Good evening everybody.
I hope this update finds you all well. As always thank you for your love, support
and prayers.
On Saturday I journeyed to visit my friend Sharron in a
small village near the Tanzanian border.
The journey was somewhat uneventful on the way, unlike my last trip, but
certain things still strike me as crazy as ever, even though I have seen them
before. I could have eaten lots of
exciting things on the way as hawkers thrust grasshoppers, goat’s meat and
plantain bananas through the windows of the ‘taxi’, but I declined as I don’t
travel terribly well at the best of times.
It is grasshopper season and they are apparently a delicacy – mum and I
tried them during one of our trips, but weren’t terribly enamoured by
them. I praise God that I reached the
village safely and returned in one piece.
The road I was travelling on is called Massaka Road – but I have heard
it referred to as Masacre Road before, due to the high number of accidents. I
had a lovely time with Sharron and her family.
It was lovely to catch up with her brothers, Shadrack and Shafic
also. A massive thank you to those who
have helped out with their school fees this academic year. The journey home took forever! I lost count
of the number of times we stopped. The
driver and conductor seemed to think it was a bit of a ‘jolly’. We stopped umpteen times at market stalls to do
their personal shopping and then took a massive d-tour to pick up some extra
passengers, before taking another d-tour so that these passengers could do some
of their business...only in Africa!
I enjoyed spending some time with the babies at safe house
on Monday afternoon. They are easily
amused – some chocolate biscuits and some songs/videos on my laptop – and they
are content. Please pray for these
little babies. Their English is
virtually non-existent, but love can cross language barriers. Please pray that they would feel loved and
special.
I am thankful for those who come along faithfully to the
savings group on Monday evenings. This
group has a lot of potential, but it also requires patience. Being part of such a group may not reap
immediate benefits, please pray that the members would be patient and that with
time they would be able to testify to the benefits themselves.
I have had some encouraging conversations and interactions
with Fred this week – which I am so thankful for. Please continue to pray for complete healing
and transformation. He is showing signs
that he is on the journey – so let’s continue to remember him in our prayers.
Poor little Zalika had been sent home from school today – so
I decided I would go to her home and do some work with her from there. She is such a sweet and appreciative
girl. She continues to help me with my
Luganda and I continue to work on English with her. Her mama said something to Zalika before I
left and Zalika translated. Her mama was
requesting the equivalent of 50p as the family didn’t have food for today. Zalika, bless her, asked in such a humble and
gentle way. She said ‘Aunty I love you
so much and I am sorry but my mother is requesting 2000 for food.’ This child obviously felt guilty asking me
for money – but she had nothing to be sorry for and obviously I was happy to
help them out in such a small way. I get
asked for money on a daily basis and sometimes it is demanded in not very
pleasant ways – so it was so humbling and lovely that little Zalika asked in
such a nice manner.
This afternoon I went to the slums to see Dennis, who I
talked about in my last update. We went
together to the organisation that I mentioned last day – Retrack. The staff member we spoke with was very
helpful and informed Dennis of the opportunities that are available with
Retrack. The opportunities are
there. Please pray that Dennis would
embrace them and start on the journey of change. Again he was very humble this afternoon,
which was lovely as I am getting used to people being quite rude to me! As he
hugged me goodbye and returned to the slums for the night he said, ‘Thank you
so much aunty for everything.’
I want to echo Dennis’ words as I finish – ‘Thank you so
much for everything.’ Whilst each day
brings so many frustrations and sometimes pain, I have so much to be thankful for. Thanks for your prayers and love x
Good to hear that had a good time with Fred.
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