3 days well spent!!

It's been a few days, so even though there has been a lot going on, we will try and keep this brief.

Friday was an incredible experience.  We got to be with churches and pastors from all over the area.  Pastor Bernard had put together a conference to help encourage and strengthen people in the local churches, as well as the pastors.  While we would have loved to have been able to spend more than the one day with them (it was a conference that went from Wednesday through Saturday), we thoroughly enjoyed being with them for the short time we could.  I had the opportunity to speak and shared how the entire Bible is one unified story, pointing to Jesus, about Jesus, and how we live and walk in the path He set for us.  We didn't get to stay the whole day because Sam got sick (he is totally fine now, we just think he was a little dehydrated), but were so encouraged.

Saturday was Kasey's favorite part of our trip so far, so I'm going to let her tell the story...

We went to Jinja and got to meet 48 of the cutest kids on the planet, ranging in age from preschoolers to high schoolers.  They are the kids who live at Lifeline of Hope Children's home.  Our friend, Livingston, helps with that home and when we found out about them, we knew we wanted to meet them.  We went shopping before for some basic food things they needed and some sodas, because that is a treat!  We were greeted with singing, dancing and signs they had made welcoming us.  We were able to spend several hours just playing and laughing with them, and we had an absolute blast!! Brad and our boys met with the boys and me and our girls with the girls, and had a few moments to speak identity in Jesus to them.  It was a precious time.  We so hope to go back at some point in the future.











Today, Sunday I had the opportunity to preach at Buikwe Faith Church.  I preached there twice in 2011, so it was so good to be with them again.  Pray for this faith family.  They are getting ready to build a church building.  They are also going to build a school, as they house a girl's school to try and give young girls trades to help them support themselves financially.

We then went back to Lugazi, where the kids are from, and got to go see some precious friends Isaac, Maureen and Paul.  Isaac and Paul are two of Pastor Bernard's sons.  Isaac is the director of Canaan High School in Lugazi.  It was parent's weekend, so parents had come to see their kids.  They were also doing a talent show to entertain the parents, so we had the opportunity to experience the celebration of all the kids and parents being together.  Kasey, Kate, and I even got pulled up on stage to dance with some of the performers.


After getting back home...well I'll let Kasey tell you this part as well...We got to see our sweet friend, Winnie and meet her baby!  Winnie was the cook at the guest house we were at for almost 4 months in 2011.  She quickly became such a sweet friend.   She is one of the people I most wanted to see again this trip.  She is one of those people whose sweet spirit touched my heart in 2011, and she will forever be a friend.  We had a great visit and I got lots of sweet baby snuggles!  We shared momma stories and it was so good for my soul!  I cried when she left,  and hope to see her again sooner than later!

Tomorrow we are going back over to Lugazi to visit the schools.  It will be a great day as our kids see schools here and share about schools at home!

The past couple of days...

Happy 4th of July from across the world!  We hope you are all enjoying your day!  We have had another great past couple of days here in Uganda.
Yesterday, we slept in a little and had a great breakfast here at our guest house.  The typical breakfast they serve is eggs (omelette or fried), toast, cereal, some kind of bread (donut, sausage roll, cinnamon roll,etc), sometimes sausage, and always fresh pineapple and watermelon!  They also serve the best mango/pineapple juice and coffee!  We never leave breakfast hungry. Many of you have commented about how beautiful this place is, and it is!!  What blows my mind is that we have this beautiful room in a beautiful guest house.  They serve all 6 of us a full breakfast and it is only $80/per day for all that!  It is guarded by a security guard and it is gated, which is so nice.  So, if any of you want to come, we can give you the details!!
We spent the morning yesterday relaxing and reading.  The kids played cards and we just enjoyed the grounds here.  We walked to Caffe Roma, our favorite pizza place again for lunch.  We had our same server, Stella, who gave us one of our pizzas for free for us coming back!  We tried the Hawaiian pizza, which is crazy good with fresh, sweet pineapple!! It's our new fave!
After lunch, our friend Livingstone, picked us up and took us to the downtown craft market.  The kids were so nervous about us bargaining for prices!  We had a blast and ended the day getting coffee beans and Rolex (rolled eggs in Chapati bread) for dinner.

This morning, our friend, Chris, picked us up and we headed for Jinja.  It is 42 miles away, but with traffic, it took us 2 1/2 hours to get there.  The drive is gorgeous there, so it didn't seem so long!  We went to a resort where we took a boat ride to the source of the Nile.  Imagine starting off in Lake Victoria, and all of a sudden you get to a point where the water is bubbling up from under the ground, and all of a sudden the water shifts directions as the Nile begins!  It was breathtaking!  We got out of the boat at that spot on a little bridge and took pictures.  We ate at the resort, where Martin loved eating a whole fish that weighed about 2.2 pounds!  That was the small option!   He managed to eat most of it, but none of us could finish all our fries.  Chris suggested we have them bag it and give it to kids in the village, which we did.  They were so excited to have that!  I have been convicted many times this trip about how I overlook practical ways to bless others.  Chris is really good about that.  He has such a servant heart and truly looks for ways to help.  He has been a huge encouragement to us!
We left there and went to the land that has the goats Kate helped buy for the children's home.  The home is in transition now and they are starting to build a multi-home site to help many children.  The children from the original home are settled in homes in the area for now.  The goats are already at the new land and so Kate got to meet her "babies!"  It was so cute.  One had 3 babies yesterday.  One died, but Kate named the other 2 "Peanut Butter" and "Chocolate." We had more fun playing with the goats.
We then went to an outdoor market in Jinja to buy the 19 kids from the original children's home new school shoes.  Chris' wife, Christine, joined us to help us know sizes.  That was quite an experience and we were so thankful she came along to negotiate prices and help us know what to get!  On our way home, we stopped at a road-side stand to get the kids something to eat.  There are no words to describe that!  We pulled the van over and immediately, people rushed the van, opened the windows, and shoved chicken on a stick and sodas in our faces.  There were multiple people selling the same products and it was just...wow!  The kids were laughing so hard as we tried to negotiate the best price!  They all ended up getting the chicken, which they loved!
We finished the day with a 3 hour drive back to Kampala and we are now showering and getting ready for bed.
Brad preaches tomorrow morning for a pastor's conference and then we are going to spend the afternoon in the slums in Kampala.  We haven't done that before, but Chris said it would be a good place for us to visit and bring encouragement.
Thank you for praying for us and for following us on this journey!  We are making memories that I know will last a lifetime!

Warthogs...the under-appreciated species

There are very few words that can describe the last 36 or so hours.  We drove up to Murchison Falls in northern Uganda not truly prepared for what we were going to encounter. We knew we were going on a safari and and we thought it would be cool, but when we think safari, we think Fossil Rim (because what safari could be cooler than that - FYI - we love Fossil Rim and what they do).

When we pulled in to Murchison Falls National Park we were greeted by baboons all over the place.  They were in the trees, walking on the road, it was nuts.

After a quick trip to drop off our luggage at the place we were sleeping (more on that later), we got to the Nile River...YES that Nile River...baby Moses, water turning to blood, that one.  Obviously we were a little downstream of Egypt, but it was still amazing.  We crossed the river on a ferry and began to see some crazy things.

Chris (formerly known as Farouk), who was our in country liaison during our adoption was our guide.  His knowledge of the animals and his eye for finding them made the trip even more enjoyable.  If you are ever in Uganda, we highly recommend him as your safari guide.

We started by seeing all kinds (and I mean all kinds) of antelopes.  Some very small, to some huge.  We saw water bucks, kops, cape buffalo, etc, etc, etc.  The giraffes were so close we could almost touch them.  The elephants pooped on the road in front of us and used the elephant crosswalk to go right in front of us.

One of the best parts was seeing all of the animals mixed in together.  It is their natural habitat, there are no fences (except to keep the animals from the small landing strip that bordered Uganda and the DR Congo. We got to see all the animals just living together in harmony...

That is until you see the lions hanging out in the trees...and realize there's going to be some hunting tonight!!! Chris slowed down the van and turned by a tree where there were at least 7 lions 15' from us laying in the tree.  There was one very young male, that had a very small mane, and the rest were young females.  Chris told us the adults lions, including the big male, would probably be in the tall grass below the tree.  That makes you think a little bit, because it could have popped out of the grass at anytime.

We went from there to the bank of the Nile.  We saw giraffes and hippos hanging out, getting water and just enjoying the evening breeze. It was a surreal sight and great photo op. We were able to get out and stand not far from all the animals and take some great family pics...Christmas cards coming!!

We headed back to our sleeping quarters and had a late dinner.  Everyone went and washed their hands.  Martin and I were at the table...outside...first.  He says, "Dad, dad, there's a hippo".  I told him he was joking and he replied he wasn't.  I look up and not 20 yards from me is a hippo eating grass.  I walked to within about 8 yards of it to get a picture.  After a few minutes, everyone that was there started gathering around, it made the workers a little nervous and they kept telling us to step back.

Our sleeping quarters were bandas...basically screened in shelters. Kasey and the girls had one and I had the boys in another.  So we drop off Kasey and the girls and head to ours.  Sam stepped outside, and was greeted by a hippo walking by.  Kasey was woke up in the middle of the night to a sound that startled her.  Her hope was it wasn't a lion...yes there are lions in the wild where our sleeping quarters were.  She turned on her flashlight and saw the welcoming face of a hippo staring at her.  She turned off the flashlight, quietly laid back down and told the hippo, "You do you boo!"

We all actually slept really well and started off early Tuesday morning. We got to the ferry about 6:30.  When we looked out over the Nile, we saw the sun coming up. This was my, Brad's, favorite part of the trip.  There is something so wonderful about a sunrise over water, but over the Nile River, you can't hardly beat that.

We did the safari drive again, just to see if we could see anything else...well we did.  Chris stops the van at one point and says, "Look in that tree and be quiet...there's a leopard."  As a matter of fact, there was, but not just a leopard laying there, but a leopard in the tree eating a small antelope.  We were so close you could hear the bones of the antelope being crunched.

We continued on and got to see the lions moving.  They had apparently just finished their dinner and were walking back to their tree.  We got to see one of them jump back up into the tree.  That particular one just stared at us for a minute from the tree.

On our way our, we saw a jackal running.  We also saw three hyenas around a small watering hole.  We figured they were talking about how one of them fell into the cactus or how they were going to kill the lion...yes I'm ready to see the new Lion King!!

Chris had set up a boat tour for us to get a complete safari experience.  We initially weren't sure we wanted to do that part, but we were so glad after that we did!  We saw probably a hundred or more hippo that were just within feet of our boat.  We also saw crocodiles and our boat guide even spotted a male one across on the bank and slowly crept up on it with the boat. When we got to shore, it jumped in the water right beside us and we got an awesome video!  We saw giraffes, elephants, antelope, buffalo, etc. coming to the banks to get water when it got warmer.  It was so cool to see the animals we had seen on the guided tour also from the water!  We got to the "end" of the tour and we thought we were about to turn around.  We look ahead and see the Murchison Falls, the most powerful falls in the world.  I can't even begin to describe what it was like.  Sitting in a small boat with that looming ahead was breathtaking.  We were able to climb out of the boat onto a rock (the boat guide told us to) and take a picture of our family there.  He told us all about the history of the falls, which is actually very interesting!

At that point, it was time to turn around and head back to shore where Chris was waiting.  We had just a few minutes before we had to leave the park and we drove up to the top of the Murchison falls to see them from above.  It was a gorgeous and ominous sight.  We took lots of pictures, which we will be posting!

We had a delicious dinner near the park and just returned from the 5 hour drive back to Kampala.  It was a truly incredible experience.  We just kept seeing the creativity of our Creator everywhere we looked.  There were some moments of healthy fear, as there should be when you are near such powerful creatures, but we were never scared.  It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience to be so up close and personal with God's majestic creatures!

And...I (Kasey) must say...warthogs are truly under-appreciated.  They are soooooo cute!

Sunday Funday

I said this morning that we were leaving for safari today after church, but that is actually tomorrow! Brad preached twice today, once in Lugazi and once in Nkokonjeru. The first church was so sweet and very receptive. It was in the center of town, so it had the feel of a more modern village church. We left there and traveled to Nkokonjeru, which is a remote village.We had to drive through dirt roads among sugarcane to get there and because of the rain, the roads were muddy and slick. Thankfully, our friend and driver is awesome navigating that!! He has a 4-wheel van, so we didn’t get stuck, but a couple of times we came very close! We told him back home we would say he was taking us mudding!! We arrived at the church around 2:00.  Brad preached there in 2011, and the people were so excited to see us again. This was the church that paid us last time in pineapples, if you remember that story! It was incredible. The children danced and sang welcome songs for us and gifted us a huge stick of sugarcane. After Brad preached, they served the people a meal in honor of us being there. It was such a sweet time! After that, they had us walk down with them to the site where they will one day build a permanent structure, because now they are meeting in a shelter. They asked Brad to plant a tree with their church leaders to dedicate that plot. The kids were so excited because it was an orange tree! We finished with our kids giving all the kids (and some adults) candy. It was such a sweet, sweet day! It is 8:30 now and we are driving in pretty heavy traffic back to Kampala. We will get there around 9:00 and eat a late dinner before going to bed. Tomorrow we get up early to head out on safari! It’s been a great day!

Busy day ahead

We are finishing breakfast and have a busy couple of days. Brad is preaching this morning at 2 different village churches and will be preaching through an interpreter! We are so excited to be in the village churches again! We attended Watoto church last night and it was wonderful! We will post a video of that.
After church, we head north on a Safari with our precious friend, Farouk, who now goes by Chris. We are so excited! We are staying in bandas and he said we need flashlights because at night there are hippos out! It is very safe and will be an experience like we have never had before! The van we will be in has a top that comes off! We do have a portable WiFi unit, but depending on how remote the situation is, we may not have a way to post until Monday. Be prepared for lots of pictures on Monday!

One big family

We have been in Lugazi today- the village Martin and Kamrynn are from. We met with the biological family and we can’t even express how wonderful it was. We honestly didn’t know what to expect. We met with several family members and they were so happy to see the kids and how well they are doing. We had a great visit as we exchanged stories and many hugs. It was great for all of us. It was more than we could ever have dreamed or imagined and our hearts are so full. We have always wanted to feel like we were one big family, and today that happened. It was positive, encouraging, and just wow. We ended the visit with the aunt praying a tearful, thankful prayer over us. God was all over this today. He exceeded our ideas of best.
We are using a portable WiFi to post because we are traveling back to Kampala for church this evening. We will post pictures when we get to the guest house later tonight.
Thank you to those who prayed specifically for today’s visit. Prayers were most definitely heard and answered!

Fri-yay Pizza Day

So today is a day to relax and try to get our bearings down and sleep schedule shifted.  We woke up around 8 and ate an incredible breakfast.  Fresh pineapple, passion fruit juice, pancakes, omelettes, and more.  If you are thinking that's a lot of food you would be right, we were all stuffed.

After that Kasey and I sat outside with the Word and enjoyed God's beautiful creation, while spending some time with our good Father! There is something incredible about being in a place that the pace is slower and when you look out you don't see a concrete jungle (even much different than small towns like Glen Rose).

We then walked to the Italian Market, which we went to several times while here in 2011.  It is 1.55 miles on very hilly terrain. I know some of you are thinking that's not relaxing, but again the beauty & the slow place make even that relaxing.  They have Italian gelato, which is crazy good.

Then we went to our favorite eating place, Caffe Roma.  We ate brick oven pizza,

 which makes most other pizza seem like Totino's (which I like Totino's, so I'm not hating!). We had a precious server, Stella.  We told her that we have missed this pizza and could not wait to have it again!!  She was so amazed that we enjoy it so much that she went and told management. We mentioned that we would be back next week, possibly on Tuesday.  She told us before we left that because we love it so much, when we return on Tuesday, she is giving us a pizza free!  We also saw the place we would go and let the kids play at Caffe Roma.  It is very similar, with just a few changes.  We stood there and just enjoyed the memories and seeing the kids play 8 years later!

We had a great conversation at lunch about how people here really take time to get to know you, and it's because of the slow pace.  We all talked about how we want to take that home and spend more intentional time knowing people.  All of our kids have been so embraced by people here.  They have received many, many hugs and all love it.  Even Martin, our non-affectionate kiddo, is giving great hugs and enjoying it!

I think I know what some of you are thinking...gelato, pizza, that seems like you should have gone to Italy.  Which brings me to tomorrow, tomorrow we will be going to the kids village and to the market.  We will also be going to the church we attended here, Watoto.

Tomorrow begins the part of our trip that we are most excited about.  We get to go and see the villages, we get to step into a world that is so different and refreshing than ours.  We will see people that have nothing and yet more joy than I probably will ever understand.  We will see people that have to trust the LORD for their daily provision and they don't stress about it.  While today has been a GREAT day, tomorrow will touch our hearts on a level that we will not be able to explain.

I want to trust the LORD that way.  When Jesus said to pray, "give us this day our daily bread," he was possibly thinking about people and places like this.  People that would fully depend on Him for even their most basic needs.  I want to live that way.  Even in abundance (which we have), I want to depend on the LORD that way.  I want to not stress about anything, because I know the LORD has it in His hand!!