Days 16,17,18

Hey! Long time no see :)

So we just got back from a long 3 days at Murchison Falls. This was the time that we most got to see God’s creation and some of us camped in tents but more on that later.
We started out early on Friday morning, separating into vans rather than taking the bus. I was in a car with 7 other girls from Drake (the MUBS students didn’t come with us). It was really cool being in the car with them because I got to get to know them a lot better and they saw me reading the Bible quite a bit-praise the Lord for the chance to be a witness to them. I’m really glad that we are all here so long because that means that people get the chance to know my life pretty well so the people I room with see me reading everyday and I’m sure by now they know that I am one of Gods (answered prayer request!). God is soo good! Praise the Lord that He is using us here (for things we don’t even expect and can’t imagine!)

We stopped for lunch on the way up north and it took literally 3 hours for us to finish. We ordered pretty much right away and then they started bringing out random food every once in a while going to each table asking if anyone had ordered it. After two hours of this, the teachers finally got so fed up that they actually went into the kitchen and started organizing everything. So after about an hour of them taking over, we finally all got our food and had eaten. I actually had a great time during those three hours-we got the chance to relax and hang out and catch up on the journal thing we have to do while we’re here. Everyone was complaining a ton but God gave me a lot of patience (something I don’t always have) and a good attitude about it so that was another great way to witness to people.

We got to the Red Chilli in Murchison Falls around dinner time. We checked in and they had half of us in tents and half of us in rooms. I got one of the rooms and I didn’t have a roommate yet so I got to room with one of the girls that I haven’t gotten to talk to all that much yet so it was a marvelous opportunity to get to know her better.

The next morning we got up really early, like before sunrise early, and headed out to go on a game drive around the national park. We got to the Nile River ferry right after the sun had risen and it was absolutely beautiful!!! Probably the most beautiful sunrise I’ve ever seen. I got lots of pictures too! We were in the same vans that we traveled in yesterday but they opened up the roof so we could stand up and take pictures of stuff. But we had to be careful because that is a Tsetse fly area and they said it really hurts when they bite (but we actually all got bitten and it actually isn’t as bad as a bee sting so no worries). So we headed out on our 4 hour drive. They also cautioned us about the monkeys. They (the monkeys) are comfortable around people and they know what the food sacs look like so they jump into the cars and try to get the food! Our car hid our packed breakfast’s away so this wouldn’t happen but a monkey did jump into one of the cars in front of us and tried to take food! One of the girls in the car got really scared so she threw the bag at the monkeys head, haha. Good times.

It was so beautiful, going on the game drive. It was on a huge savannah, the biggest national park in Uganda. And we got to see tons of animals – a million antelope, water buffalo, warthogs, elephants, hippos, giraffes (those were my favorites!). Wow, God does great work!!! His creation just screams His name, it was so great to see!

Then we headed to lunch after that and then went to a boat tour on the Nile. This time we were headed to see the Murchison Waterfall. We drove on the boat for a looong time (about 2 hours) before we could see the falls. They were really intense, white water spraying everywhere!! We didn’t get close enough to get wet but they brought us to a little island so we got to get out of the boat and stand on the rocks to look at the falls. Random fact: Earnest Hemingway actually had an experience near the falls. He was on a plane and it crashed on one of the banks of the Nile. He survived. Then a rescue plane came to take him home and soon after takeoff the rescue plane crashed! He survived again but the newspapers in the US couldn’t get the right story so they assumed he had died and published that he died so everyone freaked out. End random story.

One the ride back to the dock (this time only 1 hour since we were going with the current) God blessed me with a great conversation with one of the Drake professors that was there. I found out that she is a Christian (praise the Lord!) and she has an amazing story. She has dealt with a ton in her life (cancer, an unfaithful husband, messy divorce) but what she emphasized most while we were talking was that it was God that got her through it all and that she didn’t let those bad circumstances mess up her relationship with God. Wow, how encouraging!!!

Once we got back, we were all pretty exhausted so we headed to bed pretty quickly after dinner and this morning we headed out nice and early to go back to Kampala. It was a full days ride with the same girls as before so we got to bond a lot more.

I’ve been reading Revelations for the past few days and in chapters 1-3 there are a ton of great promises. In each of the 7 letters to the churches, Jesus makes a promise (through the prophet John) to “those who conquer” (I take this to mean those who are saved and therefore conquer death). Here are the 7 promises:
1. To the one who conquers, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God (woo!)
2. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death (spiritual death, the 1st death is physical)
3. To the one who conquers, I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it (hmm, interesting)
4. To the one who conquers, and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from the Father. And I will give him the Morning Star.
5. The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before His angels.
6. To the one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name.
7. To the one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on His throne.

What great promises! Praise the Lord!

Prayer Requests:
-boldness!!!
-that we will finish strong, standing out as God’s children
-faithfulness (now and after we get back with the students here)
-wisdom and humility


Love, Loren