Not sure what day it is.

Ok at this point I have lost track of what day I am on. I will start with explaining briefly my time in the village last week but will save some stories for home. So! Monday September 8th the team left for the village. Let me explain that most of the outreach and things we do are in a village called Zirobwe which is 2 hours from Ntinda which is where I'm staying! The organization (eac) has a school out there and has teachers to teach at the primary school. They also have a church out there which we attend every Sunday. The area where the church is, is exactly where they used to have child sacrifices and mass amount of witch craft events. It is amazing to see the Holy Spirit move and have empower a child be able to purchase all this land and start using it to glorify God. There are still plenty of witch doctors but as we continue to evangelize I am excited to see God work and move in the hearts of these people. Monday I hung out with a bunch of kids at tier house and got to just spend time with them. When I was walking down the road I had the chance to pump water from a bore hole. It was awesome to be able to help kids pump water and walk along side them as they carried it home. Tuesday was probably my favourite time at the village. I ended up going with a lady to visit her house. I thought it was going to take maybe 20 mins toget there.... Well no it took more like 2 and a half hours. When we arrived there me and another intern here we were served tea and peanuts. It wS the best tea ever!! And wow this woman, Maggie; told us her story. Basically to keep it short I learnt that she has a heart to serve others and make sure they are well and kept in good care. She wants to help her community. How awesome is that to hear her wanting to put others above herself! So encouraging. We ended up walking to her friends garden and it felt like I was in actually Africa. It was just trees and land and more trees. We took another long trek back to the church which took a bit longer but the walking was SO worth it! Tuesday morning I had tons of sugar cane and had a very eventful shower. In the afternoon Lydia and myself went to teach English to a mother. We were there for an hour and taught her how to pronounce and write a, b, c and d. After we hung out with the family and just took tons of pictures. Myself and another intern here bathed with another lady from the UK here. Let's just say us white people glow in the dark and it's extremely difficult to bath out of a basin. It was a night full of laughter and dropping the soap several times. Thursday I woke up and saw the beautiful sunrise! It was breathtaking and it felt like I was in Africa once again! Once we got back to Ntinda after leaving the village we (all the MST's) and Shannen went for ice cream. Wow after 4 days of hot sweaty Zirobwe a cold ice cream come hit the spot. Friday was a planning day and we got planned for the next week. It was very successful. Saturday.. Ok mom and dad your probably reading this waiting to read about Saturday. We started our day by going to the hospital and went to the paediatrics wing and prayed for kids and hand out Bibles. Wow was it ever amazig to see a lady get healed. Her eye was hurting and we prayed and the swelling went down and no more pain!! PTL! Then we prayed for Tonny... Tonny is one of the kids who lives here at the guesthouse with us. He is 15 years old and has lymph node cancer. He is at stage 4 and is on his second round of chemo. He is in a lot of pain so keep him in your prayers. After the hospital we went to an American cafe and had some American food boy was it ever great! Then we started to make our way to downtown Kampala which is where Watoto church is located. Once we arrived we were told by an American lady, police officers and other Africans that we should get home ASAP and find a safe place. There ended up being a terrorism threat and their target was large groups like Watoto church and other large places. We noticed there were hardly ANY mizungoos on the street so we knew if the police told us to go home we needed to get home. We got home safely and were in a very safe place. Today the US embassy notified us and said it's clear and we are good to go anywhere now. My week has been very very busy and chaotic but God has taught me many things. 

1.   When there was a threat on Kampala my faith was tested. I wS in downtown Kampala where I could maybe be in tons of trouble; a) I could either cry and freak out. Which I did cry a little. Or b) I could cling to Gods word and pray continuously. I don't think I have ever prayed so intensely in my life. It is not until you feel unsafe when you feel like the only answer is Jesus. It was at that moment on Saturday afternoon when I was riding a Boda Boda back to the guesthouse and felt the Holy Spirit have his hand over me an the rest of the white people on my team. 

2. I have had a really hard time seeing other people on the team have so much culture shock. They are heart broken by the poverty and how hard life is here. Since I have been here in Uganda I have only seen pure Joy in the people. I haven't seen poverty, or filth, or other things that are attached to the name of "third world country". God has showed me and has brought my eyes to the attention of not letting the earthly things like how much money a person has here or how nice their house is or how many meals they get. All he is showing me is their faith and how they are content with what they have. Now don't get me wrong; yes I see the dirty streets but I don't see people as "lower" than me. All I can do is look at their faith in God and be encouraged by the way God has been at work in their life and what I can take away from it. It's hard to explain sometimes on a blog but I can't wait to explain I full detail when I get home what God is teaching me here. 

I leave for Zirobwe on Tuesday and am excited to start doing manual labour and hang out with kids at their houses. Thank you everyone at home for the prayers and can definitely say God is working through me in so many ways and I am so excited to share with you that it is the Holy Spirit moving in me not myself doing things. Can't wait to share my next week in the village with you on Friday! 

God bless, 

Alison 

This is the my class on the first day of teaching. Let me just say that they speak no English and it was the most frustrating morning ever. At least I got them to write down the teachers name (my name) down. Right?