We got past a man smoking pot and holding a rifle....
...don't worry that's just the gate man!
We are currently in the beautiful back garden of the Sealy's house, where we stayed last night in Entebbe. Our flight was 6hrs delayed, but it was great to be met and welcomed by Chris and Sue. They have been a real blessing already - having bought us mobile phone SIM cards and been to the international surgery to pick up some malaria testing kits. (We hope we will not have to use the latter!)
We have already expereinced the full force of the Ugandan weather - with a crashing thunderstorm to awake us this morning and now warm sunshine.
This afternoon we head for Kampala to stay with some other friends, before making our journey over to Ibanda.
Praise God that we arrived safely and have been so well provided for.

The immune system...

Our ability to fight against the cold/flu bugs this Christmas has been poor! However, that aside we were grateful for good family times over the holidays and we are now more or less recovered! (Nothing that a bit of hot weather can’t sort out in a few weeks…!!)
So the big off… is 28th Jan and we would both say that things are starting to feel more ‘real’ now. Our last bit of formal training starts tomorrow – this time with CMS, our mission agency. They have called it ‘core training’ so we are hoping to learn the last few gems! Other than that it is final injections, malaria tablets and insurance that are top of the ‘to do’ list!

We are at capacity!

This course has been absolutely excellent…but we are now at capacity! We have taken on board and inwardly digested a huge amount of material over our 10 weeks here and it has been great! Two weeks back I was nearly converted to being a development project manager! We spent 2 full days in small groups pouring over large sheets of flip chart paper,’ post-it’ notes and log frames working out how to plan and execute a ‘children at risk’ development project in Burundi. (It has inspired me to maybe try and develop a more coherent structure for the education project we will be involved with in Ibanda, Uganda…) Aside from his studying… Andy has also enjoyed a taste of victory on the All Nations footie team and was even awarded the prestige award of ‘man of the match’!

Overall, it is difficult to summarise our experience here – suffice to say that we both feel more equipped practically, more affirmed in our call to go and now ready to face the challenge of settling into Ugandan culture, with the Lord as our guide.

Thank you for your prayers during this period. Please pray that we’d be able to adjust to the transition of leaving college and going between family and friends during the holidays. Please also pray for Sunday 7th December – we are speaking at St Mary’s Church, Radcliffe on Trent and also at ‘Nightbridge’ (Holy Trinity’s youthgroup).