Uganda 2022 Day 4

After breakfast we had our group worship time and then a meeting with plans for the day. We headed to Moses’s (OG) office and met with some of the university students that people help sponsor through school. He calls his organization seeds of leadership and I truly feel these young adults are already or are going to be seed that spread through Uganda like wildflowers. Moses shared with us what seeds of leadership is and does for the young adults. Freedom projects helps financially for extra expenses on top of what sponsors give to each student. Seeds of leadership has four “pillars”. The first is education. Each young adult will be helped through their education and must work hard in their classes. The second is Financial. They are taught about finances and how to save money even though they have so little money and many expenses in life. The third is leadership. Each of them have to take a leadership roll at school or elsewhere that helps others around them and they can teach others through. The fourth is community health. The doctors in the group need to practice and help people in their communities. When Moses was done speaking, each of them took turns sharing their name, what they went to university for and where they are and/or had come from in life. I am not going to mention all of them, but will highlight a couple. JB started by talking about Joanne and her inspiration. One of the things he remembers and holds onto from a message Joanne gave is her saying, “why not me, why not here, why not now.” He knew he was going to be a doctor. With the help of Joanne and others he is now able to live out that dream. He recently graduated and is officially a doctor. JB is the president of Destiny Doctors. He and Elijah co founded Destiny Doctors. He told us that Destiny Doctors have been mentoring other leaders and has 280 Doctors helping with 50 applications they have not had time to read. It is amazing to hear how their practice has grown and they are helping people in their community and country. I believe the name of the next one was Zahara. She is a soft wear engineer and such an inspiration. She is the first person in her family to graduate university. Also the first person in her clan and village! That’s not it though, she is sending money to her family so her siblings can go to school! These young men and women are amazing! I am so proud of them! 

After meeting with everyone we went to Destiny boarding school and orphanage. We did the long drive around, but it sounds like it was faster because of traffic in town. When we finally arrived it was weird not to have a few hundred kids run to the van. Mama Evah met us as did Shakira one of the high school students. Shakira gave us a tour of the grounds. That’s when we found all the kids, they were having lunch. Some even offered their food to us. Others followed us from the time they laid eyes on us until the tour was over. It is so cute when you go to take a picture of the younger kids that the boys tend to pose for the camera. The tour started at the baby house and ended at the high school before we went back to where our bus was. There were a ton of kids along with mama Evah and Joanne out by the bus when we arrived. We were able to spend time with the kids before leaving. Spencer attempted to start a dance party, but it did not work well. He decided him and the kids would keep the beat. Then he chose someone to come in and dance and that person would pick another. Then Benjamin started lifting up the kids that were holding onto his arms and Ross did too. Neil was holding kids hands and spinning them. The rest of us were trying to talk to them and high-five them. Destanie even got a marriage proposal from an 11 year old. By the time we left my heart was overflowing! I love those kids so much! 

When we arrived back at the house we packed our carry on with what we needed for the next two days and had our main suitcase in ready and in the truck for the early morning drive our Uganda team was making to Karamoja. Then we packed the rest of the meds so those boxes could be loaded.