We love our bathroom!

You probably could tell from the title that we are home. After a stressful 24+ hours of travel with 3 flights and 2 major delays and one lost piece of luggage we arrived home about an hour ago. Our flight out of Entebbe was delayed over an hour but thankfully some time was made up so we were able to get off in Amsterdam and right back in line for processing and security to get on that plane which left about 45 minutes late which meant getting into Detroit late and then realizing my (Barb's) bag did not get through so a rush to get to our flight to GR which was on time and gloriously short. Generally the actual flights were smooth and the meals were plentiful and delicious. OK, so I am being sarcastic about the meals. At least we still got fed and watered.

Our final few days were spent traveling with Tim and Angie and the kids back into Kampala and then a couple days in Kampala before we started back. It was a good chance to relax but there is not much to do there and a white woman and man sitting by a pool get lots of stares. We had many goodbyes and visitors the last couple days in Soroti. Again it is hard to leave after renewing these relationships.

So now is the fun of sorting 6 weeks of mail, and grocery shopping to restock a refrigerator and pantry that are extremely bare. Hopefully my bag will be on the porch when we get home from the store. Can you say "long, hot shower" 6 times and brushing our teeth using the water that comes out of the faucet instead of pouring it from a bottle of clean water? We love our bathroom!

Thank you to all who followed out blog and the many prayers we know were prayed for us and our work. We saw answers to the prayers from last summer so we know God will work through the prayers prayed this summer as well.

August 1

We are back in Kampala. Tim and Angie, their kids, and Barb and I left Soroti yesterday morning. We went to Jinja last evening and stayed at the Mto Moyoni Retreat Center last night along the Nile River. It was quiet and peaceful and we were able to see some red-tailed monkeys playing in the trees along the river.

This morning we drove the rest of the way to Kampala (about 2 hours). Tim and Angie and the kids leave this evening for the Netherlands. We do not fly out until Sunday evening so we have a couple days to relax here. Now that we are here, it would have been nice to be able to have our flight tonight, but we will able to find things to do.

Tuesday-July 29

Barb finished up with knitting this morning and we complete the last of our marriage Bible studies this afternoon. That will pretty much wrap up what we have come to do here.
The last day of Children's Ministry went very well on Friday as well as the church service on Sunday. There were many kids present for the service where I (John) spoke about what we had done during the week, and the kids sang and recited a memory verse they had learned. It was a good week spent with many of the same kids that we saw last year. It was a very rewarding time.
The last couple days will be spent just finishing up some details.

A Fast Week

This week has gone by quite quickly. Barb has been busy each morning with knitting with the women at SACAB. The men were gone most of this week so they had women's knitting club each morning. They have made good progress and are nervous that the time is coming to a close and they haven't learned all that they want to.

Children's Ministry at the Arapai church has gone very well. Yesterday we had our biggest group so far, about 100 kids. It has gotten a little crazy at times. We made fish out of CDs on Wednesday by gluing fins, tail and eyes on the CD. It was just Tim, Barb and me trying to keep control of about 80 kids who all wanted something shiny to take home. When we finished that day, we knew that we had been working with a large number of kids. Today we finish up with the stories of the ascension of Jesus and Pentecost. We began with Jesus calling his disciples to be fishers of men and are ending with them going out to do so.

We have had some uniquely African experiences the last couple nights. On Wednesday night it rained for about 8 hours. When we went back to our apartment the boys and girls from the family in the back we busy washing their clothes and bathing in the courtyard. They were having a great time sliding across the smooth concrete on their bare bottoms. No pictures to share of this event.

Last night, after several days of rain after a dry spell, the White Hand ants hatched. These are flying ant creatures that live a short time after hatching but are gathered by the people who fry them up for some protein. We woke at 2:00 this morning to a woman and a couple small children gathering these under the light in the courtyard. They were not being very quiet and after waking we found that many people were up in the neighborhood doing the same thing. No, we did not have any to eat today.

Keep praying for health and energy to do the things that we have lined up. The end of the time is fast approaching.

Childrens Ministry

This week is our week of Children's Ministry in Arapai. We started yesterday, Monday, with about 60 kids and that will probably expand today and throughout the week. Many of the kids recognized us and they were eager to listen and do the activities and the singing was as good as we remembered. This should be a fun week.
A funny story from a couple days ago is when I, Barb, was talking with a man in our marriage Bible Study who is disabled by polio. He uses an adult tricycle to get around and asked me what people with disabilities use in America. I began to describe a wheelchair to him and after a couple minutes he said, "We call those things wheelchairs in Uganda." Needless to say we all got quite a laugh out of that.
We continue to do well and are enjoying our time here. Thanks for your prayers and comments.

Saturday-July 19

It has been a good week. Once we were back on Wednesday we went back to our activities here. Barb has been knitting each morning with the people at SACAB and I have been at Harmony School each morning. These two activities have allowed us to use our gifts in very practical ways.

Barb has made good progress with the knitters although they seem to have a bit of difficulty figuring out what it is that they really want to knit. It was going to be sweaters. Yes, why does one need a sweater when it rarely gets below 70 degrees. I guess temperature is relative. Anyway, now that someone has been working on a shawl, there seems to be an interest in working on shawls. There is good progress being made in the general knitting skills. Not that I would know, but that is what I am told.

I have taught Bible at Harmony Primary School the last two mornings. Harmony is the primary school run by YWAM in Soroti. They have much smaller classes than the public schools around and should be able to provide much more direct teacher-student interaction. Bible is taught with all the grades together P-1 to P-5 from 8-8:30 each morning. There is a time of praise and worship and then a lesson. Up to this point, the lessons have been very much like sermons and lectures. The last two mornings I have taught by telling and acting out stories. The kids have seemed very engaged and the teachers were all present for this. Normally the teacher who is "teaching" is there and the others take a break. They were all told to be present to observe. This is a bit intimidating, but I believe it went well.

While I have been there, there has been a Dutch couple, who are also teachers, working at the school with the teachers on teaching reading. We have spent a lot of time talking about ways to bring about some changes in the way instruction is handled.

We have our marriage Bible study starting in just a few minutes. This has gone quite well. We are getting more discussion as the people start to get to know us a bit more.

Last night and this morning we had the opportunity to listen to the stories of 3 of the young men we got to know last year. Two were abducted by the LRA and the other had his father abducted by them. Their stories are terrible and amazing all at once. Each one claims they have managed to put this terrible past behind them and forgive because they were saved since then. It is hard to imagine boys in their early teens being taught to kill and years later they are able to tell the story and give thanks to God for the blessings in their lives.

I (John) had another Bible study at Amecet this morning. These have become very enjoyable times as the kids have begun to open up and relax at bit more. I will have one more time with them next Saturday.

Sorry if this is confusing. Some of it was written on Friday and some on Saturday. We know you are all smart enough to sort that all out.

Back to work

After a beautiful couple days in the mountains near Mbale we are back to work. For 30,000 shillings - about $20, we had a small cabin with a mattress with the indentation already in place where we could lay and a pillow that helped us sit up while we slept. We also had our own latrine - pit toilet and a hot / cold running shower depending on if they had lit a fire under the pot holding the water before it was pumped to the shower. There are 3 water falls that we hiked to Sipi Falls is the largest at 100 meters and then another we could walk behind and the third we could get near so we were sprayed and wet. It is beautiful but very muddy and sometimes the hiking made me, Barb, very nervous. Our second hike was from nowhere to nowhere but the end result was beautiful.

Today we are back at the knitting which is going well. The blind people have invited John and me to play a game of goal ball with them. I think this is like dodgeball but they will blindfold us and then use a ball with a bell inside. Sounds rather painful so we will see if this actually happens.

John has been asked by Els at Amacet to teach a couple Bible lessons at Harmony school as an example to the teachers of how to engage the students more in the lesson. He can explain this better so I will leave it to him ot give more information on that. He will start this tomorrow, Thursday. Your prayers will be helpful since the teachers at Harmony are somewhat resentful of being told how to do this although their method is not successful.

As always thanks for your prayers and messages.