kNOw More Orphans

This weekend I had the privaledge of attending the kNOw More Orphans conference at Hunter Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, AL. It was a BLESSING!!! It was wonderful to be surrounded by people that wanted the same thing, NO MORE ORPHANS. It was wonderful to be in the midst of other organizations that were working toward this goal. It was wonderful to see so many people working in Uganda, and to see how dear the country and its people were to all of us. It was wonderful to talk with these people and talk about our successes and trials and to share our burdens.

It was a busy weekend, but a blessed weekend.

Thank you to everyone who stopped by our table and asked questions and took information. If you have any other questions please post them in the comments or send us an email at olwazzi@yahoo.com.

Thanks again and check back tomorrow for prayer updates.

Tuesday Prayer Time and Update on the Birthing Center

Kamengo has been a very busy place this week!!!! Praise God for all of the wonderful things that are happening!!! Thanks to Holly, Ruth and Andrea for all of your hard work. Thanks to Godfrey for all of the organizing and managing.

The ladies are also learning new embroidery stitches to help in their craft making.




The ladies have a new sewing machine to help them make crafts and clothes and so many other things!



Building materials were delivered for the new birthing center.





The old building was torn down.




The foundation has been dug and cement poured!!



Please join us in prayers of praise and thanksgiving!!! Please pray that the birthing center would be completed quickly. Pray for Mama Florence as she works out of her house during this time. Pray for protection and travel mercies as Holly, Ruth and Andrea get ready to return home. Pray for other upcoming projects.

Thanks!!

Birthing Center Update

I want to say a big thank you to 3 wonderful women who have made Mama Florence's birthing center a reality. Thank you Holly, Andrea, and Ruth!!!!

As you can see, Mama Florence is pretty excited too.

Materials have arrived and construction has begun. Rainy season has also begun. Please pray that the rain doesn't delay construction too much.

More updates and pictures to come as I get them.

Tuesday Prayer Time

Thank you for praying with us. Today's prayer focus is on the new Birthing Center. Please pray that we will be able to begin construction this weekend as planned. Please pray for blessings upon the building, Mama Florence, all of the mothers and children that will be using the center, and all of the people that donated and worked to see it built.

EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT!!!!!!!

Mama Florence is getting a new birthing center!!!!





I want to start out by saying THANK YOU!!!!! to Keltie McDonald!!!

While I was in Uganda in December, Keltie contacted me about helping Kamengo. We discussed the needs of the village and the project she felt drawn to was a new birthing center for Mama Florence. So she got together with some of her friends and started raising money. They raised $3000 and 3 of the ladies are on their way to Uganda as we speak to visit Kamengo and see a dream being built.

The new building will be large enough to hold 2 to 3 beds and a crib. It will have new beds and new equipment for Mama Florence!! It will provide a safer place for the mothers of Kamengo to give birth to the future of Kamengo.

We will be posting construction updates as we get them.

Mama Florence

Mama Florence is another one of the amazing people in Kamengo-ffunvu.
She is the village midwife.
She is in her 70s.
She takes care of her 3 grandchildren.
She delivers 3-5 babies a week.
She takes patients from surrounding villages too.
She does not get paid most of the time.
If there are complications, she pays for the mothers to go to Kampala to the hospital herself.
That means that a woman in labor must ride on the back of a motorcycle for about 45 minutes to get to a hospital.
She does it from the clinic she has behind her house. That is where she is standing.
It is about 10 feet by 10 feet.
It has a tin roof.
A hospital bed.
And Mama Florence.
An AMAZING woman.

God With Us

I am hoping to introduce you to some of the people of Kamengo-ffunvu. I wish I had more time in December to spend getting to know them. I wish I knew more Luganda, so that I could talk with them without having to have an interpreter. I am forever grateful for getting to know the people that I did and look forward to getting to know more of them in the future.

While I was in Kamengo in December, we went for a walk through the village. Kamengo covers a large area and there are a lot of walking trails going this way and that. I would get hopelessly lost if I had to find my way. Something about Uganda messes with my sense of direction. We were walking through a part of the village that Godfrey was even unfamiliar with when we came upon this man and his family. We stopped so we could talk. There was lots of talking going on around me as we walked around their house. This family was lucky enough to have a cow, some goats, a pig, and chickens. This is not the norm for Kamengo. This family worked HARD. We went to look at his chicken house and Godfrey noticed they were not eating the correct feed. After asking several questions we found out that he had run out of feed. The store on the main road was also out of the correct feed. The closest place to get it was in Kampala and the price was much more than in Kamengo. So we bartered. Olwazzi gave him the money to buy a bag of feed and he will give us chickens when we get our chicken house built. We are also going to use him for advice on other agricultural projects. He used compost on his garden and it looked so nice.

I did not have money with me so we made arrangements to meet back at the car, about a mile back up the hill. We started to leave and I asked him what his name was. His name is Emmanuel. I asked Godfrey if he knew what the name Emmanuel meant. He did not and I told him that it means God with us. We walked around the village for another hour or so and when we got back to where the car was parked, there was Emmanuel waiting on us patiently. He had changed into his good shirt and was looking very handsome, so I took another picture of him.

The people of Kamengo are hard working. They desire to make a better life for themselves and their children. They just need a little help.



Please join us for prayer time tonight at 10:00pm CST. Please pray for upcoming projects, Pastor David, Godfrey and Tina Lwanga, Sunday School and Emmanuel and his family. Please pray that we will assess needs and meet them in the best way possible. Pray that God be glorified in all that we do.

Thank you.