Mpigi

Another amazing yet exhausting day! Even Dan admitted that he was
getting weary. Today we visited the Mpigi EPC. Pastor Jimmy was
waiting with his hand out as usual. I told him that I had no
authorization to give him any money for school fees (he said something
about he himself going back to school or some such). We had a great
turnout of kids. Wait until you see the video. We are running hundreds
short at each place as we expected but no angry mob. We did have to
hand some socks out at a place near Kiwatule (the one that used to be
with us in the EPC and then left) as the crowd was so huge but we had
only a small amount of shoes (100) but in sizes that were way to large
for many of the kids. I have a great picture of about 150 kids
surrounding me with their shoes and socks. Just as we were finishing
the picture, the sky opened up and one of the meanest rainstorms I've
encounter in Uganda fell on us for nearly an hour. We were stranded
for the time anyway as we had to send the van off for repairs. We have
been having some trouble with the radiator and a piece on the front
right suspension. I have no idea what it cost to fix but we had to do
it to make the trip to Kassanda tomorrow.

We got to eat at Garden City today. Dan was impressed at the dozen or
so waiters that were each trying to get us to eat their food. I
settled for the mixed grill from Pardis and the others had chicken
and/or pizza. So far we have done well on the budget and have kept the
team happy and hydrated. It's a good thing since it was very warm
again today until the storm moved in.

I have been preaching my same Christmas message at all three churches
having saved the Zaccheus sermon about forgiveness and restoration for
the big crowd on Sunday (at Michael and Kato's request). Our crowd
tonight was real small because the rains came at the time of the
midweek meeting.

I am not certain of our schedule on Sunday for food but Dan got to
experience a small Talapia at The Chef. He had the hairy chop as they
call it and I had the chaps. I am looking forward to Indian on
Saturday night at Garden City. We are always somewhat tired as
they are picking us up at 8 a.m. sharp and returning us to the hotel at 7:30
or 8:00 each night. I think we have about 400 more shoes to give away
tomorrow and Monday on the way to Jinga. We are making great headway!
I'll keep you up to date as I can.