Alright. New day but continuing with chapter 4.....Wayne had said that he thought that I would be the one big hurdle to taking this mission. He was wrong, because I think I was even more excited than him, maybe not, but we both were excited! The ministry that we are working with is called Watoto Children's Ministries. It is so amazing what they have done in the lives of these little children. Many of them were child soldiers and have had to do some really gruesome things including killing their own families in hideous ways. The stories are just heart breaking, but to see these kids now and the hope that they have can ONLY be because of their Father Jesus Christ! Many of these children travel around the world and bring a message of hope to every person they minister to. There are several groups that travel and the same kids never travel more than one tour. It is quite a growing experience for them. They get to see many parts of the world that they would never see. They have sung for the Queen of England, President Bush several times, and have even opened up for the Olympics!!! If you ever get the chance to see them, you should. It will change your life!!! It did mine!!! You can check out their website at www. watoto.org to see where they will be. It will NOT be disappointed!! And you will probably get to see Wayne as he will be traveling with them as the technical director. His primary job with Watoto is heading up the World Tour. This tour doesn't start until 2013. Right now they are working on the "Restore" Tour. They will be traveling to the 40 biggest cities in the world filling up arenas with their message. It is going to be AWESOME!!! Marilyn and Gary Skinner are the founders of Watoto. They were asking a friend of ours what I was like, for they'd never met me before. They told him as much as they knew and that I was a hairdresser. (Cool Story Here!!!) Watoto had just been donated all the salon equipment from a really top-notch salon in Springfield, MO. They had been planning to start a salon to help fund Watoto. However, they needed someone to help that had some experience with this. Also, they wanted someone to be able to teach this trade to the older orphans that were interested in this trade. So here I am.....I am so excited to help with this. I really crave doing hair and would've missed it so much!! Now I don't have to even give it up. Can you see how God has just orchestrated this from the beginning? The Salon would veer more towards the mzungus (white people) and expats, as well as any Ugandans that can afford it! Apparently there is a call for this type of salon, so naturally I'm super excited! We had the opportunity to go and visit Uganda, where the ministry is located, so I could have a better idea of what I was going to need to pack. We got to be there during a huge int'l Watoto conference, which was great, because it really gave us an idea about what the whole of the ministry is about.....the kids. I had a great feeling that I would do okay there and God would take care of us. What I didn't know, until the last couple days of the trip, was if our kids would be okay and able to adapt. I, then, went and saw their school that they would attend and then had perfect peace thereafter! I also got to meet alot of the moms of the students. They were so warm and friendly. I just knew that I'd/we'd be just fine! This was in Oct. of '08.
Wayne had to fulfill his agreement with NCU until May of '09. That gave us time to prepare! I can say that that 7 months between I wanted to chicken out a number of times, and had another 1000 excuses as to why maybe we shouldn't go. Again....God answered all my fears and always gave me perfect peace!!!
So that brings us to the whole "what do we do from here?" We sold two boats, both our cars, 4-wheelers, and had several moving sales and sold basically everything that we couldn't take. God was faithful and we were able to pay off some debt and had a little money left over to start a new life in Uganda. I can't say that it wasn't sad saying "goodbye" to all our toys and belongings, but in another sense, it was refreshing to simplify our lives again!
We were able to keep our home and some great friends are renting it from us. Such a blessing!!!
Wayne, at the last minute, decided to add another bathroom in the basement. The house was in desperate need of another one! It turned out beautifully! I look forward to enjoying it one day! On July 3, Wayne, myself, and the 3 kids, boarded our flight to Africa. We had 13 suitcases and 10 carry-ons! We were a sight!!!
Some very dear friends of ours took us, and all that we owned, to the airport! The goodbye's were hard, but we had to do it!!!
24 hours later we arrived in Entebbe. Long flight, a couple air sick children, and some sleepy parents, but we had arrived. It was 11pm. Which takes me to our next chapter!

Chapter 5 ~~~Life On the Mission Field
Wayne had been to Kampala two weeks before we were to move here, playing drums for BH. He was able to see the house that we were going to be living in! It was all going to be the first time for the kids and me. The ride from the airport to our house is about 45minutes. And we didn't get in until 11:30pm. I wanted the driver to drive slower so that the kids could see what was going on in the streets. It is pitch black here at night as there are no street lights. Africans playing cards, games, and even doing hair, all by candle light. Babies and children were still out playing everywhere on the sides of the roads. I don't know how little African babies know to stay out of the road.....they just do. Not that there are never any tragic deaths from being run over, but I'm just surprised that there aren't more!!!
So we pulled into our compound and the house looked very nice. Watoto had a nice welcome fruit and flower basket with chocolates and a wonderful card! Our driver and personal assistant that were going to have for the next several weeks helped us get all of our luggage inside. We decided to just shower and go to bed. It was after 1am at that point. I slept really hard until about 4am. We live next to a dog training center and also the Norwiegan Refugee Cousil. So between all the dogs and army training chanting and so on, oh and the huge loud birds, that jump you out of bed with their loud, and I mean loud, screams, and I can't forget the roosters that start crowing and don't stop until afternoon. I must also mention the LOUD muslim prayers that they pray on rotating loud speakers. We had to laugh!!!! I was told that we'll get used to all the racket.....that's what all the neighbors are saying!!! We'll see!!!
We are now in to week six of this exciting adventure and, yes, we are getting used to all the noise. Don't know if I'd be able to sleep without it......haha!!!!! I'll write more later!