We only have a few more days in Uganda, time has FLOWN! After this we are loading up and heading into Rwanda, which is a very small country and all the teams will be within an hours drive from each other! Then we have a few day mini-debrief in Uganda (with a Halloween party!!) and then we fly out of Kampala to Bangkok, Thailand. We are flying Qatar Airlines again, which is quite possibly the best airlines ever, and it works out well so our mileage points things are with the same carrier for our trip home.
A few of us have decided to spend the month after the race to backpack around Europe! We will already be in Romania, so it works out well. I think we have to forfeit our ticket back home that will be provided for us, but we will have enough frequent flier miles (hopefully) to cover it. We’re going to Greece, Italy, France, Germany, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Spain, England and Ireland. Although I love planning things and am getting very excited about the trip, I am focusing on our mission here and being present with the time that we have been given.
Last week the principle of the school we live by offered to take us on a Safari! We were all excited and packed up into a small minivan (I laid on two girls legs so we could all fit) and headed on our way. After driving for a few hours we arrived at a hospital, where his mother works. We were a bit confused, but toured the hospital anyways; it had a beautiful view of Uganda! Afterwards we went to a school, the school the principle is erecting and then later we went to an office building. Apparently the purpose of our trip was to see the school he is building as a sister school to the one by our house, but there as a big miscommunication haha, of course. The “safari” ride was that we drove through an animal park on the way in, but I was laying down and couldn’t see a thing. The principle was very sincere in his efforts though and took us all out to lunch and into the Congo, which was a cool 10 minutes 🙂 On the way home we ended up seeing a few elephants, warthogs and antelope. We even got within about 20 feet from a few elephants!
We have been doing a lot of school ministries (with 4 different schools and were supposed to be working with more!), preaching in the church, leading worship, door to door (supposedly), crusades into town, rehab centers and all sorts of things. This month has been very different than last. In Kenya we did a few things, but did a lot with them and were able to dig deep. This month we are doing a lot of different ministries, but don’t get to dig very deep into them. I think it is a good opportunity to set the groundwork though, since we are the first World Race team to come here. We are able to plant many seeds and open a lot of doors for the next teams, even if it doesn’t feel like we are getting a ton done ourselves.
The other day Solomon took us to climb a mountain! Which, if you know me, made me VERY excited! I actually wanted to do a summit every country we were in, but Mount Kenya (or anything similar) was on the other side of Kenya last month. The mountain ended up being a large hill, that took about 10 minutes to climb up, but it was spectacular! The view of everything was amazing, I love love loved it. The mountain is a prayer mountain that locals climb to fast and pray out to the Lord. As soon as we got there we dispersed to have some quiet time with God and his creation. We spend a few hours alone, then gathered around the big tree and spoke of what God had been telling us, prayed over each other, sang worship and it was so beautiful. One of my favorite days so far 🙂
We also had a day trip to play soccer and volleyball with some locals. We thought it would be a nearby school field with about 10 or 20 of us, but no, it’s Africa. We piled into a truck with 40 other people, FORTY! Then we drove for a good hour outside of town, it was quite a ride. The volleyball team was a legit team, so we just sat on the side lines and made ‘reed whistles’ out of the grass to cheer them on. We sat by the sidelines happily until the coach came over and said it was our turn, what? We would be playing against a local girls team and half of us have never played volleyball before and/or are scared of the ball haha. We ended up winning! We told them all we were the US Olympic Volleyball team, but they never believed us for a second, it’s still a running joke. We then went to watch the guys play soccer in the beautiful countryside. The girls sat on the sidelines listening to Imagine Dragons and playing Catan (Dan, you would have loved it!). We drove back into town and met up with our squad leaders that are here until we leave for Rwanda. All in all, the day was great!
Last night we went into town with the other teams to see a movie! at a movie theatre! whhhhat? It was awesome. We found a man who had been living in the US, but from Uganda, that owns a cafe/theatre he is trying to make Americanized. I told him I work at Starbucks and he shook my hand excitedly, I’m heading over there later to show him how to make a cappuccino! He played Blood Diamond for us and we had real drip coffee for the first time in Uganda, it was so strong and delicious! It was crazy seeing that movie IN Africa, it felt like it was our neighbors who were dying and we could be attacked any minute. Needless to say, I teared up almost the entire movie haha, I’m such a cry baby for movies.
So, now we have a few more days left. We have door to door ministry every afternoon it doesn’t rain, an intense 2 hour presentation at an all boys high school (The school where the Ugandan president came from!) that we are being helped with by some other Mzungus from the UK that are here with African Inland Missions and church on Sunday. I’m heading up the Saturday worship and preaching, so please pray for us! haha We are doing the story of David and taking the aspects in 1 Tim 4:12 to compare to his life and how he was such a great servant for the Lord!
Have a great week and see you in Rwanda!!
