Update from Uganda

Jan. 21
We have now been home in Uganda over a week and I am happy to say we are all doing well. Thanks for praying everyone. Our kids are settling in really well. Lydia and Grace play with their four Ugandan friends almost every day (about 5 hours a day). I am thankful they have good friends we can trust and they enjoy so much. Even Luka enjoys being with them and watching them. The only complaint I have heard from them is that they are hot. Who can blame them for that it is hot! Luka is adjusting well too. He is so good. His hair is really curly all over the bottom again. He loves being outside playing in the sand. He also loves the girls little chairs. He climbed in and sits proudly and contently. He already is comfortable with Tabitha and the girl’s friends. Josh and I are playing catch-up mostly. Josh has been visiting the people here that he works with. I am almost done unpacking and putting away. What a job.

We gave Betty and friends their shoes for school yesterday. They just fit and I was worried they would be too big. Glad they fit. They seemed happy. Sometimes it is hard to tell with Ugandans. So many people at home were touched by Betty’s story and wanted to help. Well she now has a good pair of shoes for school.

I ran into market the other day to say hi to Mary the basket lady and Rukiya’s great grandmother. Rukiya died. Mary wasn’t caring for her but her grandmother was. Mary says she knew the grandmother wouldn’t car for her. Rukiya got sick with diarrhea and wasn’t taken into the clinic until it was too late. She died November 21. I was so sad. Poor innocent Rukiya suffered and died. It is so frustrating because it didn’t need to happen. We helped save a life only for her to die. It makes me so upset. It is really the result of sin. It all goes back to sin. The mother slept with a guy, the guy didn’t care for her or the baby and left for someone else, the mother is positive and dies, Rukiya is now HIV positive and sick, grandmother doesn’t care for her, and Rukiya who did nothing and had no choice died. This shouldn’t be and doesn’t have to be. If only people knew God and lived His way. Rukiya’s then would have been born into a Christian home with a father and mother who loved each other and her. There would be no sickness, no unwantedness, and no death. God’s heart must just break to see people over and over again go against His ways and cause so much pain and suffering. Some people blame God – He could have saved Rukiya and take suffering away – it is true. But it isn’t His fault it is ours. We choice to sin and suffer with the results. The devil loves it you know. His goal is to destroy us. God again You alone are the answer. You are the hope. You are the peace in a messed up world. You are the one we can trust in. Again, I come back to that is why we are here. We want to bring that hope, that peace, true life in Christ to those who aren’t living it and don’t know it.