Leah's Rural Visit!

Greeting!

I am so sorry that we have not posted anything on our blog for a LONG time. The Internet has not been down. Lol! However, it has been really exciting in Uganda! Now Since the last blog we have done a million things! Therefore, I thought that this entry will solely be about this past weekend. This last weekend we went on our rural visit. I went to a little village an hour out side of Mbale. Which is about seven hours outside of Kampala. Now, let me introduce the people that i went with on my visit! They are super super stellar! The first one in the picture is Justin, Me, Britney and Florence.

Now, I don't know where to start......ok Now, we stayed with Florence family and they where so welcoming! This is a picture of all of us outside their house.

The next day when we arrived Florence took us on a hike to the waterfalls and the caves. This place was the most beautiful place i ever been to in my life! This place was really neat because we would stop at the different waterfalls and caves and after playing they would tell us different African stories!

Then after we explored we got to see a play of an actual circumcision; it was very interesting....anyways, boys get circumcised between the age of 16-20. When it is time for this ritual to happen there are tons of dancing and singing! and the boys can not show any signs of emotion! If they do show emotion the father of the boy will have to pay money for his son because he not a "real"man! lol However, this ritual is a sign that you are now a man so this is very important! This was an experience of a life time!

So first picture is of the boys getting ready for the ritual, then the other picture is of me dancing in the ritual. However, Florence was just laughing at me the whole time! lol

The rest of the day we ate dinner, miked a cow, and we looked at all the bright stars! I swear that the stars are brighter here in Africa! I have never seen them sooooo bright!

Then, on Sunday before church we helped start lunch. Let me tell you what, we had to kill a chicken! well i did not kill the chicken b/c i was a chicken! So Justin did the honors for us. In Uganda it is considered an honor to kill a chicken. Now this is an experience that I will NEVER forget!

Then we went to an small village church that was on fire about God. However, the sad part about going to church was that the preacher said that to receive blessings from God one must give money to the church! This made me feel really sad for the people in the small village who are trying everyday just to meet their basic needs! However, the preacher had a great heart and talked about the blessing it was for us to go to church! We met his family and he had three children of his own and he adopted four other children. His hope is someday to build an orphanage in this community because there is not one any where around.

Pretty much that is the quick over view of my rural visit! But let me tell you there is more to the story! But i should save that for another day.

now....as a part of this blog I truly feel like I should share what I have been going through personally.

Now after attending classes and being apart of the culture, I have truly realized that American and others who come over to Africa with good intentions of helping them out, teaching them about Jesus has actual has hurt them and their culture. I am struggling if I should ever become a missionary in fear that i may make a culture fall apart just b/c I "think" I know what is best! I found out the God can look a little different than what He looks like in the States. So thank God that i am here at Go-Ed because I am learning WHAT NOT to do in a culture that is not your own! So Becca and i came to the conclusion that maybe the best thing we can do is to start a NGO or something that would tell different ministries how to effectively minister to their community or something! lol However, it is really cool to see that Food for the Hungry is taking the to time to educate students like us who is getting frustrated and passionate about missions!

Also, Jordon and I found out where we are going to do our practicum. I am going to Mbale, Uganda. There i will be working with a child's sponsorship program. In addition ill be working with after school program, hospitals, going to their houses, and such. Please be praying for me b/c Mbale is somewhat near Kenya! it is safe b/c FH would not send me if it was not safe. But Please be praying for Kenya because it is starting to get worst! However, we will be leaving in less than two weeks. Now, Jordon is going to Ethiopia teaching English to "10th grade" students! he super excited! anyways this is a long blog but, believe me it is very short and brief of what is actually going on!

Thank you for all your comments! Everything is going amazing! We Love it here soooo much, i think i am having the time of my life! I am learning so much and i truly believe that God is taking this time to truly shape Jordon and I lives! Oh we are going white water rafting this weekend YEAH! oh one last note! Jordon and I would like to extend a thank you to Bradleyville church for donating for our African trip! I can not express how much this church means to us! You guys are amazing and are an true example of what a church should be! Thank you again and may God bless you! Well miss you all. Hope to do more post soon.....if the Internet works lol