Atwooki Florence is baptised

Florence's husband, Switiza has been very active in the Fort Portal church of Christ for the last several months. He has taken the lead in organizing a weekly youth program on Saturdays. Each Sunday they have been putting on a skit at church.
We have been praying for his wife Atwooki Florence. Last Sunday she asked me to baptize her. Cheryl has been studying the Bible with her.


Below are some of the women as we prepare for the baptism.


I brought the trailer and the "coffin" as my muslim friends call it.
Florence is being burried in Christ.










This is our new sister in Christ Atwooki Florence. Everyone was so happy for her.

I was curious for you who are Christians ...what led to you decision to put on Christ?
Who enfluenced you the most?
When you were baptized where were you and what helped you to make that decision?
If you would share in the comments sections I'd love to hear your story.
God bless!
Jeff

Devo with Nana and Papa

Tonight I called Cheryl's parents in Odessa.
I put the cell phone on speaker and let all of the kids talk. It was fun.
Silas was chattering away and said he wanted to talk to Nana and Papa and then when he saw the phone he clammed up.
Nana and Papa where on the other end as the kids told them anything and everything they could think of.
We asked them to stay with us as we had our devo.
One of the kids started "Lord I lift your name on high" Then Alex started "Victory In Jesus" (He told me Papa likes that song.)
Isaac led Jesus love me with the knee slapping handclapping beat.
Papa led the prayer and that was really special.
The kids loved having Nana and Papa at our devo even if it is on speaker phone.
I count it a true blessing to have friends and family that we miss.
We are blessed with a circle of friendship and love that circumnavigates the globe.
How fun it is to share devo time with Nana and Papa.
How blessed we are to have the love and prayers of friends and family.
------
I have been staring at this screen thinking about friends and family for the last thirty minutes!
We are so blessed!

Lord, thank you.

Living in the "Real World"?

We had a candlelight dinner tonight. Or should I say we had a candlelight dinner AGAIN tonight? Electricity is a luxury. One that I enjoy. Before moving to Uganda, I never thought that electricity was a gift that only the rich get to use. I've come to find out, that is the truth.
Most of the world does not have running water or flushing toilets in their homes. They don't listen to their mp3 players or drink vanilla lattes.
The "real world" is not what you see on TV. The real world doesn't even get to watch much television. Tivo and other gadgets take power.
Most people don't have refrigerators or freezers, garbage disposals or dishwashers.
I've caught youth climbing our fence and risking our pack of dogs to get tuna cans that we threw into our gargage pit!
Ronald and I have seen parents take chicken bones from our plates and feed them to their children!
Men will work all day in the hot sun to make what it costs to buy a Big Gulp.
Most of the world does not have a clean hospital to walk to when they are sick.
The life expentancy in Uganda is something like 35...I'm 37.
I don't know what it is for most of the world.

As I sit here and look out the window I can only see one other house with lights on. I think that is my friends house who is one of the top government officials. He is rich. Only his house and mine have lights.
(Of course he could make more money working at seven eleven in the states then he could as one of the top local officials here.)
We are running a generator so I could type this message. That's why the lights are on.
I just heard Cheryl open the fridge and get a drink. Now she is getting ice out of the freezer.
Did I mention that I love ice! another luxury on the equator.
She just turned on the blender.
She is making strawberry smoothies. Yum! (There is guy who sells little wild strawberrys to rich foreigners.)
I called out to Cheryl but she didn't hear me. She was listening to her mp3 player. (I didn't know she was doing that when I wrote about mp3 players earlier!)
I not ashamed that I am rich. I'm thankful.
Thankful for the strawberry smoothy, thankful for this laptop, thankful for the lights being on and that the generator works.
Thankful that I had a flushing toilet as I spent most of the last night sick.
Thankful, thankful, thankful!
My true happiness doesn't come from money or what I have. but I must admit Cheryl can make a great smoothie.
If my stuff doesn't make my life easier, help me to be Christ-like or make me a better or more productive person then it is probably a waste.
What do you think?

The other day when I was at Uganda Christian University there was a Freshman girl who had a suitcase with wheels. She pulled it up to where David, Frank and I were standing. There was some uneven dirt so I lifter her suitcase across. She thanked me and went on her way.
After she left Frank laughed and said, "Why does anybody need that much to live?"

David told me that the girl that I had just helped was from Fort Portal her father was a rich doctor and her mother is from Russia.
That's why she has so much stuff. (She had one suitcase!)
Life in this land of contrast continues to challenge.

Ike's blog

If you want to read Ike's trip to Uganda he has several posts on his blog.
Go to http://www.ikegraul.blogspot.com/
What do you think of Cheryl's hair? To see a picture check out Ike's blog.

Cheryl's blog is a great one too at www.gentlyled.blogspot.com

The stolen backpack

The morning that I was taking the Grauls to the airport from the American club I found the back door of the pickup unlocked. I didn't think much about it at the time. The next morning I surprised Cheryl with a gift of sending her to the Sheraton Hotel by herself. I was giving her a day of complete pampering and she was going to spend the night there and not be woken up by the kids. She deserved it and much more.
I went to the truck to get the bag of money that I had locked in there to keep it safe and it was gone!
I was also going to get some money to replace the side mirror that had been stolen off of the LandCruiser earlier in the week.
The bag was gone! I began the all out search.
We searched everywhere.
The place we were staying has US embassy security guards. They have a spot near the gate twenty feet from where the truck was parked. I locked the bag in there thinking it would be safer there than in the room where the cleaning people come and go.
I met with the security team and gave a report.
There was $1,250.00 US
1,400,000 Ugandan shillings (at least)

That is over $2000 that was stolen!
I also lost my passport, my registration from Uganda Christian University, my books and all my notes from my classes, my small Bible and a bunch of other things.
I met with the guys at the embassy. They actually opened it up after hours for me. That was nice.
We had to stay a couple of more days to process some of the paperwork.
The Police report took most of one day to get done.
I'm waiting for my new passport and then I have to get the Ugandan government to put another work permit in it.
This was not a good time as we had just spent something like $5000 on Camp Saaka getting ready for Faith Quest.
I'll also need to go to the University and see if they can give me a new registration card. That won't be fun.

Last year when I went to UCU I was told, "You have to pay double because you are white! You white people should be paying for every Ugandan to go to school!"
I was highly offended at racist conversation that followed.
I was going to leave the school but first I went and prayed with the director of DAI. They are the ones who actually have put this program together. They offered to help and give me a scholarship so I would pay the same as everyone else. The director is an American woman. She said,"I hate injustice!" She is a lawyer.

The scholarship money was in the bag.
Ouch.

My prayers go with whomever it was who took the bag. May the Lord touch them and bring them into a saving relationship with him. May they read the Bible and put the money to good use.
May the Lord be glorified in this situation.

On Safari

Cape Buffalo enjoying the water.

I never get tired of seeing the animals. The driving, the roads, the heat, the dust those wear on me but seeing out in the wild these amazing animals continues to make me marvel at the creativeness of God.
Every animal is unique and beautiful in its own way.



This big tall bird is called a Goliath Heron. I don't think they asked him if he wanted that name. When I told Isaac the name of this bird he said he "I'm afraid because it is on the grass! Then he said...I'm not afraid because it is on the grass...I'd like to pet it!"
Isaac may be our little David at heart.


This beautiful bird is an Africa Fish Eagle.


Peek-a-boo Hippo. The kids like this picture.






The magestic elephant
We were able to see so many of these big guys on this safari.
Isaac said, "Elephant! I like elephants! " Alex and Isaac couldn't decide if they had seen elephants forty times or a thousand times.


Water Buck


This big guy would not let our truck pass. It was kind of funny the way he blocked us.



What a job Noah must have had!

The Grauls visit

It was so much fun to have Ike and Kaelea and their three kids spend five weeks with us. Ike did a wonderful job speaking at Faith Quest. Everyone worked hard to make that experience one of the best ever.
We all went to Ntoroko and Rwebesengo. We slept in tents outside the mud church building.
The women and kids were troopers. Being the center of attention can be tiring but everyone did well. There may have been a few nervous tears from the girls but they did great!
We visited the church in Kyenjojo as well.
I really enjoyed being able to talk with Ike about the work. We talked about his ministry at PUMP and the challenges that were common between our two works. We had some great talks. I appreciate his heart and enjoyed being able to share with him. Kaelea was great too. She and Cheryl seemed to really hit it off. She was fun to have around.
Their kids got sick and that was stressful for them.
Considering that there was seven children seven and under living crammed under one roof... they did well. There were no broken bones or serious problems.
I had to leave them for one week while David Kabiito and I went for our leadership training classes at Uganda Christian University.
When we met back up Ike and I went whitewater rafting on the Nile.
That was fun!!