Update!

It's time for another blog posting, I guess, and so much has happened that I really don't know where to start! Tonight will be my last night with my homestay family. I will miss them, but it will be nice to have running water and to have time to myself in the evenings to get homework done. The family I am staying with has mostly adult children, but there are many children they've taken in or who are neighbors. Mostly, I am going to miss those kids!

We've been here in Uganda a month now, so this weekend USP students along with Honors College students (the students who live with us in the dorms) will be going to Jinja for a retreat. We'll be staying at a resort and we will get to see where the Nile River meets Lake Victoria. It will be a good time to rest, get to know the other students better, and to spend some time alone time with the Lord, but at the same time I feel guilty leaving my home stay, where there's no running water and we eat staple foods each night, and staying at a resort.

I think I've come to realize that the greatest learning I will experience here will not be in my classes taught by Ugandan professors. It will not be in my "Faith and Action" class taught by Americans, where we discuss our responses to Africa as Christians. It will not be in any cross-cultural experience I might have in the next few months. While all those factors might contribute, my greatest learning experience here has been and will continue to be my quiet times in the Word and with God where I search out the scriptures and wrestle with the issues before me on my own. All the students here are "Christians", but there's a very wide spectrum of opinion, more so than I've ever encountered before. I think this was part of God's plan in bringing me here, to cause me to firm up my own beliefs, to know why I believe something, and not just to default to that opinion because that's all I've known. I realize that my opinions (on methods of missions, literal creation, politics, what is necessary to be a Christian, etc) are not going to go through a 180 degree turn while here, and that most likely my currently held opinions will be further cemented. That's a good thing :) I'm also really thankful that the Lord has given me a few friends here who share in similar opinions who I can talk to about this stuff.

In the coming weeks, I will try to blog more on the specifics of my life here, including my internship, campus life, my classes, etc. Until then, strive to be His bondslave!