Wednesday 18th October
Today is the first day of our conference and I woke early at 4am – wish that I could have slept in a bit longer. We meet Edward for the first time today. Edward is a pastor from Kabale in Uganda who we are sponsoring to attend the conference with us. After the conference we will head to Kabale with Edward to look into the possibility of partnering with a Community Based Organisation that he is involved with, Victory Community Care Services (VCCS).
We met up with Edward prior to registering with the conference. Our first meeting was very warm. For me it was as though we had grown into who we are, on other sides of the world, specifically to meet at this time. It was almost as though we were meant to be friends. At home I have often found it hard to fit into the normal church community, always feeling a little out of place, but Edward was the first of many people from Kabale that I know I will get on with so well in the future.
After we met Edward, we went to register for the conference and we visited what was to become the first Babies home that Watoto has. This home is almost ready to start and will be a great facility and blessing to babies in Kampala. We went with Edward in the afternoon for a late lunch, where we spoke much about our lives in our own countries. Edward also shared a part of his vision for VCCS outreach to children. He shared about their ideas about starting a boarding school, rather than an orphanage. The main reason for this is that in Kabale, as with most stable regional areas in Uganda, children usually have a relative that they can stay with. So unless there is some kind of abuse, or in cases of extreme poverty, most children have somewhere to live and are not forced to live on the street. This does not mean they are able to receive the supposed ‘free’ education or receive an adequate diet. In fact many average people in Kabale do not eat more than one or two simple types of foods most of the time, as this is all they can afford to buy or are able to grow themselves.
Starting a school, where children can be sponsored to attend or stay, would be providing a quality education and also provide a nutritious diet. Providing boarding facilities would allow those children who have been forced to live on the streets or who’s parents or guardians are unable to provide adequate care, to stay and be cared for in a loving, protective environment. We talked about many scenarios and I asked Edward about the housing arrangements that he had in mind as I am keen to ensure that if we get involved, the children would feel love as close to that which we all were intended by God to receive, from a normal family situation.
After lunch, we headed back to the conference for the first serious meeting, a Keynote session, which was very inspiring! I was very tired, and quickly got very sore from the seats, so I ended up deciding not to take notes and resolved to just purchasing the DVD at the end of the conference. After I watch the DVD I may post my personal highlights from different sessions of the conference. After the conference we headed back to the hotel and still getting over the flights we all went to sleep.
