Container Arrived!

Monday June 20

The day started really really good. I got to talk to Stacey and Julie Neidert this morning. Her mom and dad were there and it sounds like they are doing very well. thank you so much to everyone who has been praying for them. "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." How amazing it is... I know that the Neiderts have been comforted even though they morn. They are surely a family after the heart of God. Please continue to pray for them as today is 1 week since Rory was ushered into eternity.

We had our usual morning routine; eat breakfast, gather for the bus. Be on the bus at 8:30. Bus ride went smoothly, and we arrived at the Orphanage to find the container set into place! We had seen it pass us on our way back to the hotel on Sunday. This always is a good thing, It means that the children get to get out of class and have a celebration! I have never had a hard time getting a little extra welling in my eyes when I see these celebrations. The children are so amazing the way they show their gratitude. their smiles are so big. We got to start unloading it all, I am pretty small, so I get to fold myself up and cram into the back of the container. I don't want you to think that I am complaining, because I'm not, I love it. Thank you God for making me the size that I am. I get to pull stuff out and hand it off to the next person. It was probably an easy 100 degrees inside that container. It reminded me of when we wired the houses, it got up to 125 degrees when you would get up above the walls. It wasn't that hot, but the sweat definitely starts to come out. We took out so many shoes and clothes that we had a minor back up when we moved it all down to the House where we store it. we only had two wheel barrels, and one of them we broke last year, so we were trying to get all the clothes down to the house on tarps. We would lay the tarps out, and just toss all the clothes and shoes onto the tarps. Then about 6 guys would get around the tarps and just lift it down the hill to the house. We eventually got it all unloaded, and we had to put all the school supplies, computers, and school desks that back onto the container for safe keeping. When I get a moment I like to just stand in awe of how much God has poured his love out to these kids through our team and all the people who help us get there. All of the people that donate things to the trip.... I mean before we came, there really wasn't very much there. We have sent 3 containers full of things for them. We have seen so much accomplished. When lunch time came I was ready for it to say the least. I think I lost a third of my weight in sweat- most of it wiped onto the back of my gloves. I had some Trio bars from Costco that were delicious and then realized that I was out of water... So I got to experience thirst for the rest of the day. I knew that I was going to be out of the sun for the rest of the day, so I was fine. I started to look over my Bible Study material for my boys later in the day. We are doing the Beatitudes.

Our first verse that we are doing is Matt 5:3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven." It was really nice to be able to teach them. It was a challenge to explain the idea of "Poor in Spirit" We eventually got them to understand it though. The day ended with little time to spend with some of the older kids. I really enjoy that time. we got to partake in a little Uganda BBQ for supper which is always delicious. Our meeting that night consisted mostly of working through details of the baptisms that we are going to be having for the kids on Sunday. I am so excited to be a part of that again. I signed up for the foot washing. Just like Jesus did with his disciples, we are doing that for the children. I also get to prep the children for baptism; explain the procedures, and tell them the story from the bible of Jesus washing his disciples feet. Then we all retired for the night.

Tuesday June 21

I woke up talking to someone in a dream. Have you ever woken up and you realize that you are saying something that makes absolutely no sense? In my dream I was trying to explain to someone how to take a picture with my camera. I woke up mumbling to Adam G. about how he needed to bring the camera up to his eye and use the viewfinder... He was like "What..?" Pausing for a moment I just replied.. "use the Viewfinder." Its the Doxyiclene.. It gives you amazingly vivid dreams. Everyone on the team has been talking about really crazy dreams that they have been having. So yeah, I woke up talking gibberish. I made a list in my head of all the things that I needed to be sure to do when we got to the orphanage. of the 3 things on my imaginary list I accomplished 0 of them. I started at the school cleaning up old form boards, and moving tile and brick, then cleaning off the covered walkways outside the classrooms. At lunch time Steve Dolan and I, all of the sudden, looked at each other after we noticed an old bag that the Mums had filled with dirt and used as a sandbag to divert water.. It was an old cement bag from the construction site. So after lunch we started building retaining walls out of cement bags. These bags are not paper, but a woven plastic, almost like a burlap sack, only not burlap.. Plastic. and a durable plastic at that. I got all involved in that and finally had to pull away. I needed to prep for my older kids bible study. Today's verse is Matt 5:7 "Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy." This is a great study for the kids, because the kids do have a hard time forgiving each other. But just as before; I got them to understand it all. I employed a tactic I learned a little while ago. It is called bribing. =) I have a lot of Wrigley's 5 chewing gum that I bribe them with. Its amazing their participation went from 2 or 3 of 20 to about 18 of 20 that had their hands raised to answer every question. I just had to laugh at some of their responses.. You can just tell how bad they want that gum. I guarantee that of the boys that have bibles all of them will be there tomorrow. and I guarantee at least half of them will be able to recite the last two verses. After the lesson, we had a little craft time. Even though the craft really had nothing to do with the Lesson, It was awesome. They made little sheep heads our of a piece of paper using origami. They all got it, and then I made them all make sheep noises. It was the

funniest thing ever. Just imagine for a second what that would sound like to the classroom next door. they were my little flock. I was sure to ask them, "If we are all sheep, who is our Shepherd?" they all got it right. Jesus. Its looking like I will be heading to Lira tomorrow. Bruce and I will be heading up making sure that construction is under way on the pump house. Otherwise, we might not get our Lira project completed in time.