ekubo ministries.

Hi everyone!

We just arrived in Jinja where we will spend the rest of the time here. We have been in Kampala for the past few days working with George and Christy Magera and the rest of the staff at Ekubo Ministries. They are some of the most amazing people I have ever met, and I pray that I will be blessed to work with them again. Ekubo has a school for the children in the village of Bombo, and in addition to giving the kids an education, they also provide two meals a day and clean water for each of them. There is a medical clinic and a church on the property as well, and they are in the process of building a baby home, also. We have been playing with the kids, helping out in their classrooms, and assisting in the clinic. Though the Mageras have come a long way in building their ministry, they have many needs so that they can continue to provide and care for these children. Please pray that God will continue to provide for these needs, which include money to put a roof on the bigger building that will be their new medical clinic, money to complete the baby home, funds for another well so that more people from nearby villages can have access to clean water, and transportation so that their staff can travel to and from the school safely (right now they are walking two hours each way, sometimes in the dark, on roads that are unlit and are quite dangerous).

Yesterday was a difficult day for us. We joined Christy and George and went into a remote village called Mazzi in the middle of the jungle. We saw poverty at its worst. In addition, some of the people there practice witchcraft, and you could tell who visited the witch doctor recently because they wore beads around their waists that are supposed to keep the evil spirits away. We prayed over a lot of the children and continued to tell them that Jesus loves them in our broken Lugandan. Not many of the people in Mazzi speak English and a lot of them had never seen a white person before we arrived. The kids were rubbing their faces on our arms, smelling our skin, and feeling our fingernails because they didn't know if we would feel as different as we look. It was unreal. But it is amazing how much you can connect with a person even with a language barrier. I made a little friend named Elizabeth who was about four years old - she stayed by my side the whole time, and she cried when we had to leave. It broke my heart! Our main reason for going to Mazzi was to attend a celebration for the unsealing of the first and only well that was recently built there. A little boy who was visiting George and Christy saw this need, went back home to the States, and raised the $8,000 needed for a bore-hole to be built. So we had the honor of being there when they unsealed it, and the community of Mazzi had a huge celebration! There is a lot of disease there because of the lack of clean water, so hopefully this well will cut down on the amount of waterborne illness. It was so exciting that we got to be a part of this!

Right now, I am sitting at a table at a cafe that overlooks the Nile, and I am drinking some kind of juice that is the very best thing I have ever tasted. It is beautiful here. We are resting this afternoon, and then tomorrow we are heading to another ministry called Pillars of Hope. The Internet is spotty in Uganda, so I don't know if I will have another chance to write an update, but I will try! Keep the team in your prayers!

And can someone give my love to my sweet baby Claire? :)