[I really want to get all of these Uganda blogs posted, but I want to do them right and not rush them so that’s why it’s taking so long! They are coming, I promise!]
On October 6, we woke up in Uganda. We got to sleep in and eat breakfast and plan for the day, and we didn’t leave until after lunch. Can I just say that the food in Uganda (in my opinion) is really, really good. That’s been one of the things that everyone has asked me since I got home, especially since I lost some weight while I was there. Trust me, I lost weight from the activity (running and jumping and playing with kids is a good workout!); it wasn’t because I didn’t eat enough, because I ate a lot! Most mornings we had pancakes and/or eggs, and they were delicious. I miss the pineapple and the juice every morning.
OK, back on track. Those of us that were going to work with the kids got together to plan what we were going to be doing. Can I just say that everybody who worked so hard to help us get ready before the trip absolutely ROCKS!?!?!? Aaron and Whitney Bauer, Robyn, and Heidi all did a lot of work, (and I know that a lot of other people did too!) and it definitely paid off! So to all of those people – THANK YOU!!!!! We got to do a lesson on Moses the first day in this village, so we planned out who would tell which parts of the story, who would be leading songs, coloring, games, etc. It’s hard to plan, though, because we never have any idea how many kids we’ll have! Everyone was great at being flexible and just rolling with whatever came our way. Our team was and is amazing.
So after lunch we loaded up the bus and drove to Lakeside. Once we got off the main roads of Jinja, whenever we would pass huts and there were children outside, they would scream “MUZUNGU!” [what they call white people] and chase after the bus. It’s adorable!
It took about 45 minutes, and I got to sit in my favorite spot – the back right corner of the bus. Why do I like the back of the bus? Honestly, one reason is that I don’t like being able to see the road coming up… it just makes me nervous. The bus driver Tom is an amazing driver, but in general, the roads are scary and it’s better for me to just look out the side windows and enjoy the ride that way. Plus, I really like sitting on the back of the bus surrounded by our pastor friends. It’s one of my favorite things about the trip.
My closest pastor friend is named Edward. We got to be good friends last year, and we communicated in the time between trips through emails and even phone calls. He worked closely with us with the children last year, and he was amazing with them. He will encourage them to sing songs in their own language, he makes them laugh, and he is great about organizing large crowds of kids (which we have a lot!). He has 5 biological children with his wife (Mama Joy), and last year he was also taking care of 3 orphans. In the last month, his mother has died, and she was caring for 5 orphans; the burden of caring for those children has fallen to him, so soon he will be caring for 13 children. Even though he has this huge burden (“luggage” as he calls it), he is always joyful. He is always smiling and laughing, and his heart for Jesus just shines through him. Don’t think, though, that just because he’s good with kids that he isn’t fierce when it comes to telling people about Jesus. I love getting to go hut-to-hut with him because he talks about Jesus, His love, and salvation with passion and fire. Pastor Edward is the son of a chief, and he was a witchdoctor before he got saved. His story is amazing, and he is amazing and inspiring. But he is just one of the incredible interpreters that we have. I just wanted to take a minute to tell him about him because he is extra special to me.
(me and Pastor Edward last year)
When we got to Lakeside, we saw our pastor friends, and it was like coming home again! Pastor Edward gave me a two-handed wave (I love two-handed waves) as we pulled up, and I gave him a HUGE hug as soon as we got off the bus. Pastor Timothy is the pastor at Lakeside, so he was there, as was Pastor Robert and Pastor Geofrey.
There was a LOT of kids, so we went right into kids’ ministry. We told the story of Moses and then I presented the Gospel to them. I think that at least 15-20 kids got saved! God is SO good! After that, we sang songs and colored in mini coloring books that we had brought. We didn’t have enough coloring for all of the kids, and that was really hard. It’s heartbreaking to have to say “We don’t have anymore.” But we can only do what we can do, so we just focus on that. After coloring, we broke up into groups for games. It got a little chaotic because there were so many kids, especially since we were doing this in the afternoon and some of them were already out of school (we normally do kids' ministry in the mornings and a lot are in school). I took the soccer ball and went with the older kids to play “Net ball” with the girls. I thought that net ball meant basketball, but this is the way it goes the times that I’ve played it in the villages – someone throws the ball to someone else, that person catches it and throws it to someone else. If you don’t catch the ball, you’re out. If you are the last one standing, you are the queen. So I played net ball with the older girls, and I was queen! (Last year I played it also, and I had a lot of the girls tell me “Muzungu, you will sit!” and I said “No, I will be queen!” and I was! They all thought that it was really funny that this awkward looking white girl could catch and throw a soccer ball!)
After about an hour or two, most people on our team got in groups of two or three and went hut-to-hut with the interpreters to tell share the Gospel. They said that someone needed to stay back with the kids to try to keep them from following everyone else all over the village, and I volunteered. It was exhausting, but a lot of fun. Most of the kids ended up scattering anyway, but I think that maybe it helped a little bit. Basically, I was the main event for about 30-40 kids for at least an hour. No pressure! Haha. I had Pastor Edward with me and he helped me explain the songs that I taught them, and then they taught me some songs in their language. (I have some on video, but my I’m having trouble playing them… If I can get it fixed I’ll post them!). I showed them pictures that I had brought of my family and friends, and they really liked that. They thought that it was very weird that I had a picture of my dog and that she was on a chair in the picture. “A dog in the chair?” They thought I was very silly. When we were done with the songs and the pictures, I just started taking pictures of the kids. They love to pose for you to take their picture, and then they squeal and scream when you show them the picture afterward. If they think that you can’t see their face, they will stick a hand (or an arm, or a water bottle) in front of other kids so that they can have some part of themselves in the picture. It can get kind of frustrating, but then when you take a step back and realize that for some of them, it could truly be years in between times that they actually have their picture taken. Wow. It gives you a lot more patience with them to think that way.
I guess that you shouldn’t get favorite kids in the village, but I always do. This first day, I bonded with Marian and Mya. They are sisters (I’d guess around 12 and 9 or 10 years old), and Marian had gotten saved that day when I presented the Gospel. She was never far from my side our whole time in Lakeside. She was very bright and sweet.
(Mya is on the front left in the yellow-green dress, and Marian is in the center in the blue)
On the way home, I rode on the back of the bus again, this time with Mark Harvey and Pastor Joseph. On our last day in the village last year, I rode home next to Pastor Joseph, so it was pretty funny to me that this trip started the way that the last trip had ended.
When we got back to the guest house, it was time to eat, but when we were upstairs attempting to clean up a little bit (basically, just washing our hands and exchanging smelly, muddy shoes for flip-flops), the power went out. They pulled out a big lantern, so we ate dinner by lantern light until the power came back on sometime during dinner. Dinner was Tilapia, potatoes, carrots, mushroom soup, and bread. [Sidenote: I love the bread that they make. It is incredible.]
Like last year, every night after dinner we went around and everyone shared a little bit about what we had that day. [I didn’t mention it before, but while some of us were working with kids, a group of 3 went to visit a school, 2 went to prisons, Ashley was speaking to the women, and others were speaking to the men.] I think that my favorite parts of the day were (1) getting to introduce over 15 kids to Jesus! (2) finding out that my new friend Marian had gotten to know Jesus that day, and (3) playing and singing with the kids when others were gone hut-to-hut.
After dinner, we worked on unpacking the bags that we had brought with us (each of us got to bring one checked bag, and the other checked bag we had packed at Journey from items generously donated by people in the church – clothes, toys, candy, etc. etc.). I also got to call home just to tell my Mom that I was in Uganda safe and sound.
That night in our room, I wrote another letter to Jesus, and about halfway through I wrote this –
“Lord, I know that you hear the cries of your children. What we do just seems so small. Coloring books and songs won’t help them. Let us bring hope. Let us bring courage. Let us be Your hands and feet. Remind me that ‘We can do no big things, only small things with great love.’ Give me great love that lives and moves and breathes. Don’t let me get focused on doing this or that, but on You and Your love.”
As I was writing it, the song “Surely We Can Change” by David Crowder popped in my head. I put my ipod on that song and let the words say what I couldn’t. It was exactly what I had been feeling – just let us change something here. Let us just show your love and let that change things here. The next page in my journal is just the lyrics written out -
And I don’t know
What to do with a love like that
And I don’t know
How to be a love like that …
Where there is pain
Let there be grace
Where there is suffering
Bring serenity
For those afraid
Help them be brave
Where there is misery
Bring expectancy
And surely we can change
Surely we can change
Something
Where there is pain
Let us bring grace
Where there is suffering
Bring serenity
For those afraid
Let us be brave
Where there is misery
Let us bring them relief
And surely we can change
Surely we can change
Oh surely we can change
Something
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