December 14

Greetings, Cornerstone Friends!

I'm excited to get to communicate with you today about what God is doing in Budaka. Although I am not there presently, I talk and email with Rogers at least 3 times a week. He sent pictures. The first is of the kids lined up for breakfast. The doorway they are going through is the kitchen. The one in front with her porridge and boiled egg is Margret (age 4). Brother Stephen is sitting and washing dishes. The children in line are, from the left, Junior, Amos, Ronald, Ben and Vanessa. In front of Vanessa is Auntie Rachel.
The second picture is of Vanessa and Moses. They are 2 of the 4 children we got in July after their mom abandoned them. Vanessa is 4ish and Moses is 2ish. They are somber because the other children have gone to their home villages, clans or extended families for 5 days, and only 6 children are at the orphanage. When you're used to 24 being around, 6 is pretty sparse! The 18 children who went home all came back on Saturday. It is the desire and mandate of the district officials where we live that the children have time in their cultural birthplaces at least once a quarter. Rogers said all 18 came back with malaria, colds and/or skin rashes. This is one of the frustrations of sending them home, but one we must live with.
My most exciting thing of the week was getting to talk with all the children on Monday. Each came to the phone and I got to love on them...albeit from a distance...and remind them that the Lord loves them and has a plan for their lives. They wanted to know when I was coming back, and Charles asked if I was coming back "today?". I so want to be with them, hold them and care for them. But, right now I get to be here, loving them from a distance!
Aside from the pictures you get each week, I have downloaded videos of the kids talking and playing, as well as a video of Rogers thanking those of you from Evergreen for your participation in the ministry in Budaka. You can access them from this website: www.cornerstoneministriesuganda/blogspot.com. Just click on the link "Videos" on the left side, and enjoy! I will be loading as many videos as possible before I go back, so keep checking.
Please be in prayer for Moses. We will know this week if the birthmark on his leg is cancerous. They have sent a biopsy to a large lab in Kampala for testing.
I love you all and have been having SO much fun sitting and talking with all of you, showing videos and pictures and rejoicing together with you in what God is doing. Thanks for your part in making all the ministry possible in Budaka! Thanks to those of you who have given extra in addition to your regular monthly giving at this time of year - we are beginning a school soon and the extra will help us buy desks, chalkboards, paper, etc.!
The land and building fund total income right now is $31,800. We have spent $24,000 up to this point on the land, a survey, government fees and an architect who is drawing plans for the site and buildings. The balance we will use to begin building when the plans are done. Praise God! Thanks to those of you who have heard from the Lord to take up the challenge. 2 new ones came in in the past 2 weeks. We thank Him for His work for these children - we will be able to take more kids as we can build and expand.
Sure love you all...and am continuing to enjoy running water and electricity...
Laurie

December 9

Greetings, Friends!
It is rainy and cold here in Oregon. I'm finding it is nice to feel cold, remembering how hot it will be upon my return to Uganda.
Everyone is doing well in Uganda. There were a couple of cases of malaria last week among the children, but they are well now.
The first picture is from last Thursday. Rogers is holding Moses (don't you love the 2 different colors of socks?!). Moses loves it when Pastor Rogers or I come over. He reaches for us and wants to be held. When you think this little boy had no mommy time and never knew his daddy, you can understand why he wants the attention of a man or woman in his life. Rachel, his "mother" at the orphanage, has other children to attend to also, so he doesn't get so much individual time. Several of you who have seen the videos of Moses bathing and standing up, have said you just want to go hold him...or you want to adopt him. He is a special boy.
That reminds me that thanks to Carlos, we have videos on the blog website. I will post more of them so you can hear our kids and see them playing. There will be one there of all of them playing the hokey pokey. They love it - the hokey pokey, not the video :-)
Saturday School was last Saturday, the 4th, and I have included a picture that Rogers sent me. He is telling the Bible story in this picture. There were 248 children from the community. Some come from villages that are 2-3 miles away. They love to come and play, be with other children and, of course, get a snack at the end. Rogers told the Christmas story and the good news that Jesus was sent as a baby for all of us.
The architect has sent the first drawings via email and we are working on getting those finalized to be able to present to the local government for approval. Please continue to pray that all will go smoothly with all of this and the powers that be will let us move on to building soon.
Thanks to all of you who regularly give to this ministry! God is using you and me, Rogers and the staff, to change these children's lives and the lives of the people of Budaka.
Thanks to those of you that have taken up the call to pray for Budaka and Cornerstone. Our Father is answering and giving us wisdom to proceed.
Thanks, too, to the 3 new families who took the $1,000 challenge to raise money for the land and buildings in Budaka so we can take more children and begin a school for our kids and the community. God bless you!
My schedule of travel is this: I will be in California (the Bay Area for now) Jan 13-29 and Texas (Austin) Jan 29-Feb 3. Then I will be in Arizona (Phoenix) Feb 12-15, and Idaho (Burley) Feb 24-28. If you are in or near these places, I would love to see you and tell you in person how thankful we are for your love and support for our kids. Please shoot me an email and let me know how we can meet. (I will be in Oregon and southwest Washington during the other parts of January and February. The only day I am not available is January 10th, when the Ducks play...)
I love you all and hope to see most, if not all of you before I go back to Uganda in March.
Laurie

Dec 1st Update

I'm finding it hard to remember what day is what here in the States. There was so much routine to my week in Budaka, and Mondays was always 1) phone call with Abby; 2) meeting with Rogers; 3) email all of you. The rhythm was great. Now I have great visits with all of you...but no rhythm. All of that to say sorry this email is 2 days late!!

I talked with Rogers yesterday to catch up on what's happening in Budaka. He will be sending pictures on Thursday and I will pass them along, but for now here's the info:

1. A woman from the apartments connected to where we meet for church came on Sunday to church. She is Muslim, but said she has been listening to our worship and preaching for these several months and decided she needed to confess Christ as her Savior. Praise the Lord!
2. The husband of a woman who has come periodically over the past months came on Sunday and wanted to get saved. This woman has come, but has been embittered about her husband leaving her, having no money to feed her kids, etc. She had lost faith that he would ever come around. Now they are back together and both walking with the Lord. Hallelujah!
3. David - I have attached a picture of him so you know who he is - had a worm in his knee, but they got it out and he is doing better. The picture shows him after his first experience painting. Thanks to Jullane who sent the art supplies and to Kirsten and the rest of the World Race Team who taught the kids to paint.
4. The chicks are still not there to begin the chicken/egg business. They were promised, we had paid over 1/2 of the cost as a deposit, but after 3 weeks now of waiting, they still aren't there. Rogers made a trip to Mukono (about 3 hours away) and put some pressure on the people - threatened to take them to the police if they didn't do what they promised - and sounds like we will have chicks within a week or so.
5. The kids are going "home" to their villages on Monday for 5 days. Their school is over on Friday. This is a requirement of the District government (to send them home for some time at the end of every term of school), and the kids do enjoy a short time visiting cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents. They were very anxious (before I left) to be sure they would be able to be back to Cornerstone by Christmas. As a matter of fact, Margaret (age 4) gave me her request for Christmas dinner - "I want chicken, ice cream, cake and 4 porks." Not sure what 4 porks are, and pretty sure she won't have ice cream (has to be driven from Mbale!), but it was really cute. I need to explain to her that we are not a restaurant that takes orders...

Just a reminder to all of you in the Hillsboro area that there is a meeting next Monday night, December 6th, at 7pm where I will share more information of what is going on, show more pictures and several videos of the kids and staff. There's a video of the kids doing the Hokey Pokey - you don't want to miss that!!

Anyway, email me if you would like to come to the meeting and I will let you know where it's at.
God bless you today. Please remember to pray for our kids (Ronald, Charles, Emma, Ben, Junior, Johnson, Dovico, John, Peter, Isaac, Moses, Amos, Barthlomew, David, William, Stephen, Brenda, Hellen, Margaret, Charity, Natasha, Vanessa, Oliver and Christine) and our staff (Rogers, Betty, David, Stephen, Christine, Mary, Cephas, Geofrey and Rachel). Oh, and the church - sorry, can't list all their names. Pray for safety and that all their needs are met.

Thank you.

Laurie

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