Supper

If you remember, when Kyle took a trip to the village with Francis a few weeks ago he was gifted a chicken.  Naturally, Kyle named this rooster "Supper." Since they have been back Supper has been staying at Francis's house fattening up and participating in a few cock fights (some of Francis's neighbors have recently purchased some chickens for a festival that they were celebrating this last weekend). Thankfully Supper has shown his strength and most of the time has had the upper talon, if you will, in the fights. Unfortunately, there was one fight that left him merely bleeding but he has already healed from it. 

Don't tell Supper, but his end is in sight. Today we went to visit him and see what he was up to.  He was a bit camera shy but we managed to get one picture.

This Weekend

• We bought a car, that we will pick up this next week...paper work takes a long time here.  Thanks supporters for helping us with this! We have been sharing a car with the Allens for the last 5 months now we will just be sharing two cars. 
• We each had language lessons. 
• We spent time with some good friends. 
• We walked a bit around our neighborhood, met some new friends and tried to practice our Luganda. 
• We slept in a couple times. 
• I had a coffee date with a friend. 
• Kyle helped put together some new gym equipment at our church's gym. 
• We had our friend, Julie, who happens to also be a missionary, over for dinner and she spent the night. 
• We read this article about adoption and the body of Christ. 
• We went to church.
• We remember our church family in Arizona who will be worshiping in their new building this Sunday morning, we are missing our RMCC family. 

This was taken a few weeks ago, the building has not changed any...UCF is still praying about and giving towards the building of their own new building.  

Church

Something Pastor Micah says often is that "there is nothing like the church when the church is doing what it was created to do." What I think he is getting at is this: among all the institutions in the world, the church and its mission is the only thing worthy of our service and dedication. This is because it was set up by the God of the universe for the people of the world. 

Tonight we were able to participate in a great example of the church being the church. Some members of the choir got together to celebrate and appreciate the leadership of the church. Kyle and I were invited along with the Allens and other pastors and ministry leaders at the church.

It was a great gathering that really encouraged me. We played some games, then some of the choir gave testimonies of God's faithfulness, some stood up and expressed gratitude to the leaders and gave specific reasons of how the leaders have been used in their lives. There was some singing, food and fellowship. Kyle and I are so grateful to be part of such a great church that is dedicating to encouraging and loving others in the body. 

I only managed to get a few pictures of tonight. 

Mbarara

We just got back from a weekend trip to Mbarara, and had so much fun! 

Mbarara is about a 5 hour bus ride southwest of Kampala and really beautiful. Our good friend Rhona, along with her son,  took us to show us where she grew up, and we had the privilege of staying with her welcoming family. 

It was nice to get out of the city for a few days and a joy to get to know where Rhona is from. We stayed at her dad's house and walked around their property that is filled banana and matooke (a fruit in the banana family) trees as well as a eucalyptus grove. Her three half sisters were at her dad's house and we had a lot of fun together.

We took many pictures, as always, click on the picture to view them larger.

Our guest room was one of the buildings behind the main house. 

The door to our room is near the center of the photo and the water tank is the mound on the ground in the front. 

The tank collects rain water then it is pumped out whenever needed on this blue pump. 

 Banana and matooke trees

As we walked around the family property there was an old hotel that is no longer in use near their land. Inside, this stuffed lion gave me a good scare as I was not expecting it. Even though it was stuffed, it seemed to still be rotting. 

We got to meet so many members of Rhona's family, here we are with her grandma (or jaja) and her cousin Bridget. 

On our way home we got some fresh milk, Kyle carried it home. 

On Saturday we visited Rhona's mom's house and got to meet some more family.

Rhona with her mom and sister, Annette.

We drank so much tea (or chi) this weekend as it is customary to serve guests this hot drink.

Kyle with one of Rhona's half sisters. 

There are a lot of things that are similar between Mbarara and Kampala but there are also differences. One of the differences is the taxi system. On Sunday when we were headed to catch the bus we had to get on a taxi that is a bit smaller than the ones we are used to in Kampala. Here is a video of our experience:

On the bus ride home

This weekend was really a wonderful time and we had so much fun. I so enjoyed getting to see where Rhona is from and seeing a new place. There is much to say about all that you can learn about a person when you visit their home. Kyle and I are so grateful for our friends Rhona and Hamlet and thank the Lord for how they have helped us acclimate to Uganda. 

Olympics

We love watching the Olympics. A few weeks ago we decided that we needed to find a way to be able to watch them. The best option was getting set up with satellite TV, we are planning on only having it for the Olympics, so we are just borrowing a TV. The nice thing is we are only two hours different from London which makes for pretty easy watching of all the major events live. The sports channel that is hosting the Olympics is a bit different from NBC and there is definitely no Bob Costas, but we are really enjoying being able to watch. 

Last night we invited some friends over to our house to watch and eat dinner. We had a great time. Most of our Ugandan friends did not grow up watching the Olympics on TV like we did, so their excitement level and enthusiasm was awesome. 

July 25th

The older I get the more significant July 25th seems to feel. Maybe I am just getting more nostalgic or maybe as I get older the more I am reminded of all the Lord has done. Twenty six years ago my dad passed away as a result of complications with brain cancer. Those who know me know that this is something I freely talk about and share, blogging about it feels a bit weird though. The reason why I blog about it today is the same reason that I feel free talking about it at any time: to testify to the Lord's faithfulness.

For several reasons I have thought more about my dad's death this year than in other years. We do not know the will of God or why he allows some things and not others, we do not know why he did not heal my dad from his cancer. What I do know is that we have a loving God who is faithful when I am not, who loves unconditionally and brings beauty from ashes. The Lord's timing is a mystery to me, yet he is ever worthy of my trust. My prayer today is that you are reminded to trust Yahweh, I need that reminder so often. I am so thankful for how the Lord has used my dad's death to bring himself glory and to teach me about his character. I am so thankful that my mother chose time and time again to be obedient to the Father when life was so difficult, I am grateful that she raised my siblings and me to know the Lord and fear him. I am thankful that the Lord watched over my family and me and led us all the way. There are so many pains and hurts in this world to varying degree and measure. Even though we do not get to experience the fullness of the Kingdom yet we still get to experience the fullness of Yahweh's faithfulness. Hallelu-Yah!

Ssagala

As Sarah mentioned, I took a trip to the village on Friday and half the day Saturday with my language coach and good friend, Francis (Franky, Franco, etc.). We went to see his “Muzayee,” which is the Luganda word for “elder.” She has been his caretaker ever since his Grandma died (his parents had already died, and Aunts.). She has become, unofficially of course, Francis’s Mom. She is an incredible woman who gives so much and works so hard. I wanted to grow my relationship with Francis more, and really practice my Luganda.  It was a great time and I feel closer to Francis now that I have seen where he comes from. Its difficult for me to describe all that happened and put the experience into words, so I will just give some thoughts… 

The village is called Ssagala (about a 30 minute boda boda ride north of Mityana--which is straight west of Kampala). They have never had a “Mzugu” stay in their village. Plenty have passed through for a few hours to see how the school is doing, or the church is doing, etc, but never has one stayed over night. When people heard that one was staying over night, it became the talk of everybody around, even before I got there. People kept asking Muzayee, “Where is he going to sleep? Are you going to feed him well? Make sure things are up to his standard!” and all sorts of other comments. Even when I was there, people would come walking up to the house asking all sorts of questions. They couldn't believe that I even spoke some Luganda. This is a picture of the house and our room that we stayed in. I also put in a video of me feeding chickens corn. I tried to do these types of things to show that I am no more special than they are, and that I want to adapt to their lifestyle. They don’t need to adapt to mine! 

We also ate quite a bit of food. Cassava, avocado, beans, pork and chicken are all common parts of the diet. Here are some pics of the food prep. The video is Francis and his friend David cutting some pork.

 Fruit trees are everywhere. It seems like we were always stopping and picking some kind of fruit: mangoes, passion fruit, avocado, and other things I didn’t know. This is a video of me and Francis eating some little berries. 

Village life is hard. I only stayed 36 hours and so I didn’t experience any of the real challenges of rural Uganda. It was all fun for me. I did a little farming (digging up potatoes and other things), I got to drive a boda around, hang out with kids that were afraid of me, but also wanted to touch my arm hair, have fresh fruit, poop in a 6x6 inch hole. I love the simplicity of village life and how the people are, but it is such a hard life. Water is about 1 Km walk down to the valley, and then you gotta climb back up. I did this once and it was difficult. Here we are at the spring. 

We had chicken on Friday night and in village culture the guest eats the gizzards as a sign of respect and acceptance of their hospitality. So, I ate that... a definite highlight!

Muzayee also gave me a Rooster to take home to Sarah… alive. So, we took it all the way home on the taxi and boda boda rides and he is chillin at Francis’s place right now, enjoying city life. I named him “Supper,” and we are going to eat him soon! This is a picture of Muzayee and her husband giving me the Rooster. Its in bag so it wouldn't poop all over the taxi.

I am so grateful for their hospitality and I can't wait to visit again! I think I will take Sarah with me next time.  It wasn't too fun being apart, and everyone wondered why she didn't come.  They are all excited to meet her!