Merry Christmas from Uganda! Maybe your wondering if my calendar is off. No, it's not, I just have not gotten around to updating you on what I did over Christmas. The month of December was filled with traveling and visiting various villages, which I will share about later. However, the week of Christmas, I got to spend 5 days with some of my best friends in Uganda, Anthony and Sara Sytsma.
Maybe your heard me talk about the Sytsma's on some of my other blog posts. Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed spending the days at their house resting, talking with them, preparing and eating food, watching movies, and playing games, mainly Dominion. We even had a gift exchange and had advent candles
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| Our Christmas feast and the advent candles |
Our Christmas Eve dinner was complete with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and gravy. Sara even made cinnamon rolls for us to eat throughout the week. One night we had hamburgers with avocado. Christmas Day we ate pizza made in Sara's clay oven. And our lunches consisted of the leftovers. It was good eating!
You might be thinking "so what Eric, this is what we had for Christmas too". For me, I eat a lot of local food here in Uganda, which I don't mind, but it is fun to eat good once in a while. Most of my suppers consist of either French Fries or rice and beans.
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| Avocados are good with almost anything, even hamburgers! |
The highlight of the week was to be able to rest, hang out with the Sytsma's, play games, and eat food. This is one of my favorite parts of Christmas with my family, but last year I missed this part as I was new to Uganda and didn't know as many people. Being at the Sytsma's for 5 days was a huge blessing for me.
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| Dominion; one of my favorite games, which also happens to be one of Anthony's favorite games as well. |
I left the Sytsma's house on Saturday and went to the principal's house for the night and preached at his church the next day. Erich is the principal of Pentecostal Theological College where I live and spend most of my time. Erich has become a good friend to me. He also helps to pastor a church in Kumi, his home town, about an hour from Mbale.
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| Erich and his wife. |
I arrived at Erich's birthplace Saturday afternoon. Many of his relatives where still at his mother's house where they had enjoyed Christmas together. They all greeted me and Erich's wife made food for me. Even though I was not super hungry, it is culturally appropriate in Uganda to make food for a special guest, especially if you know in advance they are coming. The fun part about this cultural fact is that you get to eat often when you visit people; the down side is that as a guest, you had better not turn the food down, or it will offend the host.
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| Erich's birthplace and him with his relatives. |
After I had dinner, Erich took me and showed me some of his land and was getting my advice on what to plant in on his land. He has over 10 acres of land, which is a lot for some farmers in Uganda. I was advising him to try planting some trees and he is really excited about the idea. In the late afternoon, we left his mother's house and drove 20 minutes to his house, where I spent the night with his family.
The following morning I preached at his church and talked with the church leaders about the possibility me doing a "When Helping Hurts" training (you may have heard me talking about this training; I will have an update later talking more about "When Helping Hurts"). The church leaders where excited about the training and we worked on the logistics of the training before I left for home Sunday afternoon.
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| Pastor Erich (the Principal) interpreting as I preach. |
During the weekend, I also got to hang out with Isaac, the Finance Accountant for our college since he is also from Kumi. Isaac and I have a lot of fun together. He is only one year older than I am and is also not married. We pretend we are twins; he is Jacob and I am Esau because I have more hair on my arms than he does. :)
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| Life is never boring with this guy! |
Maybe you are wondering if there was anything God taught me or reminded me over the Christmas season. Nothing stood out to me in particular concerning Christmas, but I have been blessed the last month reading through the book of Hebrews. I am reading it now for the 3rd time in the last 6 weeks and have really been blessed understanding in a deeper way the new covenant in Christ. Part of the reason it has been meaningful is that in our staff devotions we are going through the Law (Exodus and Leviticus).
