Thursday, September 10, 2009

Greg's First UG post!

yep, I'm letting Greg take over my blog again. . but this time he's being serious! He is in Uganda right now! He's leading a trip of some of our amazing friends and some cool new people he's just meeting. I should have a new blog post every day or so from him or someone else on the trip! Read on. . and be praying! (not just for their trip, but for my aching heart while they are there and I am not!)



Day One- Travel

Today started well, I woke up at the Weir’s home in Houston bright and early thanks to Bob Mudd J Bob called to pray with me prior to getting on a flight to Alabama . In Bob’s defense he thought that I had an early flight. Really appreciate his heart and his commitment to the work of HopeChest.


Had a great morning, even got a quick workout in. Russ worked from home for the morning and after a parting trip to Chick-fil-a we headed to the Houston airport. Really easy and very fast trip through check in and security (which made for a lot of free time at the gate). One minor hitch to remember for future trips, they wouldn’t allow my back pack to qualify as a personal item so I had to check my carry on. After a little pleading with them they checked it for free. They wanted to charge me $150 but after explaining to them that the two checked bags were full of donations they agreed to check the 3rd.

The flight to Amsterdam was fine, had an exit row seat but very little/no sleep. The couple sitting next to me were one of those couples, very nice, but listened to their earphones the entire trip, and talked all night (at a level loud enough to be heard over the earphones) Brandi will be proud of me, I fought the urge to say something and for the first time, won.


Arrived in Amsterdam and met up with most of the team. Really excited about the team we have …it should be good. We have folks from all over the country and it is a very diverse group of people, but the cool thing is that they are passionate about God’s work and are committed to engaging the local church in ministry to the orphan.

I am sitting on the flight to Uganda right now, we should arrive around 8:30 pm and we’ll spend the night at a guesthouse near Kampala. Tomorrow will be good… heading to Rapha (pictures will follow) and then to visit our friend Katie Davis.

I know that there isn’t much content to the post…sorry… I’ve been sitting on a plane and there’s not much exciting about that. I promise you that the future posts will be better, even if I have to get someone else to write them. J

I got word from our country director Joseph that it has been raining which is a huge blessing as Uganda has had a drought for the majority of the year. There are tens of thousands of people facing starvation as the lack of rain directly impacts the food supply. Praise God for the rain it is needed, the problem is that it may make some of the roads impassable which may require some flexibility on our parts.

God has a plan and a purpose for this trip and I am confident that it will all work out. We would greatly appreciate your prayers.

More to come… can’t wait to get to Rapha. Oh and by the way I am really tired!


Day One continued

We arrived at the guest house…it is very nice, and we had a great dinner at ~11:00pm followed by an hour of organizing our physical donations as well as cash donations…praise God we received hundreds of pairs of underwear, thousands of pencils, a suitcase full of vitamins, balls, clothes, and toys. God also provided just short of $10,000 for us to meet needs on the ground!

We got some pictures of us organizing the donations and as soon as I get high speed internet we will upload some.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thankful you are there safe and sound. So glad they didn't charge for the extra bag. We will be praying for you and your team. Love, Mom and Dad

Kathy said...

Thanks for posting! I want to hear everything you have to share! I am heading to Uganda next Tuesday for a 3 week trip to Redeemer House Orphanage in Busiga (near Kampala on Gaba Road). Can hardly wait to get there.

Praying that your trip is a blessing to those you serve and to those who are serving. Bless you all, and all those who gave so that you could come and share.

Beautiful Mess said...

Praying for you and the team! God bless!

Kim said...

I have been a crazed woman checking this blog every 5 minutes to hear about your trip! I am so glad I can live vicariously through you. Don't forget to love on my girl Harriet at Rapha!

I am praying through the many facets of this trip, trusting God to use all of you for His glory!

In Christ,
Kim

Wendi said...

so glad for any and all updates...thanks Greg!

jena said...

Praying like the mad woman I am for the teams time!