My brother

Just a quick post to update on my brother, Rich.

His brain surgery is scheduled for this coming Monday. My parents are flying out to Utah this weekend to be with him. Please pray for the surgery; for God to guide the surgeon's hand, for no complications, speedy recovery, etc.

I know this is in God's hands. He is in control. I am thankful that Rich is also relying on God through all this.

Thanks.

Trip to the north

Last week I headed out with Kelli, Ryan, Makenna, Moses and Isaac. Kelli was running a youth conference, and some of them were in villages to the north of us. I've been wanting to go north for some time, and I decided it would be good for Makenna to get away from Jinja life and normalcy.

So at 6 a.m. Tuesday morning we all load up into the Prado and head out. We are all wide awake, despite the early hour. The sunrise was beautiful, and the fog stretching across the road added something to the landscape. If you look closely at the dashboard you will notice the condensation on the windshield... Ryan decided his egg, ham and cheese sandwich wasn't warm enough so he decided to use the car heater to heat them up. (No, it didn't work.)

After three hours, we arrive at our first destination, Pallisa. Most of the young people are already there. For the next four days the schedule is pretty much the same:

- Arrive
- Lesson 1
- Mingle break
- Lesson 2
- Lunch
- Lesson 3
- Head out for the next destination
- Arrive at next destination
- Fall into bed, exhausted
- Start at the beginning the next day

The days were long, but it was great to see how many youth showed up for the conference. Even though a lot of them didn't speak English, the translators seemed to be doing a good job in relaying the message. During question time, which was after lessons 1 and 2, for the most part, the young people answered the questions properly.

Hopefully, many seeds were planted in the hearts of these young people and the youth pastors can follow up.

Villages visited:
- Pallisa
- Soroti
- Ogongora
- Pajule
- Gulu

For those of you who haven't traveled to the villages, let me enlighten you on some village life. Of course, even we were spoiled into the mzungu version of village life. We had guest houses to stay in, some better than others, but we still had a bed and a western toilet. Unfortunately for you, I failed to take pictures of the pit latrines we had to use. They at least all had doors that closed for some privacy. We always brought our own toilet paper.. there never is any even in the gas station bathrooms. One pit latrine was so foul.. between the smell and then when you opened the door to go in, like hundreds of huge blueish/black flies would just buzz around you. At least there weren't snakes, or spiders. (Kenna did say that in one that she used there was a huge one.. glad I missed that.)

Food served while there:
-rice
- posho (which is corn flour mixed with water until it is like REALLY thick cream of wheat)
-beans
-chicken stew (which was made only for us, not the youth)
- more rice
- goat stew
- more posho
- rolex (not the watch, but a chapati which is like a tortilla but greasier, rolled up with a cooked egg that sometime has tomatoe, onions and green peppers)

This trip was actually my first time to ever have a rolex. In Jinja, I have never ventured out to have one as they always look too greasy, but when that is what is given to you to eat... it is either eat or go hungry. Makenna decided to take some pictures of me eating my first. :-)

Okay, so it wasn't as bad as I thought.

It was a long week. It was tiring. It was a lot of driving. A lot of listening to lessons... but, through the week, God was working on my heart. Even though the lessons were suppose to be for the youth... God worked on my heart, and He made clear somethings that I needed to address/change.

It was a good week and I am thankful that God's word is active and living and can work on anyone, at anytime.