Merry Christmas and a Joseph New Year!

Where to start...this Christmas I think can go down as one of the best ever! And I cannot believe it is already 2010!!!! God has been so faithful to me in the last year! When I had doubts about how I was going to be able to leave my job and be able to suuport myself financially while I am here in Uganda He reminded me to let Him be in control and to have faith! For the first month of living in Uganda I really did try to do it on my own and take care of myself...but God soon showed me I was not going to make it by living my life like that! Now I am at the end of my second month here and wow what a difference it makes to fully rely on God!!

This Christmas Watoto Church put on a Christmas Cantata called "The Journey." What a wonderful presentation of the Word of God brought in the form on a 200 person choir, lots of dancing, and awesome props, and sweet lighting effects! Some of us volunteers took the special needs children to enjoy it and it was so special to share that moment with them.

Pastor Gary and Marilyn Skinner hosted a party for all international volunteers and Watoto staff in appreciation for spending our Christmas here in Uganda! That was very special and felt like home spending an evening with my family and Santa even arrived! :)

We as volunteers had many Christmas parties and one of them was spent with a team from Hillsong London. That was so much fun and there was lots of Western style food! What is not to love about that!? :)

Spending Christmas day at the babies home was such a rewarding experience as well! To share God's love with these babies and toddlers at Christmas and be their family made me realize how blessed I have been to spend Christmas with my family for the last 20 years. Now for the 21st year I understand that not everyone has had the same opportunity and for that I am so happy that I would not have wanted to spend my Christmas any other way than right here in Uganda with God's precious children.

Prayer requests:

-Recently we have had several cases of TB at the babies home. It can be a very serious thing for some of our most vulnerable babies. Baby Chris has a blood transfusion the other day and has TB as well. He is in critical condition and could really use some extra prayers. Just pray that God's will will be done in his life! Claire is also another one of our toddlers that was diagnosed with TB. She is also one of our HIV babies! It is hard to watch little children like them suffer. You just want to be able to give them your healthy body!

-Continue to pray for Watoto Child Care Ministries! There is so much happening and choirs are going to be sent out soon around the world to raise awareness about the ministry and new babies homes are going to be opening. Lots happening and that means lots of prayer needed! Pray for strength for those leading choirs and heading up projects here in Uganda!

-On a personal note pray that I can continue to have faith in every step that I take! There are days where I wonder why Africa? Why did God call me here? What is the greater thing I can take from here? It may seem like an obvious thing to some but for me it can seem a bit blurry!

Wishing everyone a powerful 2010!

For the children,

Kara

What is love?? What isn't love?? 1 Corinthians 13

I keep pondering on what our cell group discussed this last Wednesday nite about what love is and is not. I went away thinking how to I portray love to those around me 24/7?? Love is patient, love is kind, love never fails, love never remembers wrong,....it goes on and on. What kind of love are you putting out?? Is it a Christ-like love??

This week has been full of new people coming and going, volunteers leaving, smelly diapers, traveling around, and Christmas celebrations!! On Sunday evening all the international volunteers are the apartments has a wonderful Christmas party with a lot of Western style food and a secret santa exchange!! That nite truly felt like I was at home with my "family" enjoying a winter evening together! Yesterday Linda, Lucy, and I went shopping around Kampala and bought some Christmas CDs and other holiday stuff to stay in the Christmas spirit while enjoying some Good African Coffee of course!

There is going to be so much new stuff happening beginning of 2010!! Suubi Babies Home is going to be opening and kids will be transferred there from the Bulrushes! So if you could please pray specifically for the whole babies home project as a whole that things will get completed in time and that there would be no stress :) I no the last part of that is not really being realistic! :)

Today was a rather emotional day for me overall! My "son" Christopher is going to be going back to his mother the beginning of the year! I am excited for that to happen however not sure how I am going to give him up! I feel so connected with Chris and today his mom showed up to try and connect with Chris. It was hard for me to watch cause it felt like I was giving my "son" to another mommy! His mom is a beautiful woman and has a glowing smile and I can def see the connection between the two! He resembles her a lot! Just an inner battle going on with my heart and I really have been praying that God will help me give him up and that he can reconnect with his real mommy again cause all I want is the best for him! So if you all could remember me and pray for me in that way in the coming weeks it would be greatly appreciated!

Another prayer request would be for Patience. She is one of the toddlers in my room that I assist with. She is a very sick little girl right now and was diagnosed with Pneumonia this week and has been loosing weight. At her last check up doctor said things looked better! However she is a small little girl! Trusting that God will heal her! :) **Patience is in the photo above**

One more thing I should mention...Christmas is exactly one week away!! What have you done to prepare for the wonderful celebration of Christ's birth???? Exciting stuff ey????

Much love to all who are praying!!!

For the children,

Kara

I'm dreamin of a white Christmas...jk

Well I am already seeing the end of another week in sight!! Really trying to figure out where time has gone...Christmas is ONLY 15 days away!!!! I kind of forget what season I am in right now! It just does not seem normal to be enjoying really hot weather and not one snow flake in the sky and trying to celebrate the Christmas season all in one. I was talking with a friend last nite about how different the Christmas season is here and he brought up a really good point. In America so much hype is put into the shopping and going to concerts and getting together with family, etc. that often even I forgot what the real meaning of Christmas is about!! Then there is Uganda...where there are hardly any Christmas decorations...some Christmas songs in the air...but overall they put their main focus on the reason for the season and that is Jesus' birth!!!!! So even though I will be a little sad I will not get to be with my family I do feel that spending my Christmas in UG will be good for me to refocus on what Christmas is really about.

So aside from that let me see...what all have I done in the last week...

1. Got to attend the World Aids Day Dance Competition at Watoto Church

2. Went to Ndere-African culture nite...again

3. Did some Christmas shopping for our secret santa exchange at some nice craft markets

4. Purchased some items from Living Hope's store...FYI very cool place and amazing beautiful crafts! And all proceeds go to benefit Living Hope women!

5. Hosted a BBQ at our apartments for all the volunteers and some other Watoto staff

Babies home update:

Beginning of 2010 Lord willing Suubi Babies Home will be up and running. This new facility will be able to provide care for approx. 100 babies. This is very exciting to be able to see continued growth in this area! There will be a lot of changes and babies getting moved from the current babies home in Kampala to Suubi. So a lot of prayer would be appreciated as staff and volunteers prepare for this. Another babies home is being constructed in Gulu. Completion is not expected until closer to March of 2010.

One of the girls in my elephant room started walking this week. Lily just keeps on growing and learning new things. It is encouraging to see these children taking new steps into their future. My little boy Chris is going to be moving back with his mom end of the month. I am very sad about this and yet happy he can be reunited with his mom. He came to Baby Watoto as a preemie and just cannot believe how far he has come looking back at the pictures of him when he first arrived!! God is doing a great work here!

Looking forward to our apartment's Christmas party this Sunday and the Christmas Cantata that Watoto Church is presenting next week!! There will be quite a few volunteers packing their bags and heading back home and new ones coming!! So it will be a bittersweet time!!

Continue to pray for protection and good health amongst the staff and volunteers. We do have several babies in isolation right now cause of a nasty rash that seems to be spreading amongst the babies! We are praying that this will be the solution to this problem!

Much love to everyone at home!!

For the children,

Kara

**featured in picture is Lily