I have traveled extensively in my short life. Many places have stolen my heart. I leave them and experience the pain of being away from that place acutely. But that way of living is hard, to always be torn into various numbers of pieces, wish you were somewhere you aren't. I've moved away from that way of being. Which is one reason it's challenging to write here. I want to share my experiences with you all. Yet reliving them just makes me want to be there. So please, be patient with me. I am trying to learn to be more present.
Anyways, I defiantly want to share about Thursday of our time in Africa.
Thursday was the day that I was most involved in teaching. With the help of our African team members, we decided to take a whole day to cover the area of Christian sexuality. I already wrote about the various meetings for prep that we had.
So that morning Leah and I woke up a bit early. We were going to go watch the sunrise, but were both too tired to get out of bed. We managed to stagger to morning prayer. After morning prayer I skipped the first part of breakfast (just seeing everyone and chatting lightly), to shower and make myself feel human. I quickly joined the team, got some prayer for the day, and ducked off to finish my notes before the session started.
The session opened with Clemintina introducing the speakers and the day. Then Martin gave a basic overview of Genesis 2. After about 15 minutes, I got up and gave a teaching/testimony following Martin's teaching. The goal of the talk was to impart an understanding of God's purpose and plan for sexuality. It was a great blessing to be able to share from my heart, with my African brothers and sisters, what God has shown me in this area. It was a classic Noelleishly passionate talk. :O The team had a fantastic laugh later about how I speak. :D
Then Amlin and Folgencio got up and just reiterated the points which they thought most important from what Martin and I had said. It was good to have them put in their point of view from a married couples position.
After the talk we had a time for a panel discussion, where people asked questions. It was alright... could have been a bit better I think. Then we had tea break and came back in a split session. So the girls met in the normal meeting room. This was space for specific discussion about issues which women would need to talk out. It was on some levels a sad discussion... the Ugandan women face terrible things. (One example: "Sexually Transmitted Marks") It was painful to hear about how corruption effects these women's everyday life.
After the talk ended, Leah and I were both exhausted. We went for a rest directly after lunch. We were awakened before our alarm went off by a loud banging on our door. We tried to wait it out... sometimes that worked. It didn't. The person kept knocking. I hid under my sheet, half asleep, while Leah answered the door.
Long story short there had been a mis communication (surprise surprise... haha) Basically people thought that one on ones were right then... not later. So we rolled out of bed and made our selves presentable. Eventually we figured out we'd just sit on benches around the compound and if anyone wanted to talk they could. I spoke with 3 girls, it was a good time of sharing. It was prep for that nights meeting.
After one on ones we had tea (the 5 pm tea). I don't honestly remember if I went to mass or not. I think I might have. After mass, as usual there was dinner and a team meeting. The meeting solidified the plans for that evenings prayer meeting. The prayer meeting was to start at 8... but the church wasn't open. It actually was really cool to all be gathered in the dark, outside the church, "learning" a song from PM (most people already knew it). The coolest part was when the church opened we all processed in singing "Let the fire fall".
Martin gave the exhortation, we had some worship, and then prayer ministry. All of it was excellent. I love worshiping in Africa. :)
We once again had team time in the evening. And I believe Leah and I stayed up fairly late talking.
I was pleased with how the day went.
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