The Trip To Soroti
The last thing to happen last night was that as we passed through immigration after off-boarding the plan, we retrieved our luggage, though not all of it was there. Mrs. Pam Gates and Mrs. JoJo Keinke had taken a different set of flights to get to Brussels and met us there. Their bags will not arrive until Saturday with the rest of the team. After filling seven carts with luggage, we exited the doors to find Simon(the chairman of CDI: the organization we work with in Uganda, Sam(our main contact and friend), our bus and van drivers Henry and Japheth, and two of our missionaries, Andrew and his 3rd youngest daughter Hannah waiting there for us.
We greeted our friends and carted the luggage out to Henry’s bus,
a Japanese import that could’ve comfortably sat 26 people, and slightly less comfortably sat 31 on what we call jump seats.
Jump seat: a foldable chair attached to the seat beside it that falls down between the chair on the left and right side of it and blocks the aisle of the bus.
They look like arm rests when folded up, and when down, the top flips up to make a back rest. They are quite remarkable and almost a necessity for teams this size. It would have been much easier to fit us all had all of our luggage not been packed over the back two rows. It is remarkable how they manage to stack all of our luggage in the back of that small bus, but they did it. We fed the suitcases up through the opened side window toward the back and Henry put everything together like a life-sized puzzle. It was an hour of driving, debriefing, and some singing before we came to our final rest for the night: Kampala.
After a night of rest at Namirembe, at least for those of us who had made it to the country, we woke up to find breakfast prepared and Caleb there at the breakfast room. He arrived at 3am last night and Andrew Sutton, our missionary, stayed behind with his van to bring Caleb to us. Unless he slept in the plane, Caleb wasn’t as well rested as all the others were, but at least he was here and not still flying around trying get here like the Atlanta team.
We aren’t too worried for the Atlanta team as Dave is with them and he is one of the executive planners and organizers of the trip. He has extensive experience in mission coordination and arranging and will be able to help our team arrive safely and without too much confusion or hassle. Actually, we just received news that team team from Atlanta arrived in Entebbe at 8:00pm tonight and all 16 of their bags are missing! This is without a doubt the strangest trip of all time.
Great news! Victoria was experiencing trouble and it looked like she wasn’t going to make the trip this year, but God has worked a miracle through our travel agent to arrange a flight for her to Uganda! She will arrive much later than the rest of the team, but she will be joining us! That is God’s power over Satan and working in the details of our lives.
The team here in Uganda enjoyed a lunch cruise on the Nile River this afternoon, those of us that are here. Fortunately, most of those who were coming from Atlanta who had not yet arrived had already experienced the Nile last year. It was a unique experience for the new team members though and really showed them the heart of the country and the peace of God’s presence and majestic power before we hit the grind of ministry in Soroti.
In other news, Mike Partain nearly became a millionaire today! We were doing currency exchange and the current rate it 3,200 UGS (Ugandan Shillings) to 1 USD (United States Dollar)! So, Mike was rich!
Be sure to follow the Hope Missions International page for pictures and updates! And follow my personal blog theanonymousnovelist.com!
–Jared Allen