Hakuna Matata

Ok, so here are the pictures from our game drives at Murchison Falls. Enjoy!

Safari!!!

Weaver birds make ball-shaped nests in the trees

Water buck- another kind of gazelle. This is the only animal besides cats and crocs that have no natural predators in the park. Lions won't eat them because the meat smells.

(Love it when BO becomes a defense mechanism!)

Watch out behind you love birds!

A family of warthogs. They look like black pigs with mullets are warthogs. They very well may be the ugliest animal God has created! They really are called pumbaa in Swahili, and if you've ever seen The Lion King, you know exactly what they look like when they move.

two-headed giraffe

view of the pool and the Nile from our hotel balcony

Monitor lizard on the bank of the Nile

This is as close to the waterfall as you can get from the water side-

You approach from down-river and get about half a mile away from it.

Jackson Hartebeast (a REALLY ugly, really skinny kind of gazelle)

Fish Eagle

male Uganda cob (a gazelle that is all over Murchison--

we definitely saw more cob than anything else!)

female Uganda cob in the savannah

Doesn't this look like The Lion King?

yikes...it is as it appears

A flock of crested cranes, the national bird and symbol. It's really unusual to see this many at one time- you normally just get one or two. That's a Uganda cob in the background.

Cape Buffalo

Look at that Baboon...

...hanging out on the SUV...

... taking it easy on the bench

For since the creation of the world

God's invisible qualities- His eternal power and divine nature-

have been clearly seen, being understood from

what has been made. We are without excuse!

Romans 1:20

Elephant Hunting

This morning as we were sitting in language, (joy of joys!) our language helper, Pamela, told us about when her grandfather used to go hunting… for elephants.
The thought that people would actually consider elephants as a food source sort of stunned me, but after that concept got through my thick skull, the way they actually hunted them was even more amazing.

Pamela said all the men in the village would go out together (I guess an elephant is too much for just one man!) to track the elephants. When they found one, someone would throw their spear to wound the elephant in the trunk. While this wouldn’t be considered a fatal wound by any means, an elephant’s trunk is where he is most sensitive. Once he realized he was injured in the trunk, he would become completely consumed with taking care of his trunk and would be oblivious to everything else around him. The hunting party would then take the opportunity to attack the rest of his body with their spears and knives. The elephant wouldn’t really care about the more dangerous attacks, because he was so concerned with his injured trunk.

As she was telling us all this, I thought, how like the enemy! He distracts us with the things that identify us, the places where we’re most tender and sensitive. He attacks us there, in the issues that won’t really hurt us in the long run, but that occupy our hearts and minds. And once we’re focused on the trivial issues in life, we don’t realize that he’s attacking us in the really vital areas, that places that will destroy us. We get so caught up in our pet projects, our longing for affection, our hobbies, our friends, our need for gossip or for entertainment, we don’t realize that we haven’t had quality time with the LORD in weeks. That our relationships with the people who mean the most are falling apart. That our hearts, our very lives, are under attack.

I don’t know what the answer or solution is. I’m not completely sure there is one. I think I need to be more aware of where I’m vulnerable, where I tend to get sidetracked. And realize that when I do get sidetracked, it’s probably because the enemy is trying to keep me from paying attention to where the real battle truly is.

More Pictures!

More pictures!! Just when I thought I added all the fun pictures from the Baseball Clinic,

I found more!

Happy to be playing baseball!!

a precious boy from the village


The sunrise from my front porch! Incredible!

Grace, one of the students at Mandela Secondary School

These last two are from a village a couple of km from my house

At the end of February, we had a two-man volunteer team from Memphis, TN. Steve and David had planned to work in story groups and share their testimonies in schools, but the Father opened up some doors that we never expected. Both men have backgrounds in sports, especially baseball. (Steve is the “voice” of the Memphis Redbirds, a minor league branch of the St. Louis Cardinals.) In our conversations with school administrators, we found out that the students at Mandela are VERY interested in baseball, but don’t really have many resources or “coaches” available. The LORD rearranged the plans we had made and allowed us to spend 2 days in baseball clinics with over 100 students at Mandela. On Thursday afternoon, Steve, David, and Evan worked with students on catching and throwing, with time at the end to share their testimonies. Saturday morning we went back to Mandela and walked with about 50 students to the baseball field about a mile from campus. (It was really just a “field”… I had a run-in with a grazing bull as I was trying to get to the players from the road!) Once at the field, we had batting practice and Steve and David shared some extra tips and techniques before we played our “game”… everyone got a chance to bat and run the bases, but we had 20 or more fielders at a time! But everyone had a wonderful time, we were able to begin building some great relationships with students, and we drew a crowd of 100 bystanders or more! (And I’m pretty sure I’m the only person I know who’s watched baseball with sheep, goats, and a stray pig in the outfield!)