1 Year Anniversary

Yes, that is right, it was one year ago this week that we drove away from Pueblo, Colorado. Hard to believe isn't it??? So much has changed since then, one is Toby now speaks with some Hybrid Ugandan, British, American accent. And who is to blame? The boy in the picture is Joel Brown, his major influencer. They were having an 8 am meeting here, full of laughing and planning their day. Well a small price to pay for having such good friends here. We are coming home for a visit this November, so get ready to hear a 6 year old using the word trousers...

We have a winner

Congratulations Kara, you are the winner of a large bag of “Ensenene” or in our language “roasted grasshoppers”. Kara’s first guess at how many people fit in our van was 23, the actual number was 22. A tight squeeze.

I wanted to share a little more about one of the other works New Hope in doing here in Uganda. You may or may not know, but for some years there has been a rebel group operating in the northern part of the country. This has lead to thousands of “IDP” or “Internally Displaced People”, which are people who are refugees in their own country. These people live in camps that are little more than prison camps, yet are somehow safe from the night raids that are happening outside. The rebel group and their leader, Joseph Kony, mainly recruit forces by slaughtering a village and then kidnapping the children, which are then trained to be soldiers. Many of these children have been rescued or have escaped. Though they now may be free they still carry deep emotional scars from the torture they endured. New Hope is in the process of building another children’s center in Kumi district to bring hope to the future of these children. You may have heard of the “Invisible Children”, some of the children New Hope is helping are counted among them. Geoff will be traveling to this new site this weekend to attend a wedding and get a first hand view of this new project, more to come on his return.

How Many People Can Fit In Our Van?

Today we tried to figure that out. I just wish we had a picture to verify. Actually lets make this a game for all of you that read this blog. Leave your guess as a comment and next Saturday we will notify you of the winner. Usually these things come with prizes, we will have to figure out something for the one who comes closest.

Today I, Geoff that is, was part of a team that went to a prison to minister. The church here has had a team of people that have been visiting a prison in the area for the past 3 years. We took soap, bread and juice for the prisoners. It is not like the cushy prisons of America, these men and women sleep on mats on the floor, are fed one meal a day and often are the subject of abuse. Sounds like what prison was meant to be huh? The place is located deep, and I mean deep, in the bush, about a 45 minute drive from where we live down some roads that you might call a jeep trail. There we found a small prison that houses 50-60 people. When they entered most had no shoes and all looked tired and hopeless. Many are inflicted with AIDS and don’t have much hope of a productive life ahead. Yet when we left many were smiling and thankful that we came. The message of hope we brought along with the small tokens of our love made their day seem a little more bearable. The ride home was livelier as the young people in our van drummed and sang the entire way home, with the exception of when we were stuck behind a charcoal truck waiting for them to get it fixed. That is another story...