Jan 14th - Leavin' on a jet plane

We have only two more days here at Cornerstone before heading home to see many of you, to rest a bit (with running water and electricity - a real plus!) We are so excited to be back in America, but also so sad to be leaving these kids, Pastor Rogers and his family and our staff. For me, it's hard to leave the bakery and our new employees there.

We just passed our 3-year anniversary in Budaka. I have been so privileged to be a part of what God is doing here in Budaka. What an amazing journey we have been on. And, as we go forward from here, we know He will continue to do His work among us.

This past week:

Bicycle Training

Abby continues to take the 29 out to learn to ride the bicycle. A few have really gotten the balance thing - you have a picture of Ronald, one of our oldest boys, who is doing really well. They LOVE the bike.

New "Mom"

Angela, a young woman from a church in Mbale, has come to join our team as our girls' caretaker. She arrived yesterday and will take over day-to-day duties as a mom to our kids. I have included a picture of Angela as she interacts with our kids. She is talking to Beatrice with many of our kids looking on.

We have moved Monicah up to overseeing the children's programs (devotions 3 nights a week, allowance, surprises, bike riding times, Sunday School, etc.), as well as managing the bakery. She has been doing the kids' programs alongside Abby for the past year-and-a-half and began learning the baking back in February of 2012. She became the bakery manager on January 1 and goes to Mbale 3-4 days a week to oversee and teach Gerald to bake.

Church

We arrived at the church building on Sunday morning to find a dead chicken on the doorstep and its blood sprinkled around on the floor of the church. This is a part of the local witchcraft and is supposed to be a way of causing us to fail, to die or both. It was a great opportunity to teach our people about the power of God (1 John 4:4) and that the blood of chickens has no power in their lives. Nor do spells or charms from witchdoctors. We had a powerful Sunday morning in the presence of God.

It reminds us that not everyone is happy with God's work at Cornerstone. We have had many instances of resistance to the Kingdom of God and to our presence here over the past 3 years, but continue to see God working through us to touch this community with His love.

Kids' Home

Our kids' home is on schedule to be completed today or tomorrow. The latest part of the building project is to make a barrier against nefarious characters getting in to harm our children. You have a picture of it - broken soda bottles cemented into the top of the wall around the bathing area. Newfangled security systems not needed here ;).

I am bringing pictures of their new home to show you...and hopefully will have pictures of them moving in. They are SO excited, but don't know yet that they will be moving in very soon.

Okay, gotta get ready to head to Mbale - last day to go and help in the bakery. Then, back to Budaka to a party to say goodbye. Tonight and tomorrow will be tearful times for all of us. Thanks for praying and encouraging us in this time. I will see you all very soon. (By the way, you Oregon/Washington people, can you heat it up a little there?? It's 80 degrees here in my room at 6:45am. I think it will be a bit cool for us. Try thinking warm thoughts...)

Laurie

Jan 7th - Tuesday morning

Time seems to be moving too quickly right now! We will be leaving for the States in only 9 days and I feel like I can't get enough hugs and kid time. The kids don't know yet we are leaving (we will tell them on Thursday so they have a week to process). I so look forward to seeing all of you, Friends and Family, to getting some rest, a pedicure, a haircut, to experience running water, electricity all the time (none here right now as I write), smooth roads with "normal" traffic. But even with all those things to look forward to, it is so hard to leave! So, let me move on for now to what great things have been happening here:

Cornerstone Children's Home

The kids' very own house is almost done. It looks like they will move in on Saturday or Sunday. Thanks to Erika and Jamie who felt the Lord ask them to send some money to complete the house...and to all of you who have faithfully given each month...have given for special occasions...have bought calendars...have prayed for God to provide for these children. The structure is a simple brick building with 2 sides and latrines and bathing rooms at the end. We will improve it as we have the funds (like rain gutters for water reclamation, roofs over the bathing areas, veranda around the building for the kids to sit on, etc.), but it is very inhabitable and went up in just over a month! God is loving on these kids through all of you. They can't believe they are getting such a great house to live in. They keep saying, "this is for us?" Very cool. Thank you, Lord...and thanks to all of you whom He has used to make this a reality! I sent 2 pictures so you get some idea of what it is looking like. The first is the inside of the girls' side as it was being worked on. The 2nd picture is of the windows that are being put in - they have to be quite strong with bars to keep out intruders. We will be putting glass in them as we get closer to moving in.

Picnic with the Kids

We had a great day on Friday at the Compassion Children's grounds with all of our kids for their first-ever picnic. They have eaten food away from home on trips, but never just to go and play, eat and play some more. It was a really fun, hot day. One of the bonuses for the kids: a slide that Compassion has for their kids. I have included a picture. This was the first time for all our kids to ever be on a slide. The kids kept saying (about the slide) things like, "This is enjoyable," "This is incredible," "Wow. Delicious!". Where are they getting these words?? Well, we did just watch "The Incredibles" with them, and they do know we describe foods we like as delicious... There are more pictures on fb of our day at Cornerstone Uganda Ministries.

Christmas with Kids

I know I told you about the Christmas we did with the kids, but wanted to add one great line from Oliver, one of our girls who is about 7 years old. She is in the far left of the group picture I have sent. It was actually New Year's Eve when the girls came, so I said, "Today is New Year's Eve. What does that make tomorrow?" No one answered...they were all in thought...when Oliver spoke up. "New Year's Adam?"

Bakery

Grand total income for the month of December (we were open 21 days in December): shs1,300,000. It took 5 months to make that much last year! It's over 10% of what is needed to run the entire ministry for a month. We are off to a great start for January, too!

We have a manager (Monicah) and our 2 new employees are doing well. People with bakeries in town are trying to get our recipes because people are running to Cornerstone now for their bakery needs. (In case you couldn't figure it out - we don't share our recipes...) So, big thanks to all of you who have given, prayed and encouraged us in this endeavor of becoming self-supporting. Thanks to Joel and Heather for the gift towards a new larger oven, as well as Eliza and ASB for their fund raising for the same thing.

In the States

Abby and I will be coming your way in Feb/Mar. Just let me know if you are available for coffee, a visit, etc. I will put together an itinerary when I have heard from all of you. So far, for sure we will be in Burley, Austin, Fremont, Hillsboro and southern California. Excited to update you on what is happening here, our progress on becoming self-supporting, how our kids are doing (pics and videos!), etc., etc.

We will again be bringing crafts made by the women in Masaka and one of the young women in our church. We buy from them, giving them funds needed for their families and schooling, and then we sell them to help support the ministry here.

Okay, so much more to say, but I need to go and get hugs from the kids - treasuring those moments right now. Thank you again for your participation in what is happening in Budaka. I'm so excited to see all (I hope!) of you in only a few weeks.

Laurie

Dec 26th - : It's Boxing Day

Happy Boxing Day! Here in Uganda it is a day to go and meet friends and party. "Christmas is for family and Boxing Day for friends," was how it was explained to me. What I know: stores are not open on Boxing Day. We tried to go shopping to get the kids some small Christmas presents today, but all the shops were closed. Abby and I are celebrating by spending the night at a hotel in Mbale ("Mt. Elgon" for those of you who have been here before). This also gives us a rest before the kids come back and the bakery begins going strong again. (Bakery is closed for 3 days - we open again on Friday.)

The kids come home to Cornerstone tomorrow, and we have promised them an "American" Christmas. We will have 1/2 the kids all down one night to spend the night with a spaghetti dinner and cinnamon rolls for breakfast. When they wake up in the morning, there will be gifts for each one. The next night we will repeat with the other 1/2...girls one night, boys the other. We are buying small containers for each child. They will get a toy, some candy and a package of cookies in the container. The container will be one they can keep treasures in in their rooms. (Pictures will be forthcoming.)

Bakery

Christmas Eve was an amazing day for the bakery: we ran out of all baked goods at about 1pm and had to start baking again. We had trouble keeping up with the demand, and when we ended the day, we had 2 cinnamon rolls and 15 Cornerstone Shortbread cookies left. We could have sold at least 10 Merry Christmas cakes if we had baked them...one person even suggested we go in and bake her a cake right then ("It only takes an hour to bake a cake. Please!!") We had made and sold 6 cakes and next year will remember to make many more which obviously will sell on Christmas Eve!

Abby had a great idea of putting together gift packages of our baked goods (see the picture of them on the table on the sidewalk outside the bakery). We hired Grace, one of the young women from Cornerstone Christian Centre, and she stood during the day and sold the gifts. They were shs2,000 and shs4,000 (75 cents and $1.50). They sold, but the best part was that it brought many customers into the bakery who got to know about Cornerstone...and bought us out of everything we had!

A new group of Peace Corps workers found out about us and came and waited 30 minutes till the cinnamon rolls were finished (but still warm!) in the afternoon. One of them, a young man from New York, said, "Laurie, can I give you a hug?? This is the best food I've had in 6 weeks!!" and he proceeded to hug me and thank me for having American food for him in Uganda.

So, Christmas Eve became our highest sales day to date. We were exhausted when we finally got back to Budaka about 9pm, but it was a wonderful feeling of having blessed so many with goodies from our bakery.

We've been told that New Year's Eve is also a big sales day, so we will bake several cakes ahead this Friday and Saturday to be ready for that day.

One funny thing in the midst of the busyness: I was teaching Gerald (our new bakery employee) to frost and decorate cakes. I would do one, then oversee him doing one. I did the "Congratulations Namale" because I the word congratulations is misspelled so many times here in Uganda. I left only one cake for him to finish when I went out for a couple of hours - it was the cake I bought for Rogers' family for our Christmas dinner. I knew "Merry Christmas" was easy and we had done 2 together already. So, when I got back, Gerald had left to go home and I opened the refrigerator to find our Christmas cake as you see it in the picture. Can you spot the mistake? Abby and I couldn't stop laughing...at least it was for us.


So, all is well here - we had a wonderful Christmas morning service at church (pics are on fb at Cornerstone Uganda Ministries).

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas...and are resting during this great season. Thank you to all who have sent us Christmas greetings by email and on facebook...and even 2 Christmas cards by mail.

I leave you with one last picture - Hope (Rogers' youngest child) and our Moses sharing a laugh during pictures after the service. Enjoy!

Laurie

Dec 18th - One week to Christmas!

As I sit here in Mbale (5-6 days a week now with the bakery work!), it's somewhere near 85 degrees and raining...just doesn't feel like Christmas time at "home." But, the calendar isn't lying...one more week. I hope you are all getting prepared to celebrate the birth of our Savior! We will celebrate at church on Sunday and Tuesday, and have a fun "Boxing Day," a big holiday here on the 26th with lots of dancing, singing, games and fun.

Here are some things going on at Cornerstone:

• 2 of our girls got to go swimming by saving their allowance each week till they had shs10,000. Pretty impressive since they get only shs1,000 each week and of that they set aside shs100 for church, and then have all kinds of little things they can buy from the allowance "store." The 2 girls this week were Margret (about 5) and Christine (about 7). One picture is of Monicah (the mom of our girls) and the 2 girls in the pool. By the way, this was Monicah's second time in a swimming pool, the first being about 3 weeks ago! The other picture is of the playground next to the pool. I asked Margret to smile while Abby was helping her on the teeter totter. She's quite a ham! 
• The bakery is still doing very well. Gerald is doing well learning the baking end, and he's doing really well at customer service (not a concept used by the Ugandans in their shops). We hired a 2nd employee yesterday, Jeniffer, who will work just the evenings. Gerald has been working 7:30am-9:30pm Monday-Saturday for 3 weeks, so will be glad to get to leave at 4:30 every day. Jeniffer has her certificate (a 2-year program) in accounting, so brings a whole different perspective to the business. I am still at the bakery every day (well, I took one day off last week), but anticipate within 2 weeks or so to be able to cut back to only 3 days a week. We have just had 2 other businesses come and ask us to make things for them. One is a restaurant in Mbale that wants us to make hamburger buns and rolls for their soups. Another store owner came and said he is starting a coffee shop and would like us to supply the baked goods for it. I haven't figured out yet if we will be able to do those and keep up with our customers, but it's so exciting to have people tasting our things and asking for more of our products!! So glad, Mom, that you taught me to bake!!! 
• The kids are going "home" to their clans/extended families tomorrow and this time will be gone for a week. They love to go and have their clan's Christmas traditions. When they return, we will have Christmas with them with a special meal and lots of fun and games (thanks to Abby's planning!). We even want to give them a little taste of an American Christmas and will be buying each one a small gift (gifts are not exchanged here for Christmas.) 
• We have been praying about sending "the 4" (Natasha, Vanessa, Isaac and Moses) somewhere so they also get this cultural experience, and someone from the church came last week and asked to take them when the other kids go home. This is SO huge - most Ugandans would not include anyone who is not of their tribe, their clan and their family. We're so excited that God has provided a place for the 4 to have Christmas with a family out in the village. (The 4 don't have any extended family still alive that we can find, so they normally stay and hang out at Pastor Rogers' and/or our house. The other children all are at their extended family huts deep in the villages.) 
• They have just poured the concrete "ring beam" for the kids' new home and it will set for 2 days, then they will put another couple of rows of bricks and the roof on that. Chuck, Nick, James and Seth - I was thinking about you guys when you were here last January mixing the cement, wheelbarrows, etc. This, of course, is a much smaller project, but was remembering all your hard work down at the other site. It is truly amazing what God is doing as we have now the kids' home and the school buildings which are all on their way to being completed for our orphans, and for the children of this community. Thanks to all of you who have made all of this possible with your monetary gifts.
• Don't know about you, but when I look back at this past 3 years I am amazed at what all of us, hand-in-hand with God, have been able to establish in this community of Budaka. Wow! Thank you for all that you do to see that these kids have clothes, shoes, food, schooling, buildings to meet in, buildings to live in, a hope for the future...I know in Heaven we will get to talk and share with those who have been touched by your generosity in time, resources, prayer, etc. Thanks for your faithfulness. 

Okay, need to get back to work...the bakery awaits! Love you all!

Laurie

BTW - we (Abby and I) will be returning to the States mid-January. I am putting together a schedule for being with all of you. Let me know of times that are good for you. I am hoping to be in Texas (Austin), southern and northern California, various Oregon and Washington locations, and Idaho. It will be Feb/Mar when I will travel...Abby may join me for some of the time also.

Dec 10th - Tuesday morning update

Good morning, friends!

It's a cool morning...here in the hotel in Mbale. There's an air conditioner that gives a bit of cool air. I think it was meant for a room about 1/2 this size, but at least it keeps it from being overly hot in here ;).

Cornerstone Bakery

I am going back and forth to the new bakery so much this week that we decided it was best if I stayed in Mbale for a few days. We are training our new employees to bake. Last week they sold what we had baked and brought from Budaka. On Sunday we moved all the equipment here to the new shop. By the end of the day yesterday, people were coming wondering what the great smell was. Bingo! That was one of the targets. (The smell was cinnamon rolls and banana bread baking...).

The day began with the realization that the oven was not working - something in the move jostled parts loose. So, after 1) sending Gerald to get a new canister of propane (on a motorcycle taxi), 2) sending Gerald back to have the hose checked, 3) sending Gerald back to have the regulator checked and 4) sending Abby to the shop where we bought the oven to get the right people to work on it, we had 2 repairmen for a couple of hours in the back of the bakery trying to find the problem. Finally, we began baking around 1pm. All the dough and batter was in the refrigerator since we had already begun the process.

Oh, and the electrician was there for 4 hours putting in 2 new outlets for us (there was only one, which was at the farthest place possible from the baking area...). So, we mixed, kneaded and baked amid 3 workmen, 2 employees and Abby and I. It was quite comical. But, in the midst of all of it, we had customers coming and buying our goods. So cool.

I awoke at 3:30 am this morning and realized we had never put the cinnamon in the cinnamon rolls! Oops. I guess we'll call them sweet rolls...

Cornerstone Children's Home

So excited to tell you that the Lord opened a door for us to be able to build our kids a home that will not be with the new school. I have sent a picture so you can see the beginnings. It's too long a story to tell you in an email, but let me summarize:

1. The building we are building that you have seen pictures of is ultimately going to be a school building, but because of land and money issues, we had decided to have our kids get 2 of the school rooms as their home until we could buy more land and build them a home some distance from the school.
2. Enter one of Rogers' younger brothers who is selling us the plot of land we currently use as a playground and kitchen. 
3. A couple in the States felt the leading to send us some money to get our kids into their own home. (We assumed we would just work on the one we are building for the school, but realized that even when we put this money towards that building, we would still have some ways to go before the kids could be there.)
4. As we were praying, talking, considering this dilemma, the Lord showed us this amazing solution: we could build our kids a simple home at their current playground with the money we have...and it will be done around the first of the year.

The builders dug the foundation yesterday and are laying the first bricks today.

The kids are SO excited to have their own place. And, I am thrilled - one of the things I felt the Lord showed me earlier this year was that the kids home would be completed by the end of the year. Didn't see how that could happen, but now we are seeing it unfold. Thank you to all of you who pray, encourage and give to Cornerstone - you have been used by God to see that these orphans have a home of their own.

Okay, got to get to the bakery! Pray that I remember all the ingredients today! Oh, and I added a picture "for free" for you - this is Vanessa and Lisa right outside the bakery 2 weeks ago as we were prepping the room. They were on their way to swimming with Teacher Abby. Just thought you'd enjoy seeing 2 of the great kids God has given us.

Love you all!

Laurie

Dec 7th - Good problems to have

Cornerstone Bakery continues to amaze us. In 3 days, we have made 1/2 of what we averaged in a month before. It's great, it's wonderful, and now we have to figure out how to keep up. Abby and I began baking this morning at 6:30, baked for 5 hours, brought the product to the bakery in Mbale and now are taking our day (hours?) off.

We hope to move the baking operation to Mbale on Monday. Then, I will train Gerald in the baking for 3 days and see where we're at at that time. I will stay in Mbale at the hotel during those days (running water!!), so I won't have to do the back and forth to Budaka. Hopefully, then I will only have to come back 2-3 times a week. Dreaming of getting to spend time with the kids again...

Love you all! Thank you for your encouragement and support through this new transition in Cornerstone Uganda Ministries. We are looking at buying a larger stove so we can be more efficient. (Thanks to those of you who have seen this need coming and have already asked if you can help with it. I will be contacting you.)

I'm off to (hopefully) get a massage before going back to Budaka. Talk with you soon.

Laurie

Dec 5th Wow...wow

Another amazing day - new customers, just slightly less in sales than the first day, new products introduced (and sold out), employees doing well, etc.!

Here's a picture of Rogers and Gerald (our new employee) before we opened the doors on the first day. I have posted other pictures on fb at Cornerstone Uganda Ministries.

Just wanted to let you know things are going well - gotta go bake more - it's almost 7am here. Bake, then off to Mbale with the products.

Love you all! Thanks for praying.
Laurie