This post is primarily a copy of the entry from an e-mail that I sent the folks that have requested updates. If you would like to receive updates just email me! Please skip the letter if you have already read it but pass on to the bottom for current news. I can't begin to tell you of all of the wonders I have seen. But first let me describe what Kampala is like. Let your favorite three year-old scribble on a piece of paper and then imagine that the scribbles are streets. Then add LOTS of potholes, mud, and trash. Then add literally thousands of people. Walking, riding motorcycles and sitting in little make shift vending areas on a tarps or cardboard boxes. Then put in hundreds of mini-van type taxis and trucks belching black diesel smoke. And then throw in a little rain. Whaaalaaa...Kampala! I have now gone to the prostituted women's program twice. There are currently thirteen women. They are making beautiful glass bead necklaces and bracelets. (soon to be for sale at MVBC!). They work five days a week making the beads. Everyday they get fed, make jewelery, and have either a Bible study or counselling. They have asked me to teach on Thursdays. GULP! I saw some of their kids. So cute! I have had boys hanging all over me since I arrived. The big thing now is to laugh when I am taking my Lugandan lesson. I have to admit though I sound funny even to me. I have gone to the big market several times as well. Ridden motorcycle taxis every day. That is my prayer time, HA! They are crazy!!! I spent my first night in the container but they moved me to a little office so that I can be near the computers and where the boys study. I have a twin bed with mosquito netting. I am glad that I brought some twin sheets. My Ugandan friends have all been freezing because it gets down into the 60s at night. I am loving it!
But really the reason for this note is to tell you all what happened tonight. The staff went to sing and pray with the handicapped people that live on the streets. In Kampala a really handicapped person probably can find no work and there is no social security, so they beg. I saw wheel chairs made of plastic chairs with old bicycle tires, men with leather pads strapped onto stumps to be able to scoot and great joy. Yep, joy. Uncle David brought his guitar and he sang with them. They were all lined up on the sidewalk in one certain area. Sleeping on their cardboard and plastic bag beds. So we moved along the sidewalk and he sang with them. I shook every hand and greeted all smiling faces. Then David decided that I should share a word with them. So I prayed three times for their safety and joy and told them that they were my brothers and sisters. I was very, very humbled. I spent a good half hour with one woman who had just had a baby a day or two ago. Tiny and precious. Umbilical cord stump still attached. She rubbed margarine all over her and then put baby powder on her. She then asked me to give her a name. I thought of my own family and the sacrifice they are making to let me be here and told her to name her Elizabeth. Like the mother of John the Baptist, and of course my first born as well. I prayed specifically for her. God is so good.
You may wonder why there are no pictures. I think it would be really rude to take pictures of disadvantaged people until I have a relationship with them and can explain why the photo is important for them and us. After I have been going to the street programs for the handicapped people for a while, I will take video of them. You can't help but be blessed and humbled to see people with an internal joy despite such extreme hardship. I am considering setting up an e-bay store for the sale of the bracelets and necklaces. I would need a US partner to help me. I would send the bracelets and necklaces to you and you would have to put them in a package to send. I think it would be pretty easy with the one postage rate boxes from the post office. If you are interested in helping with that, please let me know.
Take care my US family and friends!
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