Email 9/23/08

DEAR FRIENDS, PRAYER WARRIORS AND SUPPORTERS!

As I type, Bob is up at Kicuna, getting construction to completeBuilding I off the ground – Mukama Asiimwe! It's a gray morning, butthere is no rain and the cloud cover is providing blessed shade andprotection from the blazing equatorial sun, so I'm sure all theworkers are thankful. He left in his fleece vest and long pants andtop – maybe hard to imagine since one sees jungles, tropics, and heattogether, but very much like life in Vail in September…well, at leastthe weather!

We have found another angel in Fort Portal – the young woman namedSondra who works in customer service at the MTN office. She and theirtechnician, Rocky, spent a frustrating hour at our house trying towhip our internet service into shape, but they left as ready to changesystems as we are. She is headed to Kampala to return this system andsign us up for the new, and much more costly, system connected tosatellite. But we should be able to send those pictures you have beenasking for and attach word documents to our emails. We hope we canalso open "mapquest.com" and "ESPN" websites, among a few others thatshut down the internet when we click on them.

So…the point of that little explanation is that we will be withoutregular email service for anywhere from 1 to 2 weeks. To be able toget the new system, we have to first return the non-functioningsystem…which renders us non-functioning, as well. We will be checkingemails periodically at internet cafes, but will only be sendingnecessary emails for work or urgent issues. Please forgive ourmomentary communication lapse – we are so blessed by technology andthe open door it gives us to stay in touch - we will miss you allwhile MTN has us separated. As soon as our new system is up andrunning, be looking for a much more exciting update with a photo!

I am trying to send one more update prior to saying goodbye to our dealy bob lodged in my computer, but may not be able to finish in timebefore it leaves for Kampala, or may not be able to send due tointernet problems. I hope this one goes through…

Prayer Requests:
1. Safety during construction. We have already had one truck rollover as it attempted to climb the treacherous hill to Kicuna. No one was hurt, Mukama Asiimwe, and somehow the good citizens of the areawere able to get the truck out of the ditch 30 feet below the road. The driver had his seatbelt on, other men jumped off the back of thetruck, and everyone lived to tell about watching it roll over severaltimes until it came to the bottom of the hill, ending up on its sidelike a big beached whale.
2. Mukama Asiimwe (I hope you are getting that this means Praise be toGod) that every single one of the Christ Aid Academy students who hasattended from the last two terms has returned for Term
3. The teachers say that is unusual.
4. Pray for wisdom and discernment for us as we make decisions on adaily basis which affect the lives of so many people here. We have several changes that are being implemented in CAA (all based on meetings with the staff here and changes they want to make) and are in the midst of parent meetings and home visits continue. Every contact we make, every word we speak, every impression we leave – veryimportant to the progress of the project. Please pray that we are ambassadors for Christ in all we do.
5. Pray that resources are stretched to their limits – that God willprovide every good and perfect gift for the completion of what webegin.

As always, you are daily in our thoughts and prayers. We know that all of you are preoccupied with your own demanding issues – work,family, health – and want you to know how blessed we are by your emails and the time and effort behind them.

Mukama Abahe Omugiisa (May God bless you),
Bob and Linda