Giving Thanks

On Saturday, July 6, 2012 if you lived in Kasana, Kiwoko, Kabubu, and anywhere in between you could hear the excitement rising at Kasana Children's Centre as the people prepared for one of the most anticipated events of the year. Throughout the day you could hear children and adults singing in many different languages, shouts of "Hallelujah!", and feel the ground shaking with so many people dancing. What could cause so much excitement?
The answer is simply Thanksgiving. In Canada, many people celebrate Thanksgiving. But what do many of us look forward to the most? The delicious turkey meal or the time of giving thanks to God. Here at Kasana, you can tell that the people wanted to give the day to our God. Only after a 4 hour program honouring God, was any food was served.
The program was full of singing and dancing and jumping and clapping. All 3 music groups at Kasana sang. Testimonies were given where several people expressed their thankfulness to God. A school for the deaf in Kampala danced, and the First Lady of Uganda gave a speech. Yes, that's right the First Lady. Janet Museveni (or Mama Janet as she is called here) is a Christian and it was very powerful to hear the testimony of a Christian who was so high up in Uganda's society. For our family and family group it was wonderful to see Nabukeera translating for her. Nabukeera has translated for our own family before when we went to visit Sam, our sponsor child. 
Everyone in our family group had an important role. Many sang, some were security and officials, some were drumming, and some were just dressed in  school uniforms and singing, dancing, and clapping.
When it was all over, we had a delicious meal of rice, matooke, meat, cabbage, and potato. It was a wonderful day of giving thanks to God.

Rain, Rain

Rain, rain, go away, come again another day.
In Uganda, no one would think of singing that song to their kid especially during dry season (the season we are now entering).
Last night, my family saw lightning and heard heard thunder that was probably in Kiwoko, a village about 5 miles away. But we hoped it would actually rain instead of just a light and sound show. When the rain started pounding the roof we were excited. We needed some rain to fill up the cistern. The only disadvantage is that there is another power outage. There was hardly any power yesterday and I doubt there will be much today.
But we are still thankful that the rain has come!
-Pictures will come-
Christina

...and 0!!!! We're Here!!!!!!

We have arrived here in Uganda! Praise God! We didn't have any complications with our flights at all and we got here safely with only 1 missing bag. We had a bit of a wait at the airport because our friends' van broke down so they had to get here in a different van after checking to make sure they could leave a van in a safe place. And of course everything takes longer than it usually would here! But there were some other friends from New Hope at the airport to meet us. We went to Garden City, one of the shopping malls in Kampala, and did some shopping and ate some lunch at a restaurant.

When we arrived here, there were several kids from Jonathan Family (one of the 8 family groups at Kasana) to greet us and help us carry our luggage into the house we are staying in. We are living in this house until the lady who lives here gets back from furlough. She is part of Jonathan Family so lives near them. We also had some cards and posters on our door. Many people and families had written these to welcome us back. Today and for the next 4 or 5 days we will be going to eat lunch and dinner at other families' houses so we don't have to make anything but breakfast. I'm sure Mum appreciates that especially because it's Dad who makes breakfast.

Thank you all for your prayers! I have been able to get a good sleep and have not had any problems adjusting to time difference. Continue to pray for the rest of my family as they have had a bit more difficulty (Catriona and John aren't awake yet!) adjusting. We appreciate all of the support you have given us and will continue to be thankful for your prayers!
Christina

10 To Go

Wow! It seems like just a few days ago when I wrote we had 50 days to go. And now it's only 10! With house sold, school books collected, and room packed up, much of the furniture gone, and school finishing in a few days it seems like we're almost ready. We still have quite a bit to do though. Please pray for speedy packing in these 10 days until we leave. Especially pray for Catriona that her head will heal from her concussion.

50 Days!!

We only have 50 days left here in Calgary! We have sold our house and are starting to get packed up. We've had some wonderful times with friends and family. It was wonderful to see all our cousins in Colorado for a week. I can't wait to see my friends and family in Uganda.

The Count-Down Begins

Well, actually the count-down began about a month ago... It is 3 months until we hop on an airplane at the Calgary airport. We are beginning to feel geared up for leaving. Please pray for us as we visit our relatives later this week and for quick house selling! If you would like to get our March support newsletter please go to my parents blog at:
http://uganda.mortonhome.com/

Jinja

We took a trip to Jinja, a city about an hour away from Kampala. We enjoyed 3 days exploring. We went to Bujagali Falls and also went on a boat tour (we didn't think through it very carefully as we weren't wearing lifejackets on a roaring river...:). We even got to go horseback riding. We had a great time swimming at a hotel and just enjoying the scenery. I hope you enjoy the pics.