17th - 23rd November 2009

Helloooo! :)

In Kampala again on our day off... It was Lucy's birthday on Saturday (WOOP!) so we had soda and cake over the weekend and toasted marshmallows that her Mum and Dad sent on candles in our living room. Good times! We've just had burgers for lunch, mzungu food galore, to celebrate so we're having a good day. Went to the post office earlier and posted TEN letters, I'm spending a ton on stamps and envelopes :S Anyway, the general update from the week... Lots going on, we're all quite tired still. In fact, I'm so tired that I can't really think back to the week overall as a whole, so I'm just gonna go straight into the separate days!

Tuesday 17th - It was raining in the morning so we had to wash out of bowls in the house. There was one very funny moment when water tidal waved out of someone's bowl and flooded the whole living room :) Lots of towels used to sort that out; good excuse to mop the floor! Maree was visiting us for the day to check how things are at home and see how the placement's going, so we tidied up majorly on Monday night and even dusted all the surfaces, beat out all the sofa cushions and cleaned the windows :D We're so good! Doughnuts and pineapple for breakfast with Maree then we had team time all together and individual time to talk with her. That was really useful... The chick we've recently acquired as a pet, who's called Flick Chick, was running all over my lap and decided to use my skirt as a nest while she was chirping very disruptively as we tried to pray :) It was a great time for us a team; it made us realise that we are a fantastic team and disagreements are OK and they pass with time. We have a unity and a love for each other than far outweighs everything else bad. Maree said it's the first time she's ever had a team without any issues with their coordinators! I'm very proud of us, and grateful to God for giving us each other and our wonderful Ugandan family. I've sent around a LONG prayer request to most people I know who will pray about a situation at Gilgal school; it's too long to write it all out again here. If you want to know more then email me for more details! Anyway, she encouraged us to do some stuff to change that situation and we had a long chat with her about ways of doing that and advice about how to do it.

Thank you everyone who prayed for the team to get along well - we are getting SO much stronger. We can recognise each other's strengths and weaknesses and are getting much better at supporting and encouraging each other through those things. We can all see amazing changes in each other's characters: Nicky is a brilliant leader but she really didn't know that before. She's getting better at being honest about feeling crap and she's growing in her faith for the future. Lucy is LOUD! She's growing in discernment and her prayers have a lovely childlike quality and have so much power in them. Ellie is getting better at being sensitive with people and has a new passion for the Bible. She teaches really well out of it and knows how to love people, esp the older guys in the boys group and at Lilo. Bex is getting stronger and stronger even though it's hard for her being away from James, her fiance. She has a gift for speaking in tongues and prophecy that are growing by the day! And they say that I'm getting stronger in my self assurance and that I'm more comfortable with myself physically; I hardly ever wear make-up now and I feel normal! SUCH a big change!!! Anyway, Tuesday evening we were up till 1am getting a craft ready to do at Lilo... I'll write more about that in a sec :)

Wednesday 18th - Nicky and I had to get up at half7 to get an announcement to the loudspeaker lady about V.W.G by 8. BAD TIMES. Especially after our epically late night.. There was a burial at 4pm so we rearranged the group to 4 on Thursday so that more of the women could make it. When we got back, Tata said that our schedule for Lilo had to be rearranged; they had exams at 11 so we needed to go a couple of hours earlier at 9. Thank goodness we were already up! We went and got the other girls up, had a speedy breakfast and went to Lilo at 9. We were determined to go despite the late change of plan - I love that school, wouldn't want to miss it for the world. There weren't so many kids there cos some of them have gone home for Christmas to the villages where they originally lived with their families. Nico has already gone :( We did the balloon game, which was absolutelty mental. They loveee that game!! It ended up with everyone running around screaming and lobbing balloons, as only kids can, so that was fun! Blatant cheating while we were playing but hey, that's what it's all about :) Then back inside from the craft. Basically, we spent hours backing some paper onto coloured card, decorating it with a bit of glitter then writing a Bible verse on the bottom of each one. It took SO LONG! We made SIXTY of them, and we had to look up all the verses in English, then get a Luganda Bible and match up the parts of the verses that we wanted (we guessed for that bit!) and then wrote them on. It was epic but awesome. So lovely to spend all that time and effort and then see the kids enjoying it. We gave them feathers to stick on, which they thought was weirdly funny! Maybe they hadn't seen them before. Bex sat outside with Natalie and made one with her so she got one too. It's really nice to give them something they can be proud of, that they can keep and gives them some encouragement and love.

After spending that awesome time there, we went home and had a good 6 hours to ourselves before Bible Study. It was great to relax and read, drink coffee, catch up on journal writing... A much needed rest after the late night and early morning before. Nicky led the Bible study really well, went on quite late but it was good. We did a little craft so I had something else to stick into my prayer diary :) In the evening we toasted marshmallows with the family and made them all hot chocolate as a little treat to make them smile! We're going to cook for them again towards the beginning of December, we want to bless them as much as we can while we're here...

Thursday 19th - Bit of a funny day! I went to Kampala on my own to meet Maree and visit the Tigers project who I briefly worked with last year when I was here. Last year we took them to Jinja for a summer camp for a few days and it was awesome! I wanted to go back and see their central project and see some of the work they're doing. It's now been renamed Retrak, after their sponsors, and I met the coordinator who was just taking over on Thursday. The organisation works with boys off the streets. Every Thursday they give a health lesson, take the boys to a football pitch to play a few matches (that's the best way to get them off the streets) then give them lunch and medical care in the clinic at the project. An amazing woman called Julianna works really hard to run the clinic and does mobile stuff into nearby slums where people can't access healthcare at all. They have 3 main programmes for the boys - some are housed at the project in temporary accommodation while they're given counselling and care by the project social workers. They offer this for anyone who comes in off the streets. Then there's a halfway house for some of the boys where they are trained and educated before they're rehoused with different families or go out to get jobs and are helped to live on their own. These 3 stages are great for the boys cos they care for them throughout their growing up; they don't pick them up then drop them again. Please pray that the project sees God's provision financially (they had a severe financial crisis last year and are just starting to build back up again) and continues to grow.

While I was there I only saw one boy who I recognised from last year, which was a shame but also what I expected. It was just good to talk to some of them and watch them playing football having a good time. Maree and I helped out in the clinic for a few hours over lunch time while they were coming with their sicknesses, often serious, which they ignored while they played football then dealt with afterwards!!! Typical boys :) It was a lovely time, although weird being without the girls. Walking around Kampala on my own and being in a matatu on my own was very odd, but in some ways a lot less stressful! Only one person to worry about being run over :) In the evening we watched some House and ate chocolate, good times! Apparently V.W.G went well although there were only a couple of women; it's good that we have the ones who are fully committed to the group, but please pray that we have more coming along soon and that it grows with time. We feel it's on our hearts cos God put it there, but please pray that we have wisdom about how to run it and how to pass over the leadership to them. We've given them all the financial details about the resources, machines and training that we need to raise etc and we're hoping to arrange training for them as soon as possible, regarding the candle-making. There's been a bit of friction between Mama Claire and the other women; it's some long, complicated story that I don't understand! Please pray that they work really well as a team and that they stay united and together in this, cos they won't succeed anywhere near as well apart.

Friday 20th - Kampala AGAIN. Early morning, totally shattered... I had a splitting headache when I woke up! We've had a lot of emotional and physical challenges the last 2 weeks, which has tired us all out. Please pray that I start to sleep better; last night was OK, only woke up once, but my sleep is generally still very light and disturbed, although I'm never quite sure why. Anyway, got into Kampala and had a very interesting training session on Islam and Mormonism. The Islam parts caused some quite heated debate between us and Michael (our teacher). He didn't have a very clear knowledge of Islam and what he was saying was far too generalised... It made me think that I'd really quite enjoy Theology! Pretty lucky since I'm applying for it :) Speaking of which, please pray for my Cambridge interviews. They are on the 15th December, at 8:30am, 9am and 2pm. Coming home will be stressful and difficult I imagine, so please pray that God gives me deep peace and certainty about the whole thing... During lunch we did a little bit of planning and I got some quick internet time at the Oasis office while Lucy picked up her birthday parcel from home :) A guy from Calvary chapel church came and did the talk in the staff prayer meeting; it was on how financial giving should be done. That's a pretty important topic here what with all the prosperity gospel rubbish that goes around. We went to the post office after and got a parcel from home!!!!!!!!!!! :D :D :D :D WOOP!!!! It was awesomeeeee, had a really sweet letter from Immy (my gorgeous little sister) and some "hangy things" (lol) for storage purposes from Mum. Love you!

Saturday 21st - LUCY'S BIRTHDAY! :) Had a bit of a chilled morning but amazingly got a lot done. Washing all sorted, tidying and sweeping done and I did a load of washing up for Mama Rachael while Ellie made lunch. Florence from Gilgal came to speak to us in the middle of all that, which was lovely. She just wanted to come for a chat to say hello cos Sarah, her older sister who has already left the village for Jinja, is coming to pick her up at some point soon. It was really sad to think about saying goodbye to her :( I genuinely love those girls. It was good to see her if only for a little while and to have a quick talk. She had to rush back cos Pastor Murenzi hadn't given her permission to leave and she now has to make his drinks for him cos Sarah isn't there. VERY annoying. After lunch we did Kids Club - we did a fun, gamey one this week :) Made a scoreboard and put them into teams with face paint to distinguish them (which they loved!) and did a load of different games and gave out stickers etc. The 3-legged race was a complete failure cos we only had wool to tie their legs together and they broke it straight away!! Dodgeball, the balloon game and the "putting on clothes relay" were great successes! After kids club we headed straight to Gilgal for boys and girls group. Bex, Nick and I did girls group this week and decided to have a chilled time with them without too much intense Bible study cos they did the crazily hard debate thing last week... Played a few games then had a chat and Bex and I did a little talk about beauty and how they're all created differently and wonderfully like the stars in the sky :) It was awesome! Then worship outside like usual and home for dinner. In the evening we face painted Junior and Esther, Caleb and Joshua and ourselves, which was good fun. I was an angel :D Haven't had my face painted in years! I still remember a time when I was about 8 when I went to the Sealife Centre in Southend with Nina and Nonno (my grandparents) and had my face painted as a mermaid! :) Aaaanyway, tangent, sorry...
Bit of a bad part of the day - Nicky had a temperature of 39deg, which is insanely high bearing in mind our normal temperatures here are 36. She was a bit rough yesterday with headaches too, but she's not getting better - thank you God. It was horrible to see her so ill but we prayed for her and she started getting better, so that was good :) Her fever has now gone down and she only has a slight sore throat.

Sunday 22nd - Church in the morning after a VERY slow start. We did the same craft with them as the one we did at Lilo, which they also enjoyed, and then ran out of time so went in for the main service bit. Had to sing at the front as usual, which is still just as embarrassing as it was at first!! Dad did a wicked talk on forgiveness. Then home for lunch and we didn't have any Community Evangelism or visiting women in the afternoon, so we had chilled time again. Got lots done though; sorted out meeting Steve from the travel agents to meet him today to sort out our holiday in January, which is now all booked. YAY!!! :D Sorted out our planning and December programme with Dad, then just relaxed for a while. Watched House in the evening... Pretty standard Sunday! Also had a great prayer time in the evening. We've been increasing the amount that we pray cos things have been harder and with the situation at Gilgal we need to be extra protected, kept safe and Spirit-filled. We went outside; the sky was beautifully clear and there was a bit of a breeze, perfect evening! The kids made a tent out of a parachute which we sat under... I randomly noticed the night guard sitting in the shadows by the compound wall after we'd been out there for ages, which freaked me out, so we went inside after that!!! :)

And now it's today and I'm sitting here still kicking myself cos I haven't replied to all my emails yet and I've already been on the internet for 2 and a half hours!!! The girls always laugh at how long Nicky and I take... Although to be fair, today I've written a hench prayer email! Anyway, I'll stop writing now. Missing you all lots, but still having a fantastic time as you can tell. Sending tons of love as always :)

Flick
xXx