9/11

Today, five years ago America was changed for ever, completely and immensely. Just from watching the documentaries and listening to the stories of those who survived from the towers one cannot stop the tears from flowing. Its a very painful wound even 5 years later but the fear in the eyes of the Americans that day was indescribable and very real.

I knew it was a terrible experience but now more than ever I see that it was something wicked, heartless and evil. Only God can truly bring healing to the Americans and only God can bring justice on whoever was behind this. May God grant healing and restoration and renewal to those who lost family and friends and to America as a country.

I keep wondering about the natural events that took place after that, the tsunami and the floods in New Orleans, is God trying to get our attention?

Power of the mind

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.Mine was ok, I'll think back to see if anything drastic happened but for now I just want to say hello and also say how much I'm missing home. Something happened to me today that has made me look at myself in a whole new light. I know that being alone is a healthy thing, well, not too often but once in awhile, here I'm faced with it, not exactly out of choice. Its happened to me quite afew times that when the house is quiet, say Mich is sleeping and Sam is in reading or not in the house my mind tends to wonder in all sorts of directions, I think alot. I have literally stopped and almost looked at my self (if that is possible, I guess in the mirror it is) but just the things I have thought are shocking. For clarities sake I'm not running mad, I didnt think of killing anyone but eeh you!.The thoughts can be really loud, just confirms that I need God every moment of my life. I will not tell you what I thought, I just wanted to confirm that it is always important to think what is pure, what is beautiful, what is nice and what is praise worthy, ofcourse its a conscious effort but well worth it. I'm accustomed to having people around and being busy with work but this period of freedom is teaching me alot about the potential of my mind.After church today we were invited for a small meeting for those interested in joining the church. There was about 10 of us, we met with Bradd and Becca (pastor and wife) in his office and went through a session of study about Vineyard; who they are, what they believe, how they influence the community for Christ, their vision, values e.t.c, very detailed stuff and very enriching. I now know its history, what the church believes, what to expect and what is expected of me. I like the way they just live out the christian life, its not so much about greeting "praise God" all the time or using all the phrases we do back home. Their actions speak louder than the words and that is something I appreciate "its a lifestyle".

Some pics

Its been a quiet week and nice at that, nothing drastic just the everyday routine settling in.
Monday was a holiday, labor day, it also happened to be Rachel's Birthday. Rachel is "our daughter" she is Ugandan, came in about a week ago, she is studying for her first degree and planning to be an Actuarial scientist. Don't ask me what that is but you might want to check it out on the Internet, when I first heard about it, I thought of aquariums and fish but no, they are not related in anyway.It has something to do with mathematics. She did her A levels at Namagunga and decided that Makerere was not the place to be so she applied to Wharton and was accepted.
We met her and her parents before leaving UG and seeing as she is very young, is a first born and she is leaving UG for the first time, her mother thought we would be good company. We are pretty much family.

I did a search on the net for the 'Navigators ministry" in Philly and I was able to get an email address through which I could contact them. I got a response the other day and today I met Brent and his wife, they asked for directions home and we had a good time. Of course I had to pray seriously seeing as its a scary world and after watching so many movies and reading stories, you never know who will show up. Apart from that, its not something I would just do,..... but I just did.
They are a wonderful couple, very helpful and passionate about knowing Christ and making him known.
By the way I met up with Becca, the pastors wife, nice! Banange the rain here can be so irritating, the kind that goes on all day. The day we were scheduled to meet it rained like that, I thought it would stop but it didn't. We have only one umbrella in the house and Sam had taken it, so I thought I would cancel. I called her cell phone but she wasn't picking, so Mich and I had to brave the rain. One thing I have learned about this place is, rain is no big deal, life goes on unlike in Ug where people just chill until it dries up. Anyway I was late for our meeting and lucky that I found her because she was just on her way back home. It was a good meeting just getting to know each other that's all.

Praise Report

I would like to thank you all for being supportive and for the wonderful suggestions on how to make life in Philly better for me and Mich.

God continues to watch over us in more ways than I could have imagined I am really grateful and thank Him for being there for us. You may be wondering what has brought on all the praise but truly its just the way I feel His presence and in the things He does for us.
I think I can confidently say that we have found the church where we will be attending while we are here. This might sound funny but indeed it is "Vineyard Community Church" the very first church I attended. Pastors wife with the nose ring, remember?!, speaking of I haven't yet met with her, we set a date for 5th, that is Tuesday.
We've been to two other churches and as we visited my prayer was always that God would confirm it in our hearts. Today we went back to Vineyard and honestly it was simply amazing, nothing miraculous, just a peace and feeling comfortable there. They are really down to earth, not fussy about being flashy or anything, its an atmosphere of "come and meet God for yourself". Feel free to express yourself to God, also I like the way their vision is very practical, today's sermon was about "investing locally", find two people that you can pour your life into, share your gifts,abilities and talents, basically mentor and increase just like Jesus did with the disciples. We were also encouraged to have a focus 6 list, people that we purpose to pray for. Sam said he was quite happy attending here and to crown it all Mich had a great time in Sunday school, wasn't too happy to leave.
Something interesting, every parent who takes a kid to Sunday school is given a pager so that in case there is an emergency they can page the parent in the service. Sam had the pager and apparently he was paged twice but he didn't hear, why was he being paged? well Mich needed to go to the bathroom, since there was no response they took him. I was wondering why that was an issue, couldn't they just take him in?, then I was educated on how these people take the child abuse thing very seriously. If they are not very familiar with you, they would prefer you take your child to the bathroom lest you sue them for molesting your child.

Later this afternoon I took Mich to play and a couple came with their child, after a while the guy comes over to me and shares a brochure about his church. He then introduced me to the lady to give me details, I was really amazed at how she really blew for the church, how she thinks its the best, I would be really at home there ....
The teaching is solid and all but I just found it interesting that I would meet her soon after it was pretty much settled in my heart where I want to be. She was so helpful, giving me info about day care, voluntary work, finding my way around the town. She prayed for me, gave me her number, even said we would be welcome to her home for lunch and we talked for quite sometime.
Now is God watching over us or what?

Lost in Franklin Mills : 31st August 2006

Today there was a trip organized for Wharton international students to go shopping at one of the malls out of town called "Franklin Mills". I'd been there once before with Sam but since I was nothing doing I thought I would go again. Franklin Mills is a maze, really really huge, like five times Game Store and some, so the time I went with Sam we didn't quite go all round. Of course I went with Mich, I happened to be the only black person and non student but it was okay.

We were told we had four hours to walk around or shop. It went well until five minutes to the time we were scheduled to get back to the bus. Mich had wondered off, at the start I thought he was in the Jessy Penny store, we had walked in earlier and played a little hide and seek among the rack of clothes. I walked around once, then twice, by the third time I was getting freaked, I couldn't see him. At this point I decided to let the guy at the counter know I was looking for my little boy. The shop was really huge I thought he could have run into an office or something. The guy asks for Mich's name and makes an announcement hoping that he would hear and come out, wa!. 

He then talks to one of the lady shop owners who helps make another search, now I'm thinking "just wait till I get my hands of you little boy". Anyway, Mich is nowhere and so she decided to alert police/ security who asked me to "describe what he was wearing", I couldn't believe I had to do that, never imagined I would have to be in such a situation.

At some point I had to call the guys in charge of the group to tell them I was running late because my son had wondered off, they said they'd wait twenty minutes, after twenty minutes there is no Mich. I call again and tell them they might have to go cause it looked like I was going to be much longer. They say they would have one person stay behind and help me get back, I appreciated that. Well forty five minutes later we get a call from security saying they found him just walking around but quite far away. They managed to track him using the video cameras' thank God for advanced tech and the efficiency and helpfulness of the security. That was a relief. I didn't know whether to slap him or hug him, but his smile when he saw me got the better of me, and everyone was so happy. 

I head out and guess what?! I find the whole team had decided to wait for me, that was awesome, and more to that some of the guys had gone to help with the search.

Phew!!!!!!!!! and I thought my stories were over.