Village Bible Church || Aurora | Indian Creek | Sugar Grove | IL

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July 4: Kishanje

Today is Sunday and so when we woke up to get ready for church, I “showered”. Showered is a term I use loosely here in Uganda, because the water is extremely cold! Not only that, but they have to haul all of their water up the side of a mountain from a community well down in the valley. The children here start hauling the water at the age of 2, hauling canisters of water that abouts about 1 gallon size. The older children haul canisters that are about maybe about 2 ½ gallons and teens about 4- 5 gallons. They hike down, fill up the canisters and then balance them on their heads up the side of the mountain. Tim and Nate helped them with this task today, and they said it was quite a rewarding experience.They said there were small children at the well that were so excited and screeching. One of the teens said it was because they have never seen a white person before and they were excited! They also said that a local woman kept saying something in the native language and the teens said she said she was happy to see a white person work for water that he would not use. I was very proud of the boys serving in this way.

We also were a part of the church service this morning. We taught them a song, Hayley did the scripture readings, Nate preached and Ralph even did an impromptu solo! It was so emotional to keep back tears from flowing as we watched these people truly praise the Lord with singing and dancing! It really makes our services look dull! Nate did an awesome job preaching on the subject of peace , his parents/grandparents should be proud! What an awesome responsibility for a young man, to preach to a couple hundred children, teachers, and parents! Time was not an issue for this service. There are no watches, so nobody was worried about the service going over, basically Tim Badal’s dream :). There was a time were anyone who wanted to come forward to sing a song, could do so if they felt led. It was at this time that Ralph went up and sang a song for us.

After we ate lunch, we went back to the school to lead a devotional with the teenagers of the school. It was yet another great time of fellowship, worship and teaching. We sang the song with them again that we taught them this morning, then sang another that they were familiar with. They enjoyed us singing and dancing with them. Tim did the teaching during this section, and spoke on self-control. It was very convicting and he did such a good job! I was so proud of him! We then spent time with the kids, some of the teenage girls taught me, Hayley and Kaity some of their native worship songs, so that we can worship with them during the services.

I have to mention a very neat thing that happened today. Linda was hoping to meet a child that she had been sponsoring for five years right here at Kishanje. During the morning worship service, I turned to see her little boy, Bruce, sitting next to her, worshiping God together! Praise the Lord! How often is it that two people on a mission trip are able to meet their sponsored children on a single mission trip? Tomorrow, Linda will hike down to Bruce’s grandmother’s house to meet her, and they are excusing Bruce and his sisters from school so they can spend time with Linda and their grandmother.

The trip so far has been completely amazing! I can’t even believe that I am here yet, my mind hasn’t quite wrapped itself around that fact yet, but I am enjoying every minute of it!

Hi, Josh, Clayton, Micah and Elianna! I love you so much and I can’t wait to share with you how God has been working here in Uganda! I miss you all…..Amy