Month: July 2016

Uganda Wildlife Conservation Center

We went to the Wildlife Conservation Center before taking our friends to the airport Monday. It was an awesome visit, we had a guide that was very knowledgeable about the animals. They take in animals that are hurt or that have been smuggled in. Zebras that were found running through streets in the city, chimpanzees smuggled in at the airport and a huge crocodile found in a town very near our village that had killed a few people. Raelee pet a rhino, and we witnessed lions fighting while hyenas cried out in excitement. The chimpanzees scuffled and put on  a show for us, one concentrated on retrieving a piece of fruit from the lagoon with a stick. A spoonbill stork greeted us by clacking his beak, our guide said he does this to welcome visitors. Then he went back to eating! It was a great day until we had to say goodbye to our friends, especially Donny Lee!

Harvesting Begins

“You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands, you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you.” Psalm 128:2

The bean and peanut farmers have begun to harvest. So far we have gotten our half of beans from two women. They yield was very good, one bringing in a little more than the other one. At the projected prices when we sell, we will have made the money back that we supplied them with. On the one woman, there will be a little profit. We haven’t started buying any of theirs yet. We will buy theirs at the fair market price as it is right now, hold it, and sell when prices go up. The peanuts are being dug, they dig them up and then pile them in big circles in their fields to dry.

The rice is looking good, probably be a few more weeks until they harvest. And it looks like the rains are over, to my disappointment! I love it when it rains even though my floors stay dirty! But the cool nights and mornings are still here. Hope they stay awhile!

Keep praying for the harvest, that there is a good yield – both for the farmers and The Mandate. Pray for honesty in the farmers while they are harvesting and splitting the crops with us. So far it hasn’t been too much to keep up with, but it may be more difficult as more start bringing in their crops.

We’ve had a difficult month already with different things going on so I ask for your prayers for strength, perseverance and patience. For wisdom and tempered tongues when dealing with difficult people, and fairness when it comes to wrongdoing. For health, strengthening of faith and of character. Your prayers mean so much and are felt here when you pray there!

“Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,  and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”  Romans 5:3-5

The picture at top is some of the rice fields getting close to harvest time! Here are a few more…

Feeding the Baboons

Monday morning we drove toward Kenya to the forest where we feed the baboons. We wanted Olivia and Jessica to see them. Usually you can pull to the side of the road and honk and they will come running out of the woods. Just as we were passing the turn to go to Kenya there were some in the road. Bit there is so much traffic right there we didn’t want them to get run over. We drove til we were in the forest, parked, honked and…no baboons. Moved down the road a little and repeated. We drove past the forest doing this and didn’t see any more baboons. Chris turned around and drove back the way we came. Finally Jessica saw one. We fed him, thinking more would come but they didn’t. We drove some more and finally came up on a group of them. It was very exciting for the girls and Raelee, they all fed them from their hands. Very brave! It was a good end to a fun weekend. Can’t wait to spend more to with the girls!

Running out of bananas so I threw her a mango!
This guy was looking over the truck door. He was big!
The babies are the cutest!
Sula went with us to take the girls back
There was a discussion after I saw this pic!

Children’s Weekend

Two weeks ago we started planning a weekend for our American friends that are staying at OVU school to come out and see what we do and spend some time with the village kids. Olivia and Jessica are college students from Shreveport and are here for six weeks working with kids at the school our Canadian friends have. So since we don’t have groups of kids here all the time we put the word out that we would be having American friends and fun on this weekend, invite some kids. Kids were invited…Saturday we had five hundred and on Sunday there were a little over three hundred that came! When the girls arrived I think they may have been a little overwhelmed, I know I was! But there was so much fun, laughter and for that many children, really no problems except we did not have enough balls, jump ropes or colored chalk. We will work on that for next time! I am so thankful that our workers that had come with their kids really pulled together and helped because I hadn’t planned for that many and would not have known what to do! Our girl Salma is the best with kids and she pretty much ran the show! Jennifer and Olivia played with the kids and I think both sides loved it! I told a story each morning and invited them to come on Sundays, so the mandaze lady better be ready! I don’t think it is too much to spend $50-$60 to share with 800 children about Jesus, and love on them! I do have to say, I don’t think we will do this every week, we are still trying to recuperate! But it would be a good thing to do it every couple of months. Unless this is what God intends our Sunday School size to be! I’m good with that! (I know, crazy to hear me say something like that!)

Jessica and Derick
Jessica and Olivia singing to the kids
Pretty sure the koolaid was supposed to go in the water jug!
Two amazing helpers!