HELLO EVERYONE so i realise this blog again is way past due and i am so sorry for that i am extremely busy lately were in a large transition so i am bad with trying to strap myself to this lap top and tell you everything i know you all have been waiting to hear!!!
so you are most likely all wondering what is with the title of this, but ill get to that later :)
SO WHERE CAN I BEGIN? this blog like many others will be very scatter brained. hope i don't confuse you all
So since i have last blogged we have done some pretty wonderful things. Me and my roommates have met up with a pastor in a local community and he has been getting us involved with stuff he is doing for people in need, we just really feel god calling us to do more than just work with the babies. instead of sitting in the house on our days off this pastor has helped us have something to do to get involved and use our skills usefully. So this is the same pastor we got to go through to distribute clothes and food to the village close by. So since we have paired up with him and got to witness 2 baptism services. One in a pool and one in a village about an hour away in the river! in that day we saw a total of 79 people be baptised!! it was one of the most emotional days here in Africa. It is always an emotional day when you get to see God truly move in other places other than home. The people who were baptised would walk to the side of the river and worship out loud with no instruments. they worshipped through the whole baptism, it was so amazing to watch people so passionate about God even through there struggles in life they still look up.
Also in that day we got to experience Africa to the fullest!! We were at a village and the team we were with were building a school for children because the closest school is 5 miles away so children would have to walk all that way to attend school. So they built a school there for them! So amazing. So while there we got to work with all the kids in the village we did songs and bible stories there was around 200 kids. We also got to work with ladies of the village . They took us on there every day work tasks, hand washing laundry, walking to the well, pumping water from the well, and yes carrying large yellow Gerry cans on our heads... my face was the same as yours I'm sure. These things felt like they were 400 pounds and when they put it on my head.. instant migraine... hahah that was if i could even balance it. But i couldn't very long till i had to give it back to them to carry. They would carry it like it was feathers and dance and walk with out holding it. African women are tough let me tell you. So many random things that happened in that day that just shaped my whole trip, like walking to the baptism with a pack of 200 people and having races with the little boys, and walking holding hands with the little girls, and taking photos with old ladies. It was a wonderful day and i will upload lots of photos as soon as i can so you can all see as if you were there with me !
So on a new note me and the girls were bored and the power was out so we decided to clean out our closets of all the clothes that collect dust and the shoes we never wear and take them to the village to meet the same pastor. He met with us and introduced us to 6 youth girls who took us around the village to the most in need people in the village who could us the small amount of clothes the most. Also we got to go inside the mud huts and pray for the people living in there. We prayed for a women who was paralysed in the legs. We prayed for a old lady laying in bed so sick that she couldn't move. Even in that moment the whole time we prayed she thanked god for everything he does in her life, and thanking him for blessing her. It was so amazing because she was on her death bed with nothing and she still thanks god everything she has! So we prayed for some amazing people and prayed a lot of healing over people who asked for it . it was a really wonderful day!! Also while being there we have plans to help clean out the village well with a team because it was ruined and now the water is brown and the village people still drink from it because they have nothing else, so we will be going next week with a team to help clean it out and get it working properly again. We also will be helping him with a youth conference he is hosting at the church we will help doing games and songs and sitting in and getting to know the girls and the teens. It will be so nice I'm looking forward to all the plans god has for me in Africa!!!
So back on a watoto note! We were in Kampala and we actually got to see the children quire practising to sing at a hotel for the first lady! it was super cool that is what i have been waiting for is to see the kids singing in Africa! it was heart melting i was the happiest in that moment. Also i got to go along with a couple of watoto people and take a little girl who is about 2 to the children's village! it was so much fun because she is very shy and takes time to warm up to people and she was very comfortable with me and liked me a lot so they asked me to take her for comfort, and when we got to her new mother her mother cried receiving her. she was so happy !! it melted my heart knowing that she was going to be so loved by this mother. For all who don't understand ill explain. We have a babies home and the kids come in there first depending on there age we take them to about two or three depending on there development and maturity. and then we take babies, and when they are older to about 2-5 we take them in groups to the children's village which is all the kids you see in the choir, they have school a house and a mother and brothers and sisters there and a clinic its beautiful there is 3 in total, so we take them there when there old enough. So we took her and leaving her was very hard she was crying and screaming so my heart was ripping. But the upside of being there i got to see all my toddlers we had previously brought there, and they all remembered me they all ran up to me and hugged me! it was so nice to see them because i miss them everyday, but of course leaving them all for a second time ripped my heart out.
So onto the title of my blog here. me and my roommate are on a very important mission and that is to eat a cricket! i know gross right. But Africans eat these like popcorn you can buy them off the street by the cup and people walk around munching them. So you know what they say.. when in Africa do as the Africans do right! so we are searching for ones to get. we have been told not to get them just anywhere because if there not cleaned they will taste like dirt, but if cleaned they taste good. so we are waiting for the person who looks the most educated on cooking these, so i will be sure to let you know exactly how that goes. I am not nervous all I'm scared of is getting a leg or an eye stuck in my tooth. then we have issues.
So on a last random note i feel its needed to tell you all what we ate last night. We had a BBQ at the house, and we had burgers. Sounds normal, but they were hand made with oatmeal in them, and then when cooked and ready to eat for toppings you put a BBQ pineapple and a fried egg, fried onions and BBQ sauce on it.................................................................... i hate to admit it was SO GOOD i highly recommend to all of you. only in Africa once right.
but before i rap this up its safe to say that I'm seriously in the Christmas spirit although its hard with no snow out side. but we have decorated our house with a tree and tinsel and stockings and lights all over the house and Christmas candles and so much more, so i am excited its feeling like Christmas around here.. i still wish i was building a snow man and drinking hot chocolate by the fire but hey I'm drinking ice coca cola in front of a palm tree ! its a nice change i suppose :P
So this blog doesn't come with any life lessons i have learnt lately cause every day has its own challenges and i learn something new every single day about my self and about god, and it makes me so excited and remembering all of you supporting me back at home is really what keeps me going knowing the love and prayers i get so thank you all so much!
so i hate to say it will be a week until another blog but i have a good reason ! me and my roommate are going with the watoto rescue team to a IDP CAMP which is '' internally displaced people'' so this is village built especially for people effected by the war and who fled or lost everything during. So the rescue team goes out two weeks in every month to a different idp camp and work personally with everyone in the village teaching them trust, and teaching them to talk about the things they have been through and accept guidance , so they do games and stories and testimonies and have someone on the team who does private council sessions with anyone who needs them. So they don't incorporate god into it until the second or third day of classes in hopes to gain trust from people because a lot of people in this situation are quick to ignore when they hear god, so they teach them trust and love and how to deal and later introduce that you can't get any of it without god. So needless so say we are going for five days and yes.. we will be living in a mud hut!! I'm pretty excited that's one thing you need to do in Africa is live in a mud hut. so we will be living in the mud hut cooking over a fire peeing in a hole showering with a bucket behind a tree, truly puts camping to shame! so that means no lap top no cell phone none of the good stuff, so you will all need to pray for me. The men are loving telling us horror stories about wild lions and pythons that have been an issue in this place so I'm nervous but i have been wanting to do this since my first month in gulu. two months ago. so i am seriously excited! so i will be telling a lot of people my story and teaching a lot of people how to deal with there issues and i will be listening and working one on one with people who have seen truly horrible things in this war or have done horrible things, so please pray for mine and my roommates hearts that we would truly be prepared and we would handle this completely with gods love and really change lives out there.
So sorry for talking your .. eyes off.. lol i had a lot that i haven't been able to tell you all about !! i hope you enjoyed the blog!! thanks everyone for your prayers !!
MUCH AFRICAN LOVE!!
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