First time we've had a chance to blog so will catch you up on or travels. Flight out of Houston carrying the full team (except Karen Underwood who flew out from South Carolina) departed two hours late. Not a problem as the time went quickly, however it gave us a much shorter layover so only time for a quick cup of coffee and a mad dash for our next flight.
Three members of the team flew out of Amsterdam on an Air France flight while the rest of us traveled our usual KLM flight arriving in Entebbe around 10:30 pm on Friday evening. One bag did not make the trip (mine) full of first aid kits, dress shirts, bibles, and reading glasses. Thankfully we split items between all of us so we still have a supply to distribute. I'm still hoping that the bag will be recovered.
The Air France flight was due in at 12:10 and arrived only a few minutes late but with Visas and baggage, we didn't leave the airport until well after 1:00 am.
Thankfully we didn't have far to travel to reach our hotel. To say we were tired would be an understatement.
We left our hotel in Entebbe early Saturday morning for our long trek to Mbale. We stopped for lunch at Ling Lings (best Chinese food in Uganda) and arrived in Mbale around 4:30. Time to unpack, get organized and rested in time for tea. After dinner we all worked on our lessons for Sunday morning.
Sunday morning we had an early breakfast and then headed outside for our first devotional which was led by Karen Odell on "Jesus is Lord." We then headed to Pastor Morris' church where Karen Eisele, Karen Underwood and I taught the women's Sunday school class on Discerning the Voice of God. We were a little concerned that we would not have enough content to fill the alloted time, but actually ran overtime. Praise God! Have you figured out yet that out of 5 women , 3 are named Karen? Oy vey!!
Karen Odell and Susan had great fun teaching the children on Daniel and the lion's den. Nick and Doug taught the men's Sunday school class and Doug preached the sermon on Hope...twice! Morris' church has grown so much that he is now doing two services and they requested that Doug preach at both services. The second service, including Sunday school ran for 4 hours. There is so much singing and dancing that time goes by faster than you would think.
We had lunch at the church with the congregation and are now back at the hotel resting up for our first medical clinic tomorrow. I will mention here that the exchange rate worked in our favor, which allowed us to purchase 12,000 nets. Unbelievable! Well, not so unbelievable considering God is in charge of this mission and has always provided exactly what we need, be it missioners, nets, medicine etc.
Apologize that this reads like an travelogue but just trying to get events of three days down in one blog. Lee usually critiques, suggests (rewrites when needed) my blogs but alas, I'm on my own this time. If he were here, this would be much more succinct.
More to follow tomorrow by next blogger.
Love from Uganda,
Debbie