Preaching in the Village

                                             Preaching in the Village

This is the road to Kaiti Presbyterian Church of Uganda, a church out in the village. Which to us means out in the country except the roads are a little different. This one is a great road; that is unless it is raining.

Pastor Simon opened in prayer

There is always much dancing. This little guy stole the show!

The Offertory The widows mite

 

The churches here are trained that the pastor is the one to come to for money especially if he has ties to the West. Teaching the church members that this is their church, their pastor and they need to support Gods work through them by the giving of a tithe goes against their culture but the word of God is to be obeyed above the culture. The PCU churches are growing in their knowledge and fear of the Lord. What a blessing it is to watch. 

Communion was next

                      Charles next had the privilege to baptize 26 people young and old.

The Lord bless you and keep you
The Lord make His face shine upon you
and be gracious to you.
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and
give you peace.

Meet Alice

There is so much poverty here I feel like I have to put on blinders or the heart breaking sights, the lives and conditions which I see people living would be too overwhelming and I could not exist here. Once we go into the gate of our compound there is peace and beauty, but just beyond those walls there is such poverty, so much evil and utter chaos! I need to just focus on the little area God has put me in and try to make a difference here. One such area is  Alice. God literally plopped her down in our laps. 

On the 11th of September this beautiful little girl sat in front of us at church. We could see how thin she was, her eyes were sunken in, her body was starving. She could barely keep her head up or stay awake. She was sitting on an older girls lap, who we assumed was her sister, maybe 10yrs old.

    

   After church we sent the older girl to get her mother so we could figure out how to help Alice and get her to the hospital. Here we are waiting and drawing a crowd. Everyone always wants to know what's going on with the muzungus, white people.

      

Her little arms are the size of my pinky and ring finger put together.

 We found out her momma had died in child birth with a younger sibling; leaving Alice an orphan being raised by her Ja Ja (grandma) It was her auntie who had brought her to church.  So our next step was to get Alice to the hospital and get her into the malnutrition clinic.

 Here we are getting Alice evaluated to see if she "qualifies" for the clinic, with the Ja Ja and a different Auntie, who  also need evaluated for some different conditions.                                              

After a whole day of tests, blood work, jumping through every hoop the "doctors" required we finally got back to the malnutrion clinic and the women who does the intake for the clinics says that Alice can't be admitted to the clinic because she has a cough. This is after a TB test and a chest X-ray. I see to the side a man with a stethoscope around his neck first I ask if he is a doctor and then proceed to explain what all we have done and can he help us? He proceeds to examine Alice. Through out the day he was the first "doctor" to examine her and listen to her lungs. We then found out because the ministry of health will not pay interns that all of the people we thought were doctors were actuall 4th year med students!!!! After examining Alice the real Doctor of course admitted her. When I went the next day they were releasing her! We were given the USAID packs of peanut butter. The first ingredient is (suger, the second hydrogenated oil and then peanut butter!)Not knowing how to manage this; families sell the packages or feed it to other kids in the family. Clearly they were not feeding Alice. My house help Beth agreed to take her in and the Ja Ja was fine with it. So, she comes to our house during the week, we love having her here. Here she is trying on some clothes I bought her.

Sporting her new hat! She is so proud of it!

Our friends son Joe Cheatwood came for a visit and Alice, having just inherited 4 brothers she plays a little rough, here she is playing with Joe.

Alice had a 2 week check up at the clinic and she has gained 4 POUNDS!!!!

Praise the Lord with us and keep her in your prayers.  

Teachers Conference

O.P.U.M (OPC Uganda Mission) partnered with  Thomas Charities       and Menter, for our 2nd joint teachers conference. There were 6 village church schools and 7 government schools in attendance. I think as usual, it was as much a   blessing to those who presented as those who   attended!    

Charles and I along with Asha the director of Menter

and her assisant Peter

    

They have lively ways of showing their appreciation!

Here are the lovely ladies who cooked our food.

Also, the not so lovely kitchen where they prepared our lunch.

Here are the children from some of the schools whose teachers attended the conference              
 I  work primarily with the church schools but also do these conferences to train and encourage the   government schools. Many don't get the salary promised to them from the government. You will notice they have "nice" buildings compared to the schools out in the villages. Anyhow, these are the faces of why I do what I do.

YES, these are the number of children in each class & classroom!!!

  These are some of the government schools we work with. They are supposed to be free but the administration and even the teachers charge       "fees" which is how they make any money to support their families.  

The following pictures are the village church schools.  The churches and most of the pastors, who are also the headmasters, are graduates of Knox Theological College where Charles is a professor.  

Most of the children come from extreme poverty. Despite what we westerners would consider unacceptable conditions these children are so joyful!

 This little guy wasn't too sure of the muzungu (white) lady taking his picture

We use bottle caps with lettlers to spell words.

At the conferences we have been teaching them how to teach phonics.

These are cups of porridge for breakfast.

 Alice Steehoff an MA who came from Australia  to help with the schools

Addy Sutter at story time.

An outside classroom.

This is an "inside" classroom.

Teacher lounge/head master's office.

This is the only playground

Please keep these schools in your prayers                                                                        

For the teachers; to use the tools they have been given, to teach the children by their actions how to be honest and hard working, and that they be compensated for their efforts.                                                                                          For the students to learn well, to know Christ, and that God might ease their poverty.