Christmas at Home

Greetings to all our family & friends!!!

We have had a wonderful time in Uganda these past 7 months & have definitely seen God at work in so many ways. We are home for a Christmas break & can't wait to see everyone!!! We arrived Friday night & were greeted by our family members who live here. Then Saturday night we were with our Loewen extended family. Sunday we shared in our church, Discovery Bible Fellowship. It has been good to be home & so much fun seeing everyone! We plan to return to Uganda on January 2. We would appreciate your prayers about how long we should stay in Uganda.

We wanted to share a couple more videos with you if it will download. One Saturday in November our keyboardist was playing around on the porch in front of the Admin. Bldg. He started playing some of the songs the Calo Me Lare Children's Choir sings, and this is what they sang:

Sometimes when I'm in temptation, I feel so forsaken
Sometimes I feel so lonely, I think I'm gonna fall
But then God's Word reminds me, He will never never leave me,
He will never never never leave me, no never leave me alone.

Jesus, here I am to serve You Lord, Jesus this is my life, I give to You,
Jesus take it, take it all my Redeemer, Jesus take it all.

It is not uploading, so we will try again sometime. If you would like to see some of the new children who recently arrived at Calo Me Lare ( the orphanage), go to www.projecthopeworldwide.org. The most recent blogpost was done on Sunday, December 2.

Have a blessed Christmas!

Love & prayers,
Dennis & Margie

 

Uganda Through Evie's Eyes

Thank you again for being involved in our adventure with Christ here in Uganda! We know you are praying & supporting us in many ways. You are a vital part of what God is doing & we know He will reward you.

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints. -Colossians 1:3-4

 We are so excited to have our daughter, Evie with us for 2 weeks in Uganda with our Missions Team from Project Hope Worldwide & have asked her to do a guest blog for us today. Here’s Evie…

Hi guys!
It's been busy here! We went out to see the kids at Calo on Monday, November 5. It was awesome! They greeted us at the gate and I’m pretty sure every one of the kids and staff gave every one of our team members a hug. They sang and danced and we all walked up to the orphanage with them. They had a big program prepared for us where they did a few skits, sang songs and danced, and every kid introduced himself/herself and told us what grade and which mother was his/hers, and it was all in English! It was really neat! I had my first meal of beans and rice there and it was really good!!! We played on the playground and walked around the grounds with them until they had to go back to school. I don't think I (or any of the visitors) went anywhere without at least one but usually 3 or 4 kids holding their hand :)

The roads here are ridiculous!!!! I just didn't understand until I saw it for myself. I really enjoy driving back home and had hoped Dad would let me drive here, but after seeing it I think I'll be obliged to just be a passenger. There are people everywhere and I don't know how there aren't wrecks and people killed all the time, but the drivers of the cars, bikes, and motorcycles and the people walking all seem to understand each other for the most part, and dodge and veer to safety when they need to. I'm also surprised that Mom and Dad's van is as rugged as it is! The AWD definitely helps, and it sets up a little higher from the ground but there are a lot of times where the road was really bad and it scraped under the van. Some roads are better than others, but there are a few here that I could probably walk on faster because Dad is constantly dodging and almost stopping for potholes in the road. BUT, they fixed the road that we take to the orphanage yesterday!!!! It has made a world of difference and everyone enjoys the drive more now! Pray that it stays good!

Mom and I spent a good part of the day Tuesday walking through the market getting ingredients for dinner that night and looking at all the stuff for sale. It was....different :) At first I didn't know what to think – it’s basically a huge maze, but Mom knew where to go to find what we needed, and she haggled for the right price when necessary! It was pretty overwhelming and HUGE, but I felt safe and everyone was very nice. By the end of the day I felt pretty acclimated and really enjoyed myself. I found some cool jewelry too which never hurts :) We left for a Safari Wednesday morning. We really enjoyed it. We saw a ton of giraffes and crocodiles, Ugandan Cob (deer with weird antlers) Heartabeasts, Warthogs, and Cape Buffalo. We also saw a few elephants and possibly a lion whose head we thought we saw sticking up above the grass, but our guide couldn't say for sure. There were also a lot of cool birds and of course I enjoyed the plants and trees. It's been cool seeing all the plants and trees here that I recognize as tropical plants back home, except here they're about 20 times bigger! I've also enjoyed Mom and Dad's house! It's very clean and nice, seems to suit them well and it feels like home! We had a craft day of sorts with the kids on Saturday. They were fairly good at sharing, and the older kids usually help the younger ones which is neat to see. It was a great first week!

Sunday was church and I LOVED it! The kids definitely outnumber the adults :) I loved their excitement and unbridled joy for the Lord. The dancing and singing was also very impressive and moving! Tuesday afternoon we went hut-to-hut in the village by the orphanage (see picture above). It was an amazing experience! We visited 3 huts and talked with the women there (the husbands weren't home). None of the women accepted Christ but one of the teenage girls did (girl with blue shirt in the picture)!!! Praise the Lord! My mom is doing a new believers class for the kids who have accepted Christ lately and so hopefully she will be able to come to that.

It's much different here, and I didn't expect a lot of things. You have to see it to understand! It's very noisy all day long, and some nights. There are people EVERYWHERE, and it's always busy on the streets. People are also very friendly and helpful which I didn't expect either. I was also surprised to see billboards when I got to Lira but it's pretty commercialized. I saw a sign today for cell phones and it said to "Come celebrate your Ugandanness." Everything is in English so it's fun to be able to read it all, but some of their marketing is pretty interesting to say the least.

I'm finishing this blog by candle light because the electricity is off (it's raining, so it is almost a given that the electricity will be off if it's raining). Life is a little harder in some ways, but the blessings are huge! The people's kindness and joy is infectious and it makes everything worth it!

Thanks for the prayers!!
Love,
Evie, Dennis & Margie

Videos of Uganda

      

Thanks to our Community Group we have been taking a few videos in Uganda. Keep in mind these are unedited videos, but you deserve to see a little of Uganda “on the move”. Before we left home our Community Group gave us this wonderful video camera, and we have just now learned how to share the videos on our blog. As they would say here, "Be blessed as you see some of life in Uganda."

This first video is the street we drive down every day that we go to the orphanage, Calo Me Lare. Note that driving is on the left side of the road. There are many speed bumps to regulate traffic, but that is about it. The rule of the road is “The largest vehicle has the right-of-way.” So we are fortunate to be driving a van.

This video is the children of CML welcoming the first team who came in July this summer. The song they are singing is “Welcome to Lira”. Every time a team comes they greet them at the gate & sing all the way up the driveway walking toward the Administration Building. Then the entire staff & kids perform for the team. They also did this for us when we arrived & Andy & Cami when they returned from their furlough in the U.S.

In this video the kids are performing one of the local dances for the team. The staff also performs. They dress up in costume while wearing their Project Hope Worldwide shirts. It is very interesting and colorful!
 

October 9^th marked the 50^th year of Uganda’s independence. You might be interested in reading online the prayer President Museveni prayed that day. (Google Museveni's 50th Anniversary Prayer if you are interested). It would be well for other nations to follow his lead in recognizing who God is and humbly repenting as a nation. Because it was the half-century mark the local leaders took part in a huge celebration in Kampala, the capitol. October 19^th was the day set aside for local cities to celebrate. Some of the kids from Calo Me Lare took part in this by marching in the parade.

 

Another small team is coming on November 4. We are very excited about this because our daughter, Evie, will be a team member. Pastor Derk Madden, PHW President, Kelley Compton who operates the PHW Office, and Rachel Dunnaway from Oregon (staying for a year) will complete the team.
We plan to be home with family and friends during the month of December and return in January for several months.

Thank you for all your prayers and support. Our prayer & support team is awesome! We thank God for you and pray for you.

Blessings,
Dennis & Margie

New Church for Bungabunga

We appreciate each one of you and your interest in our blog. More than that, we are so thankful for your prayers!!! God has blessed us immensely by the prayers of His people.

We are excited that a new church will soon be built at Calo Me Lare (pronounced Chah’-low Me Laaaah’ree. I always wondered about that before we came). The name of the church is Bungabunga (pronounced Boongaboonga) Bible Fellowship. The groundskeepers have been clearing tree stumps. We think this is James.

Some of the construction workers have been getting the ground ready, which included taking out a sizeable termite hill. The church will be located to the left just inside the entrance gate. This will be a great addition to the orphanage grounds and a wide open welcome to the church for the people in the community.

 

We went for a walk today hoping to find the mowing of the Lira Golf course in action…and we were not disappointed. This is the way it is mowed every afternoon. I hope you enjoy the pictures below.

 

We just don’t know how to get a set of golf clubs here to play on this lovely course. Dennis has heard – word of mouth – that there are actual holes on this course. We cannot verify this, but we did not spend much time there. Another golf course photo...

 

For those of you who planted flowers/shrubbery at the school this summer… the plants are doing well and this is what they look like.

Next Sunday we will begin Adult Bible Study Classes before the Prayer and Worship Services. Dennis is working hard finding materials for two teachers to use for preparation each week. We have found some online resources but hope to find more. We are starting with a New Believers’ Class and a Discipleship Class. Praise God for the opportunities He provides to serve Him.

We now have 8 new children at CML and there are more on the way this week. We hope to fill the two new homes with 8 more children, making a total of 16 children soon. We will try to post some of their pictures on the next blog.

This beautiful red-flowered tree with the banana trees in front of it stands out in splendor. It is on the last part of our drive to CML. Uganda affords many opportunities to see God's creation and to stand in awe of Him who created everything! He is totally worthy of all our praise!!! To Him alone be all the glory He deserves!

We are praying for you as you pray for us.

Blessings,

Dennis & Margie

 

Where Have We Been?

Thank you for praying for us! We have moved around quite a bit the past month, so we appreciate so much your prayers and support.

Dennis goes to Calo Me Lare, the orphanage, every weekday. He drives our van. Sometimes he runs errands on the way there or on the way home. Sometimes he goes back to Lira for materials used in building or items used for compound maintenance. The past few weeks he has been setting up the Football Field (soccer field). He also set up volleyball poles & Friday he added a net we had bought in Kampala.

I on the other hand go to CML at least twice a week. I’ve been doing bookkeeping from home, corresponding by email and preparing each week as director of Children’s Church (in Cami Flege’s absence) for Bungabunga Bible Fellowship which meets at the orphanage on Sundays.

Dennis, Irene (social worker) and Emiku Dennis (orphanage administrator) had an interesting trip through a swamp to see some of the girls who are potential children for CML. (This is our rainy season, so every road with a swamp nearby is nearly impassible, and a challenge for Dennis). They spent about an hour’s drive on that type of roads. See photo below.

Dennis has also been helping a young man from the village who is in college at Ngetta, about 10 kilometers from Lira. Last Sunday Thomas’ dad asked to see Thomas, so we brought him home for lunch. We had 3-way (spaghetti, chili with beans & cheese). This was probably his first time to eat American food, but he cleaned his plate. He spoke no English. Dennis took him to see his son, Thomas, and took him to a boda boda (motorcycle taxi) for transportation home. Dennis took a bottle of antacid tablets to Thomas this week and he was improving.

Aduku Road which goes to CML is so bad that we saw an overturned truck in one of the bad spots this morning on our way to church. On Friday, September 7^th we took 33 children to the dentist & medical doctor at Otino-Waa (another orphanage that has a medical clinic). This time we used the passenger van (with another driver) and our van. It was just by the grace of God that we did not get stuck.

We’ve been watching our banana tree produce bananas. The cone will get lower each time it produces bananas and soon there will be several rows of bananas.

 

On September 10^th we took our second trip to Kampala, just Dennis and I. The goal was to pick up Andy and Cami Flege from the airport. We almost made it through the city without help, but took one wrong turn near the south end of Kampala and hired a boda to lead us to Entebbe Road.

We stayed in the American Recreation Association hotel one night in Kampala. It had beautiful landscaping, any type of recreation you could want, and a nice (affordable) restaurant. (See Dennis’ photo below).

 

 

We have a photo of part of the city.

 

It is surrounded by hills and very beautiful! It is also very congested!!! Dennis drove the whole trip but Andy navigated from Tuesday on. We shopped for the orphanage and ourselves and returned home late Wednesday. This time we shopped downtown, looking for mosquito nets for the new homes. Each building had multiple shops and levels. Dennis and I followed Andy. It was quite an adventure walking through that maze! We are happy to be back in Lira!

We are glad to have our good friends back. This is part of their welcome...

 

 

Prayer Requests:

• PTL that my infection seems to have cleared up. To God be the glory!!!
• PTL for giving us wisdom and direction during the Fleges’ furlough.
• PTL that several children at CML trusted Jesus as their Savior.
• Dennis will be preaching Sunday, September 23.
• We are contemplating getting our visas renewed for the month of November. We may have to leave the country for a few days and re-enter.
• Pray for the new children coming into the orphanage in a couple of weeks, that they will feel at home and have sponsors.
• Pray for the new house moms coming in.
• Pray that the road to the orphanage will be repaired.

We appreciate your interest in our blog & your prayers!!!

Blessings,

Dennis & Margie

 

Food & Sustenance

Our son Rod gave us some blog ideas. I picked up on the food idea pretty quickly. Dennis can tell you that when I get bored or need a distraction, cooking is going to take place.

Let me say from the outset that we appreciate so much all the support that has been given to us to allow us to have a nice home & kitchen to cook in. We are so blessed!!!

When we first came to Uganda I was concerned that things would not be sterile enough resulting in us getting sick, or that I would not be able to find enough food to eat since the shopping here is so different from the U.S. Well, God has been faithful & He has taken care of all that. I’m now confident that we will survive in Africa!!!

Home Cooking:

I have learned to cook some of the African dishes, but mainly cook what I did at home with variations. I have a stove with a gas cooktop & an electric oven. And we have a refrigerator. We’ve had guests over a few times for pizza, fried chicken dinner, etc. I’ve made salsa & guacamole for the mission teams. (The avocados are bigger than my fist & guacamole will keep for a few days here. The going rate is 500 shillings – about 20¢). Fresh fruit is our dessert of choice, but I have made a few Texas Sheath Cakes & Dutch Apple Pies. I’ve been given the responsibility for most of the birthday cakes at Calo Me Lare, the orphanage where we serve (48 kids & 6 house moms). Thanks to people at Discovery Bible Fellowship for sending cake mixes & cans of frosting – makes my life much easier!!!

The fruit that looks like a big green strawberry is jackfruit. It is pretty tasty & rare. A staff member shared it with us. See the size of the avocado in comparison to the bananas? The pineapple is extra-large. Now you know why fresh fruit is the dessert of choice. Pineapples are 3000 shillings, about $1.25, bananas are 200 shillings, less than 10 cents each.

Orphanage Cooking:

The moms at Calo Me Lare have a kitchen very different from mine. They have cabinets with concrete counter-tops & no refrigeration. They cook very much like other people in Africa…on a charcoal burner. This is a picture of hauling charcoal on a bicycle. The bags are very heavy.

Our Head Mother, Tino Joy is cooking outside the home she shares with 8 girls. Joy plans the menu for each week. Meals are prepared in individual homes but they are exactly like the meals in the other homes.

A charcoal burner looks like this.

Charcoal is transported on bicycles in huge bags weighing over 100 lbs.

This is Akello Molly, taken in the kitchen of the home she shares with 8 boys. Each mom prepares a balanced diet for the children in her house, 3 meals a day. The children are given much better food than most children in Uganda.

The moms also prepare breakfast & lunch for the entire staff at CML on a rotating basis, along with cooking for their own home.  Let me tell you, their beans & rice are the absolute best! For lunch the children usually have beans with rice or posho. The evening meal might include carrots, green vegetables, a starchy vegetable, meat, or eggs. Everything is made from scratch…and everything is fresh. There are no frozen or packaged items to be used in cooking. Milk is purchased at a local dairy & the moms boil it as soon as it arrives.

Starches include cassava (a large root vegetable - see below), white maize flour, cooked in a paste form slightly resembling grits (posho) or used in porridge, fresh maize (boiled or roasted on the cob), Irish (potatoes) & white sweet potatoes.

This is Dennis' attempt at roasting maize.

Moms use onions, green peppers, tomatoes & peppers to spice things up. Besides this they use Royco, a beef-flavored seasoning which is quite good & thickens the broth in beans, soups & sauces.

Street Cooking:
Dennis & I have been on a Mission Trip to Uganda in the past for short stints, so we thought we knew something about eating out in Lira…we thought there were only a couple of “safe” restaurants…but we were wrong. Almost any restaurant is safe; even the street vendors are OK to buy from (with discretion - avoid the beef on a stick).

A local favorite is chapati, which is an unleavened flatbread. There are chapati vendors stationed all over Lira. They use a wheel rim, put it on a stand & fill the center with homemade charcoal. They use a small metal plate – like a griddle – to cook on. Next to this they have a table with round balls of prepared dough. They use a lot of oil to bake what looks like a huge, thick pancake. It is really good. They also make Rolexes at some of the stands by making something similar to an omelet on the same griddle & rolling it up together – Yum!

Roasted or boiled maize is plentiful everywhere you go (tastes like silage, if you know what that is). Ladies walk several miles with maize boiled in the husk balanced in a tray on their heads to sell at the local market.

Gnuts (peanuts) are in season now. They are usually roasted or made into a sauce to serve over sweet potatoes or whatever you like.  Sometimes the sauce is mixed with Simsim (sesame seeds). (We have discovered this is great over homemade pancakes with bananas & syrup). A team favorite in season is Simsim balls, made with Simsim & melted sugar.

Street cooking also includes Mandazi, a pouch-shaped donut.

Conclusion: We are all so spoiled & so blessed.

We thank God for each one of you & know you are praying for us. Some prayer requests this week:

• Teachers are on break this week, so pray for creativity in interacting with the kids...& energy for it.
• PTL! Several children prayed to receive Christ today in Children's Church. Pray for us as we follow up with them. Pray that the children will all come to understand who Jesus is.
• Last night a thunderstorm took out our microwave. Our oven needs repair...not a result of the storm. Pray it can all be fixed.

Blessings,
Dennis & Margie

A Week in Uganda

Thank you again to those who are following our blog, providing prayer & financial support. God has blessed us so much by your interest in our mission!

We would like to share a typical week with you, but there is no normal week. Here are some highlights from last week:

Sunday:  We are part of the church which meets at the orphanage, called Bunga Bunga Bible Fellowship. The past few weeks we have been without a weekend driver, so we have been leaving at 8am for Dennis to transport people from Lira to the church. We arrived at the church just in time for the prayer service at 9am. Church begins at 9:30am. We have about 45 minutes of praise & worship, offering & testimonies. While Pastor Dennis preaches the children go to Children’s Church. We’ve been meeting in the school, spitting into 3 groups & rotating for worship, Bible story & activities. We have about 130 children each week. Margie teaches the Bible story three times with a House Mom translating.

Monday:  We both spent the day at Calo Me Lare (Village of Redemption), the orphanage supported by Project Hope Worldwide. Dennis planted watermelons on the orphanage grounds. He worked with the welder & attended to electrical/plumbing issues, which is a never-ending job.

We have been training the children & staff at Calo with the Character First materials. During lunch every Monday I introduce the character trait being emphasized that week with the staff. Last week’s trait was “Gratefulness.” We are teaching everyone at the orphanage from the kids to the guards at the gate, so everyone is working on the same thing. At 1:30 I introduce the charactere trait to the staff & at 2:30 I introduce the character trait to the House Moms. We currently have 6 homes with 8 children & one mom in each home. As soon as this is finished I check in Tony, who does our purchasing.  

Tuesday:  Last week Dennis & the teachers marked off the soccer field by hoeing the edges & down the center. Today Dennis & men from the community dug holes in which to plant clumps of grass. They dug up the whole field with holes about a foot apart.

 I helped just be a presence with the kids/guardians at the medical clinic for several potential orphans to help fill the houses this fall. We have 14 identified & 2 possibilities. They have some medical testing before we take their applications to help us determine how to best help them. None speak English, which is typical. Seeing their condition would break your heart. They had to borrow clothing from a neighbor for one little 3 year old guy. He had not clothes of his own. It was pretty incredible watching him walk in shoes for the first time in his life!!!

Wednesday:  Staff Meeting is every Wednesday at 9am. Dennis usually takes part in this & sometimes I meet with them depending on what is being covered & my workload. The department heads meet & the administrative staff meets after that. He spends the rest of the day running errands & fixing things.

Thursday:  Again men from the community came to help Dennis with the soccer field. Dennis hired a truck to transport the grass. The men dug the grass with a hoe & loaded it by hand. They brought 4 truckloads of grass today. We prayed for rain because the field was getting dry. PTL it rained!!!

We spent another day screening children, this time at the Lira Medical Clinic. We gave the kids lunch & a soda & they were ravenous! One little girl just looks like she can’t get any thinner, but the next time we see her she looks even thinner. This little girl never has a guardian who will come with her.  Pray for Prisca.

Friday: Dennis & others on the administrative staff interviewed for open positions at Calo. After the interview Dennis led a young lady to the Lord who was applying for a job!!! PTL! Dennis again worked on the Soccer Field. This was a fun day for him because it was a workday for the children & they helped plant the grass. The field was perfect after the great rain. I stayed home to attend to bookkeeping.

Saturday:  We normally have Saturday off. We both worked at Calo. Dennis was happy to see about a dozen men come to dig the grass to sprig & about a dozen teenagers (who play soccer on our field) to plant it. Dennis worked out there all day because when he stopped the kids did too. They dug & planted three more truckloads of grass.

I began teaching the children about abstinence. We want them to have a solid knowledge of what a family is according to the Bible. The children love books. With Irene, our Social Worker translating, I shared a book called, “The Story of Me”, which was recommended by a family ministry. We will continue to follow up with this, including reading a second book to older children.

It was a great week! We have seen God at work in our lives & those around us.

We would appreciate prayer that we will glorify God & that He will be the center in everything we do. We would also really like to learn the language. Thank you for praying!

Blessings,

Dennis & Margie

Land of Plenty - Land of Poverty

We are grateful for family & friends who are supporting our mission in Lira, Uganda with your prayers & financial support.  As God works through you He can accomplish much & extend His kingdom around the world.

In Uganda there is plenty of rain & great soil. The people work hard, doing all of their gardening by hand. This is Maize Season…like our field corn. They pick it quite mature, boil it in the husk & sell it on the street. Or…they might roast it over a fire & sell it on the street. It is typical to see people walking around eating corn on the street for break, lunch, even in church. They discard all the corn husks in the street or wherever they happen to be. They grind it to make a very fine flour to make posho (similar to grits). G-nut (peanut) harvest is beginning now. They boil, roast & grind these as well. But in this land so plentiful with vegetation there is extreme poverty. Unemployment & inflation are very high. The value of their shilling is very low. Many live in extreme poverty. Dennis tried his hand at roasting maize.

July has been a month of change & challenge for us. The other resident missionaries, Andy & Cami Flege left on furlough in the U.S.  July 5^th. They took time to train us well & God has led us step by step as we’ve tried to help fill in the gap while they are gone.

Dennis has been working with Pastor Dennis & regional directors trying to get rice farming started which could supplement income for the orphanage. He has been working on getting the soccer (football in Uganda) field ready. First the old wiry grass which hurt the kids’ feet had to be killed off. A line had to be dug with a hoe around the whole field to mark the outside line. Then a line had to be dug down the center.  This week the field will be sprigged with new grass (by hand). Dennis did some of the work & the teachers also helped with it.

Margie is doing the in-country bookkeeping while Cami is on furlough. This week will be our first payroll during their time away.  She has also been directing Children’s Church at the Bunga Bunga Bible Fellowship which meets on the orphanage grounds.

Our son, Terry & his family have been experimenting with raising chickens on our farm while we are away. The following picture shows the typical method of getting chickens to market in Lira. These chickens are alive. They are tied to bicycle handlebars to be transported to market. We understand that the chickens make no sound until they are released. This picture was scanned from a photo a friend of our took so the quality is not as good.

Dennis drives to Calo Me Lare (the orphanage) every day on Aduko Road. It has become almost impassible in spots. Last week a road grader attempted to fix the road for which we are very thankful. We received a lot of rain right after he worked on it, so it is slippery & treacherous in some areas, but it will be better once it dries. See pictures below.

Pastor Dennis, his wife, Grace, their son Mark (on the right), a niece Sharon & a neighbor boy came to our house for lunch on a Sunday after church. It was delightful having that fellowship & made us miss our Community Group from our church, Discovery Bible Fellowship. This picture is taken in our front yard. Pray that Pastor Dennis & family can move out of their apartment into a house with some land for gardening. Grace spends weeks at a time gardening in an area far from Lira.

We were saddened the last week to hear that a dear friend from Discovery, Irene Rusk, went to be with the Lord. Irene was a jewel & everyone loved her, including us. I had the privilege at age 11 of being baptized along with my sister & Irene. We are glad that our hope is not in this world, but our eternal home is in heaven where we will be reunited. Our sympathy goes to her family.

It's time to drink our popo tea. Actually it is a tea made of boiling a papaya tree leaf in water. We've been told by locals that this will prevent malaria. We're not sure how, but the horrible taste would be worth it if we dodged malaria. Of course, we know God is answering your prayers.

Blessings,
Dennis & Margie

Where's the Beef & Kampala Here We Come

Thank you again to all of our faithful supporters & prayer partneres. We pray for you too & trust God is showing up in your life like He is in ours.

In July we enjoyed having the second missions team with Project Hope Worldwide here for close to two weeks. They followed a schedule similar to the first team, with the exception that on their final Saturday they sponsored a community celebration in Bunga Bunga (the village surrounding Calo Me Lare). This was well received by the community. We planned for about 500 people. When it was time to begin there were around 300 people, but as soon as food was being served a trail of people began entering the front gate. Estimates were from 700-1000 people. One photo shows the local dancers who came with the caterers to entertain the crowd.

Our special task was to prepare the beef for the celebration. Andy Cami, Derk, Kelley, Dennis & I cut up the beef on Friday. Then Saturday morning Dennis & Andy started the fires in the grills they had made while Cami & I set up our mosquito-net type tent to keep flies away (worked pretty well). Then we began cutting the beef in smaller pieces, putting it on skewers & dipping it in marinade while Dennis & Andy cooked it. Worked pretty well, but none of us wanted beef for a day or two. See photos of the crowds & the cooking. Dennis took the photos whoso you won't see him in them.

Other photos are of the beauty in our yard (Notice the one tree-type plant that looks like a poinsettia), mangoes on our tree & a photo of us celebrating our 47th wedding anniversary on July 2 at a local restaurant. For our anniversary dinner we both ordered Tilipia (the kind with the eyes on it). Neither one of us ate the eyeballs, although the locals tell us they are pretty tasty. We'll take their word for it.

Andy & Cami, who have been our lifeline, went to the U.S. for a couple of months, so we will be facing some challenges in the weeks ahead trying to help fill their shoes. We will really miss them. We took them to the airport in Entebbe (about an 8 hour drive). Dennis drove both ways. Kampala is massive with traffic you wouldn't believe, but God guided Him & kept us safe. Thank you for your prayers. We continue to need & appreciate them.
Blessings,
Dennis & Margie

Our Awesome God!!!

Nile River behind Paraa Safari Lodge

Our God is so awesome! He arranged for us to go on Tuesday with Project Hope's first team from here to the airport & then to pick up the second team at the airport on Thursday in Entebbe. This trip included a safari & stay at a great lodge near Murchison Falls. What a treat! We enjoyed spending time with this team from the States so much! (We knew about half of them beforehand. They were a young team & the only male on the team was 16 years old, so that's why we went this trip). And what a variety of things to see, from vegetation/landscape to birds/animals. We are so blessed.

We had excellent drivers to manage the roads in Uganda. These were more interesting than most. We had a photographer with us who has promised to share some of her photos with us, so we may be able to put some of them on the blog. Some of the animals we saw on the game drive & boat ride were antelope, heartabeasts, hippos, cape buffalo (like water buffalo) crocodiles, giraffes, & wart hogs. Dennis also went back in the evening with a couple of the gals on the team & SAW LIONS! See some of our pictures below.

We all completed a "challenging" hike to Murchison Falls. It was awesome to see God's creation. This waterfall was something to see & the water splashing out felt really good after a hot hike.

It was great to see the second team (most whom we did know). We arrived in Lira on Friday night & spent Saturday morning with them at the orphanage. The children & staff always put on quite a celebration when a new team arrives. Dennis helped the team with the work day in the afternoon & Margie came home to get things in order.

We went hut-to-hut with the first team in the Bunga Bunga village where five people came to know Christ. A couple of team members prayed for a young boy & he was healed instantly. His father stood up in church the next Sunday & praised God for it.

Having the teams here is just another reminder of how much we love & miss our family & friends in the States. It also makes us very thankful for your prayers & support. May God bless you for all you have done to make our ministry here possible. The other missionaries will be going to the States for a break soon, & we will need your prayers then more than ever. We are thankful to be here, serve the Lord and see His hand at work at Calo Me Lare (the orphanage) & at the Bunga Bunga Bible Church. Who knows what else He will do while we are here. He is AWESOME!