MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 07-21-2012

Hello again! The work at Juru is finally finished. Here are some pictures of the finished church building there. Thank you to everyone who contributed to help get this thing built. 

Pray for us. This month was a "Perfect Storm" of bills that landed on us all at the same time. First, our car needed significant repairs. The road to the refugee camp is very bad once we pass Kabingo. It's the worst Jeff or I have ever seen it, and when the rains come, it will only get worse. Pray that whoever is "eating the money" and not grading the road will be brought to justice, and we can get our road fixed. The cost of driving out there is very high because of the violence it does to our vehicles. Jeff had the same exact thing happen, at the same time (I had to replace a radiator, engine/transmission mounts, and an air compressor, he had his whole engine apart replacing some tie rods and a blown head gasket).

Then, within days, I had to pay five months rent in order to seal the deal on the new home we are moving into soon (another massive chunk of money). As I've mentioned before, I've been having problems with our landlady. Well, she took us to court to try to force us to pay her back rent, even though we have paid up through October of next year by way of all the improvements we have done to her property (this is required by the contract). She is also attempting to triple our rent, even though, again, the contract forbids it. So, I have hired a lawyer, and he is currently mounting a defense, as is required around here by law so we don't automatically default in favor of our nutty landlady. We have also filed a countersuit to get the money we are owed, and court costs, which is also a required part of the defense. Naturally, I had to pay legal fees. We do get these back when we win our case, but until then, I had to pay the money up front. Pray he wins the case (he should), and the court settles this matter soon so we can get the money we are owed. Pray we receive justice in this matter.

I had been negotiating with the owners of the house we were considering renting (the other house fell through. The land was too small and the muzeyi wouldn't sell his parcel of land nearby to make it bigger.) I was trying to get them to agree to certain things, like price, and renovations prior to moving in. Then, I find out that one of the local brokers is showing the house to somebody else, and, even though the owners had already agreed to rent to us, the broker was attempting to snake the house out from under us with a much higher offer. This necessitated some quick action on my part, which ultimately required figuring out how to cover the rent we weren't expecting to have to come up with 'til October, and getting a written contract pulled together by our lawyer to get the deal finalized and in writing. I managed to procure the house, but I had to make a counter-offer, which raised the rent some.

The landlady/landlord are being very cool about it. They are constructing a wall around the compound, and are doing several other things besides to improve and repair the place. They conceded to most of our requirements. The land is bigger than what we have, and the house is also bigger and much nicer. We will have more available rooms for the kids to be spread out a bit more, and also have a dedicated schoolroom, a library/office, and a sewing room for Anna, which will also be the laundry room. Plus, the place has a storage room, so we won't need to build a shed, and it has a guest room for when people come here to visit (this is a must here). We get a huge porch, which I will enclose with a rail to keep out the dogs, and it has French doors, so we can open the front of the house all the way up for maximum ventilation. AND, it is not bordered by any roads, so we won't have people passing by disturbing the dogs, or ignorant children throwing rocks at us or cussing my children or begging for food through the fence, or drunks across the street laughing and playing loud music late at night. It is also much more secure. The ten foot wall will keep out burglars, and the prying eyes of folks who apparently believe that God called us to Uganda to serve as a live-action reality TV program for their ongoing entertainment.

I had to get a carpenter and a plumber in to make some changes and additions (this was my part of the renovations), which ate still more money. These were necessary things, like screens to keep out mosquitoes, and hot water in the the kid's bathrooms. I had to get these going so we can start moving in next month after I'm through painting (fortunately, we had not finished painting this house when the landlady commenced her shenanigans, so we just kept the paint we'd bought, and will be using it at the new place). Plus, both the electrician and the plumber had to do their breaking (all buildings are made of cement here, so any changes like pipes or new electrical wiring require breaking and patching) so the landlady's engineer could get everything patched and like new all at once. She is paying for all the electrical work, by the way, and is providing the cement and sand for all this, which is a huge help.  

All of these things happened in the past two weeks. The financial strain has been excruciating. The one bright spot, however, is that our tenant in our house in the States seems to be for real, and has paid her deposit and first month's rent. The timing was most providential, because I could not have absorbed all of these bills this month, and covered the cost of that house at the same time. Pray I can get everything paid for and our finances stabilized before we go back to America next March. Winning our court case sooner rather than later would really help with this.

At this time, we are making a gradual, orderly transition to the new place. All legal entanglements are well in hand and we are in a strong position to get everything we are owed. We will have time to get settled into the new house and make things secure before we have to leave for furlough. It's all for the best, but it did make things rather stressful and uncertain for a few weeks. Pray all work at the new house progresses well and with minimal expense. Pray for our impending move, that all would go smoothly. Pray for our looming furlough, that I'd be able to get the needed meetings scheduled, as well as get the money saved we will need in lieu of this. 

Thank you for all your prayers.