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

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