With day 1 & day 2 being travel days, I was soooooo excited to wake up this morning and GO!
Saying that, I was up last night from 1am-4:30am, so I can't promise much for this blog post except that it might not make sense from the lack of sleep.
We woke up (again) to get ready for breakfast with our team. Up and eating by 7:30am. Goodness, gracious. Thank goodness for coffee and some reaLLY hilarious people in this group.
After several cups of coffee and what was a confusing ordering non-menu ordering system, we ate. Then came the waiting. Waiting is very popular here in Uganda. You hurry up, and wait. Then wait some more. Coming from someone who is most times a little busy, (HA!) waiting does not come easy. It is humbling. I am starting to love the peace that is coming from it.
We went through the town of Iganda, this time during the day. Totally different that at night. There are people. Tons of people. Everywhere. Beautiful people. People full of life. People with the biggest smiles you have ever seen. Not like American smiles, totally different. Gosh. You know, I prayed for something that people who have been here talked about. They said the first couple days of ministry you are heart broken. That it takes a couple days to figure it all out...that you can not be sad for the people here because they do not have anything. They are so happy and joy filled because they have it all. They get it.
After what seemed to be like 8 stops, getting this, picking up that, dropping off so and so, picking up one person and waving at another, we made it to our first ministry day. We went to a school sponsored by Tree of Life called Top Hills. Good night nurse. I can't describe it. The beauty in these kids faces. Our team had ants in our pants trying to get off the bus!!! The biggest and whitest smiles you have ever seen. Laughter and concentration, as they introduced themselves and asked us for our names. Again. and Again. Over and over. So much I can not put into words. Just pure Heaven really. Greeted over and over again, like you are the most important person they have ever met. Hand holding x 250. My name is...what is your name x 250. Laughter x 250. Oh gosh.
Turns out that I am terrible at chicken, chicken, dog, but the kids loved it. I was dog in the middle many many rounds. Then came the singing, the laughing, building the mercy bags, me making a small human cry, the fabulous hand made lunch, the bathrooms (terrible, terrible), more laughs, and just being. Being God's hand chosen people to love on his people. If you send a girl to Iganda to be a missionary, she will get blessed more than she ever knew. It's only day 1ish.
We then got split up into different groups to go evangelize. Oh goodness....the main thing I am NOT looking forward to on this trip (that and the bathrooms. Ugh!). We were team Wilson, whoop whoop, and Sue was amazing. She has a gift straight from Jesus to tell his story, to people who do not understand our language (blessings to Pastor Wilson for being able to translate!). It was sooooo fun to see her in her element, witnessing to women and their children. Ohhhh. We were able to bless 3 different families with His word, and mercy bags filled with sugar, salt, soap and tea. Again, if you send a girl to Iganga to be a missionary, she will have a woman that she just met hand her her 2 1/2 WEEK old child to hold, love on and pray for. Come on people! HELLO! I can't make that stuff up. Me & a baby. Love me some babies.
We ended up the afternoon with more dropping people off, transporting this, grabbing that, to have a whopping 15 minutes before we were to report for dinner. Dinner was with our team, our wonderful driver Haji, our missionary Phil, Susan, Scovia, Kenneth, Kaith and Raith (Susan's babies). We were also joined by 2 Elpis people that are up from Huntsville, Ken (who is adopting one of the kids from Hope Africa) and his friend Kevin. Very nice dinner with a great group of people. More laughter than one could ever expect from a group of church people. :)
That leads me to now. Time for a shower and hopefully a better night's sleep. Please pray for that. AND pray for a continuation of pure heaven as we get to go to Hope Africa tomorrow and I meet Moses and his 114 friends.
Look at these kids. No words.
This is the mama that let me hold her little bit of honey.
3 comments:
not sure why my first comment didn't appear...
i am crying reading your post. I just love that you are right in your element too. Loving on babies and sitting in the middle of kids playing. I also love what God is doing with and through you. Waiting--that's a hard one for JenTaylor :) (and for me too)--and waiting to meet Moses--that has to be super hard. Can't wait to read more. Love you, get some rest, praying!
Picturing you having to be still made me laugh! Thinking of you playing games after watching you lead game time at VBS felt perfect! The minute you said they handed you a baby, I cried! I love you sister!
Praying for rest! Praying for you to feel His love as you're sharing His love. Happy tears are streaming down my face! I feel like I'm there! Love it!!!
Hug Masiat for us!
I can't wait to see a picture of you and Moses!!!! And the other 114!
Blessings to you and the team!!!
Julie
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