Today was a good day. We were able to take our time waking up and eating breakfast this morning. Most of us were awake at some point during the night because of jet lag and a tremendous rainstorm that came through the area. I’m guessing the metal roof made it sound worse than it actually was. We all woke up refreshed, and some of us without headaches that had been hanging on for a day or two.

We ate breakfast and were leaving for the YWAM camp by 9am. The ride to the Dreamland is a long and extremely bumpy ride. What typically would take us 20 minutes to drive in the USA takes 1 ½ hours here. I do have to say that some of the scenery along the drive is pretty amazing to take in. We take advantage of the time in the cars to build relationships among team members.

Getting to the Dreamland is always fun. We can hear the children’s excitement even before we make the turn into the driveway. Somehow they can see us coming before we can see them. We were greeted with lots of handshakes, hugs and big smiles.

Our team immediately took the children to one of the tents to have church with them. Candace and Clint led worship with a guitar we found earlier at the market, and then Katie did a teaching on David and Goliath. In the middle of the teaching, Clint decided to act out the story by being Goliath while Candace stepped in as David. It brought some humor to the story and the children loved it. In the end, they all sang two songs for us. There’s nothing like hearing he Dreamland Children worship our God together. They sure do love Jesus and enjoy expressing it through song. Their voices are so precious. We spent the rest of our short time with all the children listening to Michelle read books and simply hanging out.

On a personal note, it’s been a time of facing a little bit of grief while I’m here in Uganda. Every time that I’ve come to see the Dreamland children it’s been in Yei, South Sudan. This is different, and it has been in my face that life has changed for all our friends here. Even though the property here is better than I expected, it doesn’t feel like home like it did in South Sudan. I must admit that I miss the city of Yei and the Dreamland Children’s Home that we, The Vineyard Church, have put so much time and energy into. It’s all about perspective though, right? To see the children run and play with smiles and giggles is refreshing.
the Dreamland Children worship our God together. They sure do love Jesus and enjoy expressing it through song. Their voices are so precious. We spent the rest of our short time with all the children listening to Michelle read books and simply hanging out.

God cares more about our hearts than he does our things. In the big picture, that’s what is most important. Things will come and go but our hearts stay with us to the end. It’s clear that everyone at the Dreamland understands this. They understand the importance of relationship more than I’ve ever seen it among them and with us. Their deep love for Jesus is also very evident.

Once we got back to the YWAM base the rest of our luggage was dropped off. Our short flight to Arua on a small 19 passenger airplane limits being able to bring all our luggage with us right away, so the rest of it came on a bus today. We spent time sorting through all the team supplies and getting it ready for the week.

I should mention the highlight of the day for most of us. Yesterday we left the Dreamland thinking that we wouldn’t see the older boys again this week. It was a bit sad for us. God surprised us this morning! While we were driving to the Dreamland we came up on the dump truck with all 17 of the boys in their matching red shirts on the back! We all stopped to greet them and to pray for them. It brought tears to our eyes to know that we had the opportunity to see them again. Then, on the way back to the YWAM camp the car with Clint, myself and Christie came up on them again! We were so happy and they were all so excited to see us. We followed them for a while and waved as we then turned to go our separate ways. God is good and enjoys giving us surprises that bring joy to our hearts.

Thank you all for praying for our team. This trip hasn’t happened without some challenges and we can feel your prayers.

God is good.

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