Wild monkeys, dance parties, and road goat.

Hey everyone!  Thanks for reading again! 

I love it here.

Only a week has past and so much has happened already.  The last blog I posted was during training camp in Georgia – I am now in Lira, Uganda!  God showed up in an awesome way the day before we left to come to Uganda so i'd like to tell you about that.  In the afternoon, a bunch of us from the team went on a walk to the waterfalls near the college where training camp was taking place.  I happened to run into an old couple (70's) while i was walking and i started talking to them.  His name was Robert and her name was Fay, Robert has been a truck driver his entire life and Fay has been a house cleaner.  Later on we ran into eachother again and I asked if they were christians – they said yes and Robert continued by saying he was baptised only 6 months ago.  That was awesome – they also said this was the spot of their first date and it was the first time that they had come back!  He asked me to come to his truck and I did (a little reluctantly).  On the way he took a puff on his inhaler and started to tear up a bit – then he got to his car and thanked me for talking to him and handed me $100.  He started crying and practically forced me to take his money – I was overwhelmed by the moment. God is crazy – how he works is so unexpected.  But a lesson learned is to be present with people.  Be open – and care about what they say and who they are.  God loves all his children and has created them all differently – lets get to know eachother a bit more.   
       We arrived in Kampala, Uganda and spent a few nights there – during this time we saw wild monkeys on the streets, saw a bird get hit by a truck and watched our driver stop and go back so he would have something to cook for dinner (he cut it's head off on the side of the road), had a couple dance parties with random kids on the streets, ate fresh fruit plucked straight from the tree (and sugar cane), ate scorching hot chili's (accept one girl (Ali) took it like a champ), and met a girl named Alice who practically stalked us down to talk about Christ and God and to eventually accept Jesus as her Savior!
      We left for Lira @ 5AM and it took about 7 hours.  Along the way – we stopped at a roadside stand and bought some "road goat" which is delicious.  In Kampala – we are staying at a place called Alpha and it is amazing.  The people working here are amazing – i've never seen so many people smiling.  Everytime we come back to the place they are standing outside ready to greet us with hugs.  They express so much love knowing so little about each one of us.  We are working with Victory Ministies here.  They having many different areas that we are able to participate in and this week we are basically going around trying everything to see what sparks our interest the most.  We've climbed trees, seen crazy looking birds, huge spiders, geckos, millipedes, and freaky bugs whose wings fall off every night called "white ants" – the kids eat them.  Nasty. 
     There's much more but I can't say it all.  It has been a crazy experience filled with so much and its only been a week I can't believe it.  Our team is getting stronger and stronger, coming together everyday – worshipping, sharing our hearts, stories, and testimonies and it's so cool to find out the hearts of people and how different we all are.  But God has called us all to the same place and has an awesome plan for our team as a whole and for each person individually.  We are blessed.  I'm loving it here.  I love these Ugandan people and i'm looking forward to the next two months!  Love all you guys too!  Hope all is well and thank you so much for reading.  Please pray for our team – for safety and guidence. 

Apoyo Matek!  (Thank you so much)

Love you and God bless!

Jake Maxwell

PS – I met a street kid the other day who said he has too much crap to deal with and no one to help him in his life.  He said he doesn't go to church because of all of his crap.  Pray that I would see him again, and God would reveal himself in his life!