Christmas in the Village

We have been wanting to go to the village with our dear friends the Lamas (Emmanuel, Dorcus, Jezreel and Ariella) for a long time. As it turned out, Christmas was the best time to go because of Dorcus's time off of work. We have been looking forward for this trip for awhile now. We traveled about 320 km (about 220 miles) to the village of Kashenshero and then went a little bit further till we got to Dorcus's dad's house. Because of traffic and a few extra stops our journey there lasted about 9 hours. Obadiah did great as he had much entertainment in the car. We took our good friend Rhona and her son Hamlet with us and dropped them off at Rhona's mom's house along the way. Obie loves Hamlet and Jezreel and the boys kept each other laughing for a lot of the time.  Most of our travels were on good paved road but the last hour was on winding dirt roads that went over rolling hills. 

Soon after arriving at Dorcus's dad's house, we were told that a goat was going to be slaughtered and should go watch and learn about how it was done. Goat is a favorite Ugandan meat and is a Christmas tradition no matter what tribe you are from. 

We arrived on the 24th and stayed until the 27th and enjoyed the gorgeous scenery and cooler temperatures. Obadiah loved running around and exploring with Jez. 

On Christmas we headed to church for their service that ended up being around four hours long. Even though we were late we were ushered to the front of the church as special guests. Obie managed to get a nap in during the sermon, and we managed to understand a bit of what was going on even though the service was spoken in Runyankore (Luganda is the language spoken in Kampala). It is always great to hear the celebratory worship that takes place in a church in the village. We also got to witness offerings of thanksgivings that were brought to the church which included goats, chickens, eggs, maize, sugar cane, millet flour, pumpkins and various other things. At the end of the service these things were sold and the profit went back to the church offering. 

Kyle was asked to share a few words and shared 1 Cor 15:1-4 while Emanuel translated for him.

We managed to get a few pictures at church, below I am with Dorcus and her step-mom. We are actually wearing a style of dress that originates in Rwanda. Emannuel is half Rwandese and being that these tribes in the south west of Uganda share a few similarities with some tribes in Rwanda, several other women at church were wearing this style of dress as well. 

In previous visits to more rural parts of Uganda, Kyle and I have experienced the attention that comes from having different color skin form everyone around us. We expected this again on this trip bit were surprised to see the reaction to Obadiah. I think being a little white person in this area is very rare and so after church we had this group and a few not pictured, following us around and eating to touch Obie. 

After getting home from church we had to take several pictures with the family in from of the house, here we are with Dorcus's dad and his wife. 

I had to get one of Obie, Jezreel and Blessing (Jez's cousin) who spent most of the days running around and playing together.

The following day we got to visit with more friends that either came to the house or we visited in their homes. We had the opportunity to pray with many people that are followers of Yahweh and experience some of his Kingdom that is here on earth. We had such a wonderful time and were treated with so much love and hospitality by the Lamas and their family. It is a wonderful thing to be in the family of God and to share these sweet memories with loved ones. 

On the way home we made much better time as we made it in less than six hours. It is a very "touristy" thing to stop at the equator and take pictures. Even though Rhona, Dorcus and Emanuel have crossed the equator hundreds of times they have never stopped to take a picture here. It just so happened that Obie needed a diaper change so we decide to stop and take a picture.  This is such a special picture to me, I love these people so much! 

We had a great Christmas we hope you did too!