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.