More of the hosue!

Here are some more pictures of the house! I dont know why they did not get on the last post! :)

This is our NEW house!

Ok we have been blessed beyond we can imagine! This our new house! dont worry we are just renting! it is right on the lake by Branson Landing. Jordon will be moving in during Christmas break and i will stay with my wonderful roommate, lindsay cooper here on campus! but ill be over a lot to do my laundry for FREE!!!!
Our house will always be open, so please come visit!
Sorry i dont have picture of all the house but here is a few. the stuff you see the the photos are not all ours. but you can at least get an idea!

Putting the Icing on the Cake
Talk about on HUGE adventure! We just cannot believe that it is already over, what an incredible blessing it has been to be able to study not only the culture, but also the lifestyle of another country! We became part of the countries that we lived in and those places and people will always hold a huge part in hearts and in our daily lives. It really is insane the amount of times this experience pops up in conversations. Also, the lessons that we have learned from it have changed us as individuals and has obviously played a huge part in the people that Jesus Christ is molding us to be! We faced stuggles, laughed endlessly, cried in sorrow and in happieness, have seen God's miraculous hand move an entire nation from genocide to justice and forgiveness and have in our own hearts been convicted and refreshed by the beauty of many African people. We cannot begin to justly describe the emmense transformation that has taken place in our lives. This was not the "Typical" missions trip, but rather a time to focus on where God has us on our journey with Him and a glance into the direction that He is leading us! We gained wisdom that can be used in any area of our life no matter where God places us in the future!

Speaking about the subject of "us", as many of you know, Leah and I are now engaged! I know that all of you are sitting on the edge of your seats to hear how I asked! Well...here it goes! From before the time that we left to Africa I had planned to ask Leah to marry me! From the first time that we went to Africa I told myself that if Leah and I ever had the chance to return that was where I wanted to purpose! I bought a diamond ring prior to leaving for Africa and purposely left it in the States in hope that I wouldn't lose it or have it stolen! I had it all planned out. I wanted to ask her at an orphanage and have all the kids help me! I told a couple students from the Go-Ed Study Abroad program my plan and asked if they could help out as well. Whenever we arrived in Uganda, our house parents told us of an orphanage that we would be going to alot! Ironically, the name of the orpanage was The Jordan House Orphanage! I knew from the moment that I heard that, that this was the place I always wanted; and it was! Leah and I gained a huge relationship with the children and the orphanage parents knowing most by name! At the end of the four months, when Leah and I were getting ready to leave in a week, I decided it was time! A few weeks prior I went to the orphanage and brought some computer paper and crayons! I wrote one letter of "Will you marry me?" on each page. I told the kids what I wanted to do and asked if they could help! They said "yes" and each one of them colored a letter the way they wanted and wrote their names on the back of the paper! Also, I told them the song that I wanted them to sing to us right before I asked her. -Fast forward a week- ( "the" engagement) I asked my Go-Ed friends to leave early with my Video Recorder, camera and the papers! They arrived at the orphanage about an hour before Leah and Me. She had no idea! We finally arrived and the kids were singing and dancing. Leah and I joined in and after two songs they sang the song that I asked them to sing. Meanwhile, they were each holding a papers in their hands. Leah did not even catch on! During the song, I turned to Leah holding her hand and said. " Leah there was actually another reason why I brought you here today! I wanted to bring you here because this is a place where both of our passions and desires lie. God gave us a heart to work with children and people that are impoverished and because of that I felt this would be the most perfect place to ask!" Still having no idea she responded, "oh, yeah?!" Then I told her that I had the children help me out a bit and by that time the song had just finished and the children flipped the papers to the other side and Leah read, "will you marry me?" She looked back at me and by that time I was on one knee and I asked with all the excitement swelled inside my heart " Leah will you marry me?" Then she screamed "YES, of course"! It was the most perfect moment! Here is a picture of that!

Of course, she began to cry and the children began to dance around us! We had so much fun with all of it!

So now here we are back into the norm, Branson, Missouri! Living the same type of life with all the same people and trying to figure out exactly where we stand in the middle of all this! Alot of things have changed with Leah and I! Many of our ideas have been transformed and, as funny as it is, alot of the ways that we interact with people even has changed! I remember the first week when we returned, Leah and I had to go renew our liscence and when I had to interact with the people there at the office I was so nervous because I had lost much of that type of interaction. It has been a very interesting adjusting back, but we are doing just fine! There is not much left that I can think to say, but I will end by sharing with you a little bit of what we learned in the four months we were gone.

Leah reading her Bible!

Prior to leaving, Leah and I both agreed that our ideas of poverty were very similar; hunger, no shelter, no money, (you know) the child that has nothing and sits on the streets begging for food or money. Well, because of this semester our idea has been brodened! No longer do we define poverty upon the appearance of a situation, but now we understand that it lies in each one of us! Africa, India and many other developing countries are given the title of being poor because it is very obvious to the eye that they are suffering! But I would like to challenge everyone that is reading this blog to look below the surface. Not all forms of poverty are that obvious. People are stuggling with mental poverties, spiritual poverty, social poverty and etc. And if their needs are not being met their poverty will only get deeper! As cleishe as it may sound, Jesus Christ is the only cure for ALL poverties! There is not a doctor, councelor, or enough money to cure even the most obvious of poverties! It must start with us recognizing the Great physician, Jesus Christ!

Picture of Jordon holding baby Jordan at the Jordan House orphanage!

I want to end by thanking every person who helped with support and also spent time to pray for Leah and I! We are both very excited to see where we will end up! And If any person has any questions or comments about anything! Please, just ask or write us at: jordonleah@yahoo.com ! We would love to respond to them!

Have a GREAT day and God Bless!

Love Orphans

Greeting to all!
Instead of the "normal blog" i have a proposition for you....

While being here in Uganda i found an orphanage that was started by college age Ugandan . And one of the ways that the orphanage gets money for food, school fees, health care ect. is to sell paper bead necklaces that the children make. However, there is a little problem....everyone in Uganda makes paper bead necklaces therefore there is not a huge market for them here. Therefore, some of the GO ED students decided that we would take some of the paper bead necklaces back to the States to sell in order to make some extra cash for them, This would be a huge blessing for this orphanage because they are not sponsored by an outside source. I am really excited about helping out this group of kids that are trying their hardest to make it. However, i was wondering how many of my friends and family would be interested in buying a paper bead necklace for a cause such as this???

Maybe this is something just to think about...this blog is not about trying to get you to buy jewelry but this is just a silly idea we had to help out a group of kids and we will see if it will work

besides that Jordon and I are doing great! i think we just realize the other day that here in a two weeks we are really going home.
WOW it just seemed like four months flew by! This next few weeks we will be finishing up our classes and be debriefing our trip!
Not to mention Jordon 21st birthday is coming up!
If i were to be honest i can not wait until Monday gets here because this is when my economics research paper is due and i will have no worries!
on a random side note....Jordon and i have been in awe of all the random things that have been going on back at home such as: earthquakes, tornadoes, flooding, hail, snow storms, and the list goes on and on! man sometimes i ask my self in a joking manner.....is the world coming to an end???
So when we come home we can not wait to hear about all the things we have missed out on.
love you all and God bless!

BLOG?

Greetings Everyone!

Today has been a GREAT day! Jordon and I went to the Baby Orphanage. Where we were not allowed to take pictures but just believe me when i say these babies where so cute. These children at the orphanage were between the ages of 0-4 years old. There were about 40 babies there and all of them were abandoned. It was sad to pick up theses smiley, happy babies that you knew had either TB, HIV AIDS, or some other disease knowing that theses babies families could not take care of them. But i can honestly say we had the time of our lives.

So the last few days in Kampala has been crazy! All of the taxi's and boda's in the town are on strike and yesterday they had a riot! (and if you dot know about African riots....they are scary! it involves: killings, burnings and police blocking roads with bob-wire, ect.) Have no worries we are safe. But Long Story Short, all the taxis and boda's are upset at the government. They are upset because the gov. is making all the taxi and boda drivers get new vehicles. It is really sad because the taxi and boda drivers barely make enough money to feed there families let alone buy new taxis for themselves. Today's newspaper was really sad. Jordon and I bought a copy so we have to show it to you when we get home. But today it was hard to find transportation around town since all the taxi drivers are on strike. lol in spite of the transportation problems, this afternoon we went to a play at the National Theater. The Play that went saw was called The Black Momba.

Well, Jordon and I are really not looking forward to this week....we have to do an 15-20 page economic research paper, two economic test, and need to read books for class. But after this week we will be able to have fun again. lol!

Each day seem to go by so fast. I can not believe that in three weeks we will be back on a plane to go home. Although we will be glad to see our friends and family we are going to miss Uganda so much. Africa is a place that sometimes seems like home. God is rocking our world. However, we find it hard to express in a blog. We love you guys so much! Thank you for all the encouragment! We will write more soon!

Uganda means Buganda means Luganda!

Uganda means Buganda means Luganda!

We know that does not make much sense to anyone who has not been to Uganda, but Uganda is the country, Buganda is the area of the Bugandan Tribe (which is where we live) and Lugandan is the Language that they speak here! Kinda an inside joke to us, sorry bout that! Well, we are so glad to be back home here in Uganda. It has definitely been a life changing experience traveling and seeing other areas of Africa. There is so much that we have taken from this experience so far, most is not clear at this point. I feel like for us to come back the same people as we left is not possible. Our eyes have witnessed things that are so pleasing, but in other times things that could haunt a person for life. The way people worship here is incredible. Sometime we have to ask ourselves what makes us joyful and we realize by the people here that it is not in material posessions. It is difficult to explain the excitement and faith we have seen in the people here, just imagine having nothing, but at the same time having everything or praying with expectations when it seems that no one hears your cry. The faith that is taking place here in Africa is something that seems unwavering.

Let us tell you about two women that work here at our house. Their names are Grace and Howa. These women mean the world to us.

Grace is the woman on the left of Leah and Howa on the right. These two women are the most incredible women we have met in Africa. Introducing you to Grace, she is beautiful woman with heart of Gold. She is unmarried and on here free time she studies recipes to satisfy our American stomach. She is such an amazing cook, but she also has other great qualities. She loves to learn new cultures and I am tellin' ya she can do almost everything. She braids hair, she cooks, she is a stellar volleyball player, she has a contageous laugh, she tells jokes and keeps up on the daily news. She is one of the Africans that we met that is not afraid of Dogs. Overall AMAZING! The most amazing thing about this woman is that she is a servant of God and a devoted christian. She spends here time taking care of everyone. When she is not serving the Go-Ed students she is serving family and friends. She visits the hospitals to check on people and tends to her home village in order to provide for them. She is like an angel sent by God to watch over everyone. Sometimes we joke and say the reason why she is not married is because there is no man in this world that could compare to her. She is so great! Howa is her friend and a great servant as well. She loves to talk and is improving greatly on her English. She loves to learn and she has a smile that could turn anyones frown upside down. She is a divorced woman and has a wonderful 6 year old daughter named Shadia. It is a wonder that Howa doesn't quit, she cleans up after all 15 of us, keeping the house spotless; and let me tell you that is a chore and a half. She is such a kind hearted lady. She has the most incredible heart and she is such a beautiful person. Our prayer is that one day Howa can find her value and freedom in Jesus Christ. In that picture, Leah is striving to be like Grace and Howa. And of course the first step is having the same apron! LoL!

We could talk about those two people for hours-We thought we would share with you a little glimpse of the people that are making an impact in our lives. Sad to say we only have 4 more weeks left in Uganda and we have alot of loose ends to tie. Please pray that we will not get stressed over the work we have left to do and please keep both of these wonderful women in you prayers. In addition, please pray for Leah, she has decided to change her major to Sociology with an emphasis in social work...it seems a little late in the game, but she feels that without a doubt that is where she needs to be. She has done a lot of research on what it requires and it is manageable to still graduate on time. God is really molding us alot into the people that he has desired for us to be and we both feel that God has been working on this situation even before we came, it has just become obvious since we have been here. We will leave you with a few random photos to satisfy all of your photo craves. God Bless you all and thank you so much for reading our blog! We love you all!

P.S. Thank you so much Lisa Rohr for all your encouragement! We love you!

This is us on the Ugandan Equator

Leah on the northern hemisphere,
Jordon on the Southern....you just

cannot keep us apart. LOL!

This is right outside of our gate in Kampala, Ug.
Standing by the FH sign.

Leah and our house dog, Jack

- she states "Jack is not as cute as Jake"

Our favorite place to go for a good morning,

afternoon and evening snack!

Lion what is your name???

Let me just tell you the safari rocked my world....

Our safari was at Queen Elizabeth National Park which is located in Uganda.

We stayed at the game park for three days! In those three days we went on 6 safaris. We would wake up at 6:00 am to go on our first ride then we would go again at around 5:00pm for our night ride. Here are some animals that we saw during our African Spring Break!

Warthog~ they were EVERYWHERE and they are so funny! Not only did we see them during our safari ride but we could also see them when we walked around our hostel.

Baboons

So many Elephants. I just think that this picture is funny because the elephant is "just" crossing the road

Hippos

Water Buffalo- I hear they are really mean, but I thought they where so cute! They run so funny and I think this one has poop on its head.

I don't know what this is....but there are millions of them; they are beautiful! You can always know when a lion or leopard is around because these deer always just stand around and look at the predators.

These are mongees. They were all over our camp. Jordon and I would stock them around camp. They are funny animals!

Hyenas! We saw Three!

WE SAW SIX LIONS! AMAZING!!!!!

****IN ADDITION, WE SAW a leopard!!!

*This photo was taken when we were all on top of our bus waiting for the leopard to come closer... it never did but it was beautiful!

In addition to our stellar safaris we also went on a two hour boat safari! Jordon and I saw TONS of Hippos and BABY hippos, crocks, along with birds and more birds! We had so much fun!







The beginning of our African Spring Break has been AMAZING! Today after a 12 hour bus ride we are back in Kampala and it feel like home! It is good to be back! Please pray for us as we only have 4 1/2 weeks left and we have many projects! We love you all and miss you all very much!


PS. If Cob reads this blog.....The transfer file worked for a while but 10 minutes after you logged out the file failed b/c the internet quit! I'll try to be on the Internet a lot so that I could maybe get that song for my project Thank You!

Rwanda, Rwanda!

Greeting everyone!


We are both sorry that we have not been keeping up on the blog as much as we'd like to! Sometimes Internet is limited! However, we are learning so much and at the same time we are having the time of our lives. Therefore, in this blog we will briefly describe what we have been doing in Rwanda!!!

This last weekend we went into western Rwanda to celebrate Easter. We stayed in a hotel on the side of lake Kivu! It was a nice place to relax and reflect on what the true meaning of Easter is and in addition take time to reflect on the things we have learned about Rwanda and its past genocide. On Sunday we went to church and they asked the Go-Ed students to sing a song for the church. It was so much fun. Seeing how Rwandans celebrates Easter Sunday was very interesting. It was 100% focused on God. This was truly refreshing!

After the service we all went out on the lake. We took a boat to two different Islands. The first one was called Bat Island. On Bat island there are thousands and thousands of bats just flying around. IT WAS AWESOME. Then the second Island, 'Peace Island' there was a volleyball net, we went swimming and there was a monkey you could play with. Jordon loved the monkey so much! But the monkey got a hold of Jordon's shirt that he was not wearing and wanted to put it on. However, when the Jordon tried to get the shirt back from the monkey... the monkey made it very clear that he wanted the shirt! The monkey got mad when Jordon reached for the shirt and the monkey jumped at Jordon scaring him to death! Good thing it was on a leash tied to a tree...

*Yes these little black things are bats. This picture was taken at the highest point on Bat Island.

Last Monday, before leaving lake Kivu we went to a graduation of men and women that completed a reconciliation program while learning how to sew using a sewing machine! It was so encouraging to see an effort to rebuild Rwanda after the genocide.

**These are pictures of us at hotel Mel Collines. (which was the hotel in the the movie Hotel Rwanda) Becca, Jordon and I had a fun night out at the Hotel. We ate at the restaraunt on top which overlooked the entire city of Kigali (the capital of Rwanda) we ate soup and Ice cream, but it was kind of, okay...VERY, expensive! But worth it! Once we were finished we found this awesome place next door. Inside they has singing! We thought it was Karaoke so Jordon and Becca thought they would sing a song. It was so funny. Later we found out it was not Karaoke but it was an actual band performing and they just let Jordon and Becca sing for fun! Everyone thought they were famous and that they should get a record deal. We plan on going there again tonight to say good bye to our new friends! It is going to be sad leaving here.





The last three weeks in Rwanda has been difficult, emotionally challenging, but also so much fun. God has really open Jordon and my eyes and widening our horizon to see things differently. However, if I had to say only ONE thing that I have learned from Rwanda it is that there is HOPE. What Rwanda has been through the last decades is so terribly sad, but they are looking forward onto their future and it is really encouraging. It just blows my mind how wonderful the people are in Rwanda, they are full of love and forgiveness. God is continueing to transform our hearts. I am excited to see what God has in store for the future. Looking back and seeing how difficult it was coming here to Go-Ed I just Praise the Lord that Jordon and I are here. We are here for a purpose. I am so excited to see what the Lord will do with our lives through this experience. I can not say it enough...But thank you for all the prayers and support.

Intro to Our Rwandan Experience

A Glimpse of our Rwandan Experience...So far!

Alright, we are both in Rwanda. This place is amazing; there is a good climate, the land is green and people are very quiet and reserved. There is a place called Bourbon Coffee which is very nice, much like Starbucks, but it is very expensive! We enjoy going to Bourbon and just relaxing sometimes. It can be a good “get away” when we need a little western break from the Muzungu (white traveler) treatment. But to be honest, we could not have it any better here, we have made some friends and we have really enjoyed our class on Peace Building and Conflict Resolution. During our studies we have been able to visit many of the genocide memorials in which we were able to gain more knowledge and recognize the realization of this most tragic event. Here is an excerpt from my journal:
There were several things that left imprints on my heart as I ventured through this memorial museum. The first thing that struck me was the imagery of the machetes, guns and clubs used in the massacre; knowing that the tools that lay within reach of me were weapons that took the lives of men, women and most sadly children. The torture that was described in the journal entries, which expressed one of the most horrifying events in the history of the world, it was described that people were humiliated, tortured, beaten, mutilated, raped, then murdered. As I walked further into this diary of the genocide, I stood face to face with the clothes that were worn by victims at the time of their death, then photos of those who met their fate during this genocide. My stomach began to feel upset and I had to sit down in fear that I was going to vomit. The reality was beginning to hit the surface. These were real people, with real families, and real lives. They each had interests, fears, humor, and personalities each awaiting their future ambitions, goals, and dreams. The blanket of security that families found in each other, friends and their community was ripped away like that of a scab on a healing wound, by the same people which they found their security. I am disgusted and embarrassed by the sinful nature of mankind. I then stepped into a room filled cases that exposed the remains of the innocent. My mind has with drawn once more.

Although, studying the genocide can be extremely depressing it is best to focus on what is happening now in Rwanda. There are many NGO’s that are dealing with the reconciliation of Rwanda. There is one thing that I believe Leah and I have both have seen and that is how God is working through the people here to forgive one another. It is unbelievable the testimony that Rwandans have; here are a group of people that nearly wiped out half of there population due to genocide and the thing we noticed the most 14 years later is FORGIVENESS! It is incredible. Also, the people here are overwhelmingly accepting and nice to us. I have been greeted by children that run at me just to give me a hug, also men and women greet us in the most comforting ways. Today a young boy ran to me and in the little bit of English that he knew he said “May God be with you!” I think there is an ongoing trend here in Africa, and that is the value of people and hospitality that they have here. Leah and I are doing great and we miss everyone back home, but in all honesty we are having the time of our lives and feel that we are exactly where we should be. Thank you all for your prayers and support. Enjoy the photos and until next time Caio!