Last week in Uganda

So on Saturday we got to attend a beautiful African wedding. We didn’t really know the people that were getting married, but I guess it makes it that much more fun right? Actually the guys from the ministry had gotten invited and so we just got to tag along. It was so cool to see the difference between American weddings and African weddings. The wedding ceremony was 5 hours long. They said their vows and exchanged rings and then the preacher and a couple other people gave speeches for a few hours. Its actually rare that you go anywhere without hearing long speeches! After that we got to go to the reception for a little while, which involved a lot of traditional singing and dancing. Probably one of coolest weddings I have ever crashed.

Sunday we spent a lot of the day packing and getting ready to leave Gulu. But in the morning we were able to go to church at the Soldiers of Christ Ministry again. We got there a little late, but when we arrived we found four out of the six new Christians were there. Including Santina, the widow that we have talked so much about. I wish you could have seen the smile on her face. You could tell that even over the last week the joy of the Lord had consumed her. After the service we got to visit with them for a while and get to know them each a little more. We were so happy to see them all one last time, but of course things always come to an end at some point, so after the service we had to say our goodbyes. It was harder then we thought it would be. They have all been such a blessing to us. After church we spent the rest of the day packing and doing our laundry… African style.

On Monday morning we started on our long trek back to Kampala.  On our way home we got to drive through this incredible national park. Which also just happened to have the most incredible variety of African animals. Monkeys, elephants, giraffes, they had it all! So after driving through all of that we still had another 7 hours of traveling before we reached Kampala. There, we spent the night there and then drove all day again to a town in southwest Uganda called Rukingiri. We arrived late on Tuesday night and checked into our hotel and had a little dinner and then went to bed.

Mom and Caleb

Wednesday was a huge day for us! We woke up early and got ready to go see Caleb, our compassion child. Or I guess not so much a child anymore. Our family has been supporting him since he was three years old and now he is 19. So we drove to the compassion project and met him there. It was a very emotional introduction, mainly for mom. She has wanted to meet him for a long time. And after all that time her first words to him was “oh I thought you were taller!” She’s so awesome. After meeting him we got a tour of the project. The staff showed us everything that the project did. They find these children when they are very small, and then when someone starts supporting them the staff at the project take them under there wing and monitor everything about the child. Like how his home life is, how much food he is getting, and how his health is. They also handle all the money that comes in for the kids. They use it mainly for school and then whatever you give above the monthly payment goes to the children directly. After having tea with the staff at the project we got to drive to Caleb’s house and meet his family. His dad passed away when he was young so his uncle was the main one taking care of him. We hung out that for a while and Caleb proudly showed us around his land, which he has been working so hard on for the last 10 years. He was so sweet and humble about all his incredible work there. He has also saved up enough money to buy his own cow and goat, and does a ton of gardening around his house. After visiting with his family we took Caleb to our hotel and just sat on the lawn and visited for a few hours. We exchanged stories and he had a lot of questions that he had been waiting to ask about us (mostly about Ken, Callie, and Matt). It was such a dream come true to meet him. We never thought God would bless us with such an awesome opportunity.

Please pray for safe travels back home! We have a lot of flying time. We will write again when we get home.

Letters from Caleb when he was 5

We love you all!

We crossed the equator!

The staff at the project

Nothing is impossible with God

There are so many things to share from this week! God has shown himself faithful in countless ways!

After our exciting news on Monday, God just kept surprising us!

Tuesday morning Mom and two of our friends from the ministry headed to another little village outside of town. They were just walking as the Holy spirit lead them. The first hut they came to was the home of a mother and a little baby who had an extremely high fever. They stopped and prayed for him, the mother was so thankful that they had taken time out of there day to come see her. The next hut they came to was the home of a lady named Jane, she was in her early thirties and had a six month baby named trevor. As they sat down to talk to her she told them about how she was not born again, but her husband had been praying that she would become a christian for a long time. So they just sat together and presented the gospel to her, as they were speaking the Holy spirit did something in her heart and she ended up accepting the gift of eternal life. It was such an incredible miracle! After leaving her house they stopped by another hut, there were three women gathered outside and so they stopped talked to them. They were already believers so they just had a time of fellowshipping and prayer.

Wednesday! Do you remember how I told the story about the widow who we planted a garden for a couple weeks ago? Well we got to go and visit her again on Wednesday. She had been on our hearts the last couple weeks and we really felt the need to go back and share the gospel with her. So we set aside the morning to just spend time with her. When we showed up at her little hut she was there with one of her neighbors, Walter. So we sat around and shared with them. Mom shared what had been on her heart, and we prayed and read them bible verses. Then both Walter and Santina (the widow) shared with us a little bit. Walter told us about how just 4 days before, his wife had left him to marry another man and left him with his two little boys. He was so sad and broken and you could see it in his boys as well. You could tell he was so desperate for something! Something to fill the void in his heart and to comfort him. So he asked if he could ask Jesus into his heart! After that we turned to the widow and asked what she thought. You could tell she was deep in thought. This was the same lady that three weeks earlier said "Even if Jesus came down from heaven and stood right in front of me i would tell him to go away, I don't want your peace." And then three weeks later she turns to us and says "I want him to come and live in my heart." 

So I don't see how anyone can tell me there is not a God. He works miracles everyday! It doesn't matter if you can physically see them or not! 

But the stories don't end there. Thursday, we just thought it would be a regular day. We were planning on going and visiting the new converts and delivering some seeds. But like always God had more in mind. We first walked to the high school and delivered some seeds to the agriculture teacher and said our goodbyes to everyone there. Then we walked and visited Walter and Santina and a couple of the other new christians and as we were walking past one of the huts. One of the young girls that accepted Christ a few days earlier asked if we would go talk to her friend, patricia. So we all sat outside under a huge tree and started preaching again! And before we knew it we were around her friend as she received the gift of Jesus Christ! We now have six new siblings in the family of Christ! And someday you will get to meet all of them!

We are so excited for all that God is doing here, And we are so happy that you guys get to celebrate this with us! And we are so excited to share all these stories with you in person.

We only have three days let here and then we move on to Kampala and then Rukungiri to see Caleb.

Please be in prayer for these new christians, and that they would continue to grow in their relationship with God.

Thank you all for your prayers! We see them being answered everyday!


-Katie


                                                 

                                                Emily Anne photography 

Ugandan Thunder storms

  

New believers in Gulu!

Its amazing to see how God works day to day. In these last couple days have been such a blessing! This weekend was definitely more chill and we got to catch up on some much needed rest.

But on Saturday afternoon we got to go back to a village that we visited last week, Its a few miles out of town. Last week we brought them seeds and spent time with the whole family, so this week we go to go back and plant the garden. Our last garden in Gulu... At least for this trip.

On Sunday we attended the Soldiers of Christ church, and guess who killed it on the pulpit!? Yes, you guessed right my mother. She preached an amazing sermon about faith and what it means to live it out! She is so incredible at spreading God's love with these people. We were so proud of her! 

Today was one our favorite days by far!!! 

We all woke up early this morning and had a wonderful devotional time, we sang songs and read romans and just got to seek God's heart, and what He wanted for us today. We felt so much better going out today know that it was the Holy spirit leading us. So as we walked through the village asking God where He wanted us and we stopped in front of this house that had a few people outside. We all gathered around the mango tree out front. We brought the neighbors in from around and just started preaching.  We were only going to stay there for about ten minutes but felt like that was where God wanted us to stay for a while. So we stayed and kept sharing. They had so many questions about God and satan. They asked how God could let them suffer so much, we answered the best we could. And mom always backed it up with a bible verse! You could feel the presence of God there as we shared. Towards the end of our time we asked if people wanted to accept this God that we had been telling them about. And two of them which had actually been quiet for most of the time raised their hands and asked if they could. We were all so overjoyed! So mom lead them in a prayer and then told them what it meant to follow Christ. 

Its so incredible to see God answer your prayers in such amazing ways! :) 

I know I say this everytime but we really are so thankful for your prayers and support. This would not be possible unless we knew we had such a strong support system at home cheering us on.  

But we still need your prayers as we wrap up our last week here in Gulu, Pray that we are able to finish strong! 

Go big or go home!

We love you!

Emily's rockin the new hair

A new perspective on life

Our dear friends and family,

These last few days have been incredible, and also very busy. Each day has been a complete blessing from the Lord. We have been preaching, meeting new friends, and developing deeper relationships with the friends we have already made.

Monday morning we had an incredible morning spending time with the children that attend soldiers of Christ ministry primary school. We got to go and take crafts and toys (so kindly donated by all of you) and passed them out to over 120 kids. They were so excited! It is such a blessing for them to have these things that they would never usually get to have. Monday afternoon we got to hang out with the neighborhood kids. We try to spend a little bit of time with them everyday, every time we come back from the ministry we are usually greeted with about 15 of them running and jumping on us, they are so much fun to have around.

Tuesday was a packed day! In the morning we went to another school, Gods glory primary school. As soon as we got there the headmaster of the school had us go to the grass behind the school, and all of the younger kids in the school came out and sat on the grass with us. Then the two older classes came out and did three of their traditional dances for us. There hospitality here is incredible, there were only three visitors visiting them at their school and to us it felt like they were welcoming the king. We feel like we can learn so much from them just with their hospitality! After our huge welcome we got to plant a little garden in the back with the 6^th graders. Each person was in charge of there own little row of plants, and is continuing to take care of them until harvest. Mom taught each of them how to take care of the plants and when the best time to harvest is. She is so good with them!

After lunch on Monday afternoon we got invited to visit a house of a family in the community. We got to spend the whole afternoon fellowshipping and praying with them! At the end they told us that we were adopted into their family and we had a family to stay with every time we came back to Gulu. So now that my mom has a place to stay I’m not sure you will see her in America for much longer. :)

Wednesday! We spent the morning with the students at Gulu center high school. They leave for their summer vacation on Friday so we went and said our goodbyes to all of our friends there, and to check on our little germinating seeds. The students there have been such a blessing to hang out with the last couple weeks. It’s so crazy to think that we already have to say goodbye to people here. It feels like we arrived yesterday!

Doing crafts with the kids at SOC

Last week we told the story of the widow, and when we were there last week we had the chance to meet her sister who was also a widow. So today we got to go to her house and plant a little garden. After planting we shared the gospel, testimonies and prayed with them. It is so fun to just be able to go to the huts and freely share the gospel! Everyone here is open to at least listening to you. Whether or not they receive it is up to God, so we just continue to pray that He softens their hearts.

That is a condensed version of our last couple days. Everyday we are here we get to know these people better, and we learn their stories. And every time we hear another story our heart breaks more and more. Because for the last few years we have heard the stories about Joseph Kony and about the war, but coming here and seeing them is a whole different thing!

Kony stayed in this area for about 20 years and in those years you would not imagine the destruction he caused. He abducted hundreds of children and killed thousands of people. He burned houses, and tore apart families. And these last couple days we have heard some of these stories of people that were abducted and God miraculously saved them! But at the same time there are people who cannot grasp Gods love for them. How can you tell someone that ‘Jesus loves you’ when they have experienced so much hurt in their lives? It is hard to relate to them I cannot even fathom going through something like that. It is hard to hear their stories and not be able to relate. But that is where God is stretching us. We are learning that these people just need to be loved on constantly, and they just need to know that someone cares. 

So your prayers would be greatly appreciated as we continue to build these relationships and walk out what God has for us here. We only have one week left here in Gulu before we leave to meet our sponsor child in southern Uganda.

We have so many more stories that we will share, so we will try to do that over the next few days we have left.

Thank you all so much for your prayers and encouraging comments! We all sit around and read them out loud; it is so awesome to be encouraged in what we are doing. We love you all!

-Katie 

                         Emily Anne Photography©

Mom Bringing it 'like a boss'

Just loving life

#Village Life

After being here for a week Em and I decided we had to adjust to the culture more. So Friday morning we woke up and rode into town to get our hair braided like a regular Ugandan.  So now you cant even tell the difference between the locals and us.  Then to wrap up our first week here, we spent the weekend with our new friends and family joining them in their festivities!  Friday afternoon we got invited to go to a small village outside of town that one of the guys that works with the soldiers of Christ ministry lives at. It is about a half hour drive from town.  We were able to spend the evening fellowshipping with his incredible family. Mom brought some seeds for their garden and toys and candy for the kids. It was such an awesome time seeing what village life is like in Uganda. They all live in tiny little huts with no electricity or running water. The immediate family all lives in one hut until the older boys grow up and start their families and then they build their own huts next to their parents. And that is how most of these villages get started.

Saturday we got to do something kind of similar. We got to visit another village of one of our friends, Francis. (I will tell you more of his story later.) But as we arrived in his village we were greeted with a huge group of kids who were all singing and doing traditional African dances.  They escorted us into the village dancing; it was like we were living in a movie. The rest of the day was then packed with introductions, speeches, dances, and of course, gardening! Again my mom was able to bless this village with an abundant amount of seed that we brought from home. They were so grateful. I wish everyone could see the smiles on their faces when the receive things that we think are so simple.

The people in the village wanted to bless us in return, which they did by providing a huge feast for us. Which included there freshly slaughtered goat and chickens. It is so humbling going into these villages and seeing how these people live. They have almost nothing but they are more than willing to sacrifice what they have to serve us. I can’t even imagine living life in that mind set.

So today is Sunday. Remember the last time I wrote we asked for prayer for mom as she preached in church? Well let me tell ya. She brought it! Like a boss! She did incredible! She got up to that podium and preached like there was no tomorrow! She did so well and it was a huge answer to prayer for her.

After church we were able to walk over to the garden we planted at the high school and saw all the little seeds germinating. Another huge answer to prayer!

Thank you all again for standing behind us and supporting us in our journey.  We only have two weeks left here in Gulu, before we leave to see our sponsored child in another part of Uganda.  We have so much to do in this short amount of time. Pray for continued strength for our team and that we would make an impact on the people around us.

 - Katie 

For some reason our pictures could not upload. We will post more next time.

Gardening in Gulu

So the last few days have been incredible!

On Tuesday we were able to go back to the Gulu central high school and meet with a class of about 40 kids. There, Mom was able to teach them basic techniques of gardening. At first they seemed a little hesitant and shy, but after she continued talking with them and showing them what supplies she had brought from America, they started to open up and ask all kinds of questions. And before we knew it we were already digging up the large garden plot in the back of the school. They were so enthusiastic about the concept of having this garden at there school. 
Then on Wednesday morning we went back to the high school and started planting the 25 different varieties of fruits and vegetables. We were able to finish planting the garden in about an hour and a half. It was so incredible to see the faces of these children light up as we did something so simple, something that most of us would just take for granted. 
(The head master of the school then proceeded to name it "Katie's Garden" Much to Moms dismay)




Then on Wednesday afternoon (our days are pretty packed)
we got to put in another garden at our neighbor, Musa's house.
He is the guy that picked us up at the airport and drove us to Gulu, which is about an 8 hour drive. He has been so kind in helping us adjust to the culture and ways of life here. 

Mom and em workin' hard

Thursday morning (today) we had an awesome opportunity to go and visit a lady that we  have been waiting to meet. Mom heard her story about two weeks before we left and had already developed such a heart for her. She is known for being 'the widow' and rightly so. We walked to her small hut in the middle of a village and she welcomed us with a warm smile and wonderful hug. She then told us her life story about how she was a wonderful wife and a mother of 9 children, but over the period of 12 years she lost all 10 of them. As you looked around, in her yard you could see the graves where she had buried her loved ones. She was such a beautiful women, even after all she had been through she could still find a reason to smile. We wanted to do so much for her but all we were able to do today was plant a small garden for her in her back yard, and Emily and I planted some flowers next to the graves. To us it didn't seem like a bid deal, but it meant the world to her.

Her front yard

We want to thank you all again for your prayers! We see the results of them everyday!


Continue to pray for these people that we talk about, they so badly need Gods provision in their lives. 


Also my mom would love it if you could pray for her as she is preparing to preach on Sunday. We all know she can bring it to the table but she would still love your prayers and support as she gets ready to share what God has laid on her heart.


*Emily Anne Photography

Finally arrived!

After over 37 hours of traveling the Mitchell girls finally arrived at our destination in Gulu, Uganda.  The plane ride went smoothly and without any delays, which was a huge answer to prayer. We spent Saturday and Sunday recuperating and adjusting to the 10-hour time difference. Sunday morning we took a short walk to a school near by and within the first 5 minutes of walking, I’m pretty sure the three of us were ready to move here! The people were so warm and welcoming, and the children all ran up to us with open arms.

Today (Monday) we walked about a half hour to the Gulu center high school. Where we met with the head master and discussed a gardening program that my mom could get started for the 1,500 plus kids attending this school. After an hour of discussing the possibilities, they decided on my mom teaching two 80 minutes classes tomorrow morning. Teaching them the technical parts of raising their own garden. 

After meeting at the school we were able to go and visit the Soldiers of Christ ministry (another half hour walk) and got to meet all the kids for the first time. They also greeted us with open arms and were soon singing us songs and dancing!

And to wrap up that whole day we got to go into town, which involved taking our first Bota ride (rented motorcycle), which was quite the experience!

Thank you all for your prayers for our safe travels here! They were much needed. Continue to pray for us as we develop relationships in this community and begin to make an impact on these people. Pray that Jesus’ light would shine through our actions and that we would have the boldness to share our love for Him.

We love you all and miss you!

- Katie                                                                                            





  Emily anne photography