Along the road

Almost a week ago I pulled out of Kijabe to begin the daunting two day drive to Uganda. Fierce concentration, waving ripples of asphalt, passing hundreds of laborious trucks one daring swoosh at a time, the hot wind blowing through the open windows, bicycles ferrying milk pails, the occasional errant cow, potholes. Then the border, with our efficient Salim processing passports and insurance and fees, and finally Uganda. I am not making this up: after over 24 hours in Kenya traversing half the country, we were less than five yards into Uganda before the first shout of "how are you mujungu?". And the landscape changed as abruptly as the manners. Suddenly green, softer light, smoother roads. A whole several minutes at a time in the highest gear, unimpeded.

Then four days of meetings, prayer, meals, dips in the pool, more meetings, conversations, discussions, plans, more prayer in the simple lakeside bandas of the Kingfisher. The team leaders of all four WHM Africa teams (Kenya, Uganda, south Sudan, and Burundi ) met with our executive leadership from the states. Good preaching and a bit if cheerleading, getting us all up to date and together...

And tomorrow on to Mundri, South Sudan, to visit that team.

Internet access is slow and patchy so pictures will have to wait. But I leave you with one word picture. On Tuesday afternoon much of the group went rafting the Nile. Class 3 and 4 rapids, an unusually high water level, brilliant sun, good guides, exhilaration, deep valleys of turbulent foaming water followed by cresting peaks. It was amazing. In the midst of the roughest rapid I looked back and Caleb had fallen overboard from his raft. This river makes an 8-man raft look puny, so one head bobbing in the churning waters is pretty small. But we could see him a surface, and he was smiling. This huge spontaneous bring-it-on grin alone in the rapid.

Hoping that is a general picture of life for him as he makes his decisions about the next step.