September 2013 Update 2
Tuesday is our first full day of camp. The kids were up early this morning. I think they are excited! Each day of camp looks pretty similar. Today we will start our day with breakfast and then go for church. The last couple camps we have had a local youth pastor come and lead worship for us, but he is engaged elsewhere. There was a moment of concern over this, but again God answers every need. Turns out Shallom and his friends also love to lead worship. My good friend Kathy who has been in university and unable to do camp with us, is now living in Jinja and has come too. She is a natural worship leader. So will I be preaching twice a day…nope. Allan who is always with me at camp came to me this morning and asked if he could speak to the kids. Awesome!! The more these kids hear their own people bringing the truth from God’s word the better. So we all worshipped and then heard an inspired word from Allan. God is so good!! These staff are the ones I spend most of my time pouring into, so it is just sweet to see them growing into amazing men and women of God. There are small groups after church in the morning to give the kids a chance to ask questions in a less threatening group size. Today the kids will probably be pretty shy, but our hope is that by the end of the week each child opens up with their group.
We spend the time after small groups doing crafts and teams practice for the dance competition that will be at the end of the week. Today the kids are making tote bags. Each paints a unique design and I am always impressed with the time and care they take and the talent they possess. Lunchtime!!!
The futbol tournament begins today!! The Red Warriors took on the Green team which ended in a draw, then the Yellow took on the Orange Avengers and the Avengers won 1-0. Yellow and Red were partway through their match when the skies opened up!!! This is my first time to be here in September which is the rainy season. We all ran inside and the rain came down in buckets, there was even some hail. Sweet!! The ugandans were saying how cold it was and yet I was still sweating. I looked at the temp on my phone and it was 79 degrees…so cold 🙂 I pulled out some playing cards and played with a group of kids. Others played music, while others talked and hung out. The weather let up just in time for us to head to CPR. Today they discussed maturity- emotionally, physically, mentally and socially. They also discussed goal setting. Great things for these kids to learn about. So much of the ugandan culture lives for the day. We can learn from them in how present they are in every situation. It is so good for these kids to hear that they need to set goals for the future though too, so they can become who they want to be.
We had a little downtime and then dinner. Seriously…we are eating again?!?! I feel like we are always eating!! I think I’ve gained a few pounds already! We then go for worship again. Tonight I get to speak about the atoning work of Christ on the cross. Today I had several campers come to me with their memory verses from last night. The greatest gift we can give them is the gospel and the Word of the Lord. I love seeing them excited about memorizing His word. After some more worship, we played a camp favorite…BINGO!!! We had some power issues because of the storm earlier, but we made it work. The kids got into small groups and the leaders used their phones and we still managed to have a great time!!
It is such a blessing to see the team that God is growing around me here for camp. Allan, Silas, Kathy, Shallom and now all these new boys. Praise God!! Please continue to pray for them as they lead others to Christ, that Satan would not have any power in their lives.
Hayden has found her spot with all the locals. They even gave her a local name. It took me 4 trips before I got a ugandan name 🙂 She is now known as Nangobi, a ugandan princess. She is the little sister the staff don’t have. They are joking around and playing together. They share a love of music, so often I look over and see her with one earbud and a ugandan the other. So great!! I think that saturday will be tough for her to say goodbye. It amazes me how quickly relationship form and become so very close.
Please pray for strength and energy. Several kids have sore muscles and legs from all the playing. They aren’t used to just being able to play this much, so please pray for healing for them. Please continue to pray for the hearts of these kids to be softened to the gospel. My Muhammad I would ask special prayers for as he is muslim and very closed to the gospel now. Thank you for your love and support!! Your prayers sustain us!!