The date of the Uganda presentation has been changed to November 15, at our church, Grace Covenant, 903 Ponder Ave., Sarasota, FL., off of Palmer Ave., between Honore and Cattleman.  It is in a commercial building.  Church starts at 10:15am.  All are welcome!
Vicki

During the last weeks in Uganda we visited one more eMIEA partner project (among multitudes of EMI-designed universities, hospitals, children's homes, churches, transition homes, medical centers, safe houses, etc. scattered over East Africa)  The newly finished Cherish Uganda medical center will soon be used by residents of the surrounding villages and by the many orphans Cherish Uganda houses, schools, feeds, and loves.

The open-air waiting area has (1)sliding grillwork,

                2)pine and metal benches and (3)light fixtures from leftover pipe, all of  which are currently designed and made in the new eMIEA mechanical shop at Kajjansi.

An additional outside seating area worked into the landscaping takes care of overflow patients,
 and an open-air pavilion serves for staff training purposes.

 

We also did some "behind the scenes" feeding at the Wildlife Research Center

(you can see Paula is having a ball!)

 

 

and inspected the ongoing progress on the new office shared and already occupied by eMIEA (top floor) and Mission Aviation Fellowship (main level) in Kajjansi, Uganda.

 

A couple of MAF's planes ready for engine checks are dwarfed by the typical "hills of Uganda", one of the many things it was hard to leave in this beautiful land of a gentle people with so many deep needs.

 

I arrived back in Sarasota, Florida on September 4th, tired, but, hopefully, a little wiser, with a piece of my heart still back in Uganda.  I ask for your prayers for the additional staff needed for eMIEA to say "yes" to more of the numerous organizations desiring to partner with eMIEA..... to be God's hand in helping to meet even more of those desperate needs - spiritually, physically, and emotionally - of the Ugandan people.  

Will I go back to Uganda? - Yes, Lord willing. 

Would I consider staying?  That would depend on the guidance of the Lord, as I listen for the Holy Spirit's prompting and as I continue to (slowly) learn to live each moment for Him.  I thank God for His patience and grace with me, for the opportunities He's given me this year, and for the witness of a daily life of sacrifice for the sake of the Kingdom that I've seen from both EMI and MAF families.   

 

"Let each of you esteem and be concerned for not merely his own interests,
but also each for the interests of others.
Let this same attitude be in you which was in Christ Jesus
Who, although being essentially one with God....
stripped Himself of all privileges so as to assume the guise of a servant....
and abased and humbled Himself
and carried His obedience to the extreme of death,
even death on a cross!"

                                                                                                                    Philippians 2:4-8 Amplified Bible                     

 

 

 

We visited Speke Resort's beautiful grounds, which the hotel has opened to the public for a small fee (since there are no public parks in Kampala). 

And I taught (with an interpreter) the pregnant women for the last time (below is a group of 60 or 70 women we worked with in a community center on the edge of the Kampala slums).

 

Pictured are some of my fellow workers - Christine, Barbara, and Betty

and a few of my beloved friends that I met with at Mama Carol's home.

Then, the move from Kampala to Akkrite (over dusty, pot-hole packed roads in the back of a big open truck) to John and Paula's new home - a little small (850SF) and many electrical, septic, and water problems to work out, but

 

a great yard (at the top of a hill with a cool breeze), where we watched 5 enormous and spectacular Great Blue Turacos fly into one of the trees.  We love this quiet and peaceful place with no all-day or all-night screaming, no loud speakers blaring out, no gangs of dogs barking all night (just our own pups waking Paula up with their crying, barking, and climbing up and tapping on her window at 1:30am).   

 

You can see the characteristic hills of Uganda if you climb up and peak through the grates of the stone wall surrounding the lot.

 

The Z's have had great fun burying each other with friends Jonathon and Eva in the piles of leftover construction material from years ago

and dissecting a poisonous (?) snake found in the yard to see the gheko it had swallowed whole (skip these pictures if you have a weak stomach!).

 

We also explored the botanical gardens nearby with its huge anthills, centuries-old trees with gigantic roots, and natural landscape.  God's creation is so awesome!

I fly out tomorrow night, but I'll send one more blog shortly showing (1) Cherish (another ministry partner of eMIEA) and (2) eMIEA and Mission Aviation Fellowship's new combined office building.

 

      



"Helping Africa's most vulnerable children today, so they can help Africa tomorrow."

Christine (one of the ladies who works with the slum ministry) invited Paula and me to her church, where her husband is the pastor.  They had pity on us and told us to come in the middle of the 4 hour service.

Giving a "testimony" turned out to be a big laugh for the congregation as two translators both tried to get the other to take over.  The guy lost.  

 

Their praise team was awesome!  The Ugandan people have phenominal beat and tone and harmony (including the slum women, without music).  How great to praise the Lord together!





Another highlight was attending the 30th anniversary of the African Children's Choir (Music for Life).  It was also a groundbreaking for their new choir training center that John designed.  Richard (whose wedding I showed you pictures of in the first blog) will be overseeing the building as eMIEA's site manager.  .   



eMIEA designed the original master plan of this campus in 2004 - 2007and oversaw the construction of all but one of the buildings

 

 

A tour of the girl's dorm showed how beautifully they each "design" their daily blanket folding.



Yusef, one of the members of the specific African Children's Choir that was nominated for a Grammy award, is now working for eMIEA (currently on the Amazima project - see previous blog).

 

 

We were treated to a delicious African meal and then a sensational performance.  The children acted out a play depicting how "Daddy Ray" Barnett started the African Children's Choir after seeing little ones (who had lost homes and families to horrific slaughter) singing in dignity and hope.  They also showed us their village dance.  Below are a group of the children singing the Ugandan National Anthem.

 

The current choir & former choir members (including one who is now making her own popular recordings) performed many beautiful songs and dances for us.  

It was awesome to hear testimonies of some of the former students and hear their accomplishments.  The children are trained in singing for a short while and then go on tour around the world.  Each student is in the choir only one year, and then the money received from the tour is used to put the children through primary school, secondary school, and usually university (while staying in the ACC dorms and being mentored by ACC staff).  ACC (now working in 7 countries) has helped with vocational training for 52,000 vulnerable students, has taken 42 choirs on tour (now two per year), and has been instrumental in  training thousands of boys and girls to be godly, honest, hard-working professionals now serving the Ugandan people.  Their motto is "Helping Africa's most vulnerable children today, so they can help Africa tomorrow.         

"Do unto the least of these..."

It was great to finally meet and spend some time with John and Paula's "adopted" son, Thomas, who has now graduated from university,

and is working for Mission Link, International, whose Kampala headquarters were re-designed by eMIEA from an old movie theatre.  Below is part of the complex used for church services, but Mission Link also has (among other things) a large ministry to African widows (including helping them to start a small business), a work with lepers, pastors' training centers, and medical ministries.

 

Next on the agenda was the groundbreaking for Amazima's secondary and boarding school, which eMIEA designed and will be overseeing the building of.

Katie Davis Champ, author of the New York Times Bestseller "Kisses from Katie", founded  Amazima as a sponsorship ministry to feed and send Ugandan children to school, while teaching them the word of God.  Katie came to Uganda to teach kindergarten as a senior in high school, lost her heart to the children, and came back the next year to stay.  Katie's philosophy:  "I am just doing what God called us to do as children of His  - feed His sheep and do unto the least of His people."  

 

Below are some of Katie's 13 adopted children,

and a few of the children the school will benefit.  In addition to providing meals for around 1200 children Monday through Friday, Amazima provides medical care, health training, Bible Study, and vocational training for orphaned and vulnerable children.

 

We ended our time away from Kampala with an awesome hike in Uganda's beautiful rainforest, with monkeys chattering above us.

 

Uganda - a land of breathtaking views but heartbreaking needs.

 



A Bit of Africa

On the way to a groundbreaking for one of eMIEA's projects, we stopped at Otter's Rock, where John and the Z's fought the current to explore an island in the middle of the Nile,

Zachary played in the hailstones,

          and we roasted apples and marshmallows over an open fire.

 

 

We visited John and Paula's original home (6 years ago) in Jinja

 

 

And stopped to see the occupants of the Arise Africa Children's Home

built by eMIEA.

 

 

We passed through lots of villages made up of mud huts with thatched or tin roofs,

 

glimpsed an introduction ceremony (introducing an

engaged couple  to both families and giving the dowry)

And got stuck behind numerous trailers (that often tip over) loaded high with sugar cane.

 

 

To add a little excitement, we got hit by a boda.  Then, at the agricultural fairgrounds, Paula and I lost track of John and the boys, who went to the car and patiently waited (as "the only logical place to go when someone's lost"), while Paula and I traversed the fairgrounds back and forth and up and down, asking every policeman if they had seen a muzungu (white person) with two little white-haired boys.  A policeman finally found John (who had to get back "in" the "exit") and hollered at him, "YOUR WOMAN is SERIOUSLY looking for you.  And you FORGOT YOUR PHONE!"  Paula didn't think it was a bit funny at the time, but now she is SERIOUSLY laughing.

 

Just another day in Africa....