Jul 16th Update

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Hey, Everyone!

Sorry there was no email last Monday – the internet has been so slow lately and after 20 minutes of waiting for 2 emails to go through, I realized this was not the day to send pictures and emails. Apparently a cable in the ocean was cut or came apart (or whatever they do) and so last Friday there was no internet for all of Uganda for some hours, and then it is slow. But, I have to tell you that the internet has been slow so many times in my 6 months here, that I’m sure that cannot be the only reason. As I write this email, it is Thursday, July 15, and I am hoping to get the email out tomorrow, Friday, when I go to Mbale to spend the night (Friday night LOUD prayer service is tomorrow at the church across the street).

The pictures this week are of 1) Oliver’s teeth. When the kids came to us, many had never used a toothbrush. The result of this are teeth like you see. These kids often are in pain from the decay and we treat the infections that come and the pain, but the root cause we cannot treat. There are dentists here, but their ability to treat is minimal. They are not trained as they are in the States. We are praying and asking the Lord about how to help these kids and have felt that perhaps the Lord will send over some dentists from the States to at least begin the process of treating the children’s decay. If any of you have any ideas of dentists or dental assistants who might be interested in this kind of ministry, let me know.

The 2nd picture is one I took this morning of the boys playing a kind of Chinese jump rope game. But it’s done with a rope, not an elastic band. They were having a ball doing it. The boys whose faces you can see are, from the left, Dovico and Barthlomew. They were doing this during their recess in the morning. By the way, in the background on the top right side, is the roof of our "kitchen" which has been taken off while the owners add to their buildings. See the rest of the story about this in a couple more paragraphs below.

I’m sure you all have gotten the news about the bombs that went off in Kampala on Sunday night during the final game of the Football (soccer) World Cup. Many of you have already either written or texted to make sure I was okay. Thank you for being concerned. I actually was in Kampala and was across the street from the Rugby Club in Lugogo where 2 of the bombs went off, killing more than 50 people at that location. I was there for several hours on Saturday, the day before the bombing. I also was in a bus on my way back to Budaka and went right by the Rugby Club about 4 hours before the bombs exploded. Then, yesterday I read that there was an unexploded bomb found in Makindye, about ½ mile from where I was staying for the weekend. It’s all very sobering, as I’m sure you can imagine. (Update on Friday: yesterday there was a bomb scare in Mbale, where we go every week - someone left a parcel in a bank and they evacuated everything within 2 blocks, called in the army, etc.)

It’s given us a good chance to learn and teach about fear and faith at the church – I taught last night. Many people are scared to do anything, go anywhere, etc. I’m sure all you Americans remember how this feels from our experience only 9 years ago. There are many stories coming out about what al Qaeda is now planning, etc. One of the places they have said they are targeting is Mbale, which is city we go every Monday for shopping and to use the internet. We, obviously, will be careful and will listen to the Lord regarding our plans, but we will not just sit in fear and do nothing. I have shared all of this to ask you to pray for us for safety and the ability to keep functioning in the midst of fear of what might happen.

The 2nd thing is a much lighter subject. The people who own the building the orphanage is in have come in and are finishing the 6 rooms that are across from where our kids sleep. This means we have many workmen, supplies, etc. all over the small yard we use. As a matter of fact, if you look in the picture with the boys, you will see in the background on the right the roof of our kitchen area that they have taken down in order to finish off that “room.” We will still be able to use it as a kitchen for the balance of our rental agreement (through December of this year). We are figuring they will want to raise our rent now that they are more rooms available. This is common for buildings here – another reason we want to be able to buy our own land and build our own buildings. When we can do that, we will have upkeep costs, but no rental costs that continue rising.

If any of you have ideas or words from the Lord about how we can raise the money to acquire our own land and buildings, let me know. We currently have about $2,200 in that account from the art sale at ECC and a couple of individual contributions. The amount needed is about $175,000 to buy 8 acres and construct the orphanage and school buildings. (The orphanage will be large enough to house 100 orphans and their caretakers, and the school to accommodate 200 students, including our orphans.)

Okay, enough stuff for today. I trust that all of you are doing well. Thanks so much for the emails to keep me in touch with how everything is in your families and your lives. I love hearing it!

Thank you to all of you who help in supporting these kids. We thank God for you, as do the children. (I also use you in examples with the kids. For instance, when we find they have been writing on the walls, tearing their blankets, or some such thing, I will ask them if they think you who are sponsoring them would be happy to know that they are destroying property, costing the ministry money. They always hang their heads in shame and say no. And, things get better for a couple of days, then we start all over with it…ah, children. The same everywhere, eh?)

So, thank you for all your support and prayer. I am so glad to be partnering with you in the ministry in Budaka. May the Lord continue to bless you and reward you for your faithfulness in praying and giving.

In His great love,

Laurie

Jul 8th Update, 11:06 AM

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These are the pictures that many (all?) of you didn't get last week.
First is of the 4 children from one family. Their mom is on the left and the children (those in Cornerstone school uniforms) are, from the left, Margret, Peter, John and Dovico. The other children are hers also. The man is the grandfather (their deceased father's father).
The second picture is of the produce that the parents brought. There are g-nuts (like peanuts, but smaller), oranges (they are green here on the outside), guava, cassava and maize (like our corn only bigger ligher colored kernels).
Hope you are all doing well!
Laurie

Jul 8th Update, 10:55 AM

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Hey, Everyone!
I'm away for a few days of R&R, and am in Kampala with better internet connection. Not quite like the States, but better than Mbale.
Anyway, here are 2 pictures of our physical education day last Friday. The first is of the boys in a foot race. Please note that they wear no shoes for this. Whether football (soccer) or races, children don't wear shoes for these things.
The second is Duck, Duck, Goose. The 2 boys running are Amos in front and Barthlomew chasing him.
Thanks for waiting for these. Hopefully, they really go through this time.
In the next email I will send last week's photos...if this one works.
Love you all...sorry for those of you suffering in the heat. Our weather is quite a bit cooler right now, more like mid-70s all the time, but I can remember and sympathize with you.
Laurie

Jul 5th Update

Hey, my email friends and family in America!

It’s a fairly cool day here in Uganda – actually only in the low 70s. It’s been raining a LOT here, which makes walking a dangerous proposition. There are no sidewalks and only 2 paved roads in Budaka. Quite tricky to get around without falling. There’s LOTS of mud everywhere. On to more interesting things…

On Fridays, the children go for physical education to a field that is about a 10-minute walk from the orphanage. It is a community field that anyone may use as long as no one else is there at the time. The teachers asked if I would come and teach the children some American games. So, we did relay races (a new concept to them) and played Duck, Duck, Goose. They loved all of them! You would have pictures of the day except I apparently forgot to load them on my computer and don’t have my camera with me – we have not had electricity for 5 days, so it has not been as easy as possible. So, at the end of this week I will send the pictures (when I am in Kampala for a break).

Recently, I have felt the Lord asking me to take each child for some special time away from the orphanage with me. I have been doing that over the past couple of weeks. It’s very special and the kids get so excited about “walking with Pastor Laurie.” I spend about ½ - 1 hour and we go and do some errand and talk along the way. On Friday afternoon, I took Ben with me. He is our oldest boy. As we walked, he held my hand (can you imagine any 10 or 11-year-old boy doing that in the States!?) and kept saying, “Pastor Laurie, I love you!” Then, at one point he said, “Pastor Laurie, when I grow up I want to be a pastor.” I told him I thought that was great if that’s what he wants to be and what he feels God is asking him to do. Then he said, “And, Pastor Laurie, when you grow up I want you to be a doctor.” I tried to explain to him that I was already grown up, but he insisted that I should think about it, so I just dropped it. So, if you hear about me applying to medical school…

Some of you know that our littlest child, Charity, fell this last week as she was climbing from the top to the bottom bunk of her bunkbed. We had to take her to the hospital in Mbale in the evening as she was bleeding and hurting. I texted and asked some of you to pray. Thanks so much to those of you who prayed…and those who are always praying for us. I’m happy to report she is fine – some bruising, but she is now playing again and acting totally normal. It was an interesting experience in Mbale, though, as the clinic we went to had no electricity, so the doctor needed to examine her and has only a kerosene lantern. So I pulled out my small (but powerful) flashlight and held it while he examined her. Then they gave her an injection of antibiotics. Total bill for the time: Shs 7,000=, or $3.50. (They didn’t take any off for me providing the light.) Now the only problem is that she got used to Auntie Rachel sleeping with her for 3 nights and wants someone with her every night.

The children have finished their first paper bead necklaces – the same kind I brought back when I was in the States. We will continue making them and then send them over to be sold. There were 2 of you who said you would be glad to help with the U.S. sales in churches and to individuals. I will be contacting you separately as we get to the point where we have things to ship over. If you are interested in helping with this, please let me know. The ones I remember who have contacted me were Marisa and Doug. If you also told me you would help and I have forgotten, please email me again and forgive my old mind J.

Please be sure to check out the Cornerstone Ministries Uganda website – it has been updated! It is at www.cornerstoneministriesuganda.org. Thanks to Richard for setting it up and updating it!

I always feel like there is so much more to tell you…oh, well, I’ll have to wait till next week. Thank you to all of you who write emails back and keep me informed of what is happening in your world. As I write this (Saturday night sitting on my bed at home), I realize tomorrow is the 4th of July and I don’t have sparklers…or anyone to celebrate with! Hope your 4th was good!

Thanks for partnering with me in this great venture. Maybe next week I can tell you about how school plans are coming for opening a school in January. May the Lord continue to bless you as you faithfully give to help these children and this community.

In His great love,

Laurie

Jun 28th Update

Wow - I can't believe it's less than a week to the 4th. I still feel like I am in the same season as when I got here since the weather doesn't change much...and the light thing - only 12 hours per day of daylight. Always makes me feel like I am in winter time. Such a conflict inside me...winter or summer???
Well, today, I am much later writing to you as we had a visitation for families of our orphans this morning, so didn’t get to Mbale till quite a bit later. We have planned these for the last Monday every other month. The kids were so excited to see their guardians! The first picture you have is of our 4 kids who are from one family with their mother and grandfather. The kids' names are, from the left, Margret, Peter, John and Dovico - the ones in uniforms. Their mom is on the far left, 2 sisters are between John and Dovico and their grandfather on the right. This is the mom who had 7 children and her husband died in November. She is illiterate and only feeds her family what she can grow, then sells the little that is left to get $ for soap for washing. So, she was unable to continue feeding her family and asked us to take 4 of them. Today was the first time I have met the grandfather - he is their father's father.
The 2nd picture is of food that the kids’ guardians brought for us – there is maize, guava, oranges (they’re green here), G-nuts (like peanuts only smaller), cassava (a root starch vege, like potato). At the back of the picture is charcoal for our charcoal stove and in front of that is potatoes, both of which were already in the store room. The guardians were and are SO thankful for what we are doing with their children. I greeted them from all of you and told them there are people in the States who are loving their children. They all started clapping. I told them you see pictures of their kids each week.
The sad part of the morning was for Hellen, whose guardians did not come. We found out that her grandmother died yesterday and the burial is today so no one could come see her. She was the only child who did not have a visitor - we tried to make it up to her, but it just isn't the same! Please pray that the Lord will guard her heart from this heartache. Hopefully someone from the family will come and see her before the next visitation day.
The children are doing well - everyone is fairly healthy. We have a couple with ringworm and a few headaches here and there (theirs, not ours!), but other than that everyone is well. Our nurse, ironically, is sick and has been for a week or so. She has malaria (so common here...and deadly in some cases). Please pray that God will heal her. Her name is Mary.
Yesterday at church we had 49 adults and 45 kids - we're so evenly split between adults and kids! - and had a great time worshiping and hearing the Word. We led the congregation also in prayers for Uganda. For those of you who don't know, 2011 is an election year here and there are very heated exchanges and threats to various people for political views. Please pray with us for peace in Uganda.
Last night I had the sweetest thing - I often will sit on one of the benches and have the children come over and sit down. I rub their backs and talk with them. Well, last night, Charles came and sat next to me and started rubbing my back and said, "I love you, Pastor Laurie." It was so sweet to see he had internalized the affection and was doing it back to me. Brought me to tears - so sweet!
Okay, better go now, but please know that we pray for you. Thank you for your prayer, financial and email support. You all are the greatest. So nice to know there are others doing this work with me.
Laurie

BTW - many have asked, so let me tell you, I have not seen another snake. HALLELUJAH! May it be so for the rest of my days...

Jun 22nd Update

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So, I came to Mbale and wrote an email yesterday, but as they say here, the internet "refused." So, here I am again today to try and send it. Power is off on one side of the street, but I am on the other at a new internet cafe. Oh, Uganda!
So, here's your Monday email...1 day late:


Hey, Everyone!

It's Monday afternoon here (early Monday on the west coast) and here I am in the internet cafe once again. It's been an interesting day already...

This morning we had to deal with the staff about "tribalism." Some who are of the Bugwele tribe (those who are from the Budaka area) are talking bad and excluding those from Buganda (from the west of Uganda) and others I can't remember the names of. Who'd have known? Sounds like things that happen in the States (on church staffs at least - maybe not at your work). Anyway, we shared the Kingdom concept of being in unity regardless of the tribe (from Galatians 3 and 1 Corinthians 1) and there were tears - unfortunately not of repentance, but of anger that we would call them on this. Please pray for us as we walk through this. We told them that this ministry is just beginning, but it must be built on unity of purpose and the Spirit. Makes me realize we need to teach the children this concept. They are all Bugwele, so we have to introduce NOW to this next generation. Rogers says this whole thing is very common here and causes lots of problems around the country. There are 40 different tribes in Uganda...a country the size of the state of Oregon.

Re: pictures: The first picture is of Brother Stephen who is making chapatti. He has made the dough and the balls which then are rolled out flat (with the rolling pin – sitting in front of the tray of dough balls - Mom, these always remind me of your rolls before they are cooked) and cooked over the charcoal stove (to the left of Stephen…yellow with an orange handle). They are cooked one at a time and he makes 40-50 for the meal. It takes 2-3 hours from start to finish for 2 people to make them (you can see a part of Christine on the left of the picture). Chapatti are like tortillas and are quite yummy.

Behind Stephen, to his right, is the area we keep firewood in. We buy a truckload (about Shs200,000=, or $100) at a time and have been using 1 load every 3 weeks, but with the new rocket stoves, it should cut our consumption down to about ½ that.

The children are doing well - a couple of have colds now, but we have no one with malaria. People in the community are saying that they are getting very "fat." We would say "normal" in America. But they don't have stick legs and arms anymore. Next Monday is visitation day for the guardians and extended family members. The kids have a program ready for the adults and kids who will come. I will get a picture. That also means I probably will not be on the internet, or at least not very long - will try to write an email earlier. The kids are so excited to see people from their home villages and churches. I get excited just because they are!!

The 2nd picture is of Johnson - it's one of those "missing pictures." You have to find what is missing. Can you see?

Okay, I will tell you - the bottom 2 buttons on his shirt are missing. Which brings me to this: I have found myself having to do SOOOOO much mending. I spend about an hour a day (sometimes more!) sewing buttons back on clothes, putting new elastic in waistbands, stitching up tears in clothing, etc., etc. The kids LOVE the attention and all gather around and say "Me, Pastor Laurie, me!" meaning they want me to fix their clothing next. I think maybe they tear off the buttons so I will sew them back on for them :-) So, after I took the picture I sewed back on his 2 buttons. Anyone want to come over and repair clothing?

I am so enjoying my days here...hope you are enjoying yours! Let me know how you are doing and what is happening in your neck of the woods!Love,
Laurie

Jun 7th Update

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So, this time it's been a week since I wrote...and since I've been able to get to the internet. So much happening - let's see if I can catch you up:
Last Monday I wrote about the mice in my room. The poison worked on one of the mice, and thankfully it didn't die in my room. But, it did die in the house and the smell was atrocious after a day or so. We finally found it (in Betty and Rogers' room) and now the smell is better. The other mouse jumped into a cabela (plastic bag) and I asked Prossy to take it outside, so it is now living in a better place. And I haven't heard them for 5 nights or so. BUT...
That brings me to the next living creature story. Last Monday night I went over to sit with the kids during devotions, but was too late and didn't want to disrupt, so I went into my office. From there I decided to go back to the house and get my ironing (has to be done on my desk in the office). As I left, I closed the large iron door (all are like that here) and it was really hard to close, but I kept pushing until I could get the padlock on. I got my ironing, returned, opened the door and went and hung my ironing on the hook. Turned around to close the door and saw something out of place. Come to find out it was a snake that had been caught between the door and the cement step. I had apparently squished it when closing the door the first time. It was only about a foot long, maybe a little longer. But I called Rogers and asked him what I should do with it - it looked lifeless. He said he would be right over. He came and said it was still alive...and it that it is a poisonous snake. AAACCCKKKK! I want to come home. (Just for the moment, I'm okay now, one week later.) He got a stick and smashed it's guts out, then threw it far away. So, my daughter was in Uganda for over 1 year and never saw a snake. I've seen 2 in 4 months. Not fair! And, let me tell you, I use a light everywhere at night now...and look at where my feet are going at all times.
Last Thursday, the 3rd, was Uganda Martyrs' Day. It commemorates 22 people who were burned alive because they would not denounce their faith. This happened in 1886. So, it's a holiday and the kids were off school - I got to spend some good time with them during the day and we had the turkey (offering from last week!) and juice (koolaid). The kids were so jazzed about the meal, and I talked to them about the people who loved God so much that they were willing to give up their lives. Interesting to teach them about their country's history - no one else who was around knew the whole story. They were interested in what I was saying also. I learned it from the newspaper that day. (Rogers does know the story, but was out of town that day.)
Special thanks to the kids from Abby's Sunday School class at ECC. You guys wrote letters to each of the children and staff at Cornerstone and made videos for them. They were so excited!! I have sent videos of Cornerstone kids greeting all of you - sent it off this morning. It hopefully will make it there in the next couple of weeks. The kids LOVED getting letters from you. They are not yet able to write well enough to send messages back (except Brenda, who wrote to McKenna), but hopefully within a year or so they will be able to write back.
The picture you have is of the kids in formation for the start of school last Tuesday morning. They start this way each day and get general instructions for the day, work on something that all of them can do, etc. That's the time Rogers and I will go and talk and give encouragement or correction (more of the former!!) to the kids. They stand in 3 lines (sort of...) and seem to enjoy the time.
Okay, so much more I could say about this week, but don't want to bore you. Will write more next week...or perhaps this Friday or Saturday - there is overnight prayer at the church across the street, so I will be coming to spend the night in Mbale :-).
Thanks for all your love, prayer, support and emails. I feel encouraged and loved...and ready to march back to Budaka (well, actually we will take a taxi) and continue in the ministry God has called all of us to there.
Love you all!
Laurie