Uganda bound : 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.