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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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