Our first big day

I'm sitting on the porch of the church, waiting for a van to take us to Kampala. There's some colourful birds chirping in the trees off the front porch. Some members of the team are on the porch playing with the kids from the children's home. They're colouring with crayons on paper (a luxury) and getting loved on.

The rest of the teams are off doing their respective tasks for the day. I've updated the schedule to show what tasks each sub-team is doing (click the 'Team Schedule' link to the right). I've also added a page that lists who's on what team so you can follow along with friends or family.

The rain has let up. There's a high overcast and a nice breeze... probably low 20's. It's a nice change from the torrential downpours of the first few days.

Yesterday was a fabulous day. We tore down our tent city to prepare for church, ate our breakfast, then began church with 35 Canadians and 4 Ugandans. Apparently when it rains people wait to come to church... but church waits for no-one.



We had a 3.5 hour church service experience. Experience is probably the only word for it... It began with Sunday school, the team breaking up to join the adult, youth and children's classes.






Afterwards everyone re-joined in the church. We had many welcomes from different members of the church, performances by the kids and youth group, and the chance to sing our own Ugandan songs that we had prepared over the last few months. The team really enjoyed themselves... so much so that a conga line spontaneously erupted.




After we sang, each member of the team went up, one by one, to introduce themselves to the now-full church. Scott Dickie gave a solid preach (after being informed the day before he was up to give a word.)



The service brought together many unique experiences for the team that has left God's signature on our memory.





And what better way to wrap up a day like that than to win at soccer? Against all odds and a ferocious offense by no less than two full Peace Portal Mpigi soccer teams, Canada won by a slim 4-3 margin. There was much fear and trembling as our opponents walked onto the field. They had cleats and jerseys. Nobody in Africa has cleats & jersey's unless they're pro.



After singing our respective national anthems, the game began with full force. It was a ferocious battle on both sides, but in the end the Canadians came out victorious.



As the champions, the Canadians were given a victory ride back to the church in the back of a truck.





In other news, we are still missing four of our bags. One is in Heathrow, one in Nairobi, and two are unaccounted for (including for yours truly). Generally the team is doing well, in good health and enjoying the experience.

You can pray for the teams as they start their big week and get their first experiences truly immersed in Ugandan culture. Pray for our bags. Pray for continued health. Pastor Michael has asked for prayer for two families that are 'sick' - generally meaning AIDS. A prayer was answered with a problem being fixed with the editing gear we're using for processing photos and video we're shooting of the trip.

Internet is still a no-go... I'm now in an internet cafe at Garden City (the Mzungu Mall in Kampala). Hopefully we will get that sorted soon.

I showed the team some of the comments that have been left and what I've been posting... it was good for them to see that their journey is joined by so many. Thanks for following along with us.

-- trevor.


(a note: the pictures today aren't quite of the normal image quality... had to make some compromises because of the internet situation).