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.

Sunday

This morning we went to the church that Josh and Mandy generally attend and where we went some of the time last year. So we were welcomed as old friends by Pastor Francis and a few of the people there. Josh has started a Children's ministry there so all the kids leave after the singing and offering just like most of our churches in the USA. They have improved some in the use of their small keyboard as accompaniment to singing but it still seems to decrease the natural rhythm of their singing.

Friday we had our first marriage Bible Study group. We had 7 people attend. Most of them are married but only one woman was there since the others were home or in the village taking care of the children. This changes some of what we had planned to do since we had hoped to have the couples talk about what was learned and how the lesson would impact their marriage. However, the discussion was better that we expected since Ugandans are not used to talking part in a discussion especially when the white people are leading it and they think we are somehow experts. All the questions we expected came up in this first lesson - dowry, sex before marriage, number of children and others.

Saturday we helped sort a large number of donated items into smaller amounts to be distributed by a couple churches. That was a big job and good to have finished. John, Tim, Josh and Matt played some 2-2 basketball and found out they are not in as good of shape as they all would like. But it was fun. Matt is a young man who is visiting on a vision trip to see if he wants to spend a year working with the team here in Soroti.

Tomorrow we are going to Sipi Falls for a couple days. This is a park near Mbale where you can do some hiking. We will be going with Tim and Angie and their kids. The temperature is supposed to be cool because it is in the mountains.
That's all for now.

I think it is Friday

You tend to lose track of the day of the week when the schedule is not dictated by the day. Each day just sort of runs into the next one.

I got put in the back room at the internet cafe today and am sitting here roasting. It is quieter back here, but that would be the only redeeming thing.

I have spent part of each day this week at Harmony School, YWAM's primary school in Soroti. I had hoped to do some helping out in whatever way possible. At this point, there does not seem to be much to help with in terms of education. The need is there, but the vehicle to put help in place is not. This has been somewhat frustrating because I see things to do but the way they teach does not allow for an individual or small group work. We will see next week again. I just may work with around the place cleaning up and doing some odd jobs. Those are not hard to see.

Barb has worked several days with the blind people at SACAB. They are getting a start on knitting their vests. This is a big project to take on over a rather short period of time. They were eager to try so Barb will have to see how this all goes.

Yesterday we went with Josh out to a couple of the orange orchards that are being planted by the blind. We helped plant one and saw the progress on one that was planted about the time we came here last June. There are some of the trees that look very good and some that don't. It has been tough because last fall there was flooding and then now it is very dry. They just cannot seem to win.

We begin this afternoon with a marriage Bible study. We really don't know how many or which people are going to show so this should be interesting. We planned six lessons to do while we are here. Pray for interest, discussion, and a willingness to look at what the Bible says about marriage and how that often conflicts with this culture.

We appreciate you reading and commenting. It keeps us in touch with home.

Tuesday-July 8

The past two days have been a mix of events. On Sunday, we went to a church service in the Karamoja region of Uganda. This region has been known for violence and hostility. The tribes kill over cows. However, the village we went to is a recently settled village on the boarder of the region which is being settled by people of four different tribes and regions who want to end the violence and live peacefully. They have started a new church there and we attended that service under a tree. The poorness of the people was worse than anything we saw last summer. Filthy living conditions, not enough water, little food, and lots of distended bellies. But these people have a dream of peace among groups of people that have hated each other and fought amongst each other for generations so it is an amazing place to be.
On our way there we stopped in a town in an area that had been raided as recently as 2007 by the Lord's Resistance Army and has also had many raids by the Karamajong. Many people were displaced from their homes and children were abducted by the LRA to serve their army. We saw a mass grave area where each grave held at least 30 bodies. We also talked to a boy of about 9 who had been abducted when he was 6 and made to carry things for the LRA and was being taught to use a gun before he got away. This was one of the areas hardest hit by the intense flooding in Northern Uganda last fall so they lost all their crops then and now have had such severe drought that they are again losing most of the crops this season. Global warming is a real thing in place like this as their seasons change and dramatically changes their way of life.
We ended the day at Amacet while they finished supper and then sang their Sunday evening worship songs. They have about 8 infants and 8 toddlers plus the 12 older kids. They are very full right now but continue to do wonderful things. They have had a lot of difficult things happening the past few months so can use additional prayers for staying strong and encouraged.
On Monday John spent some time at Harmony School which can be a frustrating thing to do. School is so rote and they learn so little. A first grade teacher should not ned to be told to show the students the pictures while reading a picture book to them but that is what happened today while he was there.
I spent time doing our first laundry – picture buckets and wash basins – and also got things ready to start with the knitting tomorrow morning.
Tonight we celebrated Avalien's 3rd birthday. It was a good dinner and a fun time watching a 3 year open gifts.
It appears that there will not be any pictures to accompany the blog. The internet connection in town just is not fast enough to upload any pictures. It has been a long time since we have enjoyed the pleasure of watching web pages load item by item.
Thanks for you comments and emails and prayers.

Getting Started

Last night we had our 4th of July celebration. It was truly a multicultural event. Although we were celebrating the independence of the United States, we had a party with Canadians, Dutch, South Africans, Filipinos, and even a few of us from the U.S. It was a good time. Grilled food, a good potluck, and bonfire to make for a good celebration.

This morning I went to Amecet Amun, where the older children live. I did a Bible study with them, which I will be doing each of the Saturdays while we are here. It is difficult to get the kids to answer questions and discuss, but it went quite well. It was just fun to see these kids again. They seem to be doing well.

Barb went over to SACAB and saw what progress the blind people had made on knitting over the last year. They have done quite well and made good progress. In fact, the woman who Barb had determined last year would not learn to knit until she got to heaven, had actually been knitting and was doing surprisingly well. Josh commented that obviously heaven had come to earth.

We are adapting back to the heat and humidity. The heat of the sun reminds us where we are. And yes, it rained again last night. We don't mind that so much because it cools down the evening.

We are here!

It feels like we never left. That was Barb's assessment after getting out of the shower last night. It truly feels pretty much the same as it did to be here a year ago. I guess this is a good thing. Not much has changed-the apartment is still the same, electricity is off right now, and yesterday the water was off but was on this morning. Sometimes the same is good and sometimes not so good.

Our flights and connections all went quite well. We were an hour late leaving Amsterdam on Wednesday morning so we were a bit late getting into Entebbe, but beside that all went well. We stayed the first night at a guest house in Entebbe which was nice. Our driver arrived on Thursday morning on time!! We had a very good trip out to Soroti in a very nice vehicle. We shared a ride with a young man who is visiting with the team here to see about the possibility of coming out and joining the mission team here. It has been very dry here, but we brought the rain with us. It rained very hard on the drive here which is the first rain that they have had here in three weeks.

It has been wonderful seeing people again. Everyone we saw yesterday was so happy we are back and the girls are already climbing all over us and wanting books read and games played. We spent most of today so far figuring out what our schedule will look like for the next 4 weeks. Now we are taking care of things in town like groceries, the market, and internet. We found out last night that they no longer have internet at home so we need to go into town to check and send email. This might decrease or delay our postings but we will do our best. Internet cafe rates are very cheap so this will not be a costly addition.

It is the Fourth of July, but they do not seem to know that it is a holiday. We are going to have a picnic this afternoon, but I do not believe there will be fireworks. They try to celebrate these kinds of things just for a little bit of home.

Give thanks for safe travel. Pray for good health and energy to do the things that we are planning to do.

Packed and Ready to Go

We have spent the day finishing up the packing and running around doing errands. We think that we have packed what we need and even some of what we want. We will double check everything in the morning before we go.

We are eagerly anticipating being back in Uganda. The problem is having to travel for about 24 hours to get there.

Pray for smooth connections and safe travel.

The time listed for this post is already set on Uganda time.