Tuesday is Jelly Day

Every Tuesday I visit a school called "Jelly's" to minister to and love on 32 Albino children that attend there and board there year round.  Sarah, our daughter, started visiting there 3 days a week this summer to do group therapy with the children.
Now that she has returned home, I go every Tuesday and tell them a Bible story, play, do crafts/activities, pray with them and be a caring person in their lives. 
This week we talked about the creation story and I emphasized that God saw everything he had made and proclaimed it good; when he created man he proclaimed it to be "very good".  I encouraged the children to remember that God made them as they are and that he proclaims over them that they are "very good".
They drew self portraits on papers with the verse from Genesis 1:31, "God saw everything that he had made and behold it was very good". 
It was a great day with hugs for everyone before we left. 

When the sun is your Enemy

Saturday we visited the Buhangija school for the visually impaired which is home to about 150 Albino Children (PWA-People with Albinism).
For the very first time, we were granted permission to have a church service for them; we told a story, taught a memory verse, sang songs, played a game and introduced puppets who sang for the children.
It was a wonderful opportunity to share God's love with these precious forgotten children; however, the day was marred by the physical condition of the younger children.
Many of the younger children (age 6 and under) were badly burned from over exposure to the sun.  They had deep burns on their faces, heads, arms and hands and some on their feet.  Some of the burns and sores were badly infected and the skin had drawn up on their hands and arms so that some of them were unable to straighten their hands out completely. 
The normally playful group of younger children sat listlessly on a blanket during most of our visit.  It was one of the worst things I have ever seen; my heart has been burdened for them since then.
We have visited one of our local churches and asked if they would send a group of medical personnel from their church to the school and treat their burns and infection. 
We hope and pray that the medical team can go soon to visit the school.

Women's Scholarships

Mery, Agnes and Melania - Scholarship recipients

We want to thank the West Texas District Women's Ministries Dept. for providing scholarships for 3 of our ladies this year at the Mwanza Bible College.  Without their assistance, these women would not have been able to attend. 
These 3 women, Mery, Agnes and Melania,  are amazed that women in America would be willing to pay tuition fees for them when they have never met; but that's what the love of God does.  It makes people have generous hearts and a love for people they don't know and will probably never meet this side of heaven. 

Moving Rock

We are almost finished with a project that has taken over ten years to finish; within the next few days the fence around the Mwanza Bible College will be finished!  It will be a time for celebration!
There have been boundary disputes for years and through the years we have lost 1/3 of the original plot to squatters.
However, after weeks and months of going to various government offices and paying various fees, the boundary for the Mwanza Bible College has been officially documented, all fees and compensations paid and the boundary clearly marked.
The first job to building the fence was to dig a hole big enough to "cure"(soaking in water for several days) all of the cement posts that had to be made for the fence.  In many places this task would have been finished in a day.  At the Bible College it was a matter of a few weeks.  Mwanza is built on boulders and rocks that often are as big as a house.  Since we don't have access to equipment such as bull dozers and other equipment to break up large boulders, it is done the way that it's been done for generations here.
You build a fire on top of the boulder, let it burn and when the rock cools it will have cracks in it.  Then, with simple hand tools they begin the process of breaking the boulders into pieces that can be dug out of the ground and carried away.  It is not a job for the weak or faint hearted; for Tanzanian laborers it is work they are accustomed to doing.
These workers are partly students from the Bible College and from the local church.  The hole will be used for an outdoor baptismal tank for the Bible College Church now that it has served it's purpose for the fence building.