Now we are in Dubai waiting for our final connecting flight to get us to Entebbe. I am feeling a bit nervous about getting there (mainly just hoping the drum kitI sent in advance will be there when we get there)and what will happen, but am confident that all will be well. As we departed from Brisbane airport yesterday I started thinking about it was I was actually leaving behind to go on this journey ahead of us. It was nothing that Australia or the lifestyle that I had there that I missed (all that seemed even more insignificant than before) it was rather the people we were leaving and the time lost to develop those relationships. This was hightighted to me personalling when I had to say good by to Stella (my great neice) whom is just 7 ½ weeks old and we had been living in the same house as her. For some reason it is her that I will miss the most, which highlighted to me that I was doing the right thing with Destination Uganda, to help those that are loved the most by God. I was however encouaged by the thought that what I am doing (in following God’s call on my life) was going to be the best influence that I could be on anyones life. When talking to Phil and Kathryn about this, Phil reminded me of a conversation we had previously had with the rest of the team coming about us needing to be an influence on our friends, family and church back home by praying for them while we were in Uganda, I thought about how great it was that God answered my question before I even had it!! The miricales that I know will happen will just be the best testimony that I can give to the people back in Australia, even if it is from the other side of the world. The first great thing to happen was at the airport. We had been given an allowance to take an extra ten kilogram extra baggage, but I wanted to take an extra 35 on top of that, so I prayed that God either allow us to get it on for free or supply the means to get it there. We were allowed to take 15 kilgrams extra, which allowed for us to take a keyboard which Edward in Kabale had asked for me to get for him and he would reimburse us when we get there. The other 20 was some guitars and a few electrical tools I was taking, but I simply resolved that I would just arrange for Quinton and Erica to bring it with them when they come, and I would arrange for some money to be given to them to send it as excess baggage, forgetting totally about my earlier pray. While we were waiting for our flight someone asked specifically about our baggage, and I told them the situation and they slipped some money into my hand saying to put this towards getting the extras things there, and it turns out that it was pretty much the required amount, so I was able to just leave Quinton and Erica with the box of baggage and the money to send it!!!!I was thinking about how things will go in Uganda, after talking with Pastor Roy at the airport about being an influence on the people in Uganda on a one to one basis. I thought that the best thing I could do would simply to do what we had come to do and to live a righteous life before all. This was reinforced while reading a book by Selwyn Hughes called “The Divine Attitudes” and he said about there important thing about the beattitudes was they were the BE-attitudes, not the doing-attitudes. I thought that it would be best to forget about doing what was right, and concentrated on BEING what was right, then we would do what was right automatically. Where if we try to DO what was right we would fail when we forgot about doing right. I started then thinking about what a lazy mess I will be when I meet Edward, and I was right.The flight from Dubai was pretty rough and we did not rest much, but when we landed in Entebbe we were greated by Liz, a friend of Pastor Frank and Edward’s. Meeting Liz there ended up being awesome, firstly Phil’s cary on baggage was too heavy in Brisbane so he had to check it in, and now we are in Entebbe it is not there. Liz was able to quickly get us onto the right process for following that up and will be able to pick it up for us if we have left for Kabale when it arrives and we can get it from her at a latter date. Secondly the process that I had to go through to get the excess baggage (which ended up being shorted because all the banking paper work is getting done tommorrow as the bank was closed) would have been almost impossible for me to get in the few hours it took if she did not help. When we finally got it we headed for Kampala got into our accomodation, got a quick drink and crashed. It was great to see those that greated us at the airport Edward, Henry & Stella, and two new friend Frankand ben, but we were too tired to express much excitement – sorry about that.
