Greetings, Friends and Family!
It's been another full week of life in Budaka. We began the week, as you know from last week, taking the kids to Sipi Falls. And, we ended the week with our first water baptism service on Friday morning. What should have been an uneventful time turned out to be anything but...We hired 2 matatus (size of mini-van in America with up to 25 people in each) to carry everyone to Mbale to a hotel with a pool. The matatus were 15 minutes late coming...delay...delay... When they were there, we only had 8 adults and our 5 kids who were getting baptized...delay...delay... We finally left 45 minutes late with 39 people...delay....delay... One matatu had 2 flat tires on the way...delay...delay... We arrived at the hotel (where the pool was that we had rented for baptism) and one of the matatus didn't come for some time...delay...delay. By that time, I was getting quite frustrated with all the delays (I know, I know - Laurie, get used to the African culture...). We finally got down to the pool (after having to explain to the Ugandans from the villages how to use porcelain toilets) and there were bugs in the pool that had to be cleaned...delay...delay. Then Rogers informed me that the people had not come in the clothes they would be baptized in, so they all had to go get changed...delay...delay... Finally, we got started and had a wonderful time baptizing. You have 2 pictures of the great event: the woman in the picture just got saved a couple of weeks ago. She was Muslim and converted after seeing Jesus in her husband over the past few months. She asked, when she came into the water, if we were going to give her a new name since she has a Muslim name (we're not!). She is a new person! (BTW - her shirt has a picture of President Museveni, the Ugandan head of state.)
After the baptism, we took the other picture you see of the 5 of our kids who were baptized. They are, from the left, Ben, Natasha, Brenda, Charles and John. It was such a privilege to get to baptize them and hear their confession of Christ again.
Then, we all headed up to get back on the vans to go back to Budaka. As we were getting on them, one of the drivers got a call from a colleague who said there was violence in Mbale town. 2 police officers had been shot and government vehicles were being burned. There is only one way out of town, so we had to stay at the hotel for safety. We kept monitoring the situation and ended up having to stay for about 3 more hours before the demonstration was over and it was safe to leave. Even when we went through town, though, there were many soldiers with guns at the ready, piles of tires that were still burning, lots of shops that were closed and locked (including gas stations). People had left and gone to their homes to get to safety. Anyway, what I realized by the end of the day is that all the delays were actually God's protection over our lives. He is so good to protect us, even when we think we know a better way!!
Just a couple more quick things and I will send this off:
Laurie
It's been another full week of life in Budaka. We began the week, as you know from last week, taking the kids to Sipi Falls. And, we ended the week with our first water baptism service on Friday morning. What should have been an uneventful time turned out to be anything but...We hired 2 matatus (size of mini-van in America with up to 25 people in each) to carry everyone to Mbale to a hotel with a pool. The matatus were 15 minutes late coming...delay...delay... When they were there, we only had 8 adults and our 5 kids who were getting baptized...delay...delay... We finally left 45 minutes late with 39 people...delay....delay... One matatu had 2 flat tires on the way...delay...delay... We arrived at the hotel (where the pool was that we had rented for baptism) and one of the matatus didn't come for some time...delay...delay. By that time, I was getting quite frustrated with all the delays (I know, I know - Laurie, get used to the African culture...). We finally got down to the pool (after having to explain to the Ugandans from the villages how to use porcelain toilets) and there were bugs in the pool that had to be cleaned...delay...delay. Then Rogers informed me that the people had not come in the clothes they would be baptized in, so they all had to go get changed...delay...delay... Finally, we got started and had a wonderful time baptizing. You have 2 pictures of the great event: the woman in the picture just got saved a couple of weeks ago. She was Muslim and converted after seeing Jesus in her husband over the past few months. She asked, when she came into the water, if we were going to give her a new name since she has a Muslim name (we're not!). She is a new person! (BTW - her shirt has a picture of President Museveni, the Ugandan head of state.)After the baptism, we took the other picture you see of the 5 of our kids who were baptized. They are, from the left, Ben, Natasha, Brenda, Charles and John. It was such a privilege to get to baptize them and hear their confession of Christ again.
Then, we all headed up to get back on the vans to go back to Budaka. As we were getting on them, one of the drivers got a call from a colleague who said there was violence in Mbale town. 2 police officers had been shot and government vehicles were being burned. There is only one way out of town, so we had to stay at the hotel for safety. We kept monitoring the situation and ended up having to stay for about 3 more hours before the demonstration was over and it was safe to leave. Even when we went through town, though, there were many soldiers with guns at the ready, piles of tires that were still burning, lots of shops that were closed and locked (including gas stations). People had left and gone to their homes to get to safety. Anyway, what I realized by the end of the day is that all the delays were actually God's protection over our lives. He is so good to protect us, even when we think we know a better way!!
Just a couple more quick things and I will send this off:
- Our Cornerstone kids have gone home today for 5 days with their clans. Please pray that they would remember that Jesus is with them and loves them. Pray that they will have a wonderful time reconnecting with their extended families, and that they will be ready and excited to come back on Friday afternoon.
- This Saturday is Saturday School. Abby will be running this - her first time. She has decided to share with them about new life...an Easter message. Please pray as we play, teach, sing and hang out with these kids.
- One idea has come to me for a fundraising business and I am asking the Lord for more direction. That is, I want to make a Cornerstone Calendar for 2012 with pictures of the ministry on each month. Are any of you designers and/or know of designers we could work with for this? How about how to print, distribute, etc.? Then, would any of you individuals or churches be willing to sell these beginning in maybe Sept/Oct this year? That's the idea...need some help to go forward with it. Let me know if you can and are willing to help. If we can do this annually, it will be one more business that will generate the base support for the ministry.
Laurie
No comments:
Post a Comment