Blessed Indeed

I'm writing this from my family home in the UK on a beautiful summer's day with the radio playing and the windows wide open. This time last week I was somewhere in the sky over northern Africa.
 We had a party on Sunday which lots of people came to and it was a blessing that they came and shared our last evening in Uganda with us. Early on Monday morning we left the Smile house and drove to Entebbe airport. Saying goodbye to everyone was really difficult and plenty of tears were shed. I will be forever grateful to God for the blessing that it is to have met all the people that I'm close to in Uganda, and my prayer is that we will stay close and that one day God will bring me back.
By some miracle all of our bags were under the weight limit and the flight was uneventful (apart from the scones with clotted cream and jam!!) I think that we must have gotten a few strange looks from the people around us when all four of us girls were practically sobbing as the plane took off.
We had a brilliant surprise at the airport as Simone ran over to greet us. She had been with us for our training and had come out to Uganda for our first two weeks and it was lovely to see her again.
We spent a couple of days in Kent being debriefed by Clive and Ruth and Simone before we all went to Hitchin which is just North of London. We stayed for a few days visiting different clubs run by the church and sharing our experience of Uganda with the people. Everyone there was so welcoming and hospitable. It was strange to be back in English culture which is so familiar but also felt oddly alien, and we felt a bit like we don't really fit into our own culture anymore. It was great to all be together for the first week back and to be able to support each other.

So on Sunday, my brother John and his girlfriend Catherine came to pick me up. We stayed around for a while whilst we waited for the other's parents to arrive and we tried to delay the moment that we had to leave each other but eventually it had to come.
John and Catherine grilled me in the car with 101 questions "what was the weirdest thing you ate?" and then they took me to surprise my grandparents which was lovely.

We drove into Chineham just at the moment that Andy Murray hit the winning ball of the Wimbledon final! My parent's had decorated the house with British flags (apparently they'd been looking for the Ugandan flag but I had it with me!). My Dad, predictably, had seized the opportunity to wear his African shirt, and he and Mum both gave me that big hug that they had been waiting so long for.

We went round to John and Catherine's home for a BBQ and it was great to see their new house which they moved into about a week after I moved to Uganda back in October. I also got to meet their cat 'Bertie' who is quite a character!

Bertie enjoying the BBQ!

BBQ hosted by John & Cat

I'm so excited to come back to Christ Church next week and to get to spend all my time talking about Uganda. I've had such a huge amount of support from so many people during my time in Uganda and I'm now really looking forward to being able to meet up with people and share my stories with you all.

To everyone who's reading this from KC, UG I love you all SO much and I seriously really, really miss you. Thank you always for everything. Mukama abwawe omukisa ne nkwagala nyo!

As I think I've already said, my time in Uganda was easily the best 9 months of my life and I will cherish my memories and miss my friends and family there for the rest of my life. I knew from the start that God would bless me, but he truly has in ways that I never expected him to and he has done so much more than I ever thought he would. There's a reason I called this blog 'Blessed Indeed', as cheesy as it is, and the reason still stands because God has, and I know that he will continue to use me and to bless me through the life he calls me to live. I can't wait!

So that's it. I'm back in Chineham (for the next couple of months at least!) On Sunday the 21st July I'm going to be attempting to cook for anyone who wants to come and hear all my stories about Uganda at Christ Church Chineham, so all are welcome to church (10.30 am) and to the meal straight afterwards. Please give us a heads up at the church office so we know how many people to cook for (01256 474280 admin@christchurchchineham.org.uk)

Please continue to pray for me, the other gappers and our families and also for everyone that we love in Uganda.

What a year?!

This week has been one of laughter, memories, tears and plenty of food! We've been busy with lots of different goodbye parties, between trying to get everything ready to move back to the UK. On Monday we celebrated Clare's birthday early as the actual date is our last day in Uganda. We had just a couple of people  over and shared a lovely family evening with Clare's favourite African meal and some silly games.
Tuesday took us to Chosen Children's center to say goodbye to the teachers and the children there. It felt strange to be back as we haven't been there in a long time. It was good to see how much has changed and to see the kids again for the last time. In the evening we went to Pastor Davidson's house, he is the pastor of Blessed Word of Life Church where we've spent time this year running a children's club and also helping with the building. It was a really good evening and a great chance to spend some time with him and his family.
On Wednesday we visited the Smile Farm. The crops are doing well despite the lack of rain. We're mainly growing maize and beans and are in the process of digging a well. In the evening we went to our last Youth Fellowship at KBC which was a time of worship this week, but we also had a chance to share a few words.
The KBC choir welcomed us on Thursday for a BBQ. They've been such a family especially to Esther who has really gotten involved in choir and it was great to share the evening with them.
On Friday went to both of the children's clubs for the final time, we sang some songs, played some games and shared some biscuits. We were so blessed by the children at Blessed Word of Life church who presented  us with gifts and letters. In the evening us girls went out with the women from our women's fellowship for a meal which was really good.
Saturday was time for packing, and then in the evening the LT Warriors invited us to church for our chance to say goodbye to them. Just like choir have been a family to Esther, the LT lot have really been such a family to Finch, but to all of us they have become great friends and it was lovely to spend the evening with them.
So it's been a pretty intense week and an emotional one too. This afternoon we've invited pretty much everyone that we know for a party at the house which I'm sure will be good fun, but we're all anticipating a very emotional evening as we attempt to say goodbye to all of our friends and family here. I think I speak for all of us when I say that the past nine months have been the best of our lives and there's no doubt that we're going back to the UK as very different people form those who left back in October.
The people here are incredible, and we've built relationships that we pray will last for a lifetime. I know that I have family here, and they have and always will mean so much to me. Leaving Uganda will be one of the hardest things I've ever had to do, but I trust God that he will bring me back here on day soon, and for now I can only thank him for all the blessings.
I'm looking forward to seeing everyone in the UK and especially to coming back to Christ Church. I've got a few ideas for the next few years and I'm so excited to see how God will use me. I know so much more about myself now and I'm so much more confident in the ways that God has gifted me so I know that I can let God use me in those areas and I'm excited to see how he will work.
For now, all I can do is attempt a big enough 'Thank You'. Firstly to all the people who have supported me in various ways from all over the world. The support I've had has been overwhelming and I really am so grateful to all of you. Of course I cant really express in words how grateful I am to everyone here. I hope each person knows how much they mean to me and how much they've changed my life. I'm going to miss you all so much I can't even begin to put it into words.
And above all I thank God. I knew from the start that he would bless me this year, because he does every single day - there's a reason I called this blog 'blessed indeed'! He's grown me in ways I didn't think were possible, healed me in ways I couldn't see that I was broken, taught me so much about myself, given me the blessing of being able to bless others, introduced me to family I didn't know I had and finally made me believe how loved I really am, not only by him but by people all over the world. Above all, he's helped me to learn more about him and about the ways that he can use me. He's shown me the ways that he's gifted me and taught me how to use them. He's done so many incredible things and taught me a lot about himself. He's blessed me - big time!

I know that people will be praying for a safe journey and for me to settle in easily in the UK, but my prayer requests this week aren't for myself...

- Please pray for all of our friends and family here. Pray that God will walk with them and help them to know that he is there with them. I know that a lot of people here might struggle with our departure just as much as we will, so please pray that God will comfort them and that we'll all be able to stay in contact and remain just as close as we are now.
- Please pray for our friends and family in the UK. Pray that God will help them as they welcome home 5 very different young people from those they dropped at the airport last October.
- Please pray that God will continue to use us and that he will give us strength, wisdom and the right ways to share our testimonies of this year to bring him the most glory.

This wont be my last blog... we have a week of debrief in the UK before we go back to our families, so I'll be writing about that and sharing lots of photos with you.
To anyone who's around, I'm planning a meal at Christ Church Chineham on Sunday 21st July and I'll tell you all about my time in Uganda if you can come. Please give us a heads up at the church office so we know how many people to cook for. (01256 474280 admin@christchurchchineham.org.uk)

Kisaakye - Kayunga take two

Kisaakye means "God's Grace" in Luganda and is the name of the organisation that we were working with this week in Kayunga where we stayed two weeks ago. Last time that we stayed in Kayunga we were mainly working at Mount Zion school, but this week we got more of an overview of the work of Kisaakye. We travelled to Kayunga on Monday and spent Tuesday travelling around the area visiting disabled children and their families to provide therapy in their homes and to pray for them.  The Kisaakye volunteers are able to ride boda bodas which is a really handy form of transport especially on a day like this when we needed to visit lots of families which lived too far apart to reach them by walking, but there was no suitable access for cars. It was great to be able to visit them in their homes as this saved the parents the money that it would cost to bring the children to the Kisaakye center.

On Wednesday we went back to Mount Zion school where we helped the teachers and Clare and I had the opportunity to catch up with Mary - the deaf teacher that we met last time.
Thursday was the therapy day at the center so we helped out with the therapy and played with the children. Lots of the kids come to the center very scared because the therapy isn't a pleasant experience for them, especially if their parents don't provide regular therapy at home, so to be able to help them to relax is really important and was such a privilege.
After all of the parents and children had left, the Kisaakye volunteers blessed us with a meal to thank us as a team for working with them. They are a very young organisation and are struggling day by day to get by, but as we told them on Thursday, their faith in God is an inspiration to all of us, and we trust that he will continue to provide for them so that they can continue to bless the families that they work with.
On Friday we travelled back to Kampala, but not before we visited Kalagala Falls in the local area. We walked to the falls from the village centre and enjoyed sitting by the water and just watching and having some time to reflect (and eat fresh bananas!).

So we now have just over one week left in Uganda which is leaving us all with very mixed emotions. It looks like this week is going to be incredibly busy as we try to pack in as much as we can and say all our goodbyes before we leave Uganda.
Please pray
- That God will keep our morale high this week and help us to enjoy our final days in Uganda.
- That God will fill us all with peace at the prospect of leaving our friends and family here and will help us to get excited about what he has planned for us next.
- The same for the people we love here who we will be leaving behind.
- For provision for Smile Uganda and for Kisaakye.

Thanks so much and God bless.

Lorna

Farewell to Kuffu

Well as far as a final week goes this was a pretty good one in Kuffu. Today we packed up and left Kuffu for the final time. It was a bitter sweet moment at we drove away - excited to come back to Kampala for the rest of the weekend, but really upset to be leaving our family there and knowing that we might never return.
The opportunity to return to Kuffu this week was a blessing though as we thought that we had already said our goodbyes a few weeks ago. It was a bizarre week as a new team from the UK were visiting for a short term mission that they do annually from their church. It was exciting to be on the 'African' side of the welcoming festivities. We've been around for the past few months as the children have been practicing their dances and songs that they were to perform for these visitors, and we arrived in Kuffu on Monday amid all the preparations of decorating the school, making last minute touches to the dances and making grass skirts.

Preparing flowers

On Tuesday we stood in line with the children singing 'Welcome, we are happy to receive you' as the new visitors walked between the two lines of singing children. What a brilliant experience for everyone involved!
All morning the kids performed their songs and dances and then we had games before the children went to class. Having these visitors around all week was such a great reminder to us of how much a part of life we have become at Kuffu, for example that we are now viewed as teachers and not visitors, and that the children call us all by name instead of 'mzungu'.

Lining up to wait for the visitors

Dancing

Every morning we each took a class for a reading lesson, and for the rest of the day we helped in various classes as usual. Having the visitors around meant that the timetable was a bit different from usual and so we had games every day. On one of the days we got to get involved with a teachers race which was great fun.
On Saturday we took part in a huge medical mission. We were able to provide medical checkups and treatment for people in the surrounding area. I think around 450 people were seen. It was a brilliant day and was so good to see so many people at Goshem. I spent most of the day working in the pharmacy section, dispensing prescriptions. It took me back to the two years I spent working behind the pharmacy counter in the UK.

Our weekends at the moment are very short but we still manage to fill them to overflowing. Last Sunday Clare and I enjoyed an afternoon out in Kampala with Brian and Terry. It was a brilliant day and we created some memories that I will cherish for a very long time. We're home again for just over one day before we leave for Kayunga again on Monday to work with the same school that we were at last week, so we'll see what we end up getting up to tomorrow!

Thank you as always for all of your support and prayers. I appreciate it all so much.

Please continue to pray for us...
- That God will prepare us to leave Uganda and return to the UK and help us to feel at peace about it.
- That God will use us in Kayunga and that we'll be able to see him at work.
- For health and safety.

God bless,

Lorna

Kayunga

This week the 5 of us gappers went to Kayunga where we taught at Mount Zion school which has links with one of Smile's volunteers. Mount Zion aims to cater for all children including those who are deaf or disabled in another way. The school is linked with a charity called Kisaakye (meaning "God's Grace") which provides therapy for disabled children, particularly those with cerebral palsy.
We stayed in the Kisaakye centre which meant that for the week we had our own house. We had great fun cooking on charcoal stoves which takes much longer than cooking on gas, as we used the time to sing together in the kitchen. We also enjoyed a packet of marshmallows toasted over the hot coals that we had been saving for such an opportunity! 

Outside the Kisaakye centre where we stayed

Toasting marshmallows

At Mount Zion school we helped the teachers with marking work, and we taught some classes as well when there wasn't a teacher present. We mainly taught phonics or reading lessons, but we also had fun teaching the children some songs.

Teaching was difficult in limited space - this is 5 classes!

Teaching a reading lesson to Primary 5 with Primary 4 in the background

As Mount Zion caters for deaf children they also have a deaf teacher. Clare and I spent every afternoon with Mary and 2 of her students and we learnt a lot of East African sign language.

Clare with our new friends

On Thursday Kisaakye had a therapy day at their centre, so Finch, Joe and I stayed at the centre to help out. Lots of parents brought their children for therapy. Most of the children who came had cerebral palsy, so their therapy involved helping them to stretch different parts of their bodies and to move their joints. This was quite painful for the children as their bodies aren't used to such movement, but is important for them to have maximum movement. The work that Kisaakye do means that they can educate the parents about how best to care for their children in order to enable them to live a better quality life.

Next week we're off to another village! We're going back to Kuffu for our final week of teaching there and to take part in a medical mission day.

Thank you, as always, for your prayers and support.
This week I would love prayer in the following areas...

- Health and safety for the whole team.
- Pray that we will be able to continue to spend good time together as a team and remain close to each other and to God.
- Pray that God will use us to do his work.

Thank you so much and God bless.

Lorna

...and relax!

The reading weeks that we ran in Kuffu were a huge success, and this week we had all the gappers together for a whole week for the first time in what feels like a very long time! We have had a fairly relaxed week to give us all some time to rest from such an intense period of moving between Kampala and the village so much. We spent the time doing all kinds of things, from painting, to washing, to working on scrap books, to making a trip into Kampala to post some letters and I even let Clare cut my hair! I also made some reports about Smile work and visited friends. This week our new chickens, Clare and Lorna, laid their first eggs for us which we enjoyed in an egg mayo sandwich!

Eggs from 'Clare' and 'Lorna' chickens

On Thursday we went into town for our weekly slum ministry time in which we tried to encourage people to join us in the work that we were due to do on Friday, cleaning up a part of the community.
Friday went really well. We went into town early and spent the morning cleaning the water trenches of rubbish, sweeping, slashing and weeding. It was brilliant to see so many of the local people getting involved and the area is now much cleaner with no more rubbish in the trenches that we worked in.

Cleaning the trench

Carrying the rubbish away

After lunch we returned to run our children's club. This also went really well. We shared some praise and worship with the children, taught them about the 10 commandments which was the next part in our Moses series and enjoyed some biscuits together.
Friday was also Berinda's 2nd birthday so in the evening we had a little party for her. We all had a lovely time and it was great to see her so excited! We shared a meal, cake and lots and lots of fun with balloons! 

Birthday girl cutting her cake with Mummy and Daddy

Running for a hug from Auntie Lorna

As we enter our final month in Uganda we're all starting to reflect on the past 8 months. We're looking forward to seeing our friends and family again and I'm so excited to come back to Christ Church. However, we're all aware that this final month will be a very emotional one as we come to terms with leaving our friends and family here. The past 8 months have been a very significant chapter in all of our lives and we've formed relationships that we hope will last a lifetime. Please pray for us in this area over the next few weeks.

On Monday we're due to be going to a different village where we'll be working with another school and also a rehabilitation center for disabled children.

Please pray...

- For this coming week, that God will use us and bless our week with good health, safety and fun.
- Thanksgiving for the countless ways that God has blessed us.
- For the community that we helped to clean, pray that it will be maintained.
- For everyone as we approach the end of this season. Pray that God will prepare us to leave and help us to feel at peace.

Thank you so much for your support and prayers.

Lorna

Reading Week Three

I'm home again from Kuffu village where we just taught the final reading week. What a fantastic week!

On Sunday we were still in Kampala... well, we were actually in Entebbe. We went with our church - KBC, to the 'Love Feast'. As a church we all traveled down to Lake Victoria where we held the service outside and shared lunch and fellowship together. We sang, prayed, read the bible, ate, chatted and some people swam (and others got pushed in!) which was fun to watch. It was such a brilliant day and had a really lovely family feel to it and we all had so much fun.

Watching people swimming at the Love Feast

Early on Monday morning, Clare, Esther, and I went to join Joe in Kuffu. We arrived just in time for the first lesson so we literally arrived and got straight into teaching. Having taught the first week and then been away for a week it was wonderful to see how much the children had improved in just one week. Whereas in the first week we had just been teaching letter sounds, this week we were able to focus on key words and sentence construction and also to give the children some time each day when they could read story books. I was very proud of some of the kids in my class who were even able to read the word 'antidisestablishmentarianism'! Wow!

Reading a book

Learning to read

We decided to make use of our free time in the afternoons by twisting Esther's hair which we think took three of us about 10 hours in total!

Esther's hair after twisting for 10 hours

Friday was the final day which concluded all three of the reading weeks, so we made it a really special day. We spent all of Thursday afternoon and evening preparing for it, and on Friday morning we split the children into 4 teams and held a big competition. We had lots of games, including a 'slap the board' tournament, a treasure hunt and an anagram challenge among other things - all related to reading and writing. 

Getting into the anagram challenge

We also realized that this week was likely to be our last time to stay in Kuffu and we had lots of food left over, so we decided to bless the children with lunch on the final day. It was so great to see them coming out of the kitchen with HUGE portions, and grins on their faces to match. We asked them to bring their own plates, and one of the children brought a bucket!

Lining up to get lunch

This was likely to be our last time to stay in Kuffu which is really sad. Although we know that we'll be back to visit for a day, this feels like the first of our 'goodbyes'as we approach the final month of our gap year. Kuffu had been such a blessing to all of us and I know that for me personally it has been a place which has really allowed me to grow in so many ways. The first time that we stayed in Kuffu I really struggled, but 3 months on and its like another home from home for us. The family that we've become a part of there has been so welcoming and we've shared some beautiful memories with the people that we have gotten to know so well. It also gave us a much more typical experience of Africa which is something that I really cherish. Being away from technology especially is something that I've found particularly relaxing (If you're ever feeling a bit stressed, try turning the power off). But more than anything, this is a place that God has used to teach me so many things and to grow me in so many ways. I'm so thankful to all the people there and I count myself very blessed to have had the opportunity to become a part of the family at Kuffu.

Everyone at who lives with us at Kuffu after church.

And so another week is over and we're about to start a new one. As I write this I have no idea what we'll be doing this week, but I do know that God has it planned and therefore it will be great!
I really want to thank everyone at Christ Church (My home church), for their support of the building project at Blessed Word of Life Church. The money you've raised will be such an enormous blessing! Particularly thank you to the Pathfinders, I'm so proud of you lot!

Thanks also to everyone who has been supporting me in so many ways over the past 8 months. Your support, emails, letters, prayers and everything else is always such a blessing to me and I really do appreciate you all so much.

Please continue to remember me and the rest of the Smile Uganda team in your prayers...

- Pray for the children that we taught in Kuffu and that they will remember what they learnt and that it will benefit them in their education and their future.

- Pray for us gappers as we approach the end of our gap year. That God will prepare us well to move on, and also that he will prepare the people that we'll be leaving and those that we'll be going back to.
- Pray that God will use us this week in whatever work we do.

Thanks so much.
God bless