italy

i really feel like this blog is already a bit of a lost cause..but i'll post again anyways. the last few days i have been with my parents and my brother and his wife in italy. things have been really amazing, italy is a pretty incredible place. the first few nights we were in venice, then verona, and now we are in rome. last night we went to an opera in a roman coliseum. it was quite the event. i guess it was opening night so everyone who had floor seats was extremely dressed up and there were even a couple news crews there interviewing people. tonight i managed to meet up with michelle and jenna who have been in europe for about a month and we had dinner and hung out a bit. pretty cool to see a couple good friends on the other side of the world. i think im going to try to meet up with them and watch the soccer game tomorrow italy vs somebody else haha should be wild people are huggge fans out here obviously. i head back to africa on tuesday, im a bit sad not to be going home from here but im excited to go back to africa as well so it all balances out i guess..dr. k isn't going to be there any more so i wont do anymore evangelism instead i think ill be working at a school, an orphanage, and an aids clinic all over the course of the next six weeks as well as hopefully doing a little work for the governor of the bank of uganda. dr. k set that up for me and im really praying that it works out because i think it would be really interesting to talk to a guy that has so much to do with the economic policy of uganda. i'm not really sure what the plan is for tomorrow but my parents hired a guide so i guess he will take care of the planning since we are only here two days i think they wanted to make the most of it. we are staying at this kind of weird hotel which is supposed to be really modern but they really only succeeded in making it really creepy, all white walls with no artwork and strange chandeliers made mostly from plastic. not really my thing i guess. well i probably wont post again till i am back in africa so until then..

three weeks in..

Well I didn't really expect to be making my first real blog post three weeks in to my trip to Africa but that seems to be how things worked out. I'll do my best to summarize what has happened realizing that you probably don't have time to read thirty pages. Most of the time I spent here so far has been evangelizing. The first week we were in a slum in downtown Kampala. The second week we were in Lawero which is about two hours outside of Kampala and the third week has been spent in Entebbe which is just outside of Kampala. I've gone from no evangelism experience at all to it basically being a part time job. I still think I'm pretty terrible at it but it really forces me to depend on God. I have certainly gotten a lot clearer on what I believe as I've had to explain it to countless people. The people we encounter are all very curious about what I, as a 6'4'' white American and less so as a missionary, have to say. This concept is a little hard to explain. It's not that they are so grateful to hear me talk about God. It's more like they want to hear what the white person has to say. Our translators and fellow evangelizers have explain that when we are with them people are much nicer to them and Dr. K calls us their passports. This isn't because we are such great people. It has everything to do with the color of our skin. I've come a long ways in three weeks but I still feel completely insufficient. The fact that God continues to use me is really astounding. It looks like this post is going to be much shorter than I planned because my friends are back and we need to catch a taxi back to Dr. K's but while I am in Italy beginning next Saturday I will post a lot so check back soon.

untitled

if you go to africa with a hard heart, you come back with a soft heart,
if you go to africa with a soft heart, you come back with a broken heart,
if you go to africa with a broken heart, you don't come back.

a couple weeks closer

My dad just sent me some pictures that I thought were pretty cool but they require a little explanation so here goes..My parents went to Uganda last year with their church, Covenant Community Church (that was redundant). They did various mission oriented things including helping build this orphanage and doing home visits with care packages our church put together. The trip was very successful and everyone came back with many tales of God's goodness. While they were there they learned that their tour guide, Willy, had had a hip replacement when he was younger. Apparently though the replacement hip that he received was too small for him. To make a long story short CCC raised enough money to get him a plane ticket over here and my dad convinced Mayo to give Willy a new hip and the surgeries he needed to have it put in pro-bono. My parents and myself have gotten to know Willy pretty well now because he is staying at my parent's place in Phoenix while he goes through all these painful surgeries and rehabilitation. I didn't know this till I received an email from my dad this afternoon but I guess CCC has been helping finance the building of a church for Willy's pastor in Uganda as well and the pictures I am posting are of this church being built. That was a rather lengthy explanation but I think the pictures are cool enough to merit it...so without further ado here they are.

That's Lake Victoria in the background of a couple of those pictures and I'm pretty sure that's Willy's pastor and maybe his wife and a few friends. My dad also told me if I find myself without much to do, unlikely I think, I could go out there and help with the construction of the church. I leave for Phoenix tomorrow to get another four shots. I'm hoping I get the same nurse. She mentioned that one of the main reasons shots sting like they do is because many nurses don't wait for the rubbing alcohol they wipe your arm with to dry before they stick the needle in...Why haven't I heard that before?? I feel like this little piece of knowledge might have saved me quite a bit of pain growing up. Saturday my dad is taking me to get some gear at REI. I guess there is this clothing line called Buzz-Off which contains mosquito repellent in the material the clothes are made out of. Exciting right?

everything starts somewhere

Well, I leave for Africa in less than a month. I still don't really know what to expect. I'm sitting here listening to the soundtrack to the movie "Into the Wild" (great movie and greater soundtrack although my buddy John would tell you I fell asleep halfway through it) and trying to come up with a good explanation for why I feel like I need to do this. Mostly I guess I stumbled on to the opportunity. My parent's church was having a missions conference and one of the speakers happened to be a guy named Henry Krabbendam. I'll do my best to explain what I know about him although I'm still not really sure how he got so involved in Uganda. He's a professor at Covenant College in Georgia. He's very Dutch, very big, and very merry, I think my favorite thing about him so far aside from his strong Dutch accent though is the way he writes emails.

Jeff:

PRAISE THE LORD...WE ARE TRAVELING MAY 6, JUNE 1, OR TAILORMAKE A
TRIP...
MAY 6 IS THE BEST, BUT WHICH ONE WOULD FIT YOUR SCHEDULE BEST...THE
MOMENT YOU LET ME KNOW I AIM TO TALK DETAILS...:)....Greetings to the
family and the church...

In HIM,
hk

All caps, full of love and excitement, and very to the point. Anyways, my parents have explained to me that he is very well connected in Uganda and these connections will afford me many different opportunities while I am there. As far as I know these opportunities include working at a school, working with a company that digs wells for villages around Uganda, and working with a guy who is important in the world of finance in Uganda. I will also be meeting up with a group from my church for a couple weeks and doing some different things with them. In the middle of all this I will be flying north to be with my family for two weeks while we travel around Italy. This is really ALL I know about this trip. I know no one else in Uganda besides Dr. K and my plans for while I am there are no more nailed down than what I described to you already. I am full of anticipation..

If you are wondering about the political situation in Uganda I have found a great source in www.allafrica.com also the BBC tends to do a good job covering eastern African current events as well. But really watch "Into the Wild" it's amazing.