Nov 28, 2010

Another lovely Sunday morning…I think this is one of my favourite times in the week…or atleast it has the potential to be if I actually can make them happen. My dad called me around 7am (which was great! It was fun to catch up and talk about his upcoming trip to Uganda). After talking to him I went back to bed for a bit to read, then I got up and made myself a lovely breakfast of frenchtoast and coffee! I headed out to the front porch with my bible and journal in hand to catch up on some journaling. It was the last page in the journal, so before writing I turned to the front to see what had been going on in my life when I first started writing in it. I knew that I had been about half way through my Africa trip when I started (I know, I’ve really slacked on the journal writing). But, this is what I read “Please continue to give me wisdom with the street kids. What else can I do for them LORD? My mind is picturing a big house with lots of boys moving about it. They have food, clothes, and shelter. Better yet they feel as if they belong to a family, our family. Is this crazy LORD?” This is word for word what I had written! And now look at where we are….God has blessed us with a house, and the boys have all of those things and more.

Over and over God continues to show me (and hopefully you) the power of prayer. This was a simple prayer that I had prayed January 18, 2009…and many times after, and not even 2 years later all of these things have come to be. I am overwhelmed with God’s greatness, and humbled to be used as a servant for Him.

Anyways, Steven called me at some point in the morning to tell me that he was coming to church with me, and then Robert showed up at my gate about 20 minutes before church. He came and sat on the porch with me as we waited for Steven and then we met David at church. I know I’ve said it before, but I love going to church with them! Although I have to say that the pastor spoke and used ATLEAST 15 different passages from through the bible, and looking up verses for 3 other people can get alittle distracting.

After church we headed to Sergio’s to see if Glen was there. It was his last day before he headed back to Canada, so we wanted to make sure that we got to say goodbye. He WAS there, and he headed to the boys house with us to have his final lunch. I guess Alex or Henry must have said something to the boys, because everyone was actually home. After lunch, we all said a goodbye to Glen. I was so proud of the boys, each of them said something that they remembered about his time there, and what they were thankful to him for. I don’t know how he managed to keep dry eyes, because I am quite sure that if that had been me, I would have been crying.

I had been promising Steven all week that I would go to Masese with him to meet some of his family. So after lunch and after Glen left I headed to Masese with most of the boys. Many of them have aunties or jaja’s or some sort of relative in Masese. Now I had heard how bad Masese is…and assumed since this is where many of the street kids come from it must be bad, but I was not prepared for how poor it was. There was garbage everywhere and mud huts seemed to be the norm. There were some cement buildings that were made into little one room apartments, one room/family…and more often than not, family included 5-10 children. Heartbreaking doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of what it was like to see this. And not just heartbreaking, but also overwhelming…almost everyone I met needed money to pay their rent or to buy food for their family, or medicine for a sick child. While I loved being able to meet some of the boys relatives, it was hard to have to say no over and over. There is no possible way that we would be able to help every relative of the boys who needed help. Let me help you understand though…its not like they are asking for 100s of dollars…they are needing 10,000 shillings ($10) for a months rent…ahhh…that is NOTHING, and you just want to do it…but you can’t start…or you open things up to a whole bunch of trouble.

The Sanctuary is helping one girl, Mary, who lives with her family in Masese, and I was able to meet her mom and her 9 brothers and sisters. They asked for help with rent and I told them that I would think about it. Most of the boys had come with us because there was a big football game there..(this seems to be the highlight in the town). It was Patrick’s team vs. Moses team…and the prize? A live goat! Lol. We watched about half of the game, and then it was time for me to go. (Mostly because it was getting closer to being dark, and it wouldn’t be safe for me to be travelling after dark). I decided that I would help Mary’s family with December’s rent and then talk to Henry about the situation afterwards. Because we are housing the boys that we are helping, I thought that it was fair for us to help Mary with her housing as well (and Steven and Ambrose agreed). The journey back through town was a bit more interesting…people seemed to be getting more forward, and in the end Ambrose had to take my hand and lead me through the village. Again it just makes me so proud of the boys…they know when they need to step up and make sure that things are ok…I was never in any real danger, but it was nice to know that I was being taken care of.

Unfortunately because I have no camera at this point of time, I have no pictures to show you, but my plan is that once my dad gets here I will go back and try to show you life inside of Masese. I should make a comment here…seeing life in Masese makes me so thankful to have gotten involved in these boys lives. Before we had the place that they are living in now, the boys had all been living together in a small little room here. I thank God every day that they are no longer living in that situation, and even though there are so many people who need helping, I am glad to know that we are atleast making a difference in these boys lives, and maybe one day they can go back and help their people.

At home that night Siouxanne and I watched “Christmas Shoes”, which I’ve head ( and love) the song a million times..but I had never seen the movie....i might have shed a tear or two…:)

UPDATE! :) - Nov 22-28

OH dear, I need to stop missing out on blogging…catching up is just way to overwhelming, and I honestly have a hard time even remembering what I’ve done.

I guess I’ll see if I can remember some of the highlights of this week.

1) We got to start working at the house! Woohoo. My favourite site was walking in to the backyard and finding the boys working away, shovelling pile after pile of dirt into a wheel barrow and pushing it to the front yard (where we are going to use the extra soil to level it out). I’m not gonna say that there isn’t any arguing or complaining, but all in all the boys have been fantastic at helping out at their new house! I am so proud of all the work that they have been doing. We have a lot of work ahead of us, but with everyone working together, I think that it will be the best house ever! I know it sounds odd, but I am glad that we bought a house that needed work to be done on it. It gives the boys ownership of the place. This is their house, and it is their sweat..and yes some blood that is going into it. Love it!

2) The rest of the boys finished school this week, so we had a big year end party for them!! Mostly it was Glen’s night..he spent a day looking for all of the things that we would need to have the best burgers in Jinja (including Heinz ketchup, mustard, cheese (which is really just the nastiest thing you’ve ever tasted..lol), lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions, and yes…DILL PICKLES!!!) The we had to special order hamburger buns and fries and of course…soda! The best part of the night was watching the boys figure out how to eat a burger…we tried to show them how to properly assemble a burger, but many of them ended up eating the bun separate from the burger..lol. None the less they loved it and were happy. We watched a movie as well, and ended the night with Banana Splits! These are the kind of nights I like because it gives me a chance to just hang out with the boys…having fun..no homework, no chores to be done..just fun :) And that it was!

3) We painted our first room! I was hoping to do a trial run on the painting before Glen left (he was our ‘paint expert’ and he was leaving on Sunday). SO, on Saturday morning we headed to the paint store, bought what we thought that we would need and headed to Bukaya. Now, the day before we had prepped the room, cleaning, scrubbing, sanding, etc…the problem was that the wall had whitewash on it..when we applied the first coat of paint with a roller, it all came peeling back. So it was on to plan b. Glen went back to town to get some undercoat, but while he was gone we realized that the other rooms didn’t have any whitewash, so we got the next room ready, and soon began to paint. The colour?? A beautiful shade of blue! I actually love it! I wasn’t sure at first, but now it looks great! Now that we’ve seen how it applies though, we are going to wait until the ceiling is plastered before we complete the paint job, BUT it was fun to see us moving forward!

4) Betty has moved out of the house, and we officially have the keys! This means that we can begin ALL of the construction inside (ceilings, floors, plumbing, etc!) Oh, and we also had the last meeting with the lawyer which means everything is finalized!

5) On a not Sanctuary related note, it was Siouxanne’s birthday today, so we had a ‘hobo’ themed birthday party for her! It was quite fun, and again a good chance to have some ‘girl’ time!

6) I celebrated my first American Thanksgiving! Complete with a breakfast of Pumpkin Pancakes…(yes, Michelle, I have the recipe, and YES we are going to make these when I get back!) then a dinner of turkey (flown in recently by a missionary, and it do believe it was butterball..and I’m being serious), stuffing, scalloped potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce, squash (with marshmallow fluff in it! Yum:)) potatoes and more! Oh, for dessert we had pumpkin pie (compliments of Siouxanne and I), apple crisp and pecan pie…seriously, we were spoiled!! It was fun to get together with other Muzungus (American AND about 7 Canadians! Woot!).

7) Oh…we also finished our logo this week! Henry and I have been working on finalizing it for quite a while now, and we are SOOO happy that it is finished AND we are quite proud of it!

8) On a not so good note, this week Henry’s iphone, my camera and his wallet were stolen from Henry’s house. The power has been off and on at my house all week, so I had given Henry my camera to charge the battery. Too bad for the robber he got my camera, but with no battery, and no charger. Henry reported everything to the police, but unfortunately the chances that he ever gets his phone back are very slim. As for his wallet, they took the wallet itself, but left all of his identity cards outside the window…which is atleast one positive in this situation.

Hmm…well, for now, I think that about sums it up! It was a busy week for sure, but also a lot of fun. I think my first couple of weeks were full of just being excited to be back in Jinja, and happy to see the boys again. The next couple of weeks were reality hitting me….the understanding that it isn’t all just fun and games..and now, its just life…and I LOVE IT! I am still learning my role, and frustrated with the language barrier…but it is good. I feel comfortable with the boys, I know what I am doing with my days, and things that I want to accomplish, and I have a solid peace from God that this is where I am supposed to be…good or bad, this is where I belong…atleast for now, who knows what the future will hold!

Nov 20, 2010 – Family Kits

Today was Family Kits day! For those of you who don’t know, Family Kits are a mattress, jerry can, mosquito net, basin, sauce pan, large bar of soap, and blanket. This is one of GIVE’s big things that they do in the villages surrounding Jinja. Today we were headed out to the district of Kamuli (don’t ask me the name of the village we were in), but it was a good 45 minute drive to get there. We all met in town and got a big truck and then loaded it up with all of the things that we needed. Let me say now that we were supposed to meet at 8am, but didn’t end up getting everyone together until 8:30 and then we had to pick up the stuff, but of course the person didn’t show up for another 30min..lol (not that ANY of this was surprising). I would say that one of the best things about today was that some of the boys were able to come with us! Mike, David, Robert, Moses and Jacob all come along with us, along with Tevin, Glen, Henry, Alex, Richard, Godfrey and Shadrach. It was a big group for only 10 family kits, but it was fun to go with everyone. I was especially glad that the boys got to go, because they are often (always) on the receiving side of giving, this was a chance for them to be able to give back.

The ride to the village in the back of the truck was bumpy but enjoyable. Its always an eye opener to drive anywhere outside of Jinja and see what its really like out there. At times it felt like we were in a parade with many of the children along the road and in the little towns we passed through shouting out mzungu mzungu and waving as we passed them.

Once we arrived we quickly distributed all of the items amongst our team and set out into the village. The local pastor was our leader, and he had done the research to find out who was the most needy in the area, and would most benefit from a family kit.

The first lady that we took a family kit to was an older widow who was so excited to receive a kit that she started to dance!! With each distributed kit we introduced ourselves, told them that we were from Canada, and that we hoped that in some small way God could use what we were giving them to help improve their lives. We told them that God loved them, and that we wanted to share His love with them. We prayed with each family, took some pictures, hung a mosquito net and moved on to the next family. Most of the families that we met were widows/widowers with some children, or families with the husband either crippled or sick. It was very eye opening to hear their stories, and see the homes that they were living in. I know that the family kits are definitely appreciated and helpful, but sometimes it didn’t seem like it would even scratch the surface of what they needed. BUT, we do what we can with what we have, and trust that God is going to be there for them as well.

The rest of the afternoon was spent part at the boys, and then I headed into town to use the internet. This is when I found out that The Sanctuary is not able to be a project under GIVE, meaning that we cannot raise money through them, which is going to change our entire house project. While it is disappointing to find this out, I know that God is in control, and I will continue to trust Him even when things don’t turn out the way that I think that they should or would. God is in control, and live I’ve said before, He loves these boys more than I ever can, and He has bigger and better plans for them then I can even dream of, so we will keep holding on to Him to take care of us.

Praise:

-We serve a God that we can trust!

-Family kits went well, and the boys were able to take part

-God used us to bless families in Kamuli

Pray:

-The Sanctuaries charitable status

-The house!

-The families we met in Kamuli will understand why we came, and that God loves them and is always there for them

-all of the boys!

-Henry and I will continue to seek God’s wisdom and we go through each situation

Nov 19, 2010 - woohoo..i found girls...:)

The morning started off great! I headed off to the boys house, and instead of taking a boda I decided to walk (which I should do more often then I do..but I apparently am always in a rush..lol). Anyways, just outside my gate a met a group of girls, maybe 8 or 9 of them coming from school. I asked them where they were going, and they told me that it was speech day at school, and so they were headed home to get ready (keep in mind it was only 9am..but their school day had started at 7). We kept walking and talking, and I learned ‘some’ of their names, found out that they were all in P4, and for their presenting they were doing a fashion show, so they showed off the best model walk:) It was fun to get to know them a bit more, I spend so much time with Ugandan boys that I enjoyed meeting the girls! Anyways, we walked almost all the way to the boys house when they came to the house they were headed to. I told them where the boys lived, and that they were welcome to come and visit sometime. I continued on my way when about a minute later I heard my name being called..and there were the girls coming down the hill calling my name. They came to the house and met some of the boys that were there, and then played some football and rugby with us. After sometime they said that they had to get back to school, but they would come and visit us again.

And thats it for today's blog...! Short and sweet :)