My First Day in AFRICA!

       I arrived in Entebee at 7:40 in the morning. The flight was good but I was so excited that I couldn’t really sleep. Haha  I keep laughing at the fact that I’m in Uganda! It’s so weird to me that all this time I’ve been preparing to come here and I’m finally here.  When we got to the orphanage the three youngest (Emma, Carol and Don) were there to greet us! Don came running up to the side of the van jumping up and down! He kept saying all our names as we unbuckled our seat belts. They call the volunteers auntie and uncle so I’m auntie “Jess-ka”!  They had not seen momma Sara or her baby Abby in six weeks because they were in the States doing interviews and fundraising. It was so neat to see the kid’s excitement to see Abby and their love for momma Sara too! But it was so encouraging to see how happy they were to see me! They ran from the house yelling “Auntie Jessica Auntie Jessica!” They took my hands and showed me around the orphanage. I love that kids accept EVERYONE and right away too!  After my tour it was time to go get some of the other kids from their school. Momma Lois walked with me to the school and we had a funny talk about how I’m going to love it! Everyone in Kampala speaks English. So that’s very nice. But it’s sometimes very hard to understand because of their accents. Momma Lois is 18 and she is so sweet I have a feeling we will become really good friends. At the school we were bringing seven more of the kids back home with us because they were in the lower school but Joel and Joshua-the oldest two-stayed for a few more hours. In the school courtyard the kids ran up to me and gave me huge excited hugs! They are so happy that I’m here. Then they started to pull me into Joel and Joshua’s class room while the teacher was still talking to show me off! Haha  we came back home and had lunch. Haha it was good! Rice and beans and some meat w/ sauce! Then it was nap time! And thank goodness for that! I was so exhausted from only getting 4 hours of sleep between our flights. I slept til 5! Which I probably shouldn’t have because I’m up writing this at 2 in the morning… then after that I gave them chalk! We had so much fun as you can see!

This is Joel, Jerom, Carol and Don! they colored in an elephant and rubbed the chalk dust on their faces. haha no one even complained about chalk in their eyes or anything so that's good! they were having too much fun to notice!

 

This is Joshua (in the back) then Joel and then Oscar in the front :)



Below is Brenda in green and Jerom showing off their drawings! In the back you can see everyone playing tag! it was so fun!

Next was bath time for all of my little chalk monsters! and then Dinner by candle light because the power went out!!

Friday nights are usually movie nights but we only got to see 30 mins of it because the power went out again. So everyone brushed teeth under lantern light.  We had a short devo for the kids about Naomi and Boaz and how to show Gods love to others. They all took turns hugging everyone to show Gods love! Haha It was cute. But actually if you think about it, giving hugs is a simple way we can show his love so it taught me something! Then it was bed time for the kids and we said our goodnights! And I got to pray for each of the kids individually. Once they were sleeping it was adult devotional time and surprise! I was leading it! Haha so I told my testimony and cried. I shared the verse that lead me to Christ - Isaiah 41:10. That He is always with me and that he will strengthen me. I needed to be reminded of that because I was feeling anxious and homesick already. I started questioning if I was really the best person to be doing this. But God is here He is going to strengthen me and with Him I can do great even when I feel inadequate and weak.

Isaiah 41:10

 So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.