In January a team of 16 people from N.Ireland called Ignite travelled to Lira in Northern Uganda to help complete and attend the opening of OYAM PROGRESSIVE SCHOOL a new school, built with money raised through Ignite.

Igniter members hail from various parts of N.Ireland and has strong local connections with Ballymoney, Cloughmills and Ballymena. Many members have been involved with projects in Uganda over the last 6 or 7 years and have a strong desire to continue God's work there. Having returned from a trip in January 2007 and after much prayer Ignite felt God was asking them to step out in faith and the vision of building a school was realized.

During previous years the team had worked on smaller projects and closely with another local organisation called Fields of Life who have a local office and an office in Uganda. FOL were able to advise us where a school was most needed and we greatly appreciated all their help and assistance in helping us fulfil our dream.

The building of a school was Ignites biggest undertaking and throughout we saw God's hand in the plans. The amount required to finance the school was £50,000 and throughout the year we were frequently overwhelmed with the donations we received, and would like to thank everyone who contributed.

All donations went towards the school, we have no administration costs and each team member pays their own travel costs.

Work started on the school in the autumn of 2007 and by January we had received over £62,000. For this we give God the glory.

The Ugandan people know that education is their future and as a team Ignite want to show them the love of Jesus in a very real and practical way. The school will educate over 500 children and as many of the children are orphans it is our prayer that through child sponsorship God's work can continue in OYAM.

Maybe you're asking yourself what can I do to help have you ever considered sponsoring a child?

This is an amazing opportunity to transform a child's life, through your sponsorship a child would have the opportunity of an education and the hope that one day things will be better... they could leave behind the extreme poverty and hardship that dominates their young and often sad lives.

FOL sponsorship costs £14.00 per month, this goes towards the child's education, any surplus goes towards development in the child's community, you will receive a photo and a short personal history of a child with whom you can exchange letters.

Not only will you be a tremendous blessing to the child you assist but you in turn will experience great reward as you see your child mature and grow. Many of our team sponsor children and get great joy meeting them year after year, the children feel so incredibly special when they receive a sponsor and their faces light up when they tell you their sponsors name.

It is easy for us to feel overwhelmed and paralysed to the point of doing nothing, but we can ail do something, "we can't help everyone but everyone can help someone" Thank-you for taking the time to read this article and our hope is that you will give prayerful consideration to child sponsorship.

For more information about the team go to www.ignite-n.co.uk and if you would like to sponsor a child you can do so by contacting Paul Sayers Tel: 276 38245, 07752819979 or calling with Jonathan Gault at 26-28 Church Street, Ballymoney Tel 028 276 63236.