We left Soroti today.

We left Soroti this morning with sad hearts.  We said good-bye to some good friends who wanted us to either stay or return in the near future!  We headed to Paraa Safari Lodge, which was about 6 hours from Soroti.  On the way we stopped at an orphanage that was created and still facilitated by a couple from Oregon.  The orphanage is designed in family style housing that replicates African culture.  We had ice cream and homemade cinnamon rolls, which was quite a treat! 

We had an incredible opportunity to go on a safari this afternoon.  If anyone doesn't believe in God, they only need to take a ride through the African country, see a sunset here or the magnificent animals that He created.  We saw lions, elephants, giraffes, wart hogs, water buffaloes, hippos, cobs, and many more!   Tomorrow we are going on a hike and then heading back to Kampala.

Last Days in Soroti

Hey everyone!!!

This will probably be super short because the internet here goes in and out and because it is almost midnight and we have an early morning tomorrow! But we wanted to write a quick post about the past two days in Soroti!!

It has been an incredible two days... Yesterday (Saturday) everyone but about 5 of us weren't feeling well... some had to stay home for the morning, but everyone is feeling so much better today!! Thanks for all the prayers from back home! :) Saturday, we started out with morning devotions, which were awesome as always, and a service project in the morning, which consisted of picking up trash throughout Soroti with the Divine Stars! We got to use little brooms made out of bush branches. After lunch we headed to a village for a soccer match... We got to watch Aaron, Jarrett, and Kyle play with the Divine Stars and spend some time with the kids, share testimonies, and see some people come to Christ!

Today, we got split up into groups to go to different churches in the morning. Some of us got to give a message, share a testimony, or sing a song for the church. It was definitely on Africa time though... the church services here go anywhere from 6am to noon! We were supposed to be on the road to the village by 9am, but didn't end up leaving till after 11! We made the long journey to the village with a packed bus of team members and Divine Star players and attended the church service at the village when we got there. Kate and Chris got to share their testimony at the service... which was a small building packed with about 800 people!! After the service we got a huge lunch they cooked for us, played with the kids, gave a water filter demonstration, and then headed down the road to the soccer match. We again watched the boys play in the game, interacted with the people, learned how to count to 10 in Ateso (the language they speak here), were taught how to dance, had some really special encounters with the people, and got to see 300 out of the almost 2,000 people at the soccer match step forward to give their lives to Christ... what an incredible sight!!!

We made the trek back to Soroti, spending our last hour and a half with the Divine Stars players. It was sad to see them go and have to say good-bye! We have formed some awesome relationships over the past week! We leave at 6:30 tomorrow morning to head to the safari, and then we head back to Kampala on Tuesday! We miss you all... Thanks for the love and prayers from back home! Pray for safe travels tomorrow on these bumpy roads!!

Goodnight! :)

Soroti

Thursday, the 23rd

In the morning, we went to the school to have worship and devotions with the Devine Stars girls soccer team. Our time of worship with the team was an amazing experience, it was really great to just see how much they love God through their singing! Dori had the chance to share a devotion and Jenny shared her testimony. After devotions, the Divine Stars had to leave for a soccer tournament that they are participating in (more details later on the tournament). After the girls left, we stayed and had the opportunity to talk with some of the other students and some of the guys Divine Stars soccer players. It was really nice to just have time to talk with them getting to know them and building relationships. 

We then left from the school to have a special visit to the mayor's office to visit him. We were invited into his office and we explained why we were in Uganda. We also explained and demonstrated the Sawyer water filters to the Mayor. We even let him take the first drink of the filtered water.


After we finished at the Mayors office, we traveled down the road to the soccer field to run a practice for the girls and guys Divine Stars. Coach Brad took the soccer girls and guys through a soccer clinic and there was also field hockey, volleyball, and many other activities going on at the same time. Note, Coach was under the weather, and still was able to fight the pain, he is truly living up to his teams motto of "as iron sharpens iron."  (He is feeling a lot better after a good nights sleep)

After lunch, we headed to a school where we ran a basketball clinic on a dirt court with some of the guys from town. Some of the group played net ball, some played volleyball, and some chased the little kids around with a soccer ball. We had an awesome time of conversation with the basketball players after the clinic and then Jim and Emily shared testimonies to the whole group. 

When we got back to the hotel, a group of us ran up a small mountain next two the hotel before dinner and got to see an awesome view of Soroti. We finished up the day with dinner and sharing about our favorite moments of the day.




Friday, the 24th

This morning we had our morning devotions at a church with some of the men's Divine Stars players. We had an awesome time of worship and then Jarrett and Aaron shared a short devotion about Nicodemus. Kyle shared his testimony as well. After devotions we got to go to the women's soccer tournament that is being hosted in Soroti and cheer on the women's Divine Stars team. They were awesome to watch and ended up winning 11 to 0! We had a lot of fun watching the game, talking with the Ugandans, and playing with the kids that ended up on our laps. After the game, we walked across the field picking up all the trash on the field and headed over to another field for a track and soccer clinic.

Jenny and Vicki took us all through a track and field clinic filled with drills, races, and relays. Aaron and Kyle almost beat the Africans. Coach Brad and the guys took the rest of the time to teach more soccer drills to the men's team. The rest of us spent time with the people watching the soccer, blowing bubbles and playing games. We left the field after 1:30 hungry, hot and ready for lunch!

After lunch, we had another great memorable conversation that ended in lots of laughs... and then headed to another church to worship with them. We had an awesome time of worship and listened to testimonies from people from the church, some players from Sports Outreach, and from Coach Brad. There were other songs shared and lots and lots of dancing. 

We finished up the day with dinner and phone calls home! We are all loving Uganda, the people, and getting to know each other better! Keep Brenda, Molly, Vicki, and Dori in your prayers as they are not all feeling the best right now... but we are taking good care of them! We have a busy weekend ahead of us, with a community service project tomorrow, a soccer game tomorrow night, and more planned for Sunday, before we head out to our safari and trip back to Kampala! Thanks for all the prayers from back home!!


- Kyle, Jarrett, Aaron, Chris, Coach Brad... but mostly Emily and Jenny

First official day in Kampala!

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Tuesday, the 21^st

So much has happened today that it is hard to put it all into words. We are thankful that our group got to spend time in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, to see all of the programs our sports outreach partners' have established.

We began the day with devotions at the headquarters of the sports outreach team, which is housed at Kampala School for the Physically Handicapped. We worshiped with our team alongside of the staff of SOI. We sang, heard a devotion from one of the staff members about Christ as a remote for our lives, and then split into small prayer groups. Stacey, our Sawyer water filtration representative, demonstrated how the filtration system works. Everyone was amazed when the dirt filled water was transformed into clean and clear drinking water, enjoyed by team members of both groups.

Next we set out to the soccer field for a clinic to provide additional drills for the coaches within the Good News team. This team is a group of young Christian men that are coaching local children within the slums of Kampala. Coach Brad led multiple drills which these coaches can now use for their players. While some Messiah team members participated within the drills, others played with the children that ran out to play with us. After a fun time of bonding and playing, we had to say goodbye to head back for lunch and our next adventures.

After lunch, our Messiah group was split up into 3 groups to go visit and minister to various slums within Kampala. One group held a basketball clinic for 18 girls, led by the 3 basketball players from Messiah, Dori, Emily, & Kate along with the help of Kyle. They played for 3 hours together, moving from various drills to scrimmaging. They also had time to sit with the girls and learn more about them. The other two groups each went to 2 slum areas. The focus of the 4 slum areas is to play soccer, a feeding program, and to share about Jesus.

The one group (Aaron, Brenda, Jarrett, Jim, Chris) played soccer, talked about who they were and how much they loved Jesus, along with water filter demonstrations. 200 kids showed up, which led to on-the-spot thinking as the group only had 2 balls to play soccer with.

The second group (Vicki, Jenny, Brad, Molly, Stacey) that went into the slums also played soccer, along with being able to share their testimonies and stories. As a result of the sharing, and the help of Don, the leader of SOI, and one of the Good News coaches, 4 boys accepted Christ. This group also went to visit the Chess Academy, where children who don’t want to play soccer can learn to play chess. This is a way for them to be off the streets and learning about Christ.

At night, the Messiah team regrouped and was able to share with each other stories from the day.

Wednesday, 22^nd

Today we drove from Kampala to Soroti, 190 kilometers of bumpy and rough roads. The drive was supposed to take 7.5 hours. We started out the day with one person vomiting, making us worried about the long drive ahead of us. We prayed as a team for Kyle while we waited for him to gather himself. God was faithful and answered our prayers; Kyle did not become sick again once on the drive, and is now feeling normal once again. Our bus had 2 rows of seat taken up by luggage, which left us with 19 people and 18 empty seats. The men were gracious and took turns standing in replacement of the missing seat. The drive helped us to establish stronger relationships with the host staff of Uganda during our long drive.

We had the opportunity to stop in Jinja, a major city, where the source of the Nile River is located. We got to take pictures, along with putting our hands in the Nile River, which was a memorable experience for all of us. For lunch we stopped 2 hours later where we enjoyed local stews along with fresh bananas and pineapple. Throughout the drive, we were pulled over 6 times by the police on the side of the road for checkpoints, however none of these stops caused us problems. We probably alerted them due to our white skin, which also led to children running and waving beside our bus, yelling “muzungus” which is the word for white person/visitor here in Uganda. We arrived at our hotel where we enjoyed a game of ultimate Frisbee within the Messiah team prior to dinner. We discussed our plans for tomorrow over dinner and after enjoyed fresh mangos for dessert. We are excited for our time here in Soroti and cannot wait to see what God will do here within the next few days.

We have arrived!

We arrived late tonight and are ready for bed!!  Everyone is safe and tired.  First day in Uganda tomorrow!

We Must Go

 "Fill us up and send us out"...As we look forward to a busy day of traveling Sunday, we gather together to prepare our hearts and minds Saturday night with a send-off candle service.  

Here we go!!! We will be leaving from Washington D.C. Sunday at 5:55pm! We will arrive in Entebbe, Uganda at around 10:15 pm Monday night.

On a side note concerning blogs over the next week, we may not be able to blog every day. We may not have access to internet at all times, so if you do not see a post for a day or so, no need to be concerned! We will try to update as soon as possible with all of our travels and experiences.


We are all truly blessed with all of the support we are receiving! We would appreciate continued prayers as we begin our travels to Africa.

Have a good rest of the weekend!!! Stay tuned!!! God Bless!!

Chipotle!!!

As the team prepares for the long trip to Uganda, there is no better fuel for the body than Chipotle!!! This last pre-trip meal was a great way to continue to bring everyone closer together!  - Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"  Isaiah 6:8