Day 10

4:00 AM (Guest House)

Oh man, I have not been sleeping well tonight and just woke up wide awake and can hardly swallow. Probably the massive amounts of dust I've inhaled the past few days, but I think I have a bit of a fever. I'll be honest though, better this than hanging over the toilet, which was my biggest fear on the trip! Mat just texted me though (yes cell service, but no phone calls and I only have my phone on at night for my alarm because it ruins the atmosphere and is $$) and it was perfect timing to have a friend praying for me! I want to be well for church in the morning and worship with these people! Gavin, Jeff, and I are just going to Kiburara for church (everyone is divided up and I'm slightly bummed I can't go to a village church since we've been here all week, but I also feel like it will be like a home church since now I will know so many people!)

....As I lay here I can hear the wild dogs howling and the rooster has already started to crow. I also haven't shared about the Muslim calls to prayer we've heard early some mornings. Kind of eerily beautiful, and ironically it reminded me of a military cadence which, I think, sometimes are musical and kind of pretty!

Sunday Evening (Guest House)

I'm not sure what made me sick today, but after my poor night of sleep I don't feel great. My fever is at about 100 and normally they don't let you come out if your sick, but Isaac let me since it is Sunday. I'm wondering if maybe it is because of the Meflo (malaria meds) because apparently that messes with people and maybe weakens the immune system a bit, but I'm quite achy/sensitive to touch and my stomach felt fine but the second I looked at the toilet I threw up (didn't tell anyone but Jess that!).

We loaded into the bus and all went our separate ways. I finally snapped a picture of the "Afreca!" sign for Amanda and the ride in was still like our first with the excitement and waves we saw from the people on the road. As Gavin, Jeff, and I walked to the church, we felt pret-ty alone. Not in a bad way, but we normally have our whole group and it appeared that the youth/pastor's conference really brought up the numbers of people around, so with that over everything seemed pretty empty.

There were only about 10 people in the church and they got up and started singing. We thought they were maybe "rehearsing," but nope, they just started and by the end of the service it was pretty full! I was pleased to see Corinne and her sister were there and so were Susan and hers, so that was nice since they always warm my heart. Unfortunately I really wasn't feeling well so that marred the service a bit, but it was still neat to experience. Jeff preached a short "Bible Study," there were announcements, and lots more worship and dancing. Somewhere in there a guy in his 40s made us move to the front row of lawn chairs (as opposed to the wooden benches). He also set my bag on a chair and when I later put it back on the floor, he came back up and moved the chair in front of me and put my bag back on it. He was so eager to serve us, even if this simple gesture was completely unnecessary!

I felt kind of bad that I had put it back on the floor...I was also bummed I didn't get to sit by my girls! They shooed the kids off the chairs, but Corinne managed to sneak onto my lap a bit. Gavin was totally on fire and clearly filled with the Holy Spirit and afterwards a young man came up to be saved-there was much singing and rejoicing over him! They also had different groups come up and sing random songs; I wish I had felt better because I would have gone up to sing!

My fever hadn't broken by lunch, but thankfully we went back a bit early and had a restful afternoon. Drew and Isaac went to Moses' radio show and we all gathered around the radio "Fireside Chat" style and heard them present the Gospel. Pretty cool and that night Moses received a call from a woman wanting to give her life to Christ and then 2 hours after her her husband called to do the same thing!

My fever finally broke by dinner and I enjoyed hearing Drew's love story. Essentially he started liking his wife 5 years ago on this same trip to Uganda, asked her out 3 weeks after that, and 2 1/2 months later took her to meet his family and ended up proposing there with a ring his dad carved and added his grandmother's diamond to the night before because he couldn't find another one unique enough to give her! By the next year's trip to Uganda, they were married. Crazy, eh!? Anyway though, it was nice to hear about. I never got to thank Drew for what he said after Whitney shared her testimony yesterday, but I really appreciated both of them sharing. I've really been thankful for our team members sharing their testimonies on this trip. Without going into too much detail on here, I'll just say that time and time again we have all been saved by grace and none of us is perfect. So many different bad situations, you name it, it happened to our group, and it is encouraging to see that a) God's power surpasses Satan's every time, but b) (and more selfishly)-even Christians struggle! No one is perfect and I thank God I don't have to be either! Sometimes you gotta just be reminded of that because it is easy to think that the Christians around you are all much more "holy" than you. We're all sinners. We all need grace.