The journey begins! We went out for the forth time this particular week looking for land...nothing we had seen thus far captured what we were really searching for.
Enoch spend a whole day, literally 10 hours, searching for the perfect place. Everything from the soil, to the bush, to the big trees, hills, flat, accessibility, public transport, water...everything. He knew that Shelly wanted nothing but the best for this camp.
That evening Enoch called us as he was on his way back to the activity center with "great news"! He held us in suspense for 45 min. He came to us with very exciting news. He found two pieces of land for what seemed perfect for what we are looking for. The maps and explainations were great but weren't enough for Shelly. She needed to go and see them both for herself. We would have gone at that moment but it was already dark.
First thing the next morning (8am) we were off! We went to the first piece and it was nice. A little steep terrain, but it had good soil and underground spring...lots of garden, an okay view....onto the next piece...
"WELCOME TO PARADISE!" Bottom line...we prayed about it, we looked hard, we've been patient, we found it, we love it, we feel good about it...we can almost hear God chuckling at us...and better yet we have the money for it...here is our story...
We were originally told that it was 10 acres for 5 million shillings an acre ($27,400). We don't have that much...after meeting with the owner we found out that he was selling 5 acres and was willing to go down to 4 million ($10,960). We don't have that much... After 9 hours of walking, translating, listening to family fueds and negotiating, we left the land for the second time that day to take the land owner back home...Enoch had been negotiating in Luganda and the tone sounded ominous...not so positive....he said he would fill us in with the details after dropping off the owner...I started praying!!! I was sooo nervous that the owner didn't have the title, or the brother was trying to talk him out of selling it, or they wanted too much money...I prayed!!!
We dropped the owner off and Enoch got this cheshire cat grin and sooooo calmly told us that he had negotiated down to 3.5 million shillings an acre ($9,590). Guess what? WE HAVE THAT!!!!!!!! There are two families from Arbuckle Community Church in California that donated $9000 especially for land!! Is that a God thing or what!!! THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR PATIENCE, ENCOURAGEMENT, EXCITEMENT AND PRAYERS. GOD IS GREAT AND SO FAITHFUL!! We are starting the documentation and survey process this week. Please continue to pray for God's guidence and wisdom every step of the way! We will keep you updated as we get closer to holding that title in our hot little hands!!!
After a stressful day of scouring the Ugandan countryside, it is always a joy coming back to our kids!!! It's all for the children of the Lord.
This is Namubiru Linda and I sharing hats and a little "hang" out time! She is our covergirl for the website, this 5 year old always has a smile on her face...even when she is sick. Just this last week she had a terrible lung infection that caused her to have a bad cough that led to her throwing up...if we wouldn't have taken her to the doctor when we did it would have turned into pnemonia. Unfortunately her mother didn't give her the full dose of her medicine (she gave some to her sister cause she had a "cough") she is still suffering from it and we might need to take her back if it continues or gets worse. But needless to say she is always a joy to be around.

Thank you again and know that we are seeking the Lord's guidance every step of the way and also know that without your prayers and support this wouldn't be possible!!!

This was a typical idiot driver who just happened to end up in the ditch...this was one of three accidents we saw this day. Their solution...get a big truck to tow it out and have 20 people help break the axel pushing out...I dont understand some things here but oh well, it was somewhat entertaining.
The sunsets and sunrises are simply amazing.
This is what the kids use as umbrellas when it is raining, they are branches to our papaya tree that we pushed over because otherwise it would have fallen on a kid or two...when the tree fell, 30 kids ran up and fought over all the papaya on it...again very entertaining. These ones went for shelter rather than the food, it just happen to be pouring down rain that day.
Imagine 250 kids in a 540 sq foot room, no form of air except a little house fan in the back...and when electricity went out so did the fan. Not to mention the kids just got done with two hours of sports, games and dancing. This was a "special" saturday. We watched the lion king and had pop corn!!! I also made a 15 min slide show of the kids (Im bringing some copies home to the states) they absolutely LOVE seeing themselves on the digital camera screen...we had a huge white wall for a sceen...they went crazy. You can see all there little heads in this photo! Some of them were directly in front of the wall, there necks had to have been killing them . I had music to the slide show but it wasnt even necessary because they were screeming out the names of every one in every photo, we couldnt even hear a kid if they were crying it was soooo loud. Luckily no one suffered heat exhaustion or suffication. Thank you Lord for your protection!!
This was the mound of shoes outside that very day!! Over 500 shoes!!! This wasnt even all of them, and to think that they all went home with shoes...they may not have been there own but they all had shoes.
NO more braids!!! :( And no more hair!!! I lost sooo much hair but they were so much fun. This is me taking out my very last braid, all the fake hair on the table were all of my extensions. It was crazy!! But I loved it and will probably do it again.
Our cat Joey, he sleeps with me every night, and he kills all the cockroaches so I let him stick around.
In the process of looking at land and taking out my braids we stopped for some african fast food...ie, you stop your vehicle at a market on the roadside and about 15 people come sprinting to your car with meet on stick...bananas...water...fruit...anything you might need for a snack...they push and fight to get you to try to pick their food, they dont just go to the drivers window either...they mob every window.
me and my group of soccer boys, the one in the red and white striped shirt is Tamale Peter!!! He is a kid after my own heart, I dont know if I told you guys about him but he lost his father awhile bcak and his mother is sick and has aids...Im not sure if he does but needless to say he isn't in school because his mother cant afford school fees so I am going to hopefully be able to annonymously sponser him and send him to school this coming feb!!!! He is soooo talented, not to mention our best futball player!!! Pray that the Lord works His wonders there. School fees for a term (3 months) for him are at most $25 a month and that is including a little pocket money. We have a lot of kids that don't go to school because of school fees, however we have many very good students who are fortunate enough to go to school. One boy, Aman Aziz, just nailed his P7 (7th grade) exams!!!! Now he gets to go to high school for the next 5 years providing the school fees are there. His brother however isn't in school because there parents only have money to send one child and Aziz is oldest so he is the only one enrolled right now.

Another shot of our "special" saturday!!!! Before the movie even started their popcorn was gone!
Every Thursday Shelly leads our Bible study! We are studying 1 Samuel and loving it!! The life of David and his heart for the Lord is a huge encouragement to me and hopefully to all of our staff. It is hard to get everyone to participate but Lord willing we will see the fruit of this study produce over the next couple weeks.