Back home!

After about 40 hours of travel time I am welcomed by the beautiful smells and sounds of Uganda. I am comforted to see things that I saw when I was here before. I am amazed by the impact that this land has had on my and what it feels like to return to a place so unique. I feel so blessed to beable to travel to this place yet again!
It has been amazing to see my Father come in and provide for amost of the Childrens shoes. We have only $800 left to gather so that we are able to start sizing and purchasing the shoes. I believe that the desire and passion that the Lord has put on Laura and my hearts has be awesome to see Him come in and intervine. We serve such an amazing and powerful God!! Please pray for our time here this first week that we would be able to connect with the people and be a family so we are able to be real and divine with them and that the Lord would make to the way for the large group coming as well. Pray for protection and communication that it would be clear. Also the process of getting shoes is going to be challenging plese pray for smooth and direct guidance by the Father! THANK YOU all so much for your toughs and prayers and support they all mean so much! I hope to be updating you all about what we are doing and all that is happening! Blessings and Love to you ALL!!!!

As I return to the land of unknown

As I sit here on my comfortable couch I have to smile. The beauty of life is so visible to me. That although there is so much I can try to do He has complete control. Oh how I love sharing with all of you that I will be returning to Uganda. I cannot express the feelings I have as the excitement of going becomes increasingly greater as my departure date nears. I have been in awe of the conversations and passion that comes out of people when real life hits the fan and is flying into beautiful directions! I would like to say that I know what it is going to be like to return to the place I feel most at home. It almost feels like I just got news I would go home for Christmas and I did not think I would get to come home. Oh the Joy that is within when I am reminded of all that I love so much. This time I will work hard at keeping updates consistent and vivid so that you can pray, laugh and hurt with me. The slender of this earth and all inhabitants of it are incredibly delicate to me and I cherish the time I am able to spend abroad. Thank you all for your love and support to the path I am on!
" From one man he created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries" Acts 17:26

The Desires Of My Heart

The beats of my heart go with those of the deep bush. This last week I experienced something I never imagined. The bush and not even in its full. I went deep, maybe 15K into where there is no town no anything just hunts and very small "centers" which are a few brick rooms. I felt everything where there was nothing. The district is Masindi and it is not even all the way north. Cannan Farm is a place where many families were able to run to from the rebels or there own civil war. It is a project started my Ugandans that owned land and saw the need of many Acholi people. So even this very rural place seemed some how Civil and is developing well. Still there the school had 1000 children and maybe a handful had shoes, none with uniforms and all cramed into 7 class rooms. The P5 level was the class that welcomed me into sing to me and welcome me to there village. 114 students in maybe a 25x25 room all ready to learn. So with that being the school the clinic was just one room on the other side of the center with one lady there, really not a lot. But it was there! Praise God. The week I was there, 6 people died of famine in Kitgum. There is the real deep village were everyone fears and people are in a struggle just to find food and water. The needs here are endless, but I believce God can do mighly things. I feel the most alive when I am there though. I want to be permanently there. I was very tempted to stay but I am alone. I think God wants me here. Please pray he would use me in the way he is wanting. I have been planning nursing for sometime and now see it is needed! But really so much is needed please pray God would move here! He is much greater than any food and any amount of money!

some realities of it all

On the real side these people have Joy! They have joy that is unheard of where I come from. Joy that overcomes all circumstances. A joy I could never grasp a hold of and obtain my self. I believe in the States we grow up with so much and it is given and taken away in moments and we can not be happy with having less than we once had. Well maybe just maybe if we were to have Nothing to begin with, a room of cement and a basin of cold water to wash. We would have the greatest joy to see even a plant growing. This is something I must take with me along side of every where I go. That happiness should not come from anything but a relationship. The end, that is all, so maybe if it comes to the end of the earth with no one person or God then my Joy could fade. This is something I must learn and teach. I am still and will always be learning. The truth of these things no matter were you turn we all are human just living in different places and different struggles. We are all in this together and from the way we have been taught to live we shall learn from each other in our ways so that one day we will be able to have the freedom to LIVE!

A day with my TWIN!

Hanifah is a beautiful girl! I have been so blessed to get to know her. Through the V-Team urging me to meet this wonderful girl that was looking like me! Although the skin color is slightly differing people say we are looking similar:) So I have been with her in a out through this "holiday" she has. Philip with Young Life Jinja has taken her in to live with him and to send her to school. It has been quite a journey of knowing them. They have really thaught me so many things.
With Hanifah soon going back to school I decided to take her out for a day! We went to a very nice pool right on the Nile(in picture). She is just learning to swim so I was able to give her some lessons on how to become a better swimmer! She is learning so very well! She really loves it too which is so wonderful. The small bit she knows she holds onto and is progressively learning. It makes me very thankful for the, what feels like, being born with the talent of swimming. Essentially it is being born in a place where naturally you learn how to swim or go to "school" for it! So then after swimming and laying out in the relaxing breeze, we went to eat. There is a place Flavors that is Dutch owned and is very nice you can get lots of Muzungu food. I did not realize it would be a challenge when it came to ordering for Hanifah. She had never been to a place as this and was put into a hard spot. We eventually got through though and she really enjoyed it in the end:) I had a wonderful time with her on that fun filled day! Please pray she is able to go to school this term and that there is peace in her life!

Bathing under the banana tree

What a beautiful place: Katente. The village I was able to visit over the weekend! To get there it took 2 taxi's and 2 boda ride's from Jinja. The place we went was were OJ was born and raised. It had been a complete jungle around his hut but now there was some farming taking place so it had been some what cleared out.
The father of OJ has 11 children and OJ was the last born. Musa is his name, he is 86 years old and still so strong. He is able to read the smallest bible letters and carry loads of wood and also slaughter a goat. As soon as I was there the slaughtering began! And over the course of the weekend we finished what seemed to be the entire goat, from the intestines , to the liver it was all consumed. All the food that was eaten was grown there. That is were all of there food comes from and if there is none grown then they are not be to be feed. Recently there was a famine and barely made it through, also Musa had just been bit by a "flying snake" and almost died but was still doing so much work while I was there! So incredible! He has been there since 1941 and there has not ever been a Muzungu(a white person) there. People were coming all night just to see if I was really there. Even some men had made some bet that I was not really there. It was quite an sight. Then al so to fetch water was a very distance process, first take cans about 1/2 mile away down into the jungle, then bath there so that you didnt need to waste water, then fill the can again and head out and up the hill back to the house. Also the house ha just been put there by on of Musas sons because his 3rd hut had fallen in. I could go on and on of stories that were told! It was really an amazing thing to see though, something I will never forget!

The way of Sunday...

The way I am able to spend my Sundays is a beautiful thing!! I wake at 8 and get some food in me before I head to Njeru. It is 1500 Shilings to ride a cross the Nile and to the AOET on the hill. There they are empowering Ugandans that raise orphans. There is a small fellowship lead every Sunday by Pastor O.J. and his family. The community consists of mostly children which make for a joyous time. Always full of loud singing and they have even put together there own choir that practices every Saturday. I was able to get connected to this wonderful family through Sarah Ray. Pastor O.J. is one of the most incredible people I have ever known. I could be around him all the time he is always laughing and having caracter it is so great to see. He has had much stugggle in his life. He did not recieve shoes until age 17 if that tells you anything. He was rescued by an older sister that brought him away from his sick father that was unable to care for him. He remebers the pain of himself because he was so poorly taken care of. It was only little he was able to tell me because he said it was so painful to even remember. So now they live in a very nice place AOET has given them for 4 years then they must find a place and be on there own. This is there last year and he does not know what the Lord will bring him but if fully dependent on the Lord. His faith is incredible from even going some days with out knowing what he will feed his family for breakfast but the Lord providing a loaf of bread. It is so real. His family consists of Mama Sarah, Rachel who is an orphan and in school but on break now, then Panina who is so timid but a beautiful heart, Samuel who Sarah was able to pray and have the birth be complete, Joel also shy but is now not fearing me and baby Shalome. O.J. also tells me I am now apart of the family! I feel blessed. The way he lives his life is incredible. He has 9 pigs he feeds every morning at 5 he leaves his house on his bike and rides for 30-45 min to hotels to get scraps to feed them and that takes a couple of hours. Some days(Mon, Wen, Fri) he has to go directly from there to preach a study then from there he has a garden at home that is always needing work. Then if he has school he will go from 4-10 at night and when he returns the family will wait so he can eat. To top it off he make hospital envelopes at night to sell. It is unreal, and then he has children that needs his love and he gives them so much! I have learned so much from this true Man of God I feel so blessed to know him. This week I am praying that I am able to send his family including my self to see his village because his children have not seen yet. I do not know if things will work out there are some challenges so I ask you pray I am able to take them for a couple days. Thank you! Blessings!