a full week - Kampala and Water Days

A drive to Kampala, 50,000 shillings - the price of a frying pan, 40,000 shillings - getting back to Jinja to see the children at Amani playing with water and making it rain - PRICELESS!!!





Trey and I went with our friends to Kampala Tuesday. Kampala is the capital of Uganda and is very big, very busy and very different from where I am living. We went shopping, looked around and even got in bowling! I never thought I would see a bowling alley in Uganda! It takes about 2 hours to get to Kampala from Jinja if there is no traffic. Then it can take an hour just to get out of town once you arrive in Kampala. The traffic is crazy. It is so slow in town that you can actually shop from your car because there are so many selling a variety of things. I bought a map of Africa from a little boy that was walking between the cars. You can find anything in Kampala - tons of beds on the side of the road, tons of kids selling things, a mall and slums all around the developed city. It is not hard to forget about the needs.

This week the topic for Preschool is Day 2 of Creation - everything is about the sky and water. And my babies at preschool LOVE water!!! You can look at the pictures and see the expressions on their faces that are priceless. They have been practicing Montessori activities with cups and water and now when they pour out water they yell "rain". I get so excited when I see their little brains at work!

I visited the Pregnancy Crisis Center this afternoon and arranged some Bible studies with the girls. I'll be going to the village to see where some of them live. This is truly the abandoned and neglected in this society. I was glad to learn about a home in Kampala that works with abandoned teenage pregnant girls. They live in the home while pregnant and learn a trade. The most remarkable thing they are doing is counseling and working with the families in the village to accept the girls and the babies back into the village. I am looking forward to working with these girls and their families in the Jinja district.

What a contrast this week. I see Christ everywhere I go. He reminds me that all of this is about Him. I see Him in the center helping a little girl that is scared and pregnant begin to smile and have hope. I see Him in the laughter of a child splashing water. I see Him in the busy streets of Kampala and in the eyes of a little boy selling a map of Africa. I see Him in the town with the vendors and the ladies at the market. And I see Him in my life everyday, always there leading the way.

I thought about Nelson Mandela as I passed the Nelson Mandela stadium in Kampala and how he was never afraid to to reveal his source of Light and encouragement................

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in all of us. And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” Used by Nelson Mandela in his 1994 inaugural speech