EMI… How to describe them?

Last night was the final presentation from Engineering Ministries International (EMI). With over 1000 hours for work over the last 10 day, I am overwhelmed. With many more hours of work back at home, planning what to bring, packing for a strange land in Africa, thinking the project through… giving up two weeks of earned vacation time. These 8 team members truly gave of themselves. To top it off as we thanked them from the bottom of our hearts and tried to explain what a blessing they were to Show Mercy, they said “stop, it was a blessing to be privileged to be part of something so wonderful”. They were thanking us! This is how God works for the better good in those who love Him and are willing to trust Him and follow Him.

The ideas this team came up with, the drawings, the systems for the water, the waste water, the electrical options, placement of the buildings, what each building would look like, the shape of and the ventilation of each building, the use of the unbuildable acreage, how would it feel as you approach the front “village” area, the view from an observation deck at the top of the water tower, how the children would be living in a family environment, where they would eat, play, pray, where and how the long and short term missionaries would live, the list can go on and on. This team had a calling to serve and serve they did.

The best part of this experience was seeing these people work on this project like I have never seen people work before. They all work in the private sector of business, but this was different. It was service; the fire I saw is not the common but the exceptional. I was blessed to be part of something great.

Michael, Martin, Sam, David, Megan, Sarah, Robert, and Mariette job well done!

After the presentation the two local gals who took care of the EMI team needs, like all the cooking, cleaning, laundry, shopping; prepared a very traditional African feast. When there is a wedding, graduation, big holiday, they make this dinner. They worked all day and were so proud as they served it. One more demonstration of how these people served us, to serve God. Thank you Sheila and Betty. By the way, they were so cute doing this, I will never forget it.

What a day and what a finish to our trip.

See you all soon, and thanks for reading my blogs.

May God bless each and every one of you who prayed us through this journey.

Feed the Children

It was Palm Sunday, we had been to church, and it had been a great service. During the time of the service several of the women were cooking, cooking up a storm. They were on a mission to feed some 80 children from the village. These are the kids that don’t get three meals a day, maybe not even one meal each day. I am sure that some don’t eat anything some days. When I think of that, it breaks my heart. I know I don’t like to miss a meal.

Today was a day that these kids would eat, and eat, and eat. Drink a soda, and not even care what flavor they got.

When the children had been gathered in the yard of a neighbor’s house, they waited… patiently. Quietly they sat, with a look on their faces not knowing what to expect, oh they knew they were going to eat, but when, and how long were they going to wait.

You could smell the rice, the beans, the cabbage, the chicken… but there they sat. As the women finished preparing the food, three of the older children from Hope Children’s Home were ready to share God’s word. One by one they gave a lesson from the Bible. The Ten Commandments, Jonah and the Whale, and the Good New of Jesus Christ. They all did very well presenting the Word of God. I was glad to see them teach.

In this little court yard filled with kids, the word was given to get in line to be fed. Controlled mayhem would be a good description. They were hunger, but trying to be polite, and with a rush, they were in a line, chest to back and not an inch in between. It was fun to see; they were going to be fed. The older Hope children jumped in and started to serve, I liked to see them learning to help other in need.

As they started to eat you could see the tension unwind, their bellies were filling up. They were starting to be satisfied. They were getting full. Some laid down as they finished. Some brought their bowls back to be washed and used again for the ones at the end of the line. There was a calm that came over all the children.

When they were all done, the children went home and others helped clean up, put the borrowed benches away, haul the biggest pots you have ever seen back the Hope’s Kitchen and sweep up the yard. I was blessed to watch children helping children, Show Mercy supply the food and drink, and know they receive the Word of God.

Hello from Uganda... again

Hello from Uganda, once again.

For those of you who might not know, I am here without my wonderful wife Alisa. So that means you will have to put up with my writing.

Did you know, I love being here. It is warm yet cool, not too hot; the people are friendly, they love seeing you and meeting you. Everyone I have met has been warm and welcoming. As I said, I love being here.
We are here to work with a design team from the US and the UK. The team members include architects, engineers both civil, structural, water, and a survey team. They are all wonderful people who are willing to take their 2 week vacation and spend it here working long 14 hr day. God has blessed Show Mercy with a gracious gift of these people.
The first day was to see the land we call the “Field of Dreams”, to hear the vision of our Dreams, what God has asked us to do.

The next day was to see the largest children’s facility called Watoto. Wow is it big. Currently there are over 10,000 kids have been rescued and are off the streets and are living there.
The Third day was to meet with the Architects and designers to begin hone in on actual design of each building. Mike and Doug were at that meeting. The other part of the team was the survey guys. I went with them. We stopped at Hope Children’s home to drop off the Marietta, the team leader’s wife.
NOW the FUN started. As we drove up, the kids had just started their break in school, they were in the yard playing, as we got out of the van, they realized it was us… and we were mobbed by the most wonderful welcome I have ever received. 200 children (and the adults) all wanted to hug us and say Welcome, thank you for coming to see us. I truly had not seen such a welcoming and such love for us. They were disappointed that Alisa was not there with me, but I told them we were planning a return with her. We were only there to drop off Marietta, but I know that it was going to be impossible not to stay for less than an hour. Well, we left to go the Field of Dreams to start the survey. We took two of the older boys Bosco and Vincent, and one of the girls Ruth with us to help. Their job was to gather ripened sugarcane to bring back to all the other kids. We got the majority of the building site survey done. Hiking up and down that hill all day, we were all beat, dirty, and tired. On the way home we stopped for a soda, and the location we stopped at was near a high school that one of our older kid attends. This is Peter Painter’s school and he was outside and saw us. We were blessed to have a minute to visit him! It was a simply gift from God. The day ended with a simple dinner at our hotel. As I think back on the day, I know that God as called us to this beautiful and simple land. I love being here.