Hello Everyone,

We have had 2 baby girls in the last 3 weeks; let me introduce you to them.

About 3 weeks ago, on a Monday morning, we had a beautiful baby girl born in the prison. She was taken to the hospital and then brought to Calvary about 4 hours after she was born. I got to hold her right away, she is quite precious. On Tuesday morning, we went to our normal prison Bible study, where I learned that the baby is now baby Megan. It is quite and honor! I was amazed that so quickly the women would name one of their babies after me. To name a baby after someone here it means that you want the baby to grow up to be like the person they were named after.

Our Second baby was the fourth born child of JB, our Ugandan pastor and his wife Grace. She was born this past Tuesday. Every Tuesday morning the women leadership of the church gets together to pray for the church and staff. Well last Tuesday morning, Grace did not come to prayer; her oldest daughter said that she was not feeling well. So, we all joked that maybe today was the day. I was the last person to pray and just as I was about to we heard loud voices and people saying that Grace was in labor. I quickly prayed asking God for a quick and safe delivery. We all then rushed to the house and started helping her get ready to go. It was apparent that she was very far along in labor. All of our Ugandan staff was running around trying to grab everything she needed. In Ugandan, when you go to the hospital you even have to bring your own sheets, and a big sheet of plastic to deliver on. Finally someone said she can’t wait any longer she needs to go now or she will have the baby in the car. Jb and Grace raced to the hospital, less then 20 minuets latter we got the call that she had delivered a healthy baby girl. JB said later that they walked straight into the hospital, on to a bed and out came the baby. All of us women joked that we had asked God for a quick delivery, but maybe we didn’t mean THAT quick.

In Uganda it is taboo to prepare things for the baby, even a name, or to talk about it before the baby is born. This unfortunately comes from witchcraft beliefs that you are alerting bad sprits of the baby and then they will take the baby. This is one of the many aspects of life in Uganda that is still impacted by witchcraft.

Schools start their holidays this week, so the kids will be out of school for the next month, which means my load will be a little lighter for the next month. Right now that will be a good thing. I have been working very hard and can use a couple days off. Bev, Jessie and Ryan are all on vacation in Mombassa, Kenya right now. So I am teaching my Bible studies plus Bev and Ryan’s on top of it! I had 3 different passages in Romans to teach in the last 6 days.

The week leading up to Easter was a crazy week for us! On Ash Wednesday we had a communion service and a wedding. Weddings in Uganda end up being over the top expensive and most poor Ugandan’s can not afford it. We offer a Wednesday night service wedding, so that I couple can come before the God and the congregation and say their vows. This makes it cheaper because then they are not trying to feed 400 people, which is the size of a typical wedding. It was a beautiful service and a lot of fun. We all had sodas and a small snack afterwards.

The next day Bev and I drove to Entebbe because at 5:40 am the next morning we were supposed to pick up Keith and Ellen Carpenter. However, we found out Thursdays night that they weren’t coming in till Saturday morning. Bev and I decided to stay because the price of fuel right now is too expensive to justify making the drive twice.

The Carpenters have moved out here to be long term missionaries and work with us here at Calvary. They are out of Calvary Albuquerque. The will be helping Jessie and the school of Ministry and helping with the pastors we support in the Village.

Though Bev and I were away, the church had a great Good Friday service. It is tradition here at Calvary that after the Good Friday services the church caries a cross outside and pounds it into the ground.

Saturday Bev and I picked up the Carpenters and there 12 suitcases, and drove as fast as we could back to Jinja. We pulled into the compound and went straight to a graduation ceremony for our school of ministry (SOM).

SOM is our church worker training program, it is a 9 month course and the next one will start in July. All of the missionary staff at Calvary has gone through SOM in Albuquerque. I however am going to start here in July and do the school on top off my other ministries, boy am I going to be busy.

Ryan and I were invited to a sunrise Easter service and the home of some friends. We then came home and cut TONS of flowers to decorate the church. It was very pretty. At the end of the service the church members take the flowers out of the church and take it to the cross put in the ground on good Friday, they used the beautiful live flowers to cover the dead cross. It was a pretty picture of the new life we have through the cross.

The last week has been politically scary in Uganda. A couple a weeks ago the president declared that he was giving a way a huge chunk of a protected forest to a sugar company. It then came out the government was a partial owner in this sugar company and, that the company has not paid taxes for the last 28 years. An Indian group owns the other part of the sugar company. There has always been tension between Indians and Ugandan’s, it exploded in the 70’s when Amin was in charge and expelled all the Indians from the country, allowing them to take nothing with them and leave all of their wealth and property in Uganda. Even our Christian Ugandan staff will say that all Ugandans hate all Indians. It has become a never ending circle. So last week there were 2 riots, 4 people died. There were Ugandan’s holding signs like “one tree chopped down 5 Indians killed.

Most of the parliament members have opposed the give away of the forest but the president says he won’t back down. He seems to be having a more or a negative impact on Uganda the longer he stays in power. Please be praying for the political situation in Uganda.

Also, you can be praying for Ryan and I, we are planning a youth conference for the 18^th and 19^th of May. We are hoping for close to 100 kids, if not more. The theme is “Spark the flame” hoping to reach many kids in Jinja. You can be praying for the right teacher, that the band we have booked really shows up, and for the finances for it all. We will be having 4 teachers a concert and feeding the kids both days. It will be a HUGE event!

God bless,

Megan