Christmas

..21st today and as we sit in shorts and teeshirts, feeling a little warm, we have christmas carols on, with many singing of snow, chestnuts, donkeys etc....still a little difficult to feel that it is christmas with the weather being so good, but we try and keep our traditions up, advent calenders, christmas pudding, carols, mince pies...no turkey but i think it might be pork...which is roasted over an open fire! similar to the chestnuts?
on tuesday i am taking some of the young people to Luwero prison, we'll take some food, clothes etc and takes some time to display what christmas is all about, songs, skits etc...there will be lots of people about 180+ prisoners and there are normally overloaded , 35+ to a cell!!..
From the last Blog, Tony is now back in Luwero as we did not have enough money to continue the treatment, he is doing ok, and i will see him again this week.
.Happy Christmas and New Year

Uganda: Christmas 2008. After a fantastic time in England : friends, good food, hot baths, 24/7 electric, seeing family, smooth roads, and a family wedding….we are getting used to being back in our Ugandan home….boy it’s hot and so dusty…the heat is proving to be entertaining in our car as the windows don’t work… we can’t open them and so when sitting in traffic (which you do a lot in Kampala) we are drenched in sweat, or Steve is at least….how pleasant!? Kathryn loves school so much that she doesn’t just do it in the week, she leads the team which does Sunday school for the 6-13 year olds(about 80 of them!!).. Sitting under trees, doing everything in 2 languages, very little resources but the children are fun and it is lively!
It is so hot here but I like the feeling of being back and seeing my friends again, (Jensen, Ibra, Jeremiah, Sebufu). It was hard to come back and say bye to my friends in England. With Calvary family us as boys celebrated setting a new “bop it” team score……we danced in celebration. Banda School has started again, we made a circuit. I am getting used to school being just Anya and me with some interruptions from Silas. Joel

I am happy to be back seeing my Ugandan friends, but I do miss my English friends. I so loved going to school in Derby and wearing school uniform. I had a gr8 time in England seeing family and going to the beach. I like being back on my pink princess bike in shorts and tee-shirt….it is so hot but very nice…..Anya
Before we left for England, we had a young man, Tony, staying with us….Tony had been part of new Hope some years ago….He had been abusing drugs for a few years and was staying with us for help and support him but unfortunately this couldn’t work out long term .…the first week we were back Steve picked him up from prison in Luwero - he had been there for 2 months. We took him to a drug rehabilitation centre…this is proving to be very expensive and it looks like we will have to find another place, there are not that many options in Uganda….Tony is a young man crying out for help but going to the wrong places to find it, we pray and hope that he will find the peace and support he needs. We are involved in mentoring another young man, Moses, who was abandoned very young by his father and then over the following years by different father figures in his life. He is really struggling to relate to any father or authority figures and it is affecting every other area of his life…friendships, school, and family. Steve is meeting regularly with Moses to demonstrate positive Fatherhood and work through some of his difficulties.

This Christmas spare a thought for these 2 young men…

I am Loving the freedom of being outside, in just a nappy and sometimes not even that!! It’s Gr8 seeing Ava again. (They arrived at baby house same time and shared a cot together for the first 6 months) silas … ..We used to have 1 mop but after being back for only for a few days Steve used it as a defensive weapon, against a HUGE (6inch!!) snake, the snake and the mop are now both dead!! …As a family we love Christmas with all its trappings… especially as it reminds us how much God loves us all, may you experience that this Christmas…..have a great one and a Happy New Year. Thanks for all your love and support. Lots of love, Steve, Kathryn, Joel Anya, Silas.

browns@emcf.net blodsblog.blogspot.com +256774131671 (Steve) +256775669429 (Kathryn)
P.O. Box 16, Luwero, Uganda