The Trip to the North

Casey and Hunter got the opportunity to take a trip to Northern Uganda and it was incredible. It was about a 5 hour drive from Kampala to Gulu. They arrived there on the 26th and met up with other missionary groups from Mbale and Jinja, a total of about 16 people. After having a meeting about the objectives for the next few days, they settled in for the night. On sunday the 27th they were able to meet with a church located in Padera in an IDP camp. IDP stands for internally displaced people. These people have been displaced mainly due to the rebel uprisings of the LRA (Lord's Resistance Army led by Joseph Kony). The church had around 70 people in it with the majority of them being childred. Despite the pain and unrest these people had experienced they were full of the joy of the Lord. Hunter and Casey were extremely encouraged by this group and the church service which was held beneath a tarp and a mango tree, lasted for about four hours. 7 people were baptized in the river that afternoon and about 7 others rededicated their lives to Jesus. The missionaries were able to give out over 2000 lbs of food to the people in that camp as well as 3 others like it. On the 28th the missionaries had some time to meet with a Christian group in Gulu and worship with them. From there they headed Lira, stopping by Okelo James' property (one of the native missionaries with them). There they got to climb a mango tree and eat all of the mangos that their stomachs could handle. They also were able to witness to the village there and a number of the people decicated their lives to Jesus. The next day in Lira, the missionaries visited three more IDP camps to encourage the christians there and to hand out some more food. That about wrapped up the trip so Hunter and Casey were back in Kampala late Tuesday night. Little did they know they would be strongly reminded of some of the food that they ate on the trip the next morning. Hunter described it as "Hiroshima of the bowels". He and Casey were laying around and walking to the bathroom at Mark's house all day Wednesday.

Language Lesson for Northern Uganda:
Opak Lubanga- Praise God!
Opak Rwot- Praise the Lord!
Kopango- How are you?
Kope- I'm well
Tok catan ibol wa cen - Scoop satan up and throw him away
Wabineno deyo pa Rwot- One day we will see the glory of the Lord.

Casey and Hunter up north

On Saturday morning Casey and Hunter left with Ellen and Darla and some Ugandans to survey Gulu, a region about 4 hours drive north of Kampala. They are going to check on the possibility of planting some churches in the area. They should be back on Wednesday and I expect that they will have some great pictures and stories to share. I stayed in Kampala with Mark. We we able to sketch out a design for a water tower and start cutting metal on Saturday, although our workday was cut short by the loss of power. We spent the remainder of the day chatting and reading books (Mark teaches a class on Sunday mornings and I will be teaching a class on Women in the New Testament later this week).

Mark and I worshipped at the Kampala Church of Christ on Sunday. After worship we had a typical Ugandan meal which consisted primarily of cornmeal and rice with some soup poured over the top of it. We both had a full plate of food and a bottle of Coke and it cost us less than $3 total--awesome!

Mark is out in the garage today doing some metal work. I am inside typing up an outline and preparing material for the class I'll be teaching this week.

Everything is going pretty smoothly so far. Thank you for your prayers and support.

Doug

We Made It!

Hello Friends, Family, and Supporters!

Yesterday our plane landed in Entebbe, Uganda at 7:30AM and it is now 9:00AM the next day. Mark picked up three of us (Doug, Hunter, & Casey) from the airport. We got all settled into Mark's house and hung out for a while. We went out to Mark's new property to see where we'll be working on building his house. We also went to the mechanic, Kirite, to find out when Ellen's car would be fixed. We had dinner at Darla's house and met Erica Ross, a new medical intern. We were finally able to sleep in beds last night after the long flights and we woke up around 4:45AM thanks to jet lag. Hunter will be going to a children's rehabilitation center today with Ellen; Casey will be driving out to Jinja to pick up a truck and drive it back to Kampala with Darla; Doug will be heading back out to Mark's land to do some work on it with Mark. Our time has just started here and we are being put to work. We will continue to update this blog when we get the chance. Thank you for your continued support and prayers for us as we embark on this journey.