Well the time has finally arrived for my trip to Uganda! I arrived in Atlanta last night where I will spend the next few days preparing for my team. While I am here I am going to get to reconnect with some long lost friends that live in the area. Sara Beth and I were catching up last night and realizing that it had been 4 years since we had seen one another...how does that happen? I will get to see Billy and Elizabeth tomorrow and get some love from Bailey, Jesse and finally get to meet sweet Jack! Today we are going river kayaking and I will get to catch up with two old friends from my college days. My soul is full and rejoicing in just how much God has blessed me with some amazing people at every season of my life.
My team will arrive on Tuesday for training camp and I am anxious to meet them. We will spend two days preparing for ministry together. We got a rough idea this week of what our schedule will look like. I wanted to include that for you so you would know how to pray for us. You'll notice that the majority of what we will be doing is playing soccer...I'VE NEVER PLAYED SOCCER A DAY IN MY LIFE! I am so thankful that what began this adventure was getting in shape and losing weight...at least now I will be able to run and play and try to keep up!
July 1st we will depart from Atlanta for Uganda. We will fly from ATL to Detroit...on to Amsterdam for a short layover and then into Entebbe in Uganda.
July 2nd and 3rd we will arrive in Uganda and have two days of orientation and will travel to North Uganda where we will spend our time doing ministry.
July 4th we will be joining a local church for worship. Geoffrey has asked if one of our team members would like to preach and I am praying through that...you can certainly add that to your prayers. Uganda culture doesn't have a problem with women preachers so I could be the preacher for the day but I am waiting on a word from the Lord.
July 5th-9th we will be playing soccer and doing outreach in several schools
July 10th we will be doing orphan home visitations
July 11th we will be joining another congregation for worship and then doing soccer outreach in the afternoon/evening
July 12th we will be playing soccer in more schools
July 13th-14th we will get to go on a 3 day safari
July 15th we will leave Entebbe headed back home.
We have some very active days ahead so pray for strength and endurance. Please pray for that everyone stays healthy and adjust to the 8 hour time difference quickly. We really aren't sure what the living conditions will be. For most of our time we will probably have no electricity, take bucket bathes and use squatty potties...pray for a flexible spirit and that our team would laugh and embrace the challenges!
My biggest perosnal request would be this: I have longed to go to Africa and know that this is going to be a life changing trip. My fear is that I will be an emotional wreck when I return. I do not want to be that bitter person who hates America and wishes she were back in Africa to the point of making everyone around me miserable. I want to be thankful for the opportunity that the Lord has blessed me with and come back changed for the better. I know this will be just the first of many trip to Africa and I would be totally okay with God calling me there full time...but most importantly I want to be where He wants me and be wholeheartedly invested in that place and those people wherever it is...be it Africa or Pineville.
Here are the names of the my teammates so you can pray for them by name:
KB Thomas--team leader
Maggie Lingenfelter
Heather Odom
Matt Jahnke
Jimmy Thate
Thank you in advance for your prayers! I look forward to having great stories and thousands (not exaggerating) of pictures to share with you.
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