"DID U KNOW?"

During our short visit at the equator, a man convinced us to do the water experiment with him. The price was 10,000 shillings. A couple people in our group even got the official certificates afterwards. This first video is how water drains in the northern hemisphere. Notice the water draining clockwise(like we are used to.)

And here is in the southern hemisphere. Now it drains counter-clockwise!

And this is right on top of the equator. It doesn't spin, but gets sucked straight down.

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Daniel

On the day of the first medical clinic I found this guy standing in front of the church looking pretty distraught. I greeted him and was surprised at how well he spoke English. He was asking many questions about America and he shared his desire to one day come and visit. He appeared to forget about whatever was bugging him. He told me about his education at a Christian school and his desire to go to Bible college. I wish I could recall his name, but for now I'll call him Daniel.

He seemed healthy so I asked him what brought him to the clinic that day. Daniel told me he was there to pick up medications for his mom. I knew that people had to be prescribed by the clinic to get medication so I told him his mother must come to get it. I could see the pain in his eyes as he told me his mother was too ill to come that day, almost breaking into tears.

I immediately approached Scott, our wonderful missionary host, and explained the situation. He asked the pastor of the local church, who was beside him, if he has seen Daniel around before. The pastor said he had not. Nobody could vouch for him.

Scott approached Daniel and asked if the mother could ride a boda boda to the clinic. Boda boda's are the motorcycle taxi's that can take you almost anywhere for 1,000 shillings a.k.a. 50 cents. In fact, here's a shot of Bruce and me on a couple. (The guy is laughing because I am probably the biggest person he"s ever had on his bike.)

So Scott handed Daniel 2,000 shillings and told him to get a boda boda to pick his mom up, then to bring her to the clinic. As Daniel ran off we couldn't help but wonder if we would see him again. 2,000 shillings is almost a half a days wages in Uganda. I love how Scott responded when asked if he thought Daniel would come back, he said, "either way..... he is blessed."

Nearly an hour later, when I wasn't even thinking about it anymore. Daniel rushed up to me and with excitement told me that he had brought his mother. We brought her to the nurses right away to be looked at.

I could tell that Daniel was very proud that we had faith in him and he was able to prove himself to us. I think there is a great lesson for those of us who are too skeptical at times to give to those who show need.

Before he left, Daniel wanted so badly to have some sort of remembrance of me. He wanted a picture to take home. I really wish I had a polaroid camera because all I could do was show the small screen of my digital camera. So, even though he doesn't have access to a computer or internet, this post is for Daniel, hoping he may come across it one day.

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Stories From Uganda

Hello all! Jordan and I are home from Uganda and adjusting back to life in the US. We saw and experienced so many things when we were there that touched our lives deeply. It was hard to leave knowing that there is so much more work to be done there! God is doing some amazing things in Uganda. But, we are glad to be home because we do not have much time left before we move to Spain! We fly out of CA on August 24th, we will spend a couple days in Chicago (where Trinity Christian College is, the University I will be working for) and then we fly out on August 26th!

Enough of that... more about Africa! I will warn you, this post is a little long but I hope you get a good glimpse into our time spendt in the beautiful country of Uganda. I will say that it was different than we were expecting. We thought that we would be doing a lot of physical labor, but we only had one work day that was hard on us physically. The rest of the trip was more spiritually draining instead of physically draining. It was definitely a time of growth for me in my faith.

The 1st day of ministry we did was at 3 different prisons, way out in the countryside. These prisons had men who had committed small crimes, or who were waiting for trial. It was heartbreaking to see the kinds of conditions these men live in. Here is a picture of some of them.
The prisoners are treated as less than human. They are not always fed. They wear clothes not much better than rags. They are put to work in the fields to grow their own food. They sleep on concrete. It was so hard to see the look of desperation in their eyes. I have never been so aware of how blessed I am. It is crazy to think that sometimes I feel that life is hard here in the States. We should have nothing to complain about. But, God showed up there at those prisons.

Through some testimonies and music that we shared at each prison, God worked in the lives of those men and several made commitments to Christ that day! We even got to lay hands on those that had asked for prayer and that was incredible. They were so hungry for the Lord and for his healing and love. What a privilege to be a part of that!


The next few days after that were mostly spent doing medical clinics. We raised enough money to do 3 of them! The missionaries we worked with (Scott and Brenda Volz) were amazing and helped us organize everything. We went to 3 different villages on 3 different days, providing medical treatment to over 600 people. WOW. The nurses that work with the missionaries are incredible ladies and they did most of the medical treatment.

At these clinics we also had a separate area for those who felt like they needed to be tested for HIV/AIDS. We tested about 175 people total. Our whole team was trained on how to prick the fingers, use the test strip, and read the results. Each test only took about 10-15 minutes, it was an incredible process. Each time I prayed it would be negative. Praise the Lord that only about 10 people were tested as positive for HIV. Seeing those positive results was so hard take in. Many of them won't be able to get to a clinic to receive further treatment because it is too far away for them.

Those of us not running the HIV tests were packing up pills and other medicine, playing with kiddos, taking temperatures and blood pressure, and talking to the people. Being a part of these clinics was so eye opening. We saw many people come in with incredibly swollen ankles, swollen jaws because of issues with teeth, yellow eyes due to malaria, burns, coughing, you name it. Basic first aid is more medical treatment than most people have seen in their lives there in the villages. Those that were seen for medical treatment were given prescriptions for what they needed and they were filled that day by Paul.


Here is a photo of the girls and me helping him get the pills organized. There were many other stories of people we met and the care they were given. Many were led to Christ through the nurses that worked with us. Not to mention that we had fun playing with the kids and I know that they felt special that someone would take the time to play with them. Parents do not give their kids affection in Uganda, which is a very foreign idea to us Americans. We loved every minute of it.






Here is a picture of Jordan with some of the kiddos. I will have Jordan do another post to add even more stories of his own!

In addition to ministering at the prisons and medical clinics, we also got to spend some time at an orphanage, which I was really looking forward to! There was an orphanage, school, and church all on the same campus that we visited. What a perfect combination! The orphans have an amazing teacher who works with them. More than teaching them academics, she choreographs cultural dances for them. The kids also sing and it is so beautiful.

They performed many of their songs for us and it was amazing! If you could only see them worship with their whole hearts and bodies.... it was like nothing I have ever seen.
I was blown away by how innocent they were and how their main response to God for his faithfulness was to dance and sing to them with all their hearts. I think that we could learn some lessons from these small children. Here are some pictures of Jordan and I hanging out with the sweet kids.

Last but not least, I must mention the water well that was dug and installed when we were there! Raising enough money for a well was our top priority for this trip. We knew that God would come through and help us raise the money and He DID. It cost a pretty penny (about $8,000 to be exact) but now a community in Uganda has a clean source of water!

We were so excited because we got to see day 2 of the installation. They had dug everything the day before, and were installing the pump the day we came to see it. The moment that water started coming out was a glorious one! There were many kids and adults gathered 'round to watch the process.


The photo on the right is where they used to get water from.... a natural spring that was capped off, about a quarter mile down the hill. And for several months out of the year, it does not flow more than a few drops at a time. I cannot imagine drawing water every day from that place (some months taking half an hour to fill a plastic jug), then having to carry it up the hill to my hut, where it still needs to be boiled. We are so used to turning on the faucet and most of us don't think twice about it when water comes out. Now I think twice. Or three times. Every time I turn it on.


Well, I'm sure there will be more to come as we find more time to post more of our stories! I hope you are encouraged by our stories and experiences. God is doing amazing things in Uganda because His people are being obedient to His call to love the people there and tell them about the Good News.

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Well Sarah and I didn't have a chance to post one last blog before we left to Uganda. We are in the car right now on the way to the San Fran airport.

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We have our cameras and Sarah's new birthday present (a Flip Ultra HD video camera). So there be lots to blog when we get back after July 8th.

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Muchas Adventuras!

I guess it is about time that I make a blog post! This is my first blog post... ever. Jordan and I have been incredibly busy the last few weeks. We have not had a moment to spare on blogging!

Where to start? Well, I have now officially finished student teaching! I had my exit interview this last Thursday with some staff at Fresno Pacific. I have learned so much! Here is a photo of my master teacher, Maria Silva, and me. Teaching at Pioneer middle school was a great experience. I will miss Maria and those crazy 8th graders so much! I could not thank my master teacher enough for all the amazing things she taught me!

Jordan and I even got to go on the end of the year trip to Wild Water Adventures with the 8th graders! I did not happen to get any photos though. I will leave an afternoon at Wild Water with a bunch of Jr. Highers to your imagination...

The reason we have been SO busy the last couple weeks has been the fact that we have moved out of the duplex we were renting and are now staying with Jordan's wonderful mom, Terri! She is a champ to be putting up with all our stuff....

Jordan took a while to sort through the records he wanted to keep.. the bench in the background is a piece that Jordan custom bult for our duplex, but we sold it :( Can't take those things to Spain!

I must say I was quite organized!

A nice view of our old patio. We worked so hard to put those pavers in ourselves! We were sad to see it go.

What goes in, must come out. Notice Jordan's face. We could not have done it with all our friends' help!

Notice those pretty paint colors? Well, we painted it ourselves because our land lord said we could and as you could guess...

We had to paint it back to white... my sister-in-law Ashley was fantastic for helping us! We are lucky to have such amazing friends and family. About 8 from our small group at Epic church came over on a Monday night to help us paint!

The painting seemed to never end...

Mini blinds are one of the words ideas. Ever.

Thank you again, Terri, for letting us keep our junk in your sitting room!! We were all very glad (about a week later) after our yard sale was over and all that stuff was gone! It is amazing how much you can accumulate!

Ok, one last story. On Friday the 12th we celebrated our 11 month anniversary and thought it would be nice to go out to breakfast. Jordan took me to Green Valley Cafe here in Hanford. I had never been there before and it was wonderful! We ran into the Dennis and Debbie Bray when we were in the parking lot and had a nice time catching up with them. We were finishing our breakfast and were about ready to ask for the check when our waitress came up and said that the Brays (who were sitting 2 booths away) had paid for our meal! It was such a nice treat! Thank you Dennis and Debbie for making our day :)

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This is a test to see if I can blog from my phone through texting. If you see this...I can.

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