Hi Friends and Family!
We have had a wonderful week with our mission team here. You can check out all the updates from our HHFM Uganda blog, www.helpinghandsuganda.blogspot.com.
We went to Entebbe yesterday to take the mission team back to the airport. On the way, we got to stop at Bujagali Falls, on the Nile river. It was beautiful! Since our camera is gone, I don't have pictures personally, but some of the team members took pictures and I will get them out as soon as possible. Then we stopped in Kampala to shop in a local market area. We also had pizza for lunch! It was SOOOO good to have something besides rice and beans!!
We got the team to the airport and started our trip back to Busia. It normally takes about 5 hours, but there was a major traffic jam in Kampala. So, we sat and waited and creeped along. But, one of the guys had a gadget that will broadcast your Ipod music on a radio station - so we got to listen to American praise and worship music the whole way back. It was an awesome time for us to be refreshed and simply enjoy being in the presence of God! There wasn't anything else we could do, or wanted to do!
This morning, we received some sad news. One of the children, Dickson, in our school passed away last night from malaria, He was in the 7th grade. I cried. But, Pastor Moses shared that this boy's life was very hard. He didn't have parents, and he had been living with his grandmother. His grandmother had been sick. So, the boy would get up early and draw water and make a meal in the morning for his family, then go to school until the lunch break and run home to take care of his grandmother, then come back to finish up the school day. His grandmother just passed away about a week ago. So, he was left without a guardian. Pastor Moses was planning on taking him in. He had been sick with malaria and had received treatment, but some of the medicine is not working as well on one of the strands. So, he was in the hospital in Kenya receiving more treatment, but it just didn't work in time. There is some extended family I think, and we were able to get enough money together to help them get the body back here so we can have a funeral service. I think that will be next week.
Tomorrow, Mike, Dr. Brenda, Aaron, and Kim (other staff members) will be leaving to go to Kenya to visit some bush churches and do some pastor training. Dr. Brenda will be giving updates on HHFM and how the ministry is doing. Mike will be teaching the pastors about stewardship/tithing and encouraging them to teach that to their congregations. Aaron will be teaching on evangelism and how they can get their members involved in reaching others for Christ. Kim will be teaching on discipleship, encouraging the pastors to have teaching for new believers, youth, and adults, so their members can be growing in their relationship with Christ. All this will have to be covered in a 2-3 hour time period. Each day they will be traveling to a different area so the pastors in each area can all receive the teaching. They will be coming back on Tuesday night.
I will be staying in Busia with Joy (staff member full time in Uganda) and George (a HHFM volunteer who does so much!). We will be working on getting more gifts passed out to our sponsored children. It has been such a blessing to watch the faces of these children as they receive mattresses and blankets, shoes, or a letter from their sponsor in America. Some of the sponsors have sent pictures and it has been so neat to show the children what snow looks like, or how the leaves change colors in the fall. I look forward to doing more of that this coming week!
Thank you all so much for your continued prayers and support!
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