Greetings, my friends and family!
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It is a bit cooler today - probably only in the high 80s or low 90s. My perspective is definitely beginning to change on what is hot!
Thanks to all you BAMMers who called yesterday morning! It was so good to hear from you.
Things are going well. Our children and all the staff members are well today - lately that is a rarity. There is so much malaria in Uganda right now, in both adults and kids. I broke down and got a mosquito net last week - too many bites at night! Now I don't hear that infernal buzzing!!
I have attached 2 pictures of one of our boys, David. The first is when he first came with his guardian to "interview" for being able to be a part of the orphanage. The 2nd is David 3 weeks ago. The changes in these children is so amazing. Good food, good rest (they are in bed by 8:30 and up around 6), needed medical attention and good hygiene combine to give the results you see in David. Praise the Lord that He has given us (you and me!) the desire, money and ability to meet these children where they are at and help them get well and grow. Thank you all for your part in this.
This week, I had 2 of the girls come and want to read a book to me. They actually are identifying words and reading in English! Wow! What a change from the first weeks here. We need to get some more reading books - they are so eager to read and understand.
Last Thursday, I was walking out of my office at the orphanage and heard Auntie Betty asking the children to count in groups of 3s. As I came out, I saw they all had picked up rocks from the yard area and were putting their rocks into groupings of 3. Then she asked them to make groups of 5, and so on. It was wonderful to see them learning with manipulatives, even if those manipulatives were rocks! It's such a great picture of us using what we have...and of the teachers teaching using different styles of learning. All learning in Uganda is lecture - there is almost no other kind. So, seeing them learning in a hands on way was wonderful!
So, I have now gone through one pair of sandals. I had to buy some here - hopefully they will last. We walk everywhere (no car or other kind of vehicle), so shoes just wear out so much faster here than in the U.S. Wow.
Last night, I made guacamole (for the 3rd time here) for the family (not the orphans - didn't have that much avacado). They absolutely love it. We had it with chapati - the tortilla-like bread they make here. Betty made the chapati and we all ate. For lunch yesterday, we had rice and g-nut sauce (cold)....think cold peanut butter soup and you'll have an idea what it tastes like :-). The rice has to be picked through for small rocks (that look like rice). Yesterday they didn't do such a great job on the picking through, so I had about 5 stones in my rice - you chew very gently here, as you could break a tooth very easily!
We have had many people come from the town and hope to have their children at the orphanage, or ask for food, or clothing or whatever. It's so hard sometimes to say no, but we have to set the boundaries or we would have no money to feed and clothe the orphans we have. Just this morning, before coming to Budaka, we had to meet with a woman (one of our employees) and tell her she could not bring her 3 girls to eat with us as we have to have enough for our kids. It was so hard, but we know she has money to feed her family (we pay her, of course), so we had to insist that her girls stay at home for their meals. It's so hard in the midst of poverty here...
We have begun a ministry training class on Sunday afternoons - anyone who is interested in serving in any way in the church is required to come and meet with us once a week for an hour. We started with really basic stuff - why serve? what kinds of service is there? keeping your relationship with Jesus current, etc. After the first week, we now have 3 other churches that are sending their ministry people to learn with us. We had 20 total with us for the class yesterday.
This email is getting long, but wanted to say one more thing: thank you again for all that you are sacrificing in giving to the ministry with these children and adults in Budaka! God is using each of the gifts to meet needs and bless people here, including Rogers, his family and myself. We all say THANK YOU! And, with Paul, we believe that "...God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus." (Phil. 4:19)
Be blessed!
Laurie
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Day-After-Easter Greetings from Budaka!
I hope your Easter was good. The electricity here just went out, so hopefully it will come back on in time to send this out to you. Glad I have my laptop! Also, I'm at a new place and it looks like some firewall is preventing me from sending pictures - hopefully I can get them to come through to you.
Did you notice that I didn’t write last week? I haven’t yet read e-mails, so perhaps some of you did. Sorry about that – we took a trip to Lira to see an orphanage there that is run by some Americans, and were gone Monday and most of the day Tuesday and I had only a very short time at the internet café, as we have to get the fish we buy in Mbale back to Budaka in time to fix for dinner that evening.
Let me tell you about the orphanage we visited. They have been going 8 years now. It was very encouraging and hopeful as we saw the 20+ acres, the children’s homes, school, vocational training center, a church and many other things. They have done all of their projects with great planning and care and have beautiful facilities. They have offered us the plans for the buildings whenever we get to the point of buying land and building for the future. It was great to ask them questions and learn from their experiences.
Seeing the orphanage and work there was wonderful, but the trip there was not. Lira is about 225 kilometers (130 miles) north of Budaka. We left at 7:30 in the morning and arrived at 2:30 in the afternoon. We traveled on a taxi from Budaka to Mbale, then boarded a bus to Lira. The taxi is a minivan, and had 23 people in it. The bus was also very crowded and included adults, children, babies, chickens (live), and people who didn’t have seats were standing in the aisle. It took us 7 hours to go 130 miles – can you imagine? There were times I felt I could get there quicker, and more comfortably, by walking. But, both Rogers and I were glad we went in order to get a better picture of what can be here. They have done such an excellent job there in setting up. (It was also fun for me to stay and talk with the missionaries from America.)
We had a great Easter – I have included 2 pictures – one of our children getting ready to do a musical presentation in front of the church for Easter. (I have a video of it too, but can’t send it with the email – you’ll just have to trust me that they did a great job.)
The other picture is of the kids and staff eating Easter dinner. The dinner was a special meal of matooke, chicken, rice and soup. We also all had ½ an orange each. Chicken is very special here – it is an expensive meat (more so than beef), so most of these children have not had chicken before. Then in the afternoon, we had 2 “parties” to celebrate Easter – one for the children at the orphanage and one down the road at a gathering place (Wilta Inn, if you’re ever in the area J) for the adults from the church. We had more than 80 people at the adult party. At both celebrations we served cake and a bottle of soda. Each person got about 2 bites of cake, and they were thrilled! We played “American” games – that means I ran the games. Everyone joined in and we had a great time.
At our Easter service this morning we had 71 people. It was a good time of worship, fellowship and teaching. The electricity went out during worship, so we lost the sound system, but continued without amplification. Jesus was there and God met people in significant ways.
Electricity going out is such a common occurrence around here that people just take it in stride. For instance, this week, the electricity was off 5 of the 7 days – that meant no charging phones and computers, aside from not being able to see after 7 pm or before 7 am. (There are only 12 hours of daylight here on the equator all year round.) The house I live in with the family has no electricity, so as I write this email I have my laptop charged (when electricity came back on Friday morning for a few hours) and am working in a dark room in a dark house with only flashlights for lights. When I go over to the orphanage and offices, they have electricity--it’s back on tonight.
I have a challenge for some of you who would like to experience something of my life: get a 1-gallon jug and fill it with cold water. Go to your bathtub or shower and without turning any more water on, bathe with that amount of water. You also need to brush your teeth with that water. I have learned to bathe this way as water is at a real premium here and they pay for every 20-liter jerry can that comes (water from the city has been off for about 4 weeks due to failure in the pump and apparently no money to fix it). So we conserve as much as possible. The Ugandans can bathe with even less water – I guess I will learn J.
The children are working really hard at speaking English and have recently been learning to say “I love you,” and understand what it means. Now each night as I tuck them in bed and pray for them, they all say as I leave their room, “I love you, Pastor Laurie.” It warms my heart every time, as I’m sure you can imagine!
Thanks so much to all of you who are supporting the work here in prayer and with your sacrificial giving. When I talk about all the things each week that are happening, I am mindful that these things are happening because of you and me working together in the Kingdom of God and I am so thankful. Thank you for faithfully sending your offerings for us to be able to minister to these 20 kids, as well as the staff. We pray each week for all of you that the Lord will pour back into you for what you are giving to these children – hope for a life full of love and the life of Jesus.
By the way, let me know if you have any questions about life over here – I write about the things that I think might interest most of you, but would be glad to answer questions you might have. Serving with you from the other side of the world,
Laurie
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Greetings, Everyone!
It is really humid today - everything I can do to just sit here. We haven't had rain for about 5 days, so it's gotten really hot (back in the 100's), and threats of rain, but nothing concrete yet. Pray for rain to cool it down!! Thanks.
Well, I've been here 3 months today. Seems like such a short time when you say it, and then to see all the things the Lord has done since then, it seems like it's been more like 6 or 8 months.
This past weekend, I went away for a little R&R in Mbale. (I try to get away once every 6 weeks or so.) I stayed at the Mbale Resort (think Motel 6) for 2 nights and ate "American" food, spoke with some other Americans who came to the restaurant at the resort, read books, sat in front of a fan a lot, and generally acted like I was in America instead of Uganda. It was a good break. Actually, having a flushing toilet, a sink to wash my hands easily, and a shower were wonderful luxuries (even if the shower only gave hot water at a trickle and the toilet ran all the time). One night they were making barbecue at the restaurant and I thought, "Wow! Just like America." Okay, not quite. First, the barbecued goat was pretty tough - I didn't end up eating more than a bite. Second, the roasted banana was really not my cup of tea.Third, the chicken was not done in the middle (common in American barbecues, too, eh?). For breakfast, though, they had American small boxes of cereal. I'm not normally a cereal eater, but Frosted Flakes were so good, with cold milk. (You can't get cold milk here - it's either hot for African tea, or the kind that sits on store shelves and lasts forever...room temperature. So, cold milk was amazing!
On to other things that have been happening:
I was served some untreated water last week (and told it was treated). After a couple of runs to the bathroom (no pun intended), I took Immodium and was fine an hour later. That evening, when explaining to Auntie Betty (Rogers’ wife) what had happened and that I was going to only have rice for dinner so as not to begin again, she commented, helping me know she understood what I was saying, “Oh, your stomach was disorganized.” I guess she’s right – it was pretty disorganized. What a great way to say you're sick to your stomach!
Brenda, our oldest girl in the orphanage, had malaria this week. She was so sick. Our nurse, Mary, had her on a drip and after 2 days she was stronger and last night she was finally able to join us again for devotions in the evening. Charles (one of the boys who is a twin) also got malaria last week. He was better after only a day and a half - apparently did not get it as badly as Brenda. Rogers' son, Prosper, who is almost 5, was in the hospital last week for 3 days with malaria also. There are SOOOO many mosquitoes right now - I probably have 30 bites on my body. They are so bad, it's no wonder the kids get malaria. Please pray for protection and that we endure this season of rain and thus mosquitoes. (I know, I told you we wanted rain right now, but it is the rainy season and thus the worst for mosquitoes.)
I have included a picture of our worship team. The person with her back to the camera, is Betty (Rogers' wife); the girl closest to us is Garreth, a teen who is a single mother, the girl in the pink is Peace (one of Rogers' and Betty's older girls) and the 2 children are Brenda and Ben - our 2 oldest kids in the orphanage. They have been practicing with the worship team and really enjoy being up helping to lead people into the presence of the Lord. I can't remember the name of the young man in the back - he has just been coming to the church for a few weeks.
The big girls at our house (Mary, Peace and Prossy) told me the other day that they saw a white person and "it's interesting how all white people look the same." Isn't that great? We think the same way - people from other lands all look the same. So funny to me, who thinks all white people look so different from each other.
The children are doing so well at school. It is amazing to hear their English improving on a daily basis (English is the official language of Uganda, so it is imperative for them to know and understand it). Sometimes, now, even before I get done saying something to the group, 4 or 5 of them will respond - they have understood what I said! It's great! There is so much improvement.
Thanks again to all of you who think about us, pray for us and give your financial gifts so this ministry can continue. You are prayed for by our staff each week, and the children and staff talk about how wonderful you are. Thank you. We will, literally, be eternally grateful.
Love...and talk at you next week!
Laurie
