Laughing and crying all at the same time...

It's already the beginning of February...I can't believe it! I have about a hundred and one things to include in this post but hopefully it's all interesting so you won't get bored...here we go! Oh, can you figure out when I laughed and cried at the same time in this blog??
So I told you a bit about David in my last post and how he's a bit of a character. Well, as I write this, he's got a tensor bandage strung from one of the poles on our veranda to the top of a chair as a sling shot. It's hilarious. Every couple of minutes he'll get everything ready, take a shot (falling over in the process), run out to the yard and yell, “Hey Rianne! It landed way over here! How many yards do you think it went?” and then come back to do it again. I love this kid!
Just over a month ago, Mandy and I headed to Ushindi Secondary School for a yearly Youth Camp that a few churches in town organize. We stayed for a few days and lived like Africans - fetching our own water in our own gerry cans, bucket-bathing with very VERY little privacy, waking up at 5 AM for morning devotions, eating local food for every meal...it was quite an experience. Oh yes, and we danced...it wouldn't be a true African experience without it. As soon as any kind of music was played, the whole room began to move! People kept encouraging us and telling us, “you dance” or “you be free...you dance”. No matter how much we told them that white girls can't dance, they would not let us stand still - I think they just wanted to laugh at us. But we did our best. As long as we were at least moving from side to side they were happy.
One of my favorite memories was on one of the last days of camp. There was a band to lead the worship sessions but it was all guys who knew how to play the instruments...piano, drums (on a synthesizer), bass guitar and acoustic guitar. One morning all the boys were sent out to do the washing up so the girls were left to do our own thing. One of the girls said, “Well, what can we do? There are no boys to play the instruments!” It didn't take long to decide that we would sing and worship anyways – with or without instruments. So a couple of girls took the microphones and started singing. Then one girl walked up to the piano and started pretending that she was some professional piano player, then someone else went up and picked up one of the guitars...before long, there was a whole crowd of girls at the front of the room, pretending to be rockstars.
It was hilarious. We were all laughing so hard and having such a good time acting like we knew what we were doing. The guys eventually came back shaking their heads and laughing at us rather than with us but we didn't care, we were having a great time.
A few days after Youth Camp, Mandy and I headed down to Kampala and Jinja for about a week. Once a year, Africa Inland Mission has a conference for their different regions. We are part of Central Region which also includes Rwanda, Southern Sudan, Congo, Chad and Uganda. This year we met in Jinja at a wonderful place called “King Fisher” - a beautiful location right on the Nile.
It was an awesome time for us to connect with other missionaries that we had heard about but had not yet met and just spend some days resting and relaxing. A few of us got on a boat and floated around on the Nile which was amazing...here's some pictures...
the first is of a few of us on the boat and the second is the land mark of the source of the Nile.
I came away from conference with a renewed and refreshed passion for my ministry here in Arua. There have been a lot of different struggles over the last few months but God just made it clear to me that Arua is where He has called me. This was difficult yet easy to swallow – difficult because I had started to set my heart on a different ministry but easy because I knew it was God that was leading me. He has my best interests in mind and knows the perfect time for everything – I have definitely been learning how to tune in to God's timing rather than my own. So that was Conference.
We ended up staying in Kampala for an extra day because I had to make a lovely visit to the dentist. On the second day of Conference I was in my room and all of a sudden my front teeth felt wierd. All alone in the room I said, “You have GOT to be kidding me!” - I knew exactly what had happened. A few years ago I had chipped my front tooth and the bonding became weak since it had been fixed and I was now back to having ¾ of a tooth instead of a whole one. (How I cracked it the first time is a whole other story!) The good news is that it's fixed and it cost me like ¼ of the price it would have in Canada! So if you ever want to crack your teeth, do it in Africa – it's much more affordable!
And since we were in Kampala for the extra day, we heard there was a football game - Uganda Cranes versus Kenya-something-or-other (Si, maybe you can help me out with the name)...Uganda won! ! It was awesome. Mandy and I met up with another AIM Short-termer named Brandy and we joined in the fun...it was crazy! My camera was not taking good pictures but hopefully you can see the score. 1-0. It turns out it was a championship game as well. Yay Uganda!
Well, life in Arua has not slowed down and it probably won't for the next few months. We are still involved in weekly house-visits, Bible Studies, language lessons, Sunday School, mentoring and many other random, unplanned things. Mandy and I have been mentoring a group of teenage girls for the last few months and last night they came over to our house and made cupcakes with us.
They are super interested in learning what we make for food and how we do it...so we had a cupcake decorating party. It was great! We were only counting on about four girls and all of a sudden there were nine girls crowded in our kitchen and dining room. Who would have thought cake would attract so many girls??There are also a few things on-the-go right now. Krys, John and I have been working with some of the youth of Emmanuel Cathedral to make a Youth Bible Study Guide. This has been an enormous task and one that takes much more thought and planning than I had ever imagined. For some reason I just assumed we would pull some material together, print it and hand it out. Instead it's turned into writing our own material, training small group leaders, and editing all of the material we have come up with. As we dive more into where this ministry can go, the responsibilities and tasks will continue to expand - I'm SO blessed to have John and Krys who have been so helpful along the way!
Mandy and I are also planning a soccer tournament for some of the Sunday Schools in the area. I've been playing soccer 2 mornings a week with some of the missionary kids in town so we are planning to have them join the tournament too! There will be more details about that as the planning continues!
Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support.
Please continue to pray for all of the different ministries we are involved in - for the girls we are mentoring, for the kids we teach in Sunday School, for the group that is developing the Bible Study Guide, for the soccer tournament outreach, for the families we have spent time with in our house-visits, for the relationships we continue to build...God has been molding us and shaping us and growing us in crazy ways and it has been through the people and opportunities in Mvara...please pray that God would continue to grow His Church here!
Well, that's all for now! It's time to go pack...the Cassels and Mandy and I are heading out on a 3 day safari in the morning. WOO HOO!!! I have been waiting SO long to see a REAL giraffe on the African plain and I get to see one tomorrow!!!
Until next time...