Weekend in Busia

We spent our last weekend in Busia with the church rather than traveling back to Kampala with Pastor Michael. On Saturday we basically hung out with the Compassion Internaltional sponsor kids. We worshipped with them that morning in the church where they packed close to 300 children in that tiny room. Then we taught them Bible stories during their morning lessons.

In the afternoon we played games with them, the boys played footbal (soccer), basketball, and volleyball with them.

 Then we watched as the kids were given their new school uniforms for the year. That was such a treat! All the kids lined up and waited patiently for probably one of two new outfits they would be given all year long, the other being at Christmas.

A lot of the kids were wearing TOMS shoes. They are an organization where you are able to buy a pair of shoes for yourself and by doing that you pay for not only your shoes but also the production, shipping, and distribution of a pair of shoes to a child who lives in a impoverished area of the world.

This was also the day of Timmy's nose bleed. He had been suffering all week of a head cold due to the dry area and dust. So after days of congestion his nose had just about had it. Right after he had been spontaneously asked to do the morning devotions (five minutes before it started), his nose began to bleed. He stepped outside and everyone thought that the nose bleed was due to the Holy Spirit. We explained that was not the case, he had just had a cold all week they then thought he had malaria and needed to be quarantined. We then had to convince them he did not have malaria and we were taking preventive medication for that, it was just a head cold. Finally they believed us and someone went to get him tissues. 

Mom also had a funny experience that day. Shortly after we got there she saw a small group of kids near the school buildings and decided it would be nice to go hand out crosses. Little did she know, kids jump out of bushes (or wherever they hide) when there is the prospect of treats. She was rushed as soon as they realized what was going on. After a few minutes Sylver and Irene came to her rescue and lined them all up hoping that would eliminate possible mugging. Sadly she did not have enough crosses for all the kids who showed up. Maybe next time. 

Sunday was the church service. All nine churches meet at Buteba and Dad preached. They then had a gift appreciation "ceremony." The women of the churches gave mom and me beautiful cloths and handmade purses. The men presented Dad, Jonathan, Paul, and Timmy with plaques made from seeds and beans. Then they gave us gifts of produce. This included corn, avocados, eggs, and most interestingly: three chickens. Then they handed mom one of the chickens, this was the result: 

Give a city girl a chicken... Oh, it was funny. Unfortunately we couldn't keep any of the produce so we gave it to our driver, Michael. After the service we drove back to Kampala. Our intention was to do some sightseeing on the way, we were going to go on a tour of the source of the Nile in Jinja. Unfortunately we had a flat tire which took two hours to repair. But we were able to stop by the Baptist Seminary of Uganda which is in Jinja. We met one of the teacher/administrators there, Vernon Sivage. He invited us in, took us for a tour, then feed us and gave us water before we had to continue on. We arrived in Kampala late that night and went straight to bed, for we were exhausted!