A Sniper got her...

We have successfully completed Day 2 in Uganda and what an adventure it has been! Today we had the joy of pouring into our sister community of Lagutu, the village Lifepoint adopted as their own close to three years ago. Back in 2010, Pastor Jeff, Aaron, and a few others joined SOI on a trip to Uganda, during which they began to plan the foundation for a church to be built in Lagutu. Today Pastor Jeff, Aaron, and the rest of our crew finally got to pour the foundation of the new church there! This was a truly beautiful project to be a part of for multiple reasons, the first being it is incredible to be a part of a church that not only has a dream for a community across the world but is able to speak it, pray it, and build it into reality.  Lagutu is a village with a horrific past but powerful future, with the newly built church serving as a symbol of hope and peace for the entire village.

 *Quick side note: Many pastors are willing to send missionaries without setting foot outside of their hometown. Pastor Jeff is not like many. Rather than sending, he is the first one in line going and doing; serving the ones the Lord has called him to serve and taking whoever wants to come alongside.

We all took part in one way or another in the construction process. Joan, Lindsey, Shannon, and myself (sometimes the guys but not really…) had the task of sifting sand. The process was simple: two people break down the sand pile and shovel it onto a wire sifter (looks like a mesh-wire door), while the other two people use pieces of wood to scrape the sand around and separate it from the rocks. Although this may sound easy, don’t be fooled. My blood was shed multiple times (what do you expect when people are using wooden swords to fight over sand to get jagged rocks out?).

The guys made concrete. Literally the hardest task in the world, another reason I’m glad I am a girl. Although I don’t fully understand the process, I know there was a lot of shoveling sand, boulders, water and dust into a huge pile, scraping it around for awhile, shoveling it in a wheelbarrow, running the wheelbarrow around the corner of the building on a 2x4, emptying the concrete into a room, then racing back to the pile just to run around the church with another wheelbarrow-full. The process lasted all day.

*Quick side note: do not be alarmed by the title. Nobody was shot by a sniper, Joan just had a moment. Anyone who knows her knows she is not the most graceful. While walking to the bus, Joan suddenly decides to trip over a tree branch, both feet flying in the air, and lands on the ground. Her fall is so sudden Pastor Jeff claimed “it looked as if a sniper got her.”

We had a chance to play with the children of Lagutu (by playing I mean running up and down the field and taking pictures. Duh. What do you do for fun?), which truly was a blessing. The children are full of incredible amounts of joy which only the Lord can provide. Josh was a fantastic doctor to one of the little girls today, who had a scraped up toe. It is neat to see how God uses everyone’s skills here to reach his beloved children in Lagutu.

The last event in Lagutu was distributing new jerseys to the local soccer team that SOM staff minister to. The jerseys were given by the Passback program from Eurosport Magazine that Chase has a connection with. There were some VERY excited faces as they tried on their new gear!

After the long day in the village, we headed to our hotel for dinner and some ridiculous conversation. The topics discussed at dinner ranged from the game of “Should Scott friend cute airplane girl on facebook or just let their relationship remain in the grips of the magic which happened 35,000 feet in the air??” (Feel free to vote in comments) to discussing the lifestyle of a co-wife. Yes, that’s right; another wife so the primary wife can have a buddy and the husband doesn’t have to decide on a wife! It was decided that for convenience sake, co-wives are assigned numbers and primary wives get names. To this, I sarcastically responded I would not mind being a number, and now I am known as number 12. I don’t take it offensively; after all, a Laurie by any other name would still be just as fantastic. J

Today has truly been a gift from God. Continue to pray for energy and joy for the team as well as continued growth and restoration for the community of Lagutu.

Sincerely,

Laurie…I mean #12, and ungraceful sniper girl.

(pictures to come later if we can get them to upload)