This adventure began with nine High School students, a loaded down van, rumors of riots in the city, and one goal in mind...to share Christ through skits, manual labor, and visiting the thatch roof homes. My Job, Brad, was to be a leader for the High School mission trip, Wednesday-Friday, and then to be a speaker for the spiritual retreat that weekend. A highlight for the mission trip was visiting several local homes. Walking up the dusty road to the row of thatch roof homes, we were quickly greeted and asked to sit with them. They offered us their only makeshift chairs as they quickly sat in the dirt. We soon learned that the majority of this particular family was dying of several life threatening diseases. They had no hope for decent health care and no money. Yet their faces were still beaming with joy. When asked, "Where do you find joy?" the elderly mother with aids quickly pointed at her husband and spoke up in her native tongue saying, "We find joy in Jesus and our children." Her youngest child, 40ish, that was suffering from Sickle Cell Anemia agreed, "Jesus is our Joy." As we walked back down the dust covered road a student remarked, "It puts things in perspective. When rubber meets the road Jesus has to be our everything." (Pics: Top left- Brian teaches village kids bible verse, right: Brad playing 11 vs 11 soccer with village kids, Mission student group)



Riots in Kampala
This past week we have been under several riot warnings. As for Annie and I, we are living just in the out skirts of the city and there is absolutely no problems with safety in our area. What began as frustrated Ugandan citizens hoping to save a forest from being turned into a sugar factory, unfortunately became a deadly mob scene. Annie's school was notified by the American Embassy that anyone who is basically not African shouldn't enter downtown Kampala. (We rarely do this anyway due to traffic and of course rarely having transportation.) The danger for "Mzungus", white people, is that if anything were to go wrong, car accident etc, there is a high chance of being blamed and then mobbed. Keep in mind this is a country that has only known war and fighting for many years. We are safe, our organization is safe, the school is safe, but the city could certainly use your prayers. *This picture came from the internet and not from our own personal camera.