It's taken a while to update this page - I need to get better at this!! The trip to Uganda was amazing. There are no words to describe how awesome it was...being there, meeting the people, traveling through the bush to talk to people who may or may not have heard of Jesus. Here in the good ol' Bible belt, we are so lucky, and so blind. I definitely could've stayed longer than 10 days! But I missed my babies and my family (and my toilet).
We flew out Wednesday night. We flew into Amsterdam, then to Rwanda, then into the Entebbe airport - arriving in Uganda late Thursday night. We spent the night in a "hotel" in Entebbe...interesting experience. We were all pretty sure that the buildings would not be up to code here in the US. The four girls shared a room just big enough for four low beds and a bathroom. I was happy to have running water! Little did I know it would be the last hot shower I would take for a week. The next morning they had us up at 6 (no small feat for me!) for breakfast - pineapple, toast, coffee. Then we loaded up for the drive to Busia. It's a five hour drive, but we stopped halfway at a Chinese restaurant...surprisingly good for the country side of Africa. I learned pretty quick that with little circulating air and the wonderful unpaved roads of Africa, that I was going to stay car sick for a good part of my trip. :)
When we arrived at the compound, we were greeted by the full time missionary that lives in Busia, Ms Joy Breedlove. We met all the people that lived there - the cook, a little boy named Arafat, a couple of guards. Mike and Sarah McCord were waiting to meet us - they were the short term missions director and childrens ministry director, but now they are living there full time also! We took a walk to the school and met the school staff, the pastor there and some of the kids. It was really cool. They cook on an open fire in one of the rooms - beans for 800 kids every day.
Saturday we started the missions work. We divided into three teams. Joel and Jason were on the survey team with some local men. They went to two land sites that Helping Hands is considering buying for the Village of Eden, a self sufficient orphanage. We heard some great stories from them, the land was beautiful and they managed to stay away from the baboons!
The second team included me and my dad. We drove out to a church in the bush and from there walked on foot further into the bush. We each had a translator and stopped at each hut. Most of the people we came across were women, working in the field washing clothes, taking care of babies or relatives. We told them all about how much Jesus loved them and why we came all the way from America. We had gifts of sugar, which is extremely expensive for them right now. Some of them prayed with us, some just listened, and some asked us to pray over relatives with malaria or other illnesses. One woman had a baby who had been burned in a fire. Since they cook outside on open fires, this is very common.
The third team drove out to the same church, but they stayed close to the church and had a camp for the kids. They played games and told stories. The kids sang songs. While we were out in the bush, we told people about a service at the church, and invited them back for a service at two. Most days, we had the service (testimonies, music, and someone from the States preached) and then headed out for an evening service at a church farther out. The services were mostly outside. There are buildings at most of the churches, but they are made of mud and plaster with a grass roof. With a team of 15 visiting, we were not able to fit in the buildings, but I was glad. It was HOT! Mostly there was a breeze, so we didn't notice, but when there wasn't a breeze or wasn't shade it was very hot. There was a sweet spirit in the services. They really know how to sing, and they love to worship.
Sunday was special because we got to teach the Sunday School classes. I had kindergarten. The kids are so sweet. I brought crayons, and had enough for everybody to get one. When they wanted another color they just traded with their friends. We shared our kindergarten classroom (about 40 kids) with the first grade. We had church in the big school church that was built by Helping Hands. After the service, we had baptism. That was one of my favorite things. The entire church walked about a half mile to the river, singing and playing drums the whole way. There were 33 people to be baptized that day. Later we found out that there was a big snake in the bushes..."no big thing, only about three meters." Nine feet long!
Monday through Wednesday we went back to our groups, but we swapped each day. So Monday I was at the kids camp, and Tuesday I was back in the bush. Tuesday was a very special day for me because I got to spend the day spreading the love of Jesus with my dad. He really enjoyed going hut to hut, and we both assumed he would probably do most of the talking. But at one hut, he got a little tongue-tied, and I finished up for him. I didn't think anything of it, until later that night he mentioned how proud he was of me. Of course, I wound up balling, but I'll never forget that day spent in Africa with my dad. We met a Muslim man and a Catholic woman who were very resistant to us. We met a woman with malaria who we prayed over. We met a lady that had five goats - considered very wealthy in that area! Our translators were great - we had to have two because most people speak Swahili there, but we crossed over into places where they only spoke Samia. It was a great day!!
Thursday was another special day for me. Most of the people went to the border to see Kenya, and then went to see the land that was surveyed and pray that God would show the leaders at Helping Hands what to do and the next step to take with the Village of Eden. Sarah, Connie, Leonie, and I got to go to Syonga, another orphan school sponsored by Helping Hands. We brought enough literature for each class to have 10 books for each subject and two teachers book. We also brought flip flops for the kids. It was so exciting to give each of the kids a pair of shoes! There are small bugs in the dirt that can eat into the skin on your toes if you do not have some kind of shoe to protect your feet. So flip flops are a very big deal to those kids! We were there during lunch time, and I learned that most of the time the kids only get porridge to eat - flour mixed with water. One to two days per week they get to have beans, which had made a huge improvement in their diet. I could have stayed with those kids and loved on them for days, but we only had a few hours.
Friday we drove back into Kampala and were able to do some fun shopping at the market in town. Our flight was late that afternoon and we waited in the lounge for our flight. There was a hot shower (hooray!) and comfy chairs there, so we enjoyed the first bit of cushyness before we had to get back on a plane. The flight home was loooooonnnnngggg...but it was so worth it when we finally were able to hug our family and friends.
Thank you so much Mike and Sarah, Mama Joy, Joel, Jason, Greg, Hal, Shane, Michael, Nathan, Christie, Jonas, Connie, Leonie, Henrik, dad, Pastor Moses, and everyone else who made that week incredible. It has changed my life - in more ways than I can describe. I've got stories to last for weeks, and a new hope, a new drive, to last for years and years. I'm looking very much forward to the next trip......Portland, Oregon, here we come!!!
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