The Trip of a Lifetime

Shalom. Peace. That is in my heart today. Bev and I have just returned from a one week stay in Israel. The Lord blessed us by providing everything we needed for the trip of a lifetime.

The weeks leading up to the trip were hectic to make sure everything would run smoothly here in Jinja. I say hectic, but there was no worry since all the ministries are well handled by Steven, Kelli and the rest of the staff. Bev and I also set aside time each day to discuss our upcoming trip so we would be sure to not let each other miss the things that were important to us.

On the day of our departure we had another blessing. Pastor Aaron Mawanda from Kajjansi asked me to be the guest speaker at the graduation of the first class of the School of Ministry at Namalanda. It was such a blessing to speak to a group of young men that had been taught by someone we had trained at the SoM in Jinja. To see a third generation, over 100 kilometers away, springing forth from what Jesus has started in Jinja was an incredible thrill.

We arrived in Israel at 4:00am and found a taxi that took us on a high speed ride to our hotel in Tel Aviv. The driver did not have to encourage us to put our seatbelts on. But since it was still dark we didn't care that we went too fast as there was nothing to see anyway. By 6:00am we were in bed trying to get caught up on sleep as we waited for the rest of our tour group to arrive that afternoon.

They arrived around 5:00 and we started to get to know our tour mates. We had already bumped into Pastor Skip and Lenya Heitzig in the supermarket opposite our hotel so we knew what time the group would arrive. We got to welcome them as they got off the bus. And they came bearing gifts! Mike and Hilda Butcher brought my repaired hearing aid (thanks Vera and Keith Benevides), Dave and Sue Fischer brought batteries (sent by Dr. Jenny Carver) for the hearing aid which was good since yours truly forgot to bring some, and the Hilland's, Dave and Cindy, brought three pounds of witnessing coins in Luganda. They all did a great service for us (I like to think we did the same by giving them extra room in their luggage to bring home more mementos from Israel).

We then had a great dinner in Joppa at the Old Man and the Sea restaurant. Too much food! But I personally showed great manners and upbringing by eating everything set before me! With the exception of the fish brain and eyes. It was quite interesting the way the fish was served. The fish was cut vertically lengthwise from nose to tail giving it a mirror image of both sides of the fish brains and all. It was like an inkblot image in a psychiatric test. Then it was back to the hotel to sleep and dream of the days to come!