Pictures from AIDS oprhans day

One of the children sponsored by our program waiting in line for school supplies.

Giving out school supplies.

The well outside of Messiah Theological Institute (MTI)

Stephan giving instructions.

A breeze in Uganda

I’m a bit behind…
On the 13 of September I went to Mbale Church of Christ for an AIDS orphans day. One of the ministries our team does is sponsorship of AIDS orphans. When I got there Kimberly was teaching a Bible lesson using tea bags… I think it was something about how God has cleansed us from our sins, the dark stuff inside of us. After her lesson, the kids went out to the field to play soccer. There were 2 soccer balls, so the boys played with one and the girls with the other. I walked over to the field with them and sat on a wall watching them from a distance. I felt so at peace and so happy to be in Africa. Even though I live in Africa, I spend more time around ex-patriots from all over than I do with Africans. As I sat there, a light breeze passed by. A few years ago I went out to a quiet place overlooking a lake in Tuscaloosa. I had gone there to pray and spend time with God. As I was talking with Him, a gently breeze would pass occasionally. Since then, I am always reminded of God’s presence through something as small and often unnoticed as a breeze. So, feeling this breeze brush over me as I sat and watched African children playing so joyfully brought a deep peace to me. I finally felt like I was in Africa. Then a lady from the church walked by and said “Why don’t you go play with them?” So I did. I kicked off my flip flops and ran over to the girls. Who would’ve thought that playing soccer as a kid would actually come in handy? I think it’s way cool how God uses even the most random experiences of our lives to glorify Him. I had a lot of fun kicking the ball around with those girls. Btw, trying to play soccer in a skirt can be tricky, especially if it’s not a flowy type skirt. After soccer, we gave out notebooks and pencils for school and Bibles to older kids. Then we gave out coats. After that, we ate and then everyone went home. It was a good afternoon.
Here’s another “welcome to Africa” story:
Nicole and I rode bodas to the church (it’s quite a long walk). This was only my 2nd time to ride one. We started on a big hill… which should’ve been a sign in the first place. I couldn’t even get on because the bikes are so tall and my legs are so short. Once I finally hopped on, my bodaman had to get another bodaman to give him a push to help him start. Once he gets going on his own, my flip flop falls off. So the guy that was pushing us ran and got it and stuck it back on my foot for me. In the meantime, we ended up stopping, which also meant that he had to push us off again. We get to the top of the last hill and turn onto the main road in town and my flip flop fell off again. I had to tell him a few times what happened, then he finally saw my barefoot and stopped, again. He ran to get my shoe for me. This time we had stopped at a sidewalk so I could hop back on much easier since I had some added height standing on the sidewalk. When he came back I took my other flip flop off and put them into my bag. This road was flat, so he didn’t need help getting going… he went quite fast actually. Meanwhile, I’m still trying to figure out just where to hold on. I don’t understand how these Ugandan women can just sit there no problem and often hold a sleeping child. As we approach the big traffic circle in town, I’m praying that I won’t die… it’s a really busy part of town and bodas often almost run into cars (general traffic rule here: the bigger object always has the right of way) or pichis (motorcycles) zoom by and there are people everywhere. Thankfully, we made it fine. He made it to the road I told him to go to but he didn’t know where to turn, and I had to remember where that was. I saw the road and pointed ahead saying, “You see that road there? That is where I need to go.” He turned in to the gas station just before the road instead (all of this being on the other side of the road from the direction we were coming in). I couldn’t remember how far it was down the road to the church, so I didn’t want to tell him to just stop there. We then headed against traffic on the wrong side of the busy road. After waiting a while and trying to pedal up to the road he finally asked if we could just walk there. So, we walked up to the corner where I again hopped back onto the bike as many Ugandans were saying, “Mzungu, where are your shoes?” It’s weird for a white person to be barefoot… even though many of them don’t wear shoes all the time. We again set out for the church. I saw Nicole ahead and told him to stop where my friend was… he said he didn’t see her… the only white girl standing anywhere around. But, he eventually saw her and peddled over. I finally made it to (well close enough to) our destination. I paid him well saying it was for all the trouble. Since I caused pretty much all of it, and I did arrive where I wanted to unharmed, I thought he deserved it. One lesson learned: next time I’m not wearing flip flops on a boda or I’ll at least take them off first.

My house

My room
Living room and dining area
Kitchen

Falling geckos

The last week has been so busy. The power was off most of the day Saturday and Sunday. School started on Wednesday, so I spent Tuesday afternoon (after team meeting) trying to get my lessons all prepared. The first day of school was good overall. I spent my off periods scrambling to get ready for my next classes. I’ve been told that the boys in my middle school class are afraid of me. They haven’t had a teacher like me in quite a while… but they are doing ok, no big issues yet. The 3^rd grade class is a bit difficult for me since it is elementary level and I am figuring out what to do with elem. kids and what to teach them, etc. British lit. is good; I’m excited about that class. I’m taking more of a college prep approach to it since it is Lelia’s senior year. Overall school is good. It has just been difficult for me personally to adjust to the structure of school here and figure out what to leave and what to change. But, I know I will work through it all as I get settled in here. Again, it’s just more adjusting…

The team here has many things going on all the time. Tuesdays we have team meetings, Wednesday we have team devo, Thursdays we have community ladies’ Bible study with other ex-pats in Mbale, Fridays we have a prayer breakfast for the women on the team and a pancake dinner with other ex-pats at night, Saturday nights a group gets together to play volleyball, Sundays we have church and a community Bible study at night, and Mondays are our days off (which are often used for swimming, sleeping, and running errands. This is all in addition to school. Sound hectic and overwhelming? It is. Being the introvert that I am, being around such large groups of people exhausts me, especially after teaching all day. So far, I have gone to most things. Soon though, I’m going to have to decide what night I am going to reserve for phone calls and resting. It is good that there is such a sense of community here and much to do together; I am thankful for that. I just get exhausted from it. I would appreciate prayers for wisdom about how to manage my time best.

Since my last blog I have thought of many stories to add, but now I can’t remember them very well. Nancy and Sam Shewmaker were in town for a couple of nights. They have served much of their lives as missionaries in Africa. They work with Missions Resource Network and are preparing to begin work in Rwanda. They have mentored many of my missionary mentors and it was nice to spend a little bit of time talking with them. Julie arrived in town on Monday. Her birthday was the day before, so we cooked dinner and a cake and had the single folks over for dinner that night. At the moment, the whole team is in Mbale. Shon leaves tomorrow afternoon to begin a trip to Sudan with some others he’ll meet up with in Kampala. I know he’d appreciate prayers for his trip. If I remember correctly, this trip is for the SEE ministry. There is always so much going on here it can be difficult to remember who is doing what when and with whom.

On a final, random note… I opened the door from the laundry room to outside to hang up my laundry earlier this week. Something fell on my head when I opened the door. It was a gecko. I kinda like them since they eat mosquitoes. Anything that eats mosquitoes is fine with me, as long as it’s not suddenly falling from somewhere (like my head or thudding into my dresser drawer). Until next time… I miss you all and pray that you are all doing well. I added a list of prayer requests to the side. I will try to keep that updated with specific requests. :)