If you read my last blog, you know how little official "ministry" time we've had this month. But as I look back with only a few days left here, we have accomplished quite a lot! We have not been idle!
Every day starts off with team prayer time. My favorite place is on the porch, overlooking the hills as the rising sun melts away the mist. How can you have a bad day when it starts off with a view like this?!
When we first got here, we got to work with a World Race Alum, Chandler [whom the locals know as Cha Cha]. She came back to Uganda after working with Pastor Joseph on her Race in 2011. She is here with one of her teammates from the Race working to build a library for the school. Her teammate, Bethany, came back from a short visit home a few days after we arrived, right before Chandler left to go back to the States. The few days of ministry, when it was just "The Final Four" of Team Tumbler [Chris, Cathy, Michelle, and me], we helped Chandler with some work she offered to help a friend with, mainly oiling hand-crafted wooden spoons to be shipped to and sold in the States.
We did house visits once a week to the houses of the congregation members. We split up into pairs and each went with a translator. I went with Cathy and Joet both times we went out. Joet is a young man getting ready to start university in January, and hopes to either be a TV/radio broadcaster or own a Christian radio. He is a member of a band called One Face. It was such a joy talking to him in between house visits!
We attended weekly bible study sessions that were held at the church. It was great to go and just participate, not being expected to preach or bring something other than what everyone else is capable of bringing. It was a little taste of home, and what it was like the past few years in college leading growth groups with Cru.
On Saturdays, we went to the church to play with the neighborhood kids. We played games, taught Bible stories, facilitated soccer games, and just loved on them, giving them attention they so desperately craved.
Also on Saturdays, the choir met to practice for church the following day, too. Michelle and I ended up with the task of teaching the choir a new song, since Pastor says we always have such great songs. So, we spent two Saturdays teaching the choir Desert Song, with nothing but a chalkboard and our voices.
Several days of the month, we spent the mornings repairing the road that leads to the church. It is a very steep hill and since it's always rainy season here in Mukono [according to Joet anyway…], the road gets washed out. The first day, we filled in holes with rocks, bricks, and concrete debris that we had around the house and church grounds. The second day, we covered the rubble with dirt in an attempt to make a smooth grade. A few days later, more rubble was added to the road on one of our off days, so the next day, we spent another morning filling in the road with more dirt. It looks so good! When we got there this month, we were all clinging to the seats for our lives as we were shaken and rattled as we rolled down the hill. It's still a dirt road, but it's worlds better than it was!
We attended a Holy Spirit Revival the week of Pentecost at the church. We attended two of the three nights. It was great to just see them creating space for the Holy Spirit to move. The second night, I was out at the back of the church and ended up saving a young girl from a colony of ants that was relocated. They were fascinating to watch, until she got attacked… They were all over her feet and were just coming out of her shoes. So, i tried to get her shoes off and then get the ants off of her. The ants came pouring out of her shoes. After getting all the ants off her, I retrieved her shoes from another kid, made sure they were ant-free, put them back on for her, and then held her for the rest of the night. She didn't want to let go.
thousands, maybe millions of ants. And there were some stragglers a few feet on either side of that line too… which is where my sweet little girl got swarmed.
This past Sunday, as we were arriving at church, Pastor Joseph told us that he was going to go preach at another church and asked for a few of us to go with him. So, Ed, Chris, Erin, and I climbed back in the van, thinking it was a church right down the road. The road there reminded me of Cambodia: red, dirt roads from which dust was kicked up after every passing vehicle.
45 minutes later, we arrive at what I think was a daughter church of Christ Ambassadors Church, on the shores of Lake Victoria. Pastor Joseph preached, but not after asking us to introduce ourselves and each of us speaking a word of encouragement. It was such a small church, half of the attendees were under the age of 12, but it was a beautiful congregation. And they were so welcoming to us, taking us in and making us feel a part of their family for the day.
We stopped at Lake Victoria to take pictures before heading back to home. (So the tourist comes out in us every now and then…)
And the best part of every day, is sunset! How awesome is it to see God's beauty displayed over the hills of Uganda every stinkin' day?!
