Ethos by Randy Elrod - How To Create Culture

Culture Follows Water-Watch This 1 Minute Video Starring the Beautiful Jennifer Connelly ...

If we are called to create culture, then clean water becomes a BIG deal. My friend Dr. Lucas Boyd says that "Culture Follows Water". Perhaps a mandate to provide clean water to other people who are not as fortunate as we may be in our future. HT: Spence Smith

Sponsor-A-Child ...

You Can Change A Child's' Life FOREVER!
For just $32. a month. Forever.
I have witnessed it with my own eyes.
Compassion International:
Integrity-  .84 of every dollar goes to the children.
Nationals- Investing in Ugandan lives to lead Uganda
HIV/Aids- One of Two HIV/Aids only hospitals in the world
Organization- A plan that works-one child at a time
Leadership Development- Education to defeat poverty and train leaders who understand this problem

I believe in the work of Compassion International. I have seen it first hand. Will you join me and sponsor a child to change it's life forever?

Uganda-Compassion-Leader Has A New Blog ...

You have read the Uganda bloggers thoughts, enjoyed our videos and photographs and caught a small glimpse of the emotion we experienced being in a third world country for eight short days.

Now, through the amazing world of the blogosphere, you have the opportunity to hear from Dennis Tumusiime who was our incredible guide from the Compassion Uganda office. During our trip, Dennis decided to start a blog of his own. I encourage you to link to him and add him to your reader. He is a young man of 25 who is helping create culture in Uganda. He is a hero in my book.

Go Dennis! Welcome to the blogosphere. May your tribe increase.

Uganda-Compassion-Communion On The Nile River ...

The most extraordinary communion of my life. Just as we settled and all was quiet, a hippo snorted a beginning admonition in surround sound. Hundreds of exotic birds sang a litany, the cobalt blue of the Nile provided the backdrop and the trees whispered a soft prayer of praise as we experienced sensory overload. A Moment in a lifetime of moments.

Compassion-Moments In Uganda ...

Uganda-Now, What About Our Children? ...

Wide awake at 4am this morning in front of a crackling fire being introspective. As I process the culture shock re-entry, I couldn't help thinking about my girls. All three of them now.

As an American parent in a land of opportunity, I am responsible to help in "shaving the learning curve" for my girls. Sharon in Uganda at eight years old is only just now starting a rudimentary education. She had lunch at a restaurant for the first time in her life last Wednesday with us and has not traveled outside a one mile radius of her home. She does not have a father figure at home and her mother's income is around $25. per month.

My biological girls, on the the other hand, began reading at four years of age, have dined at the finest restaurants in the world and have circumnavigated the world before the age of 25. They have "somewhat functional" parents who have been married 29 years and provide the stability of a nuclear family with an income that ranks in the top 1% in the world.

My responsibility then is not only to sponsor Sharon and nine other young people in Kyrgyzstan, but also to "shave the learning curve" off my children and others so that they may create culture by living out their calling.

Our children have been given extraordinary opportunity and ability to be dreamers of the day. As Os Guiness says, to "be who they are". As parents, part of our "being who WE are" is to guide our children to understand the practical implications of stewardship and that our bountiful gifts are "ours for others".

"All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake up to find it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible."

-T.E. Lawrence (of Arabia)

BTW: Happy Birthday today, Lauren. You are truly a Dreamer of the Day.

Uganda-Compassion Watercolor

Here he is...at the risk of over explaining, I decided to abstract the painting somewhat. I wanted his face to represent Uganda's children as a whole, so I hid his total personality and included blotches to represent children with health issues. The rest of the meaning I will leave to you.

A great quote: "Everyone discusses my art and pretends to understand, as if it were necessary to understand, when it is simply necessary to love."
-Claude Monet

If you will join me and sponsor a child from Uganda for only $32. per month, I will send you free a signed print of this picture, or if you have already sponsored a child and would like either of the prints I have offered, put a comment HERE and let me know which one you would like.

I would like to ask you to copy the photo of the watercolor below to your blog or website and use the above paragraph (be sure to include the links) to extend this offer to your readers. We want to sponsor as many children as we possibly can. There are hundreds of children like the child in the watercolor who need a sponsor. Thanks for spreading the word.

Uganda Trip Watercolor

I couldn't sleep last night due to jet lag, so I went down to my studio and started processing the intense emotions I am feeling after this life changing trip. Shaun and Carlos create extraordinary videos and Keeley snaps emotional photographs. I paint watercolors. This artistic outlet is when I feel closest to God.

So I thought I would take you along for the process . Here is the graphite rendering of a photo I snapped in a poverty stricken village along a brutally rough red clay road just outside of Kampala. The tire and the stick seem to say that a very simple toy can be just as fulfilling to a young boy as the latest Xbox or Playstation.

I will continue to update you today as I progress with the watercolor. If you will join me and sponsor a child from Uganda, I will give you free a print of this picture.

Also, please give me a shout out HERE if you are reading...

A Long Travel Day From Africa ...

Thanks to fellow traveler and blogger Anne at FlowerDust for this map. Just substitute Abilene and Dallas for Nashville.

I am so tired.

More Uganda posts and video tomorrow - or is it today? Uh, I'm not quite sure. Severe jet lag. There is a reason they call it jet LAG.

Ouch.

Orphans Among Ugandas Bravest HIV Victims ...

Orphans among Uganda's bravest HIV victims

Please click the link above to watch a timely 2 minute video by MSNBC aired today that vividly portrays the plight of the children of Uganda.

80% of all aid comes from AMERICA.

Help cure this problem. Sponsor a child in Uganda TODAY.

Read the posts below to see the latest from my Kampala, Uganda trip last week.