Our hearts break as we say goodbye to Africa once again

What an incredible journey the last 30 days has been for our church and the 32 team members who traveled to Uganda Africa. We have gone from fears of the unexpected, weeks before our travels began, to the over powering of emotions that can’t be explained or understood. We have seen and heard many new things that at times sent confusion to team members and at times so much laughter that we could not breath.

We have had the privilege to visit many different villages and schools while here: Nyrambie, Awillow, Nebbi Town, Nampunge, Kasula, Busuujja, Kasubi, and Heritage International to name a few. We have spent time with the women, children, and pastors in order to help us understand and appreciate the life these Ugandan people live. We worked side by side with them in efforts to build stronger communities and to build lasting friendships in the name of Jesus Christ. We worshipped with them and gave praise to God for all He does for each of us each day. We are all God’s children whether we live in the US or Africa. We might not speak the same languages, but God understands us all.

We have seen many levels of poverty and what we in America would consider unthinkable living conditions. Water that is so unclean even the Ugandan’s can not drink it. Homes so small and have so many people crowed into them that there is no room for furnishings. Food in the city is expensive and hard to come by when your yearly wages are less than we as Americans spend eating out one meal. Work is hard to find and many have opened businesses in hopes of just feeding their children each day. With the number of vendors selling the same products right next to each other the competition is high and you must cut prices to in order to sell anything. Each day the total of their sales might feed some of their children and does not come close to paying for rent and school fees, so many people live on the floor of their shops. Bathing conditions are no more than a bucket of water to wash up in. And the bathroom facilities are a hole in the ground that most of the time you share with flies and mosquitoes.

The many different medical facilities experienced by the teams were at best scary. They ranged from small clinics to one of the largest complexes we had ever seen. Some were for children only and some had a wing for every kind of problem. Each was as if you had walked into a movie about WWI. The very large wards with no less than 30 metal beds full of people; with personal care givers sleeping on the floor beside their loved one. The screams of babies sick and hurting fill the air. The smell of human waste and the site of the dead in hallways waiting for family to claim them, was more than our hearts could take.

We’ve witnessed the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets, as can only be seen in the skies of Africa. The colors and textures of the country side so lush and green. We have seen the natural habitats of Gods creatures as they were meant to be seen, not behind fences or living in cages.
We have been shown true friendship and felt the warmth of other peoples souls exposed at its most vulnerable times of life. We have seen the beginnings of new life and of the finality of death. We witnessed 100’s beginning baptized. We have been accepted and loved by the people of Uganda.

We have grown closer to people we see on Sunday’s for years, but never really took the time to know these people before now. 32 people will forever be tied to a place and time, to an experience greater than ourselves.

We shared laughter and tears, excitement and discouragement, aching backs and aching hearts. We worked hard, played hard, and learned to adapt to the many personalities among the teams and the at times very strange culture differences. We explored new and interesting foods, and some tested our true missionary spirit at times. But we did not seem to lose any of those extra pounds we thought we might. We did eat a lot and often as each group of people wanted to share their thanks by way of food.

We met the little lives that we sponsor and now those pamphlets have real faces, little hands, big eyes, and very hurt expressions as to the lives they endure. They also have very big smiles when pictures are taken and small packages are opened. A piece of candy brings the biggest thanks you will ever receive. Can we really make a change to the little lives of Uganda? I think we all saw first hand the lives we personally have impacted so far, and gave us the encouragement to continue to fight for the future of these children.

Many of the children have many fears here like being female, as many things happen to them like rape, being beaten, and not being given the chance to get an education because they are a girl. They all have seen war, death of family members from Aids, and poor relationships of their parents. They see parents in drunken states and abuses of mothers by fathers. They can see this cycle of poverty and are hopeful that change can happen, but as they get older they are pulled in many directions and many times fall right back into the cycle.

The culture is so strong and so present in everything they do, from the daily chores of gathering water to the rich excitement of music and dance. The sear skill it takes to play the drums, sing and dance; and they can do it all as each skill continues to be passed down from generation to generation.

As Americans we seem to come with the intention to teach and to show new things to a 3rd world nation. A nation so seemingly behind the modern times we feel compelled to show them the way things should be done. Instead we leave here having learned so much about ourselves, our shortcomings, our mistakes, and how far we have to go to gain what these people already possess, love and compassion of the heart and for one another.

The 2 team’s dynamics were completely different from personalities, expectations, management styles, leadership styles, personal comfort zones, skill sets, and attitudes. But the mission was the same, to change lives. If truth be told it was our lives that were changed the most.

On behalf of Teams 1 and 2 the time has come once again to say with tears in our eyes and much love in our hearts Goodbye for another year. We take with us untold images that will forever be burned into our hearts and minds. You will be in our thoughts and prayers. Until we meet again


Thank you so much for the love, support, and prayers you have said for the two teams.
God Bless and keep you in His everlasting arms

With Much Love Kimberly
And
Team 1 Cheri, Larry, Tammy, Jeff, Janell, Teri, Genda, Emily, Jen, Debbie, Fredo, Delbert, Dan, Seth, Tim, Bill
Team 2 John, Debbie, Alexis, Brenda, Patti, Valerie, Steve, Carolina, Hilary, Heather, Carl, Mark, Scott, Chris, Grant

An apple a day...........

We have seen many different facilities in regards to health care in Uganda. The village medical clinics were filled with Malaria, Syphilis, HIV, and expecting mothers. The doctors that came with us are used to treating running noses, coughs, and the occasional cut needing stitches. The rooms are about 10x10 and have 3 or 4 patients in them. You might have a mix of HIV, Malaria and a woman in labor in the same room. Those with less threatening needs must wait hours for treatment and some wait and sleep on mats over night while waiting. Cost depends on services rendered but usually a few thousand shillings.

The children’s hospital is a place where children are taken for birth defects, serious injuries and accidents. One might see large tumors on the faces of very sweet little girls, small baby‘s that have major burns from crawling into an open fire, or a little boy who at a year old contracted polio and after crawling for 8 years in the dirt was able to have the surgery to fix his legs. The facility was outdated and the wards had about 15 beds in each one. A family member must stay to take care of the child but food does come with the daily charge. They did have a workshop were they made wheelchairs and braces for little legs. In order for the children to keep up with studies there is a classroom for the kids and a teacher to help them. What a great improvement in this culture. This was a place were there was hope as most of these children had waited years in order to get the medical help they needed. The true heart break is actually the little ones still out there hurting and with broken bodies that have not been helped yet.

The next facility was run by the Catholic Church and had very pretty grounds. Again the facilities were very outdated kind of like when you watch a movie from the 40’s. But it was clean.

The next was a hospital where we took a baby for his immunizations. Heaven was here as we saw no less than 100 babies all waiting with their mothers. It was a very hot day and many of these women had been waiting at least 2 or 3 hours already. They promote whole family values so if a woman comes with her husband they get to move to the front of the line. Fathers are not generally family oriented so this is their way of trying to get them involved.

The last hospital seemed the worse one. It is a state owned facility and is free for the bed but everything else must be provided for by the family. It can take many many hours to be seen or admitted. Babies crying from being in pain and sick waiting in the hot sun are the sounds one might hear. If the doctor prescribes meds the family many times must go get it and bring it back to their loved one. The family is also responsible to feed the sick family member and must stay and take care of their every need. The family member will sleep on the floor under the patents bed. If you have ever watched a horror movie where the main character was being chased at a hospital this was it. The halls were very long and dark. The wards were huge with maybe 30 or more beds and very few nurses. The floors were dirty and the equipment that looked to be from WWI. The thoughts were if we get sick please just let me die don’t bring us here. As we walked the halls an eerie feeling was inside us just wanting to leave to get out. And the smells of human waste penetrated our senses. It was the one of the scariest places felt on the trip. At times dead bodies are left in the halls waiting for family to claim them.

Next time you have to wait a little longer for the doctors appointment or need to go to the hospital you might remember the people in Uganda. You might just go with a different attitude.

Much Love Kimberly

October 10, 2008

This will be my final blog from here in Kampala, Africa. I can't believe how fast the time has flown! It seems like we just got here and we are almost ready to depart. In fact, by this time tomorrow evening we will be on our way back!

Today was a relaxing day of massages, shopping, pizza and movies. Tim and Colleen have been so good to us. They planned a wonderful day of relaxation and we all took advantage of it. Some of us went shopping in the morning while the others had massages and then in the afternoon we switched and the rest of us visited some shops. Such wonderful items for sale and helpful business people. I'm afraid I probably disappointed many of them because I'm just not good at doing the bargaining but we have several who are very good at it including Hilary, Chris and Scott. I do have to add Carolina because Steve mentioned to me that she was looking at a particular item and when the shopkeeper wouldn't bargain she left, hoping to find the item in another place!

When we all met back after our enjoyable day, Tim and Colleen had ordered pizza and made the most wonderful chocolate dessert. So delicious!

Then Tim set up his 'big screen TV' (projector and wall) and we watched “Blood Diamond”. It had special meaning for us since much of it was filmed in Africa (probably most of it) and it was a moving film about the diamond trade here in Africa.

Following the movie Brenda led us in a wrap-up type of devotional and talked about thankfulness by sharing areas and talents that each one of us brought to this team. It was very moving and we ended the evening by making a bead bracelet to represent God's love and faith in us. Patti led us in two songs and then Carl closed us in prayer. Our worship here has been so marvelous; God has truly touched us and been in our midst!

Tomorrow will be a busy day as we will be getting up to go to the church that the teams from last year built and see the students from the Central Community Preschool. Those of us who sponsor a child (and I believe it's most of us) will be meeting our students and we are all excited about that. For those of you at CCC who also sponsor a child we will be greeting them tomorrow and presenting them with your gifts.

After a program and a few other events we will be rushing back to the Stevenson's to change, grab our suitcases and head to the airport. With the terrorist alert that Kampala has been under we want to be sure to get there in plenty of time. Speaking of that, in case you have heard about that, be assured that the police and other military personnel are doing their jobs. We have seen more police in the past few days and we can see that they are taking security very seriously. None of us feel worried for two main reasons: God is in control and our wonderful missionaries are following His lead. Praise God!

Well, for the last time from Uganda, thanks for reading the blog and praying for us. We will see you soon!

Valerie

October 9, 2008

We made it out of the jungle and back at the Stevenson's! What a fantastic time of seeing another beautiful part of God's world and the amazing animals that He created for us to enjoy!

We left @ 7:00 a.m on Monday morning in two safari buses. As we bounced along we all wondered what would happend and hoped that we would see many different types of animals. When we came to the equator we all got out and took our pictures and did some shopping. A few of us paid 200 shillings for the privilege of using a Western toilet; then the businessman didn't give us our change! OH, well.

We stopped for lunch at a village/town along the road and had some great American type food. I even had French fries with real ketchup. Yum! Mark had a 'pizza' that was closer to a thick tortilla shell but he pronounced it as 'delicious'. Several of the others had onion rings and a few tried more exotic fare (Patti had something with lentil beans and Heather ate 'chicken on fire'). Everything was really delicious and best of all; another clean Western type bathroom. :-) (As you can see it's the simple things that make us grateful).

After about eight or so hours of traveling (it could have been longer but I lost count) we arrived. The name of the park is Queen Elizabeth Park. We started seeing animals such as zebras (along our way), monkeys and large herds of elephants. That was so exciting because we were so close to them that if they would have been in the mood to charge us we would have been vulnerable. As it was we were able to put the roof up on the bus, stand up and enjoy the beautiful weather and scenery and get some great photos.

After checking into our rooms and eating supper (along with a devotional time) we all went to bed since we were to be up and ready to leave @ 6:30 the next morning.

We met in the morning and drove around and found many more types of animals: (hopefully I get all the names right) water buffalo, wart hogs (ask Hilary about getting real close to take their pictures!), a type of deer, and lions! That was so exciting. We stopped when we saw other groups looking across a lake at them and it was really hard to see them but we tried. After a few minutes we got back in the buses and our guides took us to another spot where we saw several lions – two or three females and two or three cubs. This time we were closer and were able to get some great shots. In our bus we were praising God because we had been asking Him to show us different types of animals and within a few minutes He did. What a great God we serve! He cares enough about us to answer even those types of prayers.

After our great morning we went back to the hostel where we were staying for some breakfast. Then we had time to explore or rest until lunch at the lodge and then off for a boat ride @ 5:00. Some people did rest but others went and checked out the museum that was on the grounds and some went to the lodge.

Our late lunch was very nice at the lodge and we were able to eat on the veranda where many birds tried to join us, even coming around when someone would leave their plate unattended. A mongoose was found under the table and one of our group (not saying his name but his initials are “Chris Hanson”) even fed it and we got some great pictures.

At 5:00 we all went on the boat and enjoyed a two hour cruise on the canal that is between Lake Edward and Lake George. During our cruise we saw many, many groups of hippos and tried to get some good pictures of them opening their mouths! Many large crocodiles were spotted close to the hippos and other animals which made us wonder how they all seemed to be so peacefully cohabitating. Probably the answer is that our guide told us that crocodiles only eat around once every three months so the animals must have felt safe! :-)

We saw many types of birds and one that seemed especially impressive was the African Bald Eagle: very similar to our Bald Eagle. It looked so majestic whether it was flying around us or sitting in a tree.

On a hillside we were fortunate to see a group of hyenas. They were very difficult to see with the naked eye but with a zoom lens one could see them and take their pictures.

We all agreed that the boat ride was relaxing and very enjoyable and a great way to end the day.

This morning we got up even earlier and left @ 6:00 a.m! We were hoping to see some chimpanzees and when we pulled up in front of a couple of huts and two guides with guns ran out throwing on their shoes we had no idea what to expect. They joined us in our buses and after driving a few miles away our drivers stopped and everyone got out. I wondered (as did a few others) what we were doing.

Imagine my surprise when we were told we were going INTO the jungle to track chimpanzees! Me, with my green flip flops! Hilary changed her shoes as did a few others, but alas, I had left my tennis shoes back in Kampala! I know, great planning!

I toyed with the idea of staying in the bus but then decided that I wasn't coming to Africa and wasting this wonderful opportunity! So, thanks to Dr. Steve, my dear new friend Patti and our guide with the gun, Jack, I made it down the slippery slope! They held onto me when the going got tough. That is true love for your fellow man!

We were really in luck! Our guides led us to an area where we saw three chimpanzees grooming themselves. We watched them for a while and then they decided to come down the tree and cross the bridge (think “Indiana Jones”) that we had just crossed to look for food! They found it. It happened to be coleus monkeys and we were witnesses to the screams and yells that the chimps made as they got excited (over finding the monkeys or calling to each other; I'm not sure) but the chimps were successful and a mama monkey lost her baby this morning!

To witness something like that and the chimps in their habitat was such a unique and unforgettable experience! We will never forget it.

After that we went back to the buses, took some pictures, and drove our guides back to their huts with many thanks. Then it was time to get on the road again. We ate lunch at the same American type restaurant on the way back and then did a little roadside shopping on the way.

Driving through Uganda is such an experience of holding on to your seats, trying not to gasp at all the bumps and sharp turns (or when a cow runs into the road) that I am sure when we get back to America we will all be so thankful for the good roads that we have there! Just going through Kampala takes an hour and traffic is just horrendous. We have been told that Kampala is under a terror alert but we know that God has his loving hands around us. That is the only way to explain how we keep making it safely back to the Stevenson's. That, and the wonderful drivers we have here!

I know that this blog was a little long but I wanted to share some details of the safari that we experienced and let you know that we are all healthy (except for a cold that Brenda has picked up) and looking forward to coming back to America and sharing in more detail what God has done in us and through us. What an awesome God we serve!

Well, it is late and except for Alexis (who is watching a movie) I am the only one up so I think I will sign off for now. Thanks so much for your comments on the blog. We enjoy reading them and knowing that you all are praying for us.

In God's loving shelter,
Valerie

My new favorite perfume is "Off Insect Repellent"

Sorry this is a long one as we were gone for so long.

It has been a long week here in the pearl of Africa. On Wed morning we were given the opportunity to go into a high school room at Kasubi. We were there to teach social studies. One might think these kids are very much behind the times and not really on top of current events. If you have that mind set you would be wrong. These kids asked questions that our kids probably don’t know or understand. Some of the questions were about racism, conflict, the war, Bin Laden, nuclear weapons and how we became a super power. They were interested to know how we broke away from England as Uganda was also a commonwealth of England. They wanted to know how our government is run and how we felt about this year’s presidential election. They wanted to understand our way of free time and what that really meant as they start their days before dawn and get home as the sun sets. They use candles to do their homework by, and clean up to start over the next day. The whole concept of having time to watch TV or play games was to say the least very unusual to them. They wanted to know if we had deeply rooted culture in America. I had to say that we are such a melting pot of many different backgrounds that we really don’t have specific cultural traditions anymore. The one question that was very funny was “did aliens from mars land in New York” I told them no it was New Mexico Ha Ha.


Nampunge Village

We didn’t have to travel but an hour to get to our village this time. We worked on the church that was already in progress. We arrived to find the columns built and some of the floor work done. To our absolute amazement the church was almost complete by dedication on Sunday. Mainly the men worked on the church. I went over one of the afternoons and helped move dirt. Let me tell you that was a job. One of the funniest times was when the last load of dirt had been delivered. John Henry ( Senior Pastor) stepped in front of me as I was shoveling and said “ here move” , Ok those of you who really know me understand I don’t take that lightly as I am a very hard worker and had just as much dirt on my shovel as the men. So John stepped in like he was gonna really get this job done and on the first scoop his shovel broke in his hands. I just had to laugh. To save face he kept shoveling with just the actual shovel head. He finally turned to me and said I could go ahead and finish.

I was very fortunate to be able to spend some time in the medical clinic that they have there at the village. It is unbelievable the conditions that this health clinic is in and still considered a health facility. When you come to a clinic or hospital you must bring everything you will need while you are there. Including someone to take care of you, feed you, bath you, and help you use the bathroom. If you are there to have a baby you must bring cotton to clean you and the baby up with, a blanket to put the baby in or your clothes will be used as a blanket, and any thing else that is needed. A person with non-critical needs could sit for a day or more before care is given.
The types of cases we saw in one afternoon were many cases of Malaria, Typhoid, HIV diagnosis and 4 women in labor. All are within a few feet of each other. Stop and imagine a newborn in the same room as someone with the high fever of malaria?
I was fortunate to get involved with two of the women in labor. One was 19 and this was her first child. The other was 22 and this was her second. I walked and talked with both and both were then taken to the “labor room” (a sheet away from the rest of the people). I sat and helped each one breath through their pain. I rubbed their backs and gave them support.
The first to deliver was the 19 year old to a beautiful little girl. The mother was kind enough to allow me to stay for the event and was very to let me hold the baby. It is the story of the 22 year old that breaks my heart. She already had a 2 year old son waiting for her at home. She was in extreme pain, and ladies these girls are tough as nails, they never once screamed in pain. They controlled it all. This mom was in a lot of pain and I was rubbing her back trying to help reduce it for her. I put a cool towel on her head to help make her more comfortable. She would smile and thank me. Her water broke but the baby never came.
The “Dr” there, really he is a PA, said he would check her in 4 hours. And still no baby. As Americans we understand that after 4 hours of this situation we would most likely be taken for a C section. This young mother was left there for the next day and a half. We had no say as to what to do. The baby’s heart rate of course got very weak. Finally the “Dr” sent her to the city to the hospital. The midwife said most likely neither the baby nor the mother will survive. I was completely heart broken as I had become close to this girl, and now she was just gone because of senseless ignorance. The price is about 5000SCH =$3.

Family members and even patients sit under trees on mats if the clinic is full. As you become less critical you are moved to the yard. Some are there to get shots for whatever they have. So since it is so expensive to travel back and forth if you need a shot every 6 hours you get the shot and sit around for the next shot. If you need them for three days you are sleeping under the stars until your treatment is over.

One of the sweetest things I saw was a little girl had been given a doll by one of the team members. She wrapped it up in a piece of cloth and immediately started pretending to breastfeed the doll. She was doing what she knew. Here in America you see little girls grab for a bottle, but here in Uganda you see the purest most natural things. We are so worried about one of the most natural, normal acts there is that our children don’t understand what really happens and how they were most likely given sustenance as babies.

I was also given the honor of working with many women in many villages. They usually sit down look at us like “sure these rich white women are going to tell us western ways to do things”. Soon they understand we have more in common than they thought. We all have trouble with kids as they grow up and rebellion. We all have issues in marriage, and we all seem to be the backbone of the family.

We did crafts with them and one was to decorate flip flops. Taking strips of cloth and tie them to the flip flop. Ok so some of them looked at us as though we had lost our minds. Looks like “what are they doing asking us to tie this to our shoes, don’t they know we could use that cloth?” But then others where very excited to get creative with the different colors and such. They got so excited when they were done they danced around showing off their shoes.

Another craft we did was creating color of faith necklaces.
Black = Our sin, Red= the blood of Christ, White= a pure life washed clean, Blue= our faith in Christ Jesus, Green= Continue to grow in Christ, Yellow= our eternal life in heaven, Purple= the majesty of Christ.

For the most part none of the women can read or write so we went over these numerous times and with this necklace they can share their walk of faith with others.

They did have many questions of us. And as always the question of our hair comes up. Is it real? How do you get it so long? Can you tell us how we can get hair like yours? Other questions are in regards to abuse of husbands to wives and how we deal with it? Can they come to America and change to become white? How do we bury people, why do we only have 2 or 3 children? This is the question that we are waiting for as I have learned. This gives us the perfect opportunity to talk about family planning. And yes we went into detail. I sat through the missionaries’ lesson once and for 4 more groups of women I was giving family planning lessons. Their biggest fear is their husbands will go find new wives of they do not continue to produce children. But that is another lesson in itself.

On Sunday, today, we dedicated the church we went to help build. As I said earlier it was about half way finished when we arrived. Today the walls were up to the headers above the windows, the roof was on and the floor was level. What an amazing couple of days to see the amount of work done in such a short time. Each church shared testimonies, songs of praise and gifts of thanks to each other. The one thing that most churches here do not have is places to baptize people. This church was given a baptizing pool. For many the travel to distant churches to be baptized is a great expense and for many they are unable to make that journey. John Henry of CCC and pastor Patrick of Muntunge began the baptism and the line grew longer and longer. Many other churches in the area including Mutungo, the church we helped to build last year came to participate. The line seemed to never end. Today we baptized 100 people to Gods army. Some have wanted years for this final pubic proclamation that Christ is first in their lives. I think I heard the singing and dancing as the heavenly angels celebrated this day. So many things again we take for granted in America. The emotions were great and many of the visitors had many tears rolling down their cheeks as we had never witnessed such an act of love and surrender to Gods love.

The team is off to a safari and will load the bus at 7am. I will be out and about Kampala visiting the children’s hospital tomorrow.

Please continue to keep us all in your prayers
Much Love Kimberly
.

October 5, 2008

Wow, what a day of celebration! The service here was so beautiful, exotic and so unique from what we experience in America. We heard many words of greeting from pastors here and sang songs as we cut the ribbon to enter the church. Our group was given a place of honor at the front of the church. The congregation had decorated the church with palm leaves and balloons and it looked beautiful!

Hilary sang a lovely solo “Eye on the Sparrow” and then Kimberly gave her testimony. Patti and Alexis led the congregation in an echo song and then a quartet made up Carl, Debbie, Grant and I (Valerie) sang “Great is Thy Faithfulness”. Grant then gave his testimony.

There were other wonderful parts to the service with everything being translated by either Moses or Adrian – wonderful interpreters! Then Pastor John preached and it was wonderful watching him preach and then hearing his words being spoken with the same enthusiasm. Very powerful.

The service (which began a little before noon and ended around 4:30 or so) included a baptism ceremony that was unlike anything we had ever seen. I lost count of how many were baptized but suffice it to say, it was more than most of us had seen at one service. It was wonderful to see God working in so many people's lives. He is Lord of all of us, not just in America but here in Uganda, too.

Oh, before I forget I want to share with you the gifts that we received. From the Nampunge church we received a big clock with the flags of the USA and Uganda inside with a message. Pastor John received a goat and a huge bunch of bananas. I'm not sure how we will get the goat home! LOL (I'm just kidding; I know it stays here).

After the baptism the entire congregation went outside and Carl took the cover off of the dedication plaque. What a wonderful moment!

We are back at the house now and just finishing up supper. The food has been so delicious. Any thoughts of losing weight these two weeks are going right out the window! We will be having devotions soon and will be packing for our safari tomorrow!

Our trip will begin at 7:00 a.m. and will be about a seven hour trip to Queen Elizabeth Park. Although we are tired we are looking forward to it.

I am told we will have some time to get on the internet so I will see if I can blog. If not, we will be back in touch on Wednesday evening.

God is so good and He is working through the lives of His precious people here in Uganda. The others who have come before us were right; we will be leaving our hearts here with the lovely people here.

In God's love and grace and will,

Valerie

October 4, 2008

We are back at the Stevenson's after several very exciting days in the village of Nampunge! So much to tell and so many wonderful sights that we saw. I know that I will leave things out but please be assured that we are safe and sound and enjoying a reunion with hot water/toilets! No, really, with Hilary and Heather. They have had some exciting adventures of their own. They went with Glenna and visited many medical clinics so we're anxious to hear their tales.

We still have a group that is on their way back from Nampunge. Colleen brought six of us back to her home and the others stayed until a little more work was finished on the church. It is beautiful! I am so looking forward to the dedication tomorrow, as we all are. We almost had Pastor John convinced that visiting pastors had to sing before their sermon but we gave in and told him it was a joke!

Dr. Steve and Dr. Carolina had quite a visit with the medical clinic in Nampunge. They saw two new cases of AIDS, some malaria patients and even one with typhoid. They fielded some interesting questions about being doctors in America. They will have much to share when they return. Just an extra side note on that: the clinic is open 24 hours a day and we have heard many babies crying all night long. Plus several were born while we were there.

We came back tonight because the ladies of the church have spent so much time feeding us that in order for them to have time to prepare a feast for tomorrow's dedication service we needed to go back to Kampala! The food has been wonderful and we have tried many new and exotic dishes. The villagers have been so wonderful, loving and giving. We have felt so loved and welcomed.

The children are so precious. Everywhere we go we see them and they watched us in the medical center where we were staying. If you looked outside you could see them looking in and they love it when you wave to them. It's a special wave and it took a few of us (not mentioning any names!) a while to get the hang of it! :-)

Six of us had the privilege to teach in two more schools. What fun that was! There is nothing like doing the story of “David and Goliath” with hand puppets or teaching children how to play with a parachute or giving out 'sweets' (candy). We in America have so much and these children have so little but are so joyous!

Today we enjoyed sharing time with the women of the village. Together we made flip flops, the story of salvation necklaces and shared a question and answer section. Then the ladies danced for us; what a thrilling experience. We even were invited to join in and one male member of our group danced along – not saying his name but his initials are 'Grant Fisher'. LOL

I just heard that the other group is on their way back and I know that supper will be starting soon but I wanted to share with you a little taste of what we have been enjoying. Let me tell you, after sleeping on the floor (my mat lost all it's air) the bed tonight will be very appreciated!

God is so good to us! Thank you for your prayers. We can feel them here and as a team we are very appreciative. This is such a wonderful team! We have bonded and know that God is allowing us to both receive a blessing and give some also.

In the heart of Uganda,
Valerie