Week 2 as promised:

On 2^nd Sunday of my adventure, I was honored to preach at one of the local churches. I used the creation message I had the Friday night before (see the last post) as a base and expanded to explain that if God loves us so much that He created us, why do we worry. Using Philippians 4:6-8, I shared how He takes care of us, we need to trust Him. His unexplainable peace comes when we think and meditate on His truth. He is Truth, everything else will pass away, but His word never will. There were newer believers there too, so I spoke about the demon possessed man at the tombs, who Jesus set free. The demons were cast into the pigs, telling us the area wasn’t Jewish. Jesus saved this man and then told him to go tell everyone what happened. He didn’t go to the Jewish areas with Jesus and His disciples but spread the Gospel to unbelievers. And Jesus told him to testify about what He had done for him. While we should study God’s Word and get to know Him, an unbelieving world needs to see the change only He can do in us.

Monday and Tuesday were spent mostly at home. I spent a lot of time designing the diplomas for the school, which I enjoyed immensely. I also helped Asili and a couple of his sons with computer stuff. So, I ‘live’ in Excel and on computers everyday with work and otherwise. I enjoy photo editing and amateur graphic design, but I also take those for granted. Technology is something they wanted/needed to learn more about, specifically Excel, so I tried to help. I was only able to cover a few basics, but I know it helped. I also told him I could make their diplomas every year if he sends me pictures (assuming I don’t get to go back every year).

On Wednesday we went to the refugee compound. After a long and rough drive, we held children’s church and Karen did some parental teaching. Asili’s sons did some worship and lessons with the kiddos then I led them in making salvation bracelets. Dozens of little ones, language barrier, string, and beads… it was fun, in hindsight! A little chaos never hurt. When that was over, Karen started teaching the parents about Biblical vs cultural parenting while Asili played, sang, and hung out with the kiddos (I did my photography thing). We arrived back home after dark, I did some video interviews with Karen & Asili, and then packed. Benjamin and I left early the next morning.

Thursday brought pre-dawn goodbyes and we were on the road. I got to see the sunrise over the Nile before we got on the ferry (beautiful!). We drove for about 6 hours, and I got to go on safari! I’ll post separately about that with pictures!

We arrived in Kampala late Friday. I took an hour-long shower and rested while Benjamin went home and got some work done on the vehicle. We had dinner with his fiancé in the city and I had a video chat with a friend of a friend pastor who I had hoped to meet while there. Timing didn’t work out, but in small world fashion, the hotel I stayed in was his sister’s and he was having a worship service there the following weekend. Maybe next time!

I started the trip to Malawi Saturday morning and arrived there after midnight Sunday morning. Which takes us to week 3…