Today began bright and early with breakfast at 6:30. We then drove to Awak Lela, where we were welcomed by a large crowd. The first event of the day was a 2.5K race with the community and sports outreach staff. We gathered at the starting point, where we sang a song, the staff explained the course, and we prayed to open the day. Children then began the race, shortly followed by everyone else. The competition was tough, but we were well-represented by our very own Jacob Bender who finished second. While we waited for everyone to finish, Alissa proceeded to finish multiple times, going back to run the last 200 yards or so with a number of people, encouraging them all the way, and of course, always with a huge smile on her face. After the race, everyone gathered together and Alissa shared part of her story about her struggles and God's work in her life. She related the race we just ran to the race we run in life towards our ultimate prize, Jesus Christ. 

We were then divided up into 15 "families". Each family included one or two sports outreach staff and one of our Aroma team members. We were the "moms and dads" of each family, and we each had children of a similar age range in our groups. Our families were named after disciples/people in the Bible. Families got to know each other with songs, dancing, and smaller games like staring contests and finger grabbing. There were 4 families in 4 groups, (A,B,C,D). The 4 families competed against each other in games within their group. We played games called cat and mouse, electric shock, snake bite, 4 by 4 relays, kangaroo relays, and a few others. Each of the games had Bible lessons to go along with them. So after each game, each family would get together and we would share about the scripture associated with the game, as well as anything else we wanted to share with our family. The main ideas were God's love, sin, Jesus as the bridge, and communication of the gospel. Being in this family setting presented a great opportunity for all of us to share a number of times throughout the day. 

After we had played all of the games, we prepared for our official match against the local soccer team. We sported some dashing maroon kits supplied by Mechanicsburg High School (thank you!) and our Aroma team was joined by some of the sports outreach staff and soccer stars: Sam, Aloysius, Aruna, and Richard. It was a great competition and was scoreless until about halfway through the first half when our leader from sports outreach, Sam, scored our first goal! a few minutes later, Sam woodworth would connect with Kirby for our second goal putting us up 2-0. We had a brief halftime and then played the second half. Each team had a number of opportunities in the second half, but the game finished 2-0.

 After the game, the hundreds of spectators (men, women and many many children) gathered on the field. Dakota R shared his testimony about how he came to Christ and Tyler shared the gospel in a very clear way. Following their sharing, Pastor Aloysius invited anyone who would like to accept Christ to raise their hands and then invited them to gather with a few members of the sports outreach and aroma teams, as well as the leaders of their local churches. Kirby prayed for the group to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. 48 people accepted Christ today and were directed to a church to be surrounded by a community of believers to continue to grow in their faith. After this, we were awarded a goat for winning the soccer match, for which we were very grateful and honored. We named him afoyo (which means thank you in Achole language). Overall, we had an incredible day full of lots of smiles, games, fun, and Jesus. We rejoice in everyone who accepted Jesus today and all those who learned more and grew in their walks with Christ. 

Love,
AROMA Uganda 2016
(Erin)