Worship, Wall Painting, & Owili's Story

10/23 (Happy birthday, grandma hehe) Church was beautiful and full of life as always. Before the start of the service, the worship team gets together in a big circle, holds hands, and prays. 

The worship team sang so many heartfelt songs, but I only videoed parts of a few of them. I wanted to be fully present for the rest. Instead of repeatedly trying and failing to upload a video to blogger, I just decided to post one on youtube. This is a clip of the song "Lord, I Need You" by Matt Maher: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FysZuU7D2dU&ab_channel=AbbyRaasch

In the video, teacher Alex is on the keyboard, Denis is drumming, Patrick is playing bass, Robert is leading, and Pastor Emma is in the front row with gray pants. 

I miss this big time!!!

The service was centered around the power of words. Creation came from spoken words. The blessing that Jacob and Esau both wanted from Isaac was a verbal blessing. Our words are powerful! Use them well, building up and not tearing down. Speak life! Pastor Emma expanded on the passage Proverbs 18:21. He said, "Life and death are in the power of the tongue - not the power of life and death are in the tongue. No, death does not have power." He continued to say that it is the tongue that has power. The Lord's words have power. Everything he says is truth. Amen! 

One cute part about church is that guests almost never sit alone. A little one always moseys on over to an empty lap.

Church was one of my favorite activities at RG, and so I was sad that this was my last time going😕. I think I mentioned in a previous post that the directors of RG were leaving to go back to the US at the end of October. I did not know this when I planned my trip to RG. Unlike some missions like Musana, RG would have been a tough place at which to stay without the directors. They helped connect me to the faculty and staff, and they have a much needed Ugandan cell line. I would have to make my own food if I stayed longer, which would have been completely fine, except that RG is pretty much located in the bush of Africa, and I would not want to walk to the small town of Karuma by myself to get supplies. The other option would be to drive to the city of Gulu and purchase food items each week, but I do not have a car 😂. This all would have been nice to know before I arrived, but looking back, I am so glad that God allowed everything to happen in the way that it did. Musana seemed like my next step if I wanted to stay in Uganda, and so I had made up my mind a few days prior to take the leap of faith! 

After church, I took some family pictures for Robert and then stopped by the big boys house on the way home. Hosman made me some porridge and gave me some bread that they had for breakfast. The porridge was super duper sweet and a very mushy consistency, but I still ate a few bites 😬😂.  Jacob said that my face looked cool, and Gum said that he liked the painting. I'm going to miss these guys hyping me up all the time 😂. Here is the progress picture of my eye for the day:

I walked back to my apartment and wrote back my cute pen pals. I ate lunch and then killed about a hundred ants. I learned awhile ago to never leave food out if it is uncovered or open, but these ants are not afraid of a lid or sealed bag. Ants in Africa are a different breed. 

After my ant extermination, I headed to the computer lab to finish up the painting. It wasn't my usual kind of art, but it was a fun way to broaden my horizons and paint something unique.

That afternoon, I went on a walk with Steve and Tristan. I had met them two days before but forgot to document it 😂 oops! They are engineers who work for the company SPIARS in Dallas, Texas. If I remember correctly, Tristan is a structural engineer, and Steve is, as he likes to call himself, an "engineer of people". He isn't actually an engineer. They were really fun to talk to, and I loved hearing all about their work and families.

On our walk around RG, we stopped by Judith's house and saw her, Fabiano, and Godfrey (pictured below). They make up the hospitality team. I was hoping we'd see them because I wanted to thank them for making my stay so wonderful and for cooking such delicious food.

We ended up at the basketball courts, and we spread out to talk to a few of the kids. I sat with Bonnie and Owili and was able to get to know them better. Carolyn stopped by and gave me a necklace that she had made for me 😌. 

I asked Owili if he was comfortable sharing his story with me, and he said that it was no problem. His dad was a drug addict and was never around. His mom left Owili and his four older siblings and took everything with her when he was either one or two years old. He has two older sisters and then two older brothers, Daniel and Denis. He said that they would sometimes live off of certain black berries that look like olives. His aunt Lillian (who was and still is working at RG) once came and visited the children and then reported back to Tim. The next time aunt Lillian showed up, she was riding in a car with a white person (Tim). Owili and his siblings hid because the car was scary. He had never seen a car or a white person before. The girls completely ran away, and Lillian took the three boys into the car. "I cried because I was fearing," Owili said. Lillian and Tim drove the young boys back to RG. Owili said that he was extremely skinny and doesn't even recognize his baby picture. Tim gave the three boys a bath when they arrived, and they have been there ever since. Praise God for the plan that he had and continues to have in the lives of these three boys!