The Dark Knight
Most incredible movie… wow!! This was SO worth the wait – if you haven’t seen it yet, go see it!
This Week
A week in bullet points:
- Spent Monday exploring Kampala city centre w/ Jacob
- Enjoyed a lazy day on Tuesday, celebrating my actual birthday, with some pizza, cake, coffee & pink lemonade out in Mukono with some friends
- Had coffee with my friend Inger on Wed, then traveled to Kamuli district to visit her home for a few days
- Went to Grace & Joel’s wedding on Saturday
- KPC Central for church on Sunday morning
- A trip to the beach at Entebbe on Sunday afternoon/evening: swimming in Lake Victoria!
Snaps From Week One
I wanted to share a couple of snaps from my first week here that I love – sorry the rest are so slow in coming, but enjoy these for now…
Ruminating
“Tell her something true when all she’s known are lies.”
“Love like your heart has never been broken.”
Surprise!
On Saturday the Aberdeen team, Jacob, and myself piled into a van at an unearthly hour of the morning (6:45am) for the 2 hour drive up to Jinga, for a spot of white water rafting! We tackled up to grade 5 rapids as we rafted down the River Nile for a few hours, stopping for lunch on an island before the drive back to Kampala. Most of you know that I’m a bit of an adrenaline junkie anyway, as well as loving being in, near or on the water in any capacity, so I thoroughly enjoyed myself!!
As if that wasn’t enough for one day, I was taken completely by surprise in the evening when the Aberdeen team took me out for dinner to celebrate my birthday! They had all these lovely hand-made items sitting on my bed when I got out of the shower, informing me that I was being taken to Cafe Roma’s for a spot of birthday banter. I was so surprised, and taken aback to be honest… really wasn’t expecting it and was just blown away by how they were thinking about me and wanting to treat me. Dinner was lovely, as were the very touching toasts that everyone made. I am continually amazed at how close you can grow to a group of people in such a short space of time, and saying goodbye to the girls on Sunday night was hard. It’s pretty incredible how God takes you to the other side of the world to develop friendships with people who live 3 hours away from you!
The staff at Shalom brought out a big cake after we got back from dinner, as the girls sang happy birthday… the cake is slowly disappearing!
Seriously, a massive thank you to all you folks who have made my birthday so special: to the Aberdeen girls, to Jacob, to my Aussie mates who left me a lovely card and a great song on my camcorder!
Return
Just got back from a week in Kiwoko with the Aberdeen team, working in a primary school there. It’s been an amazing week, and a difficult week, on many levels. Looking forward to a little R&R this weekend. Proper updates soon.
Slow It Down
Julie never ceases to inspire me… take this, for example…
The song ended up being about how love is slow.
Most of the circles I’ve ever run in have been ones where there is tremendous pressure to find love. And marry it. Asap.
…
We’re all the same. No one wants to be alone. We’re better together.
We are better together. But not when we push it.
I’m tired of being told to feel anxious about it. I’m tired of feeling pressure and I’m tired of people having to make decisions that will cause them pain.
Jesus Cares For All
Yesterday I headed out to a street kids project called “Jesus Cares For All” with the Australian team. The project comprises of a orphanage, a nursery & primary school, and a church, and is run by a woman called Mamma Flavia (hope I spelt that right!).
Mamma Flavia & Rachel
She was a successful business woman before she met Jesus, and he gave her a vision of looking after his orphaned children. It was beautiful to listen to her story, hearing how she started with one, and now has 180 kids at the school. Unfortunately I didn’t catch how many are living with her currently. They have 50 acres of land, purchased with FOL help, which Mamma Flavia dreams of developing so there is space for 300 children, and for a secondary school.
It was heartbreaking at times to hear of how she longs to care for more abandoned and orphaned kids, and has the space for them… but not enough resources to feed them all. Can you imagine turning your kids away because you couldn’t feed them? You can help with this! Visit the FOL website for information on sponsoring a child through FOL.
A Royal Priesthood
For the past few days, some of the Aussie team have stayed behind at the guesthouse to paint a few banners for the school they’re working in…
Uganda Team Blogs
Check out the blogs from some of the other teams here with FOL at the minute:
Hamilton Road Baptist team
Aberdeen Uni CU team
While you’re at it, you should check out Jess Fairchild Conrads blog too. She’s working up in Gulu with Invisible Children as a photographer, and her work is incredible. I’m hoping to get up for a few days to meet up with her!
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