Update! :)

Hello World!

The Uganda crew is all safely home and finished recovering from the trip. We hope to have a few more Uganda pictures, videos and stories on here soon.

We are already looking towards the future - which for us means next Summer's Student Mission trips! We are already making plans for one that would happen at the end of July - TO INDIA! Please keep checking back here for more information. We will update as soon as we know what is happening. You can also send an email with Subscribe in the subject line to student.missions@aflc.org and we will put you on our prayer request/email update list. We send that out intermittently, but much more often when we have information on upcoming trips.

If you signed up for more information at FLY you should be getting a packet from us in the near future! Look for it soon after this school year starts. If you want an information packet, please send us an email with your address.

Be sure to also check our page on the AFLC website for any other exciting news! You can find that here!

Take Two...

Video!

Here is the first video that we've made from a few of the clips and what the kids had to say. We had about two days in which to make it before Sam took it to the FLY Convention to use at his sessions.

Now I can only speak for us, but we miss everybody! :)

Enjoy getting a little taste of what we did and what the kids thought...

Safari!!

The team, along with Sam and Nate, went on a three day Safari to Queen Elizabeth. They saw many lions, elephants, deer, warthogs, hippos and even a few crocodiles! Here are Courtney and Courtney concentrating on the wilds of Africa.



Walking with the wildlife - Here is Seth with their new friend. The place they were staying is just out of this picture, to the right. They really were in the middle of the wild!



Again, walking with the wildlife. This was a lovely warthog. :)



A deer in it's natural habitat. :) There are so many more great safari pictures but they probably won't be up on the blog until after we get back. Please keep checking back for more!!

Village Ministry

The team has been spending a lot of time with the people in the villages. They have had many different adventures while camping out there. They've climbed "mountains" and told their stories on top of them...



They have used some interesting bathrooms!



And taken countles piki piki and boda boda rides, often coming back caked in red dirt.



The main ministry that they have been involved in has been telling Bible stories to the classes that Nate has been working with. They dramatized Ruth (above) and Gideon. (below) They did an AMAZING job memorizing the Scripture and getting the story across a language barrier so it could impact the listeners! After telling the story they would have the class retell it to them, they would walk through the story step by step and then talk about observations and applications with them. The language barrier was tough, but a week after hearing the story the students could retell it perfectly, so the method and their hard work is really getting the Bible across to the people.


It is amazing to see how the Word of God changes people. Many people believe that in Africa a "social gospel" is needed - one where poverty and other problems are addressed and then the gospel is brought to the people. The truth is that even when aid is applied it is mostly ineffective in it's intended purpose, and completely ineffective in bringing the gospel. Here we have seen first hand that it is the Lord who changes people, His Word that makes a lazy man diligent or a drunkard a sober hard worker. Christ is what is needed here - it may be cliche, but He is the answer!

PS

For the grandparents, Adam and Courtney, Kirsten and Darwin, Katelyn and whoever else might care...

Jericho got his first teeth on the 24th! No more big toothless grin! :)

Just thought you might want to know. :)

Answers! :)

Thank you to those of you who left questions - they were all a challenge to answer, which is always a good thing. :)

Favorite food is a HARD one. I have some photos of the traditional Ugandan food to post, so I will probably talk about that more later. I don't think that the posho, mahtoki, cabbage and weird parts of animal were anyone's favorite food.

Rhoda has made some delicious dishes (say that three times fast!) but I think among the top ones have been peanut butter chocolate chip brownies (with ice cream!) and her amazing chicken noodle soup. We polish that off in a hurry.

There is a great restaurant here called Ozzie's that everyone seems to enjoy. They rather like getting to pick whatever they want, from steak to hamburgers to fish to smoothies. :)

The team, if I can brag on them a little bit, have all been amazing. There have been quite a few rather difficult experiences and they have all handled them well. Every one of them are eager to help with the dishes and the kids while they are back at the Jore's - even when they have had a hard day in the village!

I have never seen constant diarrhea handled with such humor and yet grace. Mention banana leaves and you will get roaring laughter. :)

The group is really diverse in temperament and age and just about everything. But God has helped all of the group to grow together and become a family. In that way the trip is going wonderfully! And the training they are doing in the villages is taking root in an amazing way - the week after they told the story of Gideon to the class it was recited back perfectly.

Hopefully soon after we get back we will have some videos of the trip on youtube. Some of the videos will include the kids sharing their thoughts on the trip and what impacted them. Keep checking back after the trip ends for more media that we can't upload from Uganda! :)

Sam will also be doing an elective three days at the FLY convention titled Please Don't Send Me To Africa. We will have photos and video and stories from this trip and Student Missions in general. Please feel free to attend and ask questions there as well if you are around! :)

If anyone else thinks of more pressing questions, feel free to post them here or email them to us.

The team returns from safari in about four hours. They will probably be a little bit internet starved so I don't expect to post pictures for another 24 hours or so.

Thank you for all of your prayers! We can definitely feel them supporting us. The difference it makes is so amazing. You are definitely a huge part of this trip if you are praying for us. Blessings to you!