Hi friends!
It’s day 40 of the race, and I’m finally posting blogs! I have 5 blogs to upload, so bear with me. I’ll correct the dates I wrote them and format everything after they’re live. I really am excited to share what I’ve been up to though! Free Wi-Fi is surprisingly rare here, and I’m still figuring out the best way to keep y’all posted. Love and miss you all!
Here’s an update from week one:
I’m alive and well in Uganda, but it’s been a weird first week. All 7 of us are living in one room without electricity, running water, or Wi-fi! I haven’t been phased by our living conditions, but I think I’m adapting like a champ! I’ve got the squatty potty thing down and even peed in a bucket in the middle of the night. For safety reasons, we’re locked into our room every night, so if you gotta go, you gotta go…Thanks for teaching me how to use the squaties in China, Mom! For any future racers, I’ve heard we will normally at least have electricity on the race. My team is holding it together really well all things considered.
I’ve been able to connect with the kids since day one because there was a previous volunteer named Amanda. Our first night, I heard a child call me from the room next door. (Our house doesn’t have a ceiling, so sound travels really well.) I came out, and there were 6 kids sitting on the floor and bunk beds crowded around a little solar light, notebook, and colored pencils. The girls were coloring and now I have a drawing of my name from them pasted in my journal! Jovia, the oldest daughter of our host, enjoys showing me around town and taking me to their gardens. It seems like the village children all know my name because they wave and call me when we walk down the road.
As far as ministry goes, we worked our first day yesterday. The only problem here is we’re not sure if this is a faith-based ministry. We spent our first couple days praying for clarity and asking God what He is doing in this village and how we can partner with him. Normally, we partner with a host and join them in their ministry. The host would help us understand the local culture and people and continue discipling anyone we meet after we go to have a lasting impact here. Right now, we are renovating a private primary school that closed 2 years ago. Our host plans to turn it into volunteer housing and a computer room, but we’re not sure what the timeline will look like.
Pray for my team and I as we continue to seek God and trust Him. We want to glorify Him this month even if we are doing ministry on our own time.
Anyways, I just wanted to post a quick update to let you know how we’re doing. Thank you for all of your prayers! Love you all so much!
Love always,
Amanda
