Sweet baby Camille!

Welcome Baby Camille!

Sweet baby Camille Cox was born yesterday, November 17th, somewhere around 3pm. Even though she was a little early, both mom and baby are doing great and looking good!

She weighs 4lbs 14oz, and was 18+ inches long.

Congratulations, Laura and Nick!
Camille, you could not have been born to a happier family to have finally you here!
~~~~~~~

Since Camille will have to stay in the NICU for a little while, most of her fans aren't able to see her just yet. While that is a bummer, we all crowded in Laura's room and hung out for a while. Laura looks great, was still very much herself, and had a lot of patience in waiting to see her sweet daughter. Nick had taken some pictures of Camille, and was able to go visit her and give us updates. I may be a little biased, but in my opinion she's the prettiest newborn I've seen! John and I are so excited to get to officially meet our little neice. I have a feeling it'll be quite hard not to spoil this one ;-)

By the way, if you're gonna have a baby, REX is the place to go! The rooms are so large, clean, newly remodled and very modern, and they have flat screen tvs and dvd players(in case you have to stay a little while). They have taken such good care of Laura and Camille so far, and for that we are all grateful. Just a little tip in case you're looking!

Praise the Lord!

As a huge answer to prayer, I(Aya) got a job today with the Baptist State Convention! Thanks to my dear friend Carly, who also started there about a month ago, I found out about the available position and just found out today that I got it!

The Lord has been so faithful throughout this whole process, and I've been reminded the whole time that He is the ultimate Provider whether I had a job or not. I have definitely learned so much about truly trusting in God's plans rather than my own, and learning how to really surrender my worries and just pray for my heart's alignment with Christ's. Even though it's been a hard four weeks, it's also been a very sweet time growing in my relationship with Christ.

God has also blessed me with such a kind and loving husband, who has been such an encouragement and huge supporter during my job search. There were a lot of days for me filled with frustration and tears, but John was so encouraging and sweet, and never once made me feel that my joblessness was a burden or annoyance. God has been so gracious!

So, thank you, everyone who has encouraged us and prayed for us. We really appreciate it so much, and I couldn't wait to share the good news with you!

Job Search

Attention all friends, I, Aya McNeill, need a job.

If you know of any or have any tips, please pass them along!
It would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
love, Aya

Wedding Pictures Are Up!

Finally...our photographer has uploaded some pictures of the wedding onto her website!

cknightphotography.com
click "enter"
then click on the "client proofs" tab
you'll see the "Haddock/McNeill" wedding tab
Click and enjoy!

Virginina vacation pt 1

John and I just got back yesterday from a great vacation to Virginia.
We started off on the coast in Norfolk visiting John's friend, Aaron, who
lives there now working with the Navy. It is so beautiful all around that
area. We ventured to Yorktown from there the next morning. Aaron had to be
up early for work, so John and I were in Yorktown by 7am, so we got to
tour around without any other people around. It was so beautiful and peaceful.These are two pictures of the battlefield in Yorktown.
These are two of the only two pictures that John was able to take
before our camera's battery died.

We headed to Williamsburg after that. We checked into our hotel
(thanks to the great coupons we got at the VA border) and then
headed to Colonial WB for the rest of the afternoon. Here are a
few pics of our afternoon there.



We thought this little guy was pretty humorous. Just some kid
walking around in some colonial gettup. Pretty funny.

We went to Water Country USA the next day, but we didn't bring our
camera along for that. We had a blast there! We got there as soon as it
opened, so we beat the lines for each ride until about 11:30. I think we
made a record of going to all the major rides within the 1st hour. It was
great! Oh, and a little tip, if you are planning to go there or Busch Gardens,
go to any Williamsburg McDonald's and they have some sweet coupons for
$$ off the really expensive rates.

That's all for now. I'll post more pics later.

Vacation time!

So...good news to report: John got a job with UNC in Chapel Hill. Praise the Lord! He'll start on August 24th, so before that, we are going to enjoy a week crusin' the road! Right now, our destination is Williamsburg, VA, however we'll see where the road takes us!

This weekend my little sister, Meredith, becomes a new freshman at NC State. Mom and Dad are coming to move her in on Saturday, and John and I are both really excited that she'll be here.
I wanted to post a few pictures of the precious kids that I take care of every week, Jack and Louisa Weinard. I love this family dearly, however I'll be leaving that job in a few weeks since Ashley(their mother) is now working from home(which I'm so glad for them). But, these two kiddos are so precious, and I've loved every minute that I've ever spent with them. So, here are a few glimpses of the cute/funny things that I have had the joy of experiencing for the past year.


Jack playing with his sister's dress up doll


little Lou changing Baby Bo's diaper

they finished swimming in their little pool, and wanted to dry off. so they laid out!

cute little Lousia putting a little Swimmer over her clothes, and only using one leg hole



Well..that's it for now.

The Past 2 months...

It's hard to believe that it's already been two months since John and I got married. These months have been filled with some tough adjustments to marriage, but overall we have seen how good the Lord is to us, and we've seen how much He's grown us and has been changing our new marriage even just within this last month. Praise the Lord!
Our family has been so encouraging and such a blessing to us in so many ways, too. As I write this, John's sweet and lovely mother, Ms. Patrice McNeill, is experimenting in our kitchen making some delicious strawberry/watermelon smoothies. But before that, she made us a delicious dinner and dessert, and we are stuffed to the max! She has been so sweet and loving towards us, and we have been so blessed by her.
Here are a few pictures to summarize a little of what we've been up to lately:

john and aya at the Durham Bulls game July 3rd

The Providence Softball team won the Championship!



The McNeill and Cox families at the Bulls game

Putt putt in raleigh with my sisters!



















Family beach weekend in Nags Head, NC, July 25th. This picture is of us jumping off the slope of the dunes at Jockey's Ridge.


Well, I guess that's about it for right now.
Thanks for reading!
~Aya McNeill

Hello all,If you are getting this email, it is because I have assumed that you are interested in receiving emails about my journey in Uganda. If I was wrong and you could careless, email me and I will take you off thelist. As of right now it is noon here and 5am NC time. It is my second dayin Uganda and I am so grateful to be here. I miss all of you,especially Aya, but I am very thankful that I get the opportunity toserve Uganda. Everywhere the staff goes we get called "Mazungu" whichmeans white person. It is really cute to see the little children stopand yell out "hello Mazungu." We are in the outskirts of town nearKampala so we get to experience village life which is much better thancity life (mainly because of traffic and crowds of people).The food is incredible here. Some things are different in taste anddo not look appealing but they are extremely good. I haven't hadanything out of the ordinary. As far as expenses go, one Americandollar equals 1600 shillings so we make it out pretty cheap for foodand clothing but gas or petrol is much more expensive here. It isabout 6 dollars a gallon and unskilled workers make about 20 Americandollars a week. So keep in mind that we, despite our complaints, haveit very well in the US. There are several gestures that we useeveryday in America but are taken wrongly here.Hopefully these will make you smile:A yawn in Uganda means you are hungry and people will give you food.An eyebrow shrug with the sound "hmm" means yes in Ugandan culture.Pregnant women will not say they are pregnant even when noticeablebecause they don't want their baby to be cursed.If you make eye contact with a woman while talking with them it meansyou are very interested in her.public displays of affection are very vulgar. the only affection youwill see is man to man or woman to woman (like holding hands).Argentines would hate Uganda.opening and closing your hand in a "hello gesture to a kid" means tocome here in Ugandan culture so if you do that in the village, kidswill flock to you.someone who says they had to take a "short call" or a "long call" arereferences to the bathroom. I will send more culture differences when I think of them but that isall for now. Other than that not much has been happening because weare still going through orientation. Carbs and starch are the bigthings you will always eat here which can be rough on the stomach butI like it alright.The bugs are not bad. Compared to Alaska, this place has very fewinsects. I continue to take malaria medicine but bug spray isn'tnecessary.They have warned us that we will get a stomach virus or sickness whilewe are here but that you will get through it. I don't look forward tothat but I still love it here. If yall have any questions email me and I will include it in my next email. I love yall, take care. Nick you are going to love Uganda. I wish I could commit to a semester. John

Oliotia ba sebo (how are you people?)!gendy (fine) or belunge (a more formal fine) or so so (not so good but I keep on living)It has not been too long since you last heard from me but a lot has happened here in Uganda. First of all I wanted to let everyone know that today is our first official day of work! We get to help complete a project in Tanzania until next Monday when we go to Rwanda to do our specific project. The power likes to go out a lot here; it normally is not for the whole day but typically it can last 12 hours. It makes getting work done hard but I am able to navigate well because I always keep my headlamp with me. Saturday I attended my first Ugandan concert. Ugandans call a concert any performance. This one was at the church I will be attending, Amazing Grace Assembly. The church has no glass windows or a solid door. It is rectangular hut that can comfortably house about 20 people; however, Ugandans like to pack people in so on Saturday there were about 50 plus adults and children. The children sit against the wall and the adults sit in the plastic chairs. This concert was said to start at 2pm but Ugandans are not time conscious so the actual concert started at close to 3pm. Here we got to experience cultural dances and songs. The Ugandans do not have much sound equipment - all they have is a keyboard and some speakers so they like to play the different beats that come with the keyboard even if they do not quite fit the song. Ugandans are all about rhythm so they like beats and drums. During traditional dances they have two drums that resemble a jimba (however you spell it) and beat on that thing harder and faster than you would think human hands can take. While the drums cause the fast beat the men dance all over the stage in aggressive motions resembling masculinity while the women put on these waist bands that have got hair on them and shake their hips. It is very impressive and very emotional. The Ugandans who perform really get into it. This concert lasted longer than we could so we left after four hours. No telling when it stopped.Church was kind of the same story. Church lasted over 2 hours which consisted of worship songs in Lugandan and Swahili and English as well as a Lugandan message that is translated into English. After the service (which was very solid Biblically) everyone comes to greet you. The church is small and in the middle of nowhere but a good deal of the members are very Biblically grounded.We went to the mall in town Sunday evening to look for ear plugs. The walls here are very thin and you can hear everything that goes on at night. Sometimes it is unsettling because you will here people crying or dogs fighting but most of the time I do not sleep sound because I have a roommate who can blow the roof off with snoring (it is by far the loudest I have ever heard).Anyway, we got lost last night on our way back because it was very dark and we met a young man around my age who walked an hour out of the way to show us the right direction. We talked about American culture, God, and education. It was a huge joy to meet thing young man and I am thankful for him. If you have made it this far thank you because next are some prayer requests that I would love to have you apart of:- pray that we would continue to be initiating in conversation despite tremendous culture shock- a good nights rest so I can get up early and have quiet time with God- people here who are hurting economically, physically, and emotionally because their government only cares about money for themselves (it will make you more thankful for our government I guarantee)- wisdom in doing my assigned tasks and problems and designsThat is all for now. Thank you for reading.

Much love,

John

Hello everyone.I hope you look forward to reading these emails. Again, if they are tooburdensome for you let me know and I can easily remove your name. I willnot think of you as any less of a person.I started my first official day at work on Monday. I normally get upat around 6:30am to have some quiet time with God and then work startsat around 8am but we always have office prayer at 8:30am. It is soincredible working with a Christian ministry. Having God as yourfocus everyday makes work enjoyable because you know it is for Hissake and nothing else.Our first assignment was to go to a city and retrieve bus tickets forour trip to Rwanda next Monday (at that time I will be unable to sendemails) and also get a color cartridge for the printer. Well we havenever been to this city before but we had a map so we figured we couldmake it. Also, nobody told us where the bus station was. We justknew what it was close to. There is no mapquest here so you have tofigure it out. We ended up getting lost in this city and wonderingaround for hours. Ugandans are not very good with directions andhaven't learned how to read maps either. If you approach a Ugandanand ask him or her for directions to a place they will give youdirections even if they have no clue how to get there (they do notlike disappointing bazungus or white people). So we would ask oneperson who did not know English very well and he would tell us the busstation is south, the next person we asked after walking south for .25of a mile told us the station was north. Then we asked some morepeople and nobody ever pointed in the right direction. It wasfrustrating at the time but looking back at it, it was funny. Thestaff at eMi told us that next time you are lost ask people in thesame area and then take the average direction of what they told you.If you have money you can go to a boda driver (scooter driver) becausethey know their way around but they will not tell you unless you paythem. We call these guys "boda-quest" because they are our mapsaround Kampala.Another interesting event was that we had to hand wash our ownboxers/underwear because it is an insult if we ask the cleaning ladyto do it. So my roommate washed his and left it out to dry but whenhe came back he knew that one of his boxers was missing. He lookedall around and could not find it until some blue caught his eye in aherd of goats in our courtyard. It turns out that one of the goatssnatched his boxers from the line. My roommate did not want to fighta goat for what was left of his boxers so he let him have it. Thegoat seemed to like the strong detergent taste.I got my first taste of Ugandan basketball last night. I played withsome missionaries from the village. We played on a court that was aslevel and smooth as my Aunt and Uncles gravel road but the game turnedout alright. You had to compensate for the wind gusts and theslightly bent rim.We have dinner with a man today named Peter. We were warned that he"falls in love with buzungus" so we will have to be careful. He textmessaged me at least 8 times EARLY this morning (I wish I wasexaggerating) to make sure that we will be there.There are numerous species of plant and bird life here in Uganda. Iwill try to take pictures or sketches of as many as I can but thereare close to 30 species, if not more, of birds that I have yet toidentify. The plants thus far are sugar cane, banana trees, corn, andseveral wildflowers. I shall try to capture them all for yourenjoyment. Much love.

John

P.S. - please pray that the relationships here will be authentic. weare having trouble with selfish reasons to befriend us.

Hello everyone,It has been a long time since everyone has received an email from mebut no worries I will keep the past two weeks concise but hopefullyentertaining.First off. I got to attend the Uganda vs. Niger futbol game. It wasintense!!! I got some pictures but Ugandans go crazy during thegames. The Cranes (Uganda) dominated Niger but the final score was 1to 0. The foot work and ball handling skills were extremelyimpressive. I got to take a few pictures but I was warned that youget mugged while you watch the game so I was very careful. It alsohelped that I went to the game with some local friends of mine. Youcould say we were quite the oreo during the match. They watched outfor me and demonstrated the Ugandan cheers (one sounds like a highpitched ya ya ya that I definitely could not imitate). It was a greatgame and I did not get mugged. I will show the pictures when I getback in the states.I took my first African bus ride last week. It was great. It was atouring bus that had been handed down to Uganda over the years. Sadlyenough, people kept their goats at home and only brought themselves (Iwas told I was fortunate because I could have had to share my seatwith a goat).The bus would make random stops for us to get out and make "long orshort calls" (use the bathroom). The bus however did not communicatewhen it would leave. We learned after running the bus down andjumping on that the rev of the engine means you have 20 seconds to geton or you will be left. No sympathy. A younger man who was a streetvender hopped on the bus to sell some of his food products. The bustook off before he had the chance to get off and they refused to stopand let him out. They finally stopped after 45 minutes of driving.The poor guy had eyes of terror because he probably could not affordto make it back to town.Another great feature of the bus ride was the Nigerian movies. I keptthinking of my cousins Kevin and David during these videos becausethey were more than cheesy. They consisted of "who's the daddy to thebaby" to "evil spirits with knitted kittens on their scary (notreally) togas. These videos made me think of my cousins because theyare gifted imitators of cheesy films and shows. I could only imaginetheir clever dubbed in voices that would send the whole bus intolaughter. I know my imagination couldn't have done justice the theactual duo but regardless, these videos were less than B rated. Itseemed like they recorded each one in the shower (loud echoes) andused a standard hand held camera.Before I make this email too long I wanted to tell of my experiencesin Kigali, Rwanda. Rwanda is a country still in repair from the 94genocide between the Hutu and Tutsi people. This is horrifying ordealthat all the people of Rwanda experienced. We went to the genocidememorial to be educated on the causes and aftermath of the genocide.In just 3 months over a million people were killed. There are manychildren who have lost all their parents and relatives and women whohave lost their children and husbands. It is sad to know that allthis occurred with no outside help from any countries. Anyway, to notleave this email in complete despair - it is very encouraging to seethe response of the Rwandan people and the well used aid money to helprebuild and establish a clean unified country.It is so good to be back in Uganda. I missed this place very much andI am so excited to continue relationships with some of the people.

Prayer Requests:- I miss Andrea a lot and I find myself battling wanting to stay hereand wanting to be home with her. So please pray that I will bepatient and content with where we are in life right now.- I would work hard and finish correctly my engineering work for theTheological school- I would be intentional to continue relationships and really emptymyself in serving the people of Uganda.

Much love from Africa friends and family.

John

Hello everyone.Sorry it has been so long since my last email. A lot has been goingon since last we talked (especially long power outages). It is sofunny thinking about how my viewpoint on electricity is that it is anecessity as well as a regularity. However, being here has helped merealize that electricity is a privilege and we need to be verygrateful we have it and have running consistently. Most of the powersupplied to this area is from the Nile. Must like in the states, theywill dam up big rivers and put turbines in the dam. When the waterruns through the dam and spins the turbine you get energy and a lot ofit (just in case there some of you get excited about that kind ofstuff). Anyway, to save power here in Uganda, the government decidesto have controlled outages resulting in no power for 24 hours or, inour case last week, longer.I have forgotten whether or not I told everyone about Rwanda. I amgoing to assume I did. If I was mistaken let me know and I will giveyou some highlights.After the hard work from Rwanda (well over 40 hours in a week), theinterns were allowed a short but worthwhile break. We decided to gojust outside of Mbale to Sipi Falls. If there are any James Bond fansout there, Mbale was in one of the opening scenes in Casino Royale.Sadly to say, Mbale is nothing like that; however, we did see someindependent fighters.Sipi Falls was incredible. There were three waterfalls within a mileof each other and each waterfall was approximately 60 meters or more(60 meters = approx. 198 feet). I have pictures to show thatdescribes the trip in more detail but for short we experienced tons ofbats (in caves and in the trees), monkeys, birds, jungle, hills, andmuch more. I am sure any outdoor enthusiasts (Aunt Jeannine and UncleMitch) would love the area. We also got to swim in one of the poolsfrom the waterfall. We got in on video. SWEET!!!The bus rides to and from Mbale were a tale on their own. Sadlyenough there was no cheap and cheesy African movie - these buses werelike the ones you have heard about. A buddy of mine had to sit abovea duck. Every time he moved his feet he got his heels nibbled on.About one in ten people would bring aboard some chickens. Thesechickens had their feet tied but that did not mean they would be tame. We witnessed people getting smacked in the face and clawed. If a busholds 40 people, you better believe Africans will make it 60. On theway home I spent the whole time with my knee in a fat man's belly. Hekept asking me "Who do you cheer outside of Uganda?" For those of youthat are confused by this, so was I. I finally realized he was askingme about my favorite futbol team. Anyway, bus rides are always athrill.Coming back to the office we wasted no time. Back to work full swingto get things finalized for our theological college design. So fromhere on out it will be long hours working but it is so worth it.Working in this environment is great and everyone is so encouraging.It makes working late not seem so bad.I am still loving Uganda. I am not excited knowing I will be leavingin under a month but I am excited about getting back to family andfriends. Okay everyone. I am off to eat and then bed.

Sleep well

John

ps - sorry for the length of the email, I hope you made it all the way through

So today was a great day but it has been a while since we have hadinternet access (we just got it back). Anyway, so I was getting backto work on some designs for a rainwater cistern when I got a packagefrom Mae Johnson Way and was SO STOKED!!!!!I spent the time after lunch reading the letters. I cannot tell allof you how encouraged I am. It has been so funny because I talk aboutmy experiences at Snowbird so much to all the other staff here. Theletters and shirt was concrete proof that there is no family that cancompare to the SWO family.So here is an update that you can give to the staffers, if you want,so they can get updated on what I am doing:Thanks SWO for the letters. I cannot put into words how encouragingeach and every one was to me. For those of you that aren't quitefamiliar with what I am doing here it is: I am working withEngineering Ministries International (eMi). This non-profit org.works at helping meet the needs of evangelical Christians across theworld. My specific project is designing and engineering a theologicalschool in Rwanda. Only 5% of the pastors have a high schooleducation; therefore, it is crucial that these pastors that areshepherding Rwandan believers have a proper and adequate knowledge ofthe Living God. Our main office is in Uganda (where I spend most ofmy time). Here is what Uganda is like from my perspective:I have got to say that SWO has prepared me so much for the missionsfield. First off, sleeping above the bike shed and rarely showeringor even having hot showers is much like it is here. I have to sleepin a net which is weird. I feel like I am in a cocoon sometimes andthe showers here are either bucket showers or if you are very blessed,a shower head however the baths are never hot only cold. The roadswhere I live (outside of Kampala) are not paved and poorly maintained. In the wet season the roads are very muddy and you slip and slideeverywhere. The rain causes big ruts so Andrew Grey's gator would eatup the 4-wheelin. For the dry season, now, the roads have huge wholesfrom the rainy season but everything is dry so dust is everywhere.After a while your eyes strengthen so getting dust in them doesn'taffect you. Breathing in the dust that cars and trucks kick-up aswell as breathing in the smog that they spew out is never easy (noemission controls so no catalytic converters to filter the exhaust).I have met a Kenyan here and we have made very good friends. We willgo running and eventually I will teach him to swim. When we run, we goup hills like the hills at SWO that is used for prayer and mountainsurfing (if yall still do that). So you can imagine running up hugehills and breathing in exhaust and dust is not fun but it is greatbeing able to bond with a brotha from another motha. Africans arelike gazalles running. They can stinkin fly. In any sport or activity I will give it my all and they will still smoke me. Theywill say phrases like "My body thanks you so much for working it so hard"...while I am saying to myself "My body wants to fall over and die, when will you get tired!?"I love the people here. They are so friendly and love to talk to Muzungus (white people). Especially when a white person can speaktheir language. Anytime I talk to a Ugandan in his native languagethey smile really big and say "Who is it that a Muzungu knowsLugandan?" When you speak to a kid in their language, most arestunned or laugh uncontrollably. Muzungu refers to the way whitepeople walk. We walk very fast compared to our African brothers. TheAfricans like to say "Muzungus have watches but Africans have time."It is in reference to how we are always in a hurry. It is funnywatching an African making fun of me. They like to walk really fast,bent-over like a monkey. Africans have great posture, they thinkAmericans postures are poor. They carry everything on their head (Iam serious, I have seen some crazy things on peoples heads).I cannot wait to get back to NC only so I can show those interested inpictures, stories, and stereotypes that are that are not true of mostAfricans. I love it here and do not want to go home except toencourage others, fellowship with my long-missed men, and see myfiance Andrea.Staffers, campers, and whoever reads this letter, be ever so thankfulfor the ministry of Snowbird. That environment of a love for Christand dedication to one another in love is not found anywhere else, noteven in the US. Many of the staffers and locals tell me of howblessed I am to have such community back home.

Thanks for being afamily. Your humbled brother and fellow warrior in Christ, John McNeill

ps - does anyone still sleep above the bike shed? I seriously missthat place and the men who stunk it up in there with me. Is MissTully and Miss Roberts finished with the AT? Finally, great call on opening up archery and skeet shootin - best recs ever!!! But who put Patrick Neal on a shotgun? Emo's don't shoot guns do they? Just kiddin I love you bro and miss you greatly. Blue holdin down a new position known as SOFA - hilarious. Has anyone seen or heard from Mowgli, Smalls, Wolfeman, or Big Daddy Hicks? Lastly, how is the revelation skit - Hardcore as ever?

Friends and Family,So much has happened since you last heard from me. First off, last Friday we went to town called Ndere where the Ugandan people perform the local tribal dances from every region in Uganda. It was very facinating and I cannot fully describe it so I will just have to show those interested pictures and film when I return. I will say this, never have I seen hips move so fast or huge drums balance on someone's head while they beat on it. When the performances where almost over the speaker asked if people from different countries were here. There were probably 15-20 different countries represented that night. We all went down to the stage of the amphitheater and we danced with peoples from all across the world. The speaker said if we could get every government official together to dance, then their would be peace. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.One of the local staff friends of mine named Richard Otim invited me over to eat at his house with his best friend called Samuel (they pronounce it Sam-well). Richard is the best friend I have here in Uganda. He is a great guy who works hard but enjoys life. We could not have asked for a better night. A friend of mine from the states gave me some cards the previous day so I took them to the dinner. We spend a good bit of the evening playing American and Ugandan card games. There were several children around and they were really cute. One kid was named Ivan and he was probably 5 yrs. old and wore these pants that didn't quite fit him so when he ran, half of his backside would be showing - it was hilarious. Ivan's friend Aaron was really shy at first but then opened up. I would take each boy and toss him in the air and them catch him as he came down -- a trick my Dad did to Laura and I that we always really liked to do. A big form of entertainment for the Ugandans is the radio. They love to listen to sporting events and music. When Richard brought out the music Aaron and Ivan danced. It was so funny to witness these little guys try and imitate pop culture dancing. We took what pictures we could but they did not do the little one's moves justice. There was one child there who was very young. He was so cute but he was so scared of white people. Richard said it is common in Uganda because the children think we look like ghosts. When the child would get close to us we would fix his eyes on our face and just stare. When we would go for him to hold him, he would bury his head in the shoulder of his sister. Dinner was amazing, the food was absolutely delicious and was relatively healthy. We ate in a house smaller than the average living room in America. Richard has a family of one boy, one girl and another on the way (he is really excited). We all had a tight squeeze but I will never forget this night of fellowship and laughs.A completely different couple of friends live near Entebe and wanted me to come over and visit their place (their names were also Richard and Samuel - no joke). To keep things less confusing I will name these two Rich 2 and Sam 2. These guys are my age and are trying to make it on their own. They have both lost their parents so they have no one paying their school fees anymore. They are currently working but are hoping that an opportunity will allow them to finish school. There house was the size of a small bedroom and they had only a bed and a dresser in the room. We enjoyed tea and casava (grilled root that tastes like a big french fry).These are all very brief descriptions of my past week. I hope that it was not too long for each of you to read. I have some funny stories that the speaker for the tribal dancing said comparing Africans to other nations. I will save these for in-person. Much love.

John

Prayer requests - work deadlines are Monday and Friday, pray that I will be able to meet these.- Relationships with the locals and the church, pray that with my short time here I will make the most of it and encourage and share the Gospel with many adults here- health - I have been around a lot of sick people and some of the food does not always agree with me the second go round so please pray for health

Hello family and friends, So as of right now it is approximately 5 days until I leave Uganda andgo back to the States. It is crazy to think that I have been gone for59 days!!! I am excited to get back to you, my friends and family;however, it is and will be hard knowing that I will be leaving thepeople here. I have made great relationships with several people herein Uganda and I will miss the local church too. They have been myfamily. So I have many mixed feelings but God has governed this timeand I know He has something BIG for me when I get back home -- likeMARRIAGE!!!Anyway, it has been a while since I updated you on what has been goingon here. First of all I wanted to tell you that Africans think thatWesterners (white people) have so much money that they don't have towork and even don't know how to work. When I say "work" I mean manuallabor. Well the other week I had an opportunity to serve the church.They wanted me to play the guitar for them because someone told them Iplayed (for those that know me well, you should know this is wrong! Icannot play a lick). So when I got to the church I saw a man outfront shoveling gravel for the church's walk way. Well thanks to myup-bringing, despite what Africans think, I can wield a shovel well.I immediately dove in, took the shovel from the exhausted man andstarted movin rock. Not only was he stunned but everyone at churchand the people walking by. Well the other church members would ratherme play guitar for them than shovel gravel so they basically orderedme inside (in a polite way). So they gathered around me and told meto play for them. Well I told them I really cannot but I will do mybest. They expected me to play notes that matched the notes of theresinging. I could not do this to save my life. After a short time, afriend from EMI came by who is musically talented and took over. Iwas so relieved and ran outside, before they could tried to get me todo something else musical, and helped the man shovel gravel. It wasso funny to see Africans walk by and stop to watch me work. They wereso stunned I knew how to shovel and use a wheel-barrel. Anyway I hada great workout, shed a lot of water because it was so hot and in themiddle of the day...incredible time.After I served the church in this way, I could tell I gained a lot ofrespect from the locals. They did not think muzungus (white people)could work hard. I was thankful for this opportunity God gave me toshow the Ugandans that Americans are not all lazy.I also tried a flying ant for the first time the other day. We wentto the directors house to play some games with the other staff when wenoticed hundreds of little insects moving in his garden. Weapproached the garden corner to see tons upon tons of flying ants(pretty big compared to our ants). Someone had told us that African children LOVE catching and eating these ants so I figured "now or never" --- so I tried one. You have to take off their wings (that iswhat the locals do) before you eat them. The ants do not taste like much and I was hungry at the time so followed my first ant with a fewmore of his friends. No other muzungu ate them but I thought it wouldbe okay.Well that is really all for now. We are working hard and long to makesure and meet our deadlines. I am excited to show everyone the reportfrom our work. It looks great!!I will share more stories for those who want to hear them when I gethome. God is doing great things here. Please be praying that He willuse me to impact lives even though I only have a few more days here.God bless friends.
John

Friends and family,To be honest I could not forget to mention the last few days here inUganda. I must say it is unbelievable knowing that I will be leaving sosoon. I do not think it will set in that I am out of Africa until I setfoot in the Dallas airport.I look forward to seeing each of you when I get back to the States. As muchas I include in these emails, I leave out many other stories. However I dowant to tell you about the most recent incident at Bible study. To give yousome background, I have held a Bible study for the local church at myhouse. As of right now the membership consists of me and about threeothers. As African custom insists, the person who hosts the meetingalso needs to lead it. I still have not understood why I need to leadevery week but I went with it. This last week I was extremely busy atwork so I was unable to prepare like I wanted to Bible study. Soinstead of having an in-depth look at scripture, we decided to talkabout essential ways a Christian should live. It was a very practicaldiscussion. The discussion was about Biblical accountability. Themembers of the church were familiar with accountability but wereunsure why they needed it and how it was to be incorporated in theireveryday lives. We discussed the nature of man as being sinful andthat only through faith in Christ can we have victory in this life andbe seen as fully pleasing to God. Therefore, we must have ourbrothers for the men and the sisters for the women being active in ourlives so we can help each other live a life worthy to God. We spokeabout the importance of same sex accountability and in marriage yourwife or husband becomes your main accountability partner. Thediscussion went very well and I look forward to seeing how theyimplement this new but old thought into their church. One of theattenders of the study is the college/young adults leader. He planson teaching this to the group.So the background was a little long...sorry, but many times somethingfunny happens every study. Well the other day, one of the members(Dan) picked an electronic appliance and asked "John what is this for?" Now you must understand that Ugandans are very resourceful andcan do or make anything dealing with their hands but they are not usedto seeing electronic appliances that are specialized for only one ortwo purposes...so with that in mind I enlightened Dan that what he washolding is for roasting bread and is called a toaster. He looked atit funny and put it aside. The locals here think that toasting breadis a silly think to do. They wonder why someone would want to takesoft bread and burn it to make it hard.I had a good laugh about it on the inside and realized just how manyluxuries we have that we see as necessities but are BY FAR luxuries.We had our last service at church today and the members of the churchsurprised some of us with going away gifts. They say that good byesare not necessary because we will see each other in Heaven, so theygave us a gift and said "if you come back to Uganda, come see us...ifnot we will worship beside you in Heaven."This email is longer than I planned so I will cease my stories.Please pray for me these next couple of days. A lot is going on and Iam very anxious to see my family and friends. It is going to bereally hard to say my farewells to my friends here. God satisfies more than anything else.

John