Doing exactly what we do at home, only WAY differently

Good morning from Kampala!

Here it is 7 in the morning on Saturday, your current time is 9 pm on Friday. Can you say time difference? Yeah, I think that may be one of the reasons that the jet lag has been so difficult over here, that and the fact that for the last two nights the night club across the street has been playing LOUD music from 11 pm- 5 am. That has kept quite a few of us awake.

Ok, so here’s a short recap of the last couple of days, complete with gory details.

The last two days our team has been split in the morning, with half of the team going to the school to hang out with the teachers and children and the other half meeting with a group of 18 pastors at our hotel. Jamie and Aaron are really excited about the time they have had with the pastors. They have been dialoging with them about where the churches are at, and what it means to be “Vineyard.” Different members from our team have been able to get involved in that process. The first day Scott Dunn stayed and helped with the discussion, and the second day Brian and Tori stayed to speak about prayer for ministry and worship leading. It is fun to see all of the team members thriving and being used.

Speaking of thriving… Have I mentioned that we spend a lot of time with kids? Well, we do. It is wonderful because so many of our team members have a heart for children and there are plenty of kids here to go around. If you were watching our team interact with the kids you would probably think a couple of things 1) those mozungos are crazy 2) wow, that looks like fun. Yesterday we did a chapel service for the school, which included a couple of worship songs, a drama and a prayer time. Then, we went outside and played with the kids for an hour. Then, we met with the teachers from the school and had a question/answer/encouragement time. It was fantastic to watch ALL of our team members as they hung out with the kids. Each person brings something to the mix weather it is crazy faces and animal noises (Roxy), holding babies (Tawny), holding 5 hands at once (Gemma), learning Lugandan phrases (Sarah), or just enjoying being a kid with all of them (our youngest team members are Ally and Katie Dunn, ages 9 and 11). When we had the teacher sharing time it was awesome to hear from so many of the Ugandan teachers about their heart for education and very cool to see that so many of our team members are involved in education (both Jill and Eileen are homeschool moms, Joy teaches at a preschool, Delretta teaches math at a public school, and I work with kids at the church). We all had a lot to share and say.

Yesterday and the day before yesterday we walked through the slums in the afternoon. The first day was pure chaos. We were all a bit overwhelmed and scared. Bandu, is the slum that sits right behind the school. It is probably about one square mile, and contains over 50,000 people. Yes, I double checked that number. 50,000. The biggest problems are unclean water and unsafe living conditions. Disease spreads rapidly through the enclosed space. Yesterday, during our walk through we actually got to talk with the people there. We invited all the children to come to a party that we are having today at the church and offered to pray for anyone who was sick or in need. Many people asked us to pray that they would get jobs, or asked us to pray for those who were sick. The group that I was with prayed for a man who was experiencing phantom pains in his amputated leg. He was sitting in the home of a witch doctor, perhaps waiting for the witch doctor to return and help him.

In all things we are learning just to enjoy being ourselves, being a part of our team, and offering people Jesus. When people ask us for money, we simply don’t have enough to really help them with their lives. It all comes back to Jesus. He is the only one who can change Uganda.

Yesterday, one of the things we prayed for in our morning meeting was that everyone on the team would feel free to be who they are, even in such a different environment. Throughout the day, I kept looking around and marveling at how what we are doing here in Uganda is so similar to what all of us do at home, only WAY different. I hope that makes sense. Who we are has not changed. What God has worked in each of our lives has not changed. The only thing that has changed is everything around us; our environment, the language, the culture, the food, ect... We are happy to be here and enjoying the goodness of our God.

Quick prayer requests;
-Please continue prayers for safety.
-Please pray for our outreach into the community today- we are expecting over 200 hungry and hurting children from the slum. We will be giving away a lot of love.
-Please pray for wisdom and a growing awareness of the culture.

Thanks!
Lots of Love,
Amanda