Day 2

Hey all! I'll just jump right into today, it was a busy one!!

This morning I read 2 Peter 1 and some of the verses I really really liked were 3-11. I especially focused today on the part that says we need to suplement our faith with virtue, virtue with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with steadfastness, steadfastness with godliness, godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. And (here comes an awesome promise!!) if we have these and they are increasing in us, then we will be kept from "being ineffective or unfruitful." Awesome!

I was praying this morning that I would have one good conversation today and God bless me with two!! I'll go into that more later.

We began the day with a breakfast at MUBS again. It was a slower morning since we were all so tired from yesterday. And then we left for the Ugandan Parliament (this is the governing body that rules over all of Uganda with a President). On the way, I saw a bunch of cars with signs on them saying things like "God is great" and "glory be to God" and "Jesus died for you" and things like that. They are not uncommon so I dont know why I didn't see them yesterday. So that was encouraging. Anyway, we toured the Ugandan parliament and I noticed that the motto for Uganda on the crest is "For God and my country." That was pretty cool.

Then made our way back to MUBS for lunch and on the way, one of the MUBS guys was showing me some of the larger buildings in the city and mentioned that one of them was a church. And here was the opportunity for a conversation that I'd been praying for. I asked if he had a church and we got to talk about religion vs. a relationship and going through the motions for a little bit. It wasn't a very long conversation and I was not able to full out share the gospel but I need to later this trip. He is not a Christian (yet) so you can be praying for him.

Interesting random tangent: at lunch I sat next to a guy from MUBS who hadn't been there yesterday and he said his name was Deo (pronounced DayO) and his name is a nickname for deogracias which means "Thank God" cool huh?

Oh and yesterday at breakfast, the first table I sat at was a guy from MUBS who was reading a men's pocket Bible, which was really encouraging so we talked about bibles for a bit.
But back to today:

Then we made our way to the Bugandan Parliament (this is the government of one of the tribes of Uganda that rules with a King/Queen kind of system. it gets a little sticky with the two types of governments in one). They told us about how the system works and we talked to the minister of education (so we didn't get to meet the Queen) and toured the palace grounds. While there, the grounds keeper/tour guide guy told us that when people meet the King, they need to bow down to him as a sign of respect. I got a little worried because I was not going to bow to anyone, God is the only person I bow to (God says very clearly that He is the only one we should be bowing down to). But we weren't going to meet the King anyway. It would have been a cool witness to the group but i'm glad the situation didn't come up.

The king in Buganda is treated like, well, a king (the phrase makes more sense to me now that I see what a king is treated like). He has a huuuuge palace and they close the roads down when he goes out and people bow to him. the craziest thing is that they made a man-made lake for the king. it's the second largest man-made lake in africa so it's huge. and even more then that, no one is allowed to use it besides the king who never does so it just sits there and people volunteer to keep it up (without getting paid anything) for him. Wow.

While we were touring the grounds, 7 or 8 little kids popped up out of the woody place nearby wanting to play with us and they surrounded us. I had some candy to give them and we took pictures of and with them (they absolutely love seeing pictures of themselves). One of the little girls ran up to Susie and grabbed her hand and didn't let go until we left like half an hour later, it was so great. These kids were so playful and happy even though they have practically nothing. and they were sooooo cute!

We we left the kids (reluctantly) and started making our way back to MUBS to drop the MUBS students off. The bus ride was a long one so I got to talk to one of the MUBS girls for a long time about anything and everything. She mentioned my tattoo and up popped opportunity number 2 (God is sooo faithful!!!). So I shared a little of my testimony with her and she told me that she became a Christian when she was a senior, praise the Lord!

After they left, we went to dinner at a chinese place (weird huh) and we got a very blunt reminder of what it's like to live out of fellowship. The conversation at the table was so worldly, all about boyfriends, and drinking, and not anything worth while. The three of us talked a little about what we had read that day with each other to get out of that conversation but it was hard since we were completely surrounded by it. It's going to be harder then I thought. I think we do stand out as Christians which is good, but we could stand out more, and now we just need the boldness and opportunities to share why we stand out so much from the others.

So I'll end with prayer requests:
Boldness! and wisdom to know whether to share in group situations like dinner tonight or one on one once we have built relationships
More opportunities for conversations
that we will stand out more and not seem to be at all a part of the world
For soft hearts from the Ugandans and Drake students
Faithfulness and learning
That we would be used like crazy on this trip!

Love you all, Loren