Building In Every Way..........

As I have watched our team and the children interacting with each other I realize that we have been constantly building the last 3 weeks. Building shelves for Canaan Children's Home, building a pantry for the kitchen at Amani Baby Cottage, building puppets with the children, building pictures with paint on the walls, building relationships with all the ministries that we have partnered with, building relationships with the children and the staff at each orphanage, building new friendships, and building God's kingdom. We realize that we are not "needed" to do any of these things that God has led us to do. And, we realize that we are much more blessed than those we have blessed.

So what is the purpose of these HEAL mission teams? To build love. To build a bridge that truly bonds all people in all nations for God's purpose. To look after orphans and widows in their distress. To continue relationships year after year with those we are constantly building things with. To realize God's plans sometimes change and these "short term" mission trips most often lead to long term plans that God has had in mind since the beginning of time.

We played with the babies at Amani the last couple of days and they enjoyed eating animal fruit snacks that we brought while making their tiger puppets. We enjoyed watching the "mammas" interact with the children. The males on our team worked the last two days building a promised kitchen pantry for "momma cook" at Amani and we are going to stain it and place it tomorrow. She is so proud of her new pantry. There are doors with locks and shelves at different heights to fit the different size pots for cooking.

Our last time to visit Canaan Children's Home during this trip was tonight. It was a bitter-sweet visit. We are sad to say good-bye but look forward to saying hello again in the future. Some of us will see the children again on this earth. All of us will see them again in Heaven. And that is the real beauty of this mission team that has been building.

A day of rest and fun in Uganda

A day of rest and fun started out in a way that we could not have planned any better. There was a parade downtown Jinja as we left. The parade was celebrating 100 years for a school in town and it was a morning of celebration for the team. With just two weeks of work behind us and just 5 days left after this week-end to finish up work in the orphanages., the team was ready for a day of relaxation and fun. We started out a Kilombera where we learned how a local village makes fabric from a loom. The work they do is so beautiful. We were then on to the beautiful Bujagali Falls, a waterfall near Jinja where Lake Victoria and the Nile River meet. Moses (and I'm not making that name up!) gave us a boat ride on the Nile River and the team got out and took pictures at the source of the Nile. The source has a 90 foot spring under water and bubbles constantly. As we rode around the Nile, the monkeys hopped all along the banks and the trees and entertained us. We took several friends that we have made on the boat ride.

Three team members decided to go bungy jumping on their own and the rest of us watched! We ended our day of fun having dinner with the Amani volunteers. The day of rest came at a needed break in the trip. We have worked hard and fought stomach bugs. We have loved much and learned alot and we are looking forward to our last few days in Uganda. We pray that the good we do will be noticed by God and we are a thankful small team sitting in Jinja excited to see the end of the journey that God has us on.

"People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway.
If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway.
For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway."
— Mother Teresa