Day 6

8:00 AM (Guest House)

Feeling good this morning and thrilled to be in a skirt and flip-flops! Since the camp is starting I know I won't be mixing cement. I've also already noticed at least one perk which is the bathroom situation. Let me tell you, it will be 10x easier than dealing with pants and the hole. Some of the girls are going to learn how to cook from Sarah this morning. Oddly I don't feel like going, but I did request that Lani get me the recipe for the chipote. I'm not really sure we can compete since the food here is all pretty fresh. Yesterday we watched a woman go and pick a piece of corn, shuck it, and prepare it right there!

While we wait to depart I want to share a quick story from yesterday-- On our way back from work, Isaac had Sunday (bus driver) stop the bus in a village. He said the first year here no one in the village would come out to listen to them preach, but they all stood in their doorways watching them. All of the sudden a storm rolled in and it started pouring rain. The people started running out to save their food that was drying outside. CLC started helping them and the people were so surprised at their helping that after everyone waited out the rain they all came out to listen to the preaching. Many gave their lives to Jesus that day and that village was the first of 9 where Moses helped build a church plant! So awesome how God works!

Evening (Guest House)

Today was another exhausting day. Several people stayed at the guest house because they weren't feeling well and all the other women went to learn how to cook from Sarah.Typically that would be right up my alley, but I wasn't feeling it (or I'm not sure I'd ever prepare goat!). The pastor's conference was still going on so we hung around the church. They just built a secondary school (high school) next to the church that will teach vocations and also have dorms so that students can live there. The school isn't quite done yet and some of the pastors from the conference are staying there so the guys started cleaning up one of the unfinished rooms. There are no panes in the windows, but the views are spectacular!

Anyway, this left the 30 or so kids to Paul, Peter, and me. Ay yi yi! My theory is that because these kids get to spend the most time with us, they aren't as well behaved. I say this because the children in the villages we have been visiting are so shyly in awe of us that they do not fight at all. Trying to bowl or jump rope with these kids, however, was frustrating because they were fighting so much for a turn! So we had to stop the games. For the next hour or so, Paul and I took a walk down memory lane by singing children's songs with Peter playing along on the guitar. The kids would try to sing along and loved doing the actions. Pretty sweet. Next we got out paper plates and crayons and saw them the calmest we'd seen them and a translator also appeared so Peter could share the Gospel and have them draw things. I thought we'd end up missing most of the crayons, but surprisingly we got them all back. Including from the orphan who is known for stealing. He proudly returned everything and even picked up a dropped one. It reminded me of

the Herdman's in their Christmas pageant.

By the time we went to lunch I was feeling pretty tired. The kids were also a bit more clingy here, often 2 kids on each hand, so I could hardly stop for a drink on this hot morning because they followed us everywhere! Oh, I forgot, we tried to put their energy into cleaning up the construction site with us a bit, but that invoked a near revolt. Ha, they knew they were being tricked and between themselves started yelling "no," but eventually those yelling "yes" won so we all helped for a bit. Even the little ones; though some asked for payment.

Lunch didn't sit well about half way through it (thus ended my goat consumption for the trip), but I still went out for village evangelism. Talk about something new and a bit frightening! We split into 2 teams of 5 and basically went house to house.

The first house was kind of awkward because we ended up all lined up in front of an audience with not much of a plan. Drew asked a bit about them (there were 2 main guys eating their lunch so he mainly spoke to them) and then asked if they were born again Christians. One guy said he was Catholic. Then Andrew shared his testimony which is pretty powerful since it dealt with significant spiritual warfare controlling his body (stabbed himself and by God's grace was miraculously healed, shocking his doctors). It was pretty neat to see how God worked through Andrew and his testimony. These people understand witchcraft because it has a powerful hold in Uganda, so it was a perfect segue into the Gospel. One of the men asked for prayer against the evil spirits that attack him in his dreams. At the end we asked if anyone wanted to renounce their sins and ask Jesus to come into their lives and Drew reiterated several times to make sure they understood they needed to renounce witchcraft too. Probably about 15 agreed they wanted to do that and then said the sinners prayer; essentially saying that they know they are sinners but want to repent because they know that Jesus is Lord and His grace has saved them so they want to live their life for Him. Pretty awesome to see.

Also during this time the sweetest toddler came to me to be held and she just studied me the whole time. She'd rub her tiny hands over my arms and curiously look at my hair and curls. Oddly enough they don't really have hair on their arms or the dry skin on their elbows, so that was something they found fascinating! I realized I may be the first white person she has seen! She was just a doll. When we moved on and I had to put her down she just started crying. It was terrible to leave her!

Back to the Gospel! We walked from home to home, first asking if we could speak to the people (custom) and then sharing our testimonies and the Gospel. Some people walked with us from house to house. One woman was already a Christian and it was neat to see her excitement as she witnessed her friends finally finding Jesus. She was filled with joy. After getting permission to speak with the people we wanted to sit down to make things more personal and relaxed, but our translator said we should stand. At one point Drew told him that we wanted things more relaxed and were fine with sitting on the ground, and John just responded, "wow," in a quiet shock. I guess he was surprised that we would sit in the dirt. The people in each home wouldn't have it and would pull out chairs and give up their benches so that we could sit.

One home just had one sister come forward for prayer and once she prayed her sister and mother then came over and wanted to pray as well. We then prayed for their grandmother who lay paralyzed on the dirt floor of their hut. Then the father or grandfather (an old man!) came and wanted to hear the Gospel and accept Christ too! Gavin shared his testimony and the Gospel, and asked the man if he wanted to be born again. He said yes, took of his hat, and bowed his head in prayer. And he cried. After this he also asked for prayer for healing his sickness. It was a pretty powerful thing to witness.

The final home was an Anglican woman who also wanted to be born again. Oh, and I should mention, when these people were done praying the prayer, they would clap! They could feel the joy of the Lord and they understood that it was Good News! It was awesome. We would also be sure to tell them about church on Sunday (Kachinga was the village and Pastor Christopher was the local pastor). Some of our group will be at the church on Sunday and Lord-willing we will see them!

The day was overwhelming, as most of the days here have been. Going and sharing the Gospel in these villages is not exactly in my comfort zone, but the people's hearts were so open! It seemed so easy. I wish it could be like that more in America. I know I should only be rejoicing, but I can't help but wonder why the Lord works like He does. I think that these people have so little that giving it up to the Lord maybe just isn't as hard? We have so much and so many beliefs and freedoms that we forget we need God or feel that we don't need Him at all. If not for His amazing grace, none of us would know of the joy in life that only He can give. Some of these people probably have never seen a Bible and they only heard a brief summary of the Gospel and glory of Christ, but they understood that living life with Him is the only way for everlasting joy and peace. All they did was have a conversation with God, telling Him they know they are sinners, asking for forgiveness, and for Him to take hold of their lives, renouncing the sin that clung to them. God did the rest. He can beat the witchcraft, the evil spirits, the doubts, the language barrier, and He responded to their humble prayers with peace and grace.

The beautiful girls gave us flowers and a banana before we left. Definitely the freshest and most flavorful banana I have ever had!

I think I already explained the photo phenomenon, but these kids love having their picture taken and then looking at it on the screen. Many don't know what the little box does until you flip it around to show them the picture, but they figure it out pretty quick! Some will then pose or you have 20 kids suddenly surrounding you with excited (unknown) words coming from their mouths. They rarely ask you to take the pictures, but you can tell they are longing for it as they gaze at the camera hanging from your neck. I'm glad they like it because I want to get pictures, but feel rude taking them sometimes.

We headed back to Kiburara where I was thrilled to see Janta Maria and her friend Solivia out the window. They speak minimal English but gave me the eyebrow nod when I asked if they were here for the conference. I love the eyebrow nod and will probably attempt to bring it back to the States with me. Sometimes they add a soft "yay" for "yea," but otherwise they just raise their eyebrows to give a silent "yes." Anyway, I'm quite excited that I got to see her again!

We headed back to the Guest House and were definitely in need of hot water for bathing. I should probably explain this a little bit. The Guest House is much nicer than I anticipated it would be. There is running water, flushing toilets, lights, sheets, and beds.

Initially I did not have high expectations! The shower head does not work though and the faucet has no pressure, so water barely runs out. The drain is in the corner of the bathroom and it is all one tiled floor (with no separation between the shower and the rest of the floor).

When we get home each day we ask Joyce, a lady who works at the Guest House, for hot water. She boils water and brings 2 pitchers to our room (one for each of us).

In the bathroom is a basin about the size and depth of a car tire. I've got a pretty good system down--

1. Fill basin with cold tap water. Wash feet. Dump dirty water.

2. Shampoo and rinse hair in tap water from faucet while soaking my still semi dirty feet in the water the basin catches. Dump dirty water.

(Soaps courtesy of work stays at the Ritz...had to laugh every time I thought about how far I was from that!)

3. Put 1/2 of the steaming water from the pitcher into basin. Add some cold tap water so as not to burn yourself. Scrub. Dump dirty water.

4. Dump other 1/2 of hot water into basin (mix with tap). Rinse. Laugh at yourself bathing attempting to maneuver around in this little bowl. Dump still dirty water.

5. Clean filthy floor.

6. Feel fresh and fairly clean!

I'm told that dirt will still run off us when we finally get home and take a real shower. I believe it. Not to mention we are leaving Kiburara at 4:00 a.m., driving to Entebbe, and getting right on our flight for home. Mmm. Dulles Airport won't even know what hit them!

The rest of the evening we laid kind of low. We practiced singing a bit and one of the ladies came out dancing and singing and wanted us to do some of the songs again so she could sing along. I just love their accents when they sing with us in English :) Us girls had a good talk in our room and I'm thankful for these new friendships, encouragement, and (I'm sure) prayer!