Praise God the GFUMC 2009 Uganda mission is off to a great start!

Monday afternoon we all made it to the Houston airport in plenty of time to load 43 50-pound pieces of luggage on the plane and head for Amsterdam. We want to thank all of the friends and family who came to the Houston airport to wish us bon-voyage. It was a long and tiring trip, but most of us managed to catnap. Rebecca Marshall slept the whole 9 hours, and Smith Leggett didn’t sleep at all! We spent four hours Tuesday morning in Amsterdam Airport, some window shopping drooling over all of the beautiful (and expensive) merchandise made in Holland, others eating and relaxing.

Then we were off on our second leg of the journey, an 8 hour trip from Amsterdam to Entebbe. Upon arrive in Entebbe Airport we were all checked for Swine Flu symptoms, and to our amazement given a clean bill of health. We had our passports stamped with our visa into Uganda, and all the baggage appeared! We were relieved to see the four vans that carried the 22 of us and our luggage to the hotel for our first night in Africa.

Wednesday morning, after beginning the day with worship and a devotion, we drove to the only large department store in Kampala to purchase toys and other gifts for the orphans we will minister to. While at the department store we linked up with 17 year old David Schoultz, from GFUMC, who has been here approximately two months with YWAM (Youth with a Mission) and will soon be leaving for South Africa. David has contracted Malaria, so we gathered around him and prayed for his health and safety.

After a four hour drive through the country side, we arrived at our hotel. The journey was amazing to most of us, to see how the people of Africa live. We saw poverty stricken people living in huts and sheds, walking along the roads carrying everything from water to bananas on their heads. We saw workers in the tea fields, and rice paddies, making bricks, and selling anything imaginable along the road side.

It was a great relief to get to our hotel in late afternoon, get cleaned up and have a wonderful meal. Then we had a great time of praise and worship led by Smith Leggett and Kelly Kerr. We broke up into small groups and reflected on 2nd Timothy 1:7. We all are looking forward to a good night sleep and hope it isn’t interrupted by jet lag.We thank all of you for your continued prayers for our mission trip.

Joann Hopkins and Rob Marshall on behalf of the Uganda Team.