So What's This All About?

Last summer I spent two months in Uganda, visiting some friends who are missionaries there. They were super nice to me - the kids bore with me as first-time teacher for some of their subjects, Martha took me to the clinic numerous times (malaria tests are so fun) and let me tag along with her to village Bible studies, and they all put up with my weird sense of humor and habit of hanging out at their place when I was sick. :)

I got to experience things there that I never would have in the States. Some of it wasn't that nice, really: a gigantic almost-killer spider, malaria, attempted goat-stealing, a culture where you see villagers staggering around drunk in the middle of the day, and where people are often jealous of each other (but then, that's not so very different from here).

But there were many more things that made it so worthwhile! Hanging out with the two missionary families was a blast! Becoming friends with Ugandans (mostly women and kids) was great - I look forward to seeing them again. In Karamoja, you shake hands every time you meet someone, whether they're strangers or friends. I loved meeting up with little herdboys who would offer a cool little hand and ask "Ejoka?" (Basically, "Is it good with you?") and the withered old ladies with rock-hard hands who would give my hand the special shake, raising my arm up as they said "ejoknooi" ("hello" with enthusiasm!). Sometimes I think that's the one thing I miss most about Karamoja!

Getting to worship under the Big Tree was a good experience, too. I saw firsthand that God is present even in the middle of nowhere in Africa, far from "home," and there are people all around me that are brothers and sisters united in Christ, despite so many economic differences, etc. I guess you could say that trip expanded my view of who God is and who the church is - and see how it's possible for God to say that even the "gates of hell" are not strong enough to hold back the gospel!

And I like singing praise songs in Karamojong, even if I do have a hard time singing and clapping at the same time...

Anyway, the point of this blog is to share as much as I can about Uganda while I'm there for five weeks this summer, and hopefully give more people here at home a taste for life there as well as vision for church worldwide. I'll be able to send updates to the blog via ham-radio e-mail (don't ask me how it works, but it's cool!), and receive comments that are posted, so I would be delighted if you take a minute to post something. I'm so thankful for the encouragement and prayers I received last year - it really does take that kind of support from a church to make something like this work!!