Aug 18th - A quick note (Cornerstone Calendar info)

Hey, Everyone!

We traveled to Kampala today to pick up the team from Sunnyside Foursquare Church. They will be here in about 6 hours. We are all so excited to receive them. Our Cornerstone Kids have songs and dances ready for them when they arrive in Budaka tomorrow, Friday, just after lunchtime. The kids have had one team members' name this past week and have been praying especially for that person as they come.

The kids in Kabuna (one of the day camps we will do) came yesterday to register - we have room for 100 kids and 300 showed up! That camp begins on Monday and runs 3 days from 9am-3pm each day. Actually, we begin at 8am feeding them porridge for breakfast. We also feed them a great lunch - palau (sp?) rice and meat sauce. I wasn't able to go out to Kabuna, but Abby told me it was heartbreaking to see the poverty and then have to turn kids away who we know need the food and would have so much fun at camp.

The other camp begins on Friday in Budaka and will run 4 days - Friday, Saturday, Monday, Tuesday. Same timing and meals. Please pray with us that kids will be touched for eternity during these camps.

I have included a picture of Rogers talking to the kids in Kabuna about the camp. This shows about 1/2 of the 100 kids. They are dressed in their Sunday best!

The 2nd picture is the line of kids waiting, hoping they will get a spot in the camp. Please note how many do not have shoes...and remember, these are their best clothes. The ones without shoes have none. I am always so touched when I am out in one of the villages at the extreme poverty. For most of these children they have 2 sets of clothes (some only 1!) - one for church and the other for every other day.

A request for all of you:

We have a Cornerstone Calendar made for 2012 which we would like to sell in the States as another small business venture for Cornerstone. Thank you to Matt, who has put the whole thing together for us with pictures of the work in Budaka, individual kids' pictures on Sundays so you can have someone to pray for all week, Ugandan holidays, pictures of significant events in the life of Cornerstone, etc. American holidays are also listed and there is space for you to fill in appts, etc. Would you be willing to take several and sell them at your church, your work, to your family, neighbors or whomever you think might be interested? We will have a definite cost soon, but are thinking we will sell them for $20 each. Please email me and let me know of your interest so we know how many to have printed. There are just about 200 of you on the email list right now and if even half of you could sell 10 each, that would bring us enough income for 2-3 months operation of the orphanage, help us begin the building of the school, and/or give us money to invest in the other businesses for long term support. The calendars will be ready by the end of September...and would make wonderful Christmas presents ;).

I want to say thank you to all of you who continue to support us financially, who encourage us through emails, packages and snail mail and text us with encouraging words. You all have been such a blessing to me in this past year and a half. May God continue to bless you.

In His great and sustaining love,

Laurie

Aug 8th - It's Monday...

Greetings, Everyone!

It's actually a very cool day today. This morning at 5am, it was only 71 degrees in my room. BRRRRR. Almost wished for 2 blankets on my bed. Almost...

At Saturday School, we had to come up with some new rules that will be implemented next month: no more babies or young children (like under 3) can come anymore. We must have cleaned up 4 pee puddles (sorry for all you faint-hearted...actually here we say "someone urinated" or "someone defecated"), had many young children crying, had all the young ones sitting on the stage because they aren't old enough to play the games, etc. So, no more young children or babies. There was even a baby who couldn't have been more than 6 weeks old with an older sister!

The other new rule is if anyone comes after 11am, they will have to wait till the next month to stay. What is happening is, children realize we give biscuits and juice at the end, so they come only for that part. We'll have to see how it goes next month!

We had 197 kids this time...perhaps only 150 if they can't bring younger siblings next month. I have sent you a picture of 4 of our kids helping carry all the things down for Saturday School. From left they are: David, carrying 50 cups in the bag and a jerry can for the juice (it's empty at this point); John with a box of biscuits on his head (120 pkgs) and 50 cups; Dovico with a jerry can and cups and Natasha with the packets of powdered juice - they don't look heavy, but she actually had the heaviest load of the 4! They all came up to our house where we store all the Saturday School stuff, and took things down for us.

For the team - you 10 know who you are! - coming in less than 2 weeks, the 2nd picture is of the man who we paid to dig the drainage for your bathing room. This is just outside the western side of our house. There will be a drain in the bathing room and the pipe will go to this hole, which will be filled now with rocks and an iron sheet on top, then some wooden planks and dirt on top of that. And voila! a drainage pit for your bathing water! Pretty cool, huh? It took him about 6 hours to dig the pit. (He was paid Shs40,000, or less than $20 - a good wage for this work!) He was so tickled that I took his picture and when he saw it on the computer, he laughed at seeing himself.

Mutwahiru is doing well - his leg is healing nicely and he may even get the metal contraption off his leg in about 6 weeks. The only thing is, he needs to stop kicking the soccer ball when the boys are playing. He SO wants to be one of the kids! But, he could wreck the work on his leg so far, so we're keeping him from kicking these days.

We have decided to wait on the Jinja trip with the kids until December - too much going on at the end of this term with the camps, Americans being here, etc.

We will be getting some new chickens in about 3 weeks - please pray that we succeed in this business venture! Our maize should be ready next week...we're planting cotton this week...so many things...our eggplants and tomatoes are being used daily now...sure am learning a lot about agriculture and small businesses!!!

Okay, I'm going to FB now - going to try to download some videos from Saturday School.

Love you all, and am so glad to be partnering with you. There is a possibility I will be home for a couple of weeks in September. If so, I hope to see as many of you as possible and say thank you in person!

God bless you!

Laurie

Aug 1st - Update from Kampala this time

Friends and Family:

We came to Kampala yesterday in order to be able to take Mutwahiru to his doctor's check up this morning, so I am writing to you from a fast Internet connection! We're so excited to see how Mutwahiru's leg is doing. He seems to be doing so well, he is doing his exercises each day and gets around great at the orphanage. He and the children get along really well – of course, they already knew him as he has been at Sunday School and Saturday School for many months with us.

We have found 3 potential sites in Kabuna for one of our August camps. I have included a picture of a part of one of the sites. It's a grade school run by the Anglican church in Uganda. As you can see, some of their classrooms are outside. We took this picture as we drove by – we are always such a distraction to the village children with our white skin! We will be having a camp in Budaka and one in Kabuna, each for 100 children. The team from Sunnyside Foursquare will be running the camps and we will be facilitating their team of 10. We (Abby and I, as well as all the kids, the staff of Cornerstone, the church and the community of Budaka) are SO excited that they are coming.

The 2nd picture is of 3 of the 4 members of our computer class this past term. We had our last class on Thursday as the term ends next week and they are taking exams now. The kids are, from the left, Brenda, Natasha and Benjamin (one of the day scholars). The one not showing is Ronald. We used our 2 laptops and each got about 10 minutes per week, after the teaching time, to work on the computer. It's been great! We hope to continue. The kids who are day scholars have to pay to take the class, but they first have to have paid all their school fees, so not many have been able to participate. But, they all want to be in there SO bad. It's another (small) money-making venture for Cornerstone...and fun for Abby and I to teach together.

Thank you to all who have been praying for Oliver (she's out of the hospital and doing great now) and Rogers (has typhoid, but is able to function fairly well). Typhoid is difficult to get rid of, apparently, and he feels better, then gets muscle aches, nausea and headaches after a week of feeling well. So, we continue to pray. Thanks for praying with us. No more mumps so far, and the only medical situations at the orphanage right now are eye infections. We have 3-4 kids who get these periodically.

The restaurant bids have come in and we are working with one builder Rogers has known for several years - he has the best bid and is able to come here from western Uganda to work with us. It's great to work with someone you already trust!! Hopefully, within a week or two of the Sunnyside team being here, we will begin the restaurant building. As you know from previous emails (and my life, for those who know me better), I HATE waiting for things, so this has been a patience builder...

We are hoping to take the kids (after the school term is over) on a trip to the Nile River. It will be a one-day trip to see a different part of Uganda. The last time (and only other time...) we took them east of Budaka to Sipi Falls up at Mount Elgon. This time we will head west about 2 hours to Jinja, the city where the headwaters of the Nile are. Should be fun to tie it into their geography lessons, social studies, and Bible stories. Thanks to 2 of you who are helping to make this trip happen financially.

I so appreciate all of you and your financial support, prayer covering and email connectedness! God works all things together for our good - yours, mine and the people of Budaka! Thank you.

In His great love,

Laurie