Jason’s Trip

The day at the slum in
Nairobi was the most difficult time of the entire trip.  The reality that humans live in a place like that is unbelievable.  All of us spent the evening in a new sense of reality.  Wednesday morning we boarded a flight and headed to remote
East Africa.  Our destination, Masia Mara (moss-eye marr-ah.)  We were met by Masia warriors on the dirt airstrip we landed on.  We stayed at a nice place with the nicest tents I have ever seen.  Thursday morning we visited an authentic Masai village.  It was a crazy experience.  I didn’t know anything about these people until I was in the middle of them.  They live a few hundred decades behind the rest of the world, Joe stated, and he is right.  These people live in grass, mud and cow manure huts.  They live in tribes and do a host of a ton of other wired stuff.  Your assignment is to research the Masia of East Africa.  One thing I will throw in is that they used to kill all other humans…yucky…missionaries visited in the late 1800’s and through a process that only God can provide, today, 50% of Masai people are Christian.  That is good news, but other good news is they don’t kill people anymore. 

I did film a bunch while we were in the Masia village, they look scary, but they aren’t.  We spent a few days driving through the

Masai
Mara
Park looking at every kind of animal.  We caught up with the migration of Zebra’s and Wildebeest.  It was very cool.

My
Africa mission trip is growing to a close and it is bitter sweet.  There is so much work to be done in Uganda and
Kenya.  The way of life is so different.  This will be my last blog entry while on the trip. 

As I write this I am stuck in the
Atlanta airport hoping to catch my last flight.  Pete, Jim, Mike and Paul left around 6:00p.m. on Saturday evening from
Nairobi.  Joe and I left after midnight.  On Joe and my flight there were two mission groups.  There were lots of teens in both of those groups.  I learned some good things of what to do and not to do by observing those groups. 

As I sit in the Atlanta airport, it is good to be in the
U.S., but it is also very difficult to adapt back into the culture I am well used too.  Everyone is in a hurry, and most everyone is in a bad mood.  Honestly, I wonder how I combat those same tendencies.  I am so thankful for the life changing trip to
Africa.  The biggest struggle I face is not to forget the lessons I learned. 

I am so excited to see Julie and the kids.  This is the longest I have been away from them.  I am feeling it in a huge way.  The Lord is granting me opportunity to grow patience in that I have spent most of the past two days trying to get to them.  Again, I praise God for always knowing what is best and providing endless opportunities to learn about Him.  Thanks all of you who read the blogs and posted, it is such a great testimony to the Lord. 

I am planning on leaving jasonstrip.today.com open and post things from time to time.  If I know my God, He’ll always make something amazing happen. 

Check back here and see what is going on from time to time.  Especially as our
Africa ’08 team comes together. 

Looking down at my fingers on this keyboard, I am struggling with where to begin. So much happened today and my thoughts are many and jumbled.  I thought I saw the most desperate place yesterday, nothing doing.  Today was an emotionally difficult day.  I woke up anxious about it, but really didn’t fully understand why.  I understand better as the day is fading away. 

Tuesday in
Nairobi began with breakfast at the A.C.K. Guesthouse, where we are staying through Wednesday morning. After that, we left to go visit a slum in the middle of
Nairobi.  So far, every place we have been in
Nairobi has required long rides.  This morning’s ride, however, was only a short distance and ended at a fuel station.  Paul announced that we were meeting Lameck, our host from Fountain of Life Children’s Home, and picking up 2 armed soldiers. 

I was really anxious, wondering what in the world we were doing going to a place that required armed men.  I had some good prayer with the Lord this morning and found great peace in the light of the approaching challenge.  We drove across the road from the fuel station and entered a narrow road surrounded by row after row of shacks.  These shacks were covered with mud, tin, tarps, and no telling what all.  As we slowly traveled down this alley way, the passage grew narrower with each passing shack.  This entire slum is not even a square mile in size, and it lies in a valley.  Looking down from the top of that valley, all I could see was a sea rust colored tin and make-shift roofs. I noticed in the parts of
Africa that I have visited on this trip, anytime a white person is spotted by a child, they get very excited and yell “muzungu”.  Muzungu means “white man”.  Most children will chase you just to get an up close look at a muzungu.  The brave ones, which most of them are, will reach out to touch you. 

The normal pack of children began to follow us and watch every move we made.  Before long we stopped and Mike and Paul opened the door to get out.  I gathered my cameras and with mixed emotion got out of the comfort of the van.  I will never forget the feel of my first visit to a slum.  Initially, I was disconnected from my environment and fully intended to keep it that way, and the  two tall guys with guns behind me served as a great distraction keeping me from truly appreciating the setting around me. 

I imagine if I were flying over this slum, looking down on it would look like a maze.  Each shack was attached and there weren’t backdoors to any of them.  A series of  2-3 foot alley ways lead us to our first stop and the one room home of a lady named
Elizabeth.  The dirt floor in her house was at least 2 foot lower than the alley way outside.  Entry to the home required climbing down into it I watched as Pete, Jim, Joe, and Lameck crawl into meek little home. I approached the door and I was looking down into the room and saw Elizabeth She was a middle aged woman holding a less than year old baby.  Turns out her story is far to familiar in this slum. She had two daughters die of AIDS and leave behind children. 
Elizabeth’s sporadic income of a dollar a day came from her washing clothes for local Muslim people.  Her greatest needs were money to pay rent and buy food. 

Elizabeth’s one room, dirt floor, tin and tarp roof home cost her $12.00 per month. 
Elizabeth was already four months behind on rent and faced the fear of the landlord coming and taking her door off.  If her door were removed, that would open her home to threat and certain displacement of her family. 
Elizabeth knows, like we all do, without shelter what’s left?

Walking through this slum required careful steps.  The rusty blunt corners of tin were eye level and the ground was covered with ruts flowing with sewage.  We visited others in the slum all to find out they all were struggling to meet the bare necessities of life.  The very things I take for granted are missing in these people life. 

At one point, I spotted two little girls about 3 years old.  They were dirty and standing so close to a collection of sewage and trash.  An unexpected image hit my mind and caused me to enter into one of the most humbling experiences.  I pictured my kids in this place.  I was unsuccessful in keeping my mind from thinking about Jensen walking through this mess with no shoes.  I could vividly see Juddy Bear running down an alley way with no shirt or shoes but clothed with the yuck of the slum.  I visualized
Jackson leaning against a wall looking down at the ground.  Those thoughts were too much and the painful reality that children just like mine, were doing these very things…living in this mess.  My eyes filled with tears and they streamed down my face.  The thoughts of my children living in that place were painful, but those thoughts soon turned in great compassion to the children that actually live there.

At one point the pain in my heart was so great I could hardly stand it, and for some reason  I just looked up.  I suppose to take my eyes off of what I couldn’t stand to see. I noticed the sky looks just like it does in
Arkansas.  I was instantly reminded at that point that God was looking down, and he never changes, nor does he make any mistakes.  I admit, I questioned God anybody should or would live that way.  Only He knows why.

Some of us made the trek down to the center of that valley and there was a stream flowing there.  It wasn’t a pretty stream; the water was gray and full of trash.  Disease and death were flowing in this water.  Hundreds of people’s homes were on the dirty banks of this even dirtier stream. While I was there, many were cooking near by, children playing, animals growing and the sight of a banana tree growing by this stream made me sick to my stomach.  The very thought that this was a real place seemed impossible, and still does as I think back on those images forever etched on my mind. 

As we walked back up out of the belly of that horrible place,  I began to sing a Nicole C. Mullin song in my head; Redeemer.  I don’t know all the words in right order but some that hit me were: “Who made the stars shine in the heavens, who told the ocean you can only come this far?  I know my Redeemer lives.  I know my Redeemer lives, let all creation testify, that God’s love will never die.  I know my Redeemer lives.”  I know that isn’t even close to how the song goes, but I couldn’t shake the reality that God is God to those people.  Jesus lives for them.  Those thoughts kept going through my mind.  If someone knows all those words, post them.  I would like to read them. 

Betsy Raiford encouraged me with Romans 12 earlier in this journey.  When I got back into the van, I got out my bible and read that chapter.  Romans 12:9-18 were very relevant.  “Love must be sincere.  Hate what is evil, cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love.  Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor serving the Lord.  Be patient in hope, joyful in affliction and faithful in prayer.  Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitatily.  Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.  Live in harmony with one another.  Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.  Do not repay anyone evil for evil.  Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone.  If it is possible, as far as it is dependent on you, live at peace with everyone.”     

I know that God calls each of us to take care of one another.  I left this slum grateful that the Lord has blessed me and anxious to let him use me to help others in a far greater way.

I am very thankful for this experience…changed to say the least. 

After we left the slum we headed for “Fountain of Life Children’s Home.”  As we arrived, I learned that only boys lived at this home.  The ages were from as young as 4 or 5 to as old as 15 to 16.  There were about 50 boys living here.  These boys were well adjusted.  They all had similar stories but one, a boy named Moses, really stands out.  Moses is 5 and had lived at the home from the age of 3.  Moses was supposed to be killed at birth, by the request of his grandmother because she felt he was cursed.  The midwife couldn’t kill him.  So, she took him and through a turn of events, he ended up at Fountain of life.  It is such a beautiful and familiar story.  Moses, like Old Testament Moses, found un likely life.  Moses is so cute, I am certain the Lord spared his life and has set him a part to accomplish some kingdom things.

The end to this day was very welcome.  Looking back over all the events of this day, my heart was heavy, but my faith in God was stronger than 12 hours before. 

I have to admit that today was the most tiring day so far.  Joe and I  left our window opened in the hotel we stayed at in
Entebbe and we were being flocked by mosquitoes around 3:00a.m.  We closed the window, sprayed, but it got to hot and the mosquitoes buzzed around.  I finally got up at 4:45pm and stayed up.  It ended up being a great morning with my Bible, my journal and good African coffee.  A great blessing this morning was being able to talk to Julie, Jensen and Jackson on the phone.  I think Judd was already asleep.

The breakfast options this morning were different to say the least.  Something gave up it’s kidneys and some goat meat was on the buffet.  I settled for oat porridge and a couple pieces of pineapple.  This place has the best pineapple anywhere…even better than
Jamaica.  We kidded Jim about eating kidney for breakfast. 

We left for the airport at 8:30a.m. and arrived there shortly after that.  We checked our bags and did a little shopping in the duty free stores in the airport.  Our
Kenya airline flight was to leave at 10:40a.m. but we didn’t leave until 12:40p.m.  We just sat around in that airport for a couple of hours talking about politics, religion and steamed bananas with gravy.  I actually think we enjoyed the talk of matoke (mootoekey) the Ugandan name for steamed bananas.  Sorry Paul, you are the only one who likes matoke. 

We had a quick flight to
Nairobi.  I made a mistake yesterday when I said coming from Jinja to Kampala was like going from Siloam to
L.A.  Coming from Entebbe to Nairobi is like coming from Siloam to
L.A.  This town is huge. 

We were met by a man named Lameck and his mother,
Florence, who were very welcoming.  The Revolution van would fit in like a glove here.  Almost every vehicle in
East Africa has that body style.  Who knew?  Anyway, we got in our little van and took off to visit Emmanuel Children’s Home.  Let me tell you, I have never been to such a desperate place.  The roads leading to this little neighborhood were so full of deep ruts that vehicles could barely pass.  On the sides of the road, in front of the shacks and structures was a constant flow of raw sewage.  That sewage filled those deep ruts in many places.  Nestled in the back of this was a little building with the words “Emmanuel Children’s Home”.  Upon entering the home, I was surprised that it was so clean and organized.  I am not real sure, but it looks like children from birth through elementary age live here.

I have to admit the more orphanages we visit and the more poverty I see, I am noticing the western world desire of wanting more seems to be fading a bit.  This world seems a bit smaller to me today, but God seems greater!  We are heading to a slum in
Nairobi this morning…I imagine this is going to be a tough experience.  I will be able to post one more day, Wednesday, and not again until probably Saturday. 

Please bare with mispellings and grammar…I’m not good at that, plus I am very tired when I am writing this. I woke to my last sunrise in
Jinja, Uganda for this trip this morning.  I read a little in Daniel and Romans and spent a good bit of time praising God.  There is something about being out of the normal routine that many times enriches my time with the Lord.  After breakfast at the Gately on the Nile Guesthouse, we loaded our bags and headed to church about 20 minutes away.  On the way, we stopped to ask directions to a place on the way to church that Paul wanted to stop by, from a young lady, she was Caucasian, which you don’t see much of.  She was carrying about a year old little boy, an African baby.  It turned out she knew some people that Paul Myhill knew and hopped in the van with us to ride to the place Paul was looking for.  While we were there waiting for Paul, the conversation of religion came up with this young lady.  Pete, Joe, Jim and Jason were visiting with her and discovered she was not Christian, in fact she said she didn’t believe in anything.  You have to understand all the circumstances surrounding this to appreciate it.  She has been in
Africa for 14 months.  She is from
England and her initial plans were to stay for a couple of months.  She ended up taking care of an orphaned newborn named Phillip from the Ammas Baby Cottage.  Phillip, the baby with her today, was the reason she stayed so long.  Phillip has been adopted, and he is on his way to the states on October 2.  Anyway, this young lady is in
Africa, not being paid, living meagerly, taking care of a 14 month old who isn’t hers and wouldn’t ever be.  I was blown away because this 27 year old single girls showed more signs of Christianity, as a proclaiming unbeliever, than most believers. The immediate question that filled my mind was how do we tell her about needing Jesus when she was doing things that exhibited Christian behavior.  She had, in the past several months, lived with a missionary family who were, what I understand, outspoken followers of Jesus.  I immediately succumbed to the feeling of inadequacy, hopelessness, and failure in hoping to lead this young lady to Jesus.  Joe asked her if she ever read a Bible, she said yes, but she thought if she would believe anything it would be Islam.  That really was a blow to us all.  The conversation moved on with other thoughts and then the opportunity came to where the door was opened to us sharing with her that the reason she is in Africa is because of this need she has inside of her to share love.  We began to discuss why we are like that, who made us that way, or is it just chance.  We brought Jesus into the conversation often.  A little while later in the conversation moved to her sharing with us that she was open to believe something.  We got to pray with her.  In essence, we were able to water seeds that had been planted.  I believe this young lady will be in the Kingdom soon!

We arrived at Father’s Divine Love church shortly after 10:00a.m.  Pastor David Livingstone met us with a warm welcome and led us into a service that had obviously already begun.  We were shown to our seats, in front of the church facing sideways so we were actually facing the side of the praise team pastor, and entire church. The ironic thing is we didn’t sit in those seats for about an hour after we went in.  There were probably 125 people in a room about the size of two, two car garages.  There were even people standing on the outside of the building participating through open windows.  One lady began singing a song and then everyone jumped in, no music. Then a little while later the sound of drums began, then a small keyboard.  This lady switched places of leadership with another during the middle of one song.  The other lady led for a while then Pastor David literally jumped in and began to lead music.  The worship in music was inspiring and fulfilling. The beauty of it is, I didn’t have a clue what was being said…it was all spirit.  Talk about who cares about style or sound.  The Spirit of the Lord was so evident that it didn’t matter what was going on…Jesus was being exalted!  Pastor David spoke on Genesis, Exodus, John, and almost everything else in between. It was a great service full of truth.  One woman was introduced into the Kingdom through this church this morning.  Church was dismissed a little before 2:00p.m.  It was a very long service, but it was right.  I’ll take a 3 hour service full of spirit any day!  We had lunch with the leaders of Father’s Divine Love Ministry.  It was rice, some sort of meat(?), malt-o-meal type cornbread, and pineapple.  It is not the most appealing food, but the fact that we were sharing that meal with our African brothers and sisters made it satisfying.  Our van left  for Kampala/Entebbe around 3:00p.m.  We stopped by Pastor Hudson’s church in Lugazi on our way to
Kampala.  His worship service was just finishing when we got there right after 3:00p.m. A side note, none of these people in these long services were concerned about burning lunch, tired legs, hot buildings or childcare. They were loving the sacrifice of serving and worshiping the Lord.  We were able to see some of the children from Lugazi again today.  Little Paul came running up to me and had a letter for me.  It was so sweet.  He made a homemade envelope out of a piece of faded notebook paper with my name neatly written in pencil.  Around my name were stickers with lambs and other animals.  In the bottom left corner was his name.  I hugged him and spoke some encouragement to him, and then loaded in the van to leave.  I couldn’t wait to open and read what was inside.   I unfolded the homemade envelope and found two smaller pieces of paper, one folded.  The folded piece was thick and had something inside.  It was a picture of Paul.  The note around the picture said to my American Dad. (pause, long pause).  Yes, even as I type this my eyes fill with tears at this unexpected and undeserving honor of this child referring to me as that.  He told me that he was so happy to be my son and he even penciled a prayer for me that included safety as I travel and protection over me and my American family. 

And, if that weren’t enough…he wrote another note to
Jackson.  (HUGE PAUSE)  I remember only telling him the names of my family once.  He remembered
Jackson.  I am not going to type what he said to Jackson…I want Jackson to be able to read it before everyone else…after all, it is addressed to Jackson. I thought about little Paul for the entire two hour drive to
Kampala.

I forgot something form earlier in the day.  While we were at Father’s Divine Love Ministry, three little children, not one of them could have been more than 2 years old.  There were two little girls and one boy.  They had I.V. ports in their hands…HIV children. One named Josie really stole my heart.  Many children grab your hands and arms, there is so much going on that it would be nothing not to look down to see who was holding onto you.  Today, when this little hand grabbed me, I looked down and immediately saw the I.V. port. My heart just melted with compassion.  Josie was holding my hand and looking at the ground.  My thumb rested on her I.V. port.  I got eye level with her, pulled her face up and her giant shiny eyes looked deeply into mine.  I said, “Josie, you know Jesus love you?”  She just smiled and looked back at the ground.  Many nights I will sing “Jesus Loves the Little Children” to Jensen.  Well, I began to sing that to Josie.  When I sang, “red and yellow black and white…I lost it.  I had always sang that song to my little girl…now, I was singing to a little girl, close to Jensen age…but totally different.  She was a different color in that song.  The entire love that Jesus does have for the little children was intense in my life at this point in time.  My eyes are filling with tears as I think back to Josie’s eyes.  Lord, I lift up Josie to you… I pray that my family and friends reading this right now will also lift Josie up to you in healing, protection, and care that only you can provide.  Father, I pray your provision is perfect for this little girl tonight and for her life. 

Whew….this is tough.  

We checked into our hotel in
Entebbe, Uganda a little after 6:00p.m. We are about 4 miles away from the airport we will fly out of tomorrow for
Nairobi, Kenya.  Entebbe is a suburb of Kampala, the capitol of
Uganda.  Coming from Jinja to Kampala is like going from Siloam to
L.A.  It is really different in size.  Our flight leaves around 11:00a.m. on Monday.  I am sad to say that I will probably not have internet after tonight.  I will have some major blogging to make up.  I have really enjoyed sharing my thoughts and heart through this.  God is, no doubt, using this to refine me and remind me of what is truly important…HIM - ALONE.  I will do my best to post pictures of Josie and our worship tomorrow morning before we head to the airport.  I encourage you to pray that we American believers embrace what African believers have…authentic love and hunger for Jesus. 

All the team members are great…Pete is ornery, Jim is funny, Joe is taking care of all of us, Mike is always helpful, and Paul is so stinkin’ gentle spirited he puts the rest of us to shame.  This is a great group of men and I would not trade this for anything!  Hopefully more later….  Jason

Saturday was a great day.  Pete, Jim, Joe, Paul, Michael, and I were picked up by our pastor/host Hudson and he was wearing the most amazing shirt.  It looked like it was designed for the Vanagon!  We made a 30 minute or so drive to Lugazi, Uganda where Pastor Hudson lives.  We began the day with a visit to a children’s home there.  These were the sweetest children ever.  They met us with hugs and questions.  There were about 50 or so children that live there.  Pastor Hudson, who is also our host this week, is the founder of this children’s home.  He said today that it was not an orphanage, it was a children’s home.  He reaffirmed the children that they came to the home as orphans, but became family when they arrived. 

It was an amazing experience in that these children are being discipled so deeply that they are in fervent love with Jesus.  These children didn’t so much perform for us, they led in worship.  I have to admit for about 20 minutes of their leading, I wept.  They were singing “God is so good, God is so good, God is so good, He’s so good to me.”  They were singing so strongly and so passionately that the presence of the Holy Spirit soften my heart enough to make me weep.  Dana Watson was curious about education here.  I found out that many of the Orphanages that World Orphans sponsors are actually homes, schools, and churches all in one.  In fact, the orphanages are actually reaching out into the community offering education to the local children who aren’t necessarily orphans.  That is the goal of many orphans, to integrate the orphans with the local children. The crazy thing here is many of the orphans live better than the local children with family.

Many of these children came running up with photo albums of their “American” families.  These are people who sponsor these kids.  It isn’t through any of the big organizations, just a couple from
Missouri who visited here and adopted some and spread the word.  I met a little boy whose name is Paul.  I don’t know what it was about Paul, but my heart connected to this little guy.  He is 12 years old.  I have seen a couple hundred children over the past two days, and felt compassion and love for each of them.  But Paul affected me differently.

He showed me his bed in a room that housed 12 or more boys.  They were all so happy to have beds.  They were bunk beds 3 high.  They all had one special toy.  I have a picture of Paul showing off his stuffed animal.  He is such a sweet boy.  He reminded me so much of
Jackson in the way he helped everybody.  He stood behind our van as we backed out guiding us out.  Then he took care of locking the gate behind us as we left.  He was full of life and not a care in the world.  Praise God for those children.

On the 20 minute drive back from Lugazi, we stopped off at the mouth of the
Nile river to take a tour.  I saw my first major wildlife I suppose…not Jim, but a monkey.  He was just hanging out on the side of the river.  It was so funny because we all pilled on this boat type deal and found seats.  Right behind us came a flight crew of women form KLM Airlines.  We had a good time with them, I think Pete enjoyed them the most.  Jim asked if they were on a KLM calendar.  I don’t know what he meant by that (lol). 

When we left the
Nile we came to the Amman Baby Cottage.  Lots of babies.  They were being so well taken care of.  When we bring students here next summer that will be a place where we will serve.  Yes, I did say when Revolution comes next summer.   It was very hard to see those little babies all over the place.  Many of them were obviously ill.  The day is winding up here with the sun about to set.  I finally slept the whole night last night and I needed that!  The travel here was pretty brutal.  It is almost 11:00a.m. in
Arkansas on Saturday, July 21 as I write this…which makes it almost 7:00p.m. here in
Jinja, Uganda.  We are going for supper in a little while.

Tomorrow we will go to church with Pastor David Livingston in at Father’s Divine Love Ministry.  The services here usually last over 3 hours.  Boy, wouldn’t that go over great at our church? 

What a great day.  Thanks for your responses!  I love to read them.  Those this applies to, pray about your participation next summer in Mission Africa!!!

Chris thank you from Pat Allen and Norma Robason for setting us this blog!  I posted pictures of today on my face book.  I can’t figure out how to put them on here…

Today has turned out to be a great day. After an early breakfast we headed to the Fathers Divine Love Ministry.  This ministry has a church, school and orphanage.  We had a great time being entertained by the children with a couple of hours of song, dance, testimonies and scripture memory.  We had lunch at the ministry.  It was rice, beans, cabbage and corn bread that resembled Malt-O-Meal that was cold and hard. 

After we left Fathers Divine Love, we headed to see some property in which the pastor of Fathers Divine, David Livingston, is hoping to develop.  It was way off the beaten path.  I saw my first coffee tree and there were a ton of banana trees. There were also a bunch of pigs, many baby pigs.  They looked like York’s,
Jackson, I took several pictures for you.

We went on from there to El Shaddai Children’s home.  There were over a 100 children there.  Most were dressed in blue and white checked uniforms and they ranged in age from Kindergarten to 6^th grade.  El Shaddai proved to be the most emotional visit for me.  The children love to touch your hands and arms.  I nearly fell down because of all the children surrounding me and pulling on my arms.  They enjoyed looking at my family pictures.  One little girl pointed at my wedding ring and said “love”.  I hadn’t been looking at my pictures with the children, but this particular group asked lots of questions about Julie and the kids.  They kept saying “beautiful” as they pointed to the members of my family.  It made me miss my family terribly, and it made me feel a very small part of the burden these orphanage children must feel as they are separated from their families. 

The children begin to all look alike after a while, but a few stand out.  There are those who want to be the center of attention and are very colorful.  Then, there are those who are wounded deeply and looking for someone to hold onto.  One little girl crawled in Michael’s arms, pressed her head against his chest and put her little hand under her chin, and without any facial expression she stared at the ground.  If not for any other reason,  this little girl undoubtedly felt extra special. 

Papa Pete, Jim and Joe are the hit every where we go.  Besides being fascinated at white skin with hair on it, the children are particularly taken by Pete’s belly.  In fact, at Fathers Divine, 6 little boys did a little dance to Kenny Rogers “Promise Me Son” with lots of clothes stuffed in their shirts making big bellies for themselves.  They wanted to be like Papa Pete.  All the locals are surprised at how old the Papa’s are.  There aren’t any African men who make it to the age. 

Today was a great day.  I loved every moment of it.  I love to feel the Holy Spirit strum the strings of my heart as I feel love and compassion for people I don’t even know.  Only the prompting of the Holy Spirit can do that.

There is a baby orphanage arcoss the road from the place we are staying.  Some women check themselves into local clinics and hospitals under a false name, have their babies and then sneak out leaving their newborn behind.  She has a difficult decision to make in that one of her other children may die if she keeps the baby, or perhaps the baby would die if she kept him.  Many of these babies are HIV positive at birth.  As I type this blog, I am sitting outside and I hear babies crying, some nearly whaling…It hurts my heart to know these babies will not know their biological parents.  It warms my heart to know that God has provided a place for them here in
Jinja, Uganda, and that HE knows everything about each of them, and HE didn’t make a mistake in any of them.

   

We stayed at the great place last night in Ethiopia…awesome food.  We left this morning for Uganda.  We arrived into Kampala, Uganda at 2:50p.m.  We were picked up by a local pastor and went and visited our first orphanage for this trip.  We were literally ran over by the children’s excitement to see us.  We all took a bunch of pictures.  By the time we were ready to leave, all the children were loving on Papa Pete, Jim and Joe.  It was an amazing experience in which I was not ready for.  That could be an entire novel in its self.  We are in Jinja, Uganda tonight and for the next couple of nights.  We are about 60 yards from the Nile…or so we were told.   It was dark when we got here, tomorrow morning should be a great sight. 

We will visit 3 orphanages tomorrow.  Those are places you just don’t run in and out of either.  Today, the children had an entire program they did for us.  It was so nice.  I wish I knew how to post pictures… I will work on that later.  Once again, it is late and my body has not caught up with this time zone. 

We did have a fun ride from Kampala to Jinja.  Pete called our driver a kamikaze, and one point calmly asked him if they didn’t believe in using headlights. There are no rules on the road here.  It was a riot during our long ride to Jinja.  Everyone is doing great!  More tomorrow.

 We had a delayed start for our travel.  Our flight from Northwest Arkansas was delayed a few hours…we were still able to make our connection in Chicago though.  After lunch at Chili’s at the Ohare Airport (Thanks Joe for lunch) we boarded a huge Lufthansa 747, double-decker plane.  We left Chicago around 3:00p.m.  Joe and I were at the very back of the plane (where the cool people sit), Michael and Paul were in the middle, and Pete and Jim were up front.  There were a total of 50 something rows downstairs with 8 seats across that thing.  I only saw Pete once on the ride to Frankfurt. He came around to make sure everyone got on.  This was the craziest flight ever because of the time change.  The sun set in the west, like normal, about 8:20p.m. Arkansas time, we were somewhere over the Atlantic, I have no idea what time zone we were in at that point.  Anyhow, the sun camp back up at 11:00ish in the West.  Yes, the sun came back from where it went.  We were chasing the sun…sweet.  The screens on the plane showed our altitude, speed, distance and all that stuff from time to time. At one point we were going 700 MPH and it was -70 outside at 30,0000′.  I had a slight moment of pansiness as I thought about being that high, going that fast and that much water below….We arrived in Frankfurt around 6:00a.m. There is an 8 hour difference, so it was  10:00pm in Arkansas. We ate breakfast at the Frankfurt airport, (Thanks Jim for breakfast…I am seeing a pattern here).  Our connection flight from Frankfurt to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia left at 11:00a.m.  We stopped for about a half an hour in Khartoum, Sudan and some folks got off and then we got back in the air for a two hour flight onto Addis Ababa.  The flight from Frankfurt today ended up being about 8 hours…MY TAIL BONE HURTS! 

Some cool stuff, I saw the Red Sea, the Nile River, the Liberian Desert, and a cloud that looked like Shrek, just kidding on the cloud part.

Just a little side note for those of you that know my eating habits…bread is they serve and sell so far…Sorry Dr. Atkins, I will catch up with you in a few weeks.

Okay, so it is 3:08 in Arkansas and 11:08pm in Ethiopia.  We just had some amazing food, yummy!  Everyone is about to crash…we’ve been up a long time.  Pete and Jim are rooming together, Michael and Paul, and Joe and me.  Everyone is great…tired.  We will leave for Uganda tomorrow morning at 10:00a.m.  We will be there for 4 days.  Hopefully I will be able to update again once we are there.  My eyes are bloodshot, I am going to sleep.  More later…

This morning came quickly, it is about time for our team to take off.  This morning, lots of things are on my mind.  The full anxiety of being gone and flying for such a long way has peaked.  This morning, I was reminded about the passage in Revelation 5.  I believe in Revelation 5, the church has been raptured and the last 3 1/2 years of tribulation on earth are about to begin.  John sees Jesus approach the throne of God, and God is sitting on that throne.  Jesus takes the scroll to open because he is the only one who can.  When that happened some major worship took place in heaven!  Unlike anything ever before.  We, as believers, will be a part, first hand, of what is going on in Revelation 5.  The event that is fresh on my mind this morning is some bowls mentioned being held. “Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.”  Incense is something that smells good and is pleasing.  The prayers of the saints has to mean sometime before the time this all was taking place.  When we are literally in the presence of God the Father and Jesus Christ, there is no longer any need to pray…it is all complete. So the prayers in these bowls have been stored up.  If you are a follower of Jesus, the prayers you pray today are being stored up in those bowls to make a pleasing scent to the Father.  To cool, prayers accomplish things while on earth, they are powerful and the leftovers of those prayers are stored up to please God.  Pray!  Julie I love you!  I am going to miss you like crazy!  The cool thing is I always end up loving you all the more when I am gone from you!  Thanks for being so supportive of everything I do!

The coolest thing ever, I get to go to Africa!  I leave tomorrow. I will be traveling with Pete Allen, Jim Robason, and Joe Smith.  The crazy thing is I have only known about this mission trip for a few weeks.  Pete Allen showed up at our annual rummage sale and offered to take me with him on his trip! AMAZING!  I am so excited about going…really kind of anxious about leaving Julie and the kids…a lot anxious. 

We leave on Tuesday, July 17 at 10:00 from Northwest Arkansas and go to Chicago, then to Frankfurt Germany then to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  We arrive in Ethiopia at 8:45pm Wednesday, July 18.  That is a long way to go…I don’t think the Vanagon could make that trip…

We depart Ethiopia on Thursday, July 19 at 10:00a.m. and go to Kampala, Uganda and arrive there at 12:15p.m.  We will be visiting several orphanages in Uganda and Kenya through July 25.  We are traveling with World Orphans. 

I will update on specifics when I get to experience them…and depending on internet connection.  I am humbled at this opportunity to go on mission.  I am hopeful this is an opening door for the future missions for Revolution students.  Thank you Lord for this amazing opportunity to impact your kingdom!

 More to come!