Compassion Project Day

Both of the projects yesterday were a success! We sang songs and played games with the children. We didn't get much time at Agape Baptist, but we were still blessed by the kids. At the Agape Village project, we even got a chance to feed the children their meal. We were there until about 7 pm last night. Then we went to the Masiko's house for dinner. Best meal in town! I don't have much time to post picturs right now, but I will try to do it soon.
Today, we are going to church at Bukererre Baptist, also known as Agape Basptist where the orphanage is. We will probably stay at the orphanage untill later this evening. Thanks again for all the prayers! Sorry, I don't have more to update all of you on. Hope all is well back home!

Great Day!

We went to the park today and played with our sponsored children for several hours. We sang songs, played games, ate lunch, and gave them gifts. It was a great time. We were able to make the children feel very loved and special. We then headed to the Agape Children's Village and spent the rest of our day/evening there. We had a fantastic time with everyone at the orphanage. We made a lot of progress today and found out some important information. It was a very productive visit. We were given a lot of insight into what is going on there and what their specific needs are. All of the leaders and mothers at Agape truly love those children and will do anything for their well-being. It is so sad to see them suffering and in such great need, but their dependency upon the Lord is being greatly expanded. Praise the Lord for His goodness and mercy! We believe He is going to do something big at the orphanage, and we are just willing vessels ready to help in any way that we can. We went out for a Mongolian dinner with the Masiko family today. It was a nice way to end our evening. We are looking forward to tomorrow and all that is in store for us. We will be going to the Compassion project at Agape Baptist and then heading to the project at the Agape Village. Thank you again for the prayers and inquiries about the orphanage. All is going well but we still need much prayer. There is still a lot to be done before we leave and miracles that have yet to happen. God is so good and worthy to be praised!

More pictures to follow...

A Long Journey

Yesterday, we travelled to Busia, and we arrived around 5 pm. We went straight to a school and then three different homes to check on their water projects. We slept in a hotel there, and we sat in on the Water School's conference today. Jacque Masiko did a great job leading the conference, but we had to leave a bit early to go minister to some children at a school. There were many of them, and they gathered very close around us. We did a few songs, a short teaching, and a couple of games with the kids. We enjoyed our short time there. It was great to be able to love on children who have never really been shown much love. We then went back to the hotel where the conference was coming to an end, and we had lunch with them there. We then travelled here to Kampala and got back to our hotel around 7 pm. We learned a lot of great information about this new water project, and the Lord really opened up the door for us to minister at that school. We had a very nice dinner at David and Sarah Masiko's home tonight. We are now back at the hotel ready to get some good sleep after all of our journeying. I am sorry it has taken me so long to update, but the internet was not cooperating while we were in Busia. I will upload some pictures as soon as possible. Thank you for all of the prayers while we were outside of Kampala!

Not Our Will but His Be Done

We went to the Uganda Compassion office yesterday and delivered about five boxes full of Compassion packages. We still have four suitcases full of packages left for your sponsored children at the Agape Village project (143). We will be bringing those to them on Saturday. After stopping by the Compassion office, we came back to the hotel and waited for someone to bring us to the orphanage. Well, needless to say, our driver did not arrive back here until about 7:30 pm. It was too late to go to Agape Village, but we were able to go out to dinner at Nando's with Pastor Tom from Agape Chapel, three of the house mothers from the orphanage, Moses and Joan's real mom, and Daniel Masiko. It was not what we had planned, but we had a great evening! Today, we have already packed up all of our stuff and gone for a nice little stroll. Now, we are just waiting around for Jacque Masiko and the rest of the crew. We should be heading to Busia. It is about three or four hours away. We still have internet access while we are there, but it might be limited. We should be back tomorrow evening. We ask for prayers for safe journeys and for guidance and direction while we are there. Thank you for all your support! We pary and hope all is well with everyone back home.

God's Perfect Plan

All of our plans are finally set in stone. We woke up today with no plans for the next three days. Jacque Masiko took my mom and I for a very quick visit with the lawyer first thing this morning. The court is currently closed for anything besides criminal cases for the next three weeks, but there is still a way. We are trusting God to open the door if it be His will. Please continue in joining us in prayer over this adoption, that the Lord would give us favor and make it clear what we are to do every step of the way. As for the rest of our plans today, we now have a pretty full schedule. We just finished meeting with Jacque, and we were able to come up with plans for today, tomorrow, and Thursday. Right now, we are organizing all of the Compassion packages that all of you sponsors sent with us. Our driver took two of the house moms from the orphanage to go meet with Moses and Joan's real mother to try to get her to give us consent for custody. When he returns with the van, he will take us to Uganda's Compassion headquarters here in Kampala. We are going there to drop off all the packages to be dispersed throughout Uganda and also to make an appearance in order to keep up our good connections and reputation with the people there. We will then head back to the Agape orphanage and stay as long as time permits. We would like to spend some more time with the pastor, the mothers, and of course, the children. Tomorrow, we are going a short distance to Busia with Jacque Masiko. We will be there for both Wednesday and Thruday, and we should return some time Thursday evening. He is going there to help with a water project and has asked us to join him. It is a fairly new program with innovative ideas and great methods, and Jacque would like us to see it in action. We don't know exactly what we will do there or how the Lord is going to use us, but we are excited for the opportunity. It worked out very well, because we had absolutely no plans for Wednesday and Thursday. We ask for prayer for guidance and direction while we are there. We are open to however the Lord may use us. Also, we must seek the Lord and ask that He would reveal to us His plans for the Agape orphanage. We want to help them in any way that we can, but we haven't yet figured out what that might be. We are looking for opportunities for our church bodies to support and help this suffering orphanage. We fear that most of the children will end up back on the streets if a solution is not found. We are going to talk more with Pastor Tom, the head pastor and administrator at Agape, today, since he was unable to share with us his insight and thoughts yesterday. We will also get to see Meron, the girl whom I mentioned in my last post. She was being brought back to the orphanage at some point this morning, and I am excited to see her and talk with her. I hope and pray that we will get to show her the love of Jesus today and minister to her His great healing power. Our goal is to bring the freedom of Christ to these children. He is the only One who can truly set them free and give them real life. Thank you all once again for the prayers! We would not be able to accomplish nearly half of what we have been if it wasn't for all of your support. We can feel your love even over here. Thank you for following our where abouts and for keeping us in prayer continually. I will try to post more pictures tonight, but I could not get the videos to work. Love to all of you back home!

Agape Village

We spent the day and evening at the Agape Village. We ate lunch with some of the mothers and children. Most of the kids were in school, but we were able to hang out with a few until the rest returned back from school. My mom and Debbie had a great time with the house moms as well! They were able to spend a little over two hours training them up in the ways of the Lord. They started out by giving each of the five mothers a large bag full of gifts, and they all went crazy over them. They started dancing around and rejoicing and praising the Lord. They were so grateful for even the little things that they received in their bags.

They said that the rest of their time with the five women went extremely well. They said it was an eye-opening experience, and they learned a lot about the mothers and their struggles. They did their best to teach them how to be good parents and raise their children up in the ways of the Lord. Pastor Tom had to leave the Village early this morning beacause of an emergency. One of the orphan girls went missing last July, and Pastor Tom got a call this morning informing him that she had been sighted. She was found at a bar with a Muslim head dress on, and we are told a guy had been "using her". They brought her back and are working on arresting the man. Her name is Meron, and her sponsors are the Smith family, who go to Calvary Chapel Lake Arrowhead. She is about 15 or 16 years old. Praise the Lord for bringing this little girl home! Please pray that the Lord will bring a healing and restoration to Meron's heart and mind. I can't even begin to imagine what she has been through this last year. Joel and Aaron ended up spending a good amount of the day with Pastor Robert, the old pastor of Agape Chapel. He and his family now live in a remodeled chicken coup at the orphanage, because he has nowhere else to go. We spent the remainder of the night just playing and singing with all of the children. We still have many facts to be found out, especially about the orphanage closing down. We had dinner at Nando's, which is about as close to American food as we will get until we leave. We don't really have any plans for tomorrow, besides breakfast at 8. We are just waiting to see where the Lord is going to guide us tomorrow. We have no plans of our own; every step is in His hands.

At last I write..

Hello to all! Our flight went very smoothly on Saturday night. We arrived here in Uganda Sunday morning at 7:30 am Uganda time. It took over two hours to get out of the airport! Due to the recent terrorist activity, customs took a lot longer than usual. They had to check all 22 of our bags for bombs and such, but all they saw was gifts for many of your Compassion children. (Yes, all of our luggage arrived here undamaged, and none of your Compassion packages were lost). We went straight to Agape Chapel from the airport. We arrived to church a little late, but it was a great service. Pastor Michael and the other people there were very happy to see us. We stayed for a little while after church and then headed straight to our hotel. There we checked in, unloaded our many bags, and ate lunch with Peter Habyarimana. We were able to shower and/or nap for a little while before leaving for the Agape Village Orpanage. Joel was not feeling very well on Saturday or Sunday, so he stayed back last night and slept while we went off to the orphange. We were welcomed by cheers of joy and an immediate outbreak of song. It was pouring rain and it was very dark out, but that didn't stop the children from showing us how excited they were to see us. They set up a large lamp in the sanctuary and invited us in to greet us more. They had been waiting for us since 2 pm, and we didn't arrive there until about 7! We couldn't stay there long, but we were just glad to get to see them briefly.

Today: We got up at about 7:30 am this morning, got ready, and ate breakfast. We had several errands to run before heading off to the orphanage again. One of the things we had to do was meet with Jacque's lawyer friend in regards to the Balli family adoption. It sounded very promising! The lawyer's name is John, and he used to be sponsored by a Compassion sponsor. He said that he thinks the Lord will give us favor with getting custody. We are still moving forward and trusting the Lord to guide our every step. We believe God will close the door if it is not His will. For now, we are working on getting the kids passports and an appointment with court to grant us custody. We are on our way to the Agape Village right now. I did not have internet access before just a little while ago, but I should be able to regularly update from this point on. My mom, Sandi Balli, and Debbie Baker will be spending several hours meeting with and discipling the six mothers at Agape Village today. Joel Roggenback and Aaron Cronen will be spending some time with Pastor Tom, the pastor here at Agape Chapel. Besides that, we have no plans. The kids here get out of school at 5 pm. I hope to get to play some soccer with them later! I will try to post pictures and videos tonight.

Thank you all for your prayers once again!

Safe in London

The four of us arrived in London at about 3:30 pm London time, 7:30 am California time. Our flight went very well, and we were all able to get a good amount of sleep on the plane. We met up with Aaron Cronen very shortly after landing. We will be in London for about four more hours before continuing on to Entebbe. We are most certainly antipating our arrival to Uganda and are extremely grateful for how smoothly our travels are going so far. We can feel all your prayers and cannot thank you enough! We should be arriving in Uganda around 8 am their time. (Uganda is ten hours ahead of California and 8 hours ahead of Minnesota). Jacque Masiko will be picking us up at the airport and taking us straight to his church, Agape Baptist. I don't know if I will have a chance to update the blog when we arrive, but I will get back on here as soon as possible. Feel free to comment on here if you need to get ahold of any of the team members, or if you just want to send some encouragement our way. Thank you again!!

Trip Verse

“The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me,
Because the LORD has anointed Me
To preach good tidings to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives,
And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD,
And the day of vengeance of our God;
To comfort all who mourn,
To console those who mourn in Zion,
To give them beauty for ashes,
The oil of joy for mourning,
The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;
That they may be called trees of righteousness,
The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.”

~Isaiah 61:1-3