American Worship ≠ African Worship

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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