Indian Floods

Following monsoons in June which saw millions of people affected and 1000's killed by floods. The Northern region of India is being hit by further rains resulting in even more floods.

The BBC reports that the army have been deployed to rescue thousands of stranded people.

LightForce partner in India, Joe Williams, has gone with a team to assist in the relief operation in two villages in Bihar,

Joe sent us this e mail:

"We travelled for 30 hours by train and then 3 hours by bus and then 1 hour by walk to Bihariganj Puraini Village. Many people lost their homes, many people could not come to the safe places. Our Volunteers are working hard to bring people to the safe place and giving them food packets and some clothes. Right now there is no sufficient food, medicines or warm clothes because we have been surrounded by the water and there is no electricity. Families have been separated and many have lost all their belongings. We are giving food packs, warm cloths and medicines particularly to the children and elderly."

We are sending immediate aid to assist Joe and his team in their relief efforts.

If you would like to contribute to this effort you can donate here.

The video below reported on conditions at the beginning of September and things are continuing to get more urgent.

Something Bothering You?

It was great to see so many of you at the Missions Weekend this past Saturday & Sunday.

During the services on Sunday George showed a presentation called "Something Bothering You?"

It had a great impact and some of you have asked if we could post it on our site so here it is. If you click on the link "Something Bothering You" below it will take you to Vimeo where you can download it or alternatively click on share to send it to your friends.


Something Bothering You? from Billy Ritchie on Vimeo.

Latest Newsletter

Download a copy of our Summer 08 Newsletter here.

Read our latest news and catch up with our partners from around the world.

Kamp Adventura

As George posted last week the Children's Camps are off and running. Rachel Edwards has just returned to the UK after assisting Rachel Wilson for the first week of camp. Get a taste of the activities by watching the video below.

Thank you so much to everyone that made this possible!


Kamp Adventura - Albania 08 on Vimeo.

Missions Weekend at MKCC

George told you here about a great opportunity to meet many of our partners from around the world in Milton Keynes in September. Take a look at the video below to find out a little more.


International Mission Weekend from Billy Ritchie on Vimeo.

Saturday 10am – 6pm. Open House. All our guests will be present throughout the day to meet visitors, talk about their work and share ways & means of partnership. There will be refreshments available.

Sunday 8.30, 10.15 & 12noon. Our guests will participate in each Sunday Service.

Blogging off for a couple of days

Some have the time to blog daily - in fact it seems that some spend all day on the blog!

From LightForce Internationa I can tell you all is going well with our camps in Albania, there are challenges being faced by our partners in India and friends in Uganda have just experienced a serious breach of security. All our projects are running well.

Just heading off for another all night flight. Nine hours on a plane - what do I do? Sleep, watch a movie, read the papers and eat some food. Then upon arrival there's a six to seven hour drive to reach my destination.

Once I get there I'll blog again - until then, to all bloggers & blog watchers - keep your screens glowing....and watch this space....

ALBANIA - CHILDREN'S CAMPS

Yes - they got started today

After a lot of hard work in planning and preparation the first group of children arrived at camp in Albania today. First night they are usually so excited - chattering away, nobody wants to sleep (except the weary staff of course!)

Camp is a great opportunity for children to spend time together, have fun, learn new things and use up loads of energy. I have great memories of going to camp as a child - the experience made a big impact on my life.

Thank you to everyone who has helped to finance our camp programme this year. Those kids who won't go to sleep are only there because you were willing to support them. Let me say a BIG "thank you very much" on their behalf.....fortunately I am miles away from the camp and so should have no trouble sleeping! Spare a thought and prayer for Rachel Wilson and her dedicated team of workers.

MISSIONS WEEKEND - DON'T MISS IT

Missions Weekend at Milton Keynes Christian Centre 6-7^th September 2008

Don’t miss this weekend if you want to meet some or all of our partners from Europe, Africa or Asia. We already have confirmation that the following are planning to be present:

• Rt. Hon. Charles Angiro Gutemoi MP (Uganda)
• Glyn & Jane Davies (Kenya)
• Jabez & Joe Williams (India)
• Biju Thampy (India)
• Rakip Cuku (Albania)
• Rachel Wilson (Albania)
• Hannah & Hamad Naatit (Morocco)
• Chris & Ashley Coggins (Vietnam)
• Pau Pasula (Serbia)
• Andrew Shearman (USA)
• George R Ridley (UK)
• Trustees & Supporters of LightForce International

Our guests will arrive on Friday 5^th and be with us until Monday 8^th. The programme is:


Saturday 10am – 6pm. Open House. All our guests will be present throughout the day to meet visitors, talk about their work and share ways & means of partnership. There will be refreshments available.

Sunday 8.30, 10.15 & 12noon. Our guests will participate in each Sunday Service.

Summer News

Around the world

Our partners are busy. Within the LightForce International family partnerships we have a host of different programmes serving the needs of children in Europe, Asia and Africa. Programmes include sponsoring schooling, children with special needs, social & pastoral care, medical support, provision of secure housing, feeding street children, children’s homes, school repairs, provision of school clothing & educational resources, community health. We want to thank all our friends and partners who contribute to these activities. Construction of teacher’s housing & construction & repair of health centres is a large part of our work in Uganda along with the provision of medical equipment and school desks & furniture. This part of our work is expanding and enjoys funding from UNICEF and the Belgian Government.

Mike Wood

We are sorry to report the passing of Mike Wood who was a great supporter of LightForce International. At an age when many would be thinking of settling down, Mike spent his last 10 years in Kosovo, Serbia, Albania or Uganda. He gave his time to assist wherever he could be useful. Mike was ready to go wherever & do whatever. He served for a number of months each year & could be found happily supervising groups of children, distributing humanitarian aid, painting an adventure playground, putting up tents or organising a children’s’ lunch queue. He was loved and appreciated by many. Even when back in the UK he spent time giving talks & raising funds for the work of LightForce International. Our thoughts and prayers are with Mike’s family and friends.

Albania & Serbia Children’s Camps

Thank you to all who have supported summer camps for children this year. Camps in Serbia came first during July where Pau & Sandrine hosted children from a variety of cultural backgrounds. In August the setting was Albania where Rachel Wilson ran camps for three weeks with her national team being complimented by Rachel Edwards and Tim & Hayley Miles from the UK who assisted with climbing and other outdoor pursuits.

Time Flies!

What a week. No power as the electricity company finally decided to change the poles and the transformer. As a result the internet has also been off line and therefore no blogs!!

So another week has flown by: Children's Camps in Serbia have been running and are now over. We will report as soon as the details come through to us. Camps are set to begin in Albania in August.

Our Special Needs team in Uganda has been assessing children with long term needs, identifying vulnerable children and preparing to distribute food, soap and mosquito nets to the most needy.

A team working in Dokolo District, Uganda has spent the last 3 weeks visiting schools and giving out school uniforms to primary boys and girls along with much needed school resources - pencils, exercise books, rulers, pencil sharpeners, erasers etc. as well as classroom resources to teachers - blackboard instruments, teaching resources, registers, pens, notebooks etc. This programme has benefited over 15,000 children.

It was goodbye to Anne Hoskins and Graeme Roache, they are teachers from St. Pauls School, Milton Keynes. Anne & Graeme came to compare life in another St. Pauls in Ngetta, Lira. They spent a week alongside teachers and pupils to gain valuable insights and have returned to share their findings with staff and pupils at their Milton Keynes school. Whilst they were in Uganda LightForce was able to re-roof a classroom block damaged in a recent storm.

Every week we receive requests for help from around the world. We appreciate those who support us in our work and keep in contact with us.

What do we do?

Our activity can be summed up as: "Taking good news to the poor and Practical help to people in need."

This blog is coming from the field office in Uganda where we are implementing a number of projects as part of the re-development in Northern Uganda following the 20 year war with the Lord's Resistance Army. LightForce International has been extremely busy, first during the emergency as 1.6million people were displaced from their homes to live in camps, then during resettlement as they returned home trusting that the fragile peace agreements would hold and now in the process of re-development.

Our projects vary depending where we are working:

Children's Camps in Albania and Serbia
Education in Kenya & Uganda
Feeding street children in India
Construction on schools, health centres and teachers houses in Uganda
Early Childhood Development , Children with Special Needs, Child Protection, Sponsoring medical care........

One of our team found young Anyess the other day...3yrs old and weighing just 3kg. Cared for by an aged grandmother with a broken leg. Both were very dirty, living on the floor of a hut with nothing to eat. Just dirty, torn blankets to lay on. Because of her broken leg grandmother could only move by crawling. We were able to ensure Anyess received medical attention and therapeutic feeding and grandma got treatment for her broken leg. We can happily report that they are both much improved.

Where in the World are we?

"LightForce International?" the man questioned. "Never heard of it - do you have an office in Norway?"

Of course not everyone has heard of us - but neither has everybody heard of McDonald's or Coca Cola!

So where in the world are we? We can be found in the following countries:

India, Kenya, Uganda, Serbia and Albania. In some places we implement projects directly whilst in others we work through partnership.

So what are we doing? We'll let you know in the next blog!

What I can say is that for a small charity we are extremely busy and we are making a genuine difference in peoples' lives.

New blog born today!

Welcome to the LightForce International blog where you can find updates on the work of LightForce around the world. For those patiently awaiting our arrival - here we are!

Conceived in the UK office in Milton Keynes, England, the blog finally arrived thousands of miles away in the Lira office in northern Uganda.

Mark Sherratt and Ian Baird from the UK base in Milton Keynes witnessed the arrival moments ago before rushing off on their 7 hour journey to Entebbe to catch a plane to London in the morning.

Through this blog we want to keep our friends and supporters up to date with what is happening.
If you have found us then please send a quick note to let us know that the voice of this new born blog is being heard!

Better let this baby get some sleep and allow you to get on with your day - as with all new born babies it won't be long before it is heard again. Until then - have a great day.