Our Inverter System

One of the stressful things about living in Uganda is the lack of reliable power. Electricity can go on and off. Sometimes the outage is scheduled (like all day Thursday) while other times the outage is random. Twice our power has been off for almost 18 hours.

When this happens, things in the freezer melt. We can't run our fans at night, so we are kept awake by the heat and the outside noises (mostly cars and neighborhood parties). The outside security lights are off, so we are at higher risk for burglary. The list goes on.

But more important than this is Lily's work for the Ann Graham Lotz conferences in Gulu and Kampala. Lily spends hours everyday on her laptop sending e-mails, organizing transportation, sending invitations for the 2,000 people attending the October conferences. Her work has come to a halt twice because of no power and a drained laptop battery. That adds a lot of stress especially before a critical committee meeting.

The stresses associated with unreliable power can be alleviated with either a generator or an inverter. Almost all the long-term missionaries in Uganda have one or the other, and they tell us it's needed to make the living here manageable. Generators are loud and require fuel. An inverter is essentially a battery backup system that powers most everything. We have been saving for an inverter for several months.

A few weeks ago we received our financial statement from Far Reaching Ministries. The statement listed unexpected donations from two families. The extra donations were just what we needed to buy the inverter system.

Batteries...charged!

Inverter & four batteries to keep things running.

The inverter was installed last Saturday. When the power goes out, we don't have to worry about spoiled food, etc. Most importantly, Lily's critical work can continue uninterrupted.

And to the families who made the inverter possible, “Thank you!”

From Kampala,

John Eastham

New missionary to Uganda