Week 6

            WOW!  The past 10 days I had the opportunity to live with a Ugandan family in a Ugandan rural setting.  The drive was around 7 hours and we were taken to the village of Serere. We spent the first night at Margaret’s, our cohort leader’s house.  Her house was right near a school, so when we arrived the school was just letting the kids finish up.  We arrived, set up the tents, and waited for the children to come.  There had to be at least a hundred children there.  We played games.  We danced.  We sang.  We hung out by a campfire.  It was incredible seeing and talking with the children.  The joy in their hearts was expressed in every one of their smiles and hugs.  This was a great way to start off the week.  The next day all the students were dropped off to their homes. 

We arrived Saturday afternoon.  As soon as I got there the family fed me so much.  There was a Toto (mom), Papa (father), grandmom, brother and sister living at the house.  The father had 8 children in all.  Most of his children had gone to college and they were all scattered throughout all of Africa.  The area where I was living was filled with huts, which were super nice and comfortable and there was no electricity.  There were lots of hens, roosters and little chicks running around the compound.  There were 5 cows, 4 pigs, 6 goats, including two baby goats, and one sheep.  There were 3 huts, an outside kitchen, and a building which was being worked on.  There was a well right near our house.  Plants of papaya, mangos, oranges, hot peppers and guava, filled our fields and compound. 

The Sunday we went to church and the service was the language of Atesso, but toto was able to translate most of it.  After the service everyone tithed.  The money and food that was brought was given to the community right there on the spot.  The ushers and pastor were paid and member who needed money were given it.  Members who needed food were also given it.  The way church was done reminded very much of the book of Acts where the food and money was given to the community as needed and everyone thrived. 

In the week I spent most of my time talking to my 67 year old Papa, named John Robert who was community development organizer.  This man was in such physical shape.  We went on evening walks almost every night and I could barely keep up with him.  All we talked about was community development…I was fed with so much knowledge.  I also spent the week working.  I brought the cattle back and forth to fields, milked them, did some hoe work in the fields, de-husked corn, peeled g-nuts, swept the compound, and fetched water from the well.  I walked around the village, got to meet many great people.  My brother Robert, cut my hair for me, being a barber…Yes the name Robert is very prevalent in Uganda. 

But the major highlight of the rural home stay was the evening fellowships.  Before dinner, everyday we sung praises to God and prayed.  How BEAUTIFUL!  The family was so filled with thanksgiving and prayers to God; it was an honor to be with them.  They had explained to me that, “We do this every night and you are welcome to join in.”  Oh and I joined in with JOY.  My participation in the evening fellowships really strengthened my view of praise within the family setting. 

After spending the week with this family the USP group took a ride over to the Sipi Waterfalls.  The time there was supposed to be a time to debrief and relax.  We debriefed the first night and the next day went on a hike.  The hike lasted the entire day, and was amazing.  The waterfalls were beautiful, the view of the valleys caused me to be awestruck, the hike was enduring and all in all the whole day I was drawn to the sublimity of God’s beauty and power in creation. 

Isaiah 40:1-8 says, “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.  Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lords’s hand double for all her sins.  A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.  Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; and the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.  And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.  A voice says, “Cry!” And I said, “What shall I cry?”  All flesh is grass and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.  The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows on it; surely the people are grass.  The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.” 

The Lord has drawn me to his beauty in family and creation and He has left me speechless.  With a loss of words I have been lead to times of worship.