Flexibility

When I come to Uganda, I have learned you must be flexible.  No matter how much you plan, it will NEVER go as planned.  They do not run on a schedule and you can't just run down to Home Depot when you need something.  After yesterday's problems with power problems for our tools, I asked for a generator for today.  When we arrived, to my surprise, we had a generator.  But, it would not run for very long.  So, being the Boy's Scouts we are, we improvised, and were soon back in business.  That was until we ran out of wood.  I must take the blame, I ordered the wood back in March.  Since we are having to change the original plans, we are using more wood that I had planned for.  About 3 o'clock, we ran out and am hoping to have more wood tomorrow.  Pray with us, that the wood will come on Saturday, so we can continue our building.

However, as you can see, we did begin shelving the books.  This has been a dream of mine since 2007.  It is so exciting to see this coming together.  The team is doing a wonderful job getting everything in it's proper place.  (I know some of you thought we were only coming for a vacation).  Once we got the books on the shelves, the children could not wait to come in and start looking at the books.  We had to run them out after a while, because they were taking out so many books and putting them in the wrong place.  On Monday, we will be instructing them in the proper procedures to looking and checking out the books.  We finally gave them some books we weren't shelving yet, and as you can see, the children were eager to begin reading.  When we get finished, this is going to be an awesome library, and the children and staff will be able to enhance their minds in so many ways.  Thank you to all who have helped make this happen.

Every evening, I am asking someone to write for the blog.  Tonight Jill and Kathie wrote:

We‘ve had a most productive day! We shelved the first readers and proceeded to do the rest of them AND we finished shelving all the fiction books! At one point the children were out in the courtyard practicing their music. Suddenly there was one curious child standing at the door. Mary offered him a book to read and he took it without hesitation. Then a second child came in and was also offered a book to read. Before we knew it there were many children coming in for a book. Although they were all reading copies of the same book, they sat on the steps devouring every word in the wonderful pages that these hard covers contained. It was quite a sight to see! Their music teacher had to come looking for them. He found some of them helping us sort books, others were transporting boxes of books into the library, and some were being read to by J.W.! Just yesterday a young girl said to Pat Sligh and I, “ Thank you for bringing all these books and opening up our minds”. These children, the staff, and their guardians are ever so grateful. What the body of Christ is doing here this week is an awesome wonder. This gift will allow them to expand their minds and they will also travel to many places and learn many things. It is truly a beautiful thing to see.  As a side note, they have a mural painted on the side of one of their buildings. On this mural is Jesus surrounded by several children. The interesting part is that many cultures will color Jesus in the color of their ethnicity. A white Jesus for white people, a brown Jesus for Hispanics, etc.  Their Jesus is white! I believe that this is because they see Jesus working through the “muzungus” that come to serve. Praise God!

In His service,

Jill Aguayo

 

            Denise, It was great to hear from you.   Your idea is inspired.  Today one of the teachers asked me to tell her about our children.  We attempted to look at the Small Steps’ web site but were unsuccessful.  I will take lots of pictures and bring home as much information as possible.   More later, Kathie

We do enjoy your comments.  Vicki, Mary and Marc say to keep up the good work on commenting.  They are proud of you.  It is late, and the slave driver needs his rest.  Again, I say thank you for your prayers.