I can not believe that I am already at the end of my 2nd month on The World Race. Our time in Uganda is coming to a quick close, as this coming monday my whole squad will be making our way to Rwanda for our next month of ministry.
This month has flown by, literally it kind of feels like it was just yesterday that my team and I were rolling into town on bus super late at night. I think time has flown by this month for a myriad of reasons but the most prominent one being that we were stinkin' busy. Every week we were out and about doing a lot of different things. We got to many opportunities to minister to the people here and got to spend time with a lot of different people too. We preached at 4 different schools in the area.. one of which we will preach at again tomorrow night (the all boys high school, where the president of Uganda actually went!! ha I love the irony of the all girls team preaching at the all boys school). We also got to preach every sunday at the church and in 3 different villages around our town of Ruti every thursday-saturday. On top of that we got to play some soccer and volleyball with the local students every once in a while and hang out with the tons of children who would literally peep through the windows on a daily basis just to see if we were home and not doing anything.
I know this sounds like a lot, which it was, but we also got some good rest this month thanks to the pretty consistent torrential down pours that would postpone things that we had planned. One life lesson that Africa has taught me so far is not to get too wrapped up in the plans… or being anywhere on time. Ha I think that last part my team and I've gotten a little too good at. We also got a legit rest day this week when Pastor Solomon took us to the top of a mountain for prayer and solitude. It was one of the most refreshing days I've had these past two months as I got to be alone with the Lord, and just hang out with Him for a while uninterrupted. Mountains, beautiful national parks, crazy animals just walking about next the road (such as elephants, warthogs, zebras and the likes) are a few of the perks of being in Africa.
A few of the non-perks include inconsistent power in town. Ha this would probably drive everyone in the US crazy, but power just isn't necessarily an expected thing when you get to town. Like this morning when we got here at 8 and there wasn't any, so the stores all had to hook up generators which didn't happen until 10, and now its about 2 and power still isn't on. Let alone in the small town areas like where our home has been it just doesn't exist at all. It's something that gives you a push towards a freedom from electronics that you wouldn't probably choose to walk into yourself, but is good in the end. The truth is we don't need all the crap we fill our lives with, as much as we think, feel, and believe we do.. we just don't. There's a whole word out here living lives with out it as proof. There's also the lack of running water, which I smiled about as I wrote because of the numerous funny moments its provided for our team. No running water means multiple things but the 2 big ones are bucket showers in outdoor stalls created by 4 posts and tarps hung around them that like to blow open in the wind haha. The other is the latrine or rather "squatty potty" which due to some stomach problems we've all become very familiar with. The latrine and shower also happen to be rather close to one another, the latrine being placed slightly higher in altitude than the shower, providing a nice view of anyone who happens to be showering as you need to go to the bathroom. I cannot help but laugh as I write that. Laughter and a light heart are really the only ways to approach these things.
As we head into Rwanda for our last month here in Africa, from what I've heard from our contact we can basically expect similar situations for our last month. I'll be honest I'm excited for Rwanda, but I think there's this itch within our team for change, like continental change. So I want to ask all of you to be praying for us, that during this month we would continue to find reasons to fall in love with this place and where the Lord has us. Especially during moments when we get homesick or find ourselves frustrated with different things (like lack of power and what not). Please pray that we continue to walk in faith, trusting the Lord to use us in mighty ways and being humble enough to accept our circumstance, whatever they be, so that He can do just that.
If you want to check out more photos of Uganda you can copy and paste this link to my latest facebook album:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1437387697193.2033487.1308000076&l=408d1c67ca&type=
Here are some photos of the mountain top rest day taken by my squad leader Lucas Tillman:
