Nov 22nd Update - Greetings from this side of the globe!

My dear friends and family:

It's great today to be able to write to you from here in Hillsboro. I can't believe how fast the pictures attach! Wow...forgot about internet connections here, and how fast they are. I'm also astounded with how COLD it is here. I have a turtleneck and sweater over it and still feel cool.
The first picture today is one Rogers took this morning and sent to me of the kids playing during break time (recess). They are in the courtyard of the orphanage. He sent a series of shots. You can see they are enjoying themselves. They do love their breaks! And they are in the midst of testing right now as it is almost the end of the school year. Great news - 2 of our kids have tested high enough to enter P3 next year. That's remarkable as they all came in at lower than P1 level. Haven't heard how all the rest have done, but am so proud of Brenda and Ronald!
The second picture is of Moses having a bath. He is such a happy boy these days...and he loves bathing! My last day at the orphanage (last Wednesday), he was whining when I went over, so I picked him up and cuddled him. Within 3-4 minutes he was fast asleep in my arms. So precious!
Someone tried to break into the orphanage on Friday night - they had a hoe (a formidable weapon in Uganda) and tried to hurt Cephas (our night watchman). I'm happy to report that Rogers said Cephas and Geofrey took him down and got him to the police station where he is still sitting waiting to go before a judge. God is watching out for our little ones! Thanks to all of you who are praying for protection!!
I am slowly getting over jet lag and hope to be on my feet and ready to go by next week. I'd love to meet with as many of you as possible and will be contacting those of you who have contacted me. Please let me know if you have time and would like to see some videos and more pictures of the kids.
Have a great Thanksgiving! Don't forget to give thanks for the miracles of 24 little lives that have been saved from uncertain futures...and for the many other miracles that are Cornerstone Uganda Ministries. Thank you...all who pray for, support and love these kids and staff.
Laurie

Nov 15th Update

Greetings, my friends and family!

I have only 3 more days in Uganda before I return to the States for a bit. I am excited to be back to some comforts of home, but so sad about leaving my kids for so long! We told them on Saturday night that I was leaving this week, but not how long I will be gone. I am giving and getting as many hugs as possible to hold all of us over... One of the older girls said she was fine with me leaving as long as I was back in a week. :-)
I had a great time with Moses on Saturday - just went over and spent an hour talking and working with him. He is such a joy...and so eager for relationship! He has learned where his nose is now and understands my English when I ask him. Next, ears, mouth, hands, etc.! He is growing so much! We weighed him this week at a checkup with his HIV/TB doctor - he is now 10kg - that's 22 pounds! When you think only 6 weeks ago he was only 7kg (about 15 pounds), that's great! The boy is growing. I will talk with a speech therapist when I'm in the States (thanks, Sharon!) to see how we can help him in his development. I also am praying for someone who can give weekly attention to him to get him ready to walk. He seems to have no interested in crawling, walking, talking, etc. Except - He is definitely interested in gesturing and pointing to "tell" on one of the children or on his "mother" who won't let him have something he wants. Just like all kids, eh?

The first picture I've sent is from last Sunday at church. This is the left side of the church in our new room. It's so much more spacious! We also were able to purchase 14 more chairs. This gives us a total of 33 chairs that CCC owns - we're really moving up in the world!!

The second picture is just a random picture of some of our boys having a great day a couple of weeks ago. They are, from left to right, William, Emma, Johnson, Amos, John, Peter and David.
We have an architect coming tomorrow to look at the property so he can draw a site plan for us - the next step in getting ready to build our first building (a home for our kids). We met with him for a couple of hours last week and he has agreed to take on the job...has some great ideas for us. It's exciting to have this all coming together. Thanks to so many of you for your regular monthly support and your special gifts above and beyond that to fund the land acquisition and building phase. God is using all of us to touch the people of Budaka in so many ways: helping orphans, having a Bible-believing church, offering jobs to many who were without, and many other things. Thanks for your participation!

Once again last night we could not have a movie night - no electricity. It came back on about 8pm (after being out since 9am), but that is bed time for them. Maybe they will get to do it next week!

Would you please be in prayer for Rogers as I leave to go to the States? He will have the whole ministry on his shoulders (at least here on the ground), and I am praying and encouraging him to be sure he gets some rest time...and delegates some stuff to others.

Sure love you all, and am SO excited to get to see you. By next week at this time, I should be putting together my schedule for the time in the States and will get to all of you about when I can come and see you (if you're not in Hillsboro - those in Hillsboro, I hope to see you at the ECC services Saturday and Sunday next weekend). BTW - Rogers will be emailing pictures, so I will share them with you still each week...although at least 11 hours later than now.
See you in a very short time!

Laurie

Nov 9th Update

It’s a very rainy day in Mbale…so rainy I had to wait in the car for 15 minutes before coming into the internet café – the rivers of water running down the street would have come above my ankles! There is no drainage system here for extra water. (On the positive side, though, we will be including in our buildings rain gutters that all run to a large storage tank. During the rainy season, this will cut down on water that must be purchased.)

On Saturday morning, I heard there were 20 children already there for Saturday School 8am (2 hours before we start). I went down at 9:30, and as you can see from the first picture (which has about 1/2 of the kids who were there), there were more than 100 children there at 9:30, ½ hour before we started. We ended up with a little more than 260 kids and 15 adults and teens who helped us. I told the story of David and oliath and memorized 1 John 4:4 – “…greater is He who is in you than He who is in the world.” For a snack this month at Saturday School we had ice cream. (There are no freezers in Budaka, so we paid our regular taxi driver to pick up the ice cream from Mbale and drive it to us.) Our kids from the orphanage heard “ice cream” and started cheering and telling the other children how wonderful and exciting ice cream is. When the kids received their cup, they had 2 reactions: 1) they were scared to hold something SO cold and 2) they wanted to save it and take it home with them so they could share it. It was very hard to convince them to eat
it quickly. In the second picture, you see our Moses with his face covered in the stuff! This is his 4th time to have ice cream, and he really likes it!

The kids are doing well. Their school is almost over for the year – their last day will be December 3rd. We really saw how great they are doing with their English when the World Race team was here. Almost all of the children could communicate with the Americans. The English they speak here is British, so most people have a hard time with us Americans who talk “so fast.” But, our kids understood totally after having communicated with me and with Dina when she was here in March. Only 2 who have medical issues today: Emma (the only thing we know is that he does not have malaria) and Moses (breathing problems again – the TB doctor has not been able to see him the past 2 weeks). Please continue to pray for these 2. Thank you.

Thank you all for your generous gifts to the ministry. Because of your sacrifice, these children are being loved, fed and cared for; several adults in Budaka have jobs; and many are being touched by the love and life of Jesus. We are almost 1 year into this work in Budaka and all of you are very much the reason we are “getting on well,” as they say here. As you know, the ministry will be self-supporting by January of 2012. We receive our first batch of chicks next Tuesday and will be selling eggs within 5-6 months. We also are renting land on which we will grow some of our own food, thus saving money. The land is getting dug up now, then we will plant in January or February. (There are 4 growing seasons here, but we just missed the current one.) We also have a woman going to tailoring school who will use the sewing machine which was bought by Chuck and Anne and either pay rent on the machine or give us a percentage of her work (we haven’t worked on that part with her yet). It’s exciting to be at this point in the ministry – many things are up in the air still, but so many good things are happening and we are seeing God move miraculously in so many ways.
Thank you for your continued monthly support so that we can become self-supporing in just a little over a year! And thanks again to all who gave (and continue to give) towards the land and buildings.
May the Lord continue to bless you as you are blessing us! See at least some of you in a very short time!!

Laurie

Nov 1st Update

My dear friends:

Last night we had all the kids come over to the house to watch a movie - what a hit! Most of these kids have never seen a television set, let alone watched a kids' movie. We showed a Tom and Jerry cartoon (really old...no words...the kids LOVED it!) and then Bugs' Life. They thought it was so funny that bugs in America can talk! The electricity went off 2 times during the movie, and the 2nd time was too close to their bed time, so they still have about 20 more minutes of it to watch next week. I also had some candy corn that Abby had sent and told them there was a "holiday" in America called Halloween and it was on Sunday this year and we had candy corn on that day. So, they also got 2 pieces each of candy corn. They are SO impressed with America!
The first picture is of our kids having art lessons from the World Race team. There were 2 artists on the team (a request of ours before they came), and they had 1-hour lessons with the children on about 10 of the days. It was the first time for all the children to hold a paintbrush and attempt something like this. Thanks to Jullane for sending us all the supplies! The children were excited and very enthusiastic about painting. I do have to say that Charity's collar is now red instead of white, but that is to be expected...
The second picture  I have sent is of our kids when they went out with the World Race team to pick up trash in Budaka. They went 4 days in a row in small groups with the Americans and picked up trash in various places in Budaka. They enjoyed the first 2 days a lot, and then just enjoyed so much being with the American team, but not so much the picking up trash part  - just like kids everywhere, eh?
Yesterday we had new and bigger rooms for church - we have rented an additional room that is larger. so, the children are split into 2 classes and the adults have enough space to dance (a necessary part of worship here!). Also, the new room for the adults has 2 ceiling fans...almost like Heaven for some of us! We had 81 adults and 69 children - first time in awhile we have had more adults than children!
Please pray for Saturday School this week - it is Saturday morning from 10am-12pm. 
Great news for us: running water has returned to Budaka after 7 months! So, now, in the morning we go out back and fill 9 jerry cans (about 5 gallons each) and then it is over for the day. It's so great!!
I hope you all are doing well - all our children and staff are healthy today (not often we can say everyone is healthy). Teacher David has had typhoid, but is finally feeling better today. Thank you all for praying for us. I will write more next week...or perhaps Friday if I get to an internet café.
Your gifts and contributions continue to make a difference in the lives of children and adults in Budaka. May the Lord bless you for your faithfulness.
Laurie

Oct 25th Update

Greetings, Friends!
It's turned out to be quite a cool day in Budaka...and now Mbale while I am here. The World Race Team that is with us were all in jackets this morning! Rogers said he is afraid his skin will lighten with all the cool weather lately. For me, I just figure the Lord is getting me acclimated to being in Oregon in a few weeks :-).
I have included a very short video of Charles, one of our twins. I am videoing each child so you can see them and know them. But, I can only send very short videos through email. More on how you can see the rest later in this email.

I have also included a picture taken from the front porch of our house on Tuesday. We had a rain storm that was amazing in intensity. We had about 7 inches of rain in an hour. The pictures is what was the road in front of our house. It became a river, flowing across and down. Rogers said it is the most rain he has ever seen at once in his lifetime. It was awesome...and, I'll admit, a bit scary as I was the only adult home and wasn't quite sure what I would do if it continued. The water was about an inch from going over the back step and into the back door.
We have tried to get some rest this week as the week before was quite taxing (from the crusades). I got away for 2 nights and it was a blessed rest - thanks to BAMM! Thanks, BAMMers.
The kids are doing well. Moses is totally well now from the TB, and smiles and laughs frequently. Saturday he was doing the Hokey Pokey with us...well, in Auntie Rachel's arms. We bought him a pair of shoes last week...his first. He is so happy in those shoes - and it really helps him to be able to stand. His feet are quite small.
The World Race Team took the kids each day last week around Budaka and cleaned up garbage in their path. It was wonderful for the children (in small groups with 2 Muzungu - white people) and the town got cleaned up, at least a bit. This week the WRT is taking each child out individually to go have a soda at the Inn. They will be so excited - we are leaving it a surprise...if you want to read some of their experiences here, go to www.theworldrace.org and put in one of these names (Anna Matthews, Chad Riley, Tyler Samuelson, Mary Hollis, Kirsten George, Lili Mejia, and Kris Tippett) in the Search window. You will be able to read the blogs and see their pictures from here. It is great to see from their perspective what is happening here.
Last week I promised to tell you more about the purchase of land. Rogers talked with the owners in the midst of the week of crusades and they wanted the transaction to happen on Saturday. Everything is done in cash here in the villages - I think they accept checks in Kampala, but not here. People don't trust it unless it is cash. So, we had to go to Mbale (no banks in Budaka) and withdraw Shs30,000,000=/. The largest bill you can get here is a Shs50,000=/ note. For all you non-mathematicians, that means we had 600 pieces of currency. We took a backpack to put them in. I felt SO vulnerable till we got back to the safety of our house in Budaka! The average income in Uganda is about Shs1,000,000=/ per year. So, this money represents 30 years of income - a tidy sum for anyone who wanted to rob us!
When we got back, Rogers went and met with the owners, along with 4 witnesses, the Local Council chairman, and they talked, wrote a contract (on notebook paper), all signed it and Cornerstone owns 1 1/2 acres of land! Last week, then, we had a surveyor come and set the exact landmarkers, the first step in getting a land title from the govt. After that, we will have a professional draw a site plan for us and we will begin constructing the children's homes.
Thanks so much for those of you who have taken the $1,000 challenge - that is how we are able to buy and begin the building process! May the Lord continue to bless you as you have blessed these children, the staff, and me! God is at work...and the best is yet to come! (For those who have taken the challenge, but have not yet sent in the $, please feel free to continue sending it in via Evergreen Christian Center, 4400 NW Glencoe Rd., Hillsboro, OR 97124.)
Also wanted to thank all of you who give monthly to the continuing work of feeding, housing and clothing the children. The gifts you send each month are meeting our needs. Thank you for responding to the Lord. The children's well being is a testament to what a fairly small group of people can do for those in great need in Uganda. THANK YOU!
I would love to get to be with each of you when I come home. As some of you know, I will be coming home the week before Thanksgiving and staying until the end of March due to the political situation here - can explain more when I am there. I am planing to be in Oregon, Washington, California, and hope to also get to Texas and Idaho during my time. Please let me know when would be a good time to visit and I will try to accommodate you. There is so much to share that can't be said in an email each week.
In the meantime, while I am there, Rogers will continue to run the whole Cornerstone operation with just a couple of phone calls a week from me to encourage, support and give supplemental direction as needed.

Looks like the video is not attaching - sorry about that. Will have it with me when I come home.
Love you all! thanks again for your participation in the Gospel here in Uganda.

Laurie

Oct 18th Update

If all goes as planned, this will come to you as the Monday update...not Tuesday, Thursday, or whenever!
The first picture I am sending is all our boys (including Moses, in Rogers' arms) in their new outfits, compliments of a dear sister in Hillsboro who made all the shorts and bought matching t-shirts for them. The boys were SO excited to get new clothes! And from "Mama Ann" in America. Thank you, Ann! They all wore their new clothes to church on Sunday. The girls were sad, even though we reminded them that they got new dresses from Mama Ann a couple of months ago and the boys didn't get anything. Children are the same the world over, eh?

The second picture is of Hope, Rogers and Betty's daughter, who is 8 months old. She is eating a mango - as you can probably tell, she loves them! She didn't eat the whole thing (after all, she is only 8 months old!), but she was really enjoying it. She also has just learned to wave, so as I took several pictures of the mango and her, she thought she should wave to me, I guess. Consider it a wave from Uganda to you!
Final report from the 5-day crusade: it was tremendously blessed by the Lord! We had over 2,000 in attendance over the week, almost 300 people were saved either in door-to-door evangelism during the day or at the crusades, and many were healed (sorry, didn't keep the #s). Yesterday at church, a woman got up to share that she was healed on Friday night. I know there are many stories like that that we will only hear in Heaven. Thanks to all of you who have been praying and who have supported the ministry so that we could do this crusade. A couple of stories:

• the top witch doctor in Kaderuna was saved at that crusade. This is a tremendous miracle as his livelihood is from being a witch doctor...all of his life has been wrapped up in putting curses on people, bewitching people and giving out charms for "protection." Please pray for him as God begins changing his life and he becomes a significant member of the Kingdom of God!
• a Muslim man was instantly healed of chronic back pain and then gave his life to the Lord. He got up and testified at the end of the crusade. He wanted to tell everyone that God heals and loves them.

We had much opposition from the enemy, as you might guess. On 2 different evenings, we were told we couldn't stand up and speak in that area. We had 2 churches in 2 different villages stand up to us and tell us we were not allowed to preach that evening. One of them even tore down our stage and it had to be rebuilt with only about an hour to go before the service was to start. One church even got on the local radio and warned people not to come to the crusade. That night we had 600 people! This is the rainy season in eastern Uganda and people had told us not to have a crusade this week, but I am happy to report that we had a short, light sprinkle one night and then one heavy downpour on Friday night for about 10 minutes, then all was fine...and everyone stayed and listened anyway. The usual 2-3 hour heavy rains came only right after we got in from door-to-door or after we were done in the evenings. God was definitely in control!
On one of the nights, 68 people got saved. It was so overwhelming! One woman got saved that night, then fell under the power of the Holy Spirit. Everyone was fairly quiet at the time, and the thud was really loud. She is fine, but was so touched with the life of God.We had a great day yesterday at church rejoicing about what God has done. I hope that all of you will also rejoice as you have most definitely been a part of this by praying, giving and encouraging us. Thank you for your participating in the Gospel.
Okay, this has become another long email. Sorry - I really do try to be shorter, but there is so much.
I love you all and am excited to be back in the States and see you face to face in little over a month. Well, some of you I won't get to see face to face...or you never know, maybe I will :-).
Oh, yes, one last thing - perhaps I will write more about it next week - we bought land on Saturday!!! We bought 4 plots, which is about 1 1/2 acres to begin with. It's near the main road in Budaka and...okay, gotta go, but will tell you more about it later. Thanks again to all of you who have taken the $1,000 challenge. You have made this purchase possible! Any of the rest of you who still want to take the challenge, please feel free as now we want to begin construction of 2 orphanage houses - one for girls and one for boys.
Love you so much!!
Laurie

Oct 15th Update

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Good afternoon, Everyone!
Sorry the email is late this week, but I will explain.

First, though, as Abby wrote to you, we had a Saturday School this past Saturday to which we invite unsaved children from Budaka. We have had right around 200 at the first 2 of these (they happen once a month). This time we had 290 kids come. The picture shows about 1/3 of the kids that were there. It was overwhelming on many levels. We actually had bought enough snacks for 300, so that was okay. But so many of these kids have responsibility for their baby and toddler-aged siblings, so they bring them. We had probably 15-20 very young children. One urinated up in the front just as we were beginning. Then an older boy got sick and threw up right at the climax of the story about the loaves and fishes. Not very appetizing. He also was right up front. The other kids didn't care - just wanted me to complete the story! But, we got it cleaned up and went on to finish the story and the time. One great thing is that over 1/2 of them remembered the verse we memorized last month. Always makes me happy!

In the picture, you can see a part of the World Race Team preparing the cookies and juice to be given to the kids at the end of Saturday School. As you look at the picture, please remember to pray for these children. God is touching their hearts with His love and goodness.

2nd thing I wanted to share is that we are just past 1/2 way through a 5-day crusade in Budaka and 3 villages around, so I was not able to get to Mbale to send you an email on Monday. But, both Rogers and I wanted to get to Mbale today and at least get a short note out to you. I have attached one picture from the crusade that happened in Kabuna, Rogers' home village. The picture is of the stage that they built for the crusade. Those are the stairs to get up to it. It takes faith just to get up to preach!!

The great news from the crusades is on the first night in Budaka, we had about 250 people and 45 got saved. The second night we were in Kabuna and we had approximately 350 people (in a small village!) and 58 were saved. Then, last night we were in Naboa and there were more than 500 there and 68 people were saved. God has been amazing. (I have to find another word than amazing - I keep using it and it feels so small compared to what He is doing!!) I preached on Tuesday and Wednesday. Rogers will preach tonight in Kaderuna. We brought in speakers for Monday and Friday. We also have a Gospel singer that is well known singing each evening. I will let you know more on Monday about how everything goes. The World Race Team goes out each day with an interpreter and people from the village to share one-on-one in homes and shops of the area we will have the crusade at that night. So, when we get to the crusade, already there have been 10-20 people saved during the day. The total number saved so far is right at 200...in 3 days. Everyone keeps saying to us, "Budaka [the district, not just the town] has never had a crusade like this!" What they mean is that any crusade that has happened has been from one church wanting to increase its size. But this is Cornerstone getting all the churches involved in whatever area, and telling people to go to any church in the area. We know that some of those who got saved will be coming this week to Cornerstone, but we are literally unable to fit them in the room we have church in. So, we have just decided to put chairs outside in the courtyard so there is a place for everyone to sit. Then, if necessary, in the weeks following, we will go to 2 services. Please pray for wisdom and help in pastoring these people!

One other quick thing - on the way here today there was a snake dead on the road - it looked to have been about 7' long! It was black and silver...a black mamba?? AAAAACCCCKKKK!
OK, I will be all right. I'm settled back down.

Love you all, and will talk with you again on Monday.
Thank you so much for praying!!

God bless you.
Laurie