Uganda Trip 2016: Let Your Light Shine

Yesterday was another great day at CCLS-U! It was filled with lots of nail polishing, singing and dancing, and lots and lots of futbol! The guys were very surprised when I got out there in my floor length skirt and played... especially surprised when I scored!! :) We also managed to get all of the 103 sponsor kid videos done! It was super fun to get to talk to each of the kids and find out their stories. We also got to go see the Ugandan seminary that was newly built. It was cool to see it all still in progress and meet some of the students that were in class there.

Wednesday we went on a Nile River boat ride and got to see monkeys! It was awesome to see them in their natural habitat. We went out to dinner right on the Nile and Pastor Bameka gave us a lesson on how to eat the head of a fish correctly. It was interesting to see the Ugandan culture come out when he taught us just like we saw the kids get taught at CCLS-U. He would point at something and say, "And this is the meat." Then he would point to the same thing and say, "And what is this?" And he would expect us to say, "Meat," in unison. It was very intriguing to watch.

Something that is so cool about Africa is that it is so close to how God originally made it. Everything in the village, if you don't look at the buildings, looks like uninhabited land. It's absolutely incredible to see.

We had a big storm two nights ago and it was a very eyeopening experience for me. As we were all sitting in our warm, dry hotel rooms complaining about the lack of power that we had, the kids at CCLS-U and the other people in the village were shivering and trying to keep dry in their clay houses. Some had no windows and some had no doors. It kept me up thinking about them and it made me feel awful for how spoiled I am with things like this. It's not that big of a deal if I can't turn on a light for a few hours.

My main Bible verse from this trip is Matthew 5;16, "In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven." It's super cool to see this verse come true here. When the kids smile and do things, you can see their faces light up and it truly radiates God's love. My dad was just saying how cool it is being here because it really feels like the Bible comes alive. One example that he was talking about was the woman at the well story. We started talking to a woman at a well the other day and it's cool because she was just there, just like the lady that Jesus talked to. I completely agree that the Bible comes alive when I am here. It's been absolutely incredible to see this all come true.

One of the funniest things about this trip is Violet and all of her "Violetnisms". Some of her favorite things to say are, "Oh, check you!", "No way! Yes way!", "Wow!", "Well that is very interesting". She always keeps us laughing and is so much fun to be around.