JINJA UPDATE

I'm at a break in our day. Things have been crazy here. We've been busy in a good way.

We are all finally healthy I think. No one on our team is sick today and those who were under the weather yesterday are much better today. Thanks for your prayers!!!

We have had a GREAT trip. Everyday I have asked our students to journal their thoughts and about every other day we gather around to share them. It's such a huge blessing to me to hear how God is working in them. I am loving this experience. Really enjoying myself as are all our students. I have met some great people who really love the Lord and I can see how some future doors could easily open because of my time this week. God is speaking clearly to my family and to my students. Almost all of them were with us at OGN earlier this month and they are putting all they learned their into practice. In addition, on Wed night of OGN there was a chance for students to affirm a call into 3 areas: reaching those far from God, personal holiness, and into full-time Christian work in the formal sense. I had several students- 8 or 10- respond to that last call at OGN and several of those are on this trip and this is only confirming that calling even further. It's such a HUGE blessing to be here.

Today marks the midway point for us here in Jinja and we had a true Sabbath day. We went to church this morning here in town. Then we went to the Nile River Resort for a buffet that would rival anything a major hotel in the U.S. puts on where we ate it in cabanas overlooking the Nile River with Monkeys in the trees. Then after that we went by the orphanage and picked up 4 kids whose family can't take care of and took them to visit their Mom. We got to tour in inside of a mud hut the rest of their family lives in and learn why it's unsafe for some of these kids to stay in their homes where their families cannot afford to feed them and shelter is worse than someone in the US would store their tools in. I built a home for a family in Mexico once after seeing a similar shack they were living in, built of scrap plywood instead of mud and sticks. But basically the same thing. It was very eye opening for our students and always gut wrenching for me.

On a lighter note, we also went on a boat ride in the Nile to see some birds and the monkeys... but it rained on us for most of our trip, so the monkeys were in hiding. We did see a grip of birds and a giant kamodo dragon lizard thing and the actual source of the Nile River where the ground water flows out so fast it causes a ripple in the surface of the water which is probably 25 feet deep at least.

Now, like I said, we're at a break. In about 15 minutes we're headed to dinner, so I gotta run. I've been posting as often as I can get internet access, but most of my time has been spent on remote Island villages talking with people and sharing the gospel on and around Lake Victoria since I got here. All next week we're here at the orphanage where I also have internet access, so I'll try and post some pictures. At this point, they are in the thousands between the 15 of us snapping pictures, so I'll sort through and see if I can't give you a taste of it tomorrow.

Thanks again for your prayers and we'll keep you posted.

Here's the plan for the next few days.

Monday: work at the orphanage and begin clearing the lot next door so they can start to teach the children how to farm and feed themselves, a skill they all would be learning in their villages if they were not here in this orphanage.

Tuesday: same as Monday, except that I think we're going to go visit a local children's hospital and pray for the children. The orphanage we are working in actually takes kids from the hospital too because- believe it or not- the hospital will only treat the diseases, it won't feed the children. GO FIGURE. Anyway, I'm sure that will be eye-opening too.

Wednesday: at the orphanage all morning and then to a classic Market in the afternoon to experience the closest thing to a shopping mall/grocery store this community has. In the U.S. we'd call it a flea market I believe.

Thursday: we have the morning to shop and then we have a HUGE party at the orphanage with all the kids. Lots of food, music, dancing, and a drama by my family followed by my son TJ presenting the gospel story to the kids. So cool. Should be a really fun day.

Friday: our team heads to the airport at like 4am... but we're not going to talk about that right now. None of us are ready to leave.

Serving Jesus with you, just half way around the globe from most of you.

Brian C. Berry.