Monday, July 27

We arrived in Gulu around 4:30 pm after an 10 hour bus ride from Jinja. That was.......... Interesting. Our bus was lively and fun, but it was hard. Traveling that far without much space is always difficult. It took us around 2 hrs just to get through Kampala which is chaos. The driving here is like a rollercoaster. Fast. Twists and turns. Near misses. And you end up screaming at some point! There are no lights or lines on the road. You have to be aggressive or you will not make it. I cannot count the time we have come flying past another bus, car, motorcycle, or person so close you can reach out and touch. Scary.

But the trip was long. The team is very tired and prayers for rest tonight. Everyone needs it. Gulu is hotter, dryer, dustier, and more desparate. This place is a war torn area trying to recover. The kids tomorrow will be more aggressive because violence is what they have known. It will be crazy and we need prayers for tomorrow. Rest and peace tonight and covering tomorrow. It is hard to describe this way, but the camps are just different. We want to be a blessing tomorrow. That starts with rest.

We crossed the Nile river on the way here and saw some amazing rapids. It got most of us excited about this Saturday when we float the Nile in Jinja. What a treat it will be at the end of the trip. It was beautiful. Also on our bus we picked up a guest. A huge bee, and I mean largest thing I have ever seen.... Killer size, flew into the bus and almost ate Dewey!!! Keith says it was a moth, but the way Clint, Hank, and Katie knocked each other out of the way to avoid it, I go with bee. It was a monster!!! And we almost lost Dewey!!!

When we arrived we went to the World Vision Children of War Rehab. Center. This place is special to me because it is how I heard of Uganda and the war from an article in the World Vision Magazine. There are currently 5 people there. Most are not children as they have grown up since being abducted. This is the place the former child soliders go when the army rescues them from the LRA. They treat them medically and begin to help them work through the trauma. Please, be sure to ask one of the team members about what the child soldiers have gone through because of the evil Joseph Kony. It is more impactful that an email. But... It is not a sad place. The healing and new life and forgiveness that happens is all God and grace. I weep when I hear the stories. God is at work repairing broken lives there. Powerful.

Tomorrow is the first clinic in the IDP camp Koch Gomo. We visited there on the scouting trip in 2007. Prayers for saFe travel, rest tonight, and blessings and and strength tomorrow.

Good night all. We miss you and love you. Thank you for the support.

CRT