Changing gear..

Good avo (stupid aussie speak)

Firstly I must apologise for the lateness of this blog, life is a bit hectic out here, but I have found some time to do it now.

Been a really full on week, but I'll try to condense it a bit.

On Saturday, Paul, Sam and I went up Wanale! It was a pretty improvised journey, none of us knew where we were really going at all. We parked in Mooni next to Bethel Church which is at the bottom of the mountain. We set off and collected a gathering of 'helpful' teenagers who were coming to guide us but really just wanted a bit of cash, but we got a bit irritated by them so Sam sent them away; we wanted to be manly adventurers! We asked various locals as we were going up where to go, so we weren't completely going by instinct. It took us about 2 hours to get to the top, as soon as we reached the top, it bucketed it down. We first sat under a tree to let it pass but it didn't go so well so we legged it to a nearby house to stand under the roofing, however I fell, according to Sam it was the best 'stack' he'd ever seen, apparently it was so funny that he forgot to consider me well-being and just laughed instead. Cheers mate. We stayed on top for an hour for lunch - chappatti and sausage thanks to Paul - had a pray and Sam took some photos, of course.

We decided not to walk back down as the route we took upwards as I would've been dead for sure, having just fallen on wet grass. So we decided to catch bodas down the mountain, however on the way down, I fell again, this time in front of a Ugandan. Now when Ugandans see something bad happen to you the will say 'sorry sorry', however this fall was so hilarious that he didn't say sorry, instead he laughed uncontrollably and then called his friends so the could take a look at the clumsy Mzungu.

Sunday was massively chilled. Went to another great service at Bethel which was great, then spent the rest of the day playing Settlers, we're all a bit addicted, we've even given each other nicknames, Ben is the King, Sam is the Hunter, Paul is the bear and I am the poker, because apparently I poked the bear (not true). It's kind of taking over, even the girls are getting hooked!

This week in the office I've been back on Mailchimp (yay...) doing the new JENGA prayer letter which has actually been a lot easier, I learnt a lot from the last Mailchimp adventure so it's a bit easier this time round. It's also challenged me to think about how much I've been praying for the work of JENGA, I guess I shouldn't have been struggling through what tho write if I was truly engaged in prayer for JENGA, so I'm working on it.

On Tuesday we went back to CRO once again. Another really great time of speaking truth into the lives of the these kids, my heart really is to see people be able to reach their full potential, that whatever they want to go for, they can go for it, inspiring hey?, but all the same it's really something that makes me angry, especially when these guys have been thrown out of their homes, any opportunity to live life seemingly taken, which is why CRO is so great, they give a second opportunity. Also I of course skilled Sam a few times, which is always good, but then I got skilled be a 7 year old, not so good.

Wednesday morning we went out on a prayer walk to Musamaga (probably spelled wrong) where Dao - the JENGA staff member in charge of prison ministry - lives. Musamaga is about 90% muslim, there are many mosques and muslim schools and very few churches, I saw one that was about the size of my bedroom, apart form the fact it had no walls. Talking to Dao about Musamaga though he seemed a bit hopeless about the place, it was like the all too common British attitude of 'this is the way it is and nothing can change it', which was very sad. However, Bethel is trying to start a church plant in Musamaga, which would be fantastic for that community.

Thursday we did hospital ministry again, I prayed for a boy who had basically had every bad disease in existance, he has Malaria and TB right now, but he had just suffered from Pneumonia as well. There was nothing to him, just skin and bones. But what was really encouraging was that his parents were Christians and just had faith that God's will would be done, to see the desperation of the the Father was really touching. I'm really looking forward to taking my Mum to the hospital in two weeks as she is a nurse, so I think it could move her profoundly.

The last three days of the week were the best for me, easy. On Friday morning Sam and I led the JENGA praise and worship time which was really great. Talked about humility, that leads to unity, that leads to advancing the kingdom. We did minimal preparation which was a bit of a winner as it just meant that God was really speaking through us. It was the first time that I really felt I had something sizeable to bless these JENGA staff with. It was also quality as I'll be preaching in two weeks so to get the encouragement of the JENGA staff was really valuable.

I've had a very introverted weekend. Did football with Michael on Saturday morning with Sam and Tim who has been visiting JENGA with his wife for a few days. Then in the afternoon, Sam and Ben went to Jinja for the weekend to do some rafting, so I got the house to myself, just me and Taloola: my guitar of course. Had one the best times ever just me and my guitar, an hour felt like 10 minutes, so I really feel like I'm changing up a couple of gears in my relationship with God now, which is exactly why I'm here.

Finally I just had to take a break from writing this blog to kill a mouse with my Panga (machete). I feel manly. 2 down, who knows how many to go.

When I appealed the other week for you to e-mail me, the response was pretty poor, step it up guys! challis_908@hotmail.com

Hope you have a lovely week. God Bless.

Dan x

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