Wednesday, October 7, 2009 - 12:26pm by Uganda Team.

The time has come for us to leave for home.  We will miss all the people here and the love and kindness everyone has shown us has been such a blessing.  On the other hand, I know many of us are ready to be home as we are not only tired physically, but probably even more so mentally.  We look forward to seeing everyone back home and appreciate the thoughts and prayers during our time here.  We love you all.

Oh, and Jason, get ready for a midnight Taco Bell run, cuz we’ve got a cravin’, a cravin’ for fast food.

And so, our thirty hour journey home begins…

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Tuesday, October 6, 2009 - 2:26am by Uganda Team.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of Margaret Wright.  We are praying for God’s love, strength, and mercy to be placed upon those that knew Margaret during this hard time.

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Monday, October 5, 2009 - 7:15am by Uganda Team.

Thursday evening and all day Friday we spent in Fort Portal, which is near the border of Western Uganda and the Congo.  Being near the mountains, the weather was cool and felt great.  The hotel we stayed at actually had hot water for showers, which was a welcomed change. Our only full day there we got to go on a hike in the jungle and see caves and a waterfall.  This was not a planned event, so when packing at “home” (the Music Academy), some of us did not bring shoes that were good for hiking.  For Becca and Lauren’s sake, I will not name any names.  The hike through the forest was great even if it was muddy.  After that, we hiked through the hills to see some crater lakes.  Our guide said it was only an hour and half hike, but that time must have been clocked by Michael Johnson.  It felt like a twenty mile hike and we climbed a HUGE hill, but the view of God’s creation was magnificent.  We also squeezed in lunch at the house where Patron Betty grew up, as well as selecting two children for the choir.  On our way back to the hotel, part of the group stopped by a baby orphanage.  They take in orphaned infants and babies that are dropped off at hospitals, etc.  It was fun to see the children and play with some of the older ones, but it was also heart breaking at the same time, especially leaving them.On Saturday we traveled to Gulu, which was roughly a ten hour drive from Fort Portal.  Our quiet but courageous driver, Moses, has the endurance of a horse, as the drive seemed to not even phase him. I cannot say the same thing for us. 

Sunday morning we went to a church in one of the refugee camps.  It was mostly attended by children and elderly women, and the men that were around seemed to not participate in anything, which was a little disheartening.  From the church, we picked an eleven year old girl for the choir named Barbara.  She has an awesome smile and seems very alive.  It will be great to see how God has worked in her life when we see her again in the states.  Tonny (he traveled with the choir last year) normally does the interviewing process when selecting choir members, but he was not available, so Julie (she works for the UMC with an office based in Kampala) ran the show this time.  It was her first time doing so, but she did a great job with her loving, but stern as needed personality.  Her and Moses, along with others, have been integral parts of our trip, and have been such a blessing to us.

Thank you all so much for the encouraging words and updates from the states.  It is a much needed glimpse of home when we are so far away, as some days it is hard and you just want to be back home.

Today we are devoting to praising God.  Instead of asking for this or that in prayer today, we are simply thanking and praising God for what he does.  If you would like to join us in this, we challenge you to refrain from asking God for anything today, and simply give him the praise and glory he is worthy of.  We actually did this on Saturday, but could not post this to the blog until today (Monday), so if you feel led, we still encourage you to do this.

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Thursday, October 1, 2009 - 4:35am by Uganda Team.

As a side note, unforunately the wireless internet that should allow us to post at anytime, anywhere, is not working very well.  It only works in the captial city Kampala, which we are rarely in, so the updates are less frequent than we would like. Sorry!

Worship on our first Sunday was quite the experience for those of us that had never been in a Ugandan church.  Just like in America, everyone gets dressed, we sing, pass the plate, hear a sermon, but it lasts for about three hours.  I don’t think I, Daniel, have the stamina to worship here, or maybe I just need to work up to that long of a worship experience ;).  All joking aside, it was great to get to worship with the people, and it will make me think more about praising and worshiping the Lord instead of worrying about when Sunday lunch is happening.  Worship was also great because Eric preached the sermon, and despite what he says, he did a great job.  In addition to worshiping in the town of Jinja, part of the team helped Tonny with auditioning children for the next choir. 

Monday morning we left the Music Academy and traveled to Busia to do another choir audition.  The road to Busia was long, and was even longer due to the last part of the road turning into a dirt road that was worthy of a jeep crawl.  Our very qualified, professional driver named Moses was doing a great job, but Eric felt he needed to step in.  For about an hour or two Eric bounced us up and down hitting one unnecessary pot hole after another, but eventually he got us there safely.  After checking into our hotel, we left to go to the church where the choir auditions would be held.  As before, part of the team worshiped while the other part auditioned children.  As we arrived back at our hotel, the sun was setting. This was especially beautiful because our hotel was directly on Lake Victoria, with a nice beach and palm trees.  So even though we are on a mission trip and doing work, we did sip drinks on the beach under palm trees. 

The journey home on Tuesday was again long; especially as we jeep crawled back to the paved road.  On our way, we got the chance to visit Pastor Richard’s church.  His congregation is small, but strong in spirit, and they graciously welcomed us to their church. 

We got a much needed day to sleep in on Wednesday.  After packing for our next journey, we got to visit Humble School for the rest of the day.  We all got to attend different classes and see the children in their learning environment.  A common theme among the classes seems to be the promotion of singing and dancing, which made for some very fun times with the children.

We are all doing well and our spirits are high.  Please keep us in your thoughts and pray for our health, and safety as we travel for the next few days.

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Monday, September 28, 2009 - 1:37am by Uganda Team.

After traveling for 32 hours, a flat bed never felt better on the first night. The airlines got us to Uganda with all but one bag, but it was delivered to us 2 days later so that was a blessing (especially for Shane since it was his bag ). It turns out recently there has been a power outage in the area where we are staying, so we only have electricity (and room temperature water) when the generator is running. It seems like more of a blessing than a hardship, as we spend more time as a group, conversing with the people, and playing with the kids, instead of playing with electronics.

On Thursday, our first day here, Duncan (a volunteer at the academy) took us on a walk in the area around the academy. Along our walk, he took us to see a local boy named Katoadle (pronounced ka-tong-a-lee), who is deaf and mute and is sick with a very hot fever. His mother spoke of it being Malaria. We could not take him to the doctor right then, so we prayed for him and continued our walk. On our way back, we stopped and looked at an ant pile. This does not sound very exciting, but a small Ugandan ant pile is like three feet tall. So this ant pile we were gawking at was about four feet tall, and Eric was claiming if you tap on the pile, the ants will click at you to ward you off. So the ants start coming out, little black ones and bigger black ones with huge, razor sharp, pinchers. The bigger ants were probably the size of the red ants we have in Texas, but Eric claims they are at least 5 times bigger than our red ants. Eric then proceeds to try and grab one of the big ants, and loe and behold, it pinched him. He yanks his hand away to see his cut finger that is bleeding, all while Shane is saying, “Why would you do that??!?” Turns out the razor sharp pinchers are for more than just show. Eric is fine, as it was just a tiny flesh wound.

Later that day we got to visit Humble School for the first time this trip. They had a short program for us that included a performance by the 2008 choir. We also got a chance to pass out the pen pal letters individually. The children were very happy to receive your letters. Unfortunately there are still some children that do not have pen pals, so hopefully we can match those children when we return. We then got to play with the children for the rest of the afternoon. Our trip to Humble School was such a blessing and we cannot wait until we get to return. Later that evening we took Katoadle to see a doctor where they drew his blood and diagnosed him with Malaria. They gave him some pills to take, but because he is deaf and mute (he does not know sign language either), it was a struggle to get him to take the pills.

On Friday we went into Kampala to meet with the Bishop. Our meeting was delayed, so we went to exchange our money and buy hairspray for Becca. At the mall, Becca and Julie came walking out with a plastic bag that looked like it contained a bus. This bottle of hairspray is the king of all hairsprays standing at least 2 feet tall and weighing at least 5 pounds. It is a sight to see. Our meeting with the Bishop and his associates went very well and we were pleased with the outcome. Our trip home from Kampala was a very long one , but we stopped for Chapat (sort of like homemade flour tortillas but better), so it was a good ending to a great day.

In our short time here we have received so much love and generosity, so much that we do not deserve. We have been very blessed by the people here and we pray we can be a blessing to them in return.

-Uganda Team

“Hi Aaron and Drew Drew , we love you!”
-Shane and Kristie

“Hi Pickle, hi Peapod, we love you so much”
-Eric and Becca

“Mom, Dad, and Ethan, I send my hugs.”
-Lauren

“Moms and Dads, we love you, and give our love to Boobear, Toddles, and Pippin. Tell Toddles to stop barking.”
-Daniel and Keturah

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Friday, September 25, 2009 - 10:06am by Uganda Team.

We arrived safely late on Wednesday night.  We have been very busy and just now got internet access.  We will post more soon. Love you all, and thank you for the prayers.

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Thursday, September 3, 2009 - 11:40am by Uganda Team.

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Thursday, September 18, 2008 - 9:33am by Harrisons.

As most know we arrived back home on the 17th. We are so sorry we were not able to update again but as we say here, TIA (This is Africa).  Next year when we go we will get one of their mobile internet cards for a month so we can update.

The last week there was again full of joy. We traveled to the far west to Fort Portal to interview more kids. Of course, TIA happened and due to miscommunication the children were on holiday (summer vacation). The really cool part about that trip though was that 5 lions that had escaped from the game reserve and were terrorizing the village, so we were in by dark each night. From there we traveled back to the music academy for a night then off to Busia (boo-see-ah). This village was deep in the bush and was amazing. There are people in there that have never left the village. That means they have never seen many things that you and I take for granted. Just pick one and I guarantee they haven’t seen it. The church service was amazing, full of the Holy Spirit and full of love. They are such an amazing people. The interviewing was again definitely hard as we wanted to take every child.  We were in worship for about 3 hrs and spent another 2 with the kids then the most amazing thing took place. They fed us!! And I don’t mean just rice and beans, I am talking, chicken, goat, pork, rice, beans, and sodas. While this does not seem amazing to most, you must come and see, because most people do not have the resources to acquire this kind of food yet these people pulled it together for us, their visitors. It was truly an honor to eat with them. It reminded us of the scripture that talks about the old woman who gave her last possesion, how blessed they are in the site of God.

This will be the last post for this trip. We again wanted to thank everyone for their prayers and help as this trip was so physically and emotionally exhausting. The people of Uganda thank you too. They love to know that there are others in the world that care what is going on there and that we are interested in their lives. We can’t wait to take others back, so that you may experience the love, the trials and the great times we experienced.

We love you all,

Eric and Becca

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Tuesday, September 9, 2008 - 4:36am by Harrisons.

Winstons email was stolen, please disregard the request to help a sick family member with money. Winston and his family are doing fine.

Eric

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Tuesday, September 9, 2008 - 4:08am by Harrisons.

Hello everyone!! We are sorry we have been absent for a few days but the internet of Uganda is not the internet of the USA (Kevin we need you here). It has taken me 11 minutes just to get to the post page of the blog. The last few days have been amazing! We have been to several villages, visited several churches (one in Jinja just 2 yrs ago had 5 members and now has 150, PRAISE GOD!!!), visited a womens facility, visited Humble school (which is beautiful (my plug) and still needs support (Please tell your friends!!! Contact Rebecca for more info), visited two villages in Gulu (Layibi (lay-e-b) and Opit (o-peet)). The highlight of our trip is getting to stay with the children in the Music academy, all of which are doing great (they say “Hello to our friends in Texas!!”) and making new friends. The Bishop and his wife have been so wonderful to us and can’t wait for more to join on the next trip. Uganda in a beautiful country, the people are fun and full of smiles and have a faith in our Lord and Savior that I have only witnessed in the Bible. Please continue to pray for them. I was going to send some personal emails but it takes so long, so….. I will just say we miss you all, love you all (especially our Nick and Mady) and cannot wait to see and hold you again. We will be traveling to some other villages in search of other choir members so please pray as this is incredibley hard because you cannot bring back every child. Thank you so much to all who have helped us and the people of Uganda both financially and in prayer. We will write more when we can and can’t wait to share with you all that we have wittnessed and participated in. Have a blessed week!!!!
Love Eric and Rebecca

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