July 30th - July...and cold?

The rainy season seems to be staying around a bit longer than usual this year. We just had a very large storm come through here in Mbale this afternoon. The winds and rain made it seem like a hurricane. And now it is quite cool. Actually, in the past week I have used a blanket at night due to the cold temps. It's down to the low 70s at night - quite a change from our normal 80s at night. I've even worn a light sweatshirt 2 days since I've been back...

We have had such a demand for bakery products that we have expanded to 4 days a week baking instead of 3. And, in addition to that extra day, Abby and I have had to do a bit more baking on Sundays. I'm sure we will figure this out soon, but the requests for banana bread and other American sweets just keep increasing. We have just added a new selling location out west of us in Kadama. Kadama is smaller than Budaka. Our night watchman has a small business there, and asked if he could take some banana bread and pumpkin cupcakes (a new big hit!) and try to sell them. He took some samples and 6 to sell. He came back 5 hours later saying he had sold all of them and wanted 20 this week! Please continue praying for us as we try to keep up with the orders. We need wisdom for what the next step is. We have several challenges: our oven is too small and inconsistent (can go from 250 to 500 without anyone turning the dial - I brought back an oven thermometer and now we have figured out why so many things were getting burnt!), keeping quality up with more hands in the making/baking, finding the least expensive ingredients at various places, etc., etc. So, we are asking the Lord what is next and would appreciate your prayers. (Ann - thanks so much for the cookie racks - the stacking has really helped with space problems in our kitchen, which is really a bedroom that is about 10'x10'.)

Our older 3 children, Brenda, Natasha and Ronald, have begun coming to the adult service on Sundays (unless they are serving in children's ministries that day). I have included 2 pictures from yesterday's church of the 3 of them. I am so proud as I look over and see them listening and digesting what the sermon means for their lives. Also, watching them worship the Lord really encourages me!

School is over for this term and we will have the results for our kids on Wednesday. The kids are excited to be on holiday. Abby is spending more time with them doing fun activities both outside and inside.

A really funny thing this past week: Abby was explaining to the kids why she can't spend as much time with them now since she is working in the bakery 3 days a week (about 6 hours each day). She asked them if they knew why we have a bakery at Cornerstone. Their response? We are making our American food to eat at our house! HA! They think I have spent the past 6 months making all those cupcakes, cakes, cookies, etc., and am eating them all. So funny!! She straightened them out and now they are telling others that the bakery items are for sale to pay for their food and clothes.

Okay, have to go for today. I love you and love working with you in the Kingdom of God...seeing to the welfare of children and adults here in Budaka, Uganda. Thank you for shouldering this responsibility with me.

Love,

Laurie

PS - no snakes this week. Yahoo!

July 23rd - Full steam ahead...

It feels like we have been back in Uganda for a month already. We have jumped right back into life here and are having a great time with the kids, the church and our many friends. Here are some highlights from this week:

• Repairing kids' clothes - 2 hours on Saturday afternoon
• Baking an extra day (Sunday afternoon this week) due to 3 new businesses. One wants 48 muffins and 20 slices of banana bread every Monday. Great to have new business! Now to adjust schedules so we can get everything baked every week.
• The chickens have stopped laying, so we have sold them off. We are pretty sure we will not continue raising chickens after 2 failed attempts. 
• No electricity for the first 3 days we were here, but now it has been almost constant since Tuesday evening. A great blessing! 
• Dealt with Ronald, who punched Isaac in the eye because Isaac wouldn't obey him. Isaac's eye is swollen, and I'm sure black (hard to tell since his skin is black ;). Had a poignant time with Ronald talking about exercising self-control - we've been teaching on the fruit of the Spirit with the kids on Wednesday nights.
• A neighbor's chicken jumped up on one of our windows and forced itself through the bars, then couldn't figure out how to get out. She was making LOTS of noise and flapping her wings, quite scared of her situation. Had to go and help her out. Pastor Rogers told me that 1) I should have had chicken for dinner, and 2) Ugandans would have run out of the house - apparently there is a belief that if a chicken flies in your window, it is bringing evil spirits. 
• Already had three new flashlights (called "torches" here) fail to work. How can that be??
• LOVING the new Kindle Touch - thanks, Tim and Cindy - reading at night is so much easier!
• Someone was throwing large rocks and bricks at the house one night after we were in bed. Sounded like they were being lobbed so as not to hit the house, but to scare us. I had the nightwatchman (Seth) come down and he looked around. As he was looking, the policeman who watches over a house down the way came by and asked if we needed help. It appears he was trying to scare us so we would again pay him for watching our house. He told Rogers we really need protection. Hmmmm....from whom? 
• One night, about 1:30am we went out to the latrine (Abby and I always go out together for protection), I went in and, as I was opening the door to go out, I noticed a snake up on the wall over my head. His head was close to mine, but apparently he was asleep. I hurried out and went in and called Rogers, who came with 3 others, all armed with large sticks. The snake got away from them, but within a half hour, Seth was able to track it down and kill it. He called to us and we went out to see that it was truly dead. It was some kind of poisonous snake (no one has or knows a name for it). Needless to say, I am quite wary to go into the latrine either during the day or the night! 
• We got to show the kids a Bible Adventure movie last night - David and Goliath. So fun to hear them cheering when Goliath was slain, and booing when David's brothers were mean to him. 
• I have included 2 pictures - one of a sunflower in our front yard, and one of our backyard with pumpkins, watermelons and eggplant growing. There are about 150 sunflower plants in the front and they have maybe 10 of the flowers set on. We will be using them to extract oil for our cooking. The produce from the backyard will be used in the children's food.

So, as you can read, life continues here unabated. Thanks to all of you who have been keeping in touch through e-mail, to you ladies from Hesperia who sent a card in the mail, to those of you who pray for us on a consistent basis, to those of you who continue to give so that this ministry stays on its feet and to those who pray for the emergencies that occur. You all help us continue in what we are called here to do. Thank you! I look forward to hearing what is happening in your lives too.

Laurie

July 16th - Greetings from Budaka!!

It is so great to be home again. I'm upside down with jet lag (just got in 2 1/2 days ago), but so excited to be here.

I got out of the van when we got here and greeted the kids - lots of screaming and excitement on both sides! - then said I had a surprise in the van. They were so excited. I opened the door, and there was Abby. The excitement got exponentially greater. It was a wonderful reunion! We then went and spent some time with the kids, and Abby settled into leading the fun games the kids love. The first picture you have is of her leading Four Corners within a couple of hours of getting here.

The second picture is our staff this morning after receiving their new shirts from KidZone Preschool in southern California...one of our sister schools. The front says "Cornerstone Uganda Ministries, Budaka" and the back says, "Touch a life, Save a nation." (Thanks to Pastor Bill for the slogan!) Susan, Lisa, and all the staff and kids at KidZone - THANK YOU for the shirts! They have been so well received. The staff is excited to send you personal notes of thanks...which you should receive in a month or so due to slow mail service between our countries.

Church was wonderful yesterday and we were received so well by our brothers and sisters here. No one knew we were coming...Rogers only told the church that they were going to have "visitors." Really fun to surprise them also.

We have many things to take care of today - there are a couple of rats in the house, so need to get a trap today; the ants seem to have invaded some of our living spaces while I was gone, so have to get bug spray; the propane tank is empty as the bakery needed to use ours, so have to go get a full one; no food in the house, so have to go to market and restock; get supplies we have brought for the school, church and orphanage kids, so will hopefully get to that tonight.

For those of you who have been praying for our safety - Rogers says things have calmed down a lot in Budaka and they have even arrested 2 people who were poisoning people, so it seems we are a bit safer than we were before. Thank you for praying. God is continuing to protect us, and I feel a bit more free to be out than I was the few weeks before I left.

We are happy to be home and I am so glad Abby is here with me.

I know I will have more to say to all of you next week, but I think I need a nap right now ;). I'll be so glad to be over jet lag in a few days!

I will be excited to hear from you...and hopefully will again have internet in Budaka. (We came back to no internet and no electricity...O, Uganda!)

Love you all!

Laurie

July 13th - We're here

Just a quick update - we made it to Uganda and are in a "hotel" for the night in Kampala. We'll leave in the morning for Budaka. Got here at almost midnight...2pm west coast time.

All is well. Thanks for praying for us!
Laurie

July 10th - Ready to go

In 48 hours we will be on a plane heading back home to Uganda. It's been so wonderful to be in the States for the last 11 weeks...

1. to catch up on your lives
2. to meet some of you for the first time 
3. to share the great things happening in Budaka at:

• 6 churches
• 5 schools
• 2 women's groups
• 2 gatherings
• 40 individual appointments

I want to welcome all of you who are new to the email list. It's so fun to share with all of you what is happening in this journey in Budaka...I'm continually amazed at the things God is doing in Budaka as all of us, both Americans and Ugandans, listen to Him and do what He asks. I'm so excited to go back and be a part of it there - and to let you know what's happening each week.

I have included 2 pictures for you. Rogers sent both of these to me last week. The first is one of 3 of our older girls. From the left they are, Sarah, Brenda 1 and Natasha. They are standing out in front of the orphanage fence opening. The second picture is the plants growing in the yard at our house. Perhaps some of you know what it is, but I think Rogers told me these are sunflowers which will be used to make oil for cooking at Cornerstone. I will send a picture when I get back as these get bigger...I'm pretty sure I'll know if they're sunflowers later ;)

I got an email from Rogers this morning that Lisa (you have a picture of her in Sunday School recently), who is about 6 years old, has tuberculosis. Please pray for her healing and that we will find the right doctors and course of action in order for her to get well. I will let you know in next week's email how everything is going.

As I told many of you, I am looking at ways to set up individual accounts for each of our kids' college education. I figured out that if we put $10 each month for each child into an account beginning this year, they will have enough for at least the first 2 years of their post-high school training or college education. If this is something you would like to do, please email me with the child's name you would like to sponsor in this, and I will work on how we can do this.

Okay, I have to go and finish getting everything together and weighed for our trip. Please pray with us as we head out - it's 28 hours on planes and in airports and then we will be met by Rogers at the airport on Friday night at 10pm in Entebbe (that is 12 noon Friday here on the west coast). I will talk with you soon...may God bless you!



Laurie

Jul 2nd - Cornerstone Update

Friends and Family -

A quick update, along with some pictures of Moses in various poses...thought you'd enjoy seeing these photos Rogers took a couple of weeks ago.

• We leave on Thursday, July 12th from Portland to head back to Uganda. Abby and I are so excited to be back with the kids, Rogers, the church and the school! 
• It's been a great time with all of you over on this side of the world. Thanks to all of you for your great love for us, your hospitality and all the gifts you have sent back with us for the work in Budaka! I feel so blessed to be a part of your lives. 
• Rogers is doing well, but is anxious for us to return.
• The children are progressing, and our kids have once again taken the top spots in their classes at school. I'm so proud of their hard work!
• When Rogers was sitting outside with a young man from the church in the evening recently, they saw a large snake coming towards them. They got safely inside and called the neighbors to come help...everyone came with clubs and they were able to kill it. It was a king cobra, over 2 meters long (6-7 feet!). So glad our Father is keeping watch over Rogers, his family and our kids at the orphanage! Please continue praying for us! 
• Johnson, one of our little boys - he's about 7 years old - has run away. Rogers met with him and his extended family members and found that Johnson was thinking life would be easier out in their remote village. (Children have no restrictions, don't go to school and are free to go anywhere during the day.) He came back to Cornerstone, only to run away again. He was brought back again, and then left the next day. So, sadly, we have had to let Johnson go. I have to believe that God has allowed us to have these 2 1/2 years with him to invest in his life and that God will continue to pursue this little boy even though he is not with us now. Please pray for him. 
• Thanks to several of you, we had a wonderful 2 weeks of vacation - one up in the woods near St. Helens and one on the Oregon coast. Such a great time of refreshing. Thank you!
• We are "staging" everything now and deciding what will come with us now and what will come with the next team who is coming in October from Evergreen. So fun to go through all the baby clothes, gifts for the kids and Rogers' family, books for the school, Bibles for the church, etc., etc. Wow, you guys are generous!! Thank you. 

Well, did say this would be quick and now it has gotten long...hope you made it all the way through. Have a great day!

Laurie