God Bless the USA

First I'd like to to talk about how the United Methodist Church is helping out Uganda's orphans. We went to the Methodist orphanage and school. We were treated royally and the kids were well fed, well mannnered, and looked very well cared for. The facilities were wonderful and the kids faces were filled with light. They had two different choirs that sang and danced for us and they were all in uniforms with the Methodist logo on the shirt. I was proud to be a Methodist! A donor from St. Mark's allowed all of those children to get a new pair of sandals. Thank you Jesus!

God Bless the USA. God continue to bless the USA. God thank you for blessing the USA. On my journey back from Mbarara to see my compassion child a bodee bodeed (moped with 3 people on board) wrecked because of the rain and the passengers fell into the grass on the side of the road. My instinct was to stop and help but my driver just said "they're so stupid for driving in the rain" and kept on going. Ashamedly, I didn't demand that he turn around.

Tonight, we were at the Nile river and enjoyed a boat ride and then went to the white water rapid area. It was beautiful. There were Yale University students there and one student, who was from Kampala I believe, fell into the river and most likely died. One or two of our team members saw an arm raised and then go under. As tragic as this was for everyone, it wasn't as depressing as the guys that had the boats. They said that they would go look if they were paid. Once paid, they asked for more money. After a while they finally went out and looked. I heard that the police said that this happened before and they hid the body until they were paid even more. I've had a hard time tonight trying to wrap my brain around it all.

Before you go to bed tonight, please pray with your families. Thank God that we live in a country that values each person. Thank God that we live in a country that total strangers will help out someone in need because it's the right thing to do. Thank God that we live in a country that will send aid to other countries in need. Thank God that we live in a country where parents still teach their kids the difference between right and wrong according to the Holy Bible. Thank God that he has not turned His back on us even though we deserve it as a nation. I don't know how many times I've thought that I am so blessed to live in the USA. We are blessed no matter how much credit card debt is piled up!!! We are blessed no matter how many hours a week we work!!! (they go home on the weekends to see their families). We are blessed no matter who is president or which political party is in power! We are blessed no matter what the stock market says! We are blessed! We are blessed America!

After all of that, we go to a different hotel to stay the night. There was about 5 or 6 police there to go through our bags and scan our bodies as if we were going on an airplane. This is at a hotel. What am I going to do, shoot someone because they didn't scramble my eggs in the morning? My question is that about a mile away someone died in the Nile river. Where were the police then?

God bless the USA. God bless Uganda.

Charlie