www.HinesKids.org - 2008 April Newsletter When I got up this morning it was raining cats and dogs! This is rainy season in Uganda, the rain forest part of Africa. It was a normal morning. I got up at 5:30 a.m. (an hour and a half before the sun comes up) and started getting breakfast together with the house nanny, Bettina. We then put together the lunch bags for the kids to take to school. There was no electricity, which has been the case most often this year. We had two candles burning because the generator failed to work. I was very thankful, however, for the rain because it becomes nice and cool. To the average Ugandan, however, it is very cold. After helping Bettina I sat with the children for breakfast and then we got them dressed in their uniforms and sent off to school. I then proceeded to the office. As I was in the office, the clerk from The Marah Medical Clinic came to see me and was in tears. I knew something was wrong. She was crying, "Katherine, my daughter Pherry is going to die, she is going now." Florence has many children. Her husband left her and took another wife. This is something that seems to be common here in Africa since polygamy is legal. A few years ago Florence lost a daughter to sickle cell anemia. Her name was Katherine and she had been named after me. Katherine was only 8 years of age when she died. Now Florence was facing the possible loss of yet another daughter, Pherry Bakita. Pherry's picture is here at the top of this newsletter. Please pray for her. Pherry was born with a hole in her heart and there was no one who could do anything about it. She is 14 years of age and in the 5th grade. She has missed a lot of school because of the problems she has with her health. Now, on top of this heart condition, she has developed a brain tumor and had to be rushed to a hospital in Kampala, a four-hour drive away. She had gone into convulsions in the night and was still convulsing a week later. Pherry is a Christian girl who loves the Lord, Jesus very much. She is very active when she is not sick in the AWANA Club and church. She needs your prayers. We were very happy to have Ken & Liz Christensen from Valley Baptist Church in Montrose, Colorado, with us again for one month. They did a lot of good work, including putting the cabinets in the kitchen of the orphanage on the property into which I will soon be moving. Ken is a carpenter by trade and did excellent work. He worked together with our carpenter and Outreach Minister, Hamidu, and Jon, our short-term missionary. Ken and Liz also worked in several Bible Studies each week and often shared the gospel. This is the fourth visit for Ken and the third for his wife, Liz. We enjoyed having them here and are thankful for the wonderful fruit that we see from their visits. We give praise to the Lord for all he has done through them. Please pray for them. They have a real love for the people and desire to continue coming back to help out every year. The children and youth are coming home from school on break soon. They will again be working on letters to their sponsors, so just know that you will be receiving a letter soon if you are supporting a child. We are expecting many teams this year that are visiting us from America and will need your prayers for all to go well and the Lord to be glorified in all that we do. For Easter we had a game day and hot luncheon for the children. We fed around 856 altogether and had a lot of fun. The kids enjoy these days and we played games up until about 2:00 p.m. and then had a late lunch. All enjoyed rice and beef, as well as a cold orange drink we call Quencher. They all received candy as well. It was a lot of fun including a memory verse competition. Our truck is doing well and we are very thankful for it. We will soon need to replace the van. We use this to drive some of the children to a variety of schools and for our volunteer teams. Please consider a special gift toward this and keep this need in your prayers. I am thankful to God for all of you from the bottom of my heart. Oh Lord, hear my prayer for the children of Uganda and know that I care from the depths down inside me. These children need love that is here everlasting. Oh Lord, hear my prayer for the children of Uganda. God bless you, Katherine