Day 23

I am writing this on our last night in Uganda. At 5 am tomorrow morning we will be up and leaving for Entebbe and our return BA flight to Heathrow and onwards to Belfast. What can I say except that the last 3 weeks have been an incredible experience of knowing the Lords provision as we have delivered our programmes in schools, churches and community groups around Kampala. The need is enormous and we have been blessed as we have done just a little for a few people to make things a bit better.

Today we dropped off pineapples at Hands for Hope with Joe Cummiskey, Wenford and Andrew returned later to distribute some clothes and other gifts as the children were leaving nursery.

The rest of the team headed back to Airfield View Primary School to deliver programmes at Mary's school (see yesterdays Blog). Hannah led the Kids Programme while Dickie led the I'm Special; You're Special programme. We were amazed at the knowledge of the children around spiritual issues and their awareness of sexuality and relationships issues.

Mary asked Dickie and Janice to visit an 11 year old who was unable to sit up. Sadly the little girl although bright and alert had severe cerebral palsy from almost certainly a cerebral haemorrhage that occurred during her premature birth the result of a botched abortion. The mother was advised around simple measures to reduce the likelihood of her arms and legs developing contractures. Mary said she would bring cushions to the bare little one room home so that the little girl could be nursed at least in a way that she could interact a little bit better with her family. Mary also said she would bring some plastic sheets so that her incontinence could be better managed. This was the second child with severe cerebral palsy that we had come across durng the trip and you wonder how many other children with cerebral palsy are in little houses across Africa being managed by their families in very primitive conditions with none of the assistance that is so necessary and that we are so used to in our own country.

We were able to distribute a lot of mercy items in the local community around the school and shared a wonderful time of fellowship with Mary. She hopes to contact Bernard at Fields of Life around the possibility of becoming a Fields of Life Associate.

It has been a wonderful couple of weeks. We have had a good team of people working with us and have met some very special Ugandans. I don't think it will be our last time in this beautiful country.

The Barr family are looking forward to seeing Charlene again.

Day 19

Day 19 began early but in relaxed mood as we made our way to Makerere Full Gospel Church for 9am service. There we received the customary warm Ugandan welcome and joined with over 800 others in an uplifting lively and challenging worship service. The choir was all you would expect from an African choir and the Pastor gave a truly inspiring address on qualities required from a true Christian .The second of the 3 services for the morning lasted until 11am and as we left the Church was filling again and the 3rd service was beginning.

We travelled for about 2 hours by bus to District of Jinja to the area where the river Nile flows out of Lake Victoria. This is an unbelievably beautiful area and we had a light lunch on a balcony overlooking the River Nile and Lake Victoria.

We then spent the next 3 hours travelling round the Jinja rural area in our mini bus giving out teddies, blankets, clothes, sweets to people who are unbelievably poor but seem so grateful and content with life. It was very rewarding to see the hard work of folk back home in making blankets and teddies reaching such needy and deserving recipients.

Until Tomorrow. Wendy and Sarah.