Seeing Spots! (Monday, Oct 6)

Yes, that’s right, I’ve seen a leopard, up close, in real life, in the wild… kinda.. We were on our way up to Kasese (where me, Mike and Asaph will probably be working for the next month) when we spotted the leopard, not more than 15 metres from the road. Two weeks ago, on our way back from a preliminary trip to Kasese, we spotted a group of elephants, but this leopard easily tops that! It is particularly awesome because leopards and lions are the most elusive of all the animals, even safaris often do not see them, but we got to see one just metres from our car. (I was driving at the time and haven't yet got Mike's pictures of the leopard, so this picture is just pulled off google... =p)

I’m currently staying in the town of Kasese, working with the South Rwenzori Diocese of the Anglican Church of Uganda. While in many places throughout the world, water systems are the jurisdiction of the government, that is not completely the case in Uganda. The diocese here has its own water engineer, who is working with us to identify feasible potential projects that ACTS can help construct. Thus far, we’ve spent two days at two different possible project sites. However, both initial test results indicate that the quality of the water sources are not clean enough to retain funding for a project. The water engineer, Yona, has identified these two locations as the most urgent needs within the Diocese. However, without clean test results, we won’t be able to help these communities. Yona is an extremely faithful man, and he has been earnestly praying that God would provide some adequate sources for us to be able to help these communities. So as we head back up to these sources this coming week, I ask you pray that we would receive clear direction, in the form of test results, in regards to the future of these two projects.

On a side note, the motherboard in my laptop has died (or so Dell tech support tells me) and is on its way home back to Canada, where the warranty is valid. Thus, I no longer have a personal computer to use. On the bright side, we discovered this on the morning just before we left for Kasese, so we were able to bring another laptop along. Had my laptop died later that day, that wouldn’t have been possible and then, we would have had a real problem. So, I guess the lesson of the day is that God’s always got things worked out; if we’re just willing to serve, He’ll take care of the little things, as He always does.

Finally, I ask that you pray for the relationships between me, Mike, Asaph and Yona as essentially, we’ll be a team for the next month. With bad water quality results from the past few sources, as well as some unsuccessful meetings with local district and community offices, we (in particular, me and Mike) are beginning to feel some pressure to find some viable projects soon. So once again, my two main prayer requests at the moment are for:
1. the four of us to work well together as a team, and
2. that we would be able to find at least one adequate water source in the coming week.