Traveling to Uganda
Michael Christmas and Chris Westbrook are two young men who are traveling this Sunday from Gainsville Georgia to Uganda. They will be staying for two weeks at Amazing Grace Orphanage working with the kids, playing with them, and giving some music lessons. They both come from Lakewood Church in Georgia. Michael's been planning this trip for almost a year now, and they are ready to head out this week. They will also make a stop in Gulu Uganda to see Jolly Okot with the Invisible Children and they are planning a two week stay in Kampala. Please pray for them as they travel - for safety, enlarged perspectives, humility, and wonderful times with the kids and adults from Uganda and Sudan. And Michael just experienced a family member unexpectedly dying this past week.

The reality in Kenya
Dr. Oronje reports that his daughter is very sick currently. The drought in Kenya still is affecting prices of grain, and many of the children in the area are going without meals. The kids on the right are Gitonga's children - they've been helping Dr. Oronje clean up the clinic in the slums.

Dr. Oronje also reports that there was a mother and child sleeping in the hospital bed next to his daughter. The mother found out that her daughter had AIDS, and slipped out of the hospital abandoning the infant.

One very exciting development comes with the recent UNaids report that the HIV/AIDS infection rate may have slowed or peaked. The BBC article is here.

New Photos from Tanzania
Jo French in Tanzania (who currently runs the Dodoma Sponsorship Program) has uploaded a whole collection of beautiful photos from her life and work in the East Africa region. You can view her photos by clicking here.

Prayers for our friends and various needs
* Please pray for Dr. Oronje's daughter (picture on the left) She is seriously ill in the hospital in Eldoret - and has been for several days. Dr. Oronje has asked us to remember her in prayer...
* Susan Tabia is still dealing with serious back pain - it might cause her to cancel some planned activities this summer. Please pray that she will heal quickly and God will give her peace as she heals.
* Pray for Michael and Chris as they travel this month to Uganda.

St. Bartholomew's Children Have a Home on the Web!
I've completed a webpage for the St. Bartholomew's Orphan home in Kajo Keji Sudan. St. Bartholomew's is a sister orphanage to the Amazing Grace Orphanage, and currently is home to 35 kids. To quickly get the information on St. Bartholomew's, you can now click over to www.sudanorphans.com.

Also, there is a photo gallery of the kids and the environment they live in at Lahash:

St. Bartholomew's Photo Essay

AIDS Training in Kenyan Churches
Dr. Oronje and Nick have been busy the past weekend spending time in churches in the Eldoret area. The photo above is Dr. Oronje talking about the dangers of AIDS, how to find spiritual and community counsel and support once a person is infected by AIDS, and also how to protect against Malaria.

Friends and Organizations
The past couple of weeks I've met with several friends traveling to East Africa. Melanie Brown from Imago Dei just traveled to an orphanage near Jinja Uganda. She'll be there for a month. Kim Davey will be traveling to Amazing Grace and St. Bartholomew's over the course of a month and a half this summer. Michael Christmas and Christ Westbrook will be visiting Amazing Grace in a couple of weeks. And Becca Mayer and Brandi Web are heading to Uganda for a couple months this summer. They will be recording their observations at this blog: Unwritten Memoir.

I also just met with Nathan from BlueTree up in Seattle. Nathan and his organization gather and organize bands and artists together to raise money for humanitarian causes in the developing world. Jan

Babies!
The picture on the left is of Dr. Oronje's little girl Laura. Our team was around for Laura's birth, and she was actually named after Laura Iatesta - who traveled on our last trip! Susan Tabia in Sudan also just wrote to say that Ezbon and his wife just had a daughter which they named "Sagule"! You can email congratulations to Ezbon at: wudezbon@yahoo.co.uk

ERM Events in Portland
Emmanuel Sitaki and the team at ERM are holding several events this month in Portland, Oregon. They are preparing to head to Rwanda this summer with a team. The events page has the following dates:

* June 9 - Film Night
* June 23 - Auction and African Dinner 7 PM - 9 PM
* July 7 - Film Night

Music from Uganda
Timothy Bata (my friend from Uganda who has offered his invaluable help with music) worked together with two local Ugandan musicians - Balikoowa Herbert and Shaban Kalwaza - to record several traditional pieces for the upcoming Lahash documentary. One of the songs was featured on the new Kibera video.

The photo above is of the three musicians recording in Timothy Bata's studio in Kampala. Shaban is a nationally known artist that currently teaches at Uganda Martyrs University, and Balikoowa is able to tune 90% of African instruments on the pentatonic and diatonic scales! I'm not that involved in music - but it sounds impressive. I've been really grateful for their help in our projects, and am posting another song in its entirety:

Play MP3: Crested Crane

Enjoy the fresh songs of Uganda - streaming right from your computer!

Tenderfeet Children's Center Webpage Launched
I've created a page at www.tenderfeet.org for Mama Margaret's school for orphan kids. This is the school that was recently highlighted in the Kibera video.

Mama Margaret needs friends to raise $8000 for her school. This money will be used to purchase the building that they currently rent (saving a lot of money per month) and provide critical schooling and food for these orphan kids who otherwise would grow up without an education and most likely turn to the shady underworld of crime and prostitution in the slums. If you'd like to make a donation to the project, you can write out a check to:

Dan Holcomb
10750 NE 4th St.
Portland, OR 97211

Thanks!

Kibera Video Online
The video of our team's visit to the Kibera slums in now online. It's a short 6 minute documentary on the Lahash friends experiencing Africa's largest slums firsthand. Kibera is a community in desperate need:

* Nearly 1 Million people live in the slums
* 100,000 Orphans
* 30 % infected with HIV
* No running water, garbage disposal, or electricity
* 3 public schools

Our team visited Mama Margaret - who is a Lahash partner. She and her courageous team of 6 volunteer teachers instruct and care for 137 orphan kids. The provide schooling, some medical attention, and one meal a day for the kids. She has recently written a proposal to Lahash requesting $8,000 in order to purchase the buildings that they rent, and provide a year of schooling and meals for these kids. Check out the video over at the Lahash website, and then email me if you'd like to get involved with this project!

Kenya AIDS update
Drawings from kids who've lost family members to AIDS in Kenya
Nick has sent several emails recently from Kenya. The team is doing well in Eldoret, making use of the new car, and busy with visiting patients and running the Renew (Sex Worker Recovery) Program. The photo on the left is the local team from Munyaka after winning a soccer tournament - they are standing with Dr. Oronje - who's assisted with the formation of the team to promote AIDS awareness through sports in the town.

The Renew program is now in its 5th month. Josphine is one of the ladies in the program, and she recently sent this letter thanking the community who support her in her new life apart from the sex industry.

"First of all receive greetings from me. I am so happy to say that your assistance has been good to me and this entire family of mine. Thanks for your support and care. May God bless the work of Lahash."

It's our goal to raise $1,000 this month to purchase clothing and shoes for a store for these ladies. The store will provide alternative work to the prostitution that the ladies used to be involved in, and the extra income will head back into the AIDS emergency assistance. Please email Lahash if you'd like to be a part of this project!

To see the photo essay of the Renew program click here.

Good News in Darfur!
The spotlight on Darfur has revealed good news in the past few days. The largest rebel group signed a peace agreement on Friday (story here), and President Bush has called the conflict a "Genocide" and urged Congress to approve $225 million in food aid (story here).

New Video Coming Soon!
I'm working on a video segment of our trip last November to the Kibera slums. It will be up on the web within a couple of days.

Prayer
* Please pray for Ezbon and Susan right now. Ezbon has had a tough fight with Malaria, and the leadership of the orphanages are tired and discouraged at this point.
* Please pray for the summer events being planned for Lahash, and that our final paperwork with the IRS will pass through the agency quickly!

INVISIBLE CHILDREN RALLY - Portland, Oregon

This past weekend the people of the United States came out in force protesting the atrocities in Uganda and Sudan. On Saturday evening, anywhere from 60,000 to possibly 100,000 mostly young people came out into the streets of their cities to sleep in central areas to show support for the kids that commute each night in Northern Uganda. Portland Oregon was one of the best organized cities, and up to 1800 showed up and about 1000 spent the night in Pioneer Square.

The crowd was filmed for 20 minutes (I'm guessing for a time lapse shot in the final version of Invisible Children movie)

Leisha Adams (the Lahash board treasurer) attended the rally). There were 3/4 of our board at the event and 3/7 of our Africa team there.

Many in the crowd stayed up all night (singing and debating and talking). I was with Karin Rosain and Laura Iatesta and her boyfriend Josh. I also chatted with fellow JBU'ers Casey and Abbe Schilerpoort, met Relevant writer Rebecca Mayer, was interviewed by a Don Miller camera crew, talked with a lady from the Portland Trib, met many of the leaders of the various groups that showed up, and we got a good 3 1/2 hours of sleep on the brick surface.

What did I take away from the experience? I have no idea how it will affect the war in Uganda. The protesters before the Iraq war didn't seem to make much of a dent on world affairs. But I think there are some other positives about the event.

1. The kids and adults in Uganda will see the film and know that we care about them.
2. It united thousands across the country for a moment to focus on the struggles our family faces in Africa.
3. It gave some much needed press coverage in the rotation of newspapers and tv channels.
4. Many people prayed for the region.
5. The Portland chapter organized into a leaders meeting and Erik Wecks now can connect with 30 concerned leaders of Portland by email.
6. There are many in the crowd that learned huge amounts of information by the excitement and the documentary about our neighbors in Uganda and Africa.

DARFUR RALLY - Portland, Oregon

So, after we woke up and packed up our sleeping bags in Pioneer Square, I went home and napped some, got in a service at Imago Dei Community, and then went to the Darfur rally (held at the same location as the Invisible Children event).

There were probably 2000 or so people at this event, which was much better organized with speeches and dance and stickers and signs.

I was pleasantly surprised to see a couple of friends speaking at the event, one of them was Sam Dilla, from Southern Sudan. He is part of the Sudanese Christian Fellowship here in Portland. He was encouraged that so many people took time out of their day to care about Sudan.

There was a huge gathering of Christians and Jews at the event, and it was so encouraging to see the Jewish community remembering the holocaust survivors in this manner by trying to lend their voices to the genocide in Darfur. Up to 400,000 people of Darfur have already died in the past few years.

Itafari founder and president Vicky Trabosh and her husband John attended the event. Vicky's been giving advice to the Lahash board, and just came from a speech at the United Nations commemorating the 11th year since the Rwandan genocide. She is headed to Rwanda early this month to connect with Rwandan humanitarian agencies.