The 3 or so months of gutting of our lives, putting in 14 hours days all the way to exhaustion, the pain of saying goodbye to so many and preparation are over….. WELCOME to Journey Uganda!!!

We departed for DIA in the frigid cold of this Monday morning at 5:15AM. Brother Dave & Debbie, filling the truck with 8 hastily packed bags and our computers, have been so good to us the past week letting us invade their home and leave a mess behind of discarded items we can’t take. As we got ready to go, my lower back aching, my foot hurting and arm feeling banged up are clear indicators of the way we have pushed ourselves the past few weeks.

We both think the 30 hours of airports and planes will be a respite!! as I write this, we are on a layover at Dulles in DC and have commandeered a corner of a restaurant and set up office. I have never been here and I laugh because I am going into territory that will be largely alien and untraveled; we will be the minority.

On the plane, I decided to re-read the book “Radical” by David Platt. People that know me, could tell you I will watch the same movie a hundred times to capture every aspect. I know, that’s weird. This book is like a good movie or God’s Word; every time I read it I capture something new and it also reinforces what we are doing. If we truly die to ourselves and submit control to Jesus, He may call us to live radically.

Is it hard? Yes, very! Jesus didn’t say it would be easy. Debra is a testimony of faith having NEVER been there and yet being faithful to answer God’s calling to go. I am amazed to be called her husband. I woke up this morning, knowing it was my last night of waking up in a nice soft bed in the USA, for a moment I had fear of what we are about to do. That has happened several times waking up from the fog of a deep slumber. Like all the rest, it was quickly followed by the Lord’s reassurance He is the Author and we will be fine. Before all of this, I practiced faith but this is requiring so much more! I welcome the closeness with God.

You might be able to guess from the picture who ate what for lunch here in DC. I always pass over Facebook posts that show everyone’s food but today it is ceremonial. I am savoring the last of the American cuisine as our next leg leaps us over the Atlantic Ocean to Brussels Belgium. I am sure the food there will be adventurous.

The restaurant we are in must be in the middle of the grocer’s freezer section as we all have our coats on. We will enjoy it as where we are going we won’t often have the luxury of cold as we do here. We had a potentially hard situation as we were boarding in Denver as there was no overhead space to stow our carry-ons. A year’s worth of prescriptions in one and Debra’s camera gear in the other; definitely not what you want checked on multi flight trips to get lost. So we played the “Moving To Uganda” card and batted our big sad eyes so they were able to squeeze them on. Thank You Lord!!

Well, in a few hours we will board our next flight across the ocean. I am not an expert in flying but it seems odd that our reservations were made through the missionary travel agent aboard Lufthansa Airlines but we are on United all the way to Belgium and fly Brussel’s Airline to Entebbe Uganda! I guess we won’t getting any of that nice German food they probably serve! We have 16 hours of flying time left before our arrival which will be 8:45PM Tuesday night Uganda time (10:45AM Tuesday Morning Denver time). The current Country Director Christine stated via WhatsApp messaging: “So exciting, the animals are resting up for your arrival” referring to Marley & Mootska, the dog and cat we will inherit.

We will inherit them and a bunch of fantastic kids who we will have the honor of helping grow up into a life of Hope!

Well, it’s about time to board the next plane. Stay tuned: Next entry will be from Uganda! Here we come!