Answering the call: Arrived

As I start this post, it is 3:10am. Well, it is 3:10am wherever in the world we are now and that is what my watch is set to, so that will have to do. I actually just reset my watch a little bit ago and really had to think, not only about the time, but the date and the day of the week. It turns out that is is now Wednesday March 6th. I’m not exactly sure even how long ago this journey started… I remember that Lloyd & I left Denver about midnight on March 4th after driving through the aftermath of a near blizzard (it was almost funny that as we were preparing to go to the airport, a surprise blizzard just kind of shows up – but God is bigger than a little bit of snow & ice). We had a 3 hour flight to Washington DC with a 5 hour stop-over and now am in the air just passing over Benghazi (yes, THAT Benghazi) on our way to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Once we get to Ethiopia we have a 3 hour layover and then a 2 hour flight to Uganda.

Since we still have about 4 1/2 hours until we get to Addis Ababa,Ethiopia, it seemed like a good time to write a little.

It is hard to believe that is was just over a year ago and I was making my first trip to Uganda. As I wrote then, I heard a lot about how life-changing a trip like this could be, but I honestly had not idea what God had in store for Debbie and me! It has been a year of extreme transition and change, a year of personal struggles and most importantly, a year of growing in faith! All this time on the plane has given me time to anticipate what is ahead in the next few weeks. Some will be familiar, but much will be new.

One thing I look forward to is seeing my sponsored children and friends in the village of Kacungwa. I hear that they are preparing for our visit and I just can’t wait to be there again. I will also be blessed to see Pastor Alex Mutagubya in Luzira and visit his new church location as well as see my friends there (including Patrick). I will be staying with Pastor Peter Kasiviru while in Ggaba and cannot tell you how excited I am to spend time with a man of God like Ps Peter!!!

The nature of our work is much different than last year though. I have had the better part of 4 months of preparation for this trip and the technology and strategic planning work we will be doing with the ministries here. Africa Renewal Ministries, Transform African Ministries and New Hope Uganda all have amazing ministries to the children of Uganda and the chance to be part of their work has been my heart’s desire. Also, working with the medical students in Gulu as they strive to provide medical care across northern Uganda is something I couldn’t have dreamed up – but apparently God knows a little more than I do (OK…a LOT more). I am so excited to meet the people and organizations that are coming up in the next 3 weeks that I can’t hardly stand it.

I need to try and get a little sleep now – to be honest I think I’ve only had about 4 hours sleep in the last 36, so am due. But with everything going on in my mind and the fact that I don’t really sleep well on airplanes, I will have to try nonetheless. If Peter can sleep in chains I can probably catch a few zzz’s on the plane!

Fast forward 10 hours. We did manage to get a little sleep on the plane, though not much. We were not particularly surprised at the airport in Addis Ababa – it was about what we expected. Not much for creature comforts, but worked for getting us in and out again – along with a BUNCH of other people traveling all over the continent. We hung out in the hot humid airport for about 3 hours before being crammed on a bus and taken out to our plane. We were a little surprised when we went into the men’s room and a woman was in there cleaning. Nobody else seemed to pay attention, but since we were just shaving, we figured it was OK by us too!

Another 2 hours in the air and we made it to Uganda. When we landed safely in Addis Ababa, everybody on the plane broke out in applause (maybe safe landings are rare there?) but only one person did when we landed at Entebbe. (This was an uninteresting fact by a very tired man.)

Going through customs, getting our visa and luggage was a fairly easy process. We were thankful to see our luggage arrive – we were concerned, but needlessly as it turned out. We were met by Phiona and Joshua from ARM. Phiona has been the person who has worked with us to schedule this very complex trip and she has always been most gracious. Coming from a blizzard in Colorado to the heat and humidity of Uganda has been quite a shock to my body. It is VERY hot and VERY humid and even with that, the fact that I was VERY tired allowed me to sleep soundly for a couple of hours when we arrived at Harriet’s home for the night. Harriet is the CFO with ARM and has been very gracious to host us for the night.

We were very blessed to spend time with Harriet and her husband Jobra as well as two of their children, Abbe & Benja, their niece Joy and housekeeper Florence. We enjoyed a very nice dinner at a restaurant with outdoor seating on terraces along a big stone wall. The power went out while we were waiting for our food, but the staff turned on the generator and all was back to normal shortly. We learned what wonderful people Jobra and Harriet are and had a great time of talking with Jobra late in the evening followed by some powerful prayer.

Lights out literally meant lights out! Closed our eyes and sleep came easily. Below are just a few pictures of our day!