Forgive me for not writing you an update earlier I have thought about you all often and am hoping you are following my blog to be a bit more updated! New Year’s was the last you heard from me so I’ll try to fill you in up until now.
January we had said good bye to our dear friend Rhonwen, from Australia, she was here for 5 weeks and they flew by! We then painted the baby room mural! It looks so great now! Adding African animals, lion, elephant, monkey, and giraffe, with grass and tress adds a lot to the baby room! It sure feels more like a kids room now! It took us about 1.5 weeks to get it done because we painted each day early until mid day so that the paint would dry hopefully by the time the little ones went to bed.
February was here and gone with a trip to Kampala to fetch our passports so we could go to Kenya in March! We had a good trip to Kampala then and it was much needed for me. I feel like so far each of us has had some type of breakdown at about the half way mark. Mine was a bit before but there was a day I was eating breakfast and just done with being in Uganda. I can’t really explain it but it was about a week of just wanting to know what was next and that I wanted to start that now. I am so blessed by Sarah and Holly, my team, to help me get through these moments. I really do love my time here and I am learning so much but it is not easy.
In March we made the trip to Kenya! It was a first for all 3 of us. We headed to Kajabe, Kenya where the AIM boarding school is located. We were able to stay there with Lauri, the kindergarten teacher, for about 5 days. After a 7 hour taxi ride we finally arrived in Kajabe and it was beautiful, I called it “A little drop of Heaven”. The school is located in the Riff Valley which is a proper valley. The campus is so lovely and well maintained and from their soccer field you can see out into the valley. Amazing views!
We had a great time relaxing, which was much needed, meeting the staff and some students. I met with the counselors on campus to get a feel for the issues they face on the campus and hear more of the perspective of what life is like for students there. We were treated like royalty at Lauri’s with amazing meals and great fellowship, she was such a blessing to us! It was a great experience to see more of AIM than just our work in Tororo. It is also really good to see that side of being a missionary and how families sacrifice while doing missions to send their children to school. It has a wonderful family feel and everyone is a big family.
Now April, I just said good bye to my parents, again. I was so blessed to have them here for 10 days! They were able to be at Smile for a couple days playing with the kids and seeing our ministry there. We then spent a few days doing some traveling including going to the Source of the Nile River and Safari! I have been blessed abundantly in this journey being able to travel and see things I never thought I would! Having my parents here was so amazing. I don’t know what it will be like to come home again but I know the transition will be difficult, to say the least, and I am so glad they were able to come and see all of this to help me adjust and understand where I am coming from.
In this second half of my journey to Africa God has continually been teaching me and revealing to me my next steps after Smile Africa in Uganda. One of the main things I have been learning about is prayer. How powerful it is, how important it is and how God uses it. He has been challenging me to pray for an hour a day. So I am trying to conquer that challenge so it becomes a normal thing, not easy. He has shown me how to rest, how to be dependent on Him, in EVERYTHING, how to wait patiently for His timing, and how to be content and see good in what I don’t want or like. These are just a few of the things I have been learning or wrestling with.
Exciting News! God opened the doors so I will be starting Graduate School at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, CO this fall in the Counseling and Career Development program. It is really funny how God has connected this. Here’s the story:
During my last semester in 2009 I traveled to Fort Collins, CO with a few friends one of whom I was going to move there with in the summer. We went out there specifically to look at apartments, which we found one, I got to visit my cousin and his lovely family.
As I finished out my semester, my friend got a job offer she couldn’t pass up and then met her, now husband. So my plans fell through and at the time I wasn’t comfortable moving by myself. Over the next two years I worked as a Life Skills Assistant, led a youth group, taught voice lessons, then took an unpaid internship as I moved to Minneapolis, MN and started working at TreeHouse which is where I realized the need for school counselors and that that was what I wanted to do. After the job falling through and it being too late to apply for school God led me to Africa and I tried to be wise by applying for school before I left. In all of this I have realized that without all these experiences I wouldn’t be going to school this fall and wouldn’t have experienced so many other things, despite it being really hard and not what I (thought I) wanted.
So the phrase “In God’s Timing”, fits quite well here....I wanted to go to CO then and it was 3 years later that God is now opening that door. It is hard to wait but so good in the end because His plan is always better.
As I now only have 7 weeks left at Smile, the countdown has begun. We have almost every Sunday planned to be visiting someone’s church or be with someone for lunch. Lunch is a whole afternoon event! We are trying to finish up our projects such as painting in the older kids’ rooms, and completing the organization of the sponsorship program. Since I have 6 months under my belt does not mean it gets much easier. I have good days and bad days and I am thankful for comfort God brings me, your support, and my team here. Although, it is hard to fathom saying an “official” good bye to the kids, staff, and friends we have made here. People keep telling me “don’t forget us”, and it is hard to describe to them how I can NEVER forget my experience and time in Uganda.
Thank you all for your continued support, letters, packages, and prayers! This would not be possible to accomplish with out all of this support. I am so glad you are taking this journey with me, thanks for being such a blessing to me!
If you have any questions or comments send them to me!
leahrkent@gmail.com
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