Greetings from a land far, far away‏

Good day one and all!

This last week has been jolly good fun.

 We're halfway through our time here so we went for our 4 day retreat out in Jinja, east of Kampala.
The place where we stayed was so beautiful with luscious gardens, green green grass and exotic trees
(there was also a trampoline). It was on the banks of the river Nile and the grassy hill sloped down to
the water. We swam a couple of times in the calm water and it was glorious. For those on Facebook
I'll try and put some photos up.

Here's the website there are a couple of photos on it-    http://www.mto-moyoni.org

On Saturday we went white water rafting which was INCREDIBLE. So much fun. We had the craziest guide.
He was a Ugandan called Jeffrey and was hilarious. We started off on a grade 1 rapid which was like being
out at sea. That seemed pretty rough. Jeffrey came out with some high pitched squeals of "Yeah baby!" and
kept coming out with mock kiwi and aussie like "whats up buddy?", "how you doing bro?" and saying
"gooday mate" to the other Ugandan guides. We went on to do much bigger rapids of grades 3,4 and 5.
Boats can't do grade 6 only experienced kyakers. There was a grade 3 rapid called 50-50, meaning the chances
of the raft flipping over were 50-50. Well guess what, ours flipped over and we all ended up floating in the middle
of some really strong rapids. There was a group of about 7 or 8 Ugandans in kyaks who followed us all day and
would wait on standby at the bottom of the rapids in case a raft flipped. I got a ride with one of these guys by
hanging on the back. It wasn't what I expected- a narrow river with constant small rapids. This was lots of open
water like lakes until the next huge rapid. At one point we went down a 3 metre waterfall. During the open
stretches of water Jeffrey kept us entertained. One of the rafts was full of Sikhs. Jeffrey shouted "where are you
from?" and they replied "India! There are two from Ireland but they are overboard!" Sure enough two white men
were bobbing about beside the raft.(We found out afterwards the Indians were actually soldiers who were
serving with the UN in Congo) Later after giving out lollipops Jeffrey told us we'd creep up on the Indian raft
then when he shouted attack! we were to splash them with the paddles. Good fun! But we got soaked. We did
with all the other rafts aswell and ended up a bit cold. It was such a good day. If you're ever in Uganda or in the
area I highly recommend it. We went with a company called Adrift and they were very good. It cost around 60
pounds for the day including lunch. For photos see-->   http://www.surfthesource.com/raft.htm              

Last wednesday we said goodbye to Ian and Tom. Ian had been to Grace High a year ago also with Oasis and
Tom had been with another charity called Crosslinks. They came for a couple of weeks and were working with
the street kids in Kampala. Thanks guys! You were a breath of fresh air and so good to be around. It was great
to have someone who's done it all before and knows the ropes. I will not forget my party for a long time!
(Ian can you forward this to Tom?) Hope to see you again some time in the future. Live long and prosper.

On the journey into Kampala today, sitting in a taxi full of Ugandans, I felt really challenged by God. I was listening
to the MP3 player and a Hillsong United song came on. The chorus goes:
"Jesus I believe in You and I would go, to the ends of the earth, to the ends of the earth, for You,
alone are the Son of God and all the world will see, that You are God, You are God".

I felt like God was asking me "how far will you go for me?". Would I really go to the ends of the earth?
We heard a really good talk on Friday evening. Brian Kelly -an American pastor from one of the churches in
Kampala- talked on Discipleship and how those that give up everything gain the most. He talked about
sacrifice, service and humility. I'd like God to really use me but I don't know how or where. I'd be happy
if he wanted me to go to uni next year. I want to give the year I've got free to him.            

This week we're going to do a children's rally out in Eastern Uganda. It's the village where the headmaster
grew up and is very rural and the people are very poor. On the Saturday we'll have around 1,000 kids to
look after, entertain and try and keep under control. There's a team of 10 of us altogether but its a huge job.
If you could pray for that that would be great. Also on the sunday each of us will be going to local churches
to preach on our own. I'm a bit worried about this partly because I haven't preached yet and also just going
to a new church on my own will be scary. We've always gone as a group with our Ugandan friend and
translator, Sam. So please pray I'm a blessing to the church, that I bring the right message and that I don't
freeze up in the pulpit. Thanks. I 'll be preaching around 9am uk time on Sunday. 

I only have 9 weeks left in Uganda. This seems like quite a long time but we have 5 weeks of work then 2
weeks of holiday then 2 more weeks of work. So only 5 weeks til we go away. We've decided on Mombassa,
Kenya for the holiday. I say we but it was more like everyone else. I wanted to go to the island of Zanzibar
but got out voted...save it for the honeymoon.     

Meanwhile...

• Jonny has discovered the joys of peanut butter and jam. His breakfasts are now enlightening.
• Jonny enjoyed 4 birthday parties over 9 days (it was June 5th)
• Jonny saw monkeys running over a hill
• Jonny is contemplating what to do with his life...Pray for that please

Love to all my brothers and sisters in Christ. I miss you all very much. Sorry for never saying how much you mean to me.

Until next time!
farewell,

Jonny x