Chaos!

When I was growing up the most thrilling ride at Opryland, Nashville's old amusement park (may she rest in peace), was an indoor roller coaster called CHAOS. It was actually quite terrifying - not the ride itself, but the process of waiting in line to get on the ride. It was cold and damp, and all around there were clocks on the walls ticking and a woman with an eery voice kept coming over the speakers saying "Please make your way to the exits. Your time is running out." That is a special kind of scary.

Anyway, all of this is to say that with twenty minutes to go before I depart for Ethiopia, I feel like I have that strange woman's voice in my head, telling me my time is running out even though I simply have to get an update on this blog! So forgive me for being a bit rushed.

Things have been so busy! We have just returned from another trip out to Kaberamaido for a couple days with an agriculturalist and water expert, then we went on to Kapchorwa district in the east on the Kenyan border to visit a community called Greek. This village of Greek was really what God used to begin leading me back to Uganda, so it was really neat to go back and see that place and how much it's changed. We're planning to help build a multi-purpose center there for the community to use for a church, school facility and community center. More to come on that later!

Some of the Sudanese guys that we sponsor are also home on school holiday, and it was great to spend some time with two of them - Abraham and Barakat - that came with us to Kapchorwa. I look forward to telling you more about their stories as time progresses and I get to know them better.

And finally, the reason I'm so rushed is that I'm leaving to go to Ethiopia for the week. My college roommate and incredible friend, Kristen, is serving with the Peace Corps there, and since I need to leave the country to renew my visa, what better way to do it? So I'll be away from my computer and things for the next few days, but I look forward to getting back and staying in one place long enough to write a decent blog post! In the meantime, I've managed to upload just a few new photos to my Picasa site here and you can also check out the new Refuge & Hope blog we just started at www.refugeandhope.blogspot.com.