wandegeya

wandegeya.
an area we often drive through here and joke about as a team that this is where the guys do their drive-thru shopping. many vendors will come up to the windows and try and sell you their wares. we've bought locks for our gates there, sunglasses, fresh produce, kids' toys as well as getting more airtime cards for our phones.
but there are also other people coming up to our window at wandegeya.
people in wheelchairs, homeless people and children.
begging for money.

Truly he taught us to love one another,
His law is love and His gospel is peace.

today we were stopped at the main intersection in wandegeya when 3 little children ran up to our car.
my heart broke.
i asked one little boy what his name was.
araba, he said.
one of the little girls looked to be only just older than noah.
they spotted our water bottle and started miming the drinking motion.
i handed it over, grateful to be able to give something tangible but wishing i had three of them.
the light turned green and we started to move.

Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother,
and in His name all oppression shall cease.

noah says, i hope there's a restaurant at the store where we're going because i'm starving.

how do i reconcile the huge gap between my lifestyle and those begging, starving, thirsty children?

Christ is the Lord! Then ever, ever praise we,
His power and glory ever more proclaim!

i can't give to everyone and my giving isn't necessarily going to be the best way to help in some cases.
but what i do have, i'll give. and where i can, i'll proclaim the power and glory of Christ.

come quickly, Lord Jesus.

Visa's in Jinja

As a last ditch effort to save time and money, we drove the 80km (about 2 hours of driving on African roads) to a town called Jinja, located at the source of the Nile River.
We had heard that the immigration office was considerably smaller, less busy and much more likely to grant a visa extension with less hassle.
When we arrived we found out that we needed photocopies of our passports and current visa's. So Jamie went to get photocopies while I stayed with the boys. He then returned to find out that he needed $50 USD per visa (note, this was not a bribe, but the fee that we'd have had to have paid at the border and what we paid originally at the airport.) and so he left again to get the money. I don't think either of us were too bothered as it seemed extremely likely that we'd be leaving the immigration office with new visa's in our passports.
When Jamie returned with the money, our passports were all issued new 90 day visa's!
Thank you so much for praying!
We continue to be blessed and amazed at all the feedback we have received from you and the obvious results of your prayers.
We praise God for you and for our new visa's.

October Prayer Letter