It's been a long time, been a long time......

The LEFC team left this morning. The past two weeks have been filled with schools, orphanages, huts, whitewater rafting, and plenty of starchy Ugandan food. To be honest, I love the food but after a few weeks the choice between rice, posho (gelatinous rice), matoke (mashed plantains), and mashed potatoes doesn’t seem like much of a choice at all. The mangos, passion fruits, jackfruit, pineapple, and guacamole certainly make up for it though.

The team leaving has left a bit of sadness over the day. Many Ugandans at Makerere Community Church began to feel a deep connection with the LEFC team and were genuinely disappointed to see them go. The LEFC team was consistently inspiring and humbling to work with. Each student had a deep maturity beyond their, and often times my, years. They accomplished a lot and loved about as much as they could in these past two weeks. I am proud to be a part of them.

After dropping them off at the airport, the rest of my day has been spent in three activities that I haven’t done much of in the past few days; reading, sleeping, and prayer/meditation. The lack of those essentials and a busy schedule are the reasons that I haven’t posted recently.

Let’s go with one story from the past week. A few days ago the team took a whole bunch of handmade blankets to New Hope for Africa, an orphanage outside of Kampala. There are about 400 orphans here and thanks to the diligence of a lot of people in Lancaster, each one got a blanket. For the past two months a former counselor at Pine Valley Bible Camp, Jess Andrews, worked there. She left two days before we got there, but certainly left a mark on the students/orphans. As soon as the students saw the LEFC team, they wanted to sing the songs that she taught them for us. One of the songs was “Give Me a J,” my favorite song from Pine Valley. It goes like this.

Give me a J….. J, you want your J you got your J.

Give me a E….. E, you want your E you got your E.

Give me a S….. S, you want your S you got your S.

Give me a U….. U, you want your U you got your U.

Give me a S….. S, you want your S you got your S.

What does that spell? JESUS

Who do we love? JESUS

Who do we serve? JESUS

Who died for us? JESUS

If the song is done right, it’s pretty much a spectacle. In three years at camp, I loved watching pure joy when the students sang that song. Seeing the same joy in a bunch of little kids faces halfway across the world in Uganda almost made me break down in tears. It might have been one of the most powerful moments of my life.

The same light casts out the same darkness, no matter the continent.

Well, I’m off to hang out with some Ugandans for the evening and it will probably last all night. Hopefully more posting will happen since the LEFC team is gone and I’ll have some more free time.

Much love,

Dave