Can you even believe its month 7 of this crazy journey? Or that this is my third and final month of living in Africa? Craziness....

This month we are working with Pastor Thomas and Full Time Prayer House Ministry. We are about an hour away from Jinja, Uganda in a town called Bugiri, where the sun is hot,hot,hot and the thousands of children as well as the cows run rampant. Our Ministry this month is preaching!!!! We will be preaching at SUnday services, doing door to door evangelism, teaching at Pastor's school and hospital prayer visits. This month we will also be preaching at the men's prison on sundays after church, which im actaully excited about. I dont know what that will look like but, hey it could be fun?

We are also holding a crusade in a near by town where we will all be preaching multiple times a day. A crusade is two days, of singing, dancing, worship, prayer, and preaching, in the middle of a town letting the people know more about Jesus. The people here are great so far and are so excited to have Mzungu friends in town. Pray for my new team in our first month of ministry together. Pray for our energy as its month 7 and everyone is a little tired and worn out. Pray for our preaching and my slowly fading fear of public speaking!



 

   
Welcome to Jinja, Uganda, Home to the Source of the Nile River. Where you can pay $110 Dollars to dang near die in the Nile River itself. You dont even have to sign a waver. You just hop your little butt in a raft, strap on a helmet, pretend like you know how to use a paddle and you're well on your way. They will even feed you the best lunch you have eaten in months before you hit the class 5 rapids that will make you poop your pants and steal your life, all in the same minute.

    

So what if you have fallen out everytime your guide Jimmy yells to get down in the boat. And so what if you dont have enough upper body strength to pull your newly discovered world traveler rice and beans booty back into the boat. Jimmy and fellow rafters who can barely stand becasue they are laughing at the profanities that left your mouth as you were in fact leaving the boat will drag you along the side and up into boat sometime before the next rapid only to repeat said process over and over again.

Congratulations you made it to the end of the trip equipt with 3rd degree burns on the thighs, only to be handed a curious meat stick, a greasy potatoes wrapped in foil, a beverage and what should have been warning signs for river parasites and a mean case of dysentery!!

This blog is coming a month late per usual, sorry. Month 6 has been a whirlwind of events right from the start. BUt oh what a sweet month it has been. Rwanda is nothing like what I expected. First of all you would never be able to tell that a horrible genocide occured only 17 years ago here. Wipping out about a 1 million people in just 100 days. We got the chance to visit the genocide memorial with Pastor Moses, who was 23 when it occurred. His story of those 100 days is truely amazing and seemed at first to be just that, a story. But the longer we walked through the halls with him it became so much more. The walls with pictures and videos played his past, his memories over and over again. We were watching his real life right before our eyes. It was heartbreaking and you could see the day was painful for him.
                  

Secondly, The city is so well developed and clean, it feels more like being in Atlanta in the US and resembles nothing of Africa. We have gotten to explore all of Kigali by motorcycles and it is beautiful. The city is called the city of a thousand hills, and it should have been a warning for me for the month to come.

While in Rwanda we worked with Christian Fellowship Church and lived with Pastor Innocent and his wonderful family who loved us and served us so well. we had our own little arpartment home with a fridge and a fan! God is good! We preached at the church everynight and on sunday mornings. One of the coolest things I got to do this month was preach on the radio. I got up around 4:30am and headed to the radio station to preach not only to Rwanda, but Uganda, Burindi and parts of Tanzania as well! It was awesome to get to speak truth over so many people at once and declare freedom and love over all those countries! Declaring that Africa is not the "dark continent" but a place so rich in love.

                 

The last week we also taught at the nursery school in the mornings, the kids were a hoot! They love to not pay attention and stand and dance for you instead. so the last day after riding motos through a serious rain storm, we started playing Waka Waka on the guitar and sang our hearts out. We also got to attend another African wedding and wore the traditional get up,which was essentialy a floral toga. The traditional tribal dance crew that preformed at the reception picked me out of the crowd to come dance with them. keep in mind I have no idea whos wedding im even at and yet I find myself dancing in the middle of the celebration, it rocked!
                    

Rwanda brought on many challenges throughout the month. About half of X-Squad returned to America over the course of the four weeks for various reasons. The holidays came and went and I had to walk myself through the start of alot of tough questions. Month 6 took me further into a place of trust with the Lord. Trust that this journey is still the plan for me. Trust that he still has work in me to be done over the next 5 months. Trust of the unknown ahead. But the Lord has been leading me into this place of trust in such a gentle way. Letting me make the choices and decide for myself when im ready. Growing my dependance on Him more and more everyday. Im thankful for the hard months like Rwanda. The months where everything seems to be falling apart, because it makes it all the more clear that the only thing that remains is the Lord. I can feel Him preparing me for something new, something bigger, something better,. but we are not there yet. In order to be made new you must be broken. And so I grasp to the promise that "Even the darkness will not be dark you You" Psalm 139:12.
                            

Terry. The little boy from next door that makes monster noises at all times. Terry and I have become best friends. He runs to me at the gate when we get home. I sneak him snacks when no one is looking. We wash his bike together and he showes me how fast he can ride. He repeates everything I say, lately we are stuck on BOOM BABY!! and He booty dances on us while we are eating.

Terry absoluetly has my entire heart wrapped around his tiny fingers. I havn't experienced joy like this on the race. I literally want to skip ministry and hang out with him all day. He cant speak english so I mostly make monster noises back but we have created a relationship this way. He comes to church with his loving family and know pastor and his family really well. so we like to imitate Him and yell out, Hallelujah, Jesus in the front yard! He knows only my name out of the group, and has changed my heart this month.

Our last day in Kenya is so very bittersweet. These people have become our family. Out of all the places ive been to so far on the race, Kenya has been my favorite. It has touchedmy heart in a different way and taught me way more than i ever could have thought. But its terry that gets my tears. He comes to hang out with me that morning as im packing on my bunk bed. And as we are loading the car he runs to ask his nanny in the house if he can go with me. I assume she thinks im just taking him ot town because she says yes. AS he comes running back telling mom he gets to come with me, she breaks his heart by telling him he cant. I get one more monster hug and the tears start flooding out of my eyes. Mom brings me in for one last hug and I feel as if Im leaving home all over again.

Pastor and mama Jen/Mom&Dad,
       Thank you for loving us so well. For inviting us to be a part of your family. Thank you for always making me my own special dish of grilled cheese even when it meant you sneaking to eat ugali. Thank you for washing my chicken gwendyl and my smelly shoes everyday. Thank you for letting me singing at the top of my lungs and for laughing with me everyday. Thank youf or being such servants of the Lord. Thank you for bringing us such joy this month and for showing us what a real christian family looks like. thank you for being wonderful and helping us on our journey. I know God will bring me back to you someday!

It's my favorite time of the year, Fall!! And even though nothing here resmbles anything of the season, I have so many things to be thankful for this year on my favorite holiday. HOWEVER, African food does not make the list. DOnt get me wrong im very thankful to even have food on the table for this holiday in Kenya but the everyday standard of rice, beans, pea and carrot sauce, and some strange meat was not going to cut it for our big thanksgiving feast. Food is one of the things I miss the most about being home. I seriously love to eat, like it might be a problem that I just discovered this year having been stripped of all my lovely goodies.

So as the holiday approached my team began to think of how we could make this thanksgiving special here in Kenya. We decided that we would cook for our sweet family and serve them the big dinner. We began to invite close friends over to join us as we explained that this is a big holiday in America shared with friends, family and loved ones. Seeing as we have a great family and set of friends here we moved on to the challenge of what to cook.. Our final decision: MEXICAN! We made fresh guacamole, fresh pico, and the main dish, drumroll please................cheese quesadillas!! It was amazing!!! Seriously thought i was back home at Rancho's Taco Tuesdays for a quick minute. It was such a fun night to bring our American tradition to our new home. It felt just like we were at home where everyone surrounds the food and shares what they are thankful for. They loved the mexican and asked that we teach them how to make the dishes. And sure enough Mom learned fast and we had the meal twice more for family dinner!! Gah I love Kenya!!


                 

      

Meet Eugene. He is 5 years old and lives at Faith Brethren Children's Home. He has the biggest and best smile ive ever seen on a child and has the joy of the Lord all over him. His pants are always 5 sizes too big having his little buttcrack hanging out at all times. And he loves to dance!

We met my first day at the orphange and I instatnly pegged him as my favorite. He climbed right into my lap and we sang and danced together all day. He loves to take pictures with my camera, but loves to see his own face on the screen even more!

On our second visit, Eugene was one of the few that was left at the orphange when others went to visit family or family friends during holiday from school. (Not all of the children are what they call total orphanes. Some still have family members. However they live at school for various reasons. Most becasue thier family cannot care for them like the school can, with education, food and shelter.) EUgene remaining behind tells me he has no family. My heartbreaks when I see him in the crowd of remaining children who have no where to go. This is his family, these are his brothers and sisters. This is his home. He knows nothing else but these walls. He knows no other love than that of the workers there.

For the next two visits we are glued together, him on my lap and me with my arms wrapped tight around his huge pants. He gets defensive when other children come to play or sing with us, pushing them aside, wanting all my attention and love for himself. I dont blame him. This is something he has never had, he knows it will be gone in a few short hours when my visit is up and he wants to be selfish while it last.

My heart is quick to love Eugene with all that I have. I find myself loving the time with him just as much and not wanting it to end. I want to bring him home! I want to take care of him, and give him this love always.

I realize that this is the love that my Heavenly Father has for me. He wants to be selfish with His time with me. He loves me so much He doesnt want the time to end, He wants to take me home, to be with Him always. He wants to take care of me and give me the desires of my heart. So as I sit here today sad about leaving Eugene and missing my own family. Missing that same love that my parents show me, missing getting to love on my little brother in this same way. The Lord takes me to JOhn 15:9 "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love." So that is today's choice to remain in His love. Im so thankful that I have gotten so many chances to experience His love through so many different people. So thankful that He keeps reminding me of how great His love really is for me and how I only need to remain in it. But the question im wrestling with is...Am I truely and always selfish for the Lord?

Big Exciting News next Saturday we will be attending an African Wedding!!!! One of the women from our worship team is getting married and she invited us to come and celebrate with her. We are so excited, because African Weddings are suppossed to be the bees knees., with lots of dancing, good food (well that part my be relative) and just an all around good time.

So for the occasion our mom went shopping and brought us home some traditional Africa fabric. and Guess what? We got African dresses made for the big day! We got to go to the store and design our own dresses and she had them ready in no time. when we came home we wanted to surprise two of our friends Jackie and Rose with a fashion show. We were a huge hit and they even helped us make headdresse out of our extra fabric! it was such a fun day, and we cant wait to rock them this weekend!!

                        
                        
                                                Mama Jen, Val, Rose, Carls, Jackie, Me
                        
                                  

Welcome to the weirdest day of my enitre life. Today we took a field trip with dad to Kitali about 2 hours away. The day started out great as We visited our freind Pastor Charles and his family at thier home. The day soon took a turn for the worse when we headed to the Nature Sancturary for the big event. All dad had told us about the day was that we would walk beautiful nature trails, and see thedisablied animals. We were all stoked, thinking that meant baby tigers with broken arms. Things like nursing injured African wildlife back to life. Typically not my thing but I was still excited!

              
                                                    The Team with Dad!

THIS WAS NOT THE CASE. When he said disabled, Dad should have said mutant. After the trails which did in fact hold up to be beautiful, we entered the field of horror. Our tour guide grabbed a long stick and began pointing mutations out on every animal. Now let me be clear there was not a signle African animal on site. It was all your standard farm animals, cows, goats, sheep,(which i didnt even know was different from a goat) and a few donkeys. Each one with a different mutation from dwarf legs, to missing tales, hooves that never fully grew so they clank together like clapping hands coming out of their butts. Sheep with knobbed knees so bad they crawl on their front legs. The pointing stick our guide picked up was to point out every single deformity like it was completly normal. Cows with male parts on top of thier backs and missing other parts. I mean truely the most strange encounter of my life.

                     
                                          Dwarf Cow...yes this is a real thing!!!

Thier were two big spectalces of the day. The first being a big black cow that had 3 eyes, 4 horns and a cleft lip. What?? where the heck do they even get these and why did I drive two hours and pay to get in, to walk with these things in the middle of a field in the middle of Africa? In my confusion/hysterical laughter about the situation at hand, I go on a chase of the big black cow to get a close up picture. Thinking, no one is going to belive this is what my day really turned into. Now if you know me,you know I dont run, but for this I did. I wasnt about to miss a picture of this cow and wouldnt you know I fall straight into a huge pile of what im still pretending to be mud? My feet are completly covered as well as the entire back of my skirt. My team of course is dying laughing behind me as im shouting all this for a freaking cow, really?

                                      
                                                                   This Guy!

So as i kindly ask the guide if there is somewhere I can wash off he tells me yes, but we must see the best site of the day first. Oh Okay Sire, let me sit in this cow poop and continue on this amazing tour your giving us to see what? Well the days big event urned out to be that a few hours before the one horse-cow on the farm had a baby. YEA?? First of all what the crap is a horse-cow? Surely he made that up, and second it was allowed to make a baby, thus adding to this disturbing place? Whoever approved that should clearly be fired. Anyway as we go to see the horse-cow baby our guide way to late yells back to tell us to watch out for the after-birth blood bath that has completely taken over that part of the field. That is when i had to throw in the towel and could no longer handle the "tour". In conclusion, I have already always know this but this day reconfirmed that I will NEVER,EVER work or live or have anything to do with a farm for as long as I live. Keep me in the city with my normal litte house dog where the strangest thing that could happen is when she doesnt wear her Mizzou Basketball Jersey, thanks!

                    
           No this is not the pregnant Cow-Horse, this is just your standard cow with a Huge tumor!