A sea of new...

My poor buddy on the ride home from the clinic. It's a good thing he had some M&M's to help him recover!

A full load of sweet girls heading back to the village!

Mandy (who has a crippled leg due to possibly polio) and Elizabeth.

As you can tell, we're still not real sure what to do for a group photo! We'll be working on that.

Sweet friend coloring in the sun shine.

Today was a day of firsts. I started off this morning at the clinic with Luke. He got a bacterial infection last week and was having to go to the hospital every other day for an antibiotic drip. He is the one who is in the picture with me from yesterday with the IV in his hand. Unfortunately, his little IV fell out last night and so they knew he was going to have a hard time at the clinic today. I asked if I could go with him and the nurse to the clinic so I could see how the clinic worked and to be with Luke. I knew it would be hard to watch him get an IV put in, but I completely underestimated the situation! Poor Luke fell asleep in my arms on the way to the clinic and when the nurses took him from me he didn’t wake up. When he did wake up, they were trying to put in an IV and the Sonrise nurse and I were still talking to the doctor and weren’t in the room yet. When I saw how they were going to do the IV my heart broke even more. They used a too large needle and then connected a syringe directly to the IV opening and pushed a syringe full of liquid antibiotics through it. Of course when I walked in the room Luke got even more upset and started trying to sit up and crawl to me. I tried to lean on the table and calm him down but there was no calming to be done. The first IV attempt wasn’t a success, so the nurses tried to start one in his foot. At that point Luke was grabbing my hands and trying to pull himself to me. So what do I start doing? I start crying! What a shock! All my strong emotions are connected straight to my tear ducts. Thank goodness it was just a few tears. I also talk too much when I get nervous so at this point I look up at the nurses and say “I’m really sorry. He just loves me because I am white!” They laughed, but I know they were thinking who is this crazy American! There was no way that they could do the IV with me in the room so they moved him behind a partition and left me in the room where I tried even harder not to sob. After it was all over and I got Luke back, the nurses introduced themselves and I tried to make up for my nervous blubbering. I have so much respect for the nurses here, they are doing the best they can with what they have. Thank goodness my momma is way smarter than I am and made me pack tubes of mini M&M's in every nook and cranny of my suit case! Luke was a happy boy on the way home and attempted to eat the whole tube!

After dropping Luke off at Sonrise for lunch, I went to the see the little girls from the village on their second day at the ministry. They were so precious. They colored, sang, ate two meals, and played outside. I got to teach an impromptu Bible lesson, always fun when you don’t even have a Bible to look at! It was so sweet to see that they just wanted to hold a hand or sit in a lap at a place where they felt safe and protected. A few of them got a hold to my hair, which was a win-win for everybody! They got to play with my fine hair and I got to get my hair played with!

I needed to come back to Sonrise earlier in the afternoon, before the girls went home...how did I get back you ask? By boda….or motorcycle! I tried to put it off as long as I could (a whole 3 ½ days)! When the boda got there, Daniel said “I brought you something you are really going to like!” and started laughing. When I got out to the boda, the driver introduced himself. Before I even got on, I looked at him and said “Jimmy, this is my first time on a boda in Uganda and I don’t like it. You need to drive slow.” He agreed and got me back safely.

Later today, my favorite first happened. I got to go with Daniel to bring the girls back to the village. On the way, one of the little girls made the mistake of calling me a mzungu. She was quickly corrected by another little girl who told her I was their auntie, not a mzungu! Immediately after that a cheer of Auntie Alisha was coming from all the girls!

Uganda is wonderful, but I would be lying if I said I didn’t feel the weight of this journey seeping into my heart at times. But when I look into the face of Luke and those little girls and I am reminded that if I don’t do this, if I can’t come here and be willing to miss my family (both natural and spiritual) so much it hurts, who will advocate and reach out to those who are still hurting and unreached? Who will be there to bring the food that fills their empty tummies? Who will be there to sing and color with them? Who will be there to tell them about the love of Jesus Christ? By being here, I am able to be one more person reaching out and serving these people.

So my plea is that you will continue to pray with me. That the Lord would continue to affirm what I am doing and give me a new peace every morning.