December 9

Greetings, Friends!
It is rainy and cold here in Oregon. I'm finding it is nice to feel cold, remembering how hot it will be upon my return to Uganda.
Everyone is doing well in Uganda. There were a couple of cases of malaria last week among the children, but they are well now.
The first picture is from last Thursday. Rogers is holding Moses (don't you love the 2 different colors of socks?!). Moses loves it when Pastor Rogers or I come over. He reaches for us and wants to be held. When you think this little boy had no mommy time and never knew his daddy, you can understand why he wants the attention of a man or woman in his life. Rachel, his "mother" at the orphanage, has other children to attend to also, so he doesn't get so much individual time. Several of you who have seen the videos of Moses bathing and standing up, have said you just want to go hold him...or you want to adopt him. He is a special boy.
That reminds me that thanks to Carlos, we have videos on the blog website. I will post more of them so you can hear our kids and see them playing. There will be one there of all of them playing the hokey pokey. They love it - the hokey pokey, not the video :-)
Saturday School was last Saturday, the 4th, and I have included a picture that Rogers sent me. He is telling the Bible story in this picture. There were 248 children from the community. Some come from villages that are 2-3 miles away. They love to come and play, be with other children and, of course, get a snack at the end. Rogers told the Christmas story and the good news that Jesus was sent as a baby for all of us.
The architect has sent the first drawings via email and we are working on getting those finalized to be able to present to the local government for approval. Please continue to pray that all will go smoothly with all of this and the powers that be will let us move on to building soon.
Thanks to all of you who regularly give to this ministry! God is using you and me, Rogers and the staff, to change these children's lives and the lives of the people of Budaka.
Thanks to those of you that have taken up the call to pray for Budaka and Cornerstone. Our Father is answering and giving us wisdom to proceed.
Thanks, too, to the 3 new families who took the $1,000 challenge to raise money for the land and buildings in Budaka so we can take more children and begin a school for our kids and the community. God bless you!
My schedule of travel is this: I will be in California (the Bay Area for now) Jan 13-29 and Texas (Austin) Jan 29-Feb 3. Then I will be in Arizona (Phoenix) Feb 12-15, and Idaho (Burley) Feb 24-28. If you are in or near these places, I would love to see you and tell you in person how thankful we are for your love and support for our kids. Please shoot me an email and let me know how we can meet. (I will be in Oregon and southwest Washington during the other parts of January and February. The only day I am not available is January 10th, when the Ducks play...)
I love you all and hope to see most, if not all of you before I go back to Uganda in March.
Laurie