Meet the Oompa Loompas!

On Monday this week we went to visit some land that Smile Uganda have been offered where we're planning to start a farm. Of course we all had to get dressed up as farmers for the occasion!

 

It was so lovely to be out in the countryside and to walk around the farm and imagine the possibilities and to see the potential that it has. We walked through the sugar cane and matoke, we saw the bee farms (which were in a really English looking woodland!) and we prayed about what we hope that God is going to help us do here.

Unfortunately on the way home the Smile car broke down and we even had to push it to the side of the road and catch a series of different taxis and walk to get home. 

For the rest of the week we've been helping Pastor Davidson to build his church. This has included moving thousands of bricks (by carrying them) and also weeding and clearing all the plants out of the area to avoid mosquitoes. What was really lovely was to see some of the local children getting involved in carrying the bricks. 

Of course, we can't be building at Blessed Word of Life and not have some kind of dirt fight, and as we had been carrying lots of red bricks, this time we all ended up covered in red dust and looking a little bit like Oompa Loompas!

I really enjoyed our weekly slum time this week and we met some street boys who we invited to the children's club that we run, and the next day they turned up which was great! 

On the way back to the church for our de-brief after our outreach we walked past the spring where the locals collect their water. It was completely flooded after rain with really dirty water, but there was a young boy who had volunteered to get into the water. He was diving under the filthy water to remove the blockage which was such a special thing to see such a young boy doing something so brave for his community. Then we ended up skipping rope for a short while with some of the local children outside the church where we're based during our slum ministry which was really lovely.

On Friday morning, whilst the boys went to build at Blessed, us girls had to dry out all the text books that we 're holding in storage before they're distributed, to prevent mould. This involved taking them all out of the store room, laying them out in the sun and then putting them all back into the store room again. Being out in the sunshine made it very hot and hard work but we enjoyed it!

Oh, and by the way, I ate cows lungs this week! 

Please pray for...

- All of the visions that we have for Smile Uganda; that God would provide for them to become a reality.
- Provision for the repair of the Smile Car.
- The street boys that we met this week, for provision, protection and that they would know the love of Jesus.

- Health and Safety.

Thank you so much.
God bless,

Lorna x

Pancakes, Mail and Really Really Bad Hair Days!

Because of some issues among the leadership of the school that we teach in we've not been teaching this week. This of course doesn't mean that there's been nothing to do!

On Monday and Tuesday we went to the Stephen Jota Children's Centre. This is a school where Smile send a lot of our sponsored children and so we went there to carry out updates on the information and photos of our sponsored children there. Finch and I were in charge of taking the new photos of each child which we really enjoyed. It was good fun encouraging the children to smile and was especially funny when we had children with a bit of character and 'swag'!

SJCC is the school where Smile's gappers were based until a couple of years ago. It was strange to imagine how different our gap year would have been if we had spent our whole time there. We all feel very blessed to have the opportunities that we do to be involved in the projects that we're a part of. We also found it interesting comparing SJCC with Chosen where we teach, and to notice how much better off they are as a school. I don't think that we really appreciated what a humble school Chosen is before!



Tuesday was also of course pancake day! We almost missed it but on the way to SJCC the day before we noticed that a sign had a spelling error and read 'rooms for lent' which reminded us! So on Tuesday I spent 2 hours making 22 pancakes! We had chapatis with mince for dinner as they're similar to pancakes but much more filling, and then we each enjoyed our pancakes for pudding!
















On Wednesday the local volunteers had a meeting about finance which looked incredibly interesting every time we walked past! ;) Lets just say we were glad not to have to be involved! As we didn't have a specific programme for the day I decided to type up a 'gapper guide' that we had talked about making for future gappers in Uganda. It includes things like how long a bottle of suncream lasts and tips about things to pack, places to go, things to cook and all kinds of other things that we've learnt here.
In the evening we went to KBC for the weekly Youth Fellowship which this week was a debate entitled 'Screen fellowship is as good as congregational fellowship'. It was really great seeing everyone get so into it!
On Thursday us girls took a trip into Kampala to pick up all the mail from the post office. Between us we managed to carry 8 parcels and countless letters! It was really lovely to receive some letters this week from some people that I hadn't heard from in a while and also to get some parcels with some new sandals! (Shoes just do not last here at all!). On our way back we got caught in the rain so we stopped at church on our way past and had a cup of tea to warm up.
In the evening Clare and I offered to babysit Berinda so Mummy and Daddy could have some space for valentines day, so we had great fun!


On Friday I led the bible lesson for the older group at one of the children's clubs that we run. It was about Rahab and the spies and it went really well! I had Joe dress up as a spy and act it out as I told the story. The kids really enjoyed going searching for him like the king's men! Afterwards we went to church again for the weekly TGIF meeting for the young adults. This week they were showing a Christian film called 'The Encounter'.
Oh and last Saturday Finch and I had great fun cutting Shakul's hair. (He did ask for it!)... we ended up having to give him some money to get it fixed!

... and this is what happened when he saw his new hair cut, complete with bald patches!

Please pray this week for...

- The children at Chosen - that they wouldn't be affected by the issues among the leadership of the school.
- General health and safety for everyone.
- Thanksgiving for so many ways that God continues to bless us.

Thank you so much! 
Lorna x

BEACH!!!

So this week we began teaching again. Although difficult because we haven't been able to plan any lessons its been great fun. Its been interesting to see the differences in the start of term between here and in the UK. Lots of the children didn't turn up to start with because they hadn't yet found the school fees or because the parents didn't send them as serious teaching doesn't usually start straight away. The same has been true for the teachers in that not everyone turned up for the first few days!
All of the lessons that we've taught this week have been very last minute - in that we've been asked to teach it as it is about to start (or has already started!) so we've been getting good at improvising! What has been great is that we've had two opportunities this week to teach the message of salvation as we were told to teach 'anything you like'. I've mainly been teaching Primary 2 and Primary 3, so at a guess the children are between the ages of 6 and 11.
I've been trying to incorporate some phonics into the lessons as lots of the children really struggle with reading and writing. It was also really lovely this week to do some work with one of the children who doesn't speak any English or Luganda at all which obviously makes it really difficult for her at school, but by the end of one of the lessons this week on prepositions she was able to write "The chair near door" and understand it.What was more special than just the fact that she could do that though was the look on her face when she was praised for it!

We've also re-started our weekly outreach in the community with door to door evangelism every Thursday and children's clubs in two different areas every Friday. I've been asked to lead one of the bible lessons at one of the children's clubs next week so please pray for me as I prepare it.

On Saturday some of us took a trip to Aero Beach near Entebbe. It was such a new beach experience with no one sunbathing, music playing across the whole beach on loud speakers and no salt as the beach was on the edge of Lake Victoria which is fresh water. It was such a great day out and had such a family feel to it and we all really enjoyed ourselves.

So its been another good week!

This week I'd really appreciate prayer in the following areas...

- Please pray for the school that we teach at called Chosen Children's Centre. Pray for the children and the staff and also for us 'gappers' as we serve there.

- Please pray for Alex, our project coordinator. Thank God for the blessing that he is to us and to Smile.

- Please thank God for health and safety this far and pray that that would continue.

- Please pray for me as I prepare the Bible lesson for the Friday Children's club, and for the others who are also teaching.

Thank you so much as always and God bless.

Lorna

Meet the Family

This week we went back to school. We haven’t been teaching this week but just planning. This however is much easier said than done, especially when the timetable still hasn’t been written so we don’t actually know which lessons to plan for! It looks like this term is going to be slightly different from last term though in that we’ll be specialising in a subject rather than in a class. Over the last couple of months we’ve had a few training sessions for teaching and a lot of experience too so we all feel a bit more equipped to plan lessons and I’m really looking forward to helping the children to rely on God in their studies.

On Monday we had a day of rest because everyone was so exhausted from our mission last week and that was definitely very beneficial (I slept for 11 hours!) and then on Wednesday it was a public holiday and I must still have been tired from the mission week because again I slept for 11 hours! So we’ve had quite a relaxed re-introduction to school this week which has been really nice.

There’s not really much to write about this week, and so I thought that I’d treat you to some photos and introduce you to some of my family here...

Innocent

Innocent is our brother who lives in the Smile house with us. Although he’s actually a few months younger than all of us he insists that he’s actually older. He loves everything to be clean and his most commonly said word is ‘no!’. We love Inno so much as such a brilliant brother. He copes so well with living with 4 English girls which can’t be easy!

Olivia

Livee is our sister who lives in the house with us. She can seem quite quiet but she’s definitely got a cheeky side! Livee is so lovely and we often come home to find that she’s cooked for us or cleaned everyone’s shoes and other such things. We all love her to bits!

Alex

Alex is Smile Uganda’s project coordinator. So basically he’s the guy that’s in charge. He often goes by the name of either ‘Rebel’ or ‘Mr Mango’. Alex works incredibly hard and is so dedicated to his ministry. On Sunday afternoons I sometimes confiscate his phone to force him to rest for a while! There are few people that I’ve met who are as servant hearted, caring and wise as Alex. We know so many people that address him as 'Uncle Alex'. Alex has many catch phrases including 'lovely jubbly', 'what a blessing' and 'get saved!' As you may have guessed from the nicknames he is also great fun and has a brilliant sense of humour.

Brian

Brian is my other big brother. Of all the volunteers he is among those that we spend the most time with. He is just a big kid really and is prone to awful dancing, crazy driving and ice fights. Brian loves to have fun but he also has an incredibly caring and sensitive side. There really is no other word to describe him than ‘brother’.

Marina

Marina is another of the volunteers that we spend a lot of time with. She’s absolutely crazy in every way and is great fun to be around. She is also very dedicated to her work with Smile and takes it very seriously. Marina is quite a western girl, she loves her western clothes and pizza! She loves to bring people out of their shells and is really good at getting people to enjoy themselves.

There are so many other people here that are so important to me but I’ll have to introduce them another time.

This week I’d really appreciate prayer in a few areas...

- In true English style I’ve caught the ‘first week back to school cold’ so please could you pray that I’ll be well again soon!
- Please pray that we’ll feel well organised at school and be able to plan and teach well.
- Please pray for financial provision for Smile and Smile Uganda.

Thank you so much. God bless,

Lorna x