I recognize this has been my worse month as a blogger on the race. I would like to apologize for this shortcoming, and being such faithful supporters to me throughout the year there is no excuse on my end. At the same time I want to thank you for continuing to visit my page and offer encouraging feedback. It means a lot to me to know when I visit the internet there will be some form of response to the thoughts I express on this site. So thank you for being a blessing friends, family, and loyal supporters.
I write this blog without any real purpose or dressed up message behind it, but I hope that it will simply be an expression of my thoughts on the past few weeks. On the 16th of this month my team made a transition from a hostel with beds, showers, and a rooftop view of the city to a village home a few miles outside of the city in a new ministry. After settling in to this new ministry off of perhaps the most raggedy dirt road I have ever encountered (and I have seen few in my day being from South Georgia) our team was excited to begin ministry alongside our 2 contacts and their church. Within the first 48 hours of our arrival one of our members had an encounter with traveler’s sickness. After a couple days of treatment, mainly being time in the outdoor “cloak room”, this person was recovered and ready to go. Sometime during the following few days another member and I also fell ill. I have been sick 3 other times this year and this one was different than all the rest. I had a fever, a severe headache, and lost all of my appetite, which is something extremely uncommon for me as I never get headaches back home. When we had the chance to go into the city I hesitantly went to the doctor and got blood work done. I tested negative for typhoid and malaria and my blood count was only slightly elevated. The doctor said it was probably viral and because at this point there were no digestive problems he did not prescribe any medication. [Quick note: this was not your typical African educated Doctor, he was quite knowledgeable. He was also a believer and he did not charge me for the consultation upon finding out I am a missionary.] That night I experienced the worst headache I have ever felt until my fever broke in the early morning and I woke up drenched in sweat. The next day digestive issues began, and to shorten this up a bit, I am still battling through them. I spent the majority of our time at the new location in bed and was unable to participate in most of our ministry. This was a miserable time for me and for those of you who do not know me well I am not very good at being still. As for an update currently I am on my second cycle of Ciprobid in hopes it will kill whatever is haunting my stomach so I can raft the Nile in 2 days. The rest of the team has completely recovered and are doing great, praise God!
The ministry our team was a part of during our stay included speaking at schools, ministering through worship and preaching during church service, and administering nightly teachings at the church. I only made it to 1 of the schools, but the overall message I got from the team was they greatly enjoyed these sessions and our contact was happy with what was shared. Our contact was specific with what she wanted people to speak about to the children, because she is very familiar with the struggles of the community. I won’t go into detail, but the area we were in was a chief location in Uganda for witchcraft and similar practices. A ministry we all enjoyed was the late night teachings at the church. Everyone excluding myself shared their testimony on separate nights and the great thing about the structure of this time was the people whom they shared with gave feedback. They were asked to share what they learned and we believe this was a very fruitful time for these people. Our testimonies shattered many of the preconceived ideas in their minds about life in the US. During one of the Sundays I had the opportunity to preach and I greatly enjoyed this time. I shared a message about the fullness of salvation. Yesterday we said our goodbyes to the contacts and made our way back to the hostel for a couple nights of rest before traveling to the Nile for 2 nights, and then off to Tanzania on a 28 hour bus ride. Although the time in kisoga was difficult for me with all the downtime and sickness, I believe the team overall enjoyed it.
