June 16th - No-internet-Monday Greetings!

So, I was here in Mbale to send you an update of all that is happening here, and the internet for all of eastern Uganda went down. I thought they were feeding me a line to keep me here at the hotel, so went to 2 other places in town and heard the same thing at each. So, today you get a Friday update!


Dear Friends and Family:

We got to take Mutwahiru to Entebbe this week to CoRSU (Comprehensive Rehabilitation Services of Uganda), a hospital for children with disabilities that is sponsored by the German government. He was operated on by Dr. Antonio (he is an Italian doctor), an orthopedic specialist. He is doing well and was discharged from the hospital ward this morning to go to the hostel that they have there where he will stay while his leg gets better. We will go and see him next Tuesday and I will give you an update then. The first picture you have is of Mutwahiru and his mom awaiting surgery. We were sitting outside the Surgery Theatre on the bench you see...for about 6 hours. O, Uganda.

On a sad note, Babyire, the baby I wrote about a couple of weeks ago who was so small and whose mother died, has died herself. We are all so sad. Please pray for Rachel, the mother and grandmother of these 2, that God will comfort her in this time.

We are working on a fairly long memory verse for our kids and have found that Moses also knows it. He does all the motions we have taught the kids and can say the occasional word of the verse. We were blown away! What a great thing to see this boy developing so quickly right now. Praise God for his life – God rescued him and set him on a good path.

As you know, we have started several small businesses that together will be supporting the ministry of Cornerstone. We got 200 chicks on January 1st of this year. In 6 months they would begin laying eggs and supporting the ministry as we sell the eggs, as well as eat the eggs at the orphanage. The chickens were doing well up until about a month ago, when they began dying one by one. We brought in a veterinarian who let us know that the disease they are dying from (starts with an "m" – can't remember the name right now) is preventable with a vaccine which should have been administered on their first day of life. The company we bought them from, apparently did not do this, although they told us they did. Now, we are down to less than 100 chickens and none are laying. There is no way to ameliorate the situation and so we are now looking to sell the chickens for meat (there is no harm to humans from the chicken disease). Then we will let the chicken house sit empty for a month while we clean and sanitize it. Then we will start all over again with a new batch…from a different company. We are a bit discouraged, but also hopeful for the future.

I have included a picture of Rogers standing in the maize field on Monday of this week. The raising of maize, beans, eggplants, g-nuts and tomatoes is on track, although we have lost 30 maize plants to someone who let his cows graze on them! Also, we lost about 1/3 of the beans to no rain for a couple of weeks – the insects came and ate them while the leaves were dry.

Our tomatoes are looking great – should be 4-5 weeks before we harvest them – there are over 100 plants in our yard and the yard outside the chicken house. The g-nuts and eggplants are growing on the land we purchased (and will be building on as the Lord provides for the orphans' home and school buildings). All of these foods we are growing will be eaten by the orphans and the surplus we will sell.

The restaurant – we have the land leased for 2 years and will begin digging the pit latrines in the next week or so. Following that very necessary step, we will begin constructing the building. We have most of the kitchenware and all of the furniture. When the building is built, we will buy the oven, refrigerator, microwave, generator, etc. We ate at an American-style place in Jinja (headwaters of the Nile River) on our way back to Budaka and got some more ideas for menu ideas – they had lasagna, some different kinds of cookies, ice cream and smoothies. Both Abby and I are excited to get to begin the restaurant and eagerly anticipate the building being done within the next month or so – everything is so much slower than we like here!

By the way, we have not had electricity now for 15 days! Just thought I'd remind you to be thankful for another thing in your lives. Ha!

Thank you again for supporting us in your prayers, financial gifts, packages of goodies for the kids and us (we do love our chocolate and VIA!), emails, and the many other ways you say you love these children and this work here in Uganda. May the Lord continue to bless you as you have so faithfully blessed us!

Laurie