Hello everyone!

Sorry that it has been so long since I last posted. Internet here is iffy and I tried to post earlier and we lost power so I lost all my typing. Also I cant access photos without power so I am so sorry but you will just have to read boring words until I can get photos. It's hard adjusting to not being able to do everything you want with the internet...

Here's a little update on what is to come: Tomorrow I leave for Gulu Uganda where I will stay with Aloysius and his wife Esther. My friend Amanda will be leaving sometime I think on Friday to go to south sudan for a few weeks. Then she will join a team in Gulu from her church and leave at the end of July. That will be nice to reunite with her! :) I guess there is a young man who is staying with Aloysius already who is also from Amanda's church so I will have him for company. Also I think they will be really busy with American teams while I am there. SO MANY Muzungus! I thought it would be all africans but its turning out instead I will see many Americans.

I am supposed to be traveling with a group of four from a non-profit that was started by Joni Earekson. I don't exactly know what they are doing (see a trend?) but I guess I will find out! It was sad this evening. It was the last evening prayer with Fred's family. I love them so much. I love that they do devotions every night as a family and I have already learned so much from them. I am sooo excited though to spend even more time with aloysius's family.

I know it has been a while so let's start with Sunday. I went to Fred's church called Watoto Central. WOW. I thought Rolling Hills was big. This place was packed and fit maybe somewhere between 1500-2000 people. I honestly dont know how many but they also had 4 serivces that were all that full! And an overflow room. Not only that... but that church was one of 5 branches of the same church. I couldn't believe it, it was just like going to church at home. There were lights and sound equipment and everything. I personally like the small slum churches a lot, but this one was very nice and had a great sermon and pastor.

After church we did some things.... one of those being picking up Esther to visit her children. She lives in the north but her children go to boarding school in Kampala and it was parents weekend I think. She travelled all that way with an 11 month year old baby in a taxi van! People here are amazing. I will see her again tomorrow when I go to Gulu!

Church and everything was great on Sunday, but something else really was the best part of the day, and actually probably the most touching thing that has happened since I came here. I know I have mentioned that Fred has a women who works in their home and that she has two sons. Joel is 5 and Jovan is 2 1/2. I have played with all the children, but Joel is especially difficult to make smile. He is so serious. He will talk but you never see his teeth and he acts like an adult because in reality, he has had to be one since he was 2.

Agnus, the mother, when through a very hard time before she came to work for Fred and his family. her and her sons had to sleep on the ground, they lived on the streets... I just know it was worse than many people in the slums even. Joel at his age is sent to the market alone by his mother. I think she has had so much hardship that it is hard for her to express love, even though she the THE MOST beautiful smile! In all of Uganda!

Anyway, we took Joel to church. Before we went I was with him in the morning (I always get up too early...) and I got him to ride on my back and of course I was being goofy. It was really fun as Amanda and I were playing with him, he was laughing and smiling a lot, but once we got in the car he was serious again. When we got to church I had him sit with me instead of go to Sunday school (because we were late). I felt so bad because during worship he couldnt see so I picked him up and held him the whole time. You can imagine my arms were sooo tired and I was so sweaty but I just didn't put him down. And during service he sat on Amanda and my laps so he could see, and he even fell asleep. After church was over Nicolette told me that he probably hadn't been held in 3-4 years by his mother.

It sounds cliche... but he was not the same at all after Sunday. He is still smiling soooo much. It was like a compelte 180 degree turn. Amanda and I feel so blessed. We just love playing with the children but to know that it has really changed Joel just had already made this journey worth it. And not only that, but Agnus is really happy to see her children smile and she is trying hard to hold her kids and show them love. I know it's hard to visualize but it is really amazing. Christ can do wonderful things even if it is small like that. I just pray that it wasn't Amanda or I who changed Joel, but Christ is truely working in his and his mother's lives. 

I wish I could upload their picture so you can see!!! Hopefully soon.

Another amazing thing that happened was the flooding yesterday. We were heading to see a feeding program in Kabuli (pronounced Chi-boo-lee) slum and it started to rain. We ran into the church and within 10 mins it was pouring.... HARD. Think of the hardest rain you have witnessed in Oregon, and that was what it was like. Then in a half hour, it was twice that hard. We had to move up to the alter area because the floor started to flood. Then it hailed with lightning and thunder and the rain was so loud on the metal roof, I couldn't hear myslef think. It was so crazy. When you would look outside there was just floods of water pouring down the street.

We stayed in the church waiting for about 1 1/2 hours. I want to show the picture,  but when we were driving away all the roads were flooded and it took 3 hours to get home when it normally takes 1!

I want to talk more but it is late and the battery is running out. Thanks for your prayers! I miss home quite a bit sometimes (not the food because I love everything here) but I am very glad to be here.

Until later, Samantha