Good Friday

Earlier this month we asked for your prayers as we headed to Zirobwe for an overnight prayer session.  Your prayers were felt and answered, so we thank you!!

We arrived in Zirobwe around 7 or 8 at night and planned on staying until around 5 in the morning.  The night was mainly geared towards adults with a lot of prayer, sermons, testimonies and praise and worship time.  We also planned on showing a movie of Jesus’ life that had been dubbed over into Lugandan.

  As we arrived we were greeted by about 200 kids screaming our names and jumping up and down with excitement.  We were all blown away.  We weren’t expecting there to be any children, but they were the first to arrive!  

Hanging out with the kids.

We pulled out mats for the kids to sit on in the front.

Killing time before the program started.

Both Brett and I got the chance to share that night.  Brett put together a great sermon on how God Provides.  Everyone enjoyed what Brett had to say and I know lives were changed.  During the night about 5 of us shared our testimonies.  Later we were told that the people there were so shocked that even "Mzungus" have problems and were encouraged by our stories.

We also had a lot of praise and worship.  Praise and worship is so different there than it is here.  There is a lot of singing, but there is A LOT of dancing!  At one point all 400 people there had a good 20min dance party.  God was so present and I'm so thankful for the experience.

Around 2 or 230 in the morning a big storm rolled in and shut down our program.  It came on so quickly.  We were all soaked in a matter of minuets.  Everyone quickly got the sound equipment covered with tarps and ran for cover.  A handful of us huddled inside a small hut nearby.  The rain was coming down so hard we could hardly see outside and with the tin roof above us we had to yell just to hear the person next to us.

After about an hour or so the rain let up and we were able to pack up the vans, pass out some warm porridge to the many people who stuck around, push the van out of the mud where it was stuck and head home.  It was a long night, but I truly believe God was there and touched many lives.

The How To

Since we have been back there have been a few people asking us how they can sponsor a child through EAC.  It's so easy, so I thought I would share on here the 'How To'. 

Step 1:  Go to http://www.empower-a-child.org/eachome/

Step 2:  Click on the "Sponsor A Child" button at the top right of the page.

Step 3:  (Warning!  This step may be hard and take some prayer!) 
              Choose the child you would like to sponsor and click on their picture.

Step 4:  Click "How To Sponsor" button

 Step 5:  Start loving, praying and supporting your precious child.

*It only takes $30 a month to change a childs life!*

**There is a 'Sponsorship FAQ' link to the left of a few of the pages to click on if you have more questions about sponsoring a child in Uganda.** 

THANK YOU for your interest in these children.  I can tell you first hand that they are so dear and deserve a chance to go to school, gain an education and change the country of Uganda.  Even more importantly these children will get to learn about The Bible and the God who loves them so much from the EAC team.

Back

After some annoying delays, sickness and waiting we made it back.  

We were dropped off at the airport in Kampala around midnight on Saturday.  Everything went pretty smoothly...until we were about an hour away from landing in Turkey.  Brett started to feel sick.  We landed and  got medicine in him, but he didn't start feeling better until we got closer to landing in JFK.  Our second flight (from Turkey to JFK) was delayed about 30 min.  Which wasn't a big deal...until we got on the plan and sat there for over 2 hours.  I watched a whole movie people.  It was horribly long.  And poor Brett was pretty sick.  

After being on that plan for over 13 hours we finally landed at JFK and quickly moved through customs and got our luggage.  My mom and Dave were there to drive us home and we passed out in the car.  Neither of us had slept in over 48hours.  

So while there were some hiccups we made it back safe and sound.  Thank you so much for all your prayers.  We are excited to see everyone, share our stories and pictures.  

Thank you everyone for your sweet comments!  There are a few comments that were posted as anonymous and no name was posted with it.  We would love to know who wrote what, so let us know :)

Anyways,  today is our last day here in Uganda, and it is bitter sweet.  We are excited to see everyone back home, but at the same time we aren't ready to leave here either.  We fly out of Kampala Sunday morning around 2am (that would be 7pm Sat. for anyone in PA).  We fly to Turkey with a 4hr layover and then a 12hr flight to New York.  I believe we land around 430pm on Sunday.  We want to say thank you to everyone in advance for all your prayers for a safe journey.

We have so many stories and pictures we want to share, and will share on this blog (and in person), but we are short on time here.  I will leave you with a few pictures of our Safari trip.

Safari group at the Murchison Falls.

We saw so many Giraffes!

Hippo yawn!

Momma and baby Elephant :)

Two of the 4 lions we saw!

Sponsor A Child

When Brett came to Uganda the first time, four years ago, I started to sponsor a little girl named Lillian.  She was 6 years old and so adorable.  I pay a very small amount every month so that Lillian can go to school.  She writes me letters every few months and tells me things she is learning and how she wants to be a doctor when she grows up.

This past Saturday Brett and I had the amazing opportunity to meet her and her family.  She lives about a 10min walk away from where we are with her grandmother.  Her mother and sister live in a village about 2hrs away, but this was so important to them they made the trip here.  This is a very big deal for them.  Not only does it cost them money to get here, but Lillian's mom is disabled.  She has no control of both her legs.  People need to pick her up and move her if she needs to move, or if she is in a room she can drag herself around with her arms.

Anyways,  Lillian and her sister (Lillian is 10 and her sister Jackie is 11) came to get us Saturday afternoon.  They took us to their grandmothers home to meet their grandmother and mother.  They live in a one room home.  There is no light and it reeks because their 6 or 7 chickens also live in their home.  My heart broke when I saw the living conditions.  They were so welcoming though.  And kept thanking us for what we were doing for Lillian.

Me, Jackie, Grandmother, Mother, Lillian, Brett

After talking with them for a while, learning more about the family, we took Lillian and Jackie out for lunch.  Both girls were very shy and hard to talk to.  Lillian knows English pretty well, but Jackie didn't know very much at all.  Since Jackie lives in the village with her mother she hasn't been able to go to school....or afford school.  So lunch was a struggle for us, but after lunch we took them shopping.  We got them some normal every day wear and then we got each girl a new dress for Easter.

Lillian trying on her dress at the store.  This was the first time she smiled.

Once we got them shoes we headed back to their home.  We stopped first to buy the family some staple food here (Rice, Beans, Sugar, Oil).  When we arrived at the house the girls were so excite to show their mom and grandma their new dresses and shoes.

They are so cute!

Again, the mother and grandmother opened up about their lives to us.  We learned that Saturday was THE FIRST TIME Lillian and Jackie had ever met!  When Lillian was born her dad left them and the mom had to send Lillian to live with her grandmother.  Since Jackie is not sponsored she lives with her mother in the village and can't go to school.  This got Brett and I thinking....We asked our interpreter if we were to sponsor Jackie would she stay here and go to school with Lillian?  Would her mother be okay with Jackie not returning home with her?  Is Jackie on the sponsorship list?  If not can we put her on the list?

He talked with them, telling them we wanted to also sponsor Jackie, and they freaked out!  They were so happy.  I can't explain to you how happy they were.  Our interpreter said that we could request Jackie be put on the waiting list at EAC, she would get to stay here and go to school with Lillian asap and her mom was so thrilled.  It's amazing the sacrifice parents will make to get their kid an education.

Chicken!

They were so thankful that we were going to sponsor both girls the grandmother grabbed 2 of her chickens to give to us as a gift.  She said "Two kids, two chickens".

Freaking out!

I wont lie, when she handed them over to us I freaked out a little (okay maybe a lot).

You can see they aren't happy we're holding them.

It was such an awesome day for us.  This is getting pretty long though, so I'm going to post it before the internet cuts off :)

Our Easter!

(This will be the 6th time I try to post about our Easter.  The internet keeps kicking me off.  Here goes nothing)

We hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!  We missed being with everyone, but we also had such a neat Easter here in Uganda.  We started the day off by traveling to Zirobwe (as we do every Sunday) to run church and Sunday School.  Brett and I helped with Sunday School this week.  We had over 200 kids show up!  We, along with others, held an Easter party for them.  We sang extra songs, had a dance competition, taught them how to play chubby bunny (and taught them what a marshmallow is) and we got cupcakes/juice/candy for everyone.  The kids were very excited and seemed to have a great time!  Oh!  And we put on a skit of Jesus’ death and resurrection (Brett was Jesus).

The rest of the day I’m hoping to show you in pictures, but we’ll see how it goes.

We invited about 14 sponsored kids from the neighborhood for another Easter "party".

We taught them how to go on an Easter egg hunt. 

They didn't fully understand at first, but once they got it....

They loved it.

We actually played about 4 or 5 rounds.  When they found their egg they would dump the candy in a bag, we refilled the eggs and played again.  The smiles on their faces was priceless.

Some of us standing with our sponsor kids.

Brett started a fire and we taught the kids how to make smores.  They thought roasting the marshmallows was pretty cool and each had about 5 smores.  They all went home on a sugar high :)

After all the kids had left a group of us went out for dinner.

Sorry it's so dark. 

This was our Ugandan Easter though.  Hope you enjoy the pictures!!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from Uganda!

Prayer Night

As mentioned in earlier posts EAC has purchased land in a village called Zirobwe.  This village is about 2 hours away from where we are staying right outside Kampala.  Right now we travel there to run Church and Sunday School on Sundays.  The church is in a poorly constructed building and Sunday School is held under a tent.  The vision is to one day build a church, training center/school, medical clinic and dormitories.  EAC is hoping to start pouring concrete for the church before we leave.

Friday night our team is planning a prayer night with the community of Zirobwe.  The main focus will be prayer, but we will also be sharing testimonies, sermons and a movie about Jesus' life.  Brett is preparing a short sermon to share and I will be sharing my testimony.  Pray for us (Brett and I and the EAC team) that God would speak through us to the people of Zirobwe that we might encourage them with what we have to say.

I know this is short, but I will leave you with a few pictures of one of our favorite projects we go to.  It is a primary school called Brainstorm.  The kids are full of energy and crave your love and attention.  As soon as we walk through the gate you have at least 10 kids trying to cling to you.

Singing praise and worship.  The shack in the back?  That would be their classrooms.

Listening to a bible story.

These kids came in to listen to the story.  You can tell the difference between the school kids and the kids who can't go to school by the way they dress.  Kids that can afford school wear uniforms.

Chasing the van as we were leaving.

Saturday

Saturday and Monday during the week are "rest" days.  This past Saturday we had the privilege of traveling with Wilson (the 'Founding Director' of EAC) to visit his family.  It was about a two hour drive from Kampala to get to his village.  On our way we stopped in a small shopping market to buy Wilson's mom and family some beans and rice.

Beans.

Here you can see bags of rice.  We also saw goats being taken in there to be slaughtered. Yum! 

Wilson's family were very thankful for the gifts.  We also were able to pass out some clothing and toys for the children.  It was good we had these gifts to give because most of the children had not seen a "muzungu" (white person)before and were very afraid of us.  We were told they thought we were coming to take them.  But after coloring in coloring books and playing cars with them they warmed up to us and we had a lot of fun.

While we were there it rained for about 20min or so.  We all crammed into the small living room where we had to scream to hear each other.  The rain was so loud hitting the tin roof.  Wilson's mom made us each a boiled egg and gave us Mt. Dew for lunch.  She was so happy to have us there.  It was such a neat experience to see where Wilson came from. 

 Unfortunately we are not very good at remembering to take pictures and have none to show for this day....other than the 2 you see above when we were buying food. We promise to do a better job capturing our days on camera this week!