First days in Uganda!

We made it! I’m sure many of you were worried about us (especially Grams and Gramps) seeing as it’s been four days since we left and I still hadn’t blogged. Well, here it is….

As I was thinking about what to tell all of you, and how to put it, I realized there are really no words that could possibly describe our journey up to this point… but here is an attempt to describe it to you.
We arrived at our hotel in Seeta, Uganda at 10 pm (Uganda time) after twenty hours of flying. The next morning we had our very first team meeting and were told we were going into the Orphanage to “meet” the orphans and Mums*. I was excited, but really had no idea what to expect as all forty of us loaded up in vans and headed out.
We were less than a mile out and my uncle Bruce announced, “Okay so now would be a good time to grab your cameras!” We drove past a little boy who smiled really big and took off yelling and running in the direction our bus was headed. A moment later we heard children yelling in synchrony off in the distance. The sound got louder and louder until we came into contact with its source. (This is the part that is hard to describe to you.) We looked upon the faces of hundreds of children singing and reaching for our hands. Many of them held palms and branches and waved them towards us. The joy and excitement that each child shone on their face was so overwhelming that many of us couldn’t help but cry. It hit us in the face; God’s Holy Spirit was abounding in the lives of these children. We got off the bus and were instantly surrounded by little ones eager to hold our hand or talk to us. Put simply, It was pretty sweet!

The Work we are doing:
We started construction yesterday while we wait on our container*. We are helping build a new schoolhouse for the orphanage so that the kids can stay close to home. When were not doing physical labor, we are loving on each of the nine-hundred kids. It is such an awesome experience and I am so blessed to be a part of it!

Thank you for your prayers!
In Him,

Karlie or as the kids pronounce it “Kalrie”

*Mums: they are the women who take care of the orphans in the orphanage and take care of about twelve children each.
*Our container: We sent over a big dumpster looking thing that contains a bunch of items for Vacation Bible School. There were some technical difficulties that have delayed it, so it will be coming a week later than expected.