Sunday, September 14, 2014 – After a good breakfast, we piled into two vans and headed to Muko County to go to church.  Going to church one van had 12 persons in it and Dave had to walk to his church about a mile up a mountain.  There were so many different experiences that we want you to hear about each visit first hand. 

Bill and Diane Busch visited both a Catholic Church and an Anglican Church. There was singing, drumming and clapping at both churches.  In order to visit both, we started at the Anglican Church where we were treated to bread, eggs, bananas and tea in the Pastor’s home.  We then went to church, talked to the congregation to introduce ourselves and then had to leave to attend the Catholic Mass.  We arrived at Mass shortly before communion so were able to join in the passing of the peace, Communion, another opportunity to introduce ourselves to a congregation and meet some of the orphan guardians.  The Catholic Church is new, so new that it’s not built yet and we worshipped outside looking over the mountains with the goats and cows grazing nearby. Afterwards, we were treated to another wonderful meal, a tour of the Parish center, clinic, and school.  Father John then drove us back to the Empowerment Center. 

It’s Karen! We were greeted at the Muko Empowerment Center with a group of six violinists, playing a tear-jerker piece by memory. This gave me wonderful anticipation for all that will come on this trip. Sue and I visited two Churches of Uganda and during our speeches we shared the special gift of choir robes from the First Presbyterian Church of Holt. The choirs were elated, singing and dancing and jumping. Luckily we videotaped to show our great Americans their excitement! After church, we had the opportunity to “hang out” with some of our staff and orphans. We also noticed some of our kids watching a video on our Centre TV which allowed a great teaching opportunity. It was an African show about a father who did not want to send his daughter to school but instead hoped to marry her off for the dowry. As their “Mom” I gave the kids some other ideas to consider. Sue gave her two cents about a bikini dressed chick on another video! Whoa! The Moms are in town!

This is Dave and I have recovered from my hike up the hill.  My experience was kind of boring compared to everyone else; due to deaths of church members and members families there were only 13 adults at the service.  The most interesting point was one song that lasted over 20 minutes.  Otherwise there was a lot of singing and dancing as there was at the other churches.

 Hi this is John.  I attended Butare Anglican Church.  There 12 children were baptized and an adult women baptized who was converting from being a Catholic.  The priest preached a “hellfire and brimstone” sermon based on the Genesis story of Noah and the ark.  Some ACT orphans are sponsored from this parish and after service Josiah and I were swamped with people pointing out orphans and asking how to get a child sponsored.  After service we had at tea with the pastor and his wife.  

Hello from Ginny in Uganda!  Roger and I attended the Anglican Church in Bwindi today.  The service and auction (people donate food items and then auction them off for more donations) lasted approximately four hours!  I was surprised how similar the structure of the service was- scripture readings, announcements, Nicene Creed, sermon, etc. My favorite part was the music!  So spirited… and the drummer, amazing!  And then the dancing!  So much life!  After the service, we walked down the hill to the main center of town and talked with the villagers. The children surrounded us and kept us close company all the way down the hill! It was a lovely day. 

Toni and Michelle traveled to another Catholic church that sits on a beautiful mountain peak (though they can’t remember the name, it translates to “the highest peak”). Before the mass they were able to meet with Millicent, who is a woman catechist. This is a big  deal for the area, as out of the 26 Catholic churches she is the only catechist who is a woman! However, upon getting to mass, they discovered that she is more than a catechist, but she also read the gospel and gave the homily! Toni also had a very moving experience as she was able to bid on sorghum seeds. However, it did not stop there as the congregation did the best they could to match her donation. Afterwards, despite the lack of warning, Millicent surprised them with a wonderful meal. It was a great day full of warmth and love.

To end our Sunday, the team met for a delicious dinner at our hotel with pineapple filters or in English pineapple fritters, which by the way are delicious.  More adventures are waiting for us tomorrow as we meet with all of the Ugandan staff to plan the details of our two weeks together.