Well, where to start? We have only been gone a short while and already so much has happened and how life has changed for us. Please excuse me if some of this does not make complete sense but I will try to articulate our experiences as best as possible for you. Today in itself has been an (exhausting) adventure in Africa but I'll tell you all about that in a sec.
So we left Moz and traveled to South Africa. I assume you all know the story of how we came to be staying with the Williamson's. For those of you that haven't heard it, it was a real miracle. We met Naomi Williamson on the plane over to Jo'Berg and she invited us to stay at their home in Pretoria, enabling us to visit our partnership church, St Andrew's, there. We must thank God for them because meeting them we a complete privilege and blessing for us. They are a truly wonderful family and their hospitality was very much appreciated!
Ok so back to Uganda. We made it here and have met up with (my beautiful sister) Eliza, Derek and Emily. This trip is yet another testimony of how miracles or "coincidences", as some may say, happen every day. I know that for some of you reading this it may sound like fate or even luck but we are living it and we know the difference.
So back to the story of Uganda. Basically when we were planning this trip we tried to organise it so that we had a different project in each place. So we set about making contacts and organising a general direction to fly around the world! After what seemed like a million emails and phone calls we booked our flights. However, it turned out that we were due to arrive in Uganda on the 22nd of July, two weeks before our project in Kampala with Dwelling places was due to begin (9th August). We were slightly disappointed and rather anxious about this time as we didn't want this trip to be a holiday or for sight seeing and so we saw this time as kinda "wasted".
Now this is where Emily comes in. Emily (Young) has been part of our family for as long as I (Erica) can remember. She is Eliza's closest friend (apart from me of course) and generally a total gem. Em lives and works in Oxford and had previously mentioned to Eliza and Derek that she was leading a team out to Uganda to help build a boarding house for an underprivileged school here. She had asked them to go but they said no as they were saving to possibly come to Aus to see us in Dec.
Weeks passed and Lorna and I continued to pray about our spare time in Uganda and that it might be used for something positive and worthwhile. Then one morning Eliza and I were in car and Em phoned. She said that she'd booked two flights to Uganda, one for Eliza and one for Derek. Eliza was driving so I was translating from the passenger seat and lets just say that the red Eliza's face turned wasn't a happy red. "Why has she done that?" Eliza asked. Anyway the three way conversation went on for a few seconds before Emily said, "Erica can you jut give her the dates and ask her to phone me when she's stopped driving? The trip I am running will be in Uganda from the 22nd of July until the 9th of August". Scroll up...they are the exact dates we had been stressing about. And so Eliza, Derek, Emily, Lorna and I are all currently in Jinga in Uganda! Needless to say I screamed hysterically and Eliza almost crashed the car but sometimes miracles take you completely by surprise!
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