November 4^th, 2011

Hello,

We have had such dramatically extreme changes in each of these last few days, well last 5 days. It is hard to absorb.

The first of the week we were able to have the privilege of meeting our World Vision sponsored child, Andy*. We were picked up in Kampala by two precious young men from the World Vision offices in Andy's area, which we didn't realize is 4 hours from Kampala. Andy lives in Rakai district which is the south most districts before Tanzania. After a briefing at WV headquarters here in Kampala, and grocery shopping for Andy's family as this was suggested as the best kind of gifts to give them, we headed south for a very long drive. The joy was that our two escorts, Samuel and Barack are both Christ followers with very loving tender hearts for Jesus. So our hours were filled with questions, testimony and just wonderful fellowship that can only be had with like minded believers. We crossed the equator from the northern hemisphere into the southern one, and the landscape changed into more mountainous region. When we left the paved road (tarmac) life got exciting. I am not kidding we bounced and jarred over ruts that I thought our Toyota 4/4 truck was going to get high centered on. It was an interesting trip for Lyle and my back’s :) We finally arrived to pick up the WV supervisor in Andy's village area, James, who again just embraced our hearts for Jesus. He directed Barack how to get to Andy’s school where when we drove up a swarm of children greeted us. We got out and began shaking as many hands as we could grab, when James brought Andy up to us. He was dressed in his best uniform and was so very sweet and humble. We were asked to sit down in the playground on a bench with Andy and the school had prepared several dances of welcome for us. The whole group was so open and welcoming to us, I thought, ok God I could just stay here!!! Oh they are so precious and I feel God's love for them so deeply. We then had to get back into the truck with Andy to go to his home. It was such a blessing to share Andy’s first ride in a motor driven vehicle. James speculates that he has never even been to a town before. You cannot comprehend how far out in the bush they are, mountains, steep valleys, for mile after mile with almost un-drivable roads (Andy walks an hour each way in this terrain to school every day). Well the truck finally stopped, and we were told we would be walking the rest of the way, UP the mountain side. With my long skirt on, and arms laden with goods, I set out up a 30 degree or more grade mountain, through the banana trees. I thought I had gone back in time about 2-3 hundred years. We finally arrived at a mud daub house carved out of the mountain side, to meet Andy’s mother and father and two younger brothers. We stayed with them for probably an hour, interacting through the WV guys interpreting. They were as blessed as anyone by our reception and the love shared by us all. James is the pastor of Andy’s village church and teaches him in Sunday school. Only Andy and his older sister go to church, so we encouraged his parents that if they love Jesus as they said they did, that they would be examples to Andy of how to live for Jesus. Oh please pray for them, I cannot give you their names, but will share their pictures when we get home. We had to say good bye to Andy and family, and many bouncy miles down the road in Rakai town toured the main WV center for that area. It was good to see that they really are invested in people and are living Christ's love as they serve here. Please pray for them, they told us how encouraged they were by us coming and how it spurred them on to keep working for the lives of people who seem to have no way up.

We got home very late that night and had to be up the next morning early to meet a young man we were put in touch with by a Christ follower who had been in Uganda a few years ago. His name is Fred and him and he and his wife's ministry is to give street boys a safe place to live and to go back to school and to be taken care of. Fred was a street boy, he is now 27, and a Ugandan Christian man took him in at about 16 and let him sleep on his sitting room floor each night so he didn't have to be exposed to the street. Fred took us to the home where the boys stay, a church in the Netherlands supports this ministry, and we had the opportunity to spend the greater part of the day with these young men, ages 6-16, they think cause none of them knows when they were born or what year. The youngest one, Donald*, came to Fred as a 4 year old. I tried to play with him and interact and thought of my grandson Brayden, who is 4, being alone on the street, trying to survive by himself. Oh it breaks my heart, but more importantly, it breaks God's heart. The boys live in a nice home that a Ugandan man generously rents out at a very low price to the ministry. There is room outside for "football" (soccer), which both Lyle and I at different times tried to join in. Me in my skirt did not fair very well, haha. We were then graciously invited by Fred and his wife Claire to go to their home for coffee. So they drove us to their home, a nice two room place inside a walled security gate in the middle of the slums. The drive there was miles of humanity, exhaust, smells and dirt--as I thought of the contrast with our day before of miles of miles in the mountains. Different scenery but souls seemingly without hope or ways to break out of invisible prisons of poverty. Please pray for Fred, Claire and their 10 month old baby Benji as they choose to invest in others lives while trusting God for their own. I am amazed and in awe of these two, I want to be their "Mama" as neither has mother or father that they know of and they initiated calling Lyle and me papa and mama.

Thursday we spent with another young man, Ivan, again we met through the same contact, and ended up again in the slums where he rents a house with his sister. These two have Christ's light shining out of their eyes and while I spent time chewing on sugar cane amidst chickens, playing with children with little clothing or very torn cloths on, it was a joy and pleasure to be able to be there and share life with Ivan and Shamim. Please keep them in your prayers for Christ's purpose for creating them to be their all.

We had the privilege to pray for all of these precious ones I have mentioned and as they responded to our love I was reminded of the scripture in 2 Cor. 4:7: We now have this great light in our hearts but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This is to show that our great power is from God and not from ourselves. I believe this week I had the honor from our Lord to live this, as only Jesus was lifted up and glorified.

Today we met with African Inland Mission and again experienced most gracious hospitality and love. But once again such contrast, it is situated on the outskirts of Kampala in an area that made me almost think I was back in Redmond. Large shopping centers, large gated homes and abundance probably 3-4 miles from the slums but up on the hills. The slums are all down in the valleys. AIM is not an affluent place just situated in that area and from the looks of it was there before the area was built up. Pray for a young woman named Abbey from Plain, MT we met there who is embarking to South Sudan next week as she lives her life for Jesus; again a contrast as we heard about people taking time out of their lives to do so short term work for Christ. We have so much to pray about!!!

This is Lyle.....I'm sitting at the hotel and one would think we were back in Nicaragua in the rainy season. We drove home from the AIM office in a deluge of rain and there were literally rivers of water flowing down the street funneling all together to form small lakes in the intersections. It was a good thing we were in a van otherwise we might have floated into Lake Victoria. The drainage on the sides of the road are open washes that range from 3 to 5 feet deep. The water had filled many of these and was overflowing the road. I kept thinking the driver was going to drop the van into one of these culverts. On top of that the deep holes, sometimes 3 to 4 feet across and 5-8 inches deep were covered in water. As I was trusting the skills of the driver, the Lord reminded me that He is the one in control not the driver! It was still a relief to arrive safely at our hotel.

Ingrid has already explained much about what our last few days held so I’m not going to repeat what she has said, but the great needs of so many is what stands out so starkly in my mind; from the street kids, orphans, and the abandoned, to the young adults who by God’s grace saw their way through these tragedies and are now trying to minister to other in similar circumstances. They are so often only equipped with a desire to serve. In the states we wait to raise awareness, we try to find the right location for the ministry. From what I have seen at New Hope and with Fred’s ministry is that they simply did what God called them to do and then began doing it. We can see how so many ministries are just touching the tip of the iceberg and so much help is still needed; not only financially, but with willing workers. The question for Ingrid and I will not be finding a need, but letting God direct us to what needs He desires us to meet. We really desire to do what He purposes for us and it would be easy to just start doing rather than following Him.

Something that God is continuing to place on my heart is defending the rights of those whose rights are simply being ignored or trampled on. I will be talking with someone from International Justice Mission later on today and hope to gain some insight.

Please keep us in your prayers that among this vast sea of needs we will let God direct us specifically where He desires us to serve Him. Also, we are both going through round two of having eaten or drank something we shouldn’t have (thank goodness for Cipro and Imodium AD), even though we are really trying not to. So please pray for us in this area.

Thank you for all your prayers, support and comments. We look forward to sharing with you all when we return.

*Names changed for privacy

Lyle and Ingrid