IAM IN UGANDA

On April 17, my Baton Rouge friend and next door neighbor, Robin Cook, arrived in Entebbe Uganda. After spending the night there we traveled to Kampala to take care of IAM work and then proceeded to Mityana. Robin went right to work as she taught and led a women's Bible study two days after arriving. She taught a session taken from Laurie Cole's study of The Temple--glorifying God in our everyday life. Although this is an in-depth 11 week study, Robin was able to give the women some valuable highlights and teachings on the Tabernacle. We had 10 women who stayed about 2 1/2 hours Sunday afternoon. On Monday, Peter, one of the young men with IAM, wanted to know if she could teach the study to the boys, also. So the following Sunday, Robin taught 21 men in my home the Bible study written for women! We had great discussion, sharing, and teaching under Robin's leadership, and we hope to continue working with the materials Robin left for us.

With Robin's professional training and education as a CPA, she spent much time working with Henry, Peter, and Akimu on accounting and record keeping as they are all involved with administrating various activities for IAM. One of the most valuable lessons she taught the young men was on fiduciary trust---the definition, importance and practical application of it. Needless to say,this was not a term they were familiar with ,and Robin soon learned that unfortunately many in Africa are not practicing fiduciary trust and responsibility. It is very important to all of us at IAM that money donated to the ministry be handled with utmost honesty and integrity. I was grateful for Robin's instruction and I believe the knowledge that the young men now have will be handled wisely!

Because of Akimu's extensive record-keeping with the administration of funds for the expenses of the chicken project, Robin spent several hours with him transferring all of his records onto professional accounting paper. He caught on quickly and is now using the new method of recording.

Robin used her skills as a problem solver to help me in many areas. We walked over the orphanage grounds and hostels more than once discussing ways to continue to improve the conditions of the orphanage and the responsibilities of the orphans. We met with Peter, Henry, and Ruth one afternoon for several hours to discuss new ways to handle certain situations there. Robin had the opportunity to attend several meetings with me with both students and adults in attempts to solve various problems, some involving other charities at work here in Mityana.

We visited Gema where the small Baptist church has been recently planted. We did door to door visitation and attended the Wed. Bible study led by Henry.

On Friday, April 24 we drove to Fort Portal in western Uganda, a three hour drive where we spent the night and did some sightseeing. On Sat. morning we traveled two more hours to Bwera, a city 10 miles from the border of the Congo. There we had a well-organized meeting with 75 Baptist pastors, church leaders, deacons, youth leaders, and Sunday school teachers deep in a village at a small Baptist church. We presented the books, taught and trained, and answered questions. We left there at 2:30 pm and made the five hour trip back to Mityana.

Before heading to the airport on Wed., we stopped in Kampala,where we loaded up the 1500 new copies of Book Two, The Disobedience, so Robin can testify that we have them in hand.

Robin's trip and contributions were such a blessing to me, the guys, the people of Uganda, and IAM. When I returned home last night, the house was very quiet. I think I have had the last of the visitors for a while. Anyone interested in coming???

Thanks, Robin for all you did. I will be posting pictures from the trip.