holy moses. the strike has been called off!!!!!!! woah. speechless. we still have to make sure that we can get the team's flights worked out to the original plan of leaving on the 24 but things are looking hopeful. keep praying.

God is crazy. I love him so much.

frustration.

with all of the issues that have been going on with the airlines--the decision that looks like has been made is that we will fly home on Wednesday the 19th. this is very unfortunate and upsetting for each member on our team and even the missionaries here. please pray for peace for each one of us as it feels like we just got here and have so much more to do. i know its going to be hard for everyone. also pray that if there is any option that we can stay another day or two or three or even till when we were supposed to leave, that this door would be opened and shown to us.

if this is the final decision tomorrow will be our last day. we are going to do a VBS and also go to an orphanage afterwards. today's vbs was wonderful and we had close to 200 kids attending and they said it would probably be double tomorrow. and only 10 of us in charge! thankfully we have translators and some help from a few teachers.

please pray. now. thank you so much.

as we enter into this week....

hello friends. kirsten here. today was a wonderful day. we went to katale...to a local church this morning. they normally start around 11:00 but we got there at about 11:30. there were several people up in the front singing and we could recognize the melody to some of the songs but did not know the words because it was in luganda. you could definitely tell that we were visitors and they had the choir come back up and sing a few more songs because "when the visitors are happy....we are happy," the pastor explained. they were dancing and you could tell that singing praises was really a relational thing. a couple of people came up and gave testimonies and one lady explained how she was having a hard time in her village because of her faith. i did not understand the whole story, even though there was a translator but her and her family were being persecuted for being christians. the church service was longer than what we are used to and even leaving shortly after the service ended we did not get into the car until about 2:00...you can do the math. :)

monday (tomorrow) and tuesday we are going back to the church to do vbs with the children. pastor wilson announced to the children that we were going to be there to serve food and play games, and teach the children. he told them that they should tell everyone that they knew and bring their friends to the church tomorrow. delight (the missionary we are staying with) told us that the last team who did vbs at this church had about 400 children show up. so....we are in for some pretty long but very exciting days. our theme for the next two days is "heroes" and we will be teaching them about certain people in the bible who really walked by faith and what we can learn from them. prayers will definitely be appreciated as we start this week.....that we can just be a light to these children and show them the love of Christ.

tomorrow evening after vbs, we will be going to Kampala International University to participate in a bible study with the college students there. and then on tuesday after vbs, we will go to a place called Jordan's home. there are children/adults there ranging from 6 to 21 years old. many of these children are orphans, and we will get the chance just to play and talk with them.

God is good.

we will keep the updates coming.....good night!

Hello friends and family!!! This is Kristen :) Today was a little more "relaxing" day. It was the "MK" day (aka hang out with the 7 missionary kids). It was a beautiful sunny day with a bright blue sky! We went to the pool with the kids which was SO much fun! I have never seen a pool as brilliant blue before...for those IWU readers, it looked like the fountain when the dye is REALLY dark. Absolutely beautiful!!! Across from the pool was a wedding reception, so we saw the wedding party arrive which was awesome! It was great to spend time with the kids so their parents had a day for themselves. The kids were from 15 down to 4 but it was almost energizing spending time and laughing with them...and at one point singing songs in the pool with them :) Unfortunately a lot of us came home with a souvenier from the pool...aka sunburns. Thankfully we have aloe vera and Lisa fish (where Danielle, Beth, Emily and I are sleeping) has an aloe vera plant!!!

We are all learning and growing TON from God while here. It is crazy when I read from my "expectation" list for Uganda and how I was going grow and realizing how everything had SURPASSED my expectations by a long shot. God has been gently been teaching me about waiting on Him and His guidance. Even when it came to the STD seminar, things I prepared for that I did not expect to need, but I felt like God was telling me to prepare for were needed.

We are getting excited to lead Sunday school for the MKs tomorrow morning and go to a church at Katale and next week do a VBS at Katale.

Thank you for your prayers. Like the girls before said that the Devil is working against us, but JESUS WILL PREVAIL!!! He is on our side and we are working in His name. This next week, we would love prayers for the children that we are working with at Katale. We could also love to have prayers for continued energy. We praise God for what He is has been doing at the school and in the community!!!

Until next time, Mungu Akubariki (Swahi for God bless you)

God=Amazing

Hi it is Heather again. It is late here and most people went off to their houses to sleep but I felt it was needed to praise God for all He has done on this trip so far. The past two days have been very busy. Today was our biggest day yet. On our agenda we had to lead two chapel services, lead a STD seminar, and paint a classroom. Thursday night was a very late night for all of us. The latest some of us were up was 2 am. We needed to arrive at the school at 7 am to prepare last minute details. All of us were exhausted but we knew God is our source of strength and that He had amazing things planned for the day. After our two chapel services were finished we received news that a high school student accepted Christ as their personal savior :) This was such an encouragement for all of us. As the day went on we did our STD seminar and realized that all of the information we shared was exactly what these kids needed to hear (another God thing ). God provided Lisa the opportunity to talk to a girl for awhile and was light into her life. Throughout the whole God just kept everything running smoothly and provided great witnessing opportunities. Satan has been working against us big time, but we know that just means we are doing something right. God has shown us over and over again how mighty He is. It is crazy to think that God brought all 10 of us girls together for a purpose. I know for me personally I've been learning patience. God has perfect timing for everything. And even though some of us are a little anxious about the British Airways strike we all know that God has a plan. He knew that this was going to happen before we did. Please just keep us in your prayers :)
My thoughts are all over the place tonight since I am so tired, but I needed to give a little shout out to our Savior.

Good Night Friends and Family :)

praypraypraypraypraypray.

hey guys. Leah here. If you're reading this, I really need you to take a moment on behalf of our team... The situation that Heather and I talked about a couple of days ago with British Airways has become a little more stressful. We're being told that the strike within the airline could possibly not be resolved as soon as we had hoped... This would mean that we might not leave until a week or two after we had planned. Which wouldn't be good for the few on our team who have summer camp staff training and family activities to return to. We were also given the option to leave on the 19th... which is next Wednesday. About 5 days early. What we need from you right now is your prayers. Seriously. Pray that this will all be worked out or another alternative would be found. We're also praying for God's wisdom and will to be revealed to us. We want to make the decision based on what God has in store for us, rather than our emotions. We know that God allows everything to happen for a reason, so right now all we can do is pray and keep the faith that God will allow what's supposed to happen happen. Thanks for your prayers!!! If your a family member, don't worry, we'll be getting in contact with you if needed!! JUST PRAY.

mzungu?

Hello fellow Americans...and maybe some who are not. I do not know. We are taking a little break after our downtown market adventure before we head to dinner. Last night we had a cultural lesson and Ugandan meal at one of the hosts we are staying with. (Jen & John). Oh by the way...this is Lisa & Kirsten. AKA Platy and Pengu!

It started out with all of us in a line outside washing our hands. We had to scoop the water and take some soap and then rinse the water again. We then went inside where we first took off our shoes. Our appetizer was coffee beans and we had to bite the beans. I love beans. WOo woo woo. We then ate the inside of it and it had a lovely flavor. Our next appetizer was something quite unusual. SOme of you may think this is gross but we ate grasshoppers. Lovely little buggers with two piercing black eyes that were staring right at us right before we bit off their heads. I had 5! I loved them..me being lisa. Kirsten had one but the eyeballs were a little too much...The meal was traditional Ugandan food a lot of it being food we would not normally eat...greens, cabbage, chipattis, rice and meat, motoke & g-nut sauce. It was alll yummy!!

During our dinner which we were eating on the floor using our hands (Ugandans who live in the villages do not use silverware), we got a lot of cultural lessons from Jon who is working on his doctorate in Ugandan History..and relations...or something like that. It was really interesting!

Today we got to spend time in the markets and our favorite parts were interacting with the shop owners and people of Uganda. Juliet was one of our favorites. She loves Obama...and our hair. We heard over and over how she would love to have hair like ours. She was so sweet and we would love to take her home with us!! Some of the girls got to walk on the street while others were shopping and we ran into a little girl and her dad. The dad was saying "take a photo of her!" and "she wants a photo"...her name was Irene and she was probably about 5 years old. She was so cute and had the biggest smile on her face. We took pictures and showed her our cameras and she loved seeing herself on the screen. Seeing people on the street even while driving is probably the most interesting and heartbreaking part of this trip.

Ok off to dinner. G'day mates.