This morning came slowly and with lots of sunshine!  It was a beautiful day in Charlotte and with everyone well rested we were up and ready to roll out for the day.  First on the agenda was to get Robert a new “office” as he calls his laptop; so after some relaxing breakfast and time with Tammy Wise we headed off to Best Buy and were able to find a great setup along with a few other nick-knacks he needed for the Chess Academy.

With new purchases in tow, we headed to Johnson and Wales where we found Dr. Pat MacEnulty, an English professor at the university.  She showed us around the beautiful campus right in the middle of downtown before leading us into the lecture hall where they would be sharing.  It was a great turn out of students and teachers with majority having already read the book!  It made for a wonderful discussion full of new questions and one specific student who went out of her way to say what an impressive young woman Phiona is and encourage her to continue to share her story with the world, because it is amazing and she is so inspirational.  Following the presentation a couple students had brought with them their copy of The Queen of Katwe so that it could be autographed.  Dr. MacEnulty then gave us a quick tour of the culinary labs and we were even lucky enough to find one finishing up, so they shared some fresh made pizza with the crew! Johnson and Wales was incredibly welcoming and we thank Dr. MacEnulty for being so kind of easy to schedule with.

We then all decided it was time to relax before the fundraising dinner at 6:00, so back to the Wise’s home where Tammy had arranged a Chipotle spread of rice, beans, chicken and chips, it was hit!

The fundraising event was hosted at the beautiful home of the Bob and Jo Johnson here in Charlotte.  Bob is an excellent BBQ chef so he graced us with that treat for dinner along with a spread of southern delicacies! Eric and Monica Wilson of Steele Creek Church were the real masterminds behind the night and they ran it perfectly.  They shared from their hearts about their experiences with Sports Outreach before having Robert, Phiona and Tim Crothers come to share for a few minutes about their history and their future.  Eric opened up specifically about his first introduction with Sports Outreach and how their family has gotten involved and how it has changed their lives.  Rodney closed the night with casting the vision for the Kampala Ministry Center and the hopes of what is to come.  The night was so relaxing and the best part was it was a time of fellowship.  Almost the entire staff from SOI Headquarters came down along with the board members from Lynchburg.  It was just a joyous night of God’s amazing work blessings and work!

Tomorrow we will head to Richmond for a brief visit with close friends from Third Presbyterian before continuing on to Vienna, VA.