June 28th - Can't believe it's the end of June...

Greetings, Friends and Family!
Your Uganda test today: what is in the first picture you see? One hint - it was outside our back door 3 days ago...in the morning. (sorry to say that this picture did not come through. Boo!!!!)
Okay, now that I've got you working on something, let me tell you what's happening around here. Here are some highlights this week:

• So, this one is not exactly a positive thing...maybe I should call it a "low" light. Last Monday morning, 2 men tried to get a child to take a bomb into the dormitory at a primary school in Budaka. The child refused, even though offered money, and an adult came along about the same time and the 2 men ran off with their bomb. The police came to us and warned us about this and we have been very vigilant since then. We check the kids' backpacks each day as they come, Abby and I are not out after dark and we watch for strangers who want to come in the compound at the school.
• Electricity came back on last Sunday, as I told you last week. But, since then it has been off 2 more times - once for a day and more recently it went off Sunday afternoon and is not yet back on...48 hours now with none. I'm beginning to feel spoiled when we do have electricity.
• Abby has been sick for about 3 days and is finally on the mend. She had an "acute gastrointestinal infection," and is getting better now with antibiotics. We found a new hospital in Mbale and it seems like a better place...we will see. Thanks to those of you who have been praying for her! (By the way, the reason you didn't get this email till today is that we spent all morning yesterday at the hospital and the rest of the day I was at home playing nurse/mom.)
• We met a peace corps worker who lives close (in Kibuku, a village about 5 miles away). We had a great time with her over for dinner and just "talking fast" (as people here say Americans do). She let me know there are 2 other p.c. people who are even closer. One is actually from Eugene! He said he kept seeing Oregon and VLT shirts around Budaka and wondered who it was that had given these people shirts from his home state and town. We have yet to meet him, but will rectify that soon.
• The 2nd picture you have I took this morning right after breakfast when Monicah, the mom to our girls, asked Natasha to brush the little girls' hair. The picture is of Natasha and Charity. Rogers was goofing around with the children and they said, "Take a picture of Pastor Rogers eating!", so I did and that is the 3rd picture you have.
• We are going tomorrow to talk with the family of the child we believe will be our 30th orphan...filling us up to capacity until we build a new building. Rogers and I are excited, and I will tell you more next week, along with pictures!
• Thanks to all of you who prayed for Natasha last week. God gave us wisdom about what to do, and after talking with her and administering some needed discipline, she is like a completely changed child. She is back to enjoying herself, overseeing the younger girls in her room, making good choices throughout the day, etc. Praise God for His wisdom!!
• I want to welcome a few new people who are just this week getting their first Cornerstone email. Welcome...thanks for coming along on this ride with us!
• The latrines were supposed to be started at the restaurant site on Friday, but due to (fill in the blank) they were not and supposedly they began today. Waiting is really not my strong point!!!
• I got to get away for 2 nights last week for a little R&R. It was good and refreshing. Thanks for all your support...and especially thanks this week for my being able to rest every 2-3 months like this. It really helps me get perspective for the rest of the work here.
• We got a package of VIA from 2 of you this week. THANK YOU! I've heard there is more coming also from a couple of others. I don't believe you can have too much VIA. Ha! We are really enjoying it...well, I have been while Ab's been sick, but she will enjoy it again once she can eat and drink.

It's almost the 4th of July! It's hot here, so I can identify with that part of the holiday there, anyway! We will be away on a planning retreat next Monday so I may not get a chance to send out the email till Wednesday or Thursday. But, as they say, "wait for it..."
Thank you for loving God's kids here in Budaka. We pray for all of you!
Laurie

June 20th - Electricity is back!!

Woohoo! Electricity came back yesterday afternoon. - 17 days without, but now we are IN THE LIGHT! Love it. One thing that came with it was the white ants. They come out after a big rain storm and are attracted by lights. So, this morning (early, when it was still dark), I turned on the outside light and went outside and within 2-3 minutes, there were dozens of the white ants flying at me - they seem to be kind of blind...or maybe they just like me :). They have huge white wings. The kids pull off the wings and either eat them right then, or fry them and eat them. At the orphanage we found a big pile of wings this morning when we went and the kids confirmed they had eaten them. Yummy!

We had chicken Saturday night - some of the chickens we are trying to sell are too small to sell, so we had the cooks fix them for dinner. The kids LOVED it! They always enjoy chicken. I have to say I love buying chicken in packages at the supermarket...so much harder to watch when they kill, pluck and gut (is that what you call it with chickens??) them before cooking. Oh, well, the kids got something out of the chickens anyway!

The first picture I have sent is one that is so precious - big sister, Natasha, was sitting next to Moses when I said we were going to pray for dinner. She turned and told him to close his eyes and what you see is what he did. The kids here who might "forget" to keep their eyes closed, cover them with their hands. Further things with this boy: he is now "saying" the verse from this week by doing the motions and occasionally saying a word. He also took 8 steps across our sitting room on Saturday. He is getting so steady! Praise the Lord for His work in this boys' life!

The second picture is of a cool butterfly I saw when we were in Entebbe with Mutwahiru a couple of weeks ago. It must be butterfly season here as there are SO many! And they are so different than ones I've seen in the States. God is so creative! Nice surprises in nature...

For those of you who guessed last week about the pictures - the first was a yellow butterfly on yellow Lantana. The second was us sitting with our leadership kids late at night watching the lunar eclipse. So amazing! And, such a great teaching time about the rotation of the earth and moon and all. We used large and small beach balls and a torch (flashlight) to illustrate before the event. When the kids came late, then, they sat on the veranda and then we put some plastic curtains (another whole story) on the ground for them to lay on, then covered them with blankets so they could watch it. Saw an amazing shooting star...I think all 11 of us saw it. It was like an explosion up in the air and then zoomed across the sky.

I want to ask you to pray for Natasha. She is the oldest of the 4 who came to us last July - she had been the "mom" for her siblings for at least 2 months after their mom abandoned them. We need wisdom as we raise her...in a special way right now. Thanks for praying.

One more story - last Sunday at church I felt the Lord say that He wanted to do miracles in peoples' lives. I shared this with those who had come forward during the invitation. This week people came back to share the stories of miracles. One woman shared that she wasn't sure what she was going to eat - she had no money and no food. Someone came to her door and told her she had helped them so much in the past, they wanted to give her something - it was Shs50,000 (about $20), enough to eat for more than 1 week! Then 2 more times last week, people just gave her money out of the blue. She immediately connected it to the promise for miracles.Others also got up to testify to what God did in a miraculous way this week. Praise God He is working in peoples' lives here in Budaka.

Thank you all for your participation in the Gospel! May the Lord bless you as you bless us so much! I'm "off" to answer all your emails. Thanks for keeping in touch!

Laurie

June 17th - 2 pictures

Some more pics from Uganda. The first is from Entebbe, the 2nd in Budaka.

Okay, here's another hidden picture for you. I took this one while waiting for Mutwahiru's surgery to be over. What can you find?

The 2nd picture is of Abby, Geofrey and some of our kids sitting on the back veranda of our house. Can you guess what we are doing?? I'll give you a hint. It was late at night on Wednesday the 14th. Anyone?

Talk with you all again in 3 days...on my regular day to email, if the internet is working ;)

Laurie

June 16th - No-internet-Monday Greetings!

So, I was here in Mbale to send you an update of all that is happening here, and the internet for all of eastern Uganda went down. I thought they were feeding me a line to keep me here at the hotel, so went to 2 other places in town and heard the same thing at each. So, today you get a Friday update!


Dear Friends and Family:

We got to take Mutwahiru to Entebbe this week to CoRSU (Comprehensive Rehabilitation Services of Uganda), a hospital for children with disabilities that is sponsored by the German government. He was operated on by Dr. Antonio (he is an Italian doctor), an orthopedic specialist. He is doing well and was discharged from the hospital ward this morning to go to the hostel that they have there where he will stay while his leg gets better. We will go and see him next Tuesday and I will give you an update then. The first picture you have is of Mutwahiru and his mom awaiting surgery. We were sitting outside the Surgery Theatre on the bench you see...for about 6 hours. O, Uganda.

On a sad note, Babyire, the baby I wrote about a couple of weeks ago who was so small and whose mother died, has died herself. We are all so sad. Please pray for Rachel, the mother and grandmother of these 2, that God will comfort her in this time.

We are working on a fairly long memory verse for our kids and have found that Moses also knows it. He does all the motions we have taught the kids and can say the occasional word of the verse. We were blown away! What a great thing to see this boy developing so quickly right now. Praise God for his life – God rescued him and set him on a good path.

As you know, we have started several small businesses that together will be supporting the ministry of Cornerstone. We got 200 chicks on January 1st of this year. In 6 months they would begin laying eggs and supporting the ministry as we sell the eggs, as well as eat the eggs at the orphanage. The chickens were doing well up until about a month ago, when they began dying one by one. We brought in a veterinarian who let us know that the disease they are dying from (starts with an "m" – can't remember the name right now) is preventable with a vaccine which should have been administered on their first day of life. The company we bought them from, apparently did not do this, although they told us they did. Now, we are down to less than 100 chickens and none are laying. There is no way to ameliorate the situation and so we are now looking to sell the chickens for meat (there is no harm to humans from the chicken disease). Then we will let the chicken house sit empty for a month while we clean and sanitize it. Then we will start all over again with a new batch…from a different company. We are a bit discouraged, but also hopeful for the future.

I have included a picture of Rogers standing in the maize field on Monday of this week. The raising of maize, beans, eggplants, g-nuts and tomatoes is on track, although we have lost 30 maize plants to someone who let his cows graze on them! Also, we lost about 1/3 of the beans to no rain for a couple of weeks – the insects came and ate them while the leaves were dry.

Our tomatoes are looking great – should be 4-5 weeks before we harvest them – there are over 100 plants in our yard and the yard outside the chicken house. The g-nuts and eggplants are growing on the land we purchased (and will be building on as the Lord provides for the orphans' home and school buildings). All of these foods we are growing will be eaten by the orphans and the surplus we will sell.

The restaurant – we have the land leased for 2 years and will begin digging the pit latrines in the next week or so. Following that very necessary step, we will begin constructing the building. We have most of the kitchenware and all of the furniture. When the building is built, we will buy the oven, refrigerator, microwave, generator, etc. We ate at an American-style place in Jinja (headwaters of the Nile River) on our way back to Budaka and got some more ideas for menu ideas – they had lasagna, some different kinds of cookies, ice cream and smoothies. Both Abby and I are excited to get to begin the restaurant and eagerly anticipate the building being done within the next month or so – everything is so much slower than we like here!

By the way, we have not had electricity now for 15 days! Just thought I'd remind you to be thankful for another thing in your lives. Ha!

Thank you again for supporting us in your prayers, financial gifts, packages of goodies for the kids and us (we do love our chocolate and VIA!), emails, and the many other ways you say you love these children and this work here in Uganda. May the Lord continue to bless you as you have so faithfully blessed us!

Laurie

June 6th - It's June in Budaka...and elsewhere ;)

We have begun an allowance system for the kids to help teach them responsibility and how to save. Here's how it goes:

• We print our own Cornerstone "money"
• The kids get 1,000 Cornerstone shillings each week (about 50 cents if it was real money) in 100 shilling notes
• I made small bags that go around their necks (thanks to having a sewing machine!!). They are made from a softer fabric with a strap cut from some lanyards we brought over. The kids keep these on their bodies except when bathing, when they hang them on the nail in their bathing room. (Some have already put theirs down somewhere and lost all their money. They are learning fast to keep them on their necks).
• They have to save 500 shillings (put into a file Abby keeps for each child) and can't spend it till they have at least Shs10,000 (I think that's the amount - Abby will correct me if wrong)
• They have to tithe - 100 shillings, for those of you who can't figure that out...ha! - Abby keeps this for them in a separate place and gives it to them on Sunday morning to put in the offering 
• They remain with 400 shillings to spend. We have about 15 different things they can buy that range in prices from 500 shillings (a balloon) to 4,000 shillings (lunch with Pastor Rogers or Pastor Laurie)
• If they "spoil" (American English - "wreck") their shoes or sandals, rip a button off their shirt, throw their sandals or shoes on the roof, "lose" their toothbrush or hanky, etc., they have to pay from their spending money to have it fixed or replaced. 

We have been doing this now for 4 weeks. The kids who bought the balloons beginning the 2nd week (money burning a hole in their pockets) found that balloons pop easily and their purchase was not that great. Most of the boys are saving to buy a matchbox car (thanks to one of you for sending them with us!). Some of the girls are saving for a jump rope of their own.

The first picture is of Abby and Amos as she gives him his 1,000 shillings for the week. You can see his bag around his neck.

Thank you to all of you who continually support this ministry with your financial gifts - you make it possible for us to do this kind of thing...training these kids for how to save and spend wisely when they grow up. I think about all of you as we pull out the allowance stuff and go down and check on whether their shoes have been spoiled, whether they still have their hanky, etc. You are teaching these children such a valuable and not-very-Ugandan lesson. Rogers comment as he watched this was: "I sure wish someone had taught me to save money and spend well when I was young!"

We had Saturday School on Saturday and had 193 kids and 12 adults helping. We played a version of Ships and Islands we called Home and Market. The kids AND the adults loved the game so much, I think we could have played for an hour! For those of you who know the game, we changed the things the kids have to do to:

• dig (they have to do this in the gardens at their homes, so all know how to hold a hoe!)
• squat (a common way to pass the time talking to someone else - not a lot of chairs here)
• herd cows (this is 4 kids - 3 are on all fours like a cow and one is standing "herding") 
• dance (3 kids holding hands dancing around - like Fools Dancing in the Ships and Islands game)

We got to laughing so hard watching some of the children trying to do things, I almost couldn't call the next thing.

Abby told the story of Jesus healing the blind man and we blindfolded some kids and had them try to put the correct number on the pictures drawn for the story. They had such a good time learning this way!

I told you a few weeks ago about having 2 of the kids each week to spend the night. We play games - Cootie bug and War (the card game), eat "American" food - chipati chips with guacamole for dinner and pancakes with syrup for breakfast, watch a movie on one of our computers (Ice Age - Abby and I are SO sick of seeing it every week, but the kids go and tell each other about it and they all want to see it. I think I know every line now!!), and they sleep in our extra bedroom (an unheard of thing in Uganda!). I have included a picture from the 2 boys who were at our house this week - Barthlomew (on the left) and Amos. They were so fun and entertaining to have!

We have had small groups of kids at our house this week, also, helping to weed the tomatoes (they have been complaining that they don't ever get to dig anymore!) and help clean the cups and jerry cans from Saturday School (they also complain they don't get to do "domestic" work). It's been so fun to watch them enjoy working outside and being away from the orphanage. Yesterday, Margret was at the house and they were helping to move rocks to make a path from our back door to the latrine (the dirt and mud gets really slick when it rains hard). Abby handed her a large clod of dirt that she thought was a rock. Margret brought it over and I said, "This is dirt, Margret." Margret said, "Teacher Abby gave me a 'not stone'." She didn't know the word for dirt or clod, so it became a "not stone." She is our very talkative and creative 5-year-old!

A young woman showed up yesterday for church in pants. Oh, boy!! It's just so culturally inappropriate. This woman has lived in Kampala (the capital city) and is more used to there than the village. People asked Rogers after the service why he didn't tell her during the service to go home and get a dress on. What a different culture, eh?

We took Mutwahiru to a great hospital in Kampala last week and he is now scheduled for surgery this Friday. The surgery that was done in early March was undone when they took the pins out too soon. He and his mother will stay in the hospital for a month or so. Rogers and I will take them on Thursday and stay through the surgery on Friday, then go back in a week or two to visit, then go to bring them home at the end of this time. The doctor said in about 6-8 months they will begin to work on lengthening the leg (it is now 6cm shorter than his other leg). It's very exciting to get this kind of care for him. More on him next week, I'm sure!

Okay, enough for today. I trust you are all well. Again, thank you for your support and care for us. God is doing great things here, as I'm sure He is also doing in your lives. God bless you! Please continue to pray for us as God brings us to mind, and we will do the same! Thank you.

Laurie