April
10,
2007 Dear friends and family, I apologize for not writing last week. I would have if I had not been on a safari! ;-)
We
spent Sunday night at a youth hostel in Kampala and then left
early Monday for the 7-hour trip up to a camp right by Murchison
Falls, in Northern Uganda, bordering the Congo. I couldn’t decide if the fact that the van had a roll-cage freaked me out or made me feel safe! J Also, for our comfort and safety, our guide carried a rifle. I thought that it was in case of animal attack, but I found out later that a stray bullet, fired by rebels, hit a man traveling through the same area about a month ago. Interesting…
As we
drove further out, we came across many giraffe, baboons, hippos,
elephants, a couple of lions, many warthogs, and a few types of
wild deer, among others. I had to close my eyes a few times and
let sink in the fact that I was in Africa looking at a REAL
giraffe or elephant. I still can’t believe the amazing
opportunity I’ve been given!
We
spent the afternoon on the Nile, passing crocodile, hippos,
other water animals, and looking at all of the birds. That
night, we had a hippo anxious to share our tent. We kindly
turned him away. Oh yes, and we had a little family of
warthogs running around our camp the whole time. The tents were
thick canvas and each housed two people. Caitlin and I were
very careful to snake-proof our tent before going to sleep!
I
haven’t ever needed to think about the ice-cubes in my drink or
the food I purchase at the market containing unwanted
creatures. Those are just a couple of the small, “surfacey”
things. The most important thing I’ve been impressed with
lately is the need to always be on guard spiritually. As I have
heard others say, the spiritual warfare here in Africa seems to
be a little more obvious. In America, we have such a
comfortable life which makes it rather easy to go along without
really “needing” God, or so we think. It’s easy to coast
through life because we have the best of everything at our
fingertips. When life is about survival, as it is in most cases
here, God’s hand, protection and provision is so much more
evident. I think we, as Christians in America, don’t give the
enemy enough attention or thought – making his job a whole lot
easier.
Letters mean so much more than words could ever express, so
thank you, and please keep writing.
Joy and Kathryn and that Safari vehicle with the “roll-cage” J _______________________________________________________________
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