This is just about the first time I have felt like or had the energy to get back on my blog since I got home from Uganda. This particular trip has been the most difficult trip to readjust from and just back into just the normal routine of things. I got sick just about the day I walked into my house (and am still recovering), then Deborah got sick yesterday (and she is still recovering) so I never could distinguish between jet lag and sick lag. I could probably have seen this coming as I spent every ounce of energy I had in Africa over that 10 day period.
It’s more than that though, it’s a deeper connection made with some people literally half way around the world, and our life in my cultural context doesn’t give you any time to “adjust”, it just keeps moving forward at breakneck speed. There is nothing wrong with life over here any more than life anywhere else, ever single place has it’s own struggles, and often they are almost identical in nature, we just always think they are different because of the lens we look through every day.
Today’s Friday Feet comes to you from Kampala as we waited with the gals from Sixty Feet to go inside the second children’s facility in Kampala. I took those shots above that day with this post in mind, even if the two K’s (Kelsey and Kirby) didn’t know what I was doing, and honestly, I can’t remember which K’s toes are shown below, I think they are Kirby’s. What was really amazing to me about life over there is that almost everything we did was either preceded or followed by some kind of worship to our King, and it was often 60-90 minutes at a time, and it didn’t matter what day of the week it was. They just hauled the drums over, dropped them down and we were good to go.
I know Sixty Feet’s ministry name has to do with number of feet deep not actual toes and shoes, but it works for my Friday Feet today, thanks for being such great sports and for the work you two are doing over there Kelsey and Kirby.
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This is the last trip post before we get on the plane in a few hours. I will continue to post some photos from the trip over the next several weeks and months as I go through the thousands of images I’ve taken over this trip. I can’t reflect over this trip any more, especially since we really have no distance in time for all our experiences over the last 7-10 days. For now I will leave everyone with the photo above that sums up our awesome driver, who took care of us the entire time. Everyone who has been over knows what this photo means. We love Eddy.
In this post are some shots of us in the crazy fast Eddy van along with one of Olive we all just loved. She was a super nice lady who went with us just about everywhere. It’s hard to sum up this trip. I think I probably will find it hard to sum up the trip for months to come, but overall it was a learning experience, a humbling experience, and hopefully one where we lived out the love of Jesus.
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Today was our last full day in Uganda. Tomorrow we will head over to a local market and have lunch before we head for the airport and a long long ride home. Today we went across Lake Victoria to the Bethany Village Orphanage in the morning, and back to Buloba to visit some sponsor children, put up some rain catches, and the woman were able to speak with a group of local woman. It was a very refreshing and uplifting day.
Tonight we had a wonderful last dinner at the guest house with our friends from 60 Feet. It was so great to have the two K’s over for dinner (their first names are Kelsey and Kirby), and I think we all enjoyed some casual discussions, along with African Renewal Ministries who came over as well. There were so many things we experienced on this trip that need to be followed up on, things that God pulled together for our team that became a great start. We understand as a team we probably can’t change the world, but we can continue to take some small steps forward that will collectively make a difference.
Tomorrow we head to the airport for our 11pm flight. Our flight leaves about 2pm Central Time on Thursday, and if our flights are on time, we should be back in Auburn late Friday afternoon. This trip has been incredible to say the least, and God put together a team that had so many different individual gifts and talents that only God could have brought us all together like this. As we head home we have so much to reflect upon, so much to process, but we trust in God to take care of the details and to use this trip to fulfill a purpose that will glorify God.
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We have just about two full days left before we head back home. Today, at least I was thinking, was supposed to be a little easier than yesterday, but as when you try to plan for God, he often has different plans. This was by far the hardest day we have had, and as we met tonight we struggled with what we saw, and ultimately had to give it up to God and go to bed. There were 7 of us (out of the 9, the other two went to the University today) that went to the 2nd and 3rd children’s facilities today and when we got back to the guest house I think we all felt beat up and worn down. It was such a night and day difference between yesterday and today. We have compared and contrasted with each other for hours, struggling with what we can do, what we can’t do, and what we have to just give up to God and be ok with.
The photos in this post were only taken at the 1st place we went to today. The second place we went to we were told the government would not allow any photos within the facility, and for the first time, in perhaps years, I really had no desire what-so-ever to take a single image away from that experience. It will be forever burned into my mind as God showing me what His heart breaks for in this world today. With my camera stuffed in my backpack I was immediately taken out of my own comfort zone, behind the camera, and shown the realities and challenges our world can deliver. I’m grateful for that opportunity and I think I will learn from it for a long time to come. There were several team members who suggested that I write a short post and not put up any photos at all to correlate to the experience we had with the second children’s facility, but that was really only half of the day today. So, the other half of our day is shown in the photos in this post, there were none from the second half of the day. I love the shot of Amy Frye at the top. I think that pretty much sums up the day, but we are thankful for God’s love and that he is in charge.
The other two members of the team, Probakar and Emile, went to the University today and had an incredibly positive experience. Probakar was able to give a guest lecture to about 100 students and Emile explained her process of making clean water from sale and light. They brought back many new connections for future work that can be done and had a very positive and uplifting day.
We took away several positive individual stories from both places, and we have planted many seeds for our local partner church in Buloba or Gaba to pick up the work where we just barely got started. The team is really looking forward to tomorrow where we will go across Lake Victoria to Bethany Village Orphanage and then on to Buloba in the afternoon where the ladies will share with some of the woman from Buloba Church and the men, plus Amy Frye, will install some rain catches.
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Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, “Fear not, I am the one who helps you.”
This is how our team started the day today.
This verse from Isaiah was on all our hearts as we headed two and half hours out of our comfort zone, into the Ugandan landscape, to visit some children that we have been praying for and about, for months now. Words just can’t describe the day we had today. How do you explain the heart of God in the midst of nine people who only want to follow a call that none of us seemed to understand, and in many ways, still don’t? I know there are just some days when you can feel God’s presence moving and working more than others. I think we all go through days like that when we feel farther away from God’s presence, and then there are days, like today, where God’s presence is so tangible that you wonder how you can keep time from moving forward.
Today we visited the first of two very special children’s facilities in Uganda, escorted alongside a ministry group that has been working very hard over here to be the salt and light to these very special children. We spent the day interacting with these kids, and we worshiped with these kids in a way I don’t think any of us expected. There wasn’t a praise and worship chorus sung, there weren’t any lights or electricity, it was just a few African drums and the voices of about 100 people, mostly kids, singing in a way only the Joy of the Spirit can provide.
The photos here (and this text) represent our day at this facility today in a way that is meant to show part of what we experienced throughout the day. These weren’t the photos I liked necessarily, they were the photos that the entire team picked out to include. As if the day wasn’t incredible enough, all nine of us waded through about 1,500 images and narrowed them down to these 16. Some images weren’t included here and were as powerful as any image I have taken in my 20 years as a photographer, but all of this was done with purpose and conviction with these kids in mind.
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
This is how the day ended.
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Today was an unbelievable day. I hate to keep repeating that over and over again each day, but I don’t really know how else to describe it in actual words. I have broken sentences, incomplete thoughts, and it’s 1:30am right now and I have to get up in about 4 hours for probably the most emotional day of the trip, so I know below isn’t going to be perfect, but you get the idea.
Today we started off with worship at Gaba Community Church. Church started at 8am (not sure when it ended) with their intro praise and worship. We stayed for an hour before we had to leave for Buloba Community Church and worship with our friends in Buloba. Church in Buloba went from about 9:30 until about 1pm. It was great to have the privilege of being able to worship with these two churches today. The worship experience between the two churches is actually pretty different. Gaba is a westernized worship (at least the one we go to is) and is very similar to our own church. With the concrete walls and ceilings and all open windows though the praise and worship sounds like it should be heard for miles, and probably is. After Gaba we were hurled down to Buloba by our famous NASCAR-ish driver, Fast Eddy, and arrived for bible study around 9:30am, with church until 1pm.
After lunch the team traveled around the area to visit several different homes that have sponsor children. This was a very humbling experience and extremely difficult to explain. This was the first time I was able to go into the homes of specific families and there really aren’t adequate words to describe the feeling you get from walking into someone’s home like this. The families are so excited to see us and spend some time with us, and that just amazes me. The three homes we visited were very emotional and one that just stands out (photo below) is when Bart got to visit the home of his sponsor child and pray for and with his boy’s mother. It’s the photo below of most of us packed into a space of about 4 feet wide by 6 feet long. I was using an 8mm fisheye lens so the photo in this case doesn’t do the situation justice, but it was as good as I could do in this situation. The photo above was probably my favorite photo of the day and that photo was taken with April’s sponsor family home. I love that shot because of the expression on April’s face but we had a little more space to shoot so I was able to capture a more natural light image.
After the home visits we were scheduled to go speak with the high school students at St Francis (a school we played a ton of soccer at on the last trip). We were going to speak to the students in this job fair type lecture but instead of being there for a 30-60 minute stay we ended up there for several hours. The last shot below of Prabhakar shows the very last speaker of the day and it made the day. He had these students in stitches but gave them some incredible advice in only the way a university professor could do. He was definitely the ringer of the whole day for these kids.
Tomorrow is going to be one of the most difficult days of the entire trip and we will all appreciate your prayers as we head over to work with 60 Feet ministries in a children’s prison in Kampala. I’ll explain it more later but the is the culmination of a long process that has been prayed over for months. We all prayed together tonight for tomorrow, for the strength to go through this and still be light and salt to everyone we meet. For now, I hope you enjoy some of the photos of the day. The images here represent a snapshot of the day and pretty much the entire team individually picked out these 14 images. I know there’s a bunch here but it’s hard to narrow down 2,000 images into 14 and have it truly represent the day. Thanks for your continued prayers for all of the team, I do miss seeing my family, as we all do, but everyone is doing well. Deborah, there is one photo below (not of me) I included just for you, can’t you guess which one? Love you!
The plan is for us to do a post tomorrow with images from the children’s prison, but right now I just don’t know what that looks like at all.
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Today was Center Day in Buloba, which means all the schools in the entire sponsorship program from ARM come together in Buloba, for breakfast, and a huge lunch, intermixed with classroom instruction. The teaching today was the Fruit of the Spirit, and I think all of our team learned something about the Fruit of the Spirit from these kids. They can memorize things at such an incredible rate, it was quite humbling.
In an effort to not repeat or duplicate images from my previous trip I have included some photos today that were unique to this center day. There is always so much going on with the kids on this day, and it was so great to get to see all the kids in one place again. We had some one on one time with our sponsor kids today as well, and tomorrow we will be visiting some of their homes if we have time after church. We were given the task tomorrow of talking to the seniors at Buloba High School along with attending church in Gaba and Buloba Community Church.
Everyone on the team is doing well. We are all pretty tired but other than that we are in good spirits and looking forward to the upcoming days with the children’s facilities on Monday and Tuesday. More about that later… for now, here are some shot from the day. War Eagle everyone, since kickoff isn’t until about 2am we will have to catch the highlights in the morning.
