Discipleship group

Monday we went to visit our patient Namudu (with flowered shirt in the middle) and she and 4 of her family/neighbors got saved. Friday we went back to begin some discipleship with them. Praise God they all showed up and 2 others (this old man and another women who also claim to be saved)! It was difficult to make them understand that now they are saved they cannot be taken out of God's hand and lose their salvation. Due to the Anglican influence here they believe that you must confess every sin you commit in order to 'keep your salvation'. I tried to explain that we are by nature sinful and sin all the time, without even realizing it sometimes. And if we had to confess every single sin we commit in order to stay saved then we'd be spending every second of every day on our knees! When we realize that salvation is fully a work of God then we can be assured that He will preserve us till the end. Phil 1:6 ,John 10:27-30, Rom 8:16, Rom 11:29 (just to name a few). :) We will continue meeting with them each Friday. Please pray that this group will come to understand the fullness of God's grace and gift of salvation. Pray that they will continue to be eager to learn and to bring others. Pray that God will guide me in what discipleship strategies to use (only one person in this group can read).

Words of Hope visits

This picture was taken at a house where we went to do homevists. These are the children/grandchildren of our patient. The girl in this picture is 14 years old and that is her baby she is holding. Her 'husband' left her so now she is living with her parents again. Her mother is our patient...the father is muslim and has several wives, but hasn't tested for HIV yet. The boy in the brown shirt is the father's son from another wife...the one in the overalls is the mother of the 14 year old girl's son. Are you confused yet? This is very typical of families here. Everyone lives together and it's often hard to figure out who is really related. It's so sad to think this girl, younger than my brother, has a baby. You would think she was my age from the way she acts. There's not a lot of 'being a kid' here....kids work hard and grow up fast. These little boys were so cute as they played together on the dirt floor of their house. The one in the overalls kept hugging his mother, who was covered in mud from digging in the plantation....it was sweet.

Have you ever locked your keys under the hood of your car?

This past week I did something pretty dumb. Every other day here we don't have electricity so I have this thing called an 'inverter' that I hook up to my car battery and I can run an extension cord into my house and charge my computer, phone, run a lamp, fan, or a few other basic things (the things I've learned in Uganda...I sure didn't know what an inverter was before!). It usually lasts 2-3 hours before completely draining my battery. So this past Sunday night we were having a bad storm and my alarm was sounding that my car battery was now dead. So I ran out to unhook my inverter and accidentally locked my keys under the hood of my car! Not only that but one of the inverter cables got stuck under the hood as I was shutting it. Since it was night and it was raining there wasn't much I could do. I just tied a plastic bag around the cable and waited till morning. Then I called Barry, my teammate, and he brought our mechanic and a guy who specializes in locks (i guess sort of like a lock-smith). Here they are trying to 'break into' my car. They pried open my window then used a coat hanger to unlock my door. I've had experiences locking keys in cars before (like the time when I was about 11 and I locked my baby brother in our van with it running a few days before Christmas), but this was a first to lock my keys under my hood! Just another 'fun' story of life in Africa.

flying wet kisses.....

Guys....take note and learn from the master poet who sent me this 'sweet' sms (text message) tonight! It said....

"Yes seetie gd nite flying wet kisses but we don't have power till we meet"

I know most of you girls are jealous out there. It pretty much made my day. I didn't recognize the number so I don't know who the sender was....a secret admirer, someone playing a joke on me, or a wrong number. Who knows? I think my favorite part is the line about not having power...gotta love Uganda :)

These roads we travel....

Pictures don't really do justice of our road conditions here. They've gotten even worse over the past couple months due to the rainy season. It's been said you could lose a small child in some of these 'ruts'. The picture above is the major road going to my house. After the roads get so bad someone (i don't know who) comes and dumps a load full of clay bricks down to fill in the holes. Interesting, huh? The bottom picture is a backway to my house, but cars can't pass this way anymore, haven't been able to for several months cause there is a huge pile of rocks/bricks in the way. And then there is a big pit where water lines are surfacing.

I just wish they would tear up the sections of the road that still have some concrete, make them all dirt and grate them. But then the rains will come and just make it bad again. Oh well....that's life here in Uganda.

Girls Night In....

This past Friday I had some of the university student girls over to my house for a sleepover. It had been a while since they had come over. We had spaghetti and I made fudgesicles from scratch (oh the things I've learned in Africa :) and then watched movies til the 'wee' hours of the morning. Fun times.