Home in Uganda
Just a brief update on life stats for the month.
Place: Namalanda, Uganda about 20 km out of Kampala. I have
no idea which way out of Kampala. Someone let me know.
Home: African mansion. Kinda unbelievable. Our contact had a
guest house lined up for us, which was rented out the morning before we got
here. Poor homeless team Shiloh. (I need to build some sympathy before I tell
you where we ended up). We went to a guest house down the road from the church.
Obviously too nice for our $5 a night lodging budget. We climbed back in the
van and headed back down the road, getting closer and closer to Lake Victoria.
Pulled into a compound-huge gate manned by a security guard, concrete driveway,
yard nicely manicured by American standards. There’s a house and a guest house.
I honestly didn’t look around a whole lot when we arrived, because I was
totally anticipating another climb back in the van. Anyway, long story short,
Team Shiloh has their own house. Not what I was thinking about for this month
in my hopes to be out in the bush. But amazing, nonetheless. Two bedrooms. A
living room. A bathroom with a shower, toilet and sink. Use of the family’s
kitchen. And (I’m cringing at the thought of anyone else from the squad reading
this) a fridge. Not just a fridge. But a full, upright fridge and freezer. This
is by no means the small “dorm style” fridge that I’ve seen in the vast
majority of African houses, when they actually have a fridge. But it has a
freezer. Granted, we have absolutely nothing in this freezer right now. But
it’s there. So girls are all in one room, sleeping on the floor on our sleeping
mats, under our mosquito nets. Kyle is in room #2, which is spacious enough to
use his tent in place of a mosquito net.
Ministry: Our contact this month is Pastor Alex Kirega, from
Christ Miracle Center, formerly Namulanda Miracle Center (if someone finds out
the meaning of Namulanda in whatever language, I’d be more than interested to
find out). The church is small, about the size of our living room in our
African mansion. Furnished with a pulpit and plastic lawn chairs, there is no
electricity, bathroom, running water… So far we have been there for about four
hours and had minimal time to meet with any of the congregation. It appears
that most of our ministry is going to be “door to door” or “hut to hut”
evangelism for a few hours a day. The spiritual atmosphere in this place,
church and town, is thick. I’m more aware of the ebb and flow of the physical
and spiritual realities mixing in this place than pretty much any other time or
place. And it’s like day 3. It’s going to be a growing, trying, challenging
month. It’s a good time for our team to create unity and grow together. There’s
really no escape from each other, so community is going to happen more than
last month. Yay!! No one ever said it was going to be easy. J
Possible Future Plans: here until October 30th.
That in itself may be too much to assume, so I’m not gonna go beyond that for
the moment.
Internet: Please enjoy the fact that you will get this
update in… Sidenote: I’m typing this in the back of a van on the way to a
supposed internet spot and we all just flew forward as brakes were slammed on
because we almost ran into a motorcycle. Netbook is ok. To continue…enjoy the
fact that you will probably get this update in your inbox, click on a link and
pull it up, all in less than a minute. African internet is going to teach me
patience. But I haven’t learned it well enough to attempt to upload pictures
(which I would first have to steal from all my teammates). So if you want to
see pics check out someone else’s blog from Team Shiloh. (I’m typing out their
blog sites from memory, so good luck.)
www.kylebradberry.theworldrace.org
www.carincownden.theworldrace.org
www.courtneyhess.theworldrace.org
www.heatherhorton.theworldrace.org
www.sarahhogan.theworldrace.org
