July 16th

Today after family time the team from Good Shepherd met with Pastor Ruth, what and incredible woman of God she is, to discuss what items Smile Africa needs the most. Members of Good Shepherd have donated money and $2000 (or 4 million schillings) was set aside for school supplies. Pastor Ruth has such a giving and loving spirit. We talked about the children at Smile Africa, the Karamajong, and she was telling us about the children’s past and how they are looked down upon by society. The Karamajong tribe is looked down upon because many of the men are drunks and don’t care for their families. The children would be found digging through the rubbish near the street for food for them and siblings.

After we met with Pastor Ruth we went to lunch in the city. It was nice to be able to see how the people of Tororo live. After lunch Sam, who works with Pastor Ruth took us shopping for all the supplies that we needed to get for Smile Africa. We got to walk through the city and interact with the locals. Alicia has a guy flirting with her and Sam scolded the man, and told Alicia that he is not a good guy.

We then delivered the supplies to Smile Africa, and got to walk through the compound and see all the improvements that have been made over the past 3 years. We also got to play with the children. These children are adorable and have so much love to give. Pastor Ruth said that she loves to look into their eyes and see what they will be when they grow up, and is so thankful to God for bringing them into her life.

July 17
Today we got to visit 2 of the 3 gardens that are being started in Uganda. The idea is that they will be able to produce vegetables that they will be able to sell and become self-sufficient. What amazing job they are doing. The vegetable garden was only started in November, but they have wonderful vegetables growing. We were able to see some very large, lush produce. Some of the items they do not exactly know what they are because they received many seeds that were not marked, but planted them anyway. Once they had their first harvest, there was a high demand for cucumbers – something that is not native to Africa, and many people had never had before. They are open and willing to try to grow anything since they do not know exactly what will grow in the African soil. They are also composting, so that they can reduce waste and use it to help fertilize the plants.

Amy went to Prison
I am not going to lie I was very anxious about going to the prison to visit with the prisoners. There was this feeling inside me tell me I needed to go. I was very nervous but I just asked God to quiet those nerves so that I may be able to be present with the men and women at the prison. They told us that some of the men and women who are in prison may be innocent. If a person is accused of something they are taken to prison until they are able to have a trial, which in some cases could be months or longer. Women who are in prison have their children with them in prison until the children turn 8 years old then the children are kicked out and they are on their own. When I heard this it broke my heart.

When we arrived at the prison we met with Pastor Eric who is a local pastor who is the one who runs the prison ministry along with the hospital ministry. He is an incredible man who has such a heart for the prisoners. After we met with the warden we went inside the prison. As we were waiting to get in we could hear the prisoners singing, “This is the day that the LORD has made…” this comforted my nerves a great deal.

When we got into the prison we were outside under this beautiful big tree, where the prisoners already were. The facilities were in poor condition, and we learned that most of the prisoners do not even have beds to sleep in. Pastor Eric told us that the conditions of the prison as well as the way they treat the prisoners have improved greatly since he first started coming to the prison. They had chairs for us to sit in. We got to sing songs together and pray together. What an incredible experience. There was one guy that was one of the first ones I spotted when we got there. He was standing on the outside of the circle and didn’t seem to be interested in what was going on. I said a quiet prayer that God would work in his life. As we continued to worship he moved closer into the circle.

Dave Peters got up and preached as well as Pastor Bob, from Messiah Lutheran Church. After they shared Pastor Eric asked the men and women who had not accepted Christ yet if they wanted to. About 20 people accepted Christ that day, one of them was the man that I said a quiet prayer for. What an amazing experience. All those that accepted Christ received a Bible along with a cross crochet bookmark. They were so excited for those items. We also brought soaps and razor blades for the prisoners.
Pastor Eric had some amazing words to share with us and the prisoners. He told the prisoners that we would continue to pray for them and that they need to continue to pray for us, because we have come to visit them, and many of them their own families do not even come to visit them. After the service we got to shake the hands of the prisoners and talk with them. I am so glad I listened to the prompting in my heart to go visit with these prisoners. I feel truly blessed to have gotten the opportunity to spend the afternoon with them.

Kelly went to Juba to Paint
When we were at Juba we were very busy painting inside 2 of the school rooms. It was amazing what we saw while we were pulling down cardboard signs – scorpions, many crickets, large spiders, and 2 HUGE cockroaches. We painted much of the afternoon. There were kids peeking in the windows watching and talking with us as we worked. We got about 15-20 kids who were around to get their hand painted and put it on the wall just under the chalkboard in one classroom. They loved having their hand painted, and then being able to see their print on the wall. (This is something that kids around the world must love – because we have done this at home and the kids there love it too)

I got to know a girl called Jennifer and her sister Kristen. Both are such sweet girls. When we were done painting Jennifer came up to me, and was holding my hand. I could feel that she had something in her hand, but I did not know what it was. As we continued holding hands she began to move her hand back and forth in mine. When she was done, she took my hand and turned it over, she had a piece of brown chalk that she had been rubbing between our hands. She took my hand and put hers right next to mine, looked up at me, smiled, and said “look now we are the same”, and gave me a great big hug. These kids are so sweet, and have much love to give.
After we were done painting we hung out with some of the kids, singing songs with them.