Seeing a big need, David and Jeanne Burnell from Fellowship Church in Knoxville, donated money for shoes for some of the kids at Focus. Flip flops or sandals are not permitted at school and several of the kids had been sent home due to improper foot wear.  

Focus is a ministry for around 200 "at risk" children from the Mulago slum.  You can sponsor a Focus child for $300 a year.  This pays school fees, all day classes on Saturday in Bible, life skills, as well as the 3R's plus breakfast and lunch.

Doug Harris asked me to assist in the buying and distribution of the shoes.  Today Sylvia, Enoch and I boarded at taxi van with 20 other strangers and rode to the downtown market district.  If you need it, you can buy it there (see pictures below)!  Sylvia had negotiated the price yesterday, because the presence of a Mazungu makes things more expensive!  We bought socks at two stores,  and went through forty to fifty pairs of black shoes at three different stores to find the twenty six we ended up with.  Some were new; some were gently used.  It seems as if locally-made shoes do not last as long as quality used shoes from America!  Audrey, the director, was very pleased with our selection of sturdy school shoes.  

Saturday I am going back to distribute the shoes and help with classes, so stay tuned to this station for the rest of the story!

It was a another great Ugandan adventure!  Thanks David and Jeanne for the opportunity to serve God here in Africa!  Thanks Sylvia and Doug for the adventure!

Blessings to all who pass this way, 
Kathy

Yesterday I did customer service training with 20+ business owners and today I had the opportunity to train the staff of the three Quicky Picky Supermarkets in the Top Ten World Class Customer Service Rules.  The Quicky Picky stores are one of the big success stories of our business development team.  Sam, the owner, has gone from one small store with maybe one or two employees to three stores with 12 fulltime employees and a few part-time people.  In addition to my customer service training, they also received training in marketing and human resources. 

This group was very responsive (about 10 times more responsive than many of the pizza folks I've trained the past eight years) and had lots of questions.  There was some really good feedback afterwards, so I'm marking this one up as "God did good....again."  I know this isn't the main reason God brought me over here, buy it sure has been great to be able to use my experiences over there to make a difference over here.

Blessings on all who pass this way,
Edd

Since I am training the Quicky Picky Supermarket staff this afternoon, we attended church at Victory City again this morning.  It's fairly close by, the worship is awesome and the service is in English.

I recorded a couple of songs for you so you can get a taste of worship in Africa.  You will enjoy How Great Is Our God, but you will get a kick out of Thanks Be To God.  Check out the kids in front of us.  Wouldn't it be awesome to see our young children that involved in worship.

We are having a snack at our apartment and then on to Cornerstone for the training.  Sam, the owner, said we should be there at 1:00 for lunch, followed by the training.

See you later this evening,
Edd

Last month, we sat in on the Cornerstone Business Forum (a group of young business men who have been helped and/or influenced by a group of business men from Fellowship Church, Knoxville).  While we were there, Richard asked my to respond to one of the questions.  My responses came from the Papa John's training I have been doing for the past eight years.  Afterwards, they asked me to come back this month and talk to them about customer service.

So, today was the day for my Africa training debut and, according to the comments afterwards, it must have went pretty well.  There were more than 20 folks present and I talked to them about the Top Ten World Class Customer Service Rules, one of my first pizza classes.  Of course, I had to make some adaption to make it applicable here, but good customer service looks the same in any language.

It was awesome to be able to utilize the preparation and experiences from my years with Papa John's to help and encourage young entrepreneurs here in Uganda.  God is so good to use us in the areas of our interest and experience.

Tune in tomorrow for another report.  Tomorrow afternoon, I will be doing the same training with the employees the three Quicky Picky Supermarkets.  Oh, by the way, we are worshipping at Victory City Church again tomorrow.  Be jealous.  Be very jealous.

Blessings on all who pass this way,
Edd 

Many of you have asked questions about African life.  As you have probably figured out from previous posts, there is a lot of diversity here.  There is affluence and there is extreme poverty, seen many times right next to each other.   Up the hill in front of our apartment is mostly affluence.  A couple of blocks to the left and to the right are slums.  The poverty in the city is different than the poverty out in the villages.  But it is still poverty and it breaks your heart.

Each morning Kathy and I go on our morning walk....have to stay healthy, you know.  We have pretty much settled on a route that we take every morning.  So, I thought you might enjoy going with us this morning and see some of the diversity we see every morning.

You will see very affluent houses with tall walls and razor wire and some not so affluent.  You will see construction, some currently on-going and some long abandoned.  You won't see much of the slums on our walk, but you will see some scenic views of the city.

Thanks for walking with us this morning.  I just wish you could actually be here to experience it with us; to be able to talk about what God is revealing to us as we walk.

Blessings,
Edd

You can click on the first photo and then progress through them at you own pace.  I've added captions so some of the photos which you will see in the enlarged view.

Tuesday, Daniel and Wilter Ololia had us over for dinner and cooking lessons were included!  We made peas and carrots in a cream sauce, African stir fry chicken (my description), fried rice, a fried flat bread and fried plantain bananas and, of course, fresh pineapple for dessert.

Wilter's daughter Lorraine, age three, was a big help.  She chopped tomatoes, rolled out flat bread and washed dishes.  Everything was delicious.  Wilter is from Kenya, so it was very multicultural. 
We will be having them over soon to teach her how to make "Southern Fried Chicken!" They also have a one year old, Lexie...so cute!  I taught her how to "patty-cake" (you know, baker man) and she caught on quick... smart like her parents!

We love how our Ugandan friends go out of their way to keep us from being
lonely! 

Thanks for continuing to lift us up in prayer,
Kathy

Wow!  What a day!  Our first foot washing.  Spirit-filled worship.  The privilege to preach.  It was a great day in the house of the Lord.

When Patrick first told Kathy and I he wanted to wash feet this morning, we were a little nervous.  I mean, we've never done that before.  But, it was a beautiful service.  Kathy's writing up the full scoop in the Stories section.  Check it out!!

This is the third time we have been to Namayumba and the worship has been sweet (and lively) all three times.  It still amazing to me that the Spirit can be so present with only drums and a soda can with rocks in it.  I videoed one of the best songs for you.  Check it out in the Videos section.

It was such a privilege to be able to preach in this church.  They are so attentive.  I was a little surprised and very impressed that several people in the congregation were taking notes on the message and turning to every scripture passage in their Bibles.  It's really easy to get caught up when the people are so focused on what you are saying.

We were so impressed with the testimony time.  Such a grateful people.  Many, many thanks were expressed for God being the sustainer of life this week, as well as thanks for healing.  And several people said "we are thankful that the visitors said they would come back ...and they did!"

After church, we had lunch with Patrick and his family at a nice restaurant in Wakiso and then to his house for a short visit.

God blessed us beyond words today.  We were so far out in the African bush that we had to park  the car and walk the last quarter mile.  But, God confirmed today that wherever His people are, he is in their midst.

Blessing on all who come this way,
Edd 

We are driving to Wakiso (about an hour from Kampala) this morning to visit our friends Dantes and Beatrice and take pictures of their grandson, Isaac, in his new handicap wheelchair donated by Trey Hutchins at Mt. Harmony.  This will be our longest trip driving in Uganda, but God has assured us He will be with us. 

Dantes told us the wheelchair really puts a smile on Isaac's face.  He is about two and a half now and is totally dependent on his grandparents.  Kathy has prepared some food to take and we are anticipating a wonderful time of fellowship with these awesome people.

This afternoon I will meet with Pastor Davis at Dove Church to see if I can be of assistance to him in the areas of administration or discipleship.  I'm taking a copy of Purpose Driven Life for him as a good starting point.  Dove is where we have conducted the medical clinics the last four years.

Please pray for our protection as we drive to  Wakiso and back, for a great time of fellowship with our friends, and for knowledge and wisdom as I meet with Pastor Davis.

Blessings on all who pass this way,
Edd

5:15 pm - We are home safely!!  The day went great!  Get the photos and scoop about Isaac's wheelchair in Stories!  Thanks for your prayers today!  You can pray for us again tomorrow when we drive back to Wakiso, pickup Pastor Patrick and his family, then drive 30 minutes farther to his mission church in Namayumba, where I will preach tomorrow.  Edd

When we were in Bukasa a couple of Sundays ago, Geoffrey (It was his mom's church that I spoke in) mentioned that the church really needed 10 Lugandan Bibles and they would cost about $12 each.  Well, afterwards we did some checking around and found a donor for the Bibles.  Last weekend, while visiting in Geoffrey and Alice's home, I gave him the money for the Bibles.   Then Tuesday he tells us he wants us to go with him on Thursday to purchase the Bibles.  As it turns out, we purchased the Bibles at his church, which we discovered, rocks at lunch time Monday through Friday.

When we got there around 1:30, the music was over and the praying had begun.  Wow!  There were probably 700-800 people there for his Thursday lunch time service and they all had their hands raised praying...out loud.  Of course, we had no idea what they were saying, but it sure seemed like a "sweet aroma" to me.  After the service concluded, several people stayed back to be prayed for.

We will definitely check this place  out on a Sunday.  If they worship like that on Thursday, I can imagine Sunday would really be awesome.

Sorry, I didn't get a photo for you because I didn't take the camera.  I mean, we were just going to pickup some Bibles.

Another day in Uganda...another blessing from God!!

Please be praying for this weekend.  We will be driving  to Wakiso (about an hour out of town) on Saturday to visit Isaac, the recipient of Trey's special wheel chair we brought with us from the US, and his grandparents.  They tell us he smiles when they place him in the chair.  This will be my first time to drive outside the city.  Then on Sunday, we drive to Namayumba (another half hour beyond Wakiso), where I will preach in Pastor Patrick's mission church.

Blessings on all who pass this way,
Edd

Daniel picked us up early this morning to go to Jinja to deliver 21 TivaWater filters.  It's probably not very far from Kampala, but with the traffic and poor roads, it seemed like it took forever to get there.  We first went to the village of Kyabirwa located right on the Nile River to deliver 20 filters that had been donated by Cornerstone Development Africa and other donors in the U.S.  It is always so much fun to see the excitement on the people's faces when we show up with their filters,  knowing they and their family will be able to drink clean water.  Many of them cannot afford to boil their water and these folks get their water right out of the Nile River (I checked and it is no longer red with blood.)

As you can see from the photos, everyone came to a central location and we did a mass training.  These are always fun because of the excitement in the air and you get to jump in and help those who may be having difficulty assembling their filter.  Check out the cool photos below.

Kathy had the opportunity while we were there to have a mini-eye glasses clinic.  She invited all the ladies and gentlemen over 50 to join her at "the stump."  She had about eight pairs of reading glasses with her.  It was amazing (as usual) to see how God matched up the people and the glasses.  She had just enough to go around.  It is always a joy to see their faces light up with things come into focus.  One lady even danced for joy!

Our second stop was at the Redeemer House Orphanage to make a very special delivery.  Go to the Stories page for this one.  It's a sweet story.

Thank you for sharing this time with us,
Edd