Life in Africa

Well, I finally made it to Uganda! Tanzania was nothing short of amazing.  In Dar Es Salaam I met with 37 of the other Hands On participants as well as numerous missionaries to the CESA region for 2 weeks.  Honestly, a lot of the sessions we sat through were pretty boring, but the people I met were incredible.  God really used that time to show me that he has all of this worked out and that we have all been called by Him to be here.  Hearing everyone's testimonies and just being surrounded by such strong people in the faith was amazing. By the time we left Dar, I truly felt like I was living

 Hebrews 12, "surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses..."  As the verse continues, now that we have all parted ways, we must "lay aside every weight, and sin, which clings so closely, and...run with endurance the race that is set before us looking to Jesus..."  How great it will be when we all meet together again in Dar before heading home in December to share with each other the amazing things that will happen in the months ahead!

[We got to go to a really nice beach for our last day in Tanzania!]

It's hard to believe we have already been here in Uganda almost a week! Our flight was delayed something like 6 hours leaving Tanzania (something about the airline not having any fuel...there were a few rumors going around).  Once we finally made it in, we were there almost another hour trying to deal with a missing bag (still yet to be found).  

We spent the night in our new homes. The girls are in the house they will be staying in until late October or early November when some other missionaries come to move in.  Steven and I are staying in a guest house on the Baptist Mission compound until our apartment is ready, which will hopefully be sometime next week.  I'm not complaining because this guest house is a lot roomier than our apartment will probably be. They told us that the apartment has one room and a bathroom. They are planning to put a cooktop (stove) and fridge on the veranda for a make-shift kitchenette. In the guest house we have separate bedrooms, bathrooms, a living room and a full kitchen. Oh well, TIA and this is actually more than I ever expected. :)

We went with Misti (one of our supervising missionaries) and her girls to meet her husband, Anthony (our other supervising missionary), in Jinja for the weekend. He is teaching at the Baptist seminary there for the next couple of weeks.  We got to meet more missionaries who live in Jinja and see a smaller, quieter place than Kampala.  We also went to the source of the Nile, where lake Victoria feeds into the Nile River.  Steven and I went bungee jumping over the Nile Sunday afternoon.  It was about a 150-foot drop from the tower (seen in the upper-right of the picture) down to the river.  I went first. It was pretty exhilarating!  I'm pretty impressed that I didn't hesitate after they counted down for me to go. I did have second thoughts once I left the ledge, but it was a little too late then, and my stomach was already in my chest (which was strange since I was upside down).  The worst part was hanging upside down after I stopped bouncing until they lowered me down into a raft. I had a headache for most of the rest of the day. Don't think I could do that twice in one day...

[The bungee tower over the Nile River]

So, what exactly are we going to be doing here in Kampala? Well, that's the question that all of us are asking! We are going to be working with the youth in the network of house churches here in the urban areas.  There is currently no kind of student ministry in the house churches, so we will pretty much be launching it.  We are going to be spending the rest of this week and next week figuring out what exactly all of that will entail.  We are meeting with the pastors in the house church network as well as some from churches in the city that have existing student ministries.  We will possibly be looking to them for an example of what we might could do in the churches we will be working in, except that we won't have any kind of a budget, of course.  We don't really have a specific agenda or outline to follow (other than Christ's example in scripture) so what we do will be mostly up to us.  We are looking to start Bible studies and disciple students here.  Most importantly, as I recall Misti saying yesterday, we want to find where God is working and join Him there. Couldn't put it any better.

Here are some ways you can continue to pray for my team, as well as the other Hands On teams:

1. Pray that God will glorify Himself through our ministries

2. Pray for opportunities to share our faith.

3. Pray for boldness as we live out our faith.

4. Pray for God to prepare the hearts of the people we will encounter.

5. Pray for our cultural sensitivity and understanding.

6. Pray for our relationships with our supervisors and other missionaries.

7. Pray for team unity.

8. Pray for our relationships with nationals.

9. Pray for safety in travel and health on the field.

10. Pray for humility and a flexible spirit.

11. Pray for protection from loneliness and depression.

12. Pray for peace of mind for our families back home.

13. Pray that God will use our missions experiences to grow the passion in us for missions.

I cannot tell you enough just how much I appreciate the prayers and all of the support from everyone!  I hope to keep you updated weekly if I am able, but we will see. The internet is very, very slow here so the time it normally takes to do the simplest thing is increased exponentially. 

"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be will you all."  2 Corinthians 13:14 (ESV)