Good morning friends!  Well, obviously your prayers have been heard.  I have no other rational explanation for our 2 ministry bags and personal luggage making the 3,700 mile journey from Istanbul, Turkey to Enbebbe, Uganda in less than 24 hours.  But we were gratefully informed that our bags arrived at the airport at 2:15 AM on Sunday morning. Thanks for partnering with us in this way! Although each bag had been opened and inspected and the officials attempted to assess an import tax, everything seemed to be in order.

The 250 mile trip from Entebbe to Nebi took 9 hours was a grand adventure. Entebbe / Kampala is in the much more populous southern lake region.  As you head north, the terrain gets progressively drier and more open; becoming a vast African savannah. The roads were mostly paved and very good, except for one 20 mile stretch between Nebi & Pakwach that we shared with dozens of fuel trucks coming back and forth from the Congo.  Due to the constant travel and weight of these vehicles, the once-paved road had been reduced to rutted rubble.  Each truck kicked up huge plumes of dust, making visibility practically zero causing us to close our windows in the van.  It was 85 degrees outside under a full African sun and we quickly discovered that the air conditioner in our van didn’t work.  An hour on rutted roads with limited airflow was pretty challenging.  But this was the only unpleasant portion of our trip.

At noon we stopped at a remote travel rest stop and restaurant.  The sign said, “beautiful location, good traditional food, fast service, clean facilities.  Wendell, who’s been to Uganda nine times said, smiling, “there’s only one lie on that sign…”  And sure enough, our lunch turned into a 2 hour event.  But being outdoors, under the shade of a giant mango tree with low humidity and a gentle breeze, no one minded.

To shorten the trip, we took a 50 mile toll road through Murchison Falls National Park. We really didn’t save any time, because of the time it took to register to enter the park and stopping to see the sights. This vast undeveloped region is a nature preserve for African animals and in the course of the trip we saw, monkeys, baboons, warthogs, giraffes, elephant, gazelles and a bunch of little deer that I couldn’t  find a name for.

We arrived at our modest motel at 7:15 PM completely bushed (pun intended).  And after a late dinner we fell into bed under a mosquito net, leaving all of our unpacking and prep for the next day.  The conference starts Monday at noon and by the time you read this, we may be actually be done for the day.

Tomorrow, Pam will write a reflection on our first day of ministry.  Thanks for reading!