We Will Miss Uganda!

March 10
Our alarm clocks rang this AM at 2:00. That "ain't" civilized folks. But our plane's wheels were scheduled to leave the ground at 5:10AM which requires us to be at the airport no later than 3:10AM. We were not able to get to bed until after 10:00PM. And it has become "normal" and almost expected to unpack the day's events until our eyes become too heavy to hold open. My roommate Hugh and I pray every night. We have felt the need each day to ask for God's strength and wisdom. I don't think I will ever be able to go to sleep without first thanking God for His love and provision. We are so loved.

We landed in Zambia and were greeted with incredible favor of God. Customs must have been looking for something... We stood in line after getting our visas and watched as customs agents opened every bag and looked through every article of clothing and periodically removed things from the bags of the visitors in front of us either throwing them in the trash or placing them in a box which meant they were keeping something. We were pretty nervous. Our team each had two carry ons and two large suitcases (16 bags total) which could potentially mean that we would not be leaving the airport for quite some time. Not to mention feeling the "worry" that they might decided to take items from us that we desperately needed to teach the widows of Wiphan in Ndola. Asher and I were the first to put out bags on the table, and the agent ask to see any medication we might be traveling with. Asher pulled hers out first with a doctor note and after he read the note, he asked us who else we were traveling with. We pointed at Hugh and Holly. He then told us we were free to go. That was it. No other bags were checked. Not a single one.

We exited the airport thinking our Ndola friends would be there to greet us. But no one was there. Asher knew that something was not right. She had corresponded with Kunda (our Wiphan host) many times leading up to our mission trip, and was certain that she knew when our plane was to arrive in Ndola. So we decided to call Kunda after waiting 45 minutes. Before leaving the states we had arranged to borrow two Wiphan cell phones (Zambia phone numbers) so that when we arrived, we would be able to communicate with our Zambia friends. We opened our Zambia suitcase in search of the phones only to find that they had been stolen either in Uganda or in Kenya. What to do? A gentlemen who had been standing outside had overheard our dilemma and offered to lend us his phone so that we might try calling Kunda or Wiphan. Thank you Tom! You are an absolute saint! We were not able to locate Kunda so we decided to grab 2 taxi cabs to get us to the hotel we would be staying at until next Wednesday. The cab fee, something we had not budgeted for would cost 150,000 Kwacha ($30US).

We safely reached our hotel, and found out that Kunda was expecting our plane 2 hours later which was 12:30.

After sharing lunch with our Wiphan hosts, we went to meet the widows and orphans who we would be serving these next several days. These widows had been waiting for our arrival since 8:00A. We didn't arrive until mid afternoon. I can't wait until we are able to post the video of the reception. One hundred widows lined the street on which our van drove into the compound... they were singing beautiful music while throwing flower petals at us. I for one felt completely undeserving of this kind of love and respect. The van stopped and we all got out... There was singing, clapping, dancing, crying, hugging. And were led into the Fellowship Hall where the widows honored us with more singing and dancing.

Tomorrow, we will search for supplies. Please pray for our safety.

Loving you!
Patrick