An Exciting Sunday

We had quite an exciting Sunday here in Uganda. We have been looking forward to visiting our partners at Victory Living Word Church, and we were finally able to make it happen today. I know we talk about them a lot, but for those of you that don’t know, VLWC is the church we partner with here in Uganda during the Church Planting Trip. They help us interpret during the clinics, get everything ready for the nightly crusades (building the stage, etc), and they do an amazing job during the crusades by singing, dancing, and performing skits. I was very excited that we got to watch their Mass Choir perform today. This particular group sings and dances. Now, when I say “dances” I mean, they really know how to dance!!! They have matching outfits and choreographed moves and everything. I could watch them for hours. Floyd commented after the service that the beginning worship set was 50 minutes. That didn’t count when the Mass Choir came up and danced (which I would guess was another 15-20 minutes). In all, the service lasted a little over 3 hours! You won’t find that happening often in American churches, but it was great! We just enjoyed worshiping together. I'm not sure if we'll make it there again for a Sunday, but it was definitely the highlight of my week!

After church, we had lunch with Pastor Johnson and his family. We didn’t have time to go out to a restaurant, so we had Ugandan “fast food.” It was like going to the grocery store and selecting food from the prepared deli section. We just pointed at what we wanted, and they boxed it up for us to take back to the church to eat. I got rice and chapati, Raegan tried the goat stew, Tamra had beef and chapati (her favorite) and a spaghetti type dish, and Floyd and the boys wanted to try a variety of pastry items (like donuts and muffins). We discovered that they are not the same as American donuts...no glaze! Tamra took some pictures, so we’ll share those later.

After we ate, Pastor Johnson invited us to stay for their Church Planting Trip meeting. If you’ve ever been to one of our mission meetings with Rafe, let me just tell you…it is nothing like it (smile)!! For one thing, the meeting was supposed to begin at 3:00, but since no one was there, they waited until 4:00 to begin. Pastor Johnson reminded us that we are in Uganda now! We were not able to stay for the whole meeting, as we had a 2 hour drive back to New Hope, but it was wonderful to see the team we will be working with in the next few weeks. I have no doubt that God will continue to do amazing things through this trip, and I look forward to all the things He’s going to teach us through our partners.

When we got home, we found out that the children’s choir here at New Hope was going to perform for us. Although we were tired after a long day, we definitely wanted to see this, and we were not disappointed. They are such a neat group of children, and the message they tell in their songs is wonderful. They shared with us tonight that they travel around Uganda singing to various groups. We bought their CD, and I'm excited to "bring them home with me" in August.

Tomorrow is Monday, and we will return to, what is becoming, our normal routine. Floyd will be in the office working on computers. Tamra and I will tutor students at the primary school. Raegan, Troy, and Tyler will go to classes or work on their own school work, and then Raegan will go with me to work in the Baby House in the afternoon. That is quickly becoming my favorite part of the day! Here are some pictures of the absolutely adorable “babies” I get to love on. 

Jabez is showing me his stuffed Lion. We were roaring at each other earlier, which gets them all very excited!

Everyone loves bubbles...well except for Mary (pink pants) who is not so sure she likes all the squealing and jumping!

Well, I better go get some sleep if I want to have enough energy to work with this crew tomorrow. They certainly do keep you on your toes. We continue to pray for you all, and look forward to continuing to update you on what God is doing here in Uganda!

Kim