We have had an exciting few days—more adventures—and several surprises.
Pastor Jacob and Michelle and the kids picked us up at 7:15 a.m. on Sunday morning, for the drive to Masindi. I knew that I would be sharing Holy Communion at the Masindi church, and there could also be baptisms and/or confirmations. Pastor Jake would continue on to a church five miles further. But I did not know until we were on the way that I was also preaching (surprise #1). I should have known that that was part of the package—I guess I am still thinking like an American. The Lord provided. I shared on a passage we had studied the day before at TEE. We did have six baptisms, eight confirmations, and communion (remind we when we get home to remember how important the altar guild is). Following the service, members of the MMP (Missions Made Possible) team washed the feet of all the congregants.
I spent Sunday afternoon with the men from the MMP team assembling some sewing machine consoles they had purchased here. No directions whatsoever! The stuff they get from China is much lower quality than what we are used to. At the same time Jolene accompanied Pam Beadell to the Good Hope school for an afternoon “something.” They learned that it was a chapel service for the boarding students, and with about one minute notice Jolene was volunteered to share the devotion (surprise #2). Sounds like she did fine.
We spent Monday with the MMP team, dispensing donated eyeglasses (160 or so) to students at St. Teresa’s Academy for girls. I was the guy who pointed at letters on the eye-chart. Jolene had the more skilled task of trying to match reading glasses to the appropriate students. In the afternoon, we joined the team for their fourth afternoon of VBS at the Good Hope school.
On Tuesday we left at 5:00 a.m. for our trip to Murschison Falls National Park for our 9:00 boat ride. That seemed like plenty of time for a 50 mile trip, until we learned it was on a narrow winding dirt road. It had been raining for several hours before we left, and so at 5:45 we found the bus sliding back and forth on the road which had been graded the day before. Finally it slid to the side and we were stuck (surprise #3). The guys tried to push, but with no success. We retreated back to the bus to wait for daylight to come—about 6:45. Once again, we got out to push, but “kindly” also asked the ladies to get out to lighten the load. We thanked God that we got it going, but it was still slipping from side to side, so we ended up walking behind the bus for about an hour until we got to a spot in the road with some gravel base. Before boarding we each had to scrape an inch of slimy clay off our shoes.
We finally got to the boat launch at 9:45. We got on the boat for our cruise up the Nile. Wow! We saw hundreds of hippos, about a dozen crocodiles, a few elephants, lots of water buffalo and much more. We have pictures! After lunch, a guide (with a big gun) boarded our bus for our land safari. We saw lots of small dear, impala, warthogs, giraffes, and even two lions. After the safari, we were in the bus waiting for the ferry back across the Nile. Jolene was holding a glass of juice and all of a sudden it flew all over. A baboon had jumped up, reached through the window and tried to grab it (surprise #4). Since the road had dried and we did not get stuck, our bumpy ride home took “only” 3 ½ hours. It was nearly 10 p.m. We were tired but it was a great day.
We traveled back to Kampala with the MMP team on Wednesday. It was tough to say good-bye to them as they left to return to Minnesota. They are a great group of people with a heart for service.
