More Africa pics

July 10

July 10^th

We are still in the air as I am typing this. Thank you God I can see land below....American soil...yeah!! We flew throughout the night stopping in Rome for gas. I slept most of the way and watched a few movies. We are actually supposed to land an hour early at 7:30am instead of 8:30. My flight to Nashville leaves around 4pm.

This is the last day of my Africa blogging! Thank you for reading this and sharing in my journey by supporting me either financially, through donations and or prayers!

I am sooooooooooooooo looking forward to being home and sharing with you all that I saw, did, and was touched by. The Lord is certainly moving mightily in Kenya and Uganda. He is raising up leaders with integrity and a great commitment to the Lord and hard work. Here are kids that have nothing but the riches of his kingdom. To him be glory both now and forever.

Amen

July 9th

July 9^th

Early to rise and off to Nairobi to do a little shopping before our long flight back to the states. We have some Kenyan shillings we need to get rid of!

It was a tearful goodbye. We bought pineapple for the kids. They haven't had that for years. We all received so many letters from individual kids at Fiwagoh. My little buddies were Isaac, Goffrey and Ngugi. My older buds were Duncan, John and Duncan. We lined up all 180 kids and gave each one an individual hug so no one got left out. There was several tears shed. We were so thankful to Pastor Benson and his wife Florence for their love and care towards us.

We stopped at the Great Rift Valley and took some pictures of the valley below.

We drove to a jewlery making factory name Kaszuri and watch them make the beads. Jewelery from this factory is being sold in Boston and other American boutiques. It is mostly single mothers from Kenya making the jewlery for a sustaining income.

On the way to the airport we stopped and shopped at the Masai market. This place is crazy if you have white skin, even if you don't. You can't even think straight with men in your face wanting you to buy all their products. You also have to bargain with them which can be annoying and lengthy. Kirk would be proud of me. I got one product down from 6,500 shillings to 2,500 shillings. That is the difference between 76 dollars and 29 dollars plus he threw in a toy for my kids!

We are now at the airport. We had a super long line to go through security, another long line to check in and another long line to go through customs. We are now waiting at the gate.

We are about to fly to Ethiopia which will take 2 hours. We then have a layover in Ethiopia. We fly out of Ethiopia at 10pm and arrive in Washington D.C at 8:40am. We are going to be tired but too excited to care. I hope they have mexican restaurants in the DC airport! I miss mexican food, icecream and everything with sugar and diet coke!!

As usual on this trip...God intervened. We drove for 2 hours to get to Nairobi. Our flight was supposed to leave at 5:30pm. It was delayed until 7:15pm. It takes two hours to fly to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Our connecting flight left at 10 which means they start boarding internationally an hour earlier. Once we got off our flight from Nairobi we had to sprint to get to our next flight to get home. Ethiopian Air does not fly to DC everyday so we were very upset at the thought of staying a few more days. Once we got to security there was such a long line. Thank you God that the security guys knew we were going to miss our flight and let all of us going to DC jump in front of security and then continue to run from there to catch our flight. There were 5 of us that were left behind. All of us were on the plane just waiting and praying that they would get on and at the 11^th hour they did. They closed the doors and we were off. The plane was not going to wait any longer. I can't believe it was that close!

Embarking on our 17 hour flight home......

July 8th

July 8^th,

Today has been relaxing. The kids were overjoyed that we came back to stay 2 more nights. They were so smiley at devotion this morning. Pastor said so many of them could not concentrate on school yesterday and were crying.

We did not have a plan for the day. We wanted to help wherever we were needed. The children attended school until 1. Some of us went to the market to buy food and donated supplies to the orphanage. Some of us cleaned and I baked and cleaned. I stayed with Pastor Bensons wife Florence and cleaned her kitchen after we ate breakfast there. She and I also made rolls together. She was laughing because they kept sticking to my hands. She said my hands were too soft and that I needed more flour. Mine still never turned out like hers. We carried 6 pans down to the oven. We loaded the stove with charcoal and baked them.

It was a real beautiful day. We packed up all our things to get ready for the airport tomorrow. I took a nice little nap. We broke up in to groups and we talked about the story of Joseph. This is such a relevent story to them. God brought Joseph out of prison and made him ruler over many and saved millions of lives. God has not forgotten one of these children. He brought them from the brink of death living on the streets and used Pastor Benson to do this. These kids are so greatful, especially the ones that remember where they have come from. Not one story is the same. Parents have passed away, they have abandoned or abused their children, they have been left in the care of relatives who could no longer take care of them, and the stories go on....

We will never forget the stories. Duncan is the oldest boy here. His mother died when he was young. His father was an abusive alcoholic that abandoned him at the age of ten along with his 2 other siblings. They were given food by the neighbors until they got tired of it and called the authorities. They were picked up and taken to a Remand Home (Juvenile detention center). The government does not know what to do with the abandoned and orphaned kids so they take them to Remand homes. This is also where kids that have committed crimes go. Thankfully, they were rescued and taken to Fiwagoh. Duncan is everywhere here. He shows love to others without ceasing because he says that he was shown great love when he first came here. I have seen him running errands, caring for the smallest child here, preaching, baking, cleaning, hauling luggage. That is a thankful heart and one that does not forget where he has come from.

Teresa is one of the older girls here. Her parents died when she was young and her grandmother was struggling to care for her. Her aunt convinced her grandma that it would be best if she lived with her. Here is a real life Cinderella story. Teresa was forced to do so much work at the hand of her aunt. She never let her go to school or sleep on a bed, she had to sleep on the floor. The aunts 2 daughters were given royal treatment while Teresa was kept as a slave. Three years she lived like this before the grandmother found out and brought her to Fiwagoh.

Every child here has a story. It breaks your heart to think of the scars they carry with them. God redeems his people and he created each of these kids for purpose. If they carry on in the footsteps of Jesus they could be the vessel that saves thousands of lives like Joseph and probably like Pastor Benson and his wife. We are so thankful to be here and to be a part of these precious lives. They all wrote us letters that we have and have prayed that we will write them back. I do hope we can continue in relationships with these awesome kids and that their faces and stories will never leave us.

July 7th

July 7^th

Today was impossible and I was ready to call it quits...I think we all were.

We had a very tearful depart from Fiwagoh this morning and headed to Grace of God chidlren's home.

First of all, we were told it was only a 2 hour drive at the most. Everytime our sweet driver Daniel called them they said we were 20min away. 4 hours later we arrive. The pastor met us at the gravel road and he drove us a long drive down to the school on a dirt road. He said if it rains that it is immpossible to drive on. Guess what......thunderclouds started to loom right as he said that. Come to find out the people at the church thought they would take us on the scenic route. Yes, Kenya is the prettiest place I have ever seen. However, the roads are terrible and we could have done without 2 extra hours of driving.

The whole thing was disorganized from the beginning. Visting Orphans has never sent a team to Kenya so they do not have reliable relationships with some of these contacts. We really don't know what to expect at any of these places we are visiting and staying in Kenya and we have been very fortunate so far. This was quite a bit different. FYI...we all know that outhouses are gross but outhouses in Africa are pretty rough. We have had to use them more than we anticipated. The kids at this orphanage/school did a little singing and dancing for us while they served us lunch at 2:30. It seemed like the whole town came out to see us. As we were in there it started to downpour. Our driver told us that we needed to leave if we ever wanted to get to our hotel in the daylight and more importantly, not get stuck on the mud road. We felt awful at first because we just arrived, ate their lunch and now we were leaving. After we spent some time with them, we saw that God protected us and was watching out for us. This place seemed “off” from the beginning. There was even the question as to whether these kids were even orphans or if it was just a government run school. It was the first place I felt like our skin color was a dollar sign to them.

They reluctantly let us leave. Our bus driver did an amazing job on that awful muddy road and I was almost in tears a few times when we were sliding and tipping. I thought for sure we were going to tip. There is 22 of us plus our driver. All of our luggage is strapped to the top and so it makes it pretty top heavy on these bad roads.

3 of the church members drove in our bus with us to the town of Eldoret where they booked a hotel for us. Seriously? This place was scary. There were people everywhere and I did not see one woman. The hotel was so disgusting and the way to access it was through the scariest back alley I have ever seen. The people with us were shocked that we didn't want to stay there. We all spoke up and said we wanted out of here ASAP. We are such a target wherever we go. Even if you didn't see 22 white women on the bus, you could just look on top of the bus at our luggage and know we were from the states.

Our strange friends would not take no for an answer. They said things like....”what is wrong? Do you need to stay alone and not in a large hotel? We will find you a new one nearby”....and my personal favorite....”we already paid the deposit”.

They couldn't get it through their heads that we were scared and putting ourselves in a dangerous spot and that our luggage was surely to get stolen. Not to mention the fact that we were all women staying by ourselves. They didn't tell us that this city is also known for a lot of fighting and public disturbances between two different people groups that don't like eachother.

The last visitors they had were in 2008 so they were desperate for us to stay. If we skipped out on the nasty hotel and went to search for a new one, that one could be nasty too and then we would have nowhere to stay and it would be dark (never wise to venture out at night but especially in Africa). We all made the decision to just go back to Fiwagoh. They were still not getting it. “If you go back to Fiwagoh that will be such a long drive for you to come back in the morning”. We are not coming back. Then the pleading began. We threw some money at them and then their care for us actually seeing the children dissipated. That was like my 12^th clue that I didn't trust these people. We had a bag of donations for them but it was on top of the bus. We realized then that they were sticking around until they got it. They said they would drive with us to Fiwagoh so we could unload our luggage and get it for them. Nope. We pulled over at a gas station and got it down for them and they can keep the luggage it was in.

Pastor Benson graciously said we can stay there tonight and tomorrow night. This is such a blessing. Now we can just go straight to the airport Saturday and not stay at one more unsure place. Fiwagoh has been the nicest place and we are hoping to be able to bless them tomorrow. We are going to go shopping for food and cleaning supplies. While the kids are in school we are going to clean their bathrooms and hopefully have some fruit waiting for them.

We have been driving longer than anticipated and I think we have driven at least 6 hours today. What a waste of time. We could have been hanging at Fiwagoh and helping out where we could. It is now 9:15pm. We are all so excited to see the kids at Fiwagoh but hope we are not keeping them awake. Last time the older boys grabbed our luggage and ran to our rooms. We are so thankful we would sleep in what we are wearing and deal with luggage tomorrow.

We are 5 mintues away and the police pulled us over to check our bus. One guy went in the back and flirted and another one talked to our driver in Swahili. He asked him for some tea. Apparantly, he was asking for us to give him money and that is the code words police use. Our driver assured them that all our money was above with our luggage. Then he asked where we were staying so he could come on the bus and go with us! What? Our driver Daniel told him we were all lesbians and did not like men and that is why we are all traveling together without men! He quickly walked away and let us go. This place is lawless when it wants to be. I will continue to be praying for the leadership of this country, of Uganda and Africa. Without the raising up of Godly leaders, this continent will never change.

All of the kids are still waiting up for us and it is now 9:30pm. We are all so tired!!! I would pay money to be on a flight back home right now. I am missing my family. Good night.

July 6

July 6^th

7:00am devotion in the dining hall. Joshua Mwaura spoke about not forgetting where you have come from in order to be thankful and a blessing to others. Joshua was one of the first kids Pastor Benson rescued and he is 17 now. He is a tremendous leader and shepards this flock very well and with a sweet, sweet spirit.

Pastor Benson took 4 of us to exchange money in the town of Gilgil. We stood in line for quite some time exchanging US dollars to Kenyan Shillings. It is a very nerve racking experience. There is a lot of money being exchanged with a lot of Kenyan eyes watching. Several team members also had a lot of Ugandan Shillings that needed to be exchanged for Kenyan Shillings. We had to go to a different bank for this exchange. It was hard to do all the conversions and keep everyones money in order. The Kenyan exchange is 85 shillings per 1 US dollar. For example, something that costs 17,000 Kenyan shillings would be equivalent to $200 US dollars.

Our other team members had been outside playing sports games while we were gone. We ran out of bottled water a day before. Some people looked like they were going to faint. We had not had water for a day.

We did rotations of 6 stations with all the kids for a few hours until they ate their lunch/supper. They only have 2 meals a day. They feed us 3 meals and give us delicacies that the kids do not get like fruit, sugar, bread and oatmeal.

After lunch the kids took us on a walk to Lake Elementaita. The Fiwagoh mission sits on this lake and there are flamingos on the shore. They enjoyed showing us “their lake”. The older boys are assigned to leadership roles. Joshua had a large stick in his hand like he was sheparding his flock. He told all the kds to not run ahead so we could get our pictures and not scare them off. The kids loved chasing after them and making them fly off.

They then took us on a walk through the forest by their house to see the monkeys. We did see them way up in the Acacia trees. It was pretty neat and such a beautiful walk.

Showers and then devotion and dinner after our 6 mile trek!

During dinner Pastor Benson and wife Florence shared their story of how the orphanage came to be and what he went through living on the streets with his 4 brothers at the age of 9.

After a full and amazing day we were ready for bed and off to Grace of God in the morning. Out of all the places we have visited so far, Fiwagoh has been the most like home.

July 5th

When we drove up to the orphanage the children were waiting, screaming and jumping up and down...all 180 of them. We said hello and the older boys ran all of our bags up to our rooms. We got there in time for their evening devotion where a 13 year old gave one of the most amazing sermons I have ever heard. They sing so loud and powerfully and most of us were so touched to hear them singing old hymns. When you hear the stories of what these young ones have gone through, hearing them sing Amazing Grace brings on a whole new meaning.

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me

I once was lost, but now am found

Was blind but now I see

Humbled is not the word. These kids were faithfully praying for us for months. This was the day they had been waiting for. They praised God for answering our prayers of getting here safely and that they lived to see this day come. We do not deserve such adoration. We all wish we could give more and do more. However, it is our presense they desire. Isn't that so much like our heavenly Father?

Pastor prays for food everyday for his children, staff and himself. The kids would eat in the cafeteria and we would eat in the home of Pastor Benson and his wife. They welcomed us in, they made an abundance of food for us 3 times a day (the children only eat twice a day). He refused to allow us to pay for anything. There is an abundance of avocadoes and bananas in Uganda and Kenya. I could live and eat well here. Besides mango, there has not been anything I have not enjoyed. They eat a lot of rice and beans and seasonal fruits and veggies. After dinner we all shared a bunk in a bunk bed – 4 to a room for a restfull, much need sleep.

July 3rd and 4th

3 and 4^th of July

Pastor Samuel had the most amazing church service. We were so grateful to be able to attend. He also had a yummy lunch for us that his wife Sara said we all had to eat or we would offend them! So, we all ate this egg roll type thing that was huge and so yummy and some flat bread. They eat a lot of potatoes, peas, collard greens, and lots of rice and beans and posho. For breakfast there is always coffee, tea and fresh eggs. Most everything we have been served has come from their own gardens.

We had a really long day of traveling today. We left Kampala, Uganda to go to the airport. The airport is not that far away and we got stuck in 2 hours of stand still, turn off the car traffic. We thought for sure we were going to miss our flight but when we got to the airport they held the plane for us and basically escorted all of our luggage through. It was a miracle for sure. A miracle that probably would not have happened in America. The people here are so friendly and accomodating.

So this was our day.....

2 hours of traffic getting to the airport

2 hour flight from Kampala to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Layover in Addis airport and depart at 11pm for Nairobi, Kenya

2 hour flight to Nairobi

1 hour of finding and loading all our luggage (thought we lost a bag)

3 hour drive to North Kinagop and the Hope Community Center Orphanage

Arrive at 6:30am on NO SLEEP

Nap until 11 and meet the kids at 12

Kenya and Uganda are very different even though the countries border eachother. Kenya has paved roads, more industrialized (especially in Niarobi), most places have electricity as well. Unfortunately, some of the back roads that have once been paved have been forgotten to be repaired and are very, very bumpy to drive on with large pot holes to avoid. The landscape is so incredible in Kenya. Acacia trees are everywhere, the ground is not red dirt like Uganda. There are less people in the streets as well as children just by themselves. We are in the countryside which is surrounding by mountains, lakes, farms, flower farms, pasture land and so many beautiful trees and cactus. This is exactly what you would think of when describing Africa. It is so, so beautiful.

We were very tired after arriving but wanted to meet the kids and start playing with them. The kids are always SO excited to see you when you arrive. They have been waiting for us for months and praying for us daily that the Lord would bring us here safely. They are so thankful for us and thankful to God for answering prayer. We are now part of their family and they continually ask us when we are coming back.

HOPE COMMUNITY CENTER – North Kinagop, Kenya

HCC was started by Lucy or “Mama/Madame” Lucy as the kids and staff call her. She was living Nairobi by herself when she took in her first child. Jerome was only 5 when she found him living on the street. She asked him if he would like to stay at her home for the day while she went to work and he accepted. After sometime he told all of his friends and they all eventually settled at her home as well. They moved to a church and outgrew that space. They then purchased a half acre 2 hours away from Nairobi in a beautiful country area surrounded by mountains and in the Riff Valley. A half acre of land grew to 18 acres and plastic roofs turned into 3 story cement dormitories among several other permanent structures. Lucy currently has the highschool under construction, another green house and a nursery to house more babies. Lucy adopted the first 3 babies that came to her. They are now 5 and named Henry, Mary and Alan. Lucy prays that the nursery can get completed quickly so she can save more babies lives that are dying in the hospital and the surrounding areas.

Jerome was her first orphan to live with her. He is now 25 and has graduated from college. Jerome has gone to study to be a pastor and came back to be the pastor at Hope CC. What started with Jerome has grown to 173 children, most of whom are true orphans (both parents have passed away). They really live like they are all brothers and sisters with Lucy as their mother. They do everything without complaining or arguing and they have such solid faith in Christ. The bible says that the prayers of the righteous availeth much. Here are the righteous. They pray without ceasing,

I loved teaching them how to play kick ball. It was so fun seeing them grasp the concept and then give it everything. We sang songs with them and did devotions and crafts with them. Mama Lucy wanted us to share in front of the kids a “word of encouragement”. They meet 3 times a day for prayers and songs so we had several share from our group. There were 3 Candian gals there and that was so fun getting to know them and make new relationships.

I was so impressed by how Lucy manages donations. She wants money that is donated to go directly towards a project of the donors choice. We gave her money as a team for room and board. She wanted to know what project we wished to donate towards and if we could help start the construction while we were visiting. We were so excited to donate towards a baby nursery and have the opportunity to plant that seed. She got on the phone right away and the gravel was delivered the next day. We were also able to donate towards a greenhouse. The temperature here is so mild that they can grow sustaining food all year round. Some of the vegetables like tomatoes and kale need to be grouwn in a greehouse. The boys went out and cut down small trees and two of us girls carried them to the spot where the boys were securing the posts for the greenhouse. It was so awesome to be part of a project that looks visibly different and at least underway when we left. If we get to come back the nursery and greenhouse will be done! She likes to do this to because when the children look at these projects they are reminded to pray for those who contributed to them. Her saying is “Welcome Home” or Karibu (welcome in Swahili).

We had worship with them in the morning, worked at the greenhouse, fed the children breakfast (I was thankful to be able to scoop and serve the 173 kids what tasted like cream of wheat), played games, took showers, ate lunch and then headed to Naguru for the Fiwagoh orphanage about 2 hours away.

Baby Cottage Pics!

These babies were so adorable! Sweet Simon and Jennifer were some fan favorites. Kimberly was attached to Vincent and then there were the twins Mary and Martha. Their mother passed away giving birth to them and they have been at the orphanage since.

What you see when you drive in Uganda

Life in Uganda! Lots of bicycles carrying things and ladies balancing things on their heads with babies on their backs and walking for miles....

More pics

Children's prison
We gave them tshirts and let them paint on them. Little Joseph was so thankful and proud of his shirt! I loved spending time with him. We played soccer here as well.

Africa Pictures!

Remand Home for kids. I showed the boys a thing or two about soccer (or maybe that was the other way around!)

Day 8 July 2nd

July 2^nd, 2011

We woke this morning and took a boat ride on the NILE!! It was so beautiful. We stayed at the King Fisher Resort for a couple of nights in Jinga and it is located at the source of the Nile. I am not going to type all of what that means but you can look it up. Basically, there is Lake Victoria and then there is the Nile. We saw where the Nile starts. It goes for 4,000 miles from where we were and it is the longest River in the world. The weather here has been really perfect. It is sunny everyday and a little humid but not too hot. It is much hotter in Tennessee.

Our tour guide Joseph was a great guy. There were several birds on the shoreline. He said he sees a lot of hippos but we didn't today. We did see a large lizard that looked like a small alligator and we saw a monkey in a tree. The Nile is full of cobras and pythons. I was hoping this rickety boat would not fall apart. There was a prison across the river we saw. Joseph said that no one has ever made it alive while trying to cross the river and escape because of all the deadly snakes and things in the river. That made me want to end this little boat tour :)

We spent the day at Amazima ministries with Katie Davis and her feeding program. If you haven't heard about Katie Davis, look up www.kissfromkatie.blogspot.com

It was really neat to be able to meet her and see the great work she is doing among these people. Every Saturday 400 kids hear a bible story, give thanks, get fed, play on her huge playground and take a bag of food home to their families. These kids are doing so much better from when they first begun the program. They are all going to school and are being sponsored. It is awesome how healthy these kids are and that they are being fed spirtually most of all. Katie will tell her story in a book coming out in October titled Kisses From Katie. We played with the kids for a while and then headed back to our first hotel guest house called Namiriembe. The staff workers were so glad to have us back! They said we made them happy.

Pastor Samuel met us at our Guest House to talk about his ministry called Return Ministry. It was so great to hear from him and he brought his beautiful family. We are excited to go to his church service in the morning and then off to Kenya tomorrow.

Day 7 July 1

July 1, 2011

Today was pretty awesome in the spiritual sense but difficult to see people so destitute. We went to Pastor Andrew's Church. The Full Gospel Church of Jinja. Pastor Andrew ministers to children in the Karamajong tribe as well as to their families and mostly their mothers. The Karamajong is the least of the least in Uganda or at least Jinja and the surrounding areas. It is a community of mostly widows or divorced mothers that are trying to care for their children by themselves. They are very, very poor. They grieve the loss of a spouse by death or divorce and the loss of the bread winner in the family. Several tribes do not appreciate women and cast them out of their tribe when their husband dies. If their husband left them money or land, often times it is stolen away from the mother and her children. The only place to go is to the slums where they band together in their own society. Unfortunately, they have very little resources, education and sometimes hope. Pastor Andrew has a heart for these mothers and their children. He wants to bring each child “home”. Andrew grew up in his uncle's home where he saw the love poured out into his cousins but was always treated as an outcast. He longed to be home like when he was young and being loved by his own parents. There are so many children that are orphans but much more that are just plain unloved by the single parent that cares for them or the other relatives that they live with. They are seen as a burden and an extra mouth to feed and extra school tuition to pay for. In Africa if you do not have shoes and a uniform you cannot attend school (in addition to the fees for school...minimal as they are compared to our school fees).

Pastor gave us an introduction to his ministry and how he hopes to bring life to these women. He wants the children to remain in the home and have a full ministry with the whole family being restored. He is helping the women learn vocations such as weaving and jewlery making to support themselves.

Our team of 22 broke up into 3 different teams. Jacky, Dorothy and one other sweet girl led us to these villages. We were thankful to be in smaller groups and to have interpreters. We never split up for safety reasons but Samuel assured us we would be fine and when to meet back on the bus.

My group got out of the bus and walked behind some corn stalks to this really dirty village of super small dwellings. We walked to the back of the village, smiling, holding kids in our hands, passing out silly bands and equipped with a new money making idea for the ladies. We knew that some of them already made bead necklaces and did some weaving. We brought a lot of different thread for them to learn how to make necklaces. We had some instructions but were mostly just showing them how to do it since they did not speak English. Jacky was a great interpretter. They women had already settled us all under a tree with benches and they showed their guests the royal treatment. They were so excited that we came to visit them. In their culture, when a Muzungu (white person) visits you or goes into your home it is a great honor. I can understand how they were astonished that people from across the globe would come visit them but their own city will not.

We all sat down and Jacky told us that they wanted us to preach to them. We weren't prepared to preach but they were sitting all around us waiting. Jenny spoke about being a single mom and the difficulties that she has overcome through Christ to get her where she is today. I wanted to speak as well. I was really overwhelmed and humbled to be able to “preach” to them. God definitely gave me the words to say. In John 15:16 it says, “You did not choose me but I chose you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last”. Many of the deaths around here are by disease, mostly AIDS. I was able to tell them that my father died of disease as well and my mom was supported by the government. She worked hard, took night classes to learn a skill and then went to work. God took care of us. We attended school, played sports and went to University (what they call college). Regardless of how far apart we live, we are one by God's spirit. We have gone through similar things although my conditions in America are much different than here. I told them that we could give them money and provisions but those things wear out. The only fruit that lasts is God's word and that is the only source of life, joy, hope and peace. In verse 17 it says, “If the world hates you, remember that it first hated me”. It was so awesome to be able to look in the eyes of the poorest of the poor and tell them they are loved by their Father. He created each one with purpose and that he does not make mistakes. He is their only hope, not us and not money. If I lived in Uganda, I would have grown up in this community and that really hit me hard to think about as I looked around. The homes are made of mud, sticks, plastic tarps for roofs, holes in the ground for toilets. The kids have no shoes, barely any clothes and the ones they have are so tattered. There was 15 year olds boys there that cannot attend school because they do not have shoes. They wanted to learn how to do the craft we were teaching the women just so they could learn something. They are so eager to learn and they pick up on things so much quicker! A sweet lady named Marion caught on so quickly. She was probably 65 or 70. She worked on that bracelet and immedietly wanted to give it to me. She made it for me she said. She was so proud of it. Her face shined. They wanted to know when we would be coming back. That is so hard. You can't say that you are coming back, even though I want to. I am glad to know that Visiting Orphans will send other teams there. Their faces just radiate. They want to give you all that they have and walk you back and see you off and know about you, ask you questions about your family. One sweet mother named Annette had the exact ages of my kids and I was so encouraged to know that her older two were in school that day. Pastor Samuel is doing such a great workd at his church, with the children and attempting to send them all to school as well as ministering to the mothers. If the mothers can learn vocations, they will not delve into the sex trade or cause their daughters to go down the same road. It really is changing lives.

Our tour guide Jacky took us to her mothers house whose name is Ann. Ann volunteered to make her backyard into a bakery. This is another way these widows earn money is by cooking and selling their goods. Finding a market is always difficult. I would love to take their items and try to market them here. This is something I am going to talk to Kirk about and pray about. When you see the jewelry, and you know that you are directly supporting these women to survive, I am sure you would see it to be a very worthy cause!

After that we had a fun time shopping in Jinga and using their internet cafe. We went back to the hotel for some dinner (we had pizza for the first time and it was amazing!). They have very little sweets here. I miss chocolate and pizza and a few other things. I have drank a great amount of water (all bottled of course). I will be thankful to drink out of the sink again! We brush our teeth with bottled water as well. We had a nice time sharing as the 3 groups shared about all of our different experiences. Our reminder as Christians here or elsewhere is that WE are not the answer. We need to point people to Christ. We will always fail others and let them down. We can never fail if we just keep pointing up. The hard pressed want help. They want a Savior. Too often they feel like it is going to come from Americans. We have gotten a lot of those types of questions....how do I trust in God in these conditions? Can you just stay and minister to my kids? When will you be back? What are you going to do for us when you get back? The real answer is that we don't have the answer. “Trust in the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your might and with all your strength. In all your ways acknowledge him and HE will direct your path”. You want to give them answers but HE is the only answer and we need to trust that he will take it from there.

Day 6 June 30th

Thursday June 30^th 11:16

I have not gotten used to the smells, the driving, the bugs or sleeping under mosquito nets.

I do love the people. They are usually very friendly, generous and hospitible. I love how affordable everything is. But most of all I am so encouraged by the faith in Christ these people have shown us. They truly worship Jesus. Our hearts were all deeply moved yesterday by the chidren in the prison worshipping Christ. They worship God in song, dance, in servitude and humility and the most spirit led prayers. The fall on their knees.

My senses are challenged being here. I enjoy cleanliness around me and everything is dirty. I enjoy taking a shower and feeling clean but within minutes I feel sticky, dirty and itchy. I have a hard time with foul smells and to be honest, there is a lot that smells bad to me. There are hard things to see, feel, touch, taste and hear for sure. At this time in my life God has not called me to live in Uganda but I do love the people. I especially love the 3 men that I met today.

Today we went to Pillars of Hope. Please look it up and consider giving to this ministry.

Godfrey, Peter and David warmly greeted us today as we came to their facility. They are AMAZING men of God with HUGE hearts for the children that are living on the streets of Jinga, Uganda. A few years ago they saw this need and God told them to do something about it. Just like God finds us out, they go to the children in the evening or at night and speak to them and love on them. The children have now begun to recognize these evangelists and call them “Uncle”. The children here will call you “Auntie Rebecca” or “Mama” sometimes. They call the men they love “Uncle”.

As you can imagine, the kids on the street are very vulnerable. They do not go to school. They beg for money, steal, or “scrap” (they find things to sell like metal scrap). They are exposed to violence, abuse, kidnapping, death and drugs. Most of these kids have been abandoned, orphaned or with a parent that cannot support them at all. Alex was in school and at home doing well. His father could no longer pay for school so Alex went and lived on the streets to see if he could make money to pay for his own schooling. The children are taken advantage of so easily and Alex started using drugs. David and Godfrey started to minister to Alex and he is now a leader among the other children at Pillars of Hope.

Mission of Pillars of Hope : To empower street kids, orphans and vulnerable children as well as the most disadvantaged people in order to become self sustaining and live a life for the Lord.

Several of the mothers of these street kids are prostitutes. Pillars ministers to the whole family and have led some women to Christ and they are now out of that profession and making money weaving or jewlery making. They believe that what the child hears and sees greatly affects their character. They are praying for a place to house these children. They currently send them to school and then they come to the Pillars of Hope facility. But, they go home to sleep. If their mothers are in the sex trade business, these men are in their homes and the kids are getting abused. The work Pillars does could have a much greater sustainability if the kids were not in those awful living conditions or just back out sleeping on the street.

There is also a lot of witch craft in Uganda. Street kids and orphans are being abucted at night on the streets and beheaded for sacrifices. There are child sacrifices here. THIS IS REAL. The devil wants to destroy this place and from the looks of it he is doing a good job. BUT, there is so much good here as well. He has perfectly ordained fearless, Godly men and women to do his job here on earth.