Thursday

One of the wonderful surprises was on the first morning. We woke up to the nearby school singing and learned they sing every morning at 5:30. When unpacking at the Bethany house one of the little ones started singing too. Here they normally don’t have Cds and music players so naturally sing. We look forward to waking up each morning and listen to their voices. I can hear them now as I type this to you.

We’ve learned why Uganda, as a nation, is in the state it’s in. It is a land locked country. On the right is the Sudan, in the south is Rwanda, To the left are mountains of the Congo. The only airport is Entebbe yet the nation is the size of Oregon. Lake Victoria is a large body of water yet is not a port and only reaches the southern to middle parts of the country. To the north is the most rural parts because of the lack of infrastructure and there is extreme poverty there.

In the 70s, you had the corrupt illiterate leader, Edie Amean. He ordered anyone who was educated to be killed. That included even if all you could do was read. After his rule the country had no way to rebuild - no teachers, builders, or anyone with sound knowledge. This opened the door for more corruption. They have had a series of poor leaders yet the country is improving. Today it has been two generations since that occurred. The average life expectancy is age 45. There are very few people who have grey hair and. yesterday was the first time we saw any - 2 men on the side of the road and one woman at the school. The average age is 15 so by the time you reach adulthood you are middle ages here. They are building their country and need leaders of education, values, and integrity.

There are many Christians here in Kampala area and you’ll see evidence of this in slogans and churches around the area. Yet there are still powerful witchdoctors in the hills who have political connections. This reminds us of the mafia or gang activity we would see at home or in other countries. The missionaries have worked one at a time in breaking these strongholds and have told us they know of many children of the witchdoctors who have turned to Christianity.

The story behind the church we visited at the school. I’ve heard before but this time we had the opportunity to see the church. It is made in the shape of a cross to signify Christianity. It was established in an area in the south of Uganda that is more traditionally Muslim. We had passed several Mosques on the way there. When the land was being acquired, for the school and church, the neighboring people told Papa Ron and his partner at the time that they could build the school but not the church, no one would sell the land, and that no one would attend because they were “born againers” as they call the Christians here. They built the school and prayed for the land to build the church. Finally one day they saw a man on the road side bent down crying in distress. They stopped and asked him what was wrong. He said his son had just died in a car accident and he had no way to reach him and bury his body. It is a Muslim belief that you must bring the body home and bury them within a 24 hours of death. They did not preach to him or refuse but instead offered to help him. They took him to his son and brought the body home and stayed with him to prepare his son for burial. Finally when all was done they returned home. A few days later, they were notified and told that the owner of the property wanted to see them. They had no idea it was the same man. He told them since they helped him in his time of need, even though they were not Muslim and were Christians, he felt obligated to sell them the land. He added that though his neighbors were not happy with the decision he knew it was the right thing to do and he was confident they could build a church but no one would come. He sold the land at a fair price. They told him that they would build anyway because God told them to So they built the church and now they are thriving.
.

Today we're going to work at the Bethany house and Ed is already off with the prison ministry team for the day.

We should hear news about the missing bin or receive it today

Yes, Carie tawnie is safe and doing Fantastic

Love you all!