New Year

January 5, 2007 - Friday New Year So how was everyone's news year's eve? We went into the city to see the New Year in; there is always a fireworks display over one of the big hotels. Beforehand me and Anthony went to the KPC or Kampala Pentecostal Church for a worship service, this is how it went... We arrived at about 7:30 and took some seats near the back of the first tier (it's in a giant old theatre). Since it was basically full we assumed that it would be starting shortly, so 2 hours later and with a total of about 10,000 people inside and outside the building the singing started. There were about 10-15 songs to begin with and then there was a break, silly me assumed that that was it and now for the message, but no, that was simply the first worship team of four teams... 2 and a bit hours of standing and singing on a warn night surrounded by lots of people is quite a challenge. My legs were telling me to sit down but since no one else was I couldn't really... I was temped to give myself a Toronto blessing as an excuse to sit down... So we left about 20 to midnight to go see the fireworks and found out at the same time that they were planning to be singing until morning... Crazy stuff, it was quite good still. The 100 strong choir was very impressive and I had a crush on one of the lead girls because of her voice, it was unbelievable... As I mentioned previously, the computer set-up is at a halt because of the funding problem so we aren't doing to much with that at the moment. So things are a bit quite around here sometimes. We also have a building program happening shortly which we are in the process of organising. I am looking forward to that. I will be working with guy who will be getting paid about $2 for a days work to build. I will have to keep an eye on them because the standard of work is not high when unsupervised... The work Anthony is doing here is so good; he is focusing on an holistic approach with these kids, looking after their mental, physical and spiritual welfare. A lot of the similar organisations are not doing all three for whatever reason and that can cause problems when the child is ready to leave the orphanage. After the Christmas party we had a about 70 more children just from that little area that have come to our attention that need help. It shows the massive need that Uganda has for aid in the area of Orphans. Although I have well placed skepticism that money donated to the Government will not make it to where it is needed. Corruption is absolutely destroying Africa... I could go on forever about the corruption, but the best example is the $70 million donated by World Fund to be given to NGO's in Uganda. Most of the government people in charge of distributing the money got their family members to set up NGO's and then gave the money to them. Only a few million got to the thousands of NGO's that really need every cent they can get. Anyway... I wish guys would stop holding my hand... it's a cultural thing to be sure but that doesn't make me any more comfortable... I thought I would try and get similarly cultural with a pretty girl I met but apparently I have a bit to learn... Please pray for Orphans for Christ in every area you can think of... James