Sharing the news with the President

~ President Noah Isanga and baby Josiah in Iganga ~ News of our reassignment was quickly shared with the leadership of the Lutheran Church Mission in Uganda (LCMU) by telephone but, of course, we also wanted to visit with the president of the LCMU in person as soon as possible. President Noah Isanga lives in the Iganga district of eastern Uganda. Also, our good friend Norbert was doing some agricultural training in that area with the Citizens Network for Foreign Affair (CNFA). So we decided to take an overnight trip to visit with both the President and our friend Norbert. Since the roads to Iganga are nice and the president lives along a paved road we took our little Toyota Corolla (which also has the stronger air conditioning) and Josiah slept most of the way.

We enjoyed an evening with Norbert visiting about his work and about his congregation in Illinois. Like me, Norbert tends to think out loud and we enjoyed bouncing our ideas off each other in some deep and animated conversation. We stayed in a top-notch hotel just west of Iganga town called Mum Resort - it had air conditioning in the room! This is the first hotel I've stayed in in Uganda that had air conditioning - and it was really nice.  Mum Resort also had hot water in the bathrooms and a little mini-fridge which cooled our water bottles nicely. All in all a pretty good deal for $25 a night.

~ Josiah was very popular with the youth at church ~ On Sunday morning we drove over to the church that is built on the president's property. A few of my TEE students came from their congregations nearby to worship with us. With one of our TEE students came a gaggle of youth who would be playing some soccer after church in Iganga Town. As we visited before worship, one of the girls from the soccer team was sent over to us (with copious giggling encouraging her onward in her bold quest), and she picked Josiah right up out of my arms without any warning. She hurried our very popular child back to the group and we watched in amusement as Josiah was passed from one teenager to another, capturing hearts with his cuteness. You know they say it takes a village to raise a child? Well, here that is certainly the case. ~ Everyone laughed at Josiah's favorite position ~ But it's more than just a saying. It's happened to us several times - someone (often a stranger) walks up and even without speaking takes Josiah right out of our arms. It's a bit disconcerting.

Worship was pleasant - the local vicar arrived just in time to preach. And after worship we enjoyed a pleasant lunch with President Noah and the other visitors. We talked, of course, about our reassignment to Nairobi and all of us expressed some sadness for leaving Uganda and some excitement about the work God is placing before us in Kenya and Tanzania. We finally said our goodbyes and started back to Kampala. We're sad to be leaving the friends we've made here.  -Shauen