We had an awesome experience in worship today at Victory City Church in Kampala, not very far from our apartment.  This is where Daniel (Mr. TivaWater) and his family worship and Daniel plays guitar with the praise band.  After we turned off the main road, we drove down three different narrow roads before arriving at the church, but WOW!  As soon as you drive through the gate, you know this is a special place.  They have three morning worship services, the first two in English.  We attended the second service.  Sunday evening, they have what they call a Revival Service.

The music was exciting (check out the samplers on the Videos page); the message was inspiring and challenging; the welcome was very, very warm.  We will be back at Victory City Church.

I pray your worship experience today will be awesome as well.

Blessings on you all,
Edd

Geoffrey, our driver and eye glasses assistant at the medical clinics, and overall good friend invited us for lunch today at his home.  From our experience in Uganda, a guest for dinner means a celebration and the more guests the bigger the celebration.  So Geoffrey and Alice also invited their pastor friend, Robert, and his wife, Harriett.  As usual when in the home of an Ugandan, we were treated like royalty.  We were very pleased to find their two oldest daughters, Lydia and Lillian, there for the celebration, as well.  Lillian has been my interpreter at all four medical clinics we've participated in.

Kathy introduced everyone to deviled eggs, potato salad, and avocado dip.  I'm not sure how they liked these American dishes, but they said they liked trying new things.

After the meal, we were served a platter of fresh pineapple, watermelon, and apples plus Kathy's chocolate oatmeal cookies.

Following dessert, came a real treat for us; we got to deliver Geoffrey and Alice's TivaWater filter that had been donated to them by Danny and Mary Lawson Day who were a part of the TivaWater team that was here a couple of weeks ago.  Geoffrey and his family have been using one of the original concrete bio sand filters that the TivaWater filter is developed from.  He said he will be giving his old filter to another family.

After snapping pictures all around, we gathered for the traditional prayer before leaving Geoffrey and Alice's home....I love that tradition.

Thank you God for great friends on both sides of the world.

Blessings on you all,
Edd

Well, we have been wanting to meeting Richard's "significant other" every since we arrived in Uganda and last night was the night.  Her name is Lydia and they have been dating for several years.  She demonstrated her commitment by sticking by him during the two and a half years he was in the States getting his Masters Degree.  Lydia is the administrator for a company that does contract cleaning and maintenance and, as you can see, she is beautiful. 

When we invited them to dinner and asked what he would like to eat, he responded, "American food."  Then, he said he would like for Kathy to give Lydia lessons in how  to cook American food.  Apparently, he got a little attached to American food while he was living there.  Well, since he is in charge of Chicken City, Kathy thought southern fried chicken would be appropriate.  She added fried okra and potatoes and, for dessert, banana pudding.  The cooking lesson went very well.  The meal was delicious.  The fellowship was warm.  It was an awesome evening.

We are so grateful to our Lord for the opportunity to work with a man (and we will have spent a lot of time together by the time we finish the curriculum) who is so dedicated to Him and who is so easy to get along with.  And, from our experience last night, Lydia fits right in.

Thanks for keep us in your prayers,
Edd 

You have heard me talk a lot about working on the poultry school curriculum with Richard (the head master for the Nehemiah Business School).  It occurred to me this morning, as we were working, that I had really never introduced you to him, sooooo this is Richard Kirabira.  Richard is a graduate of the Cornerstone Leadership Academy here in the Kampala area and was one of the first recipients of the micro loans made to selected young Christian entrepreneurs by the group of business men out of Fellowship Church in Knoxville who were eventually responsible for developing the TivaWater filter.  Richard was a successful poultry farmer when he was offered a full scholarship to East Central University in Oklahoma.  After only two and a half years, he received his Masters Degree in Business Administration majoring in accounting.  Turning down a very tempting job opportunity from his current employer there in Oklahoma, he came back to Uganda to help build and operate the Nehemiah Business School d/b/a Chicken City which will give young Christian men the same opportunity he was given to succeed in business and in life.

Thank you, Richard, for the sacrifices you have made to carry on to others the principles you learned at Cornerstone.

We will both appreciate your prayers as we seek God's leadership in developing the curriculum for this enterprise that has the potential to changes the lives of many people.

Edd

I spent the day with Lillian, Charles, Henry and Joseph at the retail store.  They sold 5 filters today, maybe broke a daily record for the store.  They sold 3 yesterday, maybe broke a weekly record as well.  Word seems to be getting around.  To the left isere is a picture of Henry delivering the 5th one on a boda-boda (motorcycle taxi).  The interesting part was getting the 4 filters and 40 kilos of sand on a boda-boda, but they did it! (picture below) I can't say as I helped a whole lot, but I offered samples the filtered water, drank with customers and testified to it's goodness!  The staff liked my chocolate oatmeal cookies too and wanted my recipe!

Oh, by the way, Edd dropped me off at the retail store and drove a short distance to Adonai Guest House (where we stayed on our last two mission trips) and worked on their nice, breezy porch, while benefiting from their WiFi.

Thanks for your love and encouragement,
Kathy

I've been working with Richard on the poultry school curriculum all week (I'm going to be doing a lot of that the next few weeks).  We are making pretty good progress right now, but we had to do a lot of "fixin' to get ready to start writing" stuff.

One of the things we've been looking into is a printer.  I need a printer while we are working on the curriculum and Richard will need one in his office once the school gets going.  The problem is that technology is a lot more expensive here than in the US, and sometimes ridiculous.  For example, a laser cartridge that is good for 1500 copies costs at least $100 (250,000 shillings) and usually more.  These economics were making shopping for a printer a little stressful.

Monday afternoon, Richard and I took a break from the curriculum and drove downtown to where there is a whole block of computer stores, one after the other.  This is where God intervened and led us to an Epson L355 printer.  It's a new technology I wasn't familiar with.  It uses an ink tank technology that you refill from bottles of ink (the four tanks, three colors and black, are in the box on the right side of the printer).  Now, here's the cool part...the bottles of ink cost 35,000 shillings ($14), not 250,000 ($100) and one bottle of ink is good for 4000 copies.  Plus, it came with two extra bottles of black ink.  What a deal! 

Not wanting to be hasty with the Lord's money, we decided to go home, do some research, and then come back the next day to make the purchase.  Well, the research was positive, but here's the strange thing...apparently this printer is not available in the US.  Everything I found online was either in Europe or Africa.  Amazon does not carry this printer...a shame.  I would be worth paying a little more for a printer to be able to print 4000 copies for just 14  bucks.

The L355 prints, scans, and copies, plus it's wireless.  And 24 hours after setup, is working great.  Again, God is guiding our path and blessing us in every area, even printer purchases.

Thanks for your prayers,
Edd

Geoffrey (our driver for the medical clinics the last four years and Kathy's assistant in the eye glasses clinics) picked us up at 8:00 to drive to Bukasa (an hour and a half away) to preach at his mother's church and thus began our Day of Firsts.

First time we had met Geoffrey's wife, Alice.  In the many times we have been with Geoffrey the past four years, we had never met his wife, Alice.  We were very please to discover she was going to Bukasa with us.  As we imagined, she is beautiful and has the gifts of hospitality and service.

First time a Muzungu (white person) had been in Geoffrey's mom's house.  When we got to Bukasa, we stopped briefly at the church for introductions to the  pastor and then on to Geoffrey's mother's house for a brief visit before the church service.  When we first arrived, I have never been greeted with such excitement.  I couldn't understand a word she was saying, but it was obvious she was glad to see us.  Again, treated like royalty.  We were ushered into the living room of her home and served hot tea and a snack.

First time a Muzungu had every been in the Bukasa church, and, of course, the first time a Muzungu had every preached there.  You would never have known it by the royal way we were treated by everyone in the congregation.  It began when we got out of the van...two young people immediately came up to us, took our Bibles and Kathy's purse and carried them into the church for us.  When we walked in the door, they began clapping and clapped until we arrived at our special seats up front.  This kind of royal treatment continued throughout the service.

First time my preaching has gotten the kind of attention it received in Bukasa.  I referenced several different scriptures during my sermon about Jesus being the Light of the World.  Kathy said she could hear the flipping of pages every time I referenced a new scripture.

First time we have every received a rooster as a gift.  Following the church service, we loaded back up into the van and drove the short distance to Geoffrey's mom's house for lunch, except it wasn't lunch, it was a feast.  Again, treated like royalty.  It was a great time of food, as well as fellowship with Geoffrey's family.  As we were saying our goodbyes and exchanging hugs, Geoffrey's came up to us carrying a rooster, a live rooster.  It was obvious it was for us and it was also obvious it would have been very inappropriate to decline the gift.  Sooooo, they tied his feet together and loaded him into the van.  By the way, Geoffrey is keeping our rooster and we plan for him to join us for dinner at Geoffrey's house soon.

First time to visit Geoffrey and Alice's home.  On the way home, Geoffrey took a detour by he and Alice's home.  They wanted us to see their home and visit with them briefly.  Again, treated like royalty.  They served us coffee and some delicious nuts and shared with us what an awesome day this had been for them.  And, of course, we returned the complement, because it has been an awesome day for firsts for us.

Check out Kathy's same, but different, story about the rooster in Stories and the new Photos and Videos.

Thank God for this indescribable gift,
Edd

While waiting on Richard to come for another day of curriculum work, I'm on the couch working on my message for Geoffrey's mom's church this Sunday when Kathy begins to play praise songs on her flute in the bedroom.  It's amazing how quickly that music seems to usher a sweet peace into our home.  It's like Satan is not allowed anywhere within the sound of that music.  I love it!!

It's supper time now.  Kathy's fixing sweet and sour chicken with a "fresh" pineapple.  It's been a productive day for the poultry school curriculum, although Richard was called away to the construction site and didn't make it here today.  We are finally to the point of being able to actually work on the lessons.  I was able to complete the first draft of the first lesson today.  I sent it to Richard and also to Knoxville for feedback.  It feels good to actually have something in print.

It was another beautiful day in Uganda.  The high today was the typical 80 degrees and the low tonight will be 65 degrees.

Please pray for our sleep.  We seem to be doing "tag team" sleeping lately.  Kathy has a hard time getting to sleep.  Then, when she finally gets to sleep, she tags me and I wake up and have a hard time getting back to sleep.  Always an adventure around the Hancock house.

Thanks for going on this journey with us.  I can't imagine being here, doing this, without your prayer support.

Blessings on you all,
Edd

We had three more tremors during the night last night.  One woke Kathy up and another one woke me up later.  Apparently, this is not a common thing for this area.  We went online to check it out and found there have been a series of earthquakes in the 5.0 range under Lake Albert, about eight hours from Kampala.  I would hate to think what it felt like just an hour away.  Just another reminder that we are always in God's hands, whether the earth is shaking or the sky is falling.  Thank you, God, for you ever abiding love and protection.

It was a festive day in the Hancock house today (appropriate, I think, for  the fourth of July).  Richard came over to work on poultry school curriculum and Daniel (Mr. TivaWater) came over to take care of getting our car serviced and stayed for three hours.  He helped Richard and I with the curriculum some, answered a lot of our "living in Africa" questions, and fellowshipped a lot.  It sure helps with the separation from home anxiety to have friends close by.... weather in Africa or Knoxville.  It also helped that Kathy made chocolate oatmeal cookies.

The folks here seem very surprised to hear that Kathy cooks almost all our meals.  I guess they assume the Americans are rich and lazy and eat all their meals out.  Well, that's not the case for us...until tonight.  Kathy spied out a nice restaurant at the mall where we get groceries the other day and suggested the fourth of July would be a good time to check it out.  And, of course, I readily agreed (have to take care of my cook).  We had fajitas and they were delicious.  We will go back, but not too often.

Please pray for me as I prepare to speak at Geoffery's mother's church this Sunday.  I found that none of the "messages" I brought with me are appropriate for this place and these people.

Thank you so much for your encouragement and your prayers,
Edd

Richard was supposed to come over this morning to work on the poultry school curriculum, but had to go out to the construction site to deal with the electrical installation.  Soooooo, I took the opportunity to do some printer research and shopping (Oh boy, more experience driving).  We will need a printer while working on the curriculum and later for Richard's office, so we are shopping around.  The problem is, technology is a lot more expensive here.  A printer that we could get for $148 on Amazon costs $221 here.  But the worst part is the toner cartridges.  They are like 3-4 times more expensive than Amazon. 

[Oops!  We were down for about a half hour....power went off...first time since we've been here.]

Anyway, Richard is supposed to come over tomorrow to work on the curriculum, so we will look at my research and figure out the best way to go with the printer.  Please pray for wisdom. This is an important purchase.

Well, it about 9:00 pm here, close to bedtime for the old folks.  Hope you have an awesome rest of your day.  We love you and especially appreciate you praying for us as we seek God's leadership daily for direction and His purpose.

Edd