relocation relocation relocation

Tuesday 14^th April

Well what a crazy day few days I have had! Yesterday I finally got some Ugandan money sorted, thank goodness. Lyn was able to run me into town to get to a bank. We had a nosey in a supermarket and also went for a ‘soda’ in a wee place called ‘Cosmos’ just on the edge of town, where I discovered that the ‘Mzungus’ (white people) seem to hang out there.

After I got back from town I had to pack up my stuff and move from Jehovah Jireh guesthouse to Jericho Guesthouse just down the street. I was told I would find it slightly more basic but I love it! It’s on the compound where a missionary family used to live but they have gone, so it’s literally just me and the guard. Godfrey guards during the day and Paul at night so I’m super safe and they are both so pleasant. Grace, an older Ugandan lady, comes during the day to cook for me if I want lunch and always leaves me supper. The place is a gorgeous African style furnished house with sofas, chairs and cushions to chill out on (not that I really have time) and the gardens are absolutely stunning! I genuinely cannot believed how blessed I am to be here

                                    The entrance to my new abode!

  Cup of Ugandan tea and some sermon prep in the sun

Today was another fantastic day of ministering. I went with Alice and Lyn to Maracha village for the whole day. The archdeaconry’s women, about 70 of them, were gathered for the day long workshop she was running there. As always there is always an incredibly warm welcome. The programme included a time of singing and devotional time and then some teaching about leadership and how women can lead in a variety of roles in the church. The best part had to be the Bible study on Matthew 18. The women were divided into groups and given the same passage but a different task. Some had to make a poem or a song out of the passage, some had to teach memory verses and other groups had to come up with a skit. They were all fantastic but the skits were hilarious. Some of the ladies made bows and arrows out of branches, twigs and leaves, to use as props and they really got into character. 

 Ladies walked to miles to join the group for the day long conference. Alice had them energised and ready to worship and learn in no time!

 Some of the ladies enjoying their dramatised version of the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant

At different points during the day, when the school was on its break, someone spotted that there was a white person the village and soon about 40 children came piling into the back of the church to smile and wave and ask me how I am. They came and went several times and were so delighted if I smiled or waved back. At one point they were hanging through the bars on the windows to wave, laughing and giggling with their friends. The archdeacon explained that white people don’t often pass by that way so it was very exciting for them.

As the day proceeded I got such a sense of how anointed and gifted Rev. Alice is. She lives for what she does and it really shows. She has such energy and enthusiasm for teaching women and making the Bible come alive to them. The response she gets is phenomenal and the women really engage with her and with the word of God. At the end of the day they expressed their thanks, how blessed they had been by the day and how much they had learned. It's so apparent how hungry for God and his word that the people here are and yet they have so few resources, but yet they make the best of what they do have and put it to really good use in sharing and teaching the gospel.

I chatted with Alice over dinner about the whole day and shared how similar our heart and vision is for the kingdom and I just know that this is exactly who I was supposed to be placed with. Chris from college, who was here last year for his placement, told me that I wouldn’t want to leave. I honestly thought that was not likely to happen at all but as a drove past the airfield today and I did think that soon enough I’ll be on a plane home, my heart sank a wee bit. The people here are just amazing and I’ll be gutted to leave them! I have 2 lovely weeks left to enjoy here though, and I intend to do just that!

With love from Uganda

Danielle x