"This Morning"

Sorry I have not been the best about posting!  Everything here has been so so good!  The relationships with the people here have continued to grow everyday.  Everyday we are just living life with these people and doing whatever it is they do.  We dig in the gardens, smear the huts with cow dung, get water from the bore hole, wash clothes in the stream, break rocks at the rock quarry, walk to and from school, cook beans, and just anything to show that we want to develop relationships.  We want to work alongside these people and show them that we want to learn from them and see the way that they do things.  The past few weeks have become pretty scheduled with our daily routines.  Each of us has different schedules, but everyone is serving in the way they think God is leading them to serve.  I love walking out in the village, not knowing who is home that day and just letting God lead me to whoever he wants me to talk to.  God has orchestrated every situation and every conversation the way he wants it to go.  Not having a specific time and place that I have to be somewhere everyday has truly allowed the Holy Spirit to work and to just lead me in the way that He wants to use me on any given day!

I spend before and after school with Winnifred as well as Saturdays.  We have gotten so close she always tells me I am her sister.  She is absolutely hilarious and most of our time is spent laughing.  One day on the way to school we were singing and she randomly stopped and started singing Who Let the Dogs Out Who who who who hahah I could not believe she knew that song.  She told me it always comes on the radio which is pretty funny too.  Winnifred and I have contintued to quote John 3:16 together on the way to school each morning.  It is such a sweet time starting both of our days quoting scripture early in the mornings.  Winnifred has wanted to read her Bible more recently so we started on the book of Mark.  I told her exactly what to read one day and told her we could talk about it the following day and she was very eager to get started reading.  The next day on the way to school I asked her if she read and she told me she had.  I asked her what she read and she looked at me and said I just really cant remember right now.  I laughed and thought thats pretty normal of most 10 year olds and just everyone in general.  I know I will read something and then the next day not remember anything I had read the night before.  As long as she is reading and eager to learn, I know God will speak to her and can teach her something even if she doesnt remember what it was she read the next day.  Winnifred has also started memorizing other verses.  I gave her a long list yesterday of things to read and memorize and she got her Bible out because she said she wanted to start looking them up.  While we were sitting there I realized she did not know how to use the Bible and did not know how to find the books of the Bible.  So, before doing anything else I sat there and showed her how to find the books in the Table to Contents at the front, look at the page number, flip to the book she wanted, look for the chapter, and then the verse.  She got a little frustrated with it, but she is definitely wanting to learn.

I have also become very good friends with Sunday, who I know I have talked about before, as well as his brother Tonny.  Sunday is 15 and Tonny is 20.  It has been cool getting to know people my age and just talking about things that are going on with them.  They have taught me so much about Gulu and the culture.  One day Sunday and I sat outside his hut and he gave me a lesson about the language.  He made me get out a piece of paper and write down words in English and then he would translate them into Luo.  I feel like we did this for hours.  He told me that when I came back he wasnt going to speak to me in English because I will be fluent in Luo.  Sunday has been one that has been so eager to memorize scripture.  I give him a verse one day and he has it memorized the next.  He wants me to learn Luo so badly that he said the only way he would continue to memorize scripture was if I learned the Luo he taught me.  I knew this was not true  and that he would memorize it either way, but just to make him happy I agreed.  The next day I told him the Luo words I had learned and he told me the verse.  I will do whatever it takes to get people to be in the word!  Even learn this hard language!  One day Emma, Sara, Tonny, Sunday, and I sat in their hut because it started to rain.  Lots of kids came in there.  They wanted to teach us the local dance, so Barbara and Sunday started teaching us.  We sat in there singing and dancing until the rain passed.  It truly felt like I was just hanging out with my friends.  I have absolutely loved just going and being able to hang out with all of these people like we have.  One minute we will be reading scripture and having serious conversations, and the next we are up dancing and singing with kids all around.  Tonny and Sunday have started asking us questions about the Bible and discussions they have in their class.  They want to know if what they talk about is correct and if it is what the Bible says about the certain subject.  It has been cool watching them be curious about religious discussions and watching them figure out if what they have heard comes from the Bible or not.  Tonny has been so encouraging to me.  Most of the people in the village do not understand the gospel but Tonny is one that definitely does.  One day he told us he had written a song so we got him to sing it for us.  It is called "This Morning" and this is what it says:

I woke up this morning 

Feeling in the mood 'cos its a good morning

Giving God glory, glory

And the demon a little warning

Cos I'm the Almighty's son

And the devil's nothing

I know Jesus and Jesus only

He who was crucified

and died on the cross for me

He forgave my sins

He wiped away my tears

So let His name be praised

Let His name be raised

Cos I believe in Him

Although many false teachings are being taught here, God is so evident as well and His name is being praised!