End of the week

Hello again!

Today was an exciting day. It was the last day of our work week with IJM here in Uganda. We began the morning with a moving session of prayer, devotion, and praise with the IJM staff. They take time each day to pray together as a staff, and we were blessed to share that time with them.

The group then met with several government officials who work in offices that address IJM's cases. First we met with two Deputy Administrator Generals, who are in charge of dealing with the estate of every person in Uganda who dies without leaving a will. We then met with the Director of Public Prosecutions, who supervises all criminal prosectors in the country. We expressed our support for IJM's work and for their work to help the widows and orphans of Uganda. We pray that they will be committed to focus on aiding the most needy in society.

In the afternoon, we traveled to Jinja, a city that sits at the source of the River Nile. The photo above is the team at the source of the Nile. It was a great trip, and we enjoyed the beautiful Ugandan countryside on the way.

We just returned from an excellent dinner of pizza with several IJM staff. It was good to be the ones for the first time all week who knew more about the menu than our hosts.

Thank you again for your love and prayers. We are so blessed to be able to spend time in Uganda supporting IJM, and that would not have been possible without the support you have given each of us.

Tim, Nathaniel, Nancy, Molly, and Carol

Week so far

Sorry to everyone for the delay in posting here. We have had technical glitches in getting the blog established.

Here is a quick overview of our week so far - on Tuesday, we met several IJM clients and assisted them with tilling their land to raise crops for sale and sustanence. On Wednesday, we helped with IJM's press conference and program launch. At that event, which was well attended by local leaders, press, and members of the community, IJM publicized its work to combat property-grabbing from widows and orphans and announced the results of a study they conducted in the particular region of Uganda. During the event, Tim, as our and your representative, passed on CPC's support for IJM and expressed our committment to partner with them in their work. Pictured above are Tim and Molly with Allison McKinney, the director of IJM's Uganda office. Today, we helped in a program teaching local officials about the Ugandan law of succession and about how to write a proper will. It was a rewarding experience, and we were blessed to be able to assist in this important event. Tomorrow, we will visit several government officials to again express our, and your, support for IJM and its work.

We thank you again for your support and prayers during this week. It has been a great week so far, and has confirmed for us how important IJM's work here is, and how blessed CPC is to partner with IJM.

God bless,

Carol, Nancy, Nathaniel, Molly, and Tim

First Day

Welcome to our trip blog. We will try to update this blog at the end of each day. We also look forward to reading your comments.

We arrived safely last night and slept soundly after our 24 hours of travel. We had our first day of training with the IJM staff today. Tomorrow, we will visit clients and assist in "gardening" - which we found out today is the local term for farming the clients' land. We are looking forward to our opportunity to get into the field - literally and figuratively.

God bless, and thank you for your prayers.

Travel Day

We arrived safely in Amsterdam and are waiting to board our flight to Entebbe, Uganda. We were all excited to begin our journey, and remain so (despite our short night's sleep). Thank you for your prayers and support.

CPC IJM Uganda Team Prepares for Departure

Three lawyers and two other mission volunteers from Christ Presbyterian Church (www.cpconline.org) are slated to travel to Uganda, November 8th-17th, 2008, to serve with the International Justice Mission (www.ijm.org), one of CPC's mission partners. The team will be working with Ugandan lawyers who work to prevent land-grabbing from widows and other vulnerable populations.

Please keep this fine team of inviduals in your prayers as they travel and represent CPC in service to our brothers and sisters in Uganda. They will be sharing their journey with us on this blog as they are able from the road.

Grace and peace,

C. John Hildebrand
Director of Missional Engagement
Christ Presbyterian Church
Edina, MN