ONE MONTH!!!!

We have officially made it one month today!! This month has been incredible and gone by soooo quickly, almost too quickly. As much as we cannot wait to come home and visit you all again, it will be very sad to say good-bye when the time comes!!

Our three day adventure to Jinja turned into a six hour extravaganza due to lack of communication...which seems to happen ALOT around here. We were headed out, somewhat panicky Friday morning just because we were about to journey 5 hours, hopping from taxi to taxi carrying three bags with clothes, cameras and other necessity itmes, and a heavy case of water and were not really sure what to expect. As we were headed out of the gate, Jaja Alma-the wonderful elderly woman that we are staying with-drove by the house and offered us a ride to Jinja for she was on her way herself to do ministry in a town that was about two hours past Jinja. It was a huge blessing because we were able to sit in a familar vehicle and not have to worry about the taxi-hopping. But because we were able to get a ride, we ended up getting to Jinja four hours ahead of schedule and as we have said before, everything runs behind schedule so really we were about 8hours ahead!! We get there and the hosts had not yet arrived so we sat in some chairs outside to wait for them. Then the doctor of the medical center of the Agatha Foundation greeted us and began to gather thirty widowed women from the area and bringing chairs out in from of us. We looked at each other in confusion because we were not sure whether we were supposed to give a speech or talk to them or preach to them or what the meeting was called for. We soon found out that out of the thrity women in front of us, only two could speak english so we couldn't talk to them. But good thing we brought our right hand man Ivan who could translate for us. As he began to translate for our introductions, we just got blank stares from over half of the women and realized that the women were from all over the country side and that there were over six different languages spoken amongst them. So we handed out "sweeties", (the women appreciated them just as much as the kids do!!) and waited for about five hours just staring at each other, smiling, occasionally making some small talk with the women that could actually speak a little english. It began raining outside so we all crammed into a tiny room where t made things even more akward because of the tightness of space. We felt awful just because we took the women away from cooking meals and tending to their children just to greet us and they felt like they had to stay until the hosts, Ronald and Agatha showed up.

Once they showed up, the rains had stopped and they took us out in the villages where the women showed us their homes. Most of the womens homes were the size of the average Americans bathroom living inside were the widows and their eight or more children. What Agatha Foundation does is they offer insight on how to run small buisnesses from their homes. They offer medical advice and other advice like how to save on little income. It was very humbling to meet these amazing widowed women and look forward to seeing what comes out of the foundation!!

They did not have a place to accomodate us for the entire weekend, so we made the journey back to our little house in Entebbe and are thankful for a nice bed to sleep in after a long exhausting day of traveling.

Really good news on meeting Devon...Appearantly he has been working with Mercy Home and is already in the process of getting it taken over!! Mercy Home is the orphanage that Stacie stayed at with three of her best friends on her first trip and they eventually discovered that the kids were being mistreated, by being abused both sexually and physically and are not getting the education or proper nutrition. The directors have abandoned the kids and left for the states supposedly to be raising funds. They have been away now for five months and the place is in complete shambles. Obviously they do not care at all for the children anymore because they are not sending money or telling them when they are coming home. Be praying that all goes well and that between us and Devon we will be able to get the orphanage into the right hands!!

Thank you again soooo much for all of your support!! We love you all and appreciate your comments and prayers!! Miss you!!!

Off to Jinja!!!

We have had quite the profitable week here in Uganda. Sunday late afternoon was spent on the beach with Mercy Home children, wading in the waters of Lake Victoria... this was before we received a phone call from Stacie's mother informing us of the deadly parasite, BILARZIA (sp?), which we would most definitely contract from any contact whatsoever with the waters of Uganda. Thank-you for the warning, Mama :)

Monday was spent mostly in Kampala, running errands and ordering Domino's pizza for the children at Abba House. When we finally arrived at Abba they were not yet ready to partake of the once-in-a-lifetime Domino's pizza, as they were lined up across the property passing piles of clay bricks up the hill. It is rain season in Uganda, let's not forget. So the ground was too muddy for the dump-truck to handle and the moving of bricks was left up to the kids-and Naka and MuMu (Stacie and AmyRose) who both have some very nice blisters from the hard work :) Eventually, the kids did get their pizza, and it was quite thoroughly enjoyed.

We were also able to take measurements of the Abba kids' feet this week, as they are in desperate need of school shoes and have none. Deborah (pastor kaaya's wife) informed us that Uganda's school system is heavily influenced by the British, and the teachers are very strict concerning proper school attire.

Today we are on our way to meet up with Samuel from Mercy Home, and ......an AMERICAN!! His name is Devon and so far we do not know much about him, except that he happens to be living at Mercy Home, and will be in the country for 3 more months. Tomorrow morning we will be meeting with the lawyer concerning NGO and Mercy Home and other things. And from there it is off to Jinja for the weekend!!

Ivan (our right -hand man/body guard/interpreter) will be traveling with us. Not sure when we will have internet access again so until then, God Bless and thanks for all the prayers and comments!!!

NGO and Grad. Party

The past several days have been full of rain, which has been nice in the evening b/c it means cooler temperatures and better sleep... but it can get quite frustrated when the rain does not stop during the day resulting in trips to the market leaving us covered from head to toe in thick, red, african mud :(

We were able to have a very informative meeting with Pastor Kaaya and his wife Deborah the other day, during which we learned a great deal about to get get our NGO registered. Kaaya also allowed us to borrow and copy the objectives that he used in order to register the New Life Center. So now that we have a copy and more of an idea of what our objectives need to look like, as well as a copy of the Children's Act, we will have an easier time coming up with offical objectives of our own.

Tomorrow we will be travelling to Kampala in order to meet up with Agatha, and fellow missionary and Jesus-lover. SShe lives just outside of Kampala and has invited us to stay with her for the weekend and tour her facilites to get an idea of what ours may look like.

We met a very friendly 23yr. old Ugandan girl named Natasha, who we are supposed to be meeting with on Tuesday, in order to form a relationship with her and hopefully be a source of ministry in her life.