A couple weeks ago, on a Friday night, we had just arrived back from a concert, or from doing something, whatever it was.  The n ext day, Saturday, was Ivan’s birthday. I had sent the girls and boys all to bed; however, Ivan kept working on organizing his tub and whatever else he could do to stay awake, because he wanted to be awake when it became his birthday.  Most of the boys stayed awake with him.  At midnight, I went down and we celebrated and cheered.  We, Moses and I, then decided to have a little fun with the boys who were awake, in honor of Ivan’s birthday. We loaded up my old pickup truck, dumped the trash that was in the back in the dumpster, then drove around “Ugandan-style” around the campground with some kids in the back, some in front, making crazy turns, sliding in mud puddles, etc.  They had a blast. They cheered so much, they woke up the girls, who then questioned me the next morning about it  Most importantly, Ivan had a blast of a beginning of a birthday.

The next day, I took most of the other kids for a ride… well, I let Moses do it first. I rode in the back with the kids. I could hear my shocks and everything giving out, making groaning noises as we hit the bumps.

In February, within a couple weeks, we took 3 different trips to Alabama.  Now, everytime we take a trip over 30 minutes it seems, one of the kids ask, “Are we in Alabama”?  The other day we were driving to Thomaston, GA for a concert.  I was driving, Moses was in the passenger seat, and Patrick had come up and knelt near the front to talk to us.  As we neared Thomaston, there were a lot of thin black streaks all over the road where repair had been done to the road.  Patrick looked at the road, then said to me, “Why have the roads become like Alabama?” (No offense meant if you are from Alabama… or Thomaston;)

So, yes, an update post is long overdue. I send my apologies to those who have been trying to keep up and havent been able to.

We had an interesting group meeting/Bible study the other night.  Being on the road a lot, at least in the beginning,  and with the busyness at home sometimes,  our group meetings suffered.  But I am doing my best to make sure we have them as often as we can.  We  talk about the day, sometimes the upcoming day or the day past and review.  If there are any issues or topics of discipline or things we need to work on, we cover that.  Sometimes the kids will ask questions and we will talk about some fun they have had. When I remember, I try to get the kids to talk about how someone in the group has been kind to them.  We also do rewards. I had some form of a system setup where they earn points by good behavior, and if they do really well that day, they get a candy. It’s funny sometimes how at least in the beginning some kept asking every bit if they lost any points.. funny, but also sad, because I didnt want them to live in fear that they would lose a point for something random. We got that cleared up mostly, I believe.

Well, back to the interesting group meeting we had. One of the main things I like to do at group meetings is our Bible study. It was hard in the beginning, as I mentioned in an earlier post, to do a Bible study because of their level of English and understanding then.  Most of them have come to understand a lot more of the words used, which has been a big help.  We have been slowly going through the book of John, little section by little section.  A lot of these kids have great understanding, especially Sarah.  Ill read it, and often they can repeat the story back to me with good detail. When we review, they remember much. I did notice recently though how a few of them  do most of the answers, and some never  raise their hand for anything.  I am going to have to do better about calling on them anyway.

Ok, again, now that everything is set up, the interesting meeting.  We were reading in John how Jesus doesnt do anything except what He sees the Father  doing, etc. in John 5.  I had emphasized and repeated John 1:1 where it talks about Jesus as the Word being with God from  the beginning and that He is God. After reading that section in John 5, Patrick asked me something to the extent of, “If Jesus is God, how did the Father send Him”?  When you go through the book of John, the Trinity is so evident in the passages, its hard not to see it… so we ended up spending the next number of minutes discussing the Trinity, talking about Jesus, the Father, and the Holy Spirit, how there are 3 persons in 1… and how we really can’t understand it.  They either did really good with understanding what I said or it went so far over their head that they just sat there wondering what in the world I was talking about  while smiling and nodding their heads. However it got more interesting when Sarah asked me something to the extent of, “If Mary was conceived of the Holy Spirit, why was Jesus born and not the Holy Spirit,” and also in a way “If Jesus is God, why did the Holy Spirit have to do it” kind of question was in there too. I was like, “Sarah, I never really thought about that before, but good question!” I dont remember how much or exactly what I said with it.

Then it got better.  Gertrude said to me, “In class they taught us that Mary and Joseph were Jesus’ parents” and I got in there somehow in my head that she said something about Joseph producing Jesus. So here I am with a bunch of 8-12 year olds, and thinking that is what she said, I said without thinking, “No, Joseph didn’t produce Jesus,” to which I got a bunch of laughs and giggles. Mark laughed and said “A man produce a baby” and laughed some more.  Oops. I then explained just like some of them had step parents, Joseph was Jesus’ step parent.

It became even funnier after the meeting was finally over. The kids sometimes come to me afterwards to talk to me about things by themselves, any issues they are having with someone or something else, or whatever. 3 of the boys came to me giggling, after the girls left, and asked me, again while giggling, “How does a woman get pregnant?”  Moses later told me they were probably just teasing and just wanted to see what I would tell them, but it still made it quite interesting, thinking of how to answer without answering.

This is more of a sidebar to everything with the choir and is not necessarily related.  I am pretty tired at the moment and this is what I had thought about before, so I thought I would share it anyway.

On our way home from Talladega, Alabama, we watched one of the Jesus cartoon videos that someone gave some of the kids, “Heroes of the Bible” or something series. I don’t actually get to watch much with them, but I do get to hear them a lot.  You have to understand on this trip, I was tired, had just taken a 5 hour energy drink a little bit before this, and it was late. As we were driving along, the movie was going over different miracles of Jesus. It got to the feeding of the 5000 men + women, etc. This part actually had me with my mouth open in shock and my hand sticking out in a “what in the world” pose for quite a few seconds. When they talked to the boy with the loaves and fish, and the boy started responding, the boy broke out in song. Now, it was not a musical video. There had been absolutely no singing before (and no singing afterwards), but seriously, the boy started singing about only having brought the little food he had and such.  I was thinking, “what in the world!” It got crazier too, because I realized that it was a jazz beat he was singing too, with a sax and the drums, etc. in the background. Then when the boy stopped singing, the music continued while Jesus broke the bread etc. and blessed it. I tried REALLY hard not to imagine Jesus standing on the mountain with the jazz poetry glasses talking in the style of the jazz poetry style… whatever it is called.  But I did imagine a jazz band sitting on top of the mountain playing in the background… that would be cool.

The sad part though, was, in my tired but 5 houred energized state, the idea of the singing continued with me.  When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, I just waited for Lazarus to pop out, snapping his fingers and doing some jazzy tune. Then, sadly, I thought about how interesting it would be if Thriller was playing when Lazarus popped out and he was dancing to it (I know, too far;).  But it didnt stop, I started thinking, “hmmm, what songs would go with other miracles?” I thought about the clip they had of the wedding where Jesus turned water into wine, and the song “Red, Red Wine” popped in my head….

Thankfully, however, none of those things happened, save the random solo in the middle of the video. It’s great what one’s mind or tired mind will do to entertain oneself.

As for the kids, I love them. They are doing wonderful. I keep having so much fun. Ill have to actually write something specific when I am not so tired =P.

I love watching certain movies with the kids. I love to see them laugh, and I love to see them expressing their pure joy in th fun they are having, with whatever they are doing.  I was not able to watch it with them, as I was driving the bus, but I could see their expressions while they watched Facing the Giants. At first it was kind-of slow for them, and they did not seem to be into it too much.  Later, as the movie progressed and they were playing and winning the football games, the kids got into it. I loved seeing their faces at the end of the movie, with the game on the line.. so excited.. so hoping that the fieldgoal will go through, that they would win… waiting in such expectation. Then when the field goal is made and they win the game, there was a great eruption of laughter, cheering, and clapping. They were so happy and excited.

The other night we watched the Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe at home on one of our nights off.  At first some of them were not very excited or into it, but as it progressed, they got hooked.  I explained that Aslan represented Jesus. I love that movie/book for many reasons, for one because I like that style fantasy book. Secondly, because it has such excellent spiritual symbolism and allegories in it.  I love how it explains the “deep magic” and its laws written from the beginning of time, which Aslan said he was there when they were written. The law called for the blood of a traitor on the stone table. Sacrifice had to be made every time… until one perfect sacrifice came and took the traitor’s place.. and then the stone table broke – NO MORE SACRIFICE EVER NEEDED! I love it.

Back to the kids though. When Aslan was getting killed, some of the kids were asking “is he going to come back to life? Is he going to come back to life?” Others were saying, “yes, yes”. But there was a tenseness, a concern.. I cant think of the right word. They are not where many of us are, always knowing that in the end the good guys are probably going to win, this or that is going to happen.. they dont see it that way. They really dont know whats going to happen so they are sitting on the edge for it.  When the table broke and the morning sun shone, and Aslan appeared, much happiness occurred with the children.

Another aspect with that is when the tense or uncertain scenes happen, such as if someone might possibly die.. but they are saved.. the kids will be relieved and say things lik “God is good” and “praise God”.  I loved at the end of the movie when the battle was being lost, Peter was in trouble.. was Aslan going to make it in time to save them? They were sure cheering and “worrying” about him making it.  I love it. And what was neat too was that some were uncertain about the movie or were not into it at first because it started out slow to build the story… the next day, when we started for Alabama, almost all of them wanted to watch the movie again on the bus.. And we did!

I had a friend (cough – Mrs. Pat) remind me that I can write short articles and write more frequently. I have been very blessed by people who tell me they read my blog or they check it every day to see if there is omething new (which makes me feel bad for not writing more). So thank you for reading!

As an update to my phone, I found an old phone that I used to use but stopped because it started having sporadic problems… but I’m thankful I have it because it is a phone with a working screen! I did realize my speaker phone part was on the bottom section of my old phone, which allowed me to answer with my old phone that way.

We arrived back in GA this afternoon. The children were so very excited about reaching Skipstone (which is home). EXTREMELY excited. They were bouncing up and down. On Hwy  16, riding near the RR tracks, they thought we were getting real close and started bubbling. When we actually got close to home, the energy was very high and shouting and laughing etc. occurred.  The kids love host homes – but after a while one starts missing home home.

The kids rode bikes today till it got really dark.  Most are riding very well. Others are still learning, which is fun to help with. Some just need a push start. Others want you to stay with them the whole time. We had one girl fracture a bone last week riding the bike. It did not help she was riding outside the normal area and ran into a wooden wagon!

I mentioned in the bus today that some friends of mine that they know just recently had a new baby. They were excited about that, and then starting asking me when I was going to get married and have kids. I told them I already had 17 … (kids, not wives). They said they wanted me to get married before they leave so they can be here when it happens and sing at the wedding.  Ha.

I broke my phone today. Well, technically I personally didn’t break it. The impact it had while falling down the stairs is what broke it. My phone split in half. So if you call me, I can answer, but I can’t see that it is you calling nor can I hear you.  Just talk.

We’ve been blessed with lots of good concerts and fun experiences.  The kids went to an wildlife animal park friday and took a boat ride to see the manatees. It is just fun experiencing new experiences with them -seeing otters play, hippos popping out of the water, manatees swimming around.

Miriam is hilarious.  She has such a personality and can be so much fun.  Today, Giggles (Gertrude) was, well, giggling, during supper. Miriam looked at her and told her that she would help her laugh and then began laughing really loud.

Ill try to add more later.  It is late, but I wanted to write something.

When we left this morning for Florida, we had the heater on.  When we arrived at Vero Beach, the air conditioner was on.  It is nice down here. After about 7 hours of driving with multiple pit stops, we arrived early to the church we are singing at tomorrow.  I planned pit stops every couple hours or less, for the kids and for me to stretch my legs as well. The fact that the bus bathroom was filled with items for travel didn’t hurt the need to stop either .

Traveling,  or really anything, with the kids is fun. Going to rest areas for rest room breaks was even fun.. maybe just for me.. but thats probably because thats when I really got to more interact with the kids, walking with them and talking. Even then they are fun and a pleasure to be around.  We got a brief glimpse of salt water somewhere around I-10/I295 near Jacksonville.

Staying at the Moore’s house, the lawyers house, was fun. They took the kids to Johnny G’s, one of those arcade/rides/lasertag kind of places.  The kids had a blast. They discovered ticket games, sadly, and did their best to rack up as many tickets as they could. There was a virtual roller coaster where you sat in the machine with a big screen right in front of you projecting the space roller coaster, and the machine turned you upside down and all sorts of ways.  Moses and I tried it first, then the kids did.  I was not totally sure at first how they would react to going upside and such, but they loved it. All did.. save Miriam. And it was my fault. All the other kids tried it and loved it, even Emilly (now George.. Ill explain later), who is the youngest of the boys. To be safe I rode with Miriam in the roller coaster in case she did get scared, and she did.  I was holding her hand the whole time to try to help, and she enjoyed it at first, but I got distracted when my keys fell out of my pocket (nothing fell out the first time I rode), along with some other items, and were sliding along the top of the machine when we were upsidedown, me trying to catch them again. She had enough of it pretty fast and didnt really enjoy it. I didnt find everything that fell out of my pocket either =o. But I did get my keys.

Laser tag was a lot of fun.  In the first round, both Moses and I were playing, so the kids were split up on who they were chasing.  On the second match, however, Moses had left, and they all seemed to gang up on me. I think I was walking backwards the majority of the time with at least 5 Ugandan kids chasing me around. It was a blast though.

The next day we rode up to Macon to Mr. Moore’s office to meet the people there and sing a song.  When we were in Macon, one of the girls said to me, “Mr. Thomas, are we in New York?” I explained that we were not in New York but in Macon, and she said, “they have tall buildings like New York”.  It was precious.

The Moore’s had set up a show at the Macon Museum of Science and Art with its animals.  The kids were able to see a hedgehog, spiders, a parrot, a ferrett… and snakes.  When they brought out this giant snake, I had about half the choir suddenly appear on my lap. It was quite humorous.  It is fun too listening to the questions they ask people, especially in places like that.

One thing I especially treasure are the hugs, especially the goodnight hugs.  The girls especially are fun about it. Many of them as they have gotten to know me have opened up, and the big hugs I get, the fun they try to have while doing it (such as pretending they are asleep.. Ill pat them or give a small hug anyway and walk on, then they will pop up suddenly and say “My hug, Mr. Thomas!” and wait for a big hug), I love it. The boys don’t necessarily have as much fun with it, but they love the hugs, too. I want every child to know they are loved and cared for, that I love them and that God loves them. I tell them I love them as often as I can. I know most if not all probably never get much of anything like that at home in Uganda.

I’ve thought about this. Each child is different and special. My initial thought when in Uganda was that with the kids I can not have any favorites. Then I thought about it. I realized I was wrong. If someone came and asked me, “hey, do you have any favorite kids in the choir?” I would say, “Yes, yes I do. 17 of them.”

Side note, it was Sarah’s birthday on Monday. She turned 10. Joseph’s is this coming Monday. He will be 12. Sarah had her first “party”and birthday cake she ever had.  Happy birthday!!

Side note 2: For my dear parents and brother and wonderful friends whom I have not been much in contact with over the past 36 days. I am sorry. I love you people.

If I would remember that I dont have to write long posts and explain all when I write, I actually might write more =p.  I just always want to go into detail, and sometimes it is so hard to explain things. Sometimes its just the daily routine. There are so many small things that can happen in the daily routine, but sometimes they are hard to really express well so that someone else would experience it in a way that was true to the event. But alas, I will try.

Poor Diana had a small “growth”? on her knee. Poor girl. It was a bump-type thing that we had to poke and drain stuff from (I know, a great story to tell on a blog- at least I didnt name exactly what we drained.. and I love my great medical vocabulary too that I am instilling).  Anyways, I hope after today we wont have to poke anymore.

All the kids seem to have stuffy noses and coughs – like me =o. Friday/Saturday I started with a sore throat, hoarse voice, cough, etc. The horse voice made it extra interesting with me trying to get 17 kids get ready for a two week trip.

And yes, a two week trip. We are south of Macon now a bit near Perry, GA.  We will be here till Saturday when we head for Vero Beach, FL.  February is a crazy month for us, incredibly busy, but God is good, these kids work hard, and its going to be great.

It really has been amazing seeing the turnout at a lot of concerts. At FBC Cochran, they use their fellowship hall for one of their services.  Sunday night for the concert, it was packed, and they kept having to add seats. I mean PACKED! It was great. The Lord blessed. The host families fell in love with the kids, and the kids loved them in return. We had over 60 sponsors that night. Praise the Lord.

Monday night was a smaller church in Lumberhead (I think thats right), and it got pretty packed, especially for a Monday night! Then there was Tuesday night – Helena Baptist inHelena/McRae, GA. It was packed. In fact, even with the extra seats added, some people sat in the choir area.

Funny story about our trip in Lumberhead.. (and if you are affiliated in the story, please dont take any offense, it was just funny for us). There was a small gospel radio station in a small room in another church there. THey wanted to interview us and some of the kids. For those of you who dont know, I drive the bus for the kids.. along with living with the kids 24/7, taking care of technical details, etc.   When we were up in the room,  the lady was asking everyone what they did and figuring out who to interview.. she turned to me and said “and you’re just the bus driver” and kind of waved me off. It was really funny for all us American adults.  That has been a joke ever since used both ways.. they’ll ask me a question about something, and Ill say, “I dont know, Im just the bus driver”, and jokes the other way around. Its been fun. Ted now enjoys telling the story and introducing me as “the bus driver.”

I dont remember their last name, but currently we (Moses and I) are in the house of one of two Georgia federal prosecution lawyers (or something like that) for a couple days. They have been really nice,  and they have a very nice and large house. I got almost got lost walking back through the house to get my luggage.  The kids are all sleeping downstairs, with Moses and I in nearby rooms.  I know the kids are going to enjoy the next few days with the activities that are going to happen.

Well I better sign out now, its after midnight… again.

If you have never heard one of the Ugandan Children praying, you are missing out. I love to hear them pray. I love to see God move when they pray too. Miriam is one of the smallest and youngest girls, but if we ever need someone to pray about something or for something, she is one of the first I will call on. I love the thankfulness for the simple things that I may not think about very often. Here is an example: They will often pray things like “Many are dead now, but we are still alive. Some are on the streets, but we have a place to sleep. Many are hungry, but we are well fed. Thank you Lord for your blessings.”

God has blessed us greatly with our bus. Thank you for those who prayed for us about it.  Just a couple weeks ago, the bus was looking like it might go to the junk yard.  Now it is running incredibly well and looks very sharp.  Some friends of Skipstone and the ministry volunteered their weekend last weekend and put in a completely new engine in the bus (which was purchased at a discount price, refurbished, with 2 year warranty).  One of the airbags was leaking. They replaced that last week, along with all the others, and apparently all the bags were worn out, because the bus feels like its sitting about a foot taller! Chip has wrapped the bus with pictures and designs and logos, etc. It looks REALLY good. I am VERY proud driving this bus around. Thank you Chip and all the others who have helped to do this. Ill try to post some pictures of it soon (I dropped my camera the second or 3rd day the kdis were here, bent the lens, no pictures for Thomas  ).

I continue to love getting to know the kids more and more. Today was neat, in the fact that today, finally, I started the positive reinforcement program with the kids.  I have certain behaviors we look for every day, and they get points based on how many they do well every day, and bonus points and a treat if they do it all well.  They get rewards down the road with different point markers. It was neat the see the excitement and throughout the day the kids reminding each other of things. Nakato was real funny. We cleaned out the bus before we left for the concert, and she kept asking me every couple minutes, saying, “Im helping clean Mr. Thomas, how many points do I have?” Then she said, “I feel in my heart that I have 100 points.”

Here is another Nakato story. We were in a gym after a school assembly, and the kids were playing basketball. One of the boys was feeling bad, and I retrieved some medicine for him to take.  The medicine that I had was the kind that was chewable and flavorful, being children’s medicine. I gave the boy some, and Nakato told me that she wanted some, too.  She wasn’t feeling bad nor was she sick, so I told her she didn’t need any, and she said “Yes, Mr. Thomas” in that sweet Nakato way.

A little while later I walked across the gym to pack up the audio equipment, and Nakato came over to talk to me. She told me, “Mr. Thomas, the ball hit me in the mouth, I need some medicine now.” I said, “No Nakato, you don’t need any medicine, you will be ok.” Nakato, again, in the sweet Nakato way, said “Yes Mr. Thomas, I will be okay.” Then went off to play again. You will just have to meet her. It was funny and precious.