Hello everybody. It's Keith this week. Lisa and I have made it back into Jinja for our day off this week. This morning I had cheese and Lisa had meat for the first time in 7 days, and it was glorious!
The last seven days have been incredible. Last weekend was hard for us as nearly everyone on the team struggled with culture shock and homesickness. It lasted about three days for everyone and we got through it as a team. Since that time, everyone has been excited about all the work we've been able to take part in. One particular family that lives next to us, has caught the heart of our team. It's a Muslim family who is struggling financially and has a very sick kid named Abeeba. Someone from our team has visited the family nearly every day to chat and pray for them. Me and the guys from the team cleared the families field and mulched the earth with Ho's all last week. They hope to plant a bunch of corn this season. And just a few days ago, Lisa led the father of the family to accept Jesus as Lord and he devoted his family to Jesus. It was an incredible moment and we are all still praying for Abeeba who is sick in the hospital.
Every day has been full of teaching the Bible and serving the village around the base. But this week has been dominated by planning. We are plannnig a giant easter party for everyone in the village. And we have been discussing going to another village called Pader at the end of the month. In Pader we would live amongst war refugees who have the highest percentage of post traumatic stress out of every people group in the world. We would teach the Bible, hopefully help organize a church there and build a school. As of five days ago I was sure that many members of the team would refuse to go as it would require living in rustic conditions. But in the last few days there has been an incredible change of heart in nearly everyone on the team. It seems that everyone has found peace in putting complete faith in God to guide them anywhere. By "God guiding them" I'm referring to a string of coincidencess that have worked out perfectly in our favor to point us to going to Pader...one of which included a random Asian lady telling our whole team the exact answer to questions we had for God while praying earlier in the day. My stomach dropped while she was talking, i've never experienced anything like it personally. I've always believed in God as an idea....and my life goes well when I pray and do what He says, but it freaked me out when He so blatantly showed up as someone alive who has a relationship with us. Seeing God work in individuals and the team has tearified and comforted me at the same time. I doubt i'll ever be able to wrap my head around it.
Things are going well outside of "ministry time". Our team is pretty cool and navegating international travel with 10 people from six different countries is always interesting. Traveling through this continent has been amazing. Lisa and I hiked a mountain yesterday and looked out over lake Victoria and some of the most beautiful countryside i've ever seen. We also got heckled by baby monkeys on the way down. Lisa and I are having a lot of fun. Things here are tense at times and we get excited about coming home every few hours but overall we're having a blasty blast and laughing together when we're not working together.
I've been especially proud of the role Lisa chose to take in the leadership of the team. She has to fight off the temptation every day to do everything for everyone because, as it turns out, she actually does know how to do everything. But instead of micromanaging the whole trip, she's guided the team through sublte wisdom and impactful relationships. Most of the girls in the school, including the school leader and team leader, have pulled me aside to rant and rave about what an incredible impact Lisa manages to have on them simply through relationship. I think she should be in charge of Washington when we get back...she'll efficiently manage the state through friendships and hugs.
Until then, we'll be in situations that i've been dying to get into for years. Please pray for us. We coud especially use prayer for faith in God that pruduces peace of mind. We love you guys. Good day.
-Keith, writing from the last westernized place we'll see in a month if all goes well :)
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