An Overview

We got home on Tuesday night after avoiding an ash cloud coming from an erupting volcano that extended our flight an hour.  We had a 23 hour lay over in London which was really fun and we got to do a bit of debriefing with our team in Hyde Park, it was gorgeous. 

Kyle and I really enjoyed London and it was a nice way to break up the trip back home.

Our time in Uganda was really a blessing; we so enjoyed seeing familiar faces, having people remember our names, meeting new people and seeing how Yahweh works in bringing his Kingdom to earth.  We got to experience fellowship with the church that we partner with, University Community Fellowship (UCF) led by our good friend, Micah Rwothumio whose house we stayed at (all 18 if us). Our team consisted of 12 college age students, the 2 of us, our friends Matt and Adrienne Gibson as leaders, and we were joined by Kyle’s parents a couple days after we got there.

We wanted to give you some highlights (and a few lowlights) of our time and maybe in the next few days spend more time writing about our time there:

- Micah had constructed a guesthouse on his property that was not there last year when we visited. We were so surprised to see it and very spoiled to be staying in such comfortable accommodations. Micah's wife, Grace, Grace's two sister's and their daughters spoiled us with their cooking and by taking care of us.  These women are wonderful and I am glad to have friendships with them.

-  6 people got sick within the first 24 hours of being in Uganda. Neither one of us were among the fallen but it made for a challenging couple of days.

- One of our first days there we spent a day doing "Random Acts of Kindness" around the church. We picked up a bunch of trash, helped clear up some of the grass field, and trimmed some hedges, trying to clean up some of the area around UCF. 

- The first Saturday there, we had a “Leadership Summit” which our team was responsible for. About 45 students from the UCF came to learn about “How to read your Bible”, “The importance of discipleship”, and “The importance of community in the Church.” Our students taught each session, they did great, and Kyle facilitated the entire day.

- On Sunday, Kyle’s dad preached at both services while our team was involved with the Sunday school time for the children. In one of the services Micah announced that Kyle and I would be relocating to Uganda next year. The cheers that followed that announcement humbled us and made us both a bit emotional.  We look forward to moving to Uganda, it is touching that some Ugandans look forward to our move as well. 

- We were tourists for a day and took a trip to Jinja, a town on Lake Victoria where the source of the Nile is. 

- We also had a "Kid's fun day" at UCF.  UCF invited churches in the area to bring children for this day and 440 kids showed up. It was crazy! There were so many kids at church. We played games and sang songs, painted faces, listen to Bible lessons and played some more. It was great and we were all so tired at the end of the day. 

This little girl was hilarious and is very spunky, if you can't tell. 

-We got to celebrate as UCF is turned 10 years old the second sunday we were there. It was a huge celebration and they also had a ground breaking ceremony for a new building they will be constructing. 

There was a lot we got to see and do while we were there. We are confident that the Lord was working and we are humbled to get to be a part of that. The trip was not easy and we know that we failed at times as leaders and as a team, but through it all we are grateful to have been able to go on this trip and to see all the ways that Yahweh is working. 

More to come in the next few days....