It is finished...

The team arrived back at XNA last night around 11:30pm. Everyone is tired and wore out, but also blessed. The trip was incredible and beautiful. That you again for Ll your prayers and support. My final thoughts will be posted tonight or tomorrow. Praise to God for His grace and mercy! Chris

Recap of Saturday and Sunday

I apologize for the delay in posting updates. The wifi at the hotel in Jinja went out Friday night and never did work again. We have had a great end to our trip. Here is a recap.... Saturday was a recreation day. Mike, Jody, Melissa, Traci, and Samantha went to see the Sipi Falls and the pics are beautiful. Another natural treasure of this wonderful country. Dottie, Richard, and Susan spent the day roaming around Jinja. Keith, Jacqueline, Audrey, Morgan, Gary, Tamara, Charles, Kysia and Chris all went rafting the Nile. I must say we dominated that river! The rapids are different then in 2009 due to new dam, but it was still amazing. Our raft and guide, Tutu, did great on every rapid until... The Bad Place. We tried to do the 50/50 line for flipping, we did not hit it and everyone but Charles, Tutu, and I were swept out of the raft. As Tutu and I were scanning for our crew and i heard Tutu say he saw them in the water we came upon another rapid and it flipped the three of us out! Needless to say it was scary and awesome! We got to swim large stretches of he river and even got to float through some small rapids out of the raft. It was a great time. We even fought off the hippos and crocs! On Sunday we went to church at His Mercy church in Buwenda with Pastor Edward. Love African church. Loud music, dancing, clapping, singing. It is full of passion! Tamara and Keith shared their testimony and Jody preached and it was a great worship time with our brothers and sisters in Uganda! We then traveled to Kampala and stopped at a church TrCi has been working with. The members were refugees from Rwanda and it was amazing. The choir was incredible. Like nothing I have heard before. Beautiful. We all wished we could have stayed longer with them. We then headed to Entebbe and flew to Amsterdam where we are now waiting to bead to Atlanta. The trip has been hard and blessed. We all are still trying to process and it will take some time. Every year I head home I am ready, but i Leave a small piece of my heart in Uganda. I love Pastor Edward and our friends like family. My heart is heavy as I head home. My home is in the U.S., but I love my Ugandan family. Every team member has incredible stories to tell and amazing people to introduce you to. Kysia and I cannot wait to see our kids. We have served together and grown closer to each other and to the Lord. I shed soe tears as I leave, but they are tears if joy and blessing. This is not good bye Uganda. This is see you next time. Thank you all for your prayers and support. We experienced some darkness and could not have made it without your prayer covering. We also go to see God in His various distressing disguises. We love you all, Chris and Kysia

Sorry for the delay in updates

The hotel wifi in Uganda stopped working Sarurday morning, so I have not been able to post. The team is in Amsterdam and about to head to the city. We have a 10 hour layover. I will post an update later of Saturday and Sunday's activities when we get back to the airport. Please pray for the team. Very tired and ready to be home. The trip has been great. A lot of blessings I will recap later. God bless, Chris

A day of various ministry

Good evening faily and friends Today was a day filled with a variety of ministry opportunities. The team started out by going to the local prison in Jinja town. We brought gifts for the prisoners of blankets, soap, and razors. This year the gifts stayed with the guards and were not brought out to the general population! (incident last year that was 30 seconds of intensity, but all was good). Jody spoke to the prisoners about second chances and it was great. Many men made a decision to follow Christ and take the second chance God provides. I must say I aws a bit apprehensive going back after last year, but I knew God wanted us there to encourage the men. We did that and now Edward and his team are able to come and disciple the believers. Many of the men came up to talk to the team as we left. It was really a blessed time to minister. Then Tamara, Charles, Kysia and Chris went with Pastor Edward to visit the school at Kikubo again. I love this little school. It is amazing to see the progress of the grounds from our first visit. It was such a humble place. Now it is a light in the village. We got to watch a debate with the students and then they all sang and danced to welcome us. I started shaking my hips along with them and they loved it! This school is really blessing lives. It has enough class rooms for Primary 1 through 7 and a place for up to 20 kids to stay on sight. A kitchen is in the works and a new pit latrine as well. Al the. Lass rooms have new cement floors and stuccoed walls inside and out. Plus there are new wooden desks for the children to use. What a beautiful sight! Kysia and I got to see our sponsored child, Viola, again. She is such a sweetheart. Kysia told me that as we were leaving Viola was crying. I am glad I did not see it because I would have been a wreck. What a beautiful little girl. We also got to see one of my friends from past trips, Florence Baguma. Florence was a hue help to ajonah and I a coupe of years ago and she and I got to hang out last year as well. She is quiet and always has a great smile. It was so good to see these two little angels! We then met up with the other team at Wayange UMC for a service. This is where Traci has been meting with a women's group and teaching and discipline them. The bishop Daniel Wandabula was there again and a smaller Hope 4 Arica Childrens Choir. Jody shared a message (he is a fantastic preacher!) as Dottie and Melissa shared their testimony. It was a great time for the church to say, not goodbye to Traci, but see you soon. You could tell the impact this church and these ladies had on Traci and the impact she on them. It was a wonderful time of celebration. The ladies group was also presented with umbrellas so they could still walk to church when it rained. We in America really have no excuses for not attending church except for sickness. These ladies walk every where. I am so humbled to get to meet and talk with them. The people we meet a gracious and thankful for our coming. Great time to celebrate with Traci. The evening finished with the team eating pizza at Sergio's and sharing awards for each other. It was a great night of fun and laughter and fellowship. I am so thankful for all who came to Uganda to serve. I still cannot believe how far this mission project has Coe and where it is going and will keep going. god has doe some amazing things. I am humbled. What a great night! Tormorrow a group of us will go rafting on the Nile. A group will go to Sipi Falls and a few will just relax a d stroll around Jinja. It is time for us to come home. I love to be here and serve and interact and worship with my brothers and sisters. Africa is an amazing lace of hope and despair and poverty and love. I see God in his most distressing disguise and it is also so beautiful. Be ready to let your family or friend have some time to process when they he back home. It takes some time to really talk about it. But once they are ready oh the stories they will tell and the people they will introduce you to. We have experienced God in an amazing way. Get ready to want to come with us next year! God bless you all. I a off to bed because I need my rest to conquer the river Nile tomorrow! Peace Chris and Kysia

God's mercies are new every morning...

Good morning, The sun is rising in Jinja. The team is waking up. The coffee is strong. And God's mercy is among us. Yesterday was a difficult day. I was afraid after I posted the update that it was too negative. I want to be real. Sometimes these trips are hard. Lite itself is hard. Life at home for everyone on the team and for you is not always easy. But God is there to fill us up and carry us when we are weak. He makes all things new. Today we will spend time with some of the ladies groups Traci has been working with plus visit the local prison and get to visit with the Hope 4 Africa children's choir from the Humble House. This is the choir that visited Central UMC a few years ago. Talk to you tonight. Chris and Kysia

The medical clinics are finished.

Good evening friends, Well the last medical clinic of our trip wrapped up today, and I want to say it was a tough day. Not physically, but emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. We arrived and the crowd waiting for us had grown to about 450 people. The need is so great, as I have mentioned, and we knew as we pulled into the school we would be disappointing many people. This is a day I have come to dread. Having to close down the clinic and turn people away. We work to see as many people as possible, but the numbers are so great we can never treat them all. There were 4 men who rode a boat across Lake Victoria and then walked 8 miles the to the clinic. This shows how important a doctor is to the remote villages. Incredible. Today we saw 290 medical and 41 dental with 44 teeth removed and 1,092 scripts filed. We also disbursed vitamins and pain reliver to over 200 people who did not get to see the doctor. We treated a home for the blind and crippled. It is not about numbers, but our reach into the community was strong. Than you God for expanding the team like the loaves and fishes. The clinic itself ran very smooth. The process we had in place worked so well. The doctors and dentists and pharmacy and prayer room were a well oiled machine. The team has been just incredible. Everyone worked together and even lifted each other up when someone needed it. This team was the hands and feet of Christ. Be very proud of your family or friend. They displayed God's light, love, and grace. The difficulty came from having to deal with the local politicians. The LC 1 (the mayor of the village Lucero) had a heart to see his community served and was thankful we were there. Unfortunately he wanted us to see everyone sitting under the tree as well as a number of others he brought or had brought to the clinic. This is tough. He have us the ok to set up the clinic in his area, so we wanted to assist him. The process became difficult when he kept bringing 'special cases' to be seen immediately. Mike did a great job is explaining to the mayor that if we saw all the people he wanted us to see then we wold not be able to see as many people who had been waiting for two days. Pastor Edward and Mike did a fabulous job of coming up with solutions to see as many people as possible ad the mayor was agreeable. The people became more determined to try and see the doctor though as the day went on and began to move for the waiting tree to crowding the door by the doctors. It became very active. We tried to have our helpers get people to back up, but it was not working. As the mayor was working with Mike I pulled him aside and spoke to a politician like an never have before! I gained his agreement that we had a plan he agreed with and we were implanting that plan. He thanked me and I thEn told him we needed his help to back people up. I told him we were going to have people hurt by pushing and shoving and neither he or us wanted that. I was a little afraid I had over stepped my bounds, but he agreed and went to work. It still did not work. The people are under a darkness in Lucero. They were aggressive and desparate. They had no hope except the medicine. Even in the prayer room Kysia mentioned that people wanted her to pray for them because she would place a hand on thei back or shoulder and they felt the touch of a white person had special powers. Wow. I do not want to make it sound like today, or this clinic for the 3 days, was all bad. There were many people who smiled and thanked us and were so special. Many people listened to the gospel and made decisions to start following Jesus. We had our local pastors there to feet and follow up. There was light and God was present. The last days of a clinic is always hard when you tell peopLe they will not see the doctor and you will not be back the next day. Hardest thing I have ever done. My heart breaks whe I think of the faces I had to tell I could not get me to see the doctor. Ultimately hope was there. When Mike and I told the crowd that we would not be back we did tell them how many of their family and neighbors we had seen and the crowd said Thank You. The people have nothing. But they have hope. They came I hopes of relief and our presence and interaction did show them hope and love. It was just a hard day, but God was there and with us and the entire team emptied themselves to serve others. Finally, I want to say we have a incredible leader in Jody. He is always positive and u.pbeat and encouraging. Jody makes sure everyone has what they need and keeps tabs on the team through the clinic. He is a fantastic leader and a dear friend. We did have a special event for dinner. Pastor Edwards father hosted us for dinner at his home. We got to meet Paul, Edwards dad, and mother and siblings. They had a huge spread laid out for us in front of his home and we all sat outside and broke bread together. It was a traditional Ugandan meal of cassava, posho, marooned, g nut sauce, cabbage, beans, rice, tomatoes, avocado, chicken, and goat. Everye loved the food and the fellowship with Edwards's family. Our partnership and friendship with Edward is special. He is a good man and his heart for the people he is called to serve is so big. What a great way to end the evening. Well almost e end of the evening. As we were driving back to the hotel we canme upon numerous trucks in the road waiting to enter the sugar factory and they were blocking the road. We could not pass on either side due to the ditch. The team got to experien e a little more Ugandan culture as we exited the bus and let our driver attempt to turn the bus around in the middle of the road without gettig stuck in the ditches or hit by other vehicles trying to pass the trucks. A bunch of Muzungus standing in the dark on the side of the road looked a bit out of place! Thankfully our driver is amazing and got turned around and we began the long road home. T.I.A. (This Is Africa) I apologize for sounding so negative abo clinic today. I am drained emotionally and spiritually. I helped Mike today with crowd control and staging and as I mention yesterday I have no idea how he does it. I have many great memories of today and people I prayed with and talked to. It was a good day. Just a hard day. I am off to bed. Good night my friends! Chris

Kysia praying with an 86 year old grandmother