As the trip has come to an end there are so many things I have truly loved and will miss terribly that I never thought I would. I never thought I would be physically exhausted and sweating after worship at church from so much singing and dancing. I never thought I would find myself leading worship in front of the entire Makobore student body. I never thought I would look forward to drinking porridge and eating posho and beans with Ugandan teenage boys every day. I never thought I would make friends with a man named Pius that works at a gas station in town and look forward to seeing him every...

As I sat in the middle of a worship service at the prison in Rukungiri with the African sun beating down on me, listening to dozens of inmates praise the Lord in Runyankole, I scribbled down a note that read "God can redeem anything." Over the course of these past 3 months, my heart has been overwhelmed by the brokenness that saturates this place, the darkness that is real and tangible and hangs over your head like a blanket. But this week, as the trip draws to a close and we prepare to leave Uganda for home, God has been faithful to burst into that darkness with marvelous light, reminding...

Wow. Where do I even begin? The last couple months have been all over the place. I have been happy, sad, frustrated, excited, and every emotion in between. As amazing as this adventure has been so far, I have experienced more weariness than I think I have in my whole life. There has been weariness in every form: emotional, spiritual, physical. The emotional has come from everywhere. First of all, living in a house with 15 other people, not the easiest thing to jump into! Not that I don't love showering in a room where 3 other girls sleep without a door on the shower, ha! But yeah, it is...

Our team has had the opportunity to go to Omukalere village a few times a week throughout this trip. We attend Sunday services at the church there, do door to door ministry and love on the many children who are orphans there. In one of my previous blogs I talked about Dorcus, a little girl from the village I bonded with instantly when I went the first time. Dorcus understands almost no English, but through her countless hugs and smiles, her sitting in my lap and being more than content in my arms she has shown me great love and hope. She gives me hope that there truly is joy everywhere.  I...

Had an amazing couple of weeks filled with cool experiences. It's amazing what can happen when you just let God lead and stop trying to do everything right! And it's ridiculous to think that I only have 2 weeks left in this country to have these experiences. I got to preach to about 400 high school students about the fact that God cares for them and has a purpose for them, and the words just kind of came out of my mouth without me having any idea beforehand what I was going to say – thank you Holy Spirit! Afterwards, about 20 girls came over and shook my hand simultaneously and...

2 and a half months ago, Collin met a high school student at the cathedral where we attended a church service. Today, after visiting 2 primary schools and 3 wells, I bounced around in the bed of a pickup truck headed for the Congo, having to stop on our way home to let herds of elephants cross the road. To anyone else, these 2 events might seem like random snapshots of my life in Africa. But to me, and 5 of my teammates, the chain connecting the two were so clearly and undeniably orchestrated by God, to lead us exactly where we needed to be, at exactly the right time. Though our story had its...