Trip to Rakai

Hello again! We have returned from a short weekend journey to a town on the border of Tanzania called, Rakai. Our time was spent learning about and spending time with the believers at "The Kiballi Community Center". It's really neat that it runs in partnership with a church and a school located in Vancouver, BC- called Pacific Academy, and Glad Tidings Church. It was quite a journey to get there by bus, and very fun to be driving through a really rural area of Uganda. At the center, they have a Christian school for students from what would be our k-12th grades, as well as education for special needs students, and these three vocational schools for tayloring, baking, and carpentry. A health center is also part of the center, and the school has some really neat "agricultural projects" going on to provide financial self sustainance (including a pine tree project, bee hives, 900+ chickens, and dairy cows). The center has another social outreach in offering loans to people of the community, and there are a couple of local churches- one of which we were very blessed to worship with. On the walk back from Church, I asked the director how he saw the Gospel being preached (from his insider's view) and he said, "You know, sometimes I wonder that myself. I do think we are more social than spiritual sometimes...." and then he shared that there are many testimonies of Jesus Christ's name becoming known through some really neat things that happen both on the center and in the community.
The director's name is also Jeff, and one story he shared was of a woman who came to the health center for her baby early one morning. The baby lost its life, and Jeff hiked with the mother to her home, carrying the dead child. Jeff said that he selfishly considered that he had to carry the child, while having to be reminded that this wasn't even one of his own children. Only a couple weeks after this incident, as a result of continual interaction with a pastor at the center, the father of the child who died, committed his life to follow Jesus!
I am glad to be learning about the Lord Jesus' work in this country, and discussions among my fellow students from the US remind me also of His awesome work in our home country of America. May we each continue to set our hearts and minds on Jesus, awaiting His return and praying for His presence to be mighty among us.