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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