Uganda

We got back from Uganda two weeks ago and ever since I have been waiting and waiting for the words to really talk about the trip.  I’ve been able to sum up what we did (and didn’t do) easily enough, but going beyond surface level chit chat and answering, “It was great!” when asked, “How was your trip?”  hasn’t happened.  The words still do not come no matter how much I think about what I should say or write so I thought I would just start typing and see if anything starts to flow.

In the words of a friend that came to help me out the day after I got home, I’ll give you the basic, not “big God stuff” details first.  That’s the easy part.  It’s always the “big God stuff” that is hardest for me to describe.

We had no idea really what we would be doing during our time in Uganda other than meeting up with a missionary in Arua (we LOVE the Taylor family and I would go back to any country in Africa time and time again just to work with them…check out their blog HERE), getting to know our new partner pastor in Koboko and spending some time with the Uganda Baptist Seminary president in Jinja.  We knew this wouldn’t be a “work” trip, but we thought we would at least get to do some evangelizing.  Wrong and that is totally ok.  This was an assessment trip of sorts and even though we learned things that we aren’t very happy about(ministry…it’s never easy), we found out all we needed to know and jump started some serious and necessary training/mentoring/discipling after days of tough questions.  Basically, it was what I think a typical first mission trip to a new area should be.  Get to know the local leadership a bit.  Do nothing in the town/village other than meet people.  Pray and decide where to go from there.  And that’s what we did.  That may sound like a wasted trip, but trust me, it wasn’t.  It was a necessary trip.  We did what we set out to do and returned with the information we needed to move forward.

That’s the church answer.  The basic summary.  That doesn’t answer the tough questions I’ve been asked.  They don’t sound like they would be hard to answer, but for reason they are this time.

“So, did you see God’s hand in every part of the trip?”

“Was it life changing?”

“Will you go back?”

“How was it really?”

“Was it hard to be there?”

“Aren’t you glad to be home?”

As it so often happens, I think I can answer all of the questions that are still being asked much better here.  I have had two weeks to reflect and the longer I am here (away from Uganda), the more I can see God in every detail of the trip, from years before until now.  So that church answer, the basic summary above, is what we did and did not do in Uganda.  Next comes fun details about LONG van trips and almost getting arrested (not really, but we did have a scary incident), life without power and sometimes water and being the only girl in the group.  More importantly, how God brought me to the other side of the world to answer prayers up close and personal and what He is stirring in my heart now is coming soon…