Hello from Africa: I am sorry that it has been some days now since I have talked to some of you or emailed. We have a lot of long power outage and then our internet has been out since Friday afternoon which meets no way to contact you. I have to confess to you that I am still very spoiled and dependent on being able to talking to all of you at home. And now that our service has been down I have been lost, going through withdrawal and at times feeling completely alone and out a touch with the outside world since I can not email or talk to all of you back home and it makes for long nights since I still am not sleeping. I have even going into town a couple times now to use the internet there but with the 7 hour time difference that is hard to do because when it is safe for me to go into town most for you are still in the bed.


I know I have whined a lot in most of my emails home about things here and to be honest with you for the most part I truly am BIG whiney baby but that is not the real reason why I tell you all things that happen here. The real reason I tell you all of these things because I just want you to see just gleams of what I see on a daily base here but more importantly then that I want you know just how GOOD GOD HAS BEEN TO YOU and just how blessed you really are in the states. If you could only see what I have seen.

Even though I see all this great poverty around me every single day there is still great beauty all around me too like Bujagali Falls and Lake Victoria “the source of the NILE” but to get to these beautiful breathe taking place you still have to drive though some of the poorest parts of this town. It makes you really see just how blessed we are in the states (yes I know we have poverty in the states but it still does not compare to what these 3rd world counties have to go through).

Here is just one of the things I see on a daily bases I see kids and sometimes even adults digging through trash piles and dumpsters to find food. But even as hard as that is for me to see with your own eyes I truly believe that harder for me is hearing other “Christians” who keep telling me that I will get use to all this poverty around me and to also see them also take advantage of these people. Here is one example of what I mean by this: where I am at the “Baby’s Cottage” is a good 15 to 20 min walk into town or you can take a Bota Bota ( a motorcycle) the driver will ask you for a 1000 shillings which is 50 cents in the states and I pay this willingly. But I have been told that I am over paying and I should never pay more than 500 shillings 25 cents for a ride. Back home I pay what people ask and not even think twice about it and I even leave a tip in most cases so why should I treat these people any different than I do back home. Just like the boat ride I took Monday we paid 50,000 shilling all together which is $25 for a 2 hour ride and in the states I would have paid way more than that per person. And I could give many, many more examples of this. But why would we treat this people any different then the people back home and how can you ever say you will get use to all this poverty around you.

God has shown me and taught me so much since I have been here, I will never look at things through the same rose colored glasses anymore. I came into this look for something totally different than what I wound up here to do and no I have to honestly tell you it has not been easy for me and it probably never will be because I take too much to heart, I let too much get to me and I get every emotional about everything but as Tyson likes to say that is just the way GOD wired me and you know what I would not change that for nothing because that’s what makes me, me. And no this will never be Tunnel Hill but for now this is where GOD has placed me to serve HIM and so I have to learn to except it as home for now until HE is ready to move me again or to bring me back to all of you.

GOD has a reason for sending me here and I just have to keep trusting in HIM because HE will see it through and HE will keep Providing for me and HE will keep Protecting me. I saw that again Sunday on our walk to church. I was a head of the other girls when just as I went to make my next step I saw out of the corner of my eye a snake coming out of the grass about a foot in front of me so I just stopped and told the others to do the same while it when a cross the street just in front of us. It was about 2 feet long and a dark shade of green. So yes I see GOD’S protection all around me each and everyday. I also know that in HIS time HE will provide the perfect place for me to live and HE will put me right where HE wants me to serve HIM.

If I have learned anything so far on this trip to Africa IT IS NOT ABOUT ME BUT IT IS ALL ABOUT GOD, Corinthians 3:18 says “But all of us who are Christians ….. Reflect like mirrors the glory of the Lord.” One of my favorite writers puts it this way “The goal should not be about our own glory. In fact, trying to make life “all about us” pushes happiness further out of reach. Be this is hard to even think about because we live in a “ME CENTERED WORLD”. We are very mistaken if we think the universe revolves around us because it does not BUT IT DOES REVOLE AROUND JESUS CHRIST. He should be our one true focus and nothing else. So I need to raise each and everyday focused on GOD asking what HE would have me to do to serve HIM today.

My first focus should be serving GOD (but that is not always the case because I still can and do get focused on myself) and my second focus should be serving this 59 babies He has placed in my care. We received two new babies today. It was a set of twin girls about 3 weeks old, their mother only got to care for them for a week before she took malaria and died and their father can not take care of them so they are with us.They are so tiny, so fridge but they will truly be loved and cared for here.

In REV. 3:7b-8 it says, "What he (God) opens no one cane shut, and what he (GOD) shuts no one can open. I know your deeds, See, I (GOD) have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I (GOD) know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.

He also tells us in John 15:18-20, "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you: 'No servant is greater than his master. If they persecuted me they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.

So GOD has brought me here for a reason and I may never see or understand the fruits of my labor here but HE does and HE will get the HONOR and GLORY for it. All HE asks is that I serve HIM and that I is my one true goal in life to serve HIM each and everyday of my life.

An one more thing that GOD has showed me since I have been here is sometime HE has to take us from the people and things that we love the most in order to for us to come FACE TO FACE with HIM. HE has to take us out of our comfort zone sometimes to get our full attention and to help us get back on track to what our real focus in life should be HIM.

Thank you again for all the prayers, love and encouragement. I miss each of you more than I ever dreamed possible. Please pray for this dear precious babies that GOD has placed in my life. Continue to pray for housing and sleep. Pray that I will serve HIM with everything that I have in me and that HE will is done in my life.

I truly am BLESSED to have been chosen by GOD to serve HIM here. I will continue to stand in the gap for these dear precious babies until they can get a “FOREVER FAMILY”.