I prayed for rain

This week was a good week. It is always rough going out to the village for a week because you are literally signing up for no showers for a week and you know that by the end of the week you are going to be totally disgusting....but still you go. Cause you also know that it will be the best week of your trip so far.

We had a family from San Diego a husband/ wife and their three kiddos. It was so fun to have some Mzungu kids around they just keep life going. I loved it. Our programs looked a little different this week because of that.

We headed out on Monday after lunch. IT WAS HOT. When we got to the village we got our tents set up and all of our bags in our tents. It almost feels like we are setting up a house, we all sleep in one big room but we each have our individual bedrooms and space of the cement church floor. After I was set up I decided to walk over to my families house because we had a time of personal ministry where we could visit the families in the village or evangelize or do whatever seemed necessary. It is a fun time because it is unplanned and just richly wherever the spirit leads you really. (or the nearest child that grabs your hand). When I got over there I was immediately greeted there and sat on the front porch area and just talked to the kids. I mostly talked and they would just sit there and giggle at me. I hadn't seen my "mom" yet so I was hoping she would be there but she was out in the garden. So I sat and waited. The kids know that passion fruit is my favorite so they went and got me like 20 of them and presented them to me along with some maize and a stalk of sugar cane.  We played catch and they taught me how to play some African version of monkey in the middle. Rita (12) braided my hair, and Jennifer sat on my lap and just repeated everything the kids were saying to me. It was beautiful. Mom showed up eventually and we just spent time laughing and sharing what had been happening in the last 5 months of our life and how we had been praying for each other while I was in America. We ate dinner had devotions. Sleep.

Tuesday:
There is something about the crisp morning air. Every morning when I walk a long distance to the nearest bathroom I always am amazed at Gods goodness, How beautiful a sunrise is here and all of the colors that go along with it. We were intended to have a sports day but somehow it got lost in translation. So we had a handful of kids come and we played futbol with them. After lunch Sunday was finished with exams so he came over and asked me to go to his house. I scarfed down my food as fast I could, because I LOVE home visits and spending time just seeing what the kids do at home, on a regular basis. As I walk through the village people yell "MUWALA WAMUSUMBA" they all want to greet me and ask me how my night was. I love the interactions I have with them especially the people that are not involved in our village church they are always so confused as to why a white American knows any Luganda. When we got to the house the other children that are doing chores stop what they are doing to greet you and go and get the nicest seating they can. Culturally, they will sit there and chat with you and drop everything they are doing just to connect with you. We played UNO for a while, and then I had a Luganda lesson with one of the New Skills chalkboards. I spent the afternoon there. It had been another really hot day but it was really overcast at the same time. so strange. I love the encuba (rain) here. I am always reminded of Gods promises in our lives and how his love is constant. He blesses us with rain. I made it back to the church just as the rain began to pour!! It poured for a slid 45 minutes. All of the children find shelter in the church. You DO NOT want to be caught out in the rain. As I sat there and listen to the rain pound on the tin roof and sound of children laughing and playing- I just smiled. I know that I am right where I am supposed to be.

Wednesday:
We had manual labor from 9-12 and we were planting maize!! It was a good day for it since the ground was soft from the rain on Tuesday but it was a scorcher. Last week we cleared all of the grass into big piles and we had to remove the piles and then dig holes into straight lines. I go the easy job. I planted the maize and covered the hole back up with dirt. The methods that they use here are so different. Most of them are out there without any shoes on using hoes and picks that could do some serious damage to their feet but they still work so hard. We were scheduled to have a youth/community bible study but the dad of the family was leading a financial seminar with some community member so we thought it would be a good idea to have them sit in on that! It was great and I really feel like some of the community got a lot out of it. He was encouraging the people to all harvest different things that way as a community they could sell a lot more. I found it very interesting. The pastor "musumba" and his wife showed up with their sweet newborn baby and I got to snuggle with her for a little bit during the seminar. It made the time pass by so much faster. In the evening we had a program with the neighbor kids and played soccer with them. The older girls taught me how to play net ball.

Thursday:
Its weird to think you might be reading this at a time that has already past for me. ;)
Today we had devotions at 8am like every other day. Porche shared about how we are all different parts of the body of Christ and encouraged us to take that throughout our day. Today was evangelism day where we go to homes and ask people what questions that have and just share scripture with them. Today looked a little different because three of our volunteers are leaving this weekend so it was mostly home visits to fellowship with the families we know. We all broke up into smaller groups and spread out. We went to mama Sundays house and she told us some history of her family...all translated for us. How she had two older children that passed away, how she wishes she had grandchildren. We were able to encourage her and pray with her. Alia (a volunteer that was here the last time I was here) is one of the girls getting ready to leave. It is not a custom for the village people to cry but when she found out Alia was leaving there were tears running down her face. My heart broke. It rained again today. After lunch we packed up and headed for Kampala. Here I am.