October 10, 2008

This will be my final blog from here in Kampala, Africa. I can't believe how fast the time has flown! It seems like we just got here and we are almost ready to depart. In fact, by this time tomorrow evening we will be on our way back!

Today was a relaxing day of massages, shopping, pizza and movies. Tim and Colleen have been so good to us. They planned a wonderful day of relaxation and we all took advantage of it. Some of us went shopping in the morning while the others had massages and then in the afternoon we switched and the rest of us visited some shops. Such wonderful items for sale and helpful business people. I'm afraid I probably disappointed many of them because I'm just not good at doing the bargaining but we have several who are very good at it including Hilary, Chris and Scott. I do have to add Carolina because Steve mentioned to me that she was looking at a particular item and when the shopkeeper wouldn't bargain she left, hoping to find the item in another place!

When we all met back after our enjoyable day, Tim and Colleen had ordered pizza and made the most wonderful chocolate dessert. So delicious!

Then Tim set up his 'big screen TV' (projector and wall) and we watched “Blood Diamond”. It had special meaning for us since much of it was filmed in Africa (probably most of it) and it was a moving film about the diamond trade here in Africa.

Following the movie Brenda led us in a wrap-up type of devotional and talked about thankfulness by sharing areas and talents that each one of us brought to this team. It was very moving and we ended the evening by making a bead bracelet to represent God's love and faith in us. Patti led us in two songs and then Carl closed us in prayer. Our worship here has been so marvelous; God has truly touched us and been in our midst!

Tomorrow will be a busy day as we will be getting up to go to the church that the teams from last year built and see the students from the Central Community Preschool. Those of us who sponsor a child (and I believe it's most of us) will be meeting our students and we are all excited about that. For those of you at CCC who also sponsor a child we will be greeting them tomorrow and presenting them with your gifts.

After a program and a few other events we will be rushing back to the Stevenson's to change, grab our suitcases and head to the airport. With the terrorist alert that Kampala has been under we want to be sure to get there in plenty of time. Speaking of that, in case you have heard about that, be assured that the police and other military personnel are doing their jobs. We have seen more police in the past few days and we can see that they are taking security very seriously. None of us feel worried for two main reasons: God is in control and our wonderful missionaries are following His lead. Praise God!

Well, for the last time from Uganda, thanks for reading the blog and praying for us. We will see you soon!

Valerie