Team Swaziland is leaving this Thursday.

Team Swaziland is leaving for Swaziland on Thursday and will be be teaming up with childrenscup.org. Let's keep them in your prayers.

Pictures from Team Uganda

http://picasaweb.google.com/Team.U.2007

We are in the process of compiling all the pictures from our trip to Kampala, Uganda. Please check back at the above link for new photo posts.

It's Finished!

We finished building the home Friday morning. It was hard work, but it was well worth it. After we finished building the house, we had a dedication service with a pastor from KPC and all the native Ugandan crew members who taught 16 rookies how to build a house in 5 days.

We came expecting to build a home, and we did, but we were blessed to be able to build some great relationships, as well. There's our team host, Peter, who has shown us all around town and taken care of us so well. Then there's Moses our driver. If you ever come to Kampala you will quickly realize the value of a great driver like Moses. And then there's the team at the guest house, Richard, Rita, Grace, and John. Among other things, they have cooked terrific meals for us. You've probably heard stories of missions trips with Yak butter tea and mystery meat, but not here. The food has been great. Then there are the guys we have worked along side of the last week. Some of them spoke English very well and others knew about as much English as you know Lugandan. Laughter though is understood universally.

We were so privileged to be a part of this wonderful ministry and to get to build this home that Will house two high school teachers. The high school in this village is under construction, as well. Education is a big part of the Watoto vision. The ministry hopes to give these rescued children the moral values, social skills, and education necessary to be Uganda's next generation of leaders.

Praise God for all He is doing here!

We will post more pictures and let you know about our last couple of days here later. We have still have some great things ahead including lunch Sunday in the village. We will be splitting into several groups and having a traditional African lunch with one of the mother's and her children!

More Pictures

We had another great day Wednesday. We may finish the house Thursday. There was a light rain Wednesday that was kind of refreshing. The weather has been terrific while we have been working. Its been in the low 80s.

Each night we have a team devotion and last night we had awesome time together with God. After some time together in the word Johnny led us in worship and Michael Crandall played his guitar. We were really touched by God's presence.

For more pictures, check out:

http://picasaweb.google.com/Team.U.2007/TeamUganda

Monkeys and Muchanga

We made a lot of progress on the house today. Everyone is doing well and having a great time. Even the hour long bus ride to and from the house each day have been fun. We've come to love the Watoto ministry even more as we've had the chance to see what we've read and heard about now first hand. You can find out more by checking out their www.watoto.com or wait until we come home and we will probably tell you more than you want to know.

We've moved so many bricks and slung so much muchanga. Muchanga is Lugandan for mix and it's what you shout when you need more of it. Vasan is pretty much the Master of Moving Muchanga and Sonya showed some endurance today mixing it. If you forget "Muchanga" you can pretty much yell anything close, Muchacha, Mufassa, Chimichanga, and it will promptly show up at your feet. If someone yells monkey though, it's probably because they've spotted one near the worksite.

Thanks for your comments and your prayers.!

Construction Begins

We had a great day Sunday.

We attended Kampala Pentecostal Church and loved it. The praise and worship was very inspiring and they were very welcoming. After church we visited a little craft village and tried to bargain a bit and then had lunch at an Indian restaurant. John Carpenter recommends the ostrich if you ever find yourself in Sam’s Restaurant in Kampala. Later that evening, we went to Nderee (pronounced in-day-ray). It’s a local dance troop that performs traditional Ugandan dancing and singing.

We began early Monday working on the house. We’ve made quite a bit of progress already. It helps having a few local crew members who can show us the ropes. We even spotted a few monkeys running around during lunch. Judy is keeping everyone laughing and Johnny keeps us singing. We’ve also discovered that Sharon has quite the voice.

Looking forward to seeing you all soon, but we’ve got work to do.

We're Here!

Hello from Kampala, Uganda.

We arrived late Friday night after an adventurous couple of days of traveling. We had a few fun delays including one in which we circled the runway for quite a while to burn fuel so the plane could operate at the highest level and were then rerouted by Air Traffic Control to a route that we didn’t have enough fuel for. : ) The delays couldn’t dampen the excitement of the team though. We were greeted at the Entebbe airport by Peter, our team host and Moses, our driver. They took us to the Adonai guesthouse where Richard, Grace, and Rita are really taking care of us.

We spent Saturday having orientation at Kampala Pentecostal Church, seeing the town a bit and visiting The Bulrushes, Watoto’s new babies’ home. We had an awesome time playing with the children and didn’t want to leave. It opened January 15th with one baby , Moses, and now cares for 27 little ones from newborns to toddlers. The name, The Bulrushes, comes from the story in the Bible of Moses being rescued from the bulrushes which seems fitting as there are now three little Moses’ that have been rescued.

Looking forward to attending Kampala Pentecostal Church, which started Watoto, tomorrow. We will let you know all about it.