Marcia Baugh heads up The Way Home, a missionary project of Every Child Ministries. She says, “The children end up coming into their homes, and they have no idea where their own next meal is coming from.”

(Photo courtesy of The Way Home, a missionary project of Every Child Ministries)

Marcia and her late husband, Russ, started The Way Home with ECM in 2010 after living in Uganda and seeing how these widowed ‘grannies’ are the pillars of their families. Yet, they need support!

“We build them a stable brick home and kind of stabilize their family, and then teach them Farming God’s Way which is the Gospel in farming,” says Marcia. “They will get like up to ten times the harvest that they would get with their traditional farming. So that becomes a currency for them to pay for school fees or they can sell it in order to do what they need to do to maintain their household.”

The Way Home gets connected with grannies by way of pastor referral. The ministry works with local pastors in Uganda to identify those grannies raising grandchildren in poverty who need assistance.

Marcia says, “We also started a vocational training school for the grannies’ [grand]children…last year, and that teaches them house building, hair braiding, sewing, and carpentry work. So they’re getting an education that they can use to support their family.”

It’s all within the context of Scriptural principles and biblical discipleship. Even after a widowed granny and her family have completed the program, The Way Home and local pastors stay connected with her and continue to share the Gospel.

(Photo courtesy of The Way Home, a missionary project of Every Child Ministries)

Sometimes, it’s the first opportunity grannies and their families have heard about Jesus Christ.

“We continue to teach the Bible to them, and our ultimate goal is that they come to know the Lord and they find their eternal home in Heaven,” says Marcia.

Giving to support grannies in Uganda with ECM makes an eternal difference!

Click here to donate to The Way Home.

Then, pray. Marcia asks, “My constant prayer for me as I lead this ministry is for wisdom and discernment in directing the ministry without my husband. God has answered that prayer in big ways.

“And I would say for my staff in Uganda, the biggest prayer need is for us to go in the direction that God has for us — that we don’t jump out ahead of Him in going down the trail that we think we should be on, [but] that we would follow the Lord and His desires.”

Header photo courtesy of The Way Home.

One significant reason for marriage delays in Ghana is financial barriers. Danny Rogers and his wife Kara Rogers recently went on a Teachers For Teachers missions trip to Ghana with Every Child Ministries.

Danny says as they got to know teachers and young adults in Ghana, “They were super surprised that our children in their 20s were married. In order to get jobs, in order to get a wife or to get married, it just costs a ton of money and you have to bribe lots of people. They don’t feel, I think, a lot of hope that they can get ahead.”

Teachers For Teachers training in Ghana. (Photo courtesy of Every Child Ministries)

ECM supports Haven of Hope Academy in Ghana, sponsors children, and holistically supports families with their Family Empowerment program — all in the name of Christ.

Ministry workers see the impact delayed marriage has on Ghanaian society.

“Some of those systems cause a lot of children to be born out of wedlock [and] a lot of single moms, so that’s a difficult thing for Christian moms,” says Danny. Also, “For Christian men to stay pure and to wait until they’re in their 40s to get married was a difficult thing that they expressed.”

ECM is making a Gospel difference in Ghanaian families. By offering tangible support through their programs, ministry workers introduce children and young adults to Jesus Christ. Christians can receive guidance through Scripture and the Holy Spirit, and seek God’s wisdom when it comes to relationships and marriage.

Your support makes a difference too! Learn more at ECM’s website here.

Danny asks, “Pray for young believers who are seeing that things should be different to have courage, wisdom, and insight on how to get ahead, how to change things.”

Header photo of wedding in Ghana. (Photo courtesy of Nana Yaw Otoo/Unsplash)

But without these teachers – trained, untrained, or under-trained – education access for kids in Ghana would be even worse.

Every Child Ministries sends Teachers For Teachers missions teams from the US to support Christian educators in Ghana.

Teachers For Teachers training in Ghana. (Photo courtesy of Every Child Ministries)

Danny Rogers, a teacher on a recent Teachers For Teachers trip explains, “We were brought into run a couple of days of teacher training, teach them how to be more effective in their in their practices. Help them to learn maybe to deal with students with trauma.”

Danny’s wife, Kara Rogers, also went on the trip. She works in a hospital and she helped run a medical clinic. Kara says, “About 100 people did show up and…overall it was just really well received by the community. So they really considered it a success! A lot of connections were made in order to have future clinics.”

At the heart of ECM’s Teachers For Teachers trips is the Gospel. The teachers both on the team and in Ghana spiritually encourage one another and pray together for the children they serve.

You can join a Teachers For Teachers trip with ECM or sponsor a child in Ghana!

Danny says, “For $37 a month, you can sponsor a child to go to school and to get their needs taken care of.”

Click here to sponsor a child with ECM!

Contact ECM here to ask about future Teachers For Teachers trips.

Teachers For Teachers training in Ghana. (Photo courtesy of Every Child Ministries)

Some kids who’ve been sponsored through ECM grew up and actually came back to serve at the ministry’s Haven of Hope Academy. Danny and Kara got to meet some of them — an experience made even more special by the fact that the couple also sponsors a child with ECM.

Danny says, “They all just spoke so much about how this ministry had changed and and greatly affected their lives and how much they wanted to give back.”

Pray for Christian teachers in Ghana to point kids’ hearts and minds to Jesus Christ.

Header photo of Teachers For Teachers training in Ghana. (Photo courtesy of Every Child Ministries)

ECM’s Lorella Rouster says, “We got started in this just last year when we realized that many of the unreached people groups of the world are the Deaf communities.”

(Photo courtesy of Every Child Ministries)

Before ECM launched their new Deaf outreach, all Gospel ministry to the Deaf in DR Congo was in the East. Western DR Congo, however, had no ongoing ministry presence to the Deaf.

One of the biggest needs ECM discovered in western DR Congo is many Deaf children in hearing families don’t have the chance to learn sign language.

“They really don’t have any way to communicate with anybody,” Rouster says. “They don’t understand anything in church, they don’t understand sign language without being taught it or having the experience with others who know it, anything on television, anything on radio — they’re cut off from everything.

“We have been trying to get some children into the special Deaf school where they can learn sign language, and therefore they can be exposed to the Gospel as well as having the opportunity just to make a decent life for themselves.”

You can sponsor a Deaf child in the DR Congo with ECM and give them the opportunity to know God’s love for themselves!

Click here for ECM’s child sponsorships.

Please pray for Deaf children and their families in DR Congo to embrace relationships with Jesus Christ and, in turn, minister to other Deaf individuals in their community!

Header photo courtesy of Every Child Ministries.

Every Child Ministries (ECM) held a menstrual health training workshop in Uganda for moms and their teen girls through the ministry’s Family Empowerment Program. The workshop taught the importance of hygiene, menstrual pain relief, and how to make reusable sanitary pads.

Mark Luckey, Executive Director of ECM says, “When it comes to the items that the women and the girls need, they’re just not available. Or I should say, they’re not available at a price maybe that is affordable to most of them so they try to use other methods.

“But when we can help them to make the reusable pads, then they’re able to be healthier…. Parents can do this and they can provide this not only for their own girls, but other girls in the community and their churches.”

Menstrual health workshop with ECM. (Photo courtesy of Every Child Ministries)

The idea for the menstrual health workshop came from simply asking the community what their needs are and how ECM could help meet those needs.

Luckey says with their programs, they seek to do more than offer short-term handouts. “We tend to like to meet immediate needs, and then we can walk away but that’s not the long-term solution. Programs like Family Empowerment are really designed as long-term solutions.”

With Ugandan girls and their parents learning to make more affordable, reusable sanitary pads as well as tools for pain relief, these young ladies will be able to stay in school with their peers and not miss crucial weeks of learning each year.

When asked why ECM does it? The answer: Christ’s compassion. The Family Empowerment Program also provides spiritual mentorship and allows them to share the Gospel.

You can sponsor a family with ECM’s Family Empowerment Program for anywhere from $65 to $260 a month.

Also, Luckey asks, “Pray that we would have the strength to meet those needs and to partner with people to help them solve these problems, these things that cause them pain, these things that lead to despair.”

Header photo of school dormitory in Uganda. (Photo courtesy of Mick Haupt/Unsplash)

However, Brian Mukalazi with Every Child Ministries says, “This particular region, Karamoja in Uganda, you’ll be very surprised that over the past 30 or so years, billions of dollars that have been injected in that region.

“In fact, if you look at the entire country – you know, Uganda generally is a poor country – but this particular region has received the biggest chunk of funding from NGOs and other partners, even from the government, but none of these things have worked. You go to Karamoja today and you find it the same way it was 20 or almost 30 years ago.”

Mukalazi says a big problem is the handouts.

“They have created a dependency syndrome. They go down there to the region, they start giving food, cash handouts, [and] they give food stamps without necessarily teaching people how to sustainably live their lives.”

(Photo courtesy of Every Child Ministries)

Every Child Ministries takes a different approach in Karamoja. With the Farming God’s Way program, they teach sustainable farming methods with biblical principles and help people earn a living.

Mukalazi says, “We are designing all these interventions to equip those communities to come out of poverty. But we are trying to emphasize the Gospel.”

Pray for renewed lives and hearts in Karamoja. Ask God to use the Farming God’s Way program to bless and encourage Ugandans who want to end the cycle of poverty for future generations.

Click here to support ECM’s ministry.

Header photo courtesy of Every Child Ministries.

However, Resti Kawuki wasn’t alone when she started her new restaurant. Thanks to the Family Empowerment Program with Every Child Ministries (ECM), Kawuki was given biblical business training and resources to become a small business owner.

Mark Luckey with ECM says, “We helped her to start up this little restaurant and it’s gone crazy. She’s very outgoing and has a big smile on her face and people love to come in. She knows how now to run the business and so she’s needing to expand her business because of all the new customers!”

Kawuki plans to invest in more tables, chairs, charcoal stoves, saucepans, utensils and cutlery since her restaurant business is booming.

With the income generated from her new restaurant, Luckey says, “She supports her kids, is able to send them to school, is able to save some money every month, [and] is able to care for her family the way she wants to. She just needed a helping hand.”

(Photo courtesy of Every Child Ministries)

The Family Empowerment Program is fairly new to ECM’s ministry model. But they saw a need to go farther than individual child sponsorships in places like Uganda.

Luckey explains, “Staff would often say, ‘In this home, there are three other kids and a mom or a grandparent, or mom and dad. They’re all really struggling — and they’re super happy that one of their kids is having his or her needs met — but could we do more? Could we do something to help the family?'”

With ECM’s Family Empowerment Program, parents and caretakers learn biblical business skills over the course of two years and support to start their own business.

“God has set certain principles how to run a business,” says Luckey. “There’s a worldly way to do that, and there’s a godly, biblical way to do that. So we teach them from a biblical perspective and we ingrain that in them through Bible studies and…tell them how a follower of Jesus would conduct himself or herself in the business community.”

Click here to support ECM’s Family Empowerment Program!

Then, pray for other parents in Uganda like Kawuki entering the Family Empowerment Program. Ask God to encourage them in the coursework and grow them in relationship with the Provider, Jesus Christ. Pray for these small businesses to be a platform for community enrichment and the Gospel!

Header photo of Resty Kawuki, courtesy of Every Child Ministries.

Every Child Ministries (ECM) uses a program called Farming God’s Way to teach effective farming techniques to people in northeast Uganda — and most importantly, connect them to our Creator.

(Photo courtesy of Every Child Ministries)

Mark Luckey, ECM’s Executive Director says, “It really helps people understand why. Why did God create it that way? How did he make it that way? How does it benefit us to remember that and learn from that? And what does it mean for the future as we farm about how we give back to the Provider?”

One Ugandan couple, Moses and Mary, joined the Farming God’s Way program with ECM two years ago.

Luckey says, “Toward the end of that first year, they had a pretty good harvest – five bags of corn, a few bags of sorghum, some peanuts, and one bag of beans.

“Just a year later, after continuing to put into practice Farming God’s Way, they harvested 25 bags of corn (which is a five times increase), 21 bags of beans,…they had a three times increase in sorghum, and a six times increase in peanuts.”

Moses and Mary used the profit from selling some of their produce to open a small grocery stand and generate more income. They were also able to store food for their family and pay for their children’s schooling.

In breaking out of the hand-to-mouth cycle of poverty, Ugandan believers are able to take their consistent income to save for their family’s future, give back to their community, and support their local Church.

“They learned to bring a tithe back to God,” says Luckey. “In a community like this, they literally would take 10% of their harvest…and give it to the church.”

Pray for a bountiful harvest in Uganda – both on farms and in people’s hearts through Christ!

Click here to learn more about ECM.

Header photo courtesy of Every Child Ministries.

However, with God’s leading, one Deaf girl in Uganda went from hidden at home to finding the joy of employment and Christian community.

Grace and her older brother were both orphaned at a young age. Grace is Deaf and her older brother kept her at home for safety while he worked to provide for them.

(Photo courtesy of Every Child Ministries)

A tailoring shop owner, Mrs. Ssemwanga, employed Grace’s brother. When the owner realized he had a sister, she decided to employ Grace as well who began to excel in craft work.

Eventually, Grace and Mrs. Ssemwanga met Resty, a staff member with Every Child Ministries who was just out doing her shopping. After learning Grace’s story, Resty was moved to connect Grace and her brother with ECM’s Family Empowerment Program. ECM supported Grace to start a shoe selling business in addition to her craft work.

ECM’s Mark Luckey says, “But it doesn’t really end there. Resty began to think about our own program and kids in our own program who also had some difficulties that they were facing. One of them she thought of was a girl named Sarah.

“Sarah is also Deaf…and she’s a teenager. She basically was running out of hope. She was trying to learn how to do some sewing but just began to run into lots of issues along the way.”

Sarah was introduced to Grace and began working alongside her at the shop learning tailoring. Sarah and Grace hit it off right away. Now, they enjoy working together and having lengthy conversations in sign language!

“That might sound like a small thing but it’s not,” says Luckey. “In countries like that especially, there are just not a lot of ways for [Deaf] to communicate with people. So to bring them together, what an encouragement for them.”

You can support ECM’s Family Empowerment Program or learn more at their ministry!

Grace (right) and Sarah (left). [Photo courtesy of Every Child Ministries]

“When we can do that through the hope of the Gospel of Jesus, then we’ve opened doors that otherwise did not look like they could be opened. People like Grace and Sarah find renewed joy and find hope in Christ.”

Header photo of Grace (left) and her brother (right) courtesy of Every Child Ministries.

Especially in Uganda’s northeastern region of Karamoja, women and girls face marginalization in several areas.

Mark Luckey, executive director of Every Child Ministries explains, “This is a culture that does not value girls and does not value girls’ education particularly. So the girls are the first ones that miss out on education.”

ECM serves the Karamojong people with farming and community development programs — all rooted in the Gospel.

(Photo courtesy of Every Child Ministries)

Luckey says when they noticed the challenges facing girls, “We started to work with families and with girls to help them get some training. Let’s say they go to the school to learn to work in a hotel [or] a hospitality kind of service…. Then they can get a job to help support their family.

“We’re working with girls to help them but also to show the community that God values those girls. They’re important and their education is important. [We want] to help them see that there’s worth in all of their children, not just the boys.”

ECM’s program for girls in Karamoja is still fairly new. However, they want to see it grow to help more Karamojong girls and women embrace their value in their communities and in Christ!

If you’d like to support ECM or learn more about the ministry, visit ECM’s website here.

“We could expand [the program]. We could do a lot more if we had enough funding for it,” says Luckey. “Right now it’s moving along but there [are] so many more girls and families that could be helped if we had more funding for that.”

Please pray for Karamojong girls to ultimately find their value and worth in Jesus.

Header photo courtesy of ECM.