In just one week, my loaded suitcases, Jan Roberts and I will be aboard Emirates Airlines en route to Uganda, via Dubai. We are bringing lots of goodies for the orphanage and for children of the AidAfrica staff. I hope the little ones like the cars, dolls, Disney tattoos, fairy wings, gum, and headbands. Serendipity has smiled on us. UCC San Luis Obispo sewed sun dresses and shorts for children in Uganda this past year and the timing is perfect for me to deliver them. I hope to take pictures of the exchange that I may send so that UCC SLO will see who received their gifts.
It has been a whirlwind preparing for this trip, with special services at my church this past month - the Kirkin' 'o the Tartan was special - love those bagpipes! There's been extra events during Lent; decorating the sanctuary with palms last Sunday; preparing for an upcoming candle light Good Friday Taize service; purchasing 24 Easter flowers will happen tomorrow, as well as writing my sermon, I hope; the day after the Easter celebration is my 24th wedding anniversary, and then I head to LAX. It's all been wonderful, but I do not have my head in the game for going to Uganda.
Normally, when I travel, I purchase a guide book about where I am going and part of the fun is reading and preparing for the trip to come. Not this time. I plan to read about Uganda on the plane. Fortunately, Peter Keller and others have told me about working with AidAfrica and I have seen their pictures. I have some idea what to expect, yet, I doubt anything can really prepare me. I can't imagine what it must have been like living with the likes of Joseph Kony terrorizing the neighborhood, nor what living in a refugee camp might have been like. I am happy to think of working along-side villagers reclaiming their homes.
Maybe after I get an Easter sermon written, I will blog about how elephants changed my life or how the plight of boy soldiers infiltrated my soul, if I can find words for such divine interventions. May you be blessed with such things as well.
