Jobs projects and Kampala

The Internet stopped working at the hotel in Gulu two days ago and it still isn't fast enough in Kampala for me to make a blog entry. We spent the day making our way back to Kampala.  We first went back to Kroche Kids and Sean let us pick some hats to buy. Pray for him as he makes a decision to move back to the states or renew his contract. The women were just arriving for the morning work.  We were told there was a big worship at 10am, but we headed out at 930. We at least got to great a bunch of the ladies as they arrived for work.

Then we went to 31 bits and saw the operation there.  There were at least 50 women we met there making beads and necklaces.  They were super nice and I was artistically inspired by beads on of the ladies was making and spent some time talking with her.

Then we walked about a quarter mile to Remnant, another jobs outreach, this one to Congolese women. It is a screen printing operation. We spent some time watching them do some Remnant screen printing. They also do screen printing for local businesses.  They cleaned up and we walked to a hut that was just outside the house.  The women sang us a praise song using a home depot and a stick for a drum. It even had a handle on it that made a nice symbol sound every time they struck it.  New uses for a home depot bucket that sounds better than an $500 drum kit. It was an amazing song. Typically African worship that we just don't see at home (depot). Then they began to tell their stories. It was traumatic just listening to them tell about being brought back to Uganda by husbands who abandoned them in a place that they couldn't even return to their home and were basically forced into prostitution. Most have children here and in the Congo and haven't seen their children in the Congo for 10 years. They are all believers and still struggling as Remnant is still in it's infancy. We prayed over them and it was a tough tough thing to listen to how much suffering some people have to endure. Please pray for these Congolese women, buy something from Remnant and tell a friend all of which will help them create a sustainable income.

We then started the 6 hour drive back to Kampala where we had dinner with Pastor Peter the leader of Africa Renewal Ministry.  This is the organization that with RockHarbor planted Gulu Bible Community Church.  We arrived at our Hotel at 11 and were back on the bus at 5am to make our flight to South Africa.