Dec. 20

Ministry Partners,

A couple of important things:

• This blog was created for the benefit of IRM ministry partners and friends. If you are not a partner/friend or have not been approved to view this blog please find something else to occupy your time and treat my request with respect.
• Because of our rigorous schedule with 42 prisons now and showing the Jesus Film at night along with internet issues I might not be able to post on this blog as much as I have in past years. I would appreciate some "grace" with misspelled words or sentences that don't seem to make sense except to my mind, coming in from a very long day.
• Please comment on the blog rather then fb if you have a minute. It's such an encouragement to us after a long day ....... longer day ..... and even longer day!

The giraffes are correct I have arrived safely in Africa after a very long two days.

Thanks to John and Linda for braving the rain and not only getting me to the terminal in good time but went in with me to the counter with John schlepping all four of my #50 suitcases! And all my luggage arrived with me.

In Amsterdam I had the opportunity to share the Gospel with the very nice young man that took me in his motor cart from the Delta terminal to the KLM terminal. Although my layover was only a bit more than an hour I arrived with about 15 min. to spare before boarding.

A very nice young christian woman of 27 sat next to me and we had a great time chatting about her 4 adopted Ugandan sons and my son Alfred. She asked a lot of questions about IRM and during the one hour layover in Kigali, where we stayed on the plane, it became evident that the African man who was seated in front of us was also enjoying our conversation. He stood, turned around and said, " Are you ladies Christians?", to which we both echoed, "Yes".

He is a pastor in Kampala and after asking me lots of additional questions about IRM and how I started the ministry he gave me his business card and wanted me to contact him on a future trip that we might minister at his church.
Pastor Aaron and Pastor Peace met me at the airport and I must say their broad smiles made my tiredness melt away. We got to the new hotel we are trying out about 11:30 and I fell into bed about 3:30 only to arise before 7 for our very busy day.

Today we went into Kampala and while Aaron changed dollars into schillings Pastor Peace and I worked to finalize our order with the Uganda Bible Society, with the bibles to be delivered to us tomorrow at 10. We then went to the Uganda Prison Authorities and met with Apollo to give him the funds to procure some blankets for us to distribute to the prisoners, he will bring them tomorrow at noon. Aaron left us to finish with Apollo while he went to pay for and pick up the Discipleship Booklets that Alfred had ordered a few weeks ago from Australia. He has done so much coordinating for weeks and will every day while all of us continue to pray for a miracle that he might still receive his passport and be able to join us.

Arron returned and we went to the grocery store to purchase bottled water and supplies for our lunches. By the time we returned to the hotel it was well after 5 with Peace actually falling asleep in the van as we drove home.

We each tried something different from the dinner menu just to see what we might like in the future and although it took longer that they told us it would Aaron and I thought the food was the best we have had here. Peace's pizza was not something I would order again but the Sweet and Sour Pork and the Cashew Beef was good. You would have smiled watching us as we shared all three meals.

I am a bit weary and need to get to bed so will close for now.

Please pray for:

• Open hearts for the Gospel
• Favor with everyone we come in contact with 
• New unscheduled opportunities
• Traveling safety in country
• Health and energy for the complete team

That none would be lost,

Arlene