand the costs of clean water in rural Africa. Join us in making a difference for communities in need.
Clean water transforms lives in Northern Uganda. Join us in supporting health, education, & economic growth. Get involved today!
“Discover how Amigos Internacionales brings life‑changing surgery to vulnerable children in rural Uganda, bridging the healthcare gap with compassionate care.”
