Dear Friends,

We are fine doing well in the Lord. The family is together again looking forward for Christmas celebration and happy prosperous new year. We thank God for our son Enock who sat for his primary Exams this year and we are looking forward for him joining High School next year January. As we come to the end of the year, its essential to thank God for the far He has brought the work of RUSH Kakamega. We thank all the friends who have worked tirelessly to achieve the goal and objectives for this years proposals. God bless you all and meet the desires of your hearts.

Our August visit to England was of great impact to RUSH project. We were able to meet all friends, visit new places, speak in various Churches, and also raising funds for RUSH project. We thank those who contributed our flight tickets to England, may the almighty God bless you more richly. During our visit in England we met the Headmaster at Archbishop Tensions High School, St. Andrews High School, Springfield Church members, Vineyard Church members, Whyteleaf free Church Members, Tools with a mission and Education for all, they all responded positively working together with RUSH Kakamega Kenya.

RUSH 7th Anniversary:
This years celebration was so colourful and the attendance was high compare to other years. Being the 7th year since we started the project, as you all know seven is the number of completion in the Bible. More than 4,000 people attended. The celebration included the graduation ceremony for tailoring & dress making and carpentry students who successfully completed the 2 years course. All the graduates were given new machines and Carpentry tools to help them stand by themselves and assist their families. Both parents and guardians were happy to see their daughters and sons receive gifts
and awards from RUSH. Our sincere appreciation goes to those who contributed the money to buy the machines, God bless you more abundantly. Men and women also benefited, they were given beds, mattress, mosquito nets and bicycles. We thank Jenny Noble who was with us for two weeks and being our guest and our friends from Nairobiduring the anniversary.

RUSH Academy School: 
The School is doing well in both academic performance and development. We thank Heather and the family for their support this year for painting the school gate. We hadParents Day on 7th November 2008. The agenda was to discuss the issues relating to the School and the way forward for next year. The guest was the Education Officer who gave the speech on behalf of the Government. The guest thanked the School management for good work and appreciated all the teachers for their efforts and commitment towards good academic standards in the region. The guest also thanked the management for good sanitation in the School, this is a result of having clean drilled water at School and enough clean toilets which meet the needs of all the pupils and the staff. We have also completed building the new class room ready for next year, and we are now working on the desks for the new class. The big challenge we are facing at School is transport,
our bus broke down and now we are using the small Vans. The school population has increased and its our prayer that we either buy new bus or buy new engine for the old bus before the school resumes in January. We thank Springfield Church for their support of water well and Poultry project. We are working on the chicken structure at school which we are hopping to keep 500 chickens for meat and eggs. Another big thank you goes to Vineyard Church for their support for paying rent for both the Nursery School and RUSH training centre, God bless you more richly. Our big appreciation goes to Joan Hadlow for working so hard Co-ordinating RUSH UK to make sure the teachers are paid their salaries on time through standing order forms, God bless you so much and give you more strength as you continue to carry on RUSH vision.

RUSH Football Club:
The team performed so well this year, they qualified for Nationwide league first division next year. Our appreciation goes to Mr Luc of Springfield Church for his kind contribution of £500 and football kits. We also thank Captain Richard Churchyard of Virgin Airlines for accepting to bring us the consignment of football kit we look forward working with you. The challenge we are having is how we shall run the league next year which will start in February. We are appealing to well wishers to help the club meet the needs, we need money for transport, accommodation and food.

RUSH Agriculture: 
We thank God for what he enabled us harvest this year. The harvest was not good we harvested 30 bags of maize only. We thank those friends who contributed money towards buying more maize and beans for RUSH school . Due to inflation, the prices of items have gone up and next year we are expecting a big famine in the country. We are soon starting land preparation for planting maize and beans next year. Its our prayer that God provides money for the work before January.

RUSH IT school:
The IT class is doing well, we thank Archbishop Tension's High School for their kind donation of 10 computers. Next year we are expanding the class and adding more computers to give more room for more students. We shall also equip our library and administration office with computers. 

RUSH Vocational Training Centre:
We thank WorkAid UK for their support and donation of more machined for our training centre, we have enough machines for next year which will enable students to enjoy learning. The only way to fight poverty is through the skills. Next year we shall increase our enrolment to give more room to those who want to train. This year, 15 students sat for Government Trade Test exams and we are sure all will pass.

RUSH Choir: The choir performed well this year in the Kenya Music & Culture Festivals. We managed to participate at the provincial level and won 3 trophies and 10 awards. We qualified for National Competition but we didn’t have money to travel to Nairobi.

RUSH Medical Camp: We thank our Government for collaborating with us for this year medical camp which was held on 8th Dec 2008 at our RUSH academy school. The exercise started a bit late, but they managed to record about 600 patients. We appreciate the Government's support and concern towards RUSH.

RUSH Housing project: We thank Liz Noble for working so hard towards resettling the families and buying the land to resettle more families. We are planning to start tree planting project through International tree foundation UK. We met Mr. Richard who came to Kenya and discussed the project at length.

RUSH Sponsorship Program: Our sincere appreciation goes to Leanne and Joan for co-coordinating the program. Through their support the children are enjoying learning in various schools both in Primary and Secondary. We also thank those friends helping out the sponsorship program raising money for the underprivileged and Orphans in the community. 

Merry Christmas to all and a Happy Prosperous New Year as we look forward working with you and meeting the goals for 2009. God bless you all.

Andrew and Lucy Amukowa.