Welcome to 2026 from WYM

It's been a while since my last blogpost and the first since our December 2025 Mission trip to Kenya and Uganda. We had an amazing time and accomplished so many things. Thanks to everyone who prayed for us and financially contributed to our very successful missions. We held two outdoor crusades and conferences in Uganda, one in Kinawambuzi and one on Sagitu Island in Lake Victoria. We held one five-day crusade in Ogalo (Mumias) Kenya. We saw well over 100 souls come to Christ. We were able to give out bibles and reading glasses to the local churches. Wholly Yours Ministries team members preached the salvation message at the crusades, and I was blessed to preach three of those.

In addition to our outreach programs, we visited a few of our sustainability projects in both Kenya and Uganda. In Kenya, we visited a chicken farm that raises roasting chickens to sell, managed by Pastor Patrick Wangira. and New Beginnings Housing Complex managed by Pastor Athanus Atimbo. In Uganda we visited our potato, cocoa and banana farms, our New Beginnings Vocational Technical Institute, a sewing project on Sagitu Island, and a store on Dolwe Island managed by Pastor Kalvon Onyango.

One of our largest sustainability projects is the building and establishment of a vocational technical school, a "skills center", in the town of Nankoma Uganda. As you recall from our last blog, we were able to purchase an acre of land in Nankoma town for around $8000, but we've been waiting for funds to be able to start it. Our long-term vision is to build an entire complex with a cost of around $225,000. This school, prayerfully, will eventually graduate around 300 students per year and provide them with the necessary skills they need to sustain their families and help their communities. We are pleased to announce that we now have $23,000 of the $30,000 needed for the first phase, and this week we are starting this project!!! We need $7000 to finish the first phase. While we were there, we walked around the property, met with local pastors and city leaders, and dedicated the land! Everyone there is so very happy to see this project come to fruition. It was an amazing day!

Another sustainability project is our New Beginnings Housing Complex, a multi-unit housing complex for college students. The demand is very high there for college dorms and the need is great. Our facility is next to a medical school. We have finished one section of five rooms and are working on another section which will also double as security and save us money on fencing. We need funding to finish units. There will be a total of four units with five rooms each, for a total of twenty rooms available. The proceeds will go to help provide funding for Wholly Yours Ministries Outreach programs.

Back to our outreach programs. After we finished our crusade in Kinawambuzi Uganda, and all of our other activities, we traveled to Dolwe Isaland and Sagutu Island, also in Uganda. We had most of our WYM team traveling with us and it was so good to do these missions as a group. I must say though, that it took Lymm and I a little out of our comfort zone. Lynn is Vice President of WYM for North America and is my biological sister. She has been called to work alongside me, not only in the United States, but in Africa as well. The Lord has given Lynn and I the same vision and passion for this work and it's really an honor and privilege to serve the Lord with her. Keep in mind, it was the first time for some of our Kenya team members too, and was a stretch for them also, especially Faith Owino who had a fear of water. Of course, Lynn fixed her up with some Dramamine, which made here calm and sleepy, and all her fears were gone.

We almost didn't make it to the ferry on time because our van kept breaking down. This time it was the alternator. Thanks, Lynn, for the diagnosis, even though I didn't believe that was the problem. Athanus had to stay with the van on mainland Uganda and get it repaired but later took a separate boat to Sagitu Island and met up with us there. I felt like we were experiencing some of the difficulties that Apostle Paul experienced in his travels. We desperately need a new van. The cost is around $15000. If anyone would like to help us buy a van, we would really appreciate it.

Lynn and I were especially blessed to be the first white missionaries to ever visit or stay on Sagitu Island, and the only way to get there is by boat. We first went to Dolwe Island by ferry, a three-hour ride. Dolwe Island is where Pastor Kalvon, WYM Logistics Coordinator lives, and it has become a very popular tourist destination. We spent the night on Dolwe, and early the next morning took a small fishing boat to Sagitu Island. The boat still had some of the day's catch in it, a couple of small minnows, and the boat was complete with a person to dip the water out of the floor that was coming into it from the sides. God protected us and it was amazing. Once on the island, we experienced island life like the others, complete with having to walk long distances to the latrine (outhouse) and sleeping in a mud hut with a dirt floor and thatched roof.

The people on Sagitu Island are so very warm and welcoming, but most live in poverty conditions, as you can see from the photos. There is great need on the island, and we, with your help, have started fulfilling that need. As most of you know, Wholly Yours Ministries is not a church, but in order to fulfill the great commission by making disciples of all nations, and to give us a base for ministry, we plant churches where there are no full gospel churches and as the Holy Spirit leads. We created a new division of our ministry called WYM - New Beginnings and those churches are underneath that division. We also consider them to be part of the church we are members of here in the United States, Church of New Beginnings, a non-denominational church located in Glade Spring, Virginia.

Currently there are three Church of New Beginnings church plants in Kenya (Ogalo, Mikale, and Mombassa), and two in Uganda (Kinawambuzi and Sagitu Island). It is within this framework that we are working with our church plant (CNB Sagitu) on Sagitu Island to help all four villages on the island. Our goal is to provide water, toilets and a bath house on our church property that will serve the entire village. In order to use the toilet, we had to walk about 1/2 mile across the island to another village and we had to pay to use it. You'll have to ask Lynn about her unique experience. Keep in mind, there are no flushable toilets on Sagutu Island, these are outhouses that have a small platform just a couple inches off the floor and you squat and do your business in a hole. Fortunately for us, after the first day of our seminar, a local pastor who attended our seminar and has a church nearby, allowed us to use theirs.

Speaking of helping people on Sagitu Island, we are pleased to announce that we have recently received enough donations to dig a well ($900), and we are in the process of digging it on our property for the community to use. It will be a hand pump in the beginning, but our long-term goal is to erect a water tower, buy a tank and solar pump, and install piping down to the village for the villagers to use. Our church is situated on a hill right behind the village and is the perfect place for it. Our next goal, and we would really appreciate you contributing to us to make this happen, is to build a brick latrine/bath house. We plan on putting two stalls for men, two stalls for women and two stalls where people can take a bath. Taking a bath there is accomplished by taking a plastic jug full of water, called a jerry can, pouring water into a pan from the jug, and splashing water on oneself. It's highly effective, but for white people who have to wash their hair everyday, it can be a challenge, just ask Lynn. The total cost for this is around $2000.

Eventually we would like to build our own grass huts there to accommodate our team and visitors. We'd also like to start a primary school. They have a government school, but unfortunately the teachers come from the mainland, and they may only be there a couple days a week.

Speaking of schools, we were able to make a contribution there. We are happy to announce that we had enough funds to buy a sewing machine and give it to one of our praise and worship leaders on Sagitu to start a business of making school uniforms. Children there need a school uniform to attend school, and most cannot afford them. Amazingly, she had already made ten uniforms by the time we got there (in two days), and you will see those in the pictures as well. We have enough funds to buy a second sewing machine, and it will be used to train others to sew on the island. We need funds to rent a small building, and we also need money for buying material to make more uniforms. If you'd like to contribute to this effort, it will be very greatly appreciated.

After Sagitu Island, we headed back to the mainland of Uganda, aboard another small fishing boat, and then made our way back to Kenya and to our home in Ogalo (Mumias). While back in Kenya we held our last crusade and we were blessed to have several international singers, including Lazaro (Eunice Wandera) from Budalangi Kenya and Safieli Mwamba from Tanzania. I preached a couple nights of the crusade and Lynn ministered and sang songs from her album Journey.

During the last few days there, we met with our Wholly Yours Ministries team and decided it was the right time to start a school at Church of New Beginnings - House of Winners - Ogalo. So, on January 5th, 2026, we started New Beginnings Academy which consists of two classes, pre-K and kindergarten. Currently we have over 45 students and the program costs us around $500 per month. This includes paying the teachers and staff and providing meals for the students each day. Most of these children cannot afford to go to government schools because of fees and the government schools also do not feed the children. They must walk or get a ride home to eat and many may not have food at home. The government schools too are very crowded and difficult for children to learn, and the slow learners fall through the cracks. Some classes in the government schools can have up to 70 students in a classroom, with only a single teacher. We will have a maximum of thirty students in a classroom. Part of the funds from our Thrift Store, Endless Blessings, goes to help fund this program. Unfortunately, with the cold weather lately, we have been closed a lot. Any contribution to this effort is very much appreciated and we need monthly supporters to make this sustainable. We also desperately need transportation for the children as we are currently using a boda boda (motorcycle) to transport them and we can get a maximum of five children on a motorcycle. In addition, it's very dangerous, especially as these children are ages three to five. If we can get a new van for the ministry, we will use our current van for transporting the children.

I know this has been a long blog post but there are so many things going on in our ministry that we want to keep each of you abreast on. We are forever grateful for every penny given to this ministry and take nothing for granted. We are volunteers so absolutely not one cent goes into our pockets; we even pay for our own travel on these mission trips. Of course, some have been generous and donated specifically for travel expenses, and it's appreciated, but zero donate funds go to travel unless explicitly specified.

If you could help us out on any of our many programs, either with a one-time donation, or on a monthly basis, we would appreciate it. We are an independent ministry, and even though our church does sponsor us each month, it only goes to help pay for some of the church costs, and you can see our ministry is much broader than just churches. We are also available to come to your organization or church and present Wholly Yours Ministries or just to teach or preach. I personally have very little chance in the United States to preach or teach, most of that is done in Africa. I would be honored to be invited and partner with you in the work that is being done in Africa. Anyone from any church or organization is welcome to go with us to Africa on mission trips and be part of what's going on there. As I said, Wholly Yours Ministries is independent and not a church, we are an outreach ministry to help people in their everyday lives and to share the good news with them. Please be part of what the Lord is doing in Africa thorough Wholly Yours Ministries.

You can give through our website, wholly-yours.com, through our PayPal account (whollyoursministries@gmail.com), CashApp ($WYM). We also have Zelle and Venmo, and you can always send us a check through the mail to Wholly Yours Ministries, 483 Oak Hill St. NE, Abingdon, VA 24210. If there's any other method you'd like to use, you can email me at whollyoursministries@gmail.com

Enjoy the photos and thanks for your contributions and partnering with us. They are in no particular order, but you can figure out from the description above, what is being done. I am on Facebook as Paul William Havens and we have two FB pages, Wholly Yours Ministries and Endless Blessings Thrift Mart and Clothing Shop. I also do a two to three minute "Live" on FB a few times a week called "Tidbits of Truth". Those are posted on my personal FB page, Wholly Yours Ministries FB page as well as our YouTube Channel, Instagram and TikTok. We will be working on various teaching materials that we will be posting on some of our media. These will not only be from myself, but from all members of our Wholly Yours Ministries teams in North America and Africa.

We took a lot of videos while in Africa relating to everything I described above. Most of these videos are on one or more of our FB pages and other social media programs. Please take the time to check them out.

God bless each one of you, and thanks for partnering with us. Together, we're making a difference in a countless number of lives, here in the United States, and other countries. Wholly Yours Ministries is a 501- c3 non-profit organization, and your donations are tax deductible per IRS guidelines.

Wholly Yours in Christ

Rev. Paul Havens

Wholly Yours Ministries

Founder and President