It's time for Africa

            Greetings from Africa! I hope all is well with you.  This update will be more thorough and longer than the last, so I hope you all enjoy! This leg of outreach is going great! The people of Uganda are amazing, so kind-hearted and open to hearing about the Lord.  We have been here for about 4 weeks now and have 2 more to go…which is crazy! I can’t believe that in 3 weeks, I will be home! It’s so bittersweet!

            So we have gotten into a busy routine here, our main ministry consisting of visiting the local hospital & prison, working in the preschool at the YWAM base, serving at a nearby orphanage, and evangelizing in Jinja and surrounding neighbourhoods.  We also do a lot of things with the YWAM base, a 5 minute walk from where we are staying. 

            Our whole team is loving it here, the landscape is beautiful, God blesses us with a gorgeous sunrise every morning, that always seems to be different.  It has been so sweet to see God move here through my team and I here.  One of my favourite things is to visit the hospital and just go around loving on people.  This is something God has really given me a heart for.  We go into the hospital every Tuesday, with our translator of course, get to know the patients, and pray for God to heal and restore their bodies, along with showing them His love.  It is so different than anything that I am used to.  If I walked into a hospital today in Minnesota, just wanting to go around to different patients and love them, it would be a law suit waiting to happen.  But here, the patients and staff love it!

The hospitals run a lot differently here.  When the patients come, they come with family and money in order to take care of them.  So if they don’t have any money or some family member to be a caretaker, they just take up a space and aren’t cared for or looked after in any way.  It’s so sad, but it’s awesome that we are able to go in and tell them that there is someone who cares for them a lot!

            Another thing we have been doing regularly is going to the orphanage down the road called Village of Hope (VOH).  When our team goes here, we serve in a variety of ways, like cutting the grass (not with a mower, with a machete type instrument), moving heavy things, or spending time with the kids.  One of the days, one girl had some face paint, so that was very entertaining for both the kids and all of us.  The kids at VOH make my heart melt every time we visit them because they love just spending time with us and never want us to leave. 

            One of my team members Brittany met a family living down the road from where we are staying.  She met the kids when they were carrying big & heavy jugs of water back from the well.  She and another guy from our team asked them if they needed help and so they were brought back to the family’s home.  The mom and grandma were so thankful for the help and were so surprised that strangers would want to talk to their kids because many people think they are  “dirty kids.”  Ever since that day, Brittany, Courtney, Jon and I have been frequently visiting this family, just spending time with them and loving them.  They have got such a big part of my heart.  Last week, Brittany wanted to do something special for them and so she bought dinner that consisted of Coca-Cola, Oreos and Rolexes (omelette rolled in fried dough…super healthy).  They set up the “visitor chairs” for us and were wearing their nicest clothes.  They danced and sang for us.  The highlight of the night was when the grandma jumped up in the middle of “go bananas” of the banana song.  God has blessed us so much through this family and I will be so sad when we have to say goodbye.

Tomorrow our team will be leaving for a village in Western Uganda that I won’t try to spell.  We will be there for 6 days, plus 2 days for travelling.  We plan to be working in the schools, visiting clinics, evangelizing door to door, preaching and teaching. I am very excited to go but very nervous because I know God is going to stretch me even more!

            Then our team will be back in Jinja on Wednesday of next week before heading back to Perth on Saturday.  I will try to update once more while in Perth, but until them some prayer points are:

·      Unity of our team

·      Strength for me personally as I have been growing wearing the past few days

·      Protection during our travels

I will just end with a phrase they love to say here in Uganda “Mukama Llebaswe” which means “Praise the Lord” …. Amina!

My fav girl prossi and I.  she is one of the girls from the family.

dancing for the Lord

Here we are with the family.  The grandma in front is hysterical!

Worship at church this morning.

Picking all the lice out of my hair!!

Britt & I having a little too much fun with the face paint

"Higher Jesus higher"  Tasha & I singing with the kids in a neighboring village called Kakira

Our thanksgiving skit for the staff here.