Bunches of Bananas!! (Matooke!)

Hi Everyone!!!!

I hope you are all enjoying this first month of summer!! You are all probably pretty busy, because that’s the way summers normally are.

Things are going really well here. Everyday is a full, event-filled day. We are either teaching English, Bible, Life Skills, doing counseling, getting involved in the community or just loving on the kids at New Hope. But we absolutely love it! God has been so good to us by letting us be His hands and feet in this wonderful place. I can’t begin to describe to you how beautiful this country is and how beautiful the people are. They put America to shame when it comes to hospitality and friendliness. They also are pretty laid back when it comes to time. When Sarah and I first arrived Ken would tell us that we walk so so fast. He said that we walked like Americans. Isn’t it funny that even the way that we walk portrays our busy American nature? Ugandans walk at a slow pace and when they greet someone they take a couple of minutes to do so. He laughed how we would greet as we were walking by someone at a fast pace. Ken still has to remind me to walk Ugandan sometimes but I actually really appreciate the laid back nature of the Ugandan people.

Wednesdays are our community outreach days. We have set aside these days to go out into the community and reach out to the hurting in hospitals, prisons, poor sections of town, and anything else were we might need to bring encouragement. This past Wednesday we went to visit an orphanage in Jinja. It was sad to see how an orphanage operates without very much financial help from the outside. The orphanage is actually supported by a group of widows. We sang some songs with them and we hope that we were able to bring some encouragement to them. Then we went to a hospital that was also located in Jinja. Talk about heart wrenching! My heart ached for those people. We visited bed after bed, ward after ward and laid hands on people and prayed for them. Everyone was so glad to have a visitor. I could tell that even a simple smile brought some hope to them. There was this one lady who was in the corner of the ward with her back to the wall. I have never ever seen someone who was just skin and bones like that. Her eyes were so full of fear. She was just waiting to die. How do you bring comfort to someone like that? When we got to the babies ward there was a little child whose body had been burned. The mother said that a candle had fallen onto the baby’s bed. How do you bring comfort to the mother? For most of the patients I had no idea what to tell them. I pray that Jesus used us to bring encouragement to His precious children. There was a big miracle that happened however. There was a man who Jess had prayed with who asked for a Bible. For some reason before we left Busia I felt the Lord tell me to bring my Bible with me. So as soon as Jess told me that this man wanted a Bible I felt the Holy Spirit nudge me to give him the one in my bag. I told the man that I would give him my Bible if he promised to actually read it. Then the Holy Spirit nudged me again to tell Him about Jesus. So with Ken interpreting and Jesus speaking through me we were able to lead this precious soul to Christ. He is now our brother in Christ. I told him to start with the book of John. He was so filled with joy and later when I went to check on him I found him diligently reading the Bible. I thank the Lord so much for that opportunity that He blessed me with.

I love you all so much and can’t wait to talk with you personally about all of these experiences. Continue to pray for increased health care and education for the Ugandan people. Also, pray for Christ to raise up servants to serve at New Hope in a more permanent way. Lift up the people in the hospital to the Lord. Pray that they will find hope and comfort in Christ. Thanks once again for all of your prayers, they mean so much. May the Lord bless you all!

Laura

Jon being his amazing self!

Me, Sarah and Jess at the Jinja Orphanage.

Praise and Worship

One of the baboons that we saw on the way to Jinja.

Teacher Sarah. :)

Hi from Sarah!

Hey Everyone!
I hope that all of you are doing well. We are having such a wonderful time here in Africa playing with the children and teaching them English. I have also had the opportunity to do some counseling with the teenage girls and that has been really enjoyable. On Sunday we had the opportunity to go to an awesome church in Tororo and the people were so friendly and we were dancing and singing throughout the entire service. Just recently we visited some of the larger hospitals in the area and I was absolutely appalled at the conditions. The patients had no IVs or monitors and the entire time we were there I saw only two nurses. Some of the HIV patients were just bones lying in there beds, it was so heartbreaking. We were blessed to have the opportunity to pray with each of the patients and talk to some of them about Jesus. We also prayed with the mothers of some babies who had been burned quite extensively. On the way back we rode in a taxi and there were 25 of us in a 16 passenger van! That is just Uganda for you as many can fit in the car the better, some people even hang on outside the door the entire way. I was sitting on Laura’s lap going over every bump and we were just laughing hysterically because the car was so full that the back end of it was dragging. Yesterday we went to a house of an American missionary family and we got to help cook American food with our Ugandan hosts so it was really a wonderful time of fellowship and fun! God has been blessing us with so many opportunities here from talking to street workers to everything that we have been able to do with the children. Each and every one of them is so precious and we have been so blessed to just be able to love on them and be there big sisters for a couple months. With your support and prayers we have already blessed the orphanage so much through you. We were able to get them Bibles, a guitar, some teaching materials, games, and a couple of other random items that they needed. Thank you so much for partnering with us on this trip and for all of your prayers and support. Everything we do here is God doing it through us because we are completely incapable of doing any of this on our own. Mom and dad I love you so much and thank you for everything that you do and have done for me.
~ Sarah