Boda Bodas in the Bush Across Lake Victoria

Wednesday was great fun using public transportation by boat to Bulee, then on to Bethany Village by boda boda (motor scooter) to visit the homes for orphans at Bethany Village. As we buzzed through the bush on a narrow dirt path we passed mud block schools, thatched roof homes and caught a great view of the lake at the top of a hill.

When we arrived at Bethany most of the children were at school so we went to work painting scripture on the wall in Granny’s house, the home built last June by the People for Missions team. Edith the house mom was thrilled to receive the children’s clothes that many of you donated. Jonathan, the dad of the house picked the scripture and Lindsay and Yvonne quickly went to work while Margaret met with Willie the manager of the village project about the clinic, and determined more projects for the upcoming teams. By next summer they will be ready to build the clinic. The gardens are doing well and the children are learning more and more about farming.

After the visit to Bethany we hopped on our scooters, rode back through the villages and crawled into the wooden boat for our trip back to Gaba. Upon our arrival we regrouped, changed, loaded the items for the orphans at Mt. Carmel Boarding School and headed out with Charles to visit the children. Due to construction and “jams” as they call bad traffic in Uganda, we arrived two hours later. The children were happy to see us and we had such fun passing out the items they requested. How amazing it was to see children excited about deodorant, pencils, paper, mosquito nets, calculators, toothbrushes, toothpaste, clothes, flashlights and art supplies. The boys commented “now we can have a football uniform for the boys from Gaba.” Trinity Christian Academy booster club donated blue shorts and shirts and the boys thought they were great. Many of you provided the items we delivered and you were a tremendous blessing to these children.

Thursday we slept in a bit and prepared to meet with David Echau from AWANA International, Samson Sempasa, Pastor Frederick and Lataaya Abdul about the upcoming ministry activities. It was remarkable to see all the faces around the table that we didn’t know we would be working with us only a few weeks ago. The AWANA club is in order and ready for the kickoff in Kabale. In the afternoon we visited the Boys Brigade that Yvonne had connected with earlier and got to know Lataaya the leader. Mark shared a message with the boys about “what Jesus was like as a boy” (Luke 2:52) and they asked several questions and we were all impressed by the depth of the discipleship training taking place. The boys blessed us with a surprise performance complete with acrobatic stunts, singing and music. The end of July Margaret visits Pastor Frederick’s church to present a donation for their construction project at the church. Friday morning we head for Mbarara and Kabale to minister in the Rwenzori Mountains.