Food and Medicine

After making our way back to Ibanda, we split up into teams to shop for the Ibanda Babies Home. One team handled much of the food, including a 270 lb pound bag of beans and boxes of medicine. We blew through a million Ugandan dollars just in food inside of 30 minutes! The medicine team spent more a couple of million in medicine. Thanks to all who made this possible! The nuns were ecstatic, blessed us, and asked Pastor Dan to say a word of prayer. One of the nuns gave a very formal and heartfelt thank you to the team. We will be able to add to the supplies from the dedicated resources again tomorrow. Tomorrow we will be doing our last VBS in Kemihoko tomorrow and then will meet with the pastors and lay leaders of Southwestern Uganda. We will also distribute the clothes to the leaders to share with the villages.

2 Vacation Bible Schools

Monday we went to Immanuel Lutheran church in Ishongororo. There were 86 children. We shared several Bible stories about Jesus, played games, and sang lots of songs! Afer VBS we traveled around the community to visit familes who have received an animal as part of our Animal Project. The Project is designed to help families generate some income. Once the animals have offspring the offspring is given to another family. We met with Ernest, the lay leader of Immanuel, and his pigs. With the income he was able to generate, he was able to get materials for a new home. After we met with Ernest, we met to meet with Robert and his family in Bremba to bless a heifer. The heifer is going to another family. Robert has purchased some land to donate to the church for a church building in the future. Tuesday we walked up a HUGE hill (about a 2 mile hike) to Bethany Lutheran Church in Kinyamgara. The children greeted us along to road, singing and dancing as we arrived. Throughout the morning the children sang several songs for us and danced with us. We had over 160 children present this morning for our VBS.

The Playground is Finished!

Today we finished the playground and painted one of the rooms in the orphanage. God blessed us with abundant rain showers as we finished making and placing the slide and doing some last minute shoring up of the structure to make sure it was very secure. It held Pastor Schneider and his dad swinging at the same time. One of the nuns who said she weighed 64 kilos was worried until we told her that Pastor Dan weighed about 100 kilos, so she was safe. We completely painted one of the rooms with a very deep blue oil based paint on the top, and black paint on the bottom 3 feet of wall. The black paint is to keep the walls looking cleaner longer, when little handprints and fingerprints touch them.Throughout the last few days we gave the Ibanda Babies home supplies to help care for the current 37 children. We brought clothes, butt cream, baby bottles, pain reliever, formula, and two quilts all of which were donated. Food supplies will be delivered early next week. Our host has invited us to dine with him and his family tonight at his home in Ibanda.

Ibanda Babies Home Playground

Thursday and Friday we spent our day working on a new playground for the Babies Home. We took down the old one first and then spent the last two days building a new one while playing with the babies on our breaks. Tomorrow we will put the finishing touches on the playground. The nuns and workers of the Babies Home have shown great interest in our project and seem very excited to be able to play on the playground. Dick, Heather, and Pastor Salam even tried out the swings to make sure they would be safe for the kids. Pictures to come! After we worked on the playground we visited Grace Lutheran Church in Mbarbara. We will not be able to Skype with the school or the congregation due to the internet strength at our hotel. We will try to post as often as we can. Be sure to watch the blog even after we are home so you can read more about our experience.

Ibanda Vacation Bible School

Today we lead the Ibanda congregation in Vacation Bible School after the Pastor's conference ended with a closing service. Pastor Dan preached the sermon. There were 18 Pastors and other church leaders at the conference. During our Vacation Bible School over 175 children showed up. We were expecting 100 children. We play games, sang lots of songs, and talked about who Jesus is! We were able to make bracelets with the children as well.

We Have Arrived!

Our team has been in Uganda for a few days. After lots of time in airports and buses we have arrived. Our team is excited to be here and are grateful for your help in getting us here. Sunday, April 27th we had an opportunity to worship at Bethleham Lutheran Church in Kozo. The worship service was several hours with several baptisms and a few confirmations. After the worship service and dedication we shared a feast with the community. Monday, April 28th Pastor Dan lead 18 Pastors, board members, and other church leaders in Bible studies about what it means to confess Jesus Christ in our homes. Gayle, Kathy, and Johanna helped a few women from the church cook the afternoon meal. Tomorrow the ladies will be making chicken noddle soup to share with the conference. Later in the week we will be going to the Ibanda Babies home to build a playground, do some painting in the orphanage, and help the nuns with the children.

WOW! Time has flown by! It feels like just yesterday I was praying about joining the Africa Team to head to Uganda. We leave in just over a week. I have about a dozen of different lists floating around with everything I need to pack and gather before we leave! Please pray as our team's final details come together! Our team is so excited to be leaving NEXT Thursday! We hope to be able to post updates along our journey! Until next time...