Sept 16th Update

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

My Friends:

The internet was working fine when I began on Monday, and then, when I hit the send button I noticed that the whole thing was down. So, here I am again in Mbale, writing to you. So sorry you missed your Monday morning Uganda news :-). Here's what I wrote (so glad I copied and saved it!!):


Greetings from wet Uganda. I don't think this is really a hot part of the world! I was so cold last night, I even used a blanket (but then I got too hot and turned on my fan - HA!).
Beginning with yesterday:
We had 70 children and 69 adults at church and we had our first guest speaker, Pastor Stephen. For those of you who came over last year to Kiwangala on the team, you met Pastor Stephen. He was the one who fixed the drain when we poured porridge down it :-). He is from Masaka and is pastor of a church in one of the villages near Kiwangala. He is also a builder, so today Rogers and I met with him to talk about the potentials of building the new orphanage and school. It was a good time of fellowship and work. He will call us in a couple of days to let us know what to expect cost-wise with the buildings.
The 1st picture is of our staff (minus Teacher Loy) with their new t-shirts on that the kids at ECC made for them. Thanks, all you wonderful kids! The kids also wrote letters to each of the staff members, and a letter, a picture and a name sign for each child. Everyone was so jazzed!
The 2nd picture (f it comes through...difficulty again today with the internet - sound familiar yet?) is of Teachers Loy (left) and Dennis (right) teaching Sunday School. They have from 1 year olds through 14 years old together in a way-too-small room, but the only other place we can have anyone. Hopefully we will build the large hall for the school near the beginning and be able to meet there with adults, with kids in classrooms of the school. I have a meeting with our 12 Sunday School volunteers next Sunday to talk about how the past 6 weeks went and what we can do. Oh, did I tell you that there are 2 outlets in the room that have live wires sticking out...so we have to sit the children in strategic places so they won't get fried while we talk about Jesus. So far, so good.
Last Wednesday we had a meeting with pastors from the villages where we will be holding crusades in October. We treated them to lunch and told them the plans we felt the Lord had given and that Cornerstone was here to serve them. They were so touched and excited and said they have been waiting for this - that the Kingdom of God should be being built instead of each pastor's personal kingdom. Amen! It will be great to work with them.
On Tuesday, a woman from the church asked us to come pray for her daughter. We went and prayed, but also found that she had prepared lunch for us. We politely (I guess...I don't understand Lugwele!) told her that we could not stay, but culturally we needed to. She had prepared meat and rice and had a soda for both of us (Rogers and I). This represents a week's pay for this woman. Rogers instructed me (as had Abby before I came) to just eat some and leave the rest (including the soda) and the children and adults would eat what was left when we were gone. I can't tell you how humbling this is...and how much I wanted to refuse and give them back their food. But, again, culturally that would have been so bad! Instead, we later made sure she got some $ surreptitiously (look that one up, BAMMers!).
Okay, looks like pictures are not going to come. Just imagine those teachers and staff. LOL!
We have secured a house to begin our poultry farming. More about that next week...maybe even a picture, it all is working!

Thank you all for reading and writing back. So fun to communicate with you.
Our deep thanks to all of you who give monthly to meet the costs of Cornerstone Uganda Ministries. You touch our hearts with your generosity.
Thanks to you challenge-takers. Each $1,000 that comes in is another set of bricks and mortar for the buildings...or a piece of land...or some beams...or bags of cement. THANK YOU!
See you all (hopefully - depends on where you live!) in a couple of months!
God bless you.
Laurie