I enter my last week. I am not sure what this week is to bring. I had plans to go up to north east Uganda to a remote village, but my budget is runnin’ low. So as of now I am planning to stay in Kampala and invest more time into the youth corps homes that Cornerstone has set up around town. As for the past week in Uganda I have experienced a lot that I never expected to do in Africa. For instance, I played paintball. Paintball in Africa! It was awesome. Eric Kruetter, son of Tim(man who runs cornerstone), just turned 27 so a group of his mzungu(white) friends all went out to play. I’d say the best part was the end. Imagine we are in a wooded area, tire stacks all around, a few bunkers here and there made out of sand bags. On one side of the field, 10 men stand with loaded paintball guns. On the other side of the field stands Eric, alone with no gun. His objective? To run from corner to corner as swift as he can hoping to be hit as few times as possible. The ref blows the whistle. He runs. We shoot. Balls of paint, leaving their guns every split second are flying through the air. By the end, Eric is hit 40-50 times along the right side of his body. He hunkers over, breathless, in pain, muttering “this was ridiculous.”

From there we all went back to his place for dinner. Afterwards, Karaoke. This made for a hilarious night. Most everyone in the group couldn’t sing worth a flip.

…Last Monday I sat down to lunch with a man named Pastor Fred. I first met pastor Fred in the states. He is connected with the Brooks family on Lookout. I spoke with him about spiritual warfare and his experiences with witchcraft deliverances, and so on. It made for a very intriguing conversation. At the end, he invited me to preach in his church. So yesterday I had the opportunity to preach in front of about 300 people. The whole service was about 3 hours. 2 hours of worship. Most the songs were sung in Lugando so I had no chance of singing along. I just danced around and listened. When it came time for me to preach I went up introduced my self and began. I talked about wrestling with God. Pastor Fred had to translate everything I was saying as I went along. About 5 minutes into preaching this man comes walking up from the back of the congregation, plunges himself at the bottom of the stairs leading up the pulpit, throws a jacket at my feet, and just lays their limp. I pause. I look from pastor Fred, to the man, to the crowd, back to the man. I think to myself “What the heck is going on?” “Am I suppose to respond a certain way to this?” Three men come running up, pick up the man, and drag him off. “Ok…” And I continue preaching. Afterwards the first question I asked was “What was that all about?” The explanation, The man had this overwhelming feeling that God wanted him to do this, because this man of God was preaching and the act of him throwing his jacket at my feet was a blessing to me, and in turn, at some point he will receive a blessing. I don’t know if that makes sense, but don’t worry; it didn’t really make sense in my head. We all assumed that the jacket was mine to keep, but after the service the man came and asked to have it back. It wouldn’t have fit anyway so no big deal.

I come home on Friday. I look forward to that day. I am still enjoying my time here, but I am ready to see some familiar faces. I can’t wait to share my experience in more detail. I wish I could have posted more than just 4 times. I just wasn’t around the internet enough. This trip, in my eyes, has been a success. Though I didn’t see a lot of what I was expecting to see, my understanding of Spiritual Warfare has developed a great deal. As well, God has opened the door to return to Uganda one day; maybe even sooner than later.