BIRTHDAY!!!

Last Sunday was my 19th Birthday. It was such a truly beautiful day. I woke up to signs all around the house saying lovely things about me. Joe had to leave early in the morning for the early service at church where he helps out with the sound, but the girls and Andrew had laid out my cards and a few gifts in a '19' shape just like my parents always do on birthdays and we sat together while I read the cards and opened the gifts.Baby Berinda was at the house so she had lots of fun with all the wrapping paper.
After catching Boda Bodas to church, around 20 of our friends came home for the afternoon. 

Olivia and Terry cooked a really yummy meal for everyone and then we sang some worship together which was absolutely brilliant! Have a look at the video...



It seems to be tradition in the Smile Uganda house to embarrass people on their birthday, and so I was made to act out random scenarios. This was definitely worth it though because afterwards I was allowed to tell people something to do and they had to do it, so Brian had ice put down his top, Marina had water thrown over her and Innocent even had to kneel to me! (with a little bit of 'help' or force from some of the other guys). They got me back well though by completely drenching me with water!
...So I blew out my candles in a new outfit but with wet hair! A few people had prepared songs to perform for me which was lovely and then after Alex said a few words he prayed and then one by one everyone came and laid hands on me to pray for me and bless me. It was such a beautiful thing for them to do and I was really touched.
On Tuesday evening 7 of us went out in the evening into central Kampala for dinner (pizza!). It was a really lovely evening and was exciting to be in central Kampala at night. We walked quite a long way and it was really nice to walk around Kampala and chat to each other.
I'm so thankful for all of the people that God has surrounded me with here. They made my birthday so wonderful and it was one that I will never forget.




The rest of the week brought a whole variety of things to do, from building at Blessed Word again to writing reports and even babysitting! On Thursday and Friday we had our usual weekly outreach times and children's club.The outreach on Thursday went really well and on Friday at the children's club we sang some songs, learnt about Jericho being conquered and had some biscuits.

This Sunday our team is going to be split up as we're starting a new project back in Goshem village where we had our mission week in January. Clare, Andrew, Joe and Olivia are travelling to Goshem, some for one week and some for two. This will be an ongoing project and people will swap over every one or two weeks. We'll be helping out wherever we're needed, probably mainly in the school. Being a long way out from Kampala this will be a very different living experience, with a much more typical African lifestyle. Food will be cooked over a fire, water collected from the bore hole and showers taken with a bucket

Please pray...
- For those going to Goshem this week. That they'll all remain safe and healthy. That the project will be set up smoothly, that the local people will really benefit, and that they'll really enjoy their time.
- For the rest of us back in Kampala - for health and safety.
- That people will continue to learn more about God'd love through the work that we do.
- For funding for Smile Uganda. We've now run out of money to continue the building at Blessed Word of Life church for the time being, and there are many other projects that we still can't start until we have enough money.

Thank you so much. God bless xx