God is SOOOO Good!!!

To answer everyone’s question right off the bat….YES…I did get to see Elephants…TONS of them….and YES…I did cry. Not even b/c of the elephants, but I was just overcome by how good God is to me…and how much I don’t deserve it….and it hit me many times over the last few days.

But to begin…we boarded a bus early, early on Thursday morning. With us were Katy and Alison, two girls that Lauren had spent the previous 2 days with at Dwelling Places. They are from Scotland, and were fun to have along with us on the trip. Karen went as well!!! We got on a “post bus” meaning that it carries the mail to the small towns between Kampala and Mbarara where we were exiting. So, it took a LONG time…probably 6 hours in all…and we had many interesting passengers, including a goat! It rained the entire way up, so it was making me wonder what kind of a safari we were going to have. But it is rainy season so rain would NOT be unordinary!

We arrived in the afternoon in Mbarara and we were met by Dale Hollenbeck, who is an AIM missionary in Mbarara. He had volunteered to be our tour guide for the next 2 days, and he was the PERFECT guide!!! We grabbed a quick bit in Mbarara at a restaurant (we got chicken fingers and chips!!) and then got back into this non-4 wheel drive truck to head up to Queen Elizabeth Park (the non-4-wheel drive truck will be important information in the future!) That was about a 2 hour trip…and we knew we were getting closer when we rounded a bend and we saw monkeys EVERYWHERE….then we got into the park….we saw so many animals I’m not even sure I can remember them all..but for a while you feel like you are at Great Adventure or Disney…and then you realize you’ve only hit the tip..and there are just more and more packs of animals…its just amazing. And there are NO tacky marketing ploys anywhere….

We went to the lodge for dinner and basically each got an appetizer for dinner so that we could get a yummy dessert as well. By the time we left the lodge it was closed and the park was closed….but one little problem….we were NOT staying at that lodge, so we had to somehow get through the park to the otherside. Dale, our faithful guide, got it all worked out and after a few phone calls and the Park Warden actually showing up, we were on our way..and then of course…what always happens when you just get started off…2 LARGE Hippos crossed in front of us….you know how it is  And we got to see a lion of some sort off to the right of the car! We did finally make it back to our lodge and bunked down for the night.

This will have to be an abbreviated blog, b/c I’m running out of time (Karen has graciously allowed us to be here until 8pm tonight while she is getting dinner ready at the house, and that is in 10 minutes!!!) But we will have lots of stories when we get home…lets just say, that we saw TONS of animals…those in the park, weird ones around the lodge, all kinds of stuff….we got the car stuck in a mud pit..and I mean STUCK….poor Dale was covered in dirt. He finally came around, got all of us together and then prayed….literally 5 minutes later a truck came with a tow rope and got us out. About 5 minutes after that, we saw another truck get stuck..it was obviously a guided tour, b/c the muzungos (white people) in the truck were NOT getting out to help push…so Dale got out in his muddy clothes and pushed that truck out of the dirt!! Our guide was definitely the best—not only was he helpful, but he allowed us to ride ON TOP of his truck…that was very cool! I have video of it, but NOT sure if it will make it over the internet to get on the blog…but it was very fun!

There is so much to tell and I just can’t begin to tell it all..so I’m going to have to stop, b/c there is something that God has been teaching me even tonight and I must share…it is more important than the fact that we saw TONS of elephants  (see I am growing!)

Lauren, Karen and I painted the hallway today when we got back from our safari trip, and we got to have a great discussion. I am coming home really burdened for ALL of our missionaries…and how we as a church can really reach out to them and be a family. I think it is SOOOO much more then just making sure that the paycheck gets to them. It’s personal emails, asking them on Monday, October 30th, how I can be praying for THAT missionary that week. It’s getting personal and seeing what we can do for them, how we can help them support their families, and basically how we can encourage our Bethel Family that is out serving God somewhere else. WE talk about them being and extension of our body, but we think that they can just exist out there and all they need is money….it’s like sending blood to the fingers and toes, but not having nutrients in there…blood is good, but it has to have nutrients in it or it is just blood….making sure our checks get there is good…but we need to get personal with our missionaries….so that when they are on the field they feel that they are a part of our body..and when they come home, they are excited to be a little closer and don’t feel like they are getting caught up for the last 3 years. We have some missionaries at Bethel that are fabulous at sending weekly emails…but others are not..and that’s ok..there are enough of us to keep in touch with them.

So…get ready…b/c Lauren and I are coming back pumped up…we are excited to share our trip with you…but I am speaking for myself now..I am even more excited to share my heart with you for our missionaries….to really reach out to them…and pray specifically for them…and make relationships with them…Africa is good about that…more important than getting the job done, is the relationship that you are working on while doing it….so….I’m hoping to bring some of that home with us!

This may be our last time on email until we get home…tomorrow we will be meeting up with Katy and Alison again for church…then doing some shopping with them before saying goodbye. We will then come back home and start packing as we will be leaving early Monday morning. If we do NOT get back online, thank you to EVERYONE who supported us financially…thank you to everyone who prayed for us faithfully…and a huge thank you to those who took the time to send personal emails and to leave us comments on our blog…we were only here for 2 weeks, but it was such an encouragement to us everytime we got them!

We are coming home…we’ll be happy to see everyone…but we are NOT happy to leave  Karen and Gregg say to say “HI” to all 