19 August 2007

We have our internet working, but another thunderstorm has encouraged us to unplug everything. Hopefully I will get a chance to send this soon.

Yesterday we went to Mbale for the day. It was very nice to get away for the day and relax. We began by swimming for a few hours. Mandy observed that the last few times we went it rained early afternoon, so we swam first.

We enjoyed the pool for a couple of hours. While we were eating lunch it started to rain. So we waited for a few minutes, but eventually decided to go and shower - still no running water in our house. By the way, my fish dinner at the pool was nothing shy of excellent.

After lunch we went grocery shopping. There are a few things in Mbale that are not available here so we get a few things when we go. After the Happy Supermarket we went to Mt. Elgon Hotel to play put-put golf. They have a 13 hole course; no greens - it is all concrete. It was actually a lot of fun. Lydia thought it was great. She used her club like a hockey stick - the ball seldom stopped moving until it reached the hole. Mandy was impressed that I got a hole in one on my very first shot. The course had a lot of fun elements: up a ramp and through a water fall; into a crocodile’s mouth; multi-level holes. I think it was more challenging than last time I did it in the States. It was all located in a beautiful garden, lots of plants and plenty of shade. The cost for my whole family to golf: $3.00.

Today we went with two Bible College student’s to their home churches in Tubur, just 20 km from Soroti…oh no, it turned out to be 60 km and 1.5 hours from our house. A long ride. We left at 8:30 this morning and got home at 5:00 this afternoon. It is hard to keep a good attitude on those bad roads.

First we went to Godfrey’s church. They kept the service moving along quite well - only took 90 minutes. I preached on the Identity we have in Christ, based on Titus 1:1-3. After church we went to his house where they were cooking. It took over an hour before lunch was ready, but that gave the girls a chance to play. After lunch we went to see the children’s ministry that David is involved with. They had 30-40 children present. Many of them were in a choir that had a few numbers prepared to welcome us. They then had me teach John 3:16 in Ateso using motions like I had at the VBS last month. After a few speeches and a prayer we got back in the car to come home. Banging down that road, I was trying to figure out how many trips I would have to take to make it pay to buy a motor cycle.

I have still been figuring it out. Based on our mission mileage here in Uganda, at 15 village visit’s a year, if the motor cycle cost $4000 - it would only take me 4 years and 9 months to break even. I might have to think more about this.