The Lighter Side

It has been a blessed couple of days of travel and enjoying God’s creation.  The team is refreshed, renewed and back in Ggaba (headquarters of ARM).  I want to take just a minute and share the beautiful creatures that God created that we have seen in the past days as well as a little behind-the-scenes look at our time here in Uganda.  I mentioned last night that we were all in need of a time of refreshing after all that we have been through.  God wants us to work hard for Him and the advancement of His Kingdom, but he also wants to take time to rest and also to enjoy His creation.  I have never been to Africa and seen the animals only in a zoo before.  It was amazing to see a herd of elephants crossing the road yards in front of us, or a school of hippo’s only feet from the boat.  The beauty of the land is something that God provided for us.
We were able to go on a drive through the African savannah and saw many animals in the wild.  In addition, we took a boat tour to the head of the Nile river  Below are a couple of the animals that we were fortunate enough to see.

Wart hogs were plentiful.  In fact, when we arrived at the hotel, there were several near the parking lot.


The Cape Buffalo is considered the most dangerous animal in Uganda because of it’s propensity to charge.


We saw many giraffes.  The kind here in Uganda gets darker spots as it ages.


We saw a LOT of elephants.  They were all you would imagine!  This one stopped and took a good look at us before moving on.


We saw hippos by the hundreds.  The boat took us within feet of these huge and dangerous animals.  We had an excellent guide that taught us a lot about these giants.  A few times they would disappear under the water and we thought for sure they were going under the boat…

There were many crocodiles as well.  They were BIG!


And the most incredible animal to see was the lion!  Not spotted too often, but we were fortunate to see these beautiful animals.  We do have a lot of video footage that we will show later.

Finally, we wanted to share a few pictures that show some of the lighter moments that we have shared here in Uganda.  For some reason, many of them seem to have Ashley in the middle of them – she has been an absolute blast to have around!


Trying to decide if she should really try out the Ugandan woman’s hairstyle.


Bryan trying to decide if he should try out the Ashley hairstyle – we thought it might work for him.


Ashley was trying to decide if this will fit in her carry-on.


Ashley meets her family’s sponsored son “Innocent”.  Everything was going well until Ashley said “I am 16 also – in case you were wondering”.  Well, it came out a little cuter than she  might have intended and Innocent blushed (and smiled big) and all in the room busted out laughing.


How many people can you fit into our van?  17 as it turns out…


Ralph learning to carry things on his head like the Ugandan’s do.  Great form and posture Ralph!  Oh yeah – have we mentioned that nobody in Uganda has ever heard the name Ralph before?  Whenever he introduces himself, there is dead quite for a while and what we’ve dubbed “the Ralph look”.  Finally, Dalton gave him a Ugandan name to make it easier:  JJaja Semacola –which means Grandfather Leader.


Ashley learns the Ugandan way to peel a hard-boiled egg.  It took both David (our driver) and Dalton (our guide) to teach her.  Ugandan hard-boiled eggs ARE hard to peel until you learn the trick.


Ken is showing his iPad to Pastor Sylver.  We weren’t sure if he was teaching  him to play angry birds or what, but it certainly wasn’t spiritual!  It was a joy to see how the two pastors bonded.


The last picture is proof that middle-aged white guys from Canby don’t have near the rhythm that Ugandan’s do.  However, this was a mud hut with brothers & sisters in the Lord – and I know that God was pleased by the fact that I tried, but more that His children are dancing in worship of Him.  I pray that video never  hits YouTube!!!

Well, there are at least a hundred more.  As we have been serving together, we have also been having a lot of fun getting to know each other and enjoying each others company.  Thank God for this time.

Tomorrow we will be working with the local Mercy Network program administered by ARM and heading into the slums of Kampala to distribute food and pray with the people there.  I am not anxious to see what is ahead there. We will also be having some wrap-up discussions with the leadership team from ARM to discuss with them what we have learned, listen to what they have plans for and the vision of ARM and how Canby Christian Church can partner with them in the future.  Finally, Sunday we will be attending church at Pastor Alex’s church then preparing for the long trip home.

Thank you again for all of your prayers and for those of the people in Kachungwa.  One thing that I have learned is that I was not praying for them as I should, or as God has needed me to.  The sponsored children who I was able to spend a short time with desperately need not only our sponsorship, but they need our prayer.  I was humbled (there is that word again) by the prayer and thankfulness that small church offer up for us.  They truly are a people of strong faith, joyful in the Lord and our friends. 

In the name of Jesus we pray and believe!

Dave