Day of Rest

By Brian Fleming,

Hello again to all of our prayer warriors!

It is hard to believe that we are already through Thursday of our trip. It seems like just last week our team was all meeting for the first time and jumping on a plane in Chicago (oh wait…that was last week). Today was our day to just take time to relax and rest before heading to AGL tomorrow and Sunday with a great day of soccer matches at the tournament on Saturday. As I was talking with Jja Ja Pat (Jja Ja means Grandma) last night, we both agreed that we normally don’t like these days when going on other trips in the past. We sometimes feel guilty or disrespectful for taking “a day to rest” because this isn’t a vacation. We are all here for a specific purpose. But this day was needed by all of us to let us reflect as a team on what the past few days have held and just bask in the beauty that God has created in this country that we are blessed to be in. The plan for the day was to go to Jinja and take a boat tour of the birth of the Nile; but the day held so much more for us.

The day started as any other day, with a devotion time led by Mike. He read from Matthew Chapter 11. This is a great passage that says things like, “I thank you Father…because you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to the children.”, and “Come to me, all you that are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.” What beautiful words to start the morning.

We took off from the Adonai House where we were staying and headed towards Jinja to take a boat tour of the Nile. But first we made a special stop. We all were so honored to stop by Jonathan’s mother’s house (Jja Ja Nora) for a brief visit. She was a beautiful woman and happiness and joy just poured out of every word she said and every hug she gave us. She kept telling Jonathan she was so blessed for us to visit her but we were so much more blessed to see and talk with her, even if it was brief. It was so great to see Jonathan smile from ear to ear as we talked with his mom and learned about his family. That turned out to be the surprise and highlight of the whole day for most of us.

As we continued on towards Jinja, I was so excited to be going to the Nile. It should probably be a bucket list item for everyone to do at least once. The story of Moses in the Nile kept coming to my mind. It is a beautiful story of God’s perfect will. God had a plan for Moses, and though his journey started with his mother placing him in a basket in the Nile knowing that she might never see him again, God knew that was the perfect path that needed to be taken in order for His will to be completed. It is so perfect that we were visiting the Nile here in Uganda today as well. It reminded me that God has a perfect will for each and every one of these kids that we have met and for each person here in Uganda and around the world. God knows the will he has set out and though it is a tough road and most times we have no idea why God would provide such a rough path and journey for these beautiful children and young people, we know that he is a Big God who has a PERFECT will.

The Nile River was beautiful and the whole day was fantastic. We saw a crocodile as we crossed over the bridge before getting there and saw countless birds and lizards and other creatures that were great examples of God’s handiwork. We then went into the city of Jinja for lunch and to do a little shopping for some of our friends, families, and supporters back home. The whole day was great and I believe we got the rest we needed so that we can be fully present for the rest of our time here in this place.

The night ended in a great way as well. We took time to do some affirmations for our own team. We went around the circle and each told what we loved about the other teammates on the trip. As I sat there listening to each person speak about the others and thinking about what I loved about each person, I was reminded of something special that God tells us. I was reminded that each of us has special gifts to bring to the body of Christ. This team has 7 great people with many different gifts. We have a great singer, a great video-man, 3 outstanding nurses, 1 engineer, and 1 director/visionary. But more important than that, we have 1 team who loves these beautiful children and wants to see those children’s dreams come true. And if we keep our faith in our God who is so big and perfects us in so many ways, all of their dreams can and will come true.

Tomorrow is another big day as it will be our first at AGL. I am so excited to hear more dreams from these kids and help them understand that those dreams are never too big to dream. We will also get to help remove some obstacles from these dreamer’s lives through first aid and basic medical training as well as distribution of some helpful medical supplies.

Until next time prayer warriors, be blessed!

Uncle Brian