Oct 8th - Update

Greetings, Friends and Family!

As always, there have been many things happening this week in Budaka! Here are a few:

• We are so excited to receive the team from Evergreen the day after tomorrow! They should be getting on the plane to leave very soon from Portland. There are 5 people - 2 educators and 3 pastors. They will be working, respectively, with the school and the pastors in our area. We are anticipating great results from these endeavors, as well as the many other things we will be doing - Saturday School in a new village (Naboa), a "field trip" with our kids and staff, Sunday School and adult church with our Buzungu ("white") friends. They are bringing many things that we had to leave behind last time including more Bibles, labels for the bakery, screens for our windows, etc., etc. Please be in prayer for all of them as they travel and serve here in Budaka. Thank you.
• Four of our kids had earned enough in their allowance to get to go to Mbale and swim in the pool at the hotel on Saturday. They have to have shs10,000 [$3.72] (about $5) to purchase this trip. Abby and Ellen took them - hope to get the pics to you this next week. The kids who went were Mutwahiru, Sarah, Brenda 2 and Magdalene. It was, for all 4 of them, the first time to ever be in more water than for bathing. They splashed and played and had great fun. Well, I understand it took Magdalene (age 3) about 30 minutes to even get near the water, but then she began enjoying it with everyone else. It was great to hear about Mutwahiru, who walks with a very definite limp, being like the other kids in the pool! He will be having surgery in November to lengthen his leg, so we took him this time as he won't be able to swim again for some time.
• Aunt Betty (Pastor Rogers' wife) brought a group of the boys from the school down to dig in the front yard so we can plant eggplants there. You may remember we recently had sunflowers there. Those were picked, and these boys came to dig up the ground and get it ready for our next planting. (There are 2-4 growing seasons in Uganda depending on the dry and rainy seasons that year. We are on our 3rd season for this year --- tomatoes, then sunflowers and now eggplants.) I have sent you a picture of the boys as they are finishing the yard - there were about 15 boys who weren't involved in music, dance or sports that day. Our Cornerstone kids beg to come and dig at the house - they really enjoy it! The 2nd picture shows some boys building a "tent" over the bed of seedlings for the eggplant in the front yard. As soon as they are big enough, they will be transplanted in the front. The tent provides protection from both intense sun and intense rain. As the boys left, I thanked them and gave them each Skittles - they were thrilled to have American candies!
• The bakery is moving! We are hoping that by the beginning of November, we will have the move complete. Cornerstone Bakery will now have its own shop in Mbale. We will bake and sell from the shop. So, the whole operation is moving from Budaka. We have asked one of our trusted staff members to move and run it. We are looking in Kampala tomorrow for a display case for the products. As we have prayed about this business expanding and how to handle the workload from it, this seems to be the best move. We have a place picked out at a strategic point in Mbale. Thanks to all of you who have been sending suggestions and help, and praying for us in this transition. Right now, we will work with our current stove and refrigerator and move up in size as business continues to expand. (We are also looking at prices in Kampala for those things so we can better plan for the future.)
• I have sent a separate email to some of you about the 2013 calendars. If you would like to know more about how to access these for yourself and/or your school, church or business, just send me an email and I'll send the information. This is another of the small businesses we have to support Cornerstone. Thanks to all of you who bought 2012 calendars! You jointly raised enough for 1 month's income this year. 

Okay, got to get back to finish the preparations for the team coming. Have a wonderful day...and thank you again to all of you who are supporting Cornerstone in so many ways. You are making a huge impact on Budaka...it's kids, leaders, churches, and schools, as well as on Pastor Rogers and me!

Laurie