Greetings friends, family, and supporters. I am sitting in the hotel lobby enjoying my just finished shower and a cold (relatively) bottle of water after another great day. Our time here with our friends is so special to all of us. We get to join the local church in caring for the people in their church and villages. Each day we see the community they have developed. It is an honor to be here with them. Yes, each day is hard and has it's own unique challenges, but overall the tiredness and struggles are no match for the joy and the ministry that occurs.

Today saw many exciting things....

As I mentioned yesterday the team was broken up into new groups. Tim, Jonathan, and Richard went to finish the home for Patrick and his family. They got all the brick work done, as well as, put in the doors and windows. The team also bought some new farming supplies for them, too. All reports were that Patrick and his family were blessed, but I know the team members were blessed to be with them, as well!

Emily, Erica, and Dottie went to the Eiksa orphanage for special needs children today. I did not get to hear a lot of reports, but what I did hear was all three team members had a blast hanging with the children and fell in love with them! The story of how this orphanage got started is an amazing one. The founder, Emily, was working at a local orphanage and saw a need for special needs kids. The community and other facilities were just not equipped to handle these type of cases, so she (a 20 yr old) started this orphanage. She began to simply love these children with the love of Christ. I find this story both touching and inspiring. The staff and volunteers love what they are doing and face each challenge with strength and grace.

Randy and I joined Les, Sue, Tony, Traci, Allison, Susan, Diane, Cheryl, Connie, Jody, and Mike at the medical clinic in Mayuge. I have to say that medical clinics are an incredible opportunity to minister, but are also difficult. We know going in we will not be able to see everyone which means some people will go away disappointed. It is so hard to close down when people a still waiting; but the need is so great, we simply cannot meet it. We come knowing we do what we can and let God do the rest. And God does show up! Today we saw 142 patients with the doctors and 75 with the dentist for a total of 358 people cared for. Of those 358 we filled 433 prescriptions. And of the 75 dental patients they extracted 109 teeth (Diane was amazing in there. She was the only assistant and was all smiles and grace under pressure.) We also provided parasite and de-worming meds to 350 students (100 kids with the school run by CYORF and 250 at the local public school where the clinic was held).

I also want to brag on my teammates. Les and Mike ran crowd control and were so loving,calm and helpful even when it got a bit chaotic. They managed the flow of patients and just were great with people. Susan helped the doctors and also manned the wound care station. She is such a blessing. Susan is always in the middle of a group of people smiling and trying to help in anyway she can. Sue and Tony rocked the prayer corner today! Over 100 came to faith in Christ today. Mayuge is 90 percent Muslim and they even had many Muslim men and women asked to be prayed for. The local head of the mosque came by to see the doctor and asked for prayer. I want to say that we do not neglect anyone and no one has to profess faith in Jesus to be seen in the clinic. We are open to all and let them know, when asked, that we are here because Jesus loves them. We do not hide from our faith. We simply let our actions of love reflect our faith. And the ladies in e pharmacy simply were awesome. Tracy, Allison, Cheryl, and Randi kept things flowing and never got down. They filled every one of the 433 scripts. The pharmacy can be crazy and get backed up and have a wave of people crowding by the front waiting;these ladies were calm, cool, and graceful. I have not seen a pharmacy flow this smoothly before, excellent job ladies! And I must say thank goodness we had Cheryl! She was the one we turned to read the doctors hand writing! Without her we would have been completely lost!

I also got to see Randi entertain the children with some gymnastics. While we were at lunch she started walking on her hands and the children loved it. Then some of the kids started to try and walk on their hands! One young man was actually pretty good, so she went over to them and they had a hand walking throw down! Then she took off and did two back flies which thrilled the crowd! She could not get any of the kids to try it! Jody got some video of her back flip so look for it on facebook. It was a great time!

Finally, before we arrived at the clinic we stopped at Kikubo to see the His Mercy school for orphans and vulnerable children. This project is the church wide mission emphasis for Central this year. We took a tour and I cannot believe how different it looks from last year. The class rooms we worked on are done plus they have a water well, a chicken coop and a large garden. The kitchen has been moved and it was full of children! There is still much work to be done on the master plan, but there are great things happening at the school. I did get to see many of the sponsored children as did Les and Sue, ALlison, and Susan. Let me put in a plug for the sponsorship program. For $35 month you can provide an at risk child with food, medicine, clothes, school supplies, etc. All the children are cared for by Pastor Edward and when you come on a future trip you can meet them in person. It is a blessing to meet your sponsored child. They simply light up. (for more info go to www.helpendlocalpoverty.com ad click on the sponsorship link. All the kids from Uganda are part of Pastor Edwards ministry).

I got to see some of my friends from last year! Florence, Kasuvu, Erina, Viola, and many others. They all remembered me and asked the same question.... Where is Jonah?!! All of em wanted to know where my son was who came on the trip last year. That made my day! Florence got to ride the bus with us to the medical clinic and she sat next to me and held my hand the whole way. She kept rubbing my palm on her cheeks. One of our hosts said she was trying to see if the white would come off! I must say I enjoyed riding next to her.

Well tomorrow we all go to church at His Mercy church in Buwenda. This is Pastor Edwards's church. I love this little church. The first timers get their first taste of African church and man are they gonna love it! We have told them to prepare for lots of singing and dancing! The church will have started before we get there and will be going long after we leave! There is no worry of time in Africa! I love African church! We will also walk around Jinja town and will visit the Source of the Nile and the Bujigali Falls. Tomorrow will be a good down day before the bus ride to Gulu on Monday.

Good night all. I am off to bed for some sleep. Keep up the prayers. I will talk to you tomorrow.

CRT