Hello everyone! This is to let you know that I am not dead. There was a week where we didn't have internet after the visitors arrived because we used it all up when they came. Heh. That was nice though, because there were no distractions from social media and we were able to get to know the team better. There was never a need to apprehend their coming. All nine of them are really awesome! I am going to miss them so much.
The plan is to leave tomorrow with the Wright's after church. They are already going downcountry to go pick up two of their daughters who are coming from the States, so we are going to hitch a ride up with them up to Mbale (about halfway to the airport). Then we will drive the rest of the way with a couple the Okkens know on Wednesday.
We were originally supposed to leave on Tuesday and make the two day trip all at once, but the Wright's had some business in Mbale that needed to be taken care of. So as it stands now, Ruth and I will spend two extra days in Mbale. We will stay at the Webber's house again -- the home of a missionary family that left Uganda a while back -- so we will not need to spend too much money for a hotel. We will probably, however, check in to one closer to the airport on Wednesday before our 1am flight Thursday morning.
This trip has been quite an experience. I have gotten to know so many new people; I have learned about the culture of the Karamajong, some of their language. I have learned how life works here at the mission at Nakaale and the different dynamics of life here. I have also seen how we as a team, the church of Christ, can work together to advance the Kingdom, and how kindness, against all odds can overcome differences and conflict. I feel like I have learned more about the love of Christ than anything on this trip and what that love can do if it is shared.
I have been reading through Romans on this trip and really latched on, especially, to chapters 12-13. Through some conflicts I have had, I have been reminded of Romans 13:8: "Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to live one another." "This debt of love I owe" to my Savior can never be repaid, but now it is my duty and JOY to pass this love on to others with whom I live and work, and, in some small, limited way, to the Karamajong.
I have learned again that smiles and song transcend cultural barriers. And when I am with the people, whether it's going to buy stone for work on the compound, helping them load it onto a truck, fixing boreholes, or standing in church surrounded by them all worshiping God in their mother tongue, I realize that we share both. What beauty.... that we can be connected to people so far away from home by these simple things.
Kaylyn, one of the new team members, asked Ruth and I what some of the best moments we have had while we have lived here in the past weeks have been. I have shared with you my encouragement and challenge for this trip as a whole, and now I will share with you moments. Moments like when Rebekah and I went to Kopetatum with Leah Hopp and the women and girls in a village there taught us how to grind sorghum as they laughed and giggled because of how bad we were at it... or when we were coming back from pouring concrete at the drill site a few days ago and I watched as Tom (Bob's right-hand man here) and his friend, Joshua, tasted pancake for the first time and asked how it was "being made"... Or when little children, clad in a shirt and no pants or a skirt and no shirt, ran after the truck on our way to or from the Okatatot drill site yelling " Mzungu! Mzungu!" (Meaning "Foreigner! Foreigner!") and smiled so big when you turned around and waved... Or when all the voices underneath the open-air church building, both mzungu and Karamajong, join together in praise to our Savior who brought us all together, to this place at this time.
I will miss it all.
Now it's on to new heights and challenges, new experiences, and new moments. This moving on is just another step in the journey.
