On June 8, with help from Melynda Gulley and Patty Lou Moore, I left San Antonio for Kampala, Uganda. I was accompanying Julius Mpagi on his trip home from a year’s study at St. Philip’s College, where he earned a certificate of completion in home building. Julius lived with Frances and me during his stay and learned a great deal from his school and from many members of Christ Church. He is very grateful for all the help he received from everyone involved.

When I arrived in Kampala on the morning of June 10, I discovered I was staying at the same place as the Fillyaw family. I had breakfast with them each day and dinner on the night before their day of departure. All in all we had about five days together which was very enjoyable. I gave them the items all of you sent as well as your messages. They seem to be doing well, and seem to be very happy and adjusted to their life as missionaries. The boys are adapting well and seem to be doing well with their education.

Most of my time was spent being with the children at Kiwanga and Rakai Orphanages. All of these children have been orphaned by AIDS and are being provided their food, shelter, and clothing as well as education through their equivalent of high school. For those who qualify college level training is also provided. I spent a good deal of time scouting building sites for a secondary school near the Kiwanga Orphanage. I also looked into the possibility of renting facilities for the school. More work will need to be done in the future to finalize plans.

There are eleven or twelve nursery age babies crowded into two tiny rooms. Adjacent to the nursery is a much larger room occupied by some of the older boys who serve as cooks. I bought materials and, with Julius’ help, finished out an existing area to accommodate the cooks. Half of the babies were moved into the former cooks’ quarters, and the wall between the two small rooms was demolished to give twice as much room to the other half. Painting and additional finish work is being done to provide much airier, healthier rooms for the nursery.

I continued to work with the kids with the computers purchased last year. Two had to be taken in for maintenance. I also took my five-year-old laptop computer for the use of the Orphanage Director. It will work very well for her even though it is older and slower – too slow for the Internet. If any of you have older unused or seldom used laptops, please consider sending them with us to Uganda where they will be greatly utilized and appreciated. We will be going back in October, and we should be able to transport them then. Shipping takes a very long time, and the odds of anything of value actually getting to the Orphanage are not good.

One of the Ugandan social workers also sent a request for VCR tapes of children’s cartoons to help the little ones learn English. All of the schools are conducted in English, but the children speak only Ugandan until they start the first grade. The tapes would provide an opportunity to jumpstart these kids in English. I am sure that all of us with older children and grandchildren have a number of these tapes gathering dust. We will even take "Barney" tapes as a last resort.

I spent some time collecting materials to construct a shower for the Kiwanga Director, who lives on the premises. It turned out quite well with a black plastic barrel to sit in the sun all day, providing hot showers in the evening. I have accumulated materials for another at the Rakai Orphanage as well as for one for the Fillyaws. Running water is quite rare in Uganda except in the very central part of the cities. I also purchased additional screen wire to try to mosquito proof the nursery, clinic and sleeping areas at both Kiwanga and Rakai. We had accomplished most of this when I was there last summer, but repairs need to be done to make sure the job is complete. Julius sent a message last week that most of the screens have now been installed or replaced.

Frances and I are looking forward to returning to Uganda in October. She has a project to help the people there create tapestries, and I will continue with the school project. Many other maintenance projects are needed as well. We would love to have anyone interested to come with next summer or us in October. We always welcome any financial support to help defray costs for the participants and to help with the various project costs. We already have received a great deal of interest in next year’s trip, so anyone interested should get in touch with us soon.

It is really hard to communicate to everyone what a great experience the mission work provides. It is very fulfilling to spread God’s word and work to these children who have such tremendous needs. They are very appreciative, but the participants from the church are each blessed many times over from our experiences of the heart. Thank all of you for your continued support for these projects.