pictures of Africa!

Sorry it has taken me so long to post these, but I have uploaded pictures of my time in Uganda and Rwanda and I wanted to share them with you.

Colorado, London and Uganda

Rwanda

Uganda part 2

Safari

Uganda part 3

Uganda part 4 (the Babies Home)

I have been home now a little over a month and while it has been good to see friends and family, I am missing my friends in Uganda. Today my little brother Nathan, who is 5, started signing "Old McDonald had a farm, e-i-e-i-o", and it reminded me of all the little kids at the Babies Home, they loved signing that song with me. I am hoping that someday I will be able to go back, but I know for now God has me here.

Saying Goodbye

Today is my last full day as an eMi intern in Uganda. I did most of my goodbye's yesterday and I still have a few left today. It has been hard to say goodbye to my Ugandans friends, and I have mixed feelings about leaving. But I am so thankful to God for allowing me to have this experience and to have been able to serve Him here.

"And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity."
Colossians 3:14

This is my return flight itinerary:
Entebbe to London: depart 9:10 am arrive 4:00 pm
London to Chicago: depart 5:15 pm arrive 8:10 pm
Chicago to Detroit: depart 9:40 pm arrive 11:59 pm

When I am back in the States (and have fast internet!) I will be sure to post a lot more pictures for you all to see!

Pictures of the Babies Home

Stella

Muchevi

Rosey

Michael

Giftie

Two pictures of the yard that the children play in.

Adam and Phyllis

Audrey

John Paul

Julian

Ahuma and Adam

Collage of Photos

Below are some photos of Amazing Grace, Mama Eunice and my house and roommates.

The front of Amazing Grace, the Ugandan church where I worship at.

Me with some of the girls at church.

Mama Eunice and her youngest son Joseph.

Mama Eunice with her four children. Richard is the oldest (holding the bear), then Andrew (on the left), then Eunice (holding the umbrella) and then Joseph.

This is how we do movie nights at our house. We don't have a tv, and laptop screens are too small, so we use a projector and turn the furniture.

These are the amazing women I live with. Starting on the left it's me then Anna, Suellen, Jennifer and Laura.

Stella and Janet

Sorry it has been so long since I've written anything. I've meant to put up some more posts, but I have just been too busy. Hopefully I will be able to put up another one later this week.

Last weekend I was able to go with another intern, Anna, to visit Stella and Janet's houses. Stella and Janet are two Ugandan women who work with us at the eMi office.

We first visited Stella. Unfortunately, we caught her at a bad time and she wasn't there. But we were able to see her husband and children. Stella has 5 daughters. Her husband is an amazing father. It seems like most Ugandan men run away from doing any parenting and most children are brought up by mothers, aunts and grandmas. But Stella's husband loves Jesus and he said that every child is a blessing from God, even though he has all daughters and no son. These are a couple pictures of Stella's children.

Four of Stella's daughters

The next day we visited Janet. Janet also has a big family, she has five children, three daughters and two sons. When you go to visit Ugandans, they expect you to stay a while and to eat a meal with them. We were in a hurry so we told Janet that we could only stay a short while, but she said no and politely demanded that we let her cook for us and that we eat with her and her family. So we did, and it was great. Janet is a very good cook! Below are pictures of Janet's family.

Janet and her baby Faith

Baby Faith sleeping

Janet's husband and some of her children

Me and Anna with Janet's daughter Peace

Both Stella and Janet live in two room houses, a bedroom/living room and another bedroom. It seems so impossible for a family of 7 to live in a two room house, but it is pretty typical of how people live here in Uganda. I told Stella and Janet how I come from a family of 11, and they were so amazed to learn that Mzungus (white people) could have that many children. Now they both want a copy of my family picture as proof. :)

Cross of Christ

This past weekend the other interns and I did a skit and gave a message for Easter at Heritage International School. The skit we did was to the Third Day song "Thief", where we acted out the song and nailed Jesus and the two thieves to the cross. If you get a chance, I encourage you to listen to the song on youtube or something. The following are the lyrics.

"I am a thief, I am a murderer
Walking up this lonely hill
What have I done? I don't remember
No one knows just how I feel
and I know that my time is coming soon.
It's been so long. Oh, such a long time
Since I've lived with peace and rest
Now I am here, my destination
guess things work for the best
and I know that my time is coming soon

Who is this man? This man beside me
They call the King of the Jews
They don't believe that He's the Messiah
But, somehow I know it's true.
And they laugh at Him in mockery,
and beat Him till he bleeds
They nail Him to the rugged cross,
and raise Him, they raise Him up next to me
My time has come, I'm slowly fading
I deserve what I receive

Jesus when You are in Your kingdom
Could You please remember me
and He looks at me still holding on
the tears fall from His eyes
He says I tell the truth
Today, you will live with Me in paradise
and I know that my time is coming soon
and I know paradise is coming soon."

In the Bible story (Luke 23:32-43), there are two thieves crucified beside Jesus. One of them rebukes Jesus, while the other repents. This really impacted me because it reminded me of the choice we all have to either accept or not accept Jesus into our lives as our Lord and Savior. This gift of salvation and to be with Jesus in paradise is a free gift that He offers to everyone, yet some choose to not accept it. We are like the thief and deserve death for our sins, yet Christ came to earth to die for us so that we could be with Him forever. His death was not an accident but God's plan from the beginning to restore a relationship with Him. And not only did Christ die for us on the cross, but He even defeated death by rising from the dead.

In eMi morning prayer and devotions on Monday, we read "My Utmost for His Highest" by Oswald Chambers. In there it stated: "The heart of salvation is the Cross of Christ. The reason salvation is so easy to obtain is that it cost God so much. The Cross was the place where God and sinful man merged with a tremendous collision and where the way to life was opened. But all the cost and pain of the collision was absorbed by the heart of God."

As Good Friday and Easter are approaching, remember the Cross of Christ, the death that Jesus paid and now the relationship we can freely have with God.