Waterfalls and baseballs
Greetings from Uganda!
Whew today was a fun one!
It was a tough one for sure since it was our first day to construct rain
catches and hold practice but we can all say that today was an incredible day.
We began the day as we have been with a delicious breakfast
and a cup of coffee for some of us.
We felt much better today, our bodies seem to be falling into the
rhythms of being in this time zone.
After the meal we loaded up into the vehicles and began the drive to
Buloba. We had been warned by Mark
who had been there before and by Patrick our guide that Monday morning traffic
would be an ordeal and just as promised the traffic was jam packed which gave
us a few scares along the way. But
after a slightly longer car ride than we have been accustomed to we arrived in
Buloba at the school.
When we arrived we immediately set out on the mission of the
morning, to construct rain catches.
We walked from the school to the first house and found the materials for
construction ready and waiting for us.
Our tasks were to paint the wood with the paint provided in order to
seal the wood as best as possible.
But after layer of paint had been put on one side we realized that we
were using enamel based paint which would take many hours to dry so we moved on
to the next house while we allowed the paint to dry.
Upon coming to the second house, we found out that the
majority of residents in the house were Muslim and we
grew excited with the opportunity to serve them in the name of Jesus. We began to nail up the supporting wood
for the guttering and when we realized that we had “too many hands in the
kitchen” the young men on our trip volunteered to fill the water jugs for the
people living in the house. This
was a trek of well over a mile so they were able to have their shoulder workout
for the day! While they were
retrieving the water, the older men of the group and I worked on the rain catch
and after many design discussions (between a building contractor, an engineer,
a coach, and a real estate broker this became lengthy, ha), we finally secured
the gutter to the roof. But once
we verified that the water would flow down to the hole and collect in the
bucket we asked the family if we could pray for them in the name of Jesus and
we were very surprised and happy when the 95 year old grandmother who was Muslin,
requested that we pray for her.
After we prayed they thanked us for the rain catch and we thanked for
the opportunity to serve them.
What a blessing, God is good!
We returned to the second house where we secured the other
rain catch much faster than the first since we now had a little more experience
with the process. After putting
the gutter up we prayed with the owner of the house and his wife. We then re-filled his water supply and
headed back to the school to depart for lunch. Again we ate and pastor Eva’s and she and her family
delivered again with a delicious meal.
After the meal we laid down for a minute to digest and quite quickly
Mark fell asleep so we decided to try to have a little fun with him. We pushed the cars out of view of the
living room, asked pastor Eva’s daughter to wake him saying we had left, and
hid to see if we could catch him off-guard. Unfortunately, he never thought for a second we would leave
him when he woke but it was still a fun moment for the team to attempt it.
When we returned to the school after lunch we immediately
went to the local field at St. Paul’s Catholic school and set up for groups of
children coming in 20’s. We also
included some of the children of St. Paul’s because they were interested in the
game and because they were allowing us to use their field. 3 groups of 20 children came to the
field in the age range around 10 years old. We separated them into teams and placed some in the
field and others went to bat. The
ones batting learned to hit and then to run the bases. We had a few let go of the bat on the
back end of their swing but they learned quickly not to do that and by God’s
provision no one was hit except light tap to a teacher’s head. The children in the field worked
on fielding and throwing the ball to first once they had control of the
ball. As it was yesterday, there
were a few that absolutely caught on and the rest, with a little practice,
showed promise of being able to pick the game up quickly.
After we concluded practice I was given the opportunity to
share a piece of my testimony and encourage them as they grow up to pursue
Christ and to find their own walk with him. After this we prayed with the children and bid farewell to
them for the day. We ran into
traffic again and after a long ride and slight bout for one of our number with
motion sickness we made it home.
After rehydrating and relaxing for a moment we had a quick workout and
then watched an online sermon that was on ministering to those around us which
was a great thought for us to not only do that here in Africa while we have the
chance but to also continue this work when we return home.
We ate dinner and then soon after Mark and Bubba went to
help the second cornerstone team as the arrived into the country. Those of us remaining had our evening
devotion and relaxed as we eventually went our separate ways to bed.
After another great day we look forward to tomorrow as we
will build two more rain catches and then, after our lunch break, head over to
the primary school and practice with the older children in the afternoon. God is really showing us the pure joy
of children who do not have much but are still quick to smile and laugh when
they are shown a new game that is sometimes confusing and a challenge to pick
up new. For this we are
thankful. We are also thankful for
the opportunity to serve the people we did today and hope that God is able to
use that moment to speak into their lives.
And so, until tomorrow, God bless, goodnight, and know Yesu
Akwaagala!
On behalf of the team, Woody Parramore
No comments:
Post a Comment