Our Day in Jinja

Hi everyone,

Thanks so much for your support and prayers back home throughout the time we have served here in Uganda.

On Sunday, we travelled to Jinja and visited Pastor David's church for worship. What a lively service it was, complete with celebration, dancing and singing from the platform, a terrific message delivered by Pastor Justus (a message on the theme of "Where are you?" based on Genesis 3), and a warm, warm welcome from the congregation. We were given an opportunity to introduce ourselves during the service, and when the service was over, we connected with a couple from Oregon who are in Jinja working on setting up a women's clinic there. Pastor David was thrilled to see the Forestview team - he looks very well and his glowing smile brightens up an entire room! As has been the pattern throughout our trip, Forestview is always fondly in the hearts of those who greet us and have made previous connections with teams that have visited! It is an honour to represent our Grimsby church as we bring greetings on behalf of our congregation back home.

After the service concluded, we enjoyed a lunch (many of us enjoying whole Tilapi fish and chips) at a beautiful hotel overlooking Lake Victoria. It even came complete with the spotting of what we believed was a crocodile entering the water by the shore, a monitor lizard, large bats roosting in a palm tree, and a variety of beautiful water birds. Quite a beautiful place! We enjoyed good fellowship together with lots of fun and laughter.Our party at lunch included Pastor David, along with Sarah and Pastor Justus from IN,  Stephen, who serves as deputy at the primary school in Kiyindi, Daniel our driver for the journey, and of course our team. After browsing in some shops in Jinja, we returned home to Buikwe, where we enjoyed dinner and then did some packing in preparation for our departure from the compound on Monday.

We will be taking some time with Sarah and Pastor Justus to debrief on Monday morning, and say some final goodbyes before we head out to Kampala.On the way to Kampala we will visit Irene.In Kampala we will do a little shopping and then head on to Entebbe, where we will rest and then head to the airport around 3 am Tuesday morning to get our boarding passes. We fly out of Entebbe at 5 am, heading to Nairobi, then board a second plane that will take us on to Amsterdam. Our final flight to Toronto will land Tuesday evening EST!

We have made so many new friends here in Uganda and it has been such a blessing to not only reach out, but also be embraced by such a beautiful community of people. It will be very difficult to say goodbye! We look forward to sharing with you about our experiences, in words and pictures, when we return home!

Blessings,

Paul