We are ever relaxing!

This week we're enjoying some much needed R&R in Jinja, the most touristy town in Uganda. It's an absolutely beautiful little city. We're staying at a hotel called Serjio's, which has views of the Nile/Lake Victoria and really beautiful rooms. Its a specialty pizza place too. We are enjoying ourselves too much completely! There's something so therapeutic about being in a really beautiful, CLEAN place with no responsibilities and time to do whatever we want -- swim, sit and talk, play board games, download Youtube videos, sip chai or walk around the Jinja market haggling for good deals on second hand clothes. We had a pretty funny interchange with one lady in the market today who absolutely INSISTED that "my friend, this bath towel is second hand, so it is more! It must be more than new! You know it must be more money than new!" She honestly didn't understand how absurd that idea was!

Two "head honchos" of OPC Foreign Missions, Mark Bube and Doug Clawson, are here to lead the meetings during the retreat and to provide some counsel and encouragement to our team. The adult members of the mission and the MAs (me, Erika, Leah, Chris, Chloe and Jesse) met for several hours yesterday and this morning discussing how things are going (using a Strengths/Weaknesses/Opportunities/Threats assessment), brainstorming future plans and finding out some things we can start working on now to improve our work and our engagement with the community. We came away with lots of ideas to chew on, and talking things through as a big group was really an encouragement to me.

Erika and I came down before the rest of the team, on Saturday morning, and spent Saturday through Monday morning in Mbale. The rest of the team drove down Monday morning and picked us up to take us to Jinja. This morning our retreat ended, and most of the team returned to Karamoja, but Erika, Leah and I are staying in Jinja for a few more days to debrief, spend some time in the Word together and just relax a bit more before going back to the daily grind. We're taking advantage of the chance for a vacation together!

I thank God for these dear girls who have become such close friends for me. They're a constant encouragement to me and we laugh a lot together. Us single ladies gotta stick together, and I'm not sure I could go on living here without them! They're such a blessing to me.

Thanks for your prayers for us, and thank You, Lord, for time to unwind and think through all that we've seen and done over the past few months!