It’s hard to believe that it has been 2 months that I have been here. SO much has happened. When you think of 2 months as a time period, you wouldn’t think of it as any impressive length.
It’s hard to put a time on what I have done here. If I asked myself “Have I had an impact in the last two months and I left today would I be satisfied with what I’ve done?”, I wouldn’t know how to begin to answer that.
If it had just been two months, it would have been a far different trip. What I have done is far is only begin to establish the relationships that I will build on for the next 22 months. Now that is a long time to think about. What impact could I make in that amount of time? Not to say that the last two months have been a waste, but rather the setting of a beginning. I have established relationships in a few different venues.
I am really starting to get to know the kids in my class as individuals. Yes, I do wind up reprimanding them quite often with the words that fly out of their mouths, and the wild punches they throw, and even the non-stop chatter. However, I am starting to see who God has made them to be, and I pray that I can be a blessing in their lives daily, and not just an adult who ‘flips their sticks to yellow (my discipline system)’. I put a few pictures of them up in my new photo album, whose link is down below. My wonderful cousin Elisabeth sent me a kids parachute from the US, and you can see evidence of the enjoyment that we have all had from it.
Outside of class at school, I have also gotten to know some of the teachers, workers, and other students. There are some boys, Angelo and Lino, in the high school who were child soldiers in Sudan and one of the other missionaries here has been taking care of them for a few weeks while their guardians are in the US. They are really cool boys, full of laughter. Christina (my roommate, and the 6th grade teacher) and I have gotten chances to hang out at the beach with them and at each others places. Even though their pasts are full of unthinkable things, they never cease to put a smile of my face :)
I have also begun relationships with 10 girls at Kampala International University (KIU). Christina and I have started a Discipleship group there. A few years ago a man from Kenya who was trained in the Africa Gospel Church (AGC), which WGM started, came to Uganda as a missionary to serve at KIU. He has done an amazing job with the church at the college. Hundreds of students come each week, and so many ministries have grown out of that. The girls and I meet every Wednesday night to sing, pray, read, and talk at ‘The Palace’ (a compound across from the college that WGM owns and is used solely for KIU’s AGC ministries). For the first two weeks, Christina and I gave our testimonies. Last week Christina was away and I spoke with them about joy. That was really a great time, they finally started to open some and talk about how they find joy in tough times, and I learned that many of them struggled with the Kenyan conflict this past year. This week Christina spoke about worship. I am really excited to see our relationships grow in and outside of the palace. A week and a half ago I went to their church and it was African Woman’s Sunday. They were all dressed up in their traditional clothes from their country and more specifically their tribe. They were beautiful. I have a few pictures of that in my new photo album.
There are even more relationships to come I am sure, and I am so excited for that.
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