Uganda Missions Trip - Day 1-2

Uneventful.  Yeah, that would be it in a word.  Praise the Lord for His faithfulness as the team of 12 people from Dallas, Texas, Princeton, Illinois, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Chattanooga, Tennessee met together in Washington DC and headed off to Uganda together.  The team met at gate B-41 in Washington's Dulles Airport, and our first introductions were made.  I enjoyed watching as the team stretched the boundaries of their comfort zone to step out and introduce themselves to each other.  This is going to be a great team.

We boarded Ethiopian Air with our carry on's and our checked luggage.  I was nervous about what I was going to find, but as we boarded the plane, all worries were gone.  This was a very nice plane.  Fairly new (just rolled out in February of this year) the plane was roomy, comfortable and had some nice conveniences.  Not a bad way to travel when you are flying for 13 hours on one leg of the journey.

I was able to connect with a number of people on board - seems that there were at least 8 different teams going to various places in Africa - Zambia, Ethiopia, Uganda, Egypt, Rawanda.  One group of 15 and another group of 28 were going to the same facility in Zambia and they didn't even know it.  It is encouraging seeing all of the other groups seeking to share the gospel, love people, and meet felt needs to draw others to Christ. 

We finally arrived in Entebbe - right on schedule - at 12:50 pm (7:50 am in Chattanooga) almost exactly 24 hours after we left.  With the exception of 1 bag that some how got lost - still waiting on it's arrival - we got our 22 checked bags (over 1,000 lbs of stuff) and our 20+ carry on bags safely to Uganda.  Our luggage included almost 500 lbs of bible and commentaries for the pastors conference, over 100 lbs of books for the library at Upendo, over 100 lbs of gifts and toys for the children from their sponsors, food, shoes (from Niagara Falls - if you don't know about these you have got to ask me), sports equipment, candy...   Thank God for allowing us to easily pass through customs.

We went to lunch with Reuben, headed back to the main office, unloaded most of the books for the conference, and received our "orientation" from Reuben.  Saturo, Vincent and many others were there to great us.  It was great to see Vincent and Saturo again.  I am looking forward to a great week with them.

Finally we headed back to Kampala's Kopling Hotel - where we will be staying most of the week.  Dean, Karen and Aly Houser (the final 3 members of our 15 person team) met us there.  We unloaded, cleaned up, talked, prayed and then got ready for bed. 

Now it is 3:00 in the morning and I am writing because I am awake.  I went to bed around 9, and am hoping that after writing all of this I can get back to sleep - I feel very refreshed, but today we will be painting, so I better get back to bed.

By the way - the weather here is unbelievable.  Light breezes, temperatures in the 70's-80's, very comfortable and refreshing.  Well - back to bed - More tonight.