Oct 25th Update

Greetings, Friends!
It's turned out to be quite a cool day in Budaka...and now Mbale while I am here. The World Race Team that is with us were all in jackets this morning! Rogers said he is afraid his skin will lighten with all the cool weather lately. For me, I just figure the Lord is getting me acclimated to being in Oregon in a few weeks :-).
I have included a very short video of Charles, one of our twins. I am videoing each child so you can see them and know them. But, I can only send very short videos through email. More on how you can see the rest later in this email.

I have also included a picture taken from the front porch of our house on Tuesday. We had a rain storm that was amazing in intensity. We had about 7 inches of rain in an hour. The pictures is what was the road in front of our house. It became a river, flowing across and down. Rogers said it is the most rain he has ever seen at once in his lifetime. It was awesome...and, I'll admit, a bit scary as I was the only adult home and wasn't quite sure what I would do if it continued. The water was about an inch from going over the back step and into the back door.
We have tried to get some rest this week as the week before was quite taxing (from the crusades). I got away for 2 nights and it was a blessed rest - thanks to BAMM! Thanks, BAMMers.
The kids are doing well. Moses is totally well now from the TB, and smiles and laughs frequently. Saturday he was doing the Hokey Pokey with us...well, in Auntie Rachel's arms. We bought him a pair of shoes last week...his first. He is so happy in those shoes - and it really helps him to be able to stand. His feet are quite small.
The World Race Team took the kids each day last week around Budaka and cleaned up garbage in their path. It was wonderful for the children (in small groups with 2 Muzungu - white people) and the town got cleaned up, at least a bit. This week the WRT is taking each child out individually to go have a soda at the Inn. They will be so excited - we are leaving it a surprise...if you want to read some of their experiences here, go to www.theworldrace.org and put in one of these names (Anna Matthews, Chad Riley, Tyler Samuelson, Mary Hollis, Kirsten George, Lili Mejia, and Kris Tippett) in the Search window. You will be able to read the blogs and see their pictures from here. It is great to see from their perspective what is happening here.
Last week I promised to tell you more about the purchase of land. Rogers talked with the owners in the midst of the week of crusades and they wanted the transaction to happen on Saturday. Everything is done in cash here in the villages - I think they accept checks in Kampala, but not here. People don't trust it unless it is cash. So, we had to go to Mbale (no banks in Budaka) and withdraw Shs30,000,000=/. The largest bill you can get here is a Shs50,000=/ note. For all you non-mathematicians, that means we had 600 pieces of currency. We took a backpack to put them in. I felt SO vulnerable till we got back to the safety of our house in Budaka! The average income in Uganda is about Shs1,000,000=/ per year. So, this money represents 30 years of income - a tidy sum for anyone who wanted to rob us!
When we got back, Rogers went and met with the owners, along with 4 witnesses, the Local Council chairman, and they talked, wrote a contract (on notebook paper), all signed it and Cornerstone owns 1 1/2 acres of land! Last week, then, we had a surveyor come and set the exact landmarkers, the first step in getting a land title from the govt. After that, we will have a professional draw a site plan for us and we will begin constructing the children's homes.
Thanks so much for those of you who have taken the $1,000 challenge - that is how we are able to buy and begin the building process! May the Lord continue to bless you as you have blessed these children, the staff, and me! God is at work...and the best is yet to come! (For those who have taken the challenge, but have not yet sent in the $, please feel free to continue sending it in via Evergreen Christian Center, 4400 NW Glencoe Rd., Hillsboro, OR 97124.)
Also wanted to thank all of you who give monthly to the continuing work of feeding, housing and clothing the children. The gifts you send each month are meeting our needs. Thank you for responding to the Lord. The children's well being is a testament to what a fairly small group of people can do for those in great need in Uganda. THANK YOU!
I would love to get to be with each of you when I come home. As some of you know, I will be coming home the week before Thanksgiving and staying until the end of March due to the political situation here - can explain more when I am there. I am planing to be in Oregon, Washington, California, and hope to also get to Texas and Idaho during my time. Please let me know when would be a good time to visit and I will try to accommodate you. There is so much to share that can't be said in an email each week.
In the meantime, while I am there, Rogers will continue to run the whole Cornerstone operation with just a couple of phone calls a week from me to encourage, support and give supplemental direction as needed.

Looks like the video is not attaching - sorry about that. Will have it with me when I come home.
Love you all! thanks again for your participation in the Gospel here in Uganda.

Laurie

Oct 18th Update

If all goes as planned, this will come to you as the Monday update...not Tuesday, Thursday, or whenever!
The first picture I am sending is all our boys (including Moses, in Rogers' arms) in their new outfits, compliments of a dear sister in Hillsboro who made all the shorts and bought matching t-shirts for them. The boys were SO excited to get new clothes! And from "Mama Ann" in America. Thank you, Ann! They all wore their new clothes to church on Sunday. The girls were sad, even though we reminded them that they got new dresses from Mama Ann a couple of months ago and the boys didn't get anything. Children are the same the world over, eh?

The second picture is of Hope, Rogers and Betty's daughter, who is 8 months old. She is eating a mango - as you can probably tell, she loves them! She didn't eat the whole thing (after all, she is only 8 months old!), but she was really enjoying it. She also has just learned to wave, so as I took several pictures of the mango and her, she thought she should wave to me, I guess. Consider it a wave from Uganda to you!
Final report from the 5-day crusade: it was tremendously blessed by the Lord! We had over 2,000 in attendance over the week, almost 300 people were saved either in door-to-door evangelism during the day or at the crusades, and many were healed (sorry, didn't keep the #s). Yesterday at church, a woman got up to share that she was healed on Friday night. I know there are many stories like that that we will only hear in Heaven. Thanks to all of you who have been praying and who have supported the ministry so that we could do this crusade. A couple of stories:

• the top witch doctor in Kaderuna was saved at that crusade. This is a tremendous miracle as his livelihood is from being a witch doctor...all of his life has been wrapped up in putting curses on people, bewitching people and giving out charms for "protection." Please pray for him as God begins changing his life and he becomes a significant member of the Kingdom of God!
• a Muslim man was instantly healed of chronic back pain and then gave his life to the Lord. He got up and testified at the end of the crusade. He wanted to tell everyone that God heals and loves them.

We had much opposition from the enemy, as you might guess. On 2 different evenings, we were told we couldn't stand up and speak in that area. We had 2 churches in 2 different villages stand up to us and tell us we were not allowed to preach that evening. One of them even tore down our stage and it had to be rebuilt with only about an hour to go before the service was to start. One church even got on the local radio and warned people not to come to the crusade. That night we had 600 people! This is the rainy season in eastern Uganda and people had told us not to have a crusade this week, but I am happy to report that we had a short, light sprinkle one night and then one heavy downpour on Friday night for about 10 minutes, then all was fine...and everyone stayed and listened anyway. The usual 2-3 hour heavy rains came only right after we got in from door-to-door or after we were done in the evenings. God was definitely in control!
On one of the nights, 68 people got saved. It was so overwhelming! One woman got saved that night, then fell under the power of the Holy Spirit. Everyone was fairly quiet at the time, and the thud was really loud. She is fine, but was so touched with the life of God.We had a great day yesterday at church rejoicing about what God has done. I hope that all of you will also rejoice as you have most definitely been a part of this by praying, giving and encouraging us. Thank you for your participating in the Gospel.
Okay, this has become another long email. Sorry - I really do try to be shorter, but there is so much.
I love you all and am excited to be back in the States and see you face to face in little over a month. Well, some of you I won't get to see face to face...or you never know, maybe I will :-).
Oh, yes, one last thing - perhaps I will write more about it next week - we bought land on Saturday!!! We bought 4 plots, which is about 1 1/2 acres to begin with. It's near the main road in Budaka and...okay, gotta go, but will tell you more about it later. Thanks again to all of you who have taken the $1,000 challenge. You have made this purchase possible! Any of the rest of you who still want to take the challenge, please feel free as now we want to begin construction of 2 orphanage houses - one for girls and one for boys.
Love you so much!!
Laurie

Oct 15th Update

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Good afternoon, Everyone!
Sorry the email is late this week, but I will explain.

First, though, as Abby wrote to you, we had a Saturday School this past Saturday to which we invite unsaved children from Budaka. We have had right around 200 at the first 2 of these (they happen once a month). This time we had 290 kids come. The picture shows about 1/3 of the kids that were there. It was overwhelming on many levels. We actually had bought enough snacks for 300, so that was okay. But so many of these kids have responsibility for their baby and toddler-aged siblings, so they bring them. We had probably 15-20 very young children. One urinated up in the front just as we were beginning. Then an older boy got sick and threw up right at the climax of the story about the loaves and fishes. Not very appetizing. He also was right up front. The other kids didn't care - just wanted me to complete the story! But, we got it cleaned up and went on to finish the story and the time. One great thing is that over 1/2 of them remembered the verse we memorized last month. Always makes me happy!

In the picture, you can see a part of the World Race Team preparing the cookies and juice to be given to the kids at the end of Saturday School. As you look at the picture, please remember to pray for these children. God is touching their hearts with His love and goodness.

2nd thing I wanted to share is that we are just past 1/2 way through a 5-day crusade in Budaka and 3 villages around, so I was not able to get to Mbale to send you an email on Monday. But, both Rogers and I wanted to get to Mbale today and at least get a short note out to you. I have attached one picture from the crusade that happened in Kabuna, Rogers' home village. The picture is of the stage that they built for the crusade. Those are the stairs to get up to it. It takes faith just to get up to preach!!

The great news from the crusades is on the first night in Budaka, we had about 250 people and 45 got saved. The second night we were in Kabuna and we had approximately 350 people (in a small village!) and 58 were saved. Then, last night we were in Naboa and there were more than 500 there and 68 people were saved. God has been amazing. (I have to find another word than amazing - I keep using it and it feels so small compared to what He is doing!!) I preached on Tuesday and Wednesday. Rogers will preach tonight in Kaderuna. We brought in speakers for Monday and Friday. We also have a Gospel singer that is well known singing each evening. I will let you know more on Monday about how everything goes. The World Race Team goes out each day with an interpreter and people from the village to share one-on-one in homes and shops of the area we will have the crusade at that night. So, when we get to the crusade, already there have been 10-20 people saved during the day. The total number saved so far is right at 200...in 3 days. Everyone keeps saying to us, "Budaka [the district, not just the town] has never had a crusade like this!" What they mean is that any crusade that has happened has been from one church wanting to increase its size. But this is Cornerstone getting all the churches involved in whatever area, and telling people to go to any church in the area. We know that some of those who got saved will be coming this week to Cornerstone, but we are literally unable to fit them in the room we have church in. So, we have just decided to put chairs outside in the courtyard so there is a place for everyone to sit. Then, if necessary, in the weeks following, we will go to 2 services. Please pray for wisdom and help in pastoring these people!

One other quick thing - on the way here today there was a snake dead on the road - it looked to have been about 7' long! It was black and silver...a black mamba?? AAAAACCCCKKKK!
OK, I will be all right. I'm settled back down.

Love you all, and will talk with you again on Monday.
Thank you so much for praying!!

God bless you.
Laurie

Oct 12th Update

Hello everyone!
My name is Abby and I am Laurie Dickerson's daughter. As Laurie wasn't
able to email an update on Cornerstone yesterday, she asked me to send
an email letting you know everything is alright and that she will be sending
the normal email next Monday, October 18th. A couple things she wanted
you to know:

-This past weekend, Cornerstone hosted the monthly Saturday School
(open to the community around Budaka) and 290 children attended! It
was a great time and a team of Americans from the World Race (Laurie
will talk more about this missions team next week) was there to
participate and support the event. More details to come!
-The church had a total of 87 kids (plus 5 teachers) and 77 adults= 169
in attendance on Sunday! Church was wonderfully busy :)

Thank you for being a part of Cornerstone. And always feel free to reply to
my mom- she often tells me how she loves getting your emails!!
-Abby

Oct 4th update

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It's a great day in Mbale - well, actually it is a bit humid and hot, but it's not pouring rain or anything like that right now. It was a good weekend. I was away for a short break Friday night and then back Saturday afternoon. Church was full of the life of God yesterday.
I taught the new believers class (or, as Rogers calls it, the 1st service) on finances - how use them wisely, and Rogers taught in church ("2nd service"). We had 63 adults in adult church and 84 kids plus 2 teachers in kids' church. One teacher who came for the first time last week, brought 20 of his students with him so they could enjoy our Sunday School. We are the only church in town that has a separate time for kids during church. I admire our teachers, who took these 84 kids (that's a 1:42 ratio!) in a small room for 3 hours! They are heroes. And, everyone had a good time.
The first picture is of our kids when they got an ice cream party, thanks to the kids at ECC. They totally LOVED it - some have never had ice cream before. Some wanted to save it to eat later. Others, when I handed them their ice cream cup yelped and dropped it - they have never felt anything so cold and it scared them!
The 2nd picture is of a tree in Mbale. It looks like a cactus at the top, but the bottom looks like the trunk of any 'ol tree (sorry, all you arborists, for my ignorance!). I would like to know what it is - anyone know? Last time I sent a question like this, several of you knew and let me know. Thanks.
The World Race Team arrives today in about 2 hours. The children are really excited to have visitors...as are the staff, the church, and of course ME. Americans - wow, what will it be like to speak English quickly and have everyone understand?? To talk about Starbucks, Oregon, Foursquare...and have people know what I'm talking about. Ah, the joy...
This Saturday is Saturday School. Please pray that many children will come to hear the Good News of the Kingdom of God. And that I can find games to play that can be played by 200+ children ;-).
Sure love you all. Thank you for continuing to pray for us. God is working here...and right where you live. I pray for His kingdom to come in your life even as you read this. God bless you.
Laurie