My wife and I (Brian) are departing this evening on a mission trip with 10 others from our church, WaterStone, and Compassion International to visit Uganda. Our church has about 550 children sponsored throughout Uganda and have most recently formed a partnership with a rural church in-country. Our group of 12 will be laying the foundation between our two communities and it is our prayer that we start it off with a spirit that communicates love and stewardship regardless of any language barriers. We ask for your prayers throughout the trip for protection, safety and that our hearts will be softened as we witness the suffering of our kin. We are asking God for patience, love and wisdom.. and are extremely excited!

Uganda – Where is it?

It’s pretty much on the Equator, East-side of Africa..

We will land in Kampala, the capital of Uganda on Tuesday night (2/5). Wednesday morning we’ll bus it over to Mbale where our partner church is located. Our western lifestyles won’t be interrupted too long because the motel we’re staying at apparently has a swimming pool and internet. We will stay 5 nights in Mbale, traveling to the church and surrounding village every morning (30+ minute commute). Each day we’ll do some light construction or labor and in the afternoon we’ll have some adult education classes. Saturday (2/9) will be focused on the kids and Sunday (2/10) the church has invited us to join them in their church services.

Monday morning we’ll travel back to Kampala, travel time: 3-8 hrs (bus trip is difficult to gauge due to the road conditions, traffic and slow response time of AAA). We will check out some bazaars and probably spur the local economy (call us job-creators). Then, Tuesday will be one of the highlights of the trip. We will get to meet our three children; Eva, Simon and Benon. They do not live in the village that we’ll spend most of our time, so Compassion International has arranged for them to be bused in to see us. For most of them it will be their first visit beyond their village. We’ve stocked up backpacks filled with all the possible goodies we could fit for the child as well as the family. Sheets, cooking spoons, flexible cutting board, mirror, pencils, markers, CANDY, Bible, books, toys, etc.

Since we’re talking donations, there’s easily 700 lbs or more coming along with us. Each member has given up their one checked-bag allotment for a variety of donations from our church to our partner church. Also, several hundred families prepared a gallon-sized zip lock bag for their children in Uganda. We’ll leave these with Compassion to distribute accordingly.

We’re very excited to share this journey with you. We’ll try to blog and post pictures for you to follow. I’ll be bringing my ukulele to pass the time and truly test the patience of my fellow travel mates..