What a day! The Hearts & Hope team visited Kainagoga today - always a high energy village which comes as a relief with our short amount of rest the team got the previous night. It was so great to see the aisle of children and village leaders singing welcoming songs to us as our buses rolled in. It’s always slightly overwhelming being bear hugged by 5 kids as soon as you step off the bus - literally bombarded with love! I personally love watching first timers come around the corner with what seems like 10 children attached to them and barely able to walk. We were thoroughly entertained by some singing and dancing by everyone in the village and then it was time to hand out packets - little packages of joy that bring a smile to each sponsored student! The team carried out the process flawlessly and luckily we had enough team members to stay outside and play with some of the other kids while the packet process was happening. This helps ensure that we don’t have so many small faces looking in and feeling left out. With a team this size, we're able to share the joy of interacting with multiple groups throughout our visit! Our craft activity for the sponsored students involves a lot of paint, but we had enough people to hand out wipes faster than the kids could get messy. Only one team member ended up with paint on their face, and I think it was self applied! :-) We had plenty of free time which as always included soccer games, bubbles, stickers etc. The children always find a way to add a personal touch to the fun and with Kainagoga it was by finding every team member they could and placing bright pink flowers all over their hair/head/ears. We were quite the beautiful sight. It was soon time to distribute a few goats to some families from the community. These goats were donated by some of our team members and the recipients will breed them and pay it forward to other families in the village. While the team departed from Kainagoga, I headed back to Entebbe to the airport to pick up the final members to make our team of 31 complete. It's astonishing how a 2 hour journey turns into a 6 hour car ride due to the time of day it is in Kampala! It was worth every minute when we saw Paul, Beth and their team from Redeemer in Redwood City, CA walking up to us with their luggage. Everyone is here, safe and sound! Praise God!!! Tomorrow we all head to Nakabango, which is partnered with Messiah Lutheran Church in Weldon Spring, MO. The team is looking forward to spending time with the children and village leaders there. The partnership between Messiah & Nakabango has been in place for a long time and it's always great to see how this community has been blessed by Messiah and how Messiah has been blessed by its work in Uganda! Thank you for the continued prayers for a safe journey. We're excited to see how God continues to touch the hearts of our team.
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About USHearts & Hope is a nonprofit organization focused on unlocking the potential of people in Uganda through relationships with people in the US. Archives
February 2020
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