From the perspective of Nicole:
Today was a true Sabbath and day of rest. Something I have noticed from traveling to other countries is how well they do Sunday’s. And I love it. Church started with passionate prayers: I mean vocal, loud, passionate, and all at once. It gave us a small snapshot of what God must hear all the time. This was followed by joyful worship: singing, and dancing, and praising, and smiling. After that, Pastor Aloysius invited our very own, Alex Schmitt, up to the altar to preach. And Alex did an AMAZING job. (I am not just biased-everyone agreed!). He stole a bit from Pastor Steven, getting everyone to interact and high-five while exclaiming the title of the message. His title was “Run Your Race.” Alex spoke on Hebrews 12:1-3 and talked about the importance of running with urgency towards the goal; that goal being meeting God at the finish line and being an example along the way.
Pastor Aloysius then preached on Overcoming Spiritual Death. We were under the impression that the people in the community generally seem to hear about Jesus, but they think they only need to be “holy” in church (a very similar issue in America as well!) So he was preaching about the importance of staying in the scriptures and seeking fellowship with other believers in order to stay connected with God. He hit on something Ali told him about the church not being just a building, but more so God’s people living out His word and His purpose in their daily lives. He preached with such fire, and it was loooooong. But it was only long by our standards. Something that stood out to us is that no one was concerned about time or staying on a schedule. They would happily and calmly stay there and worship as long as it lasted and as long as the Spirit led them to. This is something culturally very different than in America. We are all concerned with our timetables. But here, they seem to think less about that and more about the relationships and spending meaningful time with people. We all have really loved that about the Ugandan people.
After church we had some time to go back to the hotel, eat lunch together, and rest. The intensity of this very full but awesome week finally had time to catch up to us. We all got pretty sleepy. But we rallied in time to go back to Koro Farm and play a really fun game with the Sports Outreach staff. They taught us a game called Rugby Net Ball. It was similar to Ultimate Frisbee and Handball and Soccer and Basketball all in one. We had a great time with lots of laughter and teamwork. It’s a beautiful picture to be a part of world’s merging and playing and laughing together- we kept agreeing it felt like seeing a snapshot of Heaven.
After the game we split into two groups and shared testimonies. One that stood out to me was Richard’s. Richard grew up very poor in Uganda. He has not seen his mom in 18 years. And his dad had no money. Around the time the war ended, many NGO’s were in the area and he began noticing other children getting sponsored by people in the Western World to go to school. And it was very important to him to go to school (which is amazing within itself that he saw the importance of education at a young age). So he began writing letters to the NGO’s asking for a sponsor. But each one returned rejected. Some even told him he needed to pay them in order to get a sponsor. So he began seeing even the NGO’s and Americans and people running the sponsorship programs as corrupt. He began to hate Americans. Fast forward to when Richard got connected with Sports Outreach: he was asked to run the Empowerment Sponsorship program (isn’t that just God’s sense of humor?!). He said he began asking God “How is this possible?! How am I supposed to do this?” But through that process, God healed his heart, and he learned to love the Americans that would visit. And now, he gets to be a voice for the children who are in the same situation he was. They even call him “Father” and “Uncle” when he visits the villages. It was just another beautiful story of God’s perfect plans for our lives, and how He can even use the broken parts of us to glorify His name. And we all agreed that Robert just radiates God’s presence. His smile is so big and contagious. And his heart is so big. It was a true honor to hear his story.
Here is where I plug the Empowerment Sponsorship program. We will share more about this when we return home. But if you Google “Sports Outreach Institute” and go to their webpage, click on the Empower Me Child Sponsorship, you can see the children we met in the villages. These stories are heartbreaking and they have no control over it, which makes it even harder to see and hear. But you can make a HUGE difference by just choosing to sponsor one of these children. It’s just $35 a month. Even a one time donation of your choice would be more help than you can imagine. $35 to us is like a week of Starbucks or the cost of a shirt or pair of pants in America. To them, it’s food for a typical family of a single mother and 5-10 kids for a substantial amount of time. Sponsorship would also go to helping with their school supplies, clothing, food, or whatever is deemed the biggest need. We can even show you their pictures and tell you their stories if you’d like. And maybe we can even bring you to meet them one day :)
After our time of sharing, Aloysius prayed and we took communion together. (So cool to do with our new friends). We said our very sad goodbye’s, hugged, prayed as a team, and departed for the hotel for the last time.
The next morning, we awoke to head to the SAFARI!!! The drive was about 3 hours, not bad, which we consumed with 90’s sing-alongside :) When we got to the hotel, we were all in awe. The hotel is beautiful and overlooks the HUGE Nile River. We ate lunch and rested and then headed for our Safari. Our guide was named Sam and he was awesome. The land is so vast and beautiful. We first saw many kinds of antelopes, elephants (even a baby!), and so many giraffes!!!! Then, Sam broke the rules and took us off-reading for a bit - that’s when we saw her: the LIONESS!!!! She was honestly about 10 feet away at one point! It. was. so. cool. We also saw a hyena, hippos, baboons, monkeys, eagles, and different types of birds. It was the perfect way to end the trip.
We all agree that we need to one back someday. The people are so warm and full of joy. And we have learned so much. Each team member will write an “In Conclusion” reflective blog post from their own perspective upon our return to the States. For now, we say Afollo (goodbye!) and Afollo ma tek (thank you very much) for reading our blog and following and/or supporting our journey. We love you all!
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