Sep 10th - God is good!

Greetings on this rainy, cold Monday in Mbale! Wow - those words sound like Oregon or Washington, not Uganda. I'm sipping my 2nd pot of African tea (hot milk, tea and sugar), trying to get warm. What a change!

A few things to report to all of you:

1. As Pastor Rogers and I were working on budgeting this morning, we were amazed to find that in the first 5 months of this year, an average of 27% of our income was from our businesses here in Uganda. Wow! God is so good. We get discouraged periodically about what is not there...but when we can see that the businesses really are making money that is going to support the work, we stand back amazed. I told many of you when I was in the States that we are working toward being 50% self-supporting by the end of 2012. We are well on our way. 
2. One of our businesses, the bakery, will be expanding to both Jinja and Kampala in this next month. Jinja is a large town at the headwaters of the Nile River. Kampala is the capital city of Uganda. Both of these will be huge steps forward for Cornerstone Bakery!
3. Ellen Zulauf has arrived and has jumped right in to the work here. We are glad to have an addition to our "muzungu" staff, if only for 3 months' time. I have attached a picture of the kids welcoming her. Hellen and David are doing a traditional dance of welcome, and the end of the dance includes bowing in front of her, as you can see in the picture. 
4. We visited several places in Kampala this past Thursday and Friday to find the right place(s) for our kids to go on a field trip with the E! team that is coming in October. One place we are pretty sure we will visit is the Kabaka's Palace. Kabaka means "king" in Luganda. Most tribes in Uganda have a king over them. This palace is for the king of the largest tribe, the Buganda. You can see his palace in the background behind Pastor Rogers and I. 
5. Our kids are doing well. We have had a few with malaria in the past couple of weeks, but everyone seems to be recovering well. Our only child who is weak physically right now is Lisa, who has TB. Thanks to all of you who are praying for her. I have included a picture of her with 3 other girls. Lisa is the 2nd from the left in the picture. (The others are, from left, Doreen, Brenda 2 and Magdalene in front.) 

We had some Ugandan issues today in trying to finish the work in Mbale, so I am finishing this email at home under my mosquito net. It is 9:15 pm now...11:15 am for you on the west coast of the US. Hopefully the pictures will come through for you.

Thank you all for your great support of what we are doing here in Budaka! Your prayers, your money, your emotional support...they all are making a difference in many peoples' lives here. The 2013 Cornerstone calendar will be all about the effects of Cornerstone Ministries on all of us, both here in Budaka and in the States. I'll let you know when they are available for sale...another one of our small businesses that support this work!

Have a great day!

Laurie