Hi there!

Fall is upon us as we set are clocks back an hour, days get shorter and the night air gets cooler. You may have heard Mary & I are in the planning phase for our upcoming Uganda trip, and it is only 60 days until we leave for Kibura.

I'd like to take a moment to explain both the what & why of this trip. First, the why. As some of you may know, Mary and I became Christians in our teen years (in high school for me, & in college for Mary). Since that time we have sought to live our lives to honor God. We have not always succeeded (but it is a BIG aspiration after all).

Our desire is to, as it says in the book of Psalms. “Sing to the Lord,bless His name; tell of His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all the peoples!For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised”….Psalm 96:2-4.

Our desire is to LIVE our faith no matter where we are and as occasions arise share our faith. So, when the opportunity arose for us to help a small church in rural western Uganda (along with others from our church) we felt it was a great way to reach beyond our own little world here in Maryland.

Secondly, the what, of what we will be doing? The details are not nailed down yet as we need to be fluid according to the needs of those we'll be there to help.

On previous trips our teams have built wells to bring fresh drinking water where there had only been contaminated  wells before. That alone has had a MAJOR positive impact for the lives of the people in the village. Many of the health issues of the villagers have been dramatically bettered because of this fresh drinking water! Last year the teams also helped repair the mud homes of a number of widows.

They have a very simple life and there is no government assistance for these people. Because there is no aid available if something begins to deteriorate they fend for themselves. We anticipate that there will be more homes to repair this year as well.

The local pastor we are assisting (named Moses) has asked for our help as he and his small church host a youth conference that encourages youth from all over the region to live for God and to share His love with those who do not know Him. We will also be doing drama; music and sharing in open-air meetings that he'll be leading. Something that may even have a more lasting impression than words maybe showing them that there are white people willing to work side by side with them.

Racism is a daily plague on this nation, and working along side of them is definitely out of the ordinary. We hope that our serving and working might help open doors and eyes to see their equality and great value to God regardless of skin color.

Another prevailing idea among many in this nation is sadly, that women are not valued at all. They are more often seen as a beast of burden rather than a partner and definitely not someone on equal footing with a man. Our hope is that we can demonstrate how very differently God sees and values women. How He created men and women to be equal being respected, loved and valued.

Summing it all up, the reason we are going is to simply live our Christian faith and bring honor to God by serving the needs of the Ugandan people on a very practical level.

If you'd like to be a part of what we're doing, you can support us in prayer! There are all sorts of practical things to pray for (physical stamina, no one getting sick, no political or tribal unrest to erupt). Pray also for our spiritual well being. We want to represent both America and God well. In a since we are ambassador’s.

Thanks so much for taking the time to read about this trip! If you want us to keep you posted on this Blog of our activities and how it goes, send us an e-mail address and we'll make a group list to show photos and let everyone know what we did!

If anyone is interested in getting a more details on the well project check out the website:

http://www.giveugandawater.org/

Good stuff! God Bless!

Paul & Mary Foster