Moving Forward

Hello to everyone who still reads this thing! Life without a laptop or anykind of PC is apparently not easy. Anyways, here’s an update on us.

Michael began working at the restaurant at the beginning of August and in the last month the place has begun slowly catching on. I say slowly because the menu is mostly western and a bit pricey compared to the typical Ugandan restaurant. However, once people discovered that this was not the typical Ugandan restaurant they have been steadily coming in. It’s the quality of the food that attracts them.

By the way, the pizza...best in Uganda, period. No pizza I’ve tasted here has ever reminded me of home but with my husband’s pizza, I was taken back to the US with the first bite. I know you’re thinking I’m just saying that because he’s my husband but as an authentic American who loves pizza, I can honestly say there’s nothing like it here.

The unfortunate news is that Michael is now no longer working there. The owner had to send him away with great pain because of poor planning. She simply has no money to pay him beyond this first month. It’s a common problem here. People start a business and expect to make serious profits within a very short amount of time. I guess she didn’t realize that these things take time to catch on and you can’t expect the business to start paying for itself in just one month’s time.

It came as a huge disappointment but at the same time we were hopeful that we could still benefit from it and in fact we are already seeing the benefits. The situation has pushed Michael to really begin baking from home and selling to friends, family, and even the Uganda Studies Program students from the US. All of these people will be placing orders with us every week and we will deliver directly to them. It’s really better because all the profits will go to us instead of an employer/restaurant. It’s an idea we have always talked about but never put into action.

Also, we’ve seen how God is truly taking care of us as only one week after Michael left the restaurant, he was offered another job as manager of a guest house in Kireka (about halfway between Mukono and Kampala). The pay is about the same and the job is more flexible and less strenuous physically. We thank God so much for his care and provision.

As for me, I gained 3 more cello students at a different music school – the African Institute of Music (AIM). This school is very different from Kampala Music School. It was founded by a missionary from California who had a vision of beginning a music school in Uganda and eventually forming something like a national orchestra here. The school is basically in a big house and it creates a beautiful and comfortable environment for learning. So far I’ve found the students to be very committed and self motivated. Two are Ugandan and one is Tanzanian. They have basically been teaching themselves cello for the last year or so and are grateful to have a teacher, so it is really a perfect situation to step into.

As for the project at Salama School for the Blind, we are thinking bigger and bigger all the time. God has shown us that our original vision of a music project was much too small. It was something we felt we could feasibly do. But I believe God usually wants us to have massive visions that are obviously too big for us to accomplish on our own and push us to rely on Him for success.

Currently a friend of ours who is very connected to Salama and also happens to be a lawyer is writing the constitution and bylaws for what will hopefully in a years time be Hope for the Bind Ministries – a registered NGO that will act as a source of overall help and funding for the school. Since the school has so many needs, we realized it would be a bit strange to raise a lot of money for a simple music project while ignoring other serious issues. So now we are seeing the music project as one of many others that will enrich the school. Eventually we would love to bring other people on board who can design things like an agricultural project, and a medical project to take care of the many needs of these students. Finding sponsors for all the students would also be an aspect of the organization.

So please pray for us as we work on getting things into motion. It is really a long process and the music project in particular has now been on hold for about 6 months but as soon as we can get a car we will begin on that again. Please pray that God continues to bring/lead us to the right people who can help and not harm this endeavor. I’ve seen a lot of organizations here start off well and eventually collapse because of just one corrupt person.

I know this vision is from God and because of that I have total confidenc e that it can succeed with time and hard work. So please begin supporting us in prayer now as I’m sure you all know that starting off is never easy.

I think I’ll leave it at that for now. We are missing all of you there so much, but we are also happy to be where we are. God Bless.