Let the Stories Begin!

"Better late than never."  Isn't that what they say?  I don't think I realized that a 10-day trip could take a whole month out of your life.  Thank you for your thoughts and prayers while I was gone.  It truly was a life changing experience just as you all predicted.  I managed to get through the trip on very little sleep and without getting sick.  As you can imagine, when I got home I was exhausted, and after a few days of catching up on sleep, I got sick.  A few more days of sleep and a round of antibiotics later, I'm feeling much better.

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:

We arrived at Entebbe Airport late at night, but I was surprised as were driving from the airport to the Adonai Guesthouse in Kampala that we were in the city the entire time.  Ha, I guess you just can't tell that by looking at a map!  And even though it was late at night there were people out on the street, walking, riding bikes, hanging out.  Kristen and I were so excited to be in Uganda finally.

It was amazing to me the next day as we drove through Kampala that even though I had no idea what to expect coming to this place and even though I was surrounded by such a different culture and people, I absolutely loved it.  The sites and smells, the people....I can only explain this new love as God given.  It was all very strange, but I just loved it.

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.  

We divided them into groups and did crafts, older kids played soccer and jumped rope. 

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 crafts, some of the team did a puppet show. I sat with Olivia, Sarah and Raymond. They could not get close enough to me. I finally scooped Olivia into my lap and held her. They were all about 4 to 5 ish years old.

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.

 Then we went to Pastor Samuel’s house.  His wife, Sarah, served us lunch.  She was a very good cook and gracious hostess.  They also had all of their crafts out for us to shop.   I bought a lot my souveniers from them because I wanted to help their ministry.

Pastor Samuel talked to me about his ministry and the plans he has for the future.  He is really reaching out to the community where he ministers.  He has about 15 orphans living on grounds and reaches out to the children in the community and their families.  He has a dream of buying land for an orphanage and church.  He would like to see a school and clinic in the community also which would help provide jobs for the parents.

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