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...

Baptism African Style

Nothing like a smelly pond, a drum and 125 people excited about Jesus to get your blood flowing on a Sunday afternoon. Yesterday we baptized 65 people in a cattle feeding pond about 1 mile down the road from home. And praise God, no snakes in the water. This was something that had me worried. It was great fun! Of course when it was all done Toby was asking if he could go swimming. "Sorry not today son, lets wait for water that is just a bit cleaner..."

Where are the kids?

As I came home the other day, I expected to find the usual noise and mayhem of the children. But lowe and behold it was quiet. Great I thought, but I couldn't help asking where are the kids? Mary then proceeds to tell me they went to kill a "Black Momba". Great I thought!!! Is someone with them, and where is the snake? Turns out it was already dead by the time they arived. "PRASE GOD", another adventure in the day of the Britton children.

THE CHICKEN HUNTING EXPEDITION

When you live in the bush of Africa, you don't live alone. There are the things "exotic"--chameleons, pink transluscent frogs, various snakes, bats, monkey birds, toucans, etc. And then there are the things "not exotic at all"--the chickens, pigs, cows, dogs and cats. Of this last bunch we find the chickens to be the most annoying by far. They wander more freely than even the children and are disturbingly efficient at wiping out newly planted cilantro destined for salsa. The "New Hope" rule on roaming chickens is that they are fair game for anyone who catches them, as they are supposed to be contained at all times. Not being particularly versed in catching and killing chickens, we have yet to get our hands on even one chicken to date. Thus, all the parts for our chicken soup have come from the grocery store in Kampala.

The children are now adept at hearing an approaching chicken and often take chase. Recently they decided they needed to take more decisive action and donned "chicken hunting expedition outfits"--mud boots, backpacks, sticks, and snacks (in case it took awhile.)--see picture--

Unfortunately for them, as soon as they disappeared beyond the neighboring buildings, Geoff and I heard a very plump chicken 10 feet from our house in our front yard. The children, now out of sight had no idea that from the beginning their expedition was ill-fated. But, hey, they had snacks and were "far from home" hunting a ghastly beast . . . that was the real fun!!! When they returned home, they had lots of stories, but no chicken. They'll never know how close they had been because we didn't have the heart to tell them. Oh, well, maybe next time.

Childlike faith

Well tonight as I came home from a meeting I was greeted by 3 screaming kids yelling "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!". Toby then with a look of sheer excitement tells me, "I got saved!". Wow!!! After some very deep questions Toby has asked Jesus to be his personal savior. Over the past few weeks he has had many a thought provoking question, and tonight he put all the answers together and asked Mary "Mom, am I saved?". Well like any good mother she then helped him to fully understand the question, and of course the answer. He gave me a good explanation as I asked him what that means. So tonight rejoice with us as Toby has stepped out with child like faith and as we all must do and begin to trust Jesus as our savior.