Giving away bicycles to local pastors with S.O.S.

Winnie giving Eric a hug after opening her gifts

Rose having her card from Sam translated to her

Saying goodbye to the kids at S.O.S.

Thank you all so much for your prayers, the last few days have been amazing.  Thursday and Friday of this week were spent with the Hurley and Atherstone families at S.O.S. Ministries in the city of Mokono (click here to see their website). We were able to get a good overview of their ministry and help out with a few things along the way.

Thursday we went out with the other Team Uganda (who says hello to all the COC family) to a pretty remote village to help with registering pastors for a conference that S.O.S. will be starting in August.  At the end of the registration, each of the pastors was given a new bike to help with the transportation to the upcoming conference.  The bike cost was about the equivalent of 6 months salary for them, so this was a HUGE gift.  Jeff and I were the line monitors for the bike giving, and it was really cool for us to hear and see how excited these people were to be receiving this new gift.

Thursday night we got to have a family dinner with the Hurley's and the taste of American food was a welcome one for us.  Then, after dinner, we were able to hand out the gifts we brought for Winnie, Rose, and Jerrold.  This was definitely a highlight of the trip as we saw the kids' faces light up as they received their new clothes and school supplies.  The hugs we got that night will be remembered forever.

Friday morning we went with Shannon for the first of a two day conference he was doing for about 100 pentecostal pastors at a church near his home.  Eric and I were able to help him setup a way to record his sermons so he can send them out, and possibly use them for a radio ministry in the future.  We were once again reminded of the African concept of time at this conference, as there were maybe 20 people at the beginning but well over 100 by lunch time.  Friday night we had another great American meal with the Hurley's and the Atherstone's, then said goodbye and headed back to our temporary home in Kampala.

Saturday was spent back at Agape Children's Village, the first ministry we visited in Uganda.  The pastor there requested that we spent a day teaching his staff and church leaders, so we each took about an hour with a translator and went through Bible overview, devotional time, and time management.  The other guys went out today to teach a group of Compassion university students, but I stayed behind to try to kick a cold that I've had for the past few days.   I'm feeling much better already, thanks for asking, and I'm sure I'll be back at full strength by tomorrow morning.  Good thing, because we're leaving at 5am for an 8 hour drive to Queen Elizabeth National Park.  Hopefully I'll be able to put up another update when we get back.

Mine is Judah for sure.  I'm also a big fan of Judah Gunderson, whom we got to meet today.  When we first walked into his room, he had bananas all over his face but he was careful to not spill on his favorite T-shirt.

The last two days have been really busy for us here.  Monday morning we headed out to visit Thomas Abunde, Jeff's friend who directs the Word of Life ministry here in Uganda.  Thomas has a wide and effective ministry, including a Christian primary school, all sorts of youth discipleship and outreach, and pastoral training.  After a time of fellowship in the morning the day was spent training a group of pastors who came from all around Kampala.  The teaching time went really well, thanks for all of your prayers.  Several of the pastors asked us to come back and host a larger conference for them, and we were greatly humbled to even hear the request.  Monday night we had a great time with the Abunde family, playing with the kids, eating more delicious local food, and watching the heartbreaking soccer match on TV.

Tuesday morning we hopped a taxi for the city of Jinja.  Just a side note here, imagine a small mini-van.  Now imagine 14 strangers inside.  That was our trip to and from Jinja today, so much fun.  Anyway, after the 1.5 hour taxi ride we arrived at Amani Baby Cottage (ABC), and immediately got huge smiles on our faces, which remained solid for the next two hours.  Here's why:
 

For those who might not know, our friends Gunner and Cindi Gunderson are in the process of adopting their first son, Judah, from ABC.  We got a grand tour of the facility and got to meet all 51 of the babies living there.  We took a ton of pictures of Judah and the two kids the Tatlock family is adopting for the proud parents back home.  We were really impressed by the staff and how well they care for these children.  The kids at this home are truly loved by all around them.  It was a happy time for us, but also a heartbreaking time, as we were able to meet several of the children at ABC living with HIV and AIDS.  We heard some incredible stories of how some of these babies came to them, and how they will soon have new homes in the US.

Tomorrow we will get the opportunity to meet up with our friend Dick again, for some time with a team he is hosting from Cedarville College.  Pray that we make the most of our time with Dick, as we try to glean some of his wisdom from so many years here on the field in Uganda.  Then, Wednesday night, Thursday, and Friday will be spent with the Hurley's at SOS Ministries.  Our next post will most likely contain pictures of the kids that we sponsor at SOS, so stay tuned…

P.S. – I forgot to mention that this post has a new special feature!  You can click on any one of these pictures and get to a larger verision of said picture, which can be used for your computer desktop, printing out and putting next to your bed, or really whatever you want.  Thanks and goodnight.

Sorry it took so long between these last updates, just today we got the magical combination of power and phone credits that allow us to use the internet here.  Here's what we've been up to for the last couple of days:

Saturday we traveled to the city of Masaka, about 2.5 hours drive south west of Kampala, for a conference with Jacques.  The purpose of the conference was to start a new Alumni Association that Compassion is instituting in Uganda and the Phillippines.  We were expecting about 350 people to show up, but the final count was actually closer to 500.  Our main job there was to help Jacques document the event in photo and video, so he can use it for training when he goes to the Phillippines at the end of June.  It was really neat to see such a large group of formerly sponsored children who are now coming together to sponsor children themselves. What an inspiration to us!

Today, Sunday, we got our first church experience in Uganda.  We attended Agape Baptist Church in Ntindia, where Jacques is an elder, for Sunday School and English Service.  The service layout (OOW) was pretty similar to what we normally do at COC, with the exception of the number of songs.  Eric says there were 9 songs this morning, several that we could sing along with.  Another cool difference was that a man accepted Christ during the service.  It was really cool, they stopped the service and brought him up to the front for the entire congregation to pray.  There was also a moving part of the service where people were invited to the front for elder prayer, and many of those who went forward were the kids.  About half of the congregation is made up of local kids, most of whom are orphans or children of unbelieving parents.

This afternoon we had lunch with the Masiko family and have been resting and preparing for this week's schedule.  It's going to be a busy week, spending most of our time with Thomas Abunde (Jeff's friend from Word of Life) on Monday and Tuesday, then Shannon Hurley (our friend at SOS Ministries) on Thursday and Friday.  You can be praying for us over the next few days as we will be spending time teaching at a pastor's conference.  Pray that our teaching will be applicible and God glorifying.

And now some responses from our viewer mail:
Sam writes, "-how hot is it? Can you liken it to something we’d understand?
-have any of you gotten any sicknesses at all?
-how’s team unity going?
-what did you pakced that has proved a lifesaver?"
Thanks for asking Sam.  Hotness, not that bad.  I'd say its been maybe 80-85 with relatively high humidity.  For sure not as hot as Santa Clarita when we left, but the evenings can be a bit muggy when there's no power for the ceiling fan.  It's no where near as humid as the South though.
Sicknesses, well, E.G. has been taking the Immodium on an ongoing basis, but overall we're fine. U-N-I-T-Y, that's the unity, it has been strong to very strong.  Lifesaver up to this point, hand sanitizer, food, really everything has come in handy, and we haven't really been in need of anything.
Jennene writes, "Do these camps receive no aid from NGO’s? What is World Vision and Compassion Itnl’s role up there?"
As far as NGO's go, there's a long answer, which will have to wait until we get home, but the short answer is yes.  About 95% of the cars on the road in Gulu belong to an NGO.  They do help to some extent, they bring food to the camps and are the primary means for survival for the residents.  As of yet, Compassion isn't involved in the north, but are hoping to expand once the war is over.  World Vision is pretty large in Gulu, but we didn't get any opportunities to meet with them while there.