Nov 12th - Monday update

Thanks so much for waiting for a full report since I haven't kept up the last few weeks. I trust you all are doing well and are happy and healthy. Would love to hear from you! (Thanks to those of you who wrote and encouraged me this past week after the bug and ant pictures. I needed the encouragement, believe me!)

Here is what's been happening:

Ellen

• Teacher Ellen has returned to the States (last Tuesday night) and it sounds like she is having a great reunion with her family and friends. We are thankful that she was here for the 2 months to teach at the school, help with Sunday School, and spend time with our kids one on one and in groups. They gave her a great send off. Her life and ours have been changed for the good by the time she spent here. Please give her a pat on the back when you see her. Thanks to all of you who helped sponsor her in coming and serving at Cornerstone. Thank you, Teacher Ellen! Here's a picture of Ellen with all our kids and the boarders on her last morning with us.

Bakery

• We have secured a place here in Mbale to open up the bakery. We are ordering a counter and today hired our first employee to sell our products here. His name is Gerald and he has been trained in pastry and baking, a certificate course here for those who have completed high school. He will begin on Monday, along with a Maureen, who will work part time in the evenings. We are excited (and challenged) to train new employees. We will continue baking in Budaka for now, with the hope of moving the whole operation to Mbale within the next 2 months or so.
• Our new recipe, Millet Muffins, is a great hit with the Ugandans! It's like a bran muffin in the States - millet has a very earthy taste to it. I also order cream cheese from the cheese maker here (a Dutchman who lives in Uganda) and the muffins have a small amount of cream cheese in the middle of them. They sell for shs800, [$0.30] or about 31 cents each.
• Our biggest seller continues to be banana bread, which we sell in cupcake form for shs800 [$0.30] or slices from a loaf for shs1,000 [$0.37] each. I am told that the Millet Muffins may outsell the banana bread. We are excited to have the store up and running so we can control the presentation and care of our products more closely.

School

• The school year is ending (next week) and we will have a Parents' Day on the 24th. The kids will be presenting songs and dances, dramas, arts and crafts. Their parents will also pick up their report cards. Our 30 kids are doing very well...I will report on their scholastic progress after the 24th.
• We have about 125 students, including our 30, at the school currently.

Mutwahiru

• We took Mutwahiru last Thursday. The doctor is very pleased with the femur's strength and Mutwahiru is scheduled for surgery this Friday. He will be in the hospital for 7-10 days and then come home with an extender in his leg. Each day we will turn the key one turn and it will begin stretching the bone to match the other leg. Right now the shorter leg is 12cm shorter than the other one.
• In 6-8 months, both legs should be approximately the same length. Thanks to all of you who pray for this boy. Special thanks to Mark and Sharon who underwrite this boy's medical care. 
• I have included a picture of Dr. Antonio, Mutwahiru and the nurse as they were looking at his x-rays.

Flooding in Kampala

• On the way home with Mutwahiru, we encountered a huge traffic jam. Wondering what it was, we approached to find out there had been a very heavy rain in one area of Kampala and cars were having to carefully proceed. As you can see from the picture, the boda boda (motorcycle taxi) drivers didn't let this stop them. Glad I wasn't one of their passengers!

Masaka Trip

• Abby and I will be traveling to Masaka (in western Uganda) this weekend to spend time at an orphanage, church and school similar to ours. I will be speaking at the church on Sunday, we will be having fun with the kids, encouraging the teachers and spending time with the women's group that makes crafts to support their families. 
• The trip is about 6 hours from Budaka...through Kampala. We will go to see Mutwahiru into surgery and then go on from there to Masaka.
• Stories and pics from this trip next week...

Thanksgiving

• We will be celebrating Thanksgiving next week about 11 hours before all of you on the west coast. The 3 Peace Corps volunteers near us are coming over for a turkey dinner. Should be really fun! 
• Want you to know that we will be thanking God for all of you - your support in so many ways makes what we do here possible. Thank you...and thank God!

Have a wonderful day!

Laurie

Nov 9th - 4 days late...

Sorry for the late email, but there were a few disturbances in the force this week...

Saturday night we found a large bug in front of the house. You have 2 pictures of it...the bug on the ground and then Cephas, our night watchman, holding the bug by its back legs. Very large bug! Creepy.

But, it got creepier the next night when I walked down our hallway and saw the wall moving. Okay, walls don't move, right? But this one was definitely moving. On closer inspection, I saw it was a wall of ants moving upward. I got Cephas and we found even more ants. See the 3 pictures - the first is the wall ants after they were mostly gone, but as you can see many were still there. The 2nd is the ants in my doorway - they were obviously moving their nest as you can see from all the eggs they are carrying. The 3rd picture is of the ceiling of our bathing room, where there were literally thousands of ants. There were also ants in big clumps in Abby's room in several places, on the floor, in and outside the water jerry cans, etc, etc. We ended up not being able to sleep in the house. It was Ellen's next to last night with us - what a memory!!

We are interviewing people for the bakery job, we took Ellen to the airport Tuesday night, we took Mutwahiru to the doctor Thursday morning, and we got back last night after going through severly flooded streets in Kampala

Oct 29th - Back at 'ya!

It's been 2 weeks since I've written an update on Cornerstone...let's see if I can recap:

The team from E! was amazing! 

• Workshops for our teachers and headmaster, teaching classes, spending time with teachers 
• 2 pastors' conferences with a total of over 80 people in attendance...many pastors learning for the first time how to study the Bible and prepare a sermon (many people in the villages are appointed without any training) 
• Saturday School with 250+ kids in attendance...singing songs, having a snack, playing games and hearing about the Lost Sheep
• Field trip to Kampala with our 30 orphans and the staff...first time on an escalator for all our kids, and most of our staff...learning some history of Uganda at the king's palace...playing at Wonder World, a small amusement park
• Fun "American" time for Abby, Ellen and me...playing games, sharing American humor, talking about the election, etc.
• Teaching both weekends at church (Ann one weekend and Kevin the next) 
• All team members working with our kids and many others at Sunday School

We try to treat our guests well, so we "arranged" for the following:

• someone broke into our compound and stole our generator out of (what we thought was) its secure house 
• a 2 1/2 foot poisonous snake which the night watchman killed - about 1am
• many frogs hopping in and making themselves at home in their rooms
• a break-in of a car in front of us during a traffic jam. A guy punched the occupant and stole his cell phone 
• a speedy retreat, without our food, from a restaurant because we spotted a man who has threatened us
• planning by the airline's website for a delayed flight (almost 2 hours late), only to arrive at the airport and find the flight had already taken off on time. 24 hours' delay in getting home. 

Even with all these "bonuses," the team left an amazing legacy in Budaka. A huge thank you to all of them: Ann, Emily, Glenn, Kevin and Caley. Thanks, Guys!!

The children each got small group time with the team and SO enjoyed them. I have included some pictures from their time. The first 2 pics are when we were sitting and having lunch on the field trip. Each adult had 2 children throughout the day. You can see Caley with, from the left, Beatrice, Lisa (with her back to the camera) and Margret. The other pic is of Abby with some of the boys. If you look carefully, you will see Ann and Glenn in the background. The 3rd picture is of Brenda 2, Beatrice and Hope playing ball. The other kids were learning baseball from Kevin and these 3 were just not interested...The 4th pic is of Abby holding her birthday cake. That cake fed 75 people. The kids were thrilled to celebrate in an American fashion. They each gave a gift of telling one thing they really like about Abby.

All is getting back to normal - even my weekly emails ;). We hope to move the bakery this week to Mbale - more next week on this one!

Thank you all for supporting what God is doing here in Budaka. We are so glad to be partnering with you to touch these children's and adults' lives. May God bless you today!

Laurie

Calendars will be ordered Nov 15, in time for Christmas giving season. Let me know if you want some sent to you to buy or sell. Each month shows a different effect Cornerstone has had on individuals and the community of Budaka.

Oct 25th - Check it out

No long email right now - just a quick note to say check out our facebook page and see lots of pics of the team that was here, plus a video of Moses dancing today. You'll love it!
Laurie

Oct 15th - Oops - Tuesday morning

Friends and Family:

There was no time yesterday to send out a letter, so let me give you a short recap of this past week this morning:

• We did a 3-day conference with pastors out in Iki Iki. Pastors Ann and Kevin taught about the pastors' devotional life (using SOAP as a model), and basic hermeneutics principles. Great teaching and help to the pastors. I have included a picture of the pastors with their certificates for finishing. The team also brought all the senior pastors in attendance a study Bible. It was such a blessing for the pastors, and will be a great blessing for the Budaka district and the Bugwere tribe! 
• Glenn and Cayley have been at the school, teaching classes and doing a workshop with the teachers each afternoon. They have been so warmly welcomed, and have already made such an impact on the school. One day, after the workshop, Headmaster David went back after Glenn and Cayley had left and found the teachers dancing for joy at what they were learning! 
• Pastor Emily worked in the bakery 2 days with Abby and Monicah and came out to the pastors' conference one of the days to teach some sessions. Such a blessing to have such a positive, encouraging, willing-to-help-in-any-way woman!
• The team has spent as much of their extra time as possible with the kids. Here's a picture of Pastor Kevin teaching Sarah how to bat. He taught all of them how to play baseball. They loved the game and picked it up really quickly. 
• Church was great on Sunday as Glenn, Kevin, Emily and Cayley worked with our kids, 2 at each service, and Ann taught with the adults at both services. She taught about forgiveness and many were impacted to go and forgive those who had wronged them. Very cool! 

More happening, but will get back to you next week with the details. Sorry this email was so late.

Love you all! Thank you for your participation in what God is doing here!

Laurie

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

Oct 1st

Today is the first day of mid-term exams for the school and so there was "parade" this morning. Parade is an assembly of the children. The teachers, the Headmaster and the head prefect get to talk to them and encourage them about their tests. I also got to talk with them before they went in for their tests, encouraging them to do their best, as well as praying for them. I included a picture of parade for you to see. The teachers are on the sides. Let's play "Where's Waldo," and see which of you can find Ellen in the picture. Email me when you find her...

The Evergreen team will be here next week and so we are busy preparing for the pastors' conferences they will teach at, as well as getting things ready for Glen and Caley at the school - they will be doing workshops with our teachers. In getting ready for the pastors' conference in Iki Iki, a village near us, we found that there is a lot of infighting and the pastors couldn't decide on a church to have it in. All wanted it in their church, and wanted to bill it as their pastors' conference that they were offering to the other churches in the area. So, we have sent a pastor in to resolve the differences and invite everyone. He has chosen a neutral place, and it looks like all will attend.

I have been working on the 2013 calendar final pictures this week, and yesterday, was trying to get a picture of Magdalene, our youngest child. She came with stuff on her face (like any 3-year-old the world over...). I sent her back to wash her face, and Natasha found her and was washing her face. I said, "Natasha, where did you get the water for her face?" She said, "I have water here." I have sent you a picture of the "here" she was talking about. She had been mopping the cement in front of the orphanage, and used the water you see in the basin at her feet to clean Magdalene's face. I'll bet you had the same reaction I did - "YUCK! That's gross!" But, to both of them, it was business as usual. And...I got a great picture of Magdalene for the calendar.

Things are going well - everyone is healthy again, no threats to our lives this week, life is good! (Well, the electricity has been off a total of about 3 days this week off and on, but it's a little thing...) I am so thankful for all of you and your support for Cornerstone. The 2013 Cornerstone calendar has pictures of some of you...

Have a great day!

Laurie