I'm going to dive right in to stories and pictures of each day. Hopefully, I can get through this a little quicker so that we can get to current events sooner rather than later. God is still working and confirming His purpose for this trip and I'm excited to get to the punch line!
So without further ado, here is Day 1:
Our first day was with Return Ministries. When we pulled up we could hear the drums and the children singing. They sang for us and danced.
I quickly snagged a beautiful baby girl when we started dividing the kids into groups for crafts.
Her name was Princess. She had white beads braided into her hair in a circle around her crown. She was precious. She sat on my lap while I worked on crafts with the kids and she would touch my arm and give a little squeeze. After a while a felt her soft cheek touching my arm and realized she had fallen asleep. So very sweet. A little girl named Bridget helped me with the bracelets we were making. She was probably 7 yrs old. She spoke very good English and could talk to the other kids for me if they couldn’t understand. She was very smart.
After the puppet show they had the kids move their chairs
into three large circle areas and we formed an assembly line of sorts to pass
plates of food to serve them lunch. All
the little ones sat on the concrete floor so they wouldn’t have to hold their plates
in their laps while they ate. Someone
went around to all the children with a wash basin of water so they could each
wash their hands. They would continually
poor more clean water for each child.
Then we handed them their plates.
Rice with some beans. The children would hold their plate with one
hand and each with the other. No
forks. Once we passed plates to all the
children some of the helpers went around with a pitcher and gave them cups to
drink.
After they ate they really descended on us… We all ended up on the concrete floor of
their church tent. Michael drummed with
some of the boys and the rest of us started dancing with the children. We danced in patterns and holding hands in
circles. The children couldn’t get
enough.
We broke to get a group
picture. And then we prayed... Kelvin went around with his
camera all day getting pictures. Thank you Kelvin!
After we prayed, we began the process of saying goodbye. One of the children had brought me this sweet baby boy and I wasn't sure who he belonged to. I was relieved to find that he belonged to one of the women helping.
When Michael told us to head to the bus, all the
children were saying goodbye and thanking us.
The older kids were so kind and gracious and the workers. The little ones just wanted attention and love.
Lots of hugs and goodbyes on the way to the bus. At one point we were almost to the bus and I
looked back and saw Kristen surrounded by the teenage girls she had befriended
and I lost it. It was so touching. She even met a deaf girl and was able to
communicate with her. It was very
special. I don’t think the deaf girl was
used to be able to interact with someone on that level very often.
Steve and Malinda (the guy I’ve been emailing that lives in
Kampala) were waiting at Adonai when we returned. They ended up getting to meet Pastor
Samuel. Pastor Samuel and his family
came and ate supper with us and we divided up all the things we brought him
from the list he provided.
Having no idea what to expect this trip to be like, this
first day was really wonderful.
Emotional, fun, hard, strange but truly wonderful. I loved every minute. Beautiful children, beautiful people. I wish you could see what I saw and
experience it too. The streets of
Kampala are crazy. There are people
everywhere. I'm not sure what the “rules
of the road” are. It seems to be every
man for himself whether you are in a bus, a car, on a motorcycle or walking. We had a very skilled bus
driver for which we were very thankful on many occassions.
Here are a few more random photos of the first day.
Stay tuned for Day 2.....
Trusting in Him,
Shelli
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