A nutshell view of three days in Kampala

Hello everyone!


Sat-Monday, May 11-May 13

Greetings from Kampala!

After the match today

I return with good news…we won our match today! Before I fill you in on the game I want to take a minute to fill you in on all of our time here in Kampala.

Lets go back to Saturday which was our first full day in Kampala. Saturday is typically a slum work day for the SOI staff and this past Saturday was no different. We began the day in 4 different groups at 4 different slums for some good-for-the-soul manual labor. Most of us worked in the trenches to help with the irrigation. Following our work we ate lunch and prepared for our afternoon “match” with the Good News Team (the team of SOI). Thankfully our match turned into a training session/mixed game because they are very good. For most of the girls it’s what they noted as the high of the day for them: being connected through the game of soccer with people from a different part of the world who love God.

Sunday was church and as anyone who has been to Africa knows, church can last the better part of a day. The best part is that we were able to return to the same church in the slum we worked in on Saturday. We were able to serve and work alongside the people in that community and then worship with them…and worship we did. The girls described church in Africa as: free, joyful and lots of dancing. Most of the groups had to at least introduce themselves, some had to sing and some chose to dance on stage (Kaci Mexico and Kelsey Steck) with the worship team. It was a beautiful thing to get to worship in and with a different culture. After church and lunch and a brief rest we spent the afternoon training in preparation for our game on Monday.

Team with the SOI staff after morning devotions.

Monday (today) was a very full and wonderful day. We began the day with morning devotions at the SOI office with the SOI staff. From there we split up into groups again to go to the different slums and run clinics with the children; some of them saved some of them not, some of them with parents some of them not, some of them in school most of them not but ALL of them understanding the language of football…the world’s language. It’s funny how a small white ball can connect you in deep and meaningful ways that promote change and growth and community. We were able to see, in part, the work the SOI staff does on a weekly and sometimes daily basis. It’s hard work but it’s important work.

This afternoon we played Makarere University here in Kampala. They finished 2nd this past year for the league of East Africa and there was a lot of pressure for us to win. We did- thanks to 4 of our freshmen! Angela Brown had 2, Kaitlin Swift had 1, Katie Moyer had 1 and Kelsey Steck had 1. We won the match by a score of 5-2 and while the girls enjoyed the game (winning is fun) they enjoyed the time they spent with the other team after the game more. The girls split into small groups and shared the gospel with the girls on the opposing team. They also learned that being a young adult is universal and they shared similar struggles and questions as they try to figure out who they are going to be in this world.

It was a great day.

We ended the day in true Dan Ribbens fashion- doing something cultural. More than half of the team ate cooked grasshoppers. Salty but not too bad.

Thank you for your prayers, we covet them. All of the girls are processing what we are doing and what’s being done in us differently but ALL of them are loving the people of Uganda very well.

As always, thanks for following.

Until next time…most likely in Gulu…

Kristi Kiely

*love you mom.
**love you Brooke. Especially mom and dad.