Dear friends and family!
With great joy I am writing to you about the PLE scores for our boys.
First just a quick explanation of the PLE.  The PLE is the Primary
Leaving Examination.  It is a very big deal here.  It is a
standardized test.  There are four areas:  Math, English, Sociall
Studies, and Science.  The top score you can get in any one subject is
a 1.  Then they add all of the scores together and you get an
aggregate score.  Then there are four divisions.  The prize is to be
in Division one.  It goes down from there.  I am so excited to say
that Peter got an aggregate score of 7 and is in Division 1, Sadic got
an aggregate score of 12 and is in Division 1, William missed Division
1 by only one point with an aggregate score of 13.  So he is Division 2.  They all did so well!
On another note, The three boys that ran away are doing fairly well.
Godfrey will be going to boarding school in Entebbe, a Swedish young
woman has sponsored him.  Dissan will be going to boarding school with
the sponsorship of a man named Sebastian.  Davis is still struggling
but Abduhl and I are both counseling him to behave well to be able to
get a second chance.  Praise the Lord he has not been doing drugs!
That in itself is a huge improvement.  He is a very hard worker and
will do just about anything to earn money.  Please pray for these
three boys.  We still love them (of course) and want the best for them.
The other boys are doing well.  School starts for them on January 31.
It is a new school year and all of the boys were promoted to the next
school level.  WooHoo!  They will be starting at a new school in
Kalule, the area outside of Bombo.  The boys in secondary will be
going to boarding school to help them really focus on their studies.
Thank you all for your prayers and support!  Please don't forget to
write to the boys.  The address is Box 4981, Kampala, Uganda, East
Africa.  Please just address the letters to A Perfect Injustice.  If
you want you can put the boy's name on the back.  Please never mention
money, do not give out e-mail addresses or phone numbers. They are
your friends and we do not want them to view you as a bank.

Super-woman, thou are not!

Well hello again from Uganda.  If you read my last blog entry you would think I was superwoman.  I am not!  In my quest to bring all of Africa to the people who love and support me and the boys and the women, I think I made it sound like it was all up to me.  Ha, that is the funniest thing I have ever heard.  But I have to ask myself, do I sometimes think that way.  I just finished the book, Crazy Love, by Francis Chan.  He writes with his heart, and I like that.  He posed the question that I need to be constantly reminded of, "What if you died in the next 30 seconds?"  Possible?  Absolutely!  Could Jesus come and take me home now? Absolutely.  Am I living like I am homeward bound?  (to coin a phrase from Simon and Garfunkle).  Is my pride keeping me firmly attached to tera firma, or is my love for Christ keeping my eyes on him.  A bit of self reflection never killed anyone.  Yes I am blessed to live out an amazing journey in Africa, but it is a SEASON, of my life.  What if my next season was being a clerk at a Walmart?  Would everyone still want to read weekly updates?  Probably not.  But the fact would remain that God is still on His throne, and that he could still use me to be His hands and feet in Walmart.  W.A.L.M.A.R.T.  Yep!  Are there hurting people that need encouragement in Walmart, probably.  Can I be seeking social justice working as a retail clerk?  Yes...which leads me to gently prompt..you can too!  Take the time to look up for yourself the word justice in the Bible...and let those verses soak deep into your soul.  I will be doing my own research on pride.  None of us is a finished product, all of us has work to do and needs the author of justice and humility to fill us every day with His power.  So yes my life looks really interesting...but really it is only because it so very different from suburban American life.  God loves and is calling us to help the broken-hearted in America.  He loves homeless children, HIV patients, victims of sexual violence, the poor, the hungry, the hopeless if they live in America, or Mexico, or Uganda or China...you get the idea.  Please, please, please, continue to support me with your prayers and your money but please, please, please...be His hands and feet wherever you are. And know that Social Justice is messy, and you may have your heart broken a million times...don't worry God is the mender of the broken-hearted, even yours!  I love you all and call it a privilege to be working with you in Africa.
My biggest struggle right now is what should I be leading the women in?  They are struggling with identity, jealousy, envy and feelings of worthlessness.  Tough stuff.  I am not really a preacher.  I just love Jesus and I love these women.  So I will be praying that God gives me all of the right things to say that honer Him and help them.  Jeff Merry always said, "What do you want people to 'know' 'feel' and 'do' with what you are bringing them.  So yes Jeff, I am thinking about that.   If you have any ideas or suggestions...I am very open.  Just shoot me an e-mail.  You are my partners.  Oh and check me out on pinterest.  I am trying to put up pics that reflect the real African life.  Plus you might really find some inspiration from other people.  God bless you, please keep praying for the ministry here.

Ten Days in Africa

Dear Friends and Family,
this has been a whirlwind of a week.  My first ten days in Africa a
year ago were slow and full of watching, listening and learning.  This
time I hit the ground running.  Please pray that I don't EVER forget
the watching, waiting, and listening.  Ha!  I went to visit the women
last Wednesday.  It was so nice to see them.  We all went to a local
restaurant for lunch.  It is a tiny little restaurant and we filled
the whole place.  There were 12 of us.  They all send greetings to
you.  If you want to get updates specifically about the women, please
let me know.  Then I got a boda-boda (motorcycle taxi) and went to the
slum to visit the street boys program.  The driver did not speak
English so well and dropped me off in an unfamiliar part of the slum.
I knew where I was and wanted to go but could not figure out how to
get there.  The slum is filled with tiny little alleys and some larger
dirt streets.  As I was contemplating and sort of wandering, Davis
found me!  Davis is a boy that ran away from our home after I left.
So he took me to the programs.  It was good to see him.  He was clean
but very thin.  He had not been doing drugs either. WooHoo!  The boys
at the programs were busy making jewelry so I took Davis and another
teenager, Joel out to lunch.  Two lunches in one day!  I just drank a
soda the second time.  Joel is one of the boys that my friend Amanda
will take into her home for older boys, check out her link
http://www.indiegogo.com/LOT-2545?c=home .I also am serving here as a
quasi bookkeeper.  Some of you may know that I did the books for Jeff
for 10 years, yes we still had an accountant.  A degree in forestry
does not really prepare one for bookkeeping...ha! But anyway, I have a
lot of experience using Quickbooks.  So we bought a ministry computer
right before I left and put Quickbooks on it.  I am now going back and
entering all of the receipts for A Perfect Injustice, the NGO I
volunteer with, starting from January 2011.  So last week I got one
month done.  I am a little rusty!  On Thursday I went to visit the
boys in the homes in Bombo.  These are the boys I lived with all last
year.  They had taken sheets, and palm fronds and paper and made a
royal path for me to walk on as I entered the house.  It was so very
cute.  (I am going to post all of the photos from these events on my
face book page.  just look for Gina Jaye.)  The homes are beautiful!
The boys were all doing well.  I played with them, hung out with them,
looked at photos and listened to music.  I stayed in Mama Joyce's
room.  I told her I could sleep anywhere, but she wouldn't have it.
So sweet.  They are building little houses for visitors, but they are
not finished yet.  I came back on Friday and brought Peter with me.
Saturday at about 10:00, Godfrey, another boy that had run away came
over.  Then at 10:30 Joel came.  At 11:00 Davis came.  So we watched
movies and ate popcorn.  I took them to lunch and then Godfrey went
back to Kivulu.  Joel went back to Bead David's house and Davis and
Peter went home with me.  Davis ran errands for me to earn some
"little money" and I gave him a back pack and a set of clothes that I
had brought for him.  It was a basketball outfit that I had worn at an
event at my church.  I love to dress in costumes.  It fit him really
well! So then Davis went back to the slum and Peter and I listened to
music and I made Chinese food for dinner.  So fun! Sunday we went to
church.  Nothing like a Ugandan Choir! Peter got on a taxi for Bombo
and I returned home.  Whew!
I tried to skype my friend and found that my my audio on my computer
is on the fritz.  I can still message, but for now I can not talk.  I
have tried everything.  So if you have any ideas let me know.  I have
an HP mini with windows 7.  I have adjusted everything I know how to
adjust.  I downloaded updated drivers and visited help forums.  No
luck.  Oh well.  I do have skype on my new phone so I can call you.
or if you want to message through skype just look for
gina.jaye.rizzo.orr .
This week two of the ladies and I are going to go and look for a
treadle sewing machine for the project.  A friend donated money for
that!  Thank you!  Also one of the uncles, Eddy, is staying with me.
he is so funny.  I am really enjoying his company.  Some robbers tried
to break in to Abby and David's place that is in the same compound as
where I am.  So I had to have some muscle! ha!  Well I better go.  I
have to go to the bank here and try to get some money issues
straightened out.   I appreciate all of your prayers and support