SNAPSHOTS FROM UGANDA....As you may have guessed, we arrived safely back to Trondheim after 3 1/2 weeks in Uganda. We have so much to update on, so we'll try to make this brief and will be more than happy to tell detailed stories later! Overall, it was an amazing experience and a culture unlike any we have experienced before. We were kept busy too! We accomplished all that we set out to do and more and learned so much in the process. Thank you for your prayers...we felt them and saw the hand of God work in many ways during the trip- within our team, within relationships, with teaching opportunities, with health and protection, and in growth and experiences.

Our team of Norwegians and Americans meshed so well, we couldn't have asked for a better team. All so servant-hearted and willing to try new things. We all came back with a heart to bring the things we learned back with us to Norway. What a beautiful, hospitable, joyful people we came in contact with! So family and relationship focused- we were rarely alone! The love that was shown to us was truly a blessing. Even with the challenges of adjusting to such a drastically different culture from what we are coming from, God gave us the grace and open hearts to glean all we could from the experience and let ourselves be changed and challenged.

And the sound equipment that we were able to buy with the money we raised was such an enormous blessing to the Church of Uganda! Our showing of the Jesus Film was a success and we know that many more outreaches will be made possible because of the generous financial gifts that were given. We saw how incredibly important having the equipment was and we even had money leftover to use for purchasing Bibles for new Christians and blessing different places that we visited with practical things that were very needed.

So many stories! Check our our picasa web album to see more photos. For now we'll leave you with a few short low-quality video clips from our camera (more better video from the video camera later!).....

One of our most memorable experiences in the village of Otuboi, they blessed us by including us in their traditional village dance.

No details necessary. Until we gave it to a family, we really did own a live chicken, and yes, it rode by my feet all the way to our next location. Alive.

Before our attempted showing of the Jesus Film (at this location, the wiring was destroyed by the dancing feet of the villagers- we didn't show the film, but prayed for many people! And danced until we were quite sweaty!)

May the joy that is so obviously present in many of the lives we met in Uganda overflow into the places of the world that attempt to find in the temporal and material with no avail- for this JOY is most certainly of the lasting kind and comes from heavenly places...