Tuesday

The Construction Team had a very busy and productive day today at the Lubas Project Site. David, Randon, and Caleb started off on the brick pile, continuing to salvage, clean up, sort, and stack demolished bricks for future construction use. David's first blow of the day with the chipping hammer resulted in a rock chip in his left eye. Charlton tried to remove it with a Kleenex, but quickly switched to bottled water to successfully flush it clear. Fortunately, there was no apparent abrasion. God is good! Needless to say, safety goggles were thereafter used. Charlton had a great day supervising and getting to know some of the Ugandan workers on the project: Richard, Sam, Thomas, Joel, and Ronald. It was rewarding to show them new tips on using the tools to dismantle the old trusses into usable components. Later in the day, it was great to see them using the new techniques. They are all good, hard working men with great smiles and strong backs. John Sauder and intern Matt worked out details of some new plate fixtures for new construction joints and had a prototype fabricated into town. Worked perfect the first time so only 27 more to go! Craig worked with Johnnie, the skilled Ugandan carpenter, throughout the day to repair various joints through out the trusses. David, Randon, and Caleb switched to helping repair various bolting hardware for the re-construction effort. The original 90 year old bolts and tie rods are of superior quality to currently available hardware, so we are trying to re-use them as much as possible. Another day completed at the job site--the Team is starting coalesce and work very productively and supportively together. Praise God!

It is a fact universally known that a child, in the company of peers, is in want of a soccer ball. Call us Team U-Dance (i.e. Uganda Dance, i.e. Katie and Alex). Okay, that was probably over complicated, but we are tired. Anyhow, whether we shall prove to be the heros of this, our story, or not shall remain to be seen. However, it is certainly arguable that today we were upstaged by a soccer ball. Returning to the Idoome school for a second time, we enjoyed a warmer welcome of familiarity from the children. We continued, with augmented enthusiasm from the less-shy children, learning dances, adding a second to yesterday's first. The real peak in the children's delight, however, was most certainly the soccer ball that we brought. After playing with the younger group and referreeing the older group (we aren't sure we would have survived let alone be a competitive force!), we left the ball to replace a sad mass of plastic bags wrapped in rubber bands that they had formerly been using. The school at Gateway proved, again, slightly more challenging. It is difficult to walk the line between a dance that is easy, but boring, and interesting, but difficult. Like any American kids, they are shy and easily embarrassed when they have difficultly picking up some of the steps. Thankfully, they maintained mostly positive responses, although we had moments of skepticism and uncertainty. We finished teaching them the dance from yesterday, however, and were able to share the enjoyment of accomplishment and hopefully, we will continue to be able to bond over the intensity of this crash course dance camp. Please pray for the school at Idoome on Thursday when we will share the gospel message specifically. Also, please pray for Friday when we have performances for the children's parents planned at both schools, using the opportunity to share the gospel with the parents.

After feeling some spiritual warfare yesterday, the widows and orphans team met this morning for prayer. It really made a difference because we felt God's presence everywhere we went! First we went to visit a widow's group run by a woman named Judith. They make jewelry and other crafts as a way of making money for themselves. We were able to speak with them, share our testimonies, and give them gifts. After buying some jewelry, we went to visit two widow's homes. One home had been built using the money from selling jewelry. After a nice lunch and some shopping on Main Street in downtown Jinja we went to visit a childrens hospital. It was very tragic to see. It was very crowded and many of the kids were very sick. It made us thankful for the wonderful children's hospitals we have in America! It was here that we were able to give out socks that had been donated by many of you. After that we had a much happier experience visiting the Welcome Home Orphanage. For the first time we were able to interact with the kids in an orphanage! We took about 40 kids ages 2 to 5 out to a field to play. They loved being held and having their pictures taken! The team loved spending time there and we hope to make time to go back this week.