Since we've been in Africa there have been many funny and endearing cultural differences we've encountered. When we first arrived in Busia and started walking around I kept getting distracted by small voices that sounded far away and I'd catch a word or two that sounded like English. At first I ignored it because I figured it was just people talking to each other along the street. Then I recognized that I was hearing the same phrase each time and the one word that kept standing out was a high pitched ""...you?"." I started turning around to see who was speaking and I noticed 4-5 small children staring at us from a few yards away and then I'd hear another one of them say, "How are you?" That has been the catch phrase of Africa. Everywhere we go we hear adults and kids alike shouting out ""Muzungu!"" which essentially means 'white person'.

Almost immediately, you could feel the spiritual oppression over the whole community. The first two people we talked to were believers who were being attacked by the enemy. We prayed and talked a little bit about making sure not to leave a foot hold for him to sneak in and left.

The rest of the day was pretty much the same, meeting believers and then encouraging them to stand strong in their faith, until we came to her house. I could tell something was different because my interpreter's phone kept ringing off the hook and it just seemed something was trying to get me off track from sharing the gospel. While I waited for the phone conversation to end, I prayed and bound any spirit that would try to hinder the message. Shortly after that, I found out that this woman was not a Christian but a Muslim and she was a widow left with seven, yup seven, young children. She told us that their food store had run dry in May and they were in "famine" until the harvest.

So try to imagine sitting outside of a mud hut, with probably ten little Ugandans running around, while this mother tells me that's she's a Muslim and their going hungry. It was crazy. Anyway, we told her about how God created us to have a relationship with Him but since we all have sin, we are separated from Him. But God loves each of us SO much that He sent Jesus, His son, the only sin-less man, to die for us to atone for our sins. Forgiveness, from sin is a free gift that God has offered to each of us if we will just accept it and ask God to forgive us.

Simple as that, I asked her if she wanted to be close to God and to receive the forgiveness He was offering to her, she nodded her head yes and the rest my friends is history.

Lately we've been enjoying the rough and rugged terrain of the Ugandan mountains. Part of that lifestyle includes the use of what we've lovingly come to call "Squatty Potties". As of the beginning of last month, I had gone the whole race without using one and I was determined to attempt to finish the entire race as the only person to never use a squatty. Sadly, my dreams were dashed when the only mode of toilet available in Tanzania were squatties and I wasn't able to hold it in for an entire month.

In Uganda I've had some unpleasant encounters of the digestive kind and so I've been making use of squatties wherever I can find them. Eventually you get used to it. In several of them I've noticed not just flies, but bees buzzing around the place. I tried telling them that there were no flowers or scented nectar to use for honey but they didn't seem to believe me. But it got me thinking that from time to time, we all try to turn our crap into honey.

Recently God's been dealing with me on the topic of judgment and how I deal with other people's crap. The truth is, I can get really irritated sometimes by the actions of people around me, particularly when I feel that they're thoughtless or inconsiderate actions. But I'm usually pretty good at letting myself off the hook. I find myself justifying sometimes in my head why everything I'm thinking or saying is reasonable and acceptable. Why I'm right and my wife is wrong. Why others just don't "get it". I get worked up inside when I'm in the moment and I'm so focused on how right I am that I don't notice the pungent and unpleasant odor emanating from me, to God and to others. I think my thoughts are pure honey. To God, though, it's just a big load of...you know.

King Saul was an artist at turning crap into honey. When approached by Samuel about offering the sacrifice that he had no right to offer, and then later about not finishing the job God sent him to do, Saul's fingers pointed left and right and I'm sure that in his head he felt like he was completely justified. Sometimes we get our heads so stuck on being right that we're unwilling to see what God sees, and even more unwilling to change.

Lately I've been catching myself in these moments. They're like windows of clarity, glimpses of blue sky between the cloudy sheets of rain. And in that moment I smell something foul and realize it's myself. My habit in the past has been to ignore, and turn it into honey. But lately I've seen these moments as God's mercy, asking me to grow in ways that are difficult but powerful. And in those moments now I pray. And I repent. Several times in the last month or two I've caught myself right in the middle of justifying, speaking in anger, judging, and trying to make myself feel and look good. And lately I've also found those glimpses popping up in the middle. Instead of turning crap into honey, my new goal is to get less crap in my heart in the first place and get a garden of flowers that can actually be used for something good for me and the people around me. Bees weren't made for outhouses. And we've got a lot better things we can do with God's gifts and our time than justifying what should instead be just tossed out and forgotten at the foot of the cross.

As you know we've made it to Uganda! And for sure this is the greatest and hardest experience we've had on the race so far. We're back to bucket showers and now out of wet wipes so the smells protruding from our bodies officially make us unacceptable to our dear western culture (I think that means we've earned our missionary badge). Anyway I just learned yesterday that not only is out house made out of mud but the mud is combined with cow dung, yup, and that would explain the funny smell in our room. And now David feels vindicated for all the blame was previously put on him since he is again the only guy on our team. Simply put our living conditions are a lot like Little House on the Prairie, no electricity, running water or floor. Cows in the back yard are milked each day, chickens are always running around and there's a really cute (and clean) little kitten that will grow to be a great mouser (we all hope he grows up VERY quickly). I write just to give you a picture of what living conditions are like but what I really want to tell you about is the work God is doing through His people in Uganda.

Yesterday after David and our new team-mate Lyndsie spoke at an elementary school about abstinence and staying in school, we had door-to-door evangelism and it was great!

Most of us split up and headed in different directions all over the community. Monica and I along with our interpreter headed down to the "pride lands" to share the love of Christ with the community. There we met and prayed with a believer named Rose she is still grieving the death of her first born child who committed suicide last year. Her husband, who struggles with alcohol abuse, blames the death on her. Together we prayed and ask God to bring freedom to her husband and to bring a renewed hope to her and her family. After visiting Rose we went to another house. The grandmother there is a committed believer and so are most of her children but the son that she lives with is Muslim and it was on his land that we stood and proclaimed the love of Christ to many of the surrounding neighbors.  We also met and prayed for an older man who looked like he was in his 70s. I looked deep in his eyes and told him that God had sent me from the other side of the world to come and tell him that God loved him, no matter what he had done in the past, God really wanted him. The man was really listening and before I got around to asking if he wanted to accept Christ as his personal savior he spoke to our interpreter and said I want to serve Jesus. Wow, it was by far one of the best ministry moments on the race! Honestly, God loves you that much too, whether you've been serving him for years or have yet to confess him as Lord, he is still seeking after you and will continue to move people or mountains just to get to you. Believe that.

Pray for the new believers and people who are continually rededicating their lives that they would remain strong in their faith.

Hello friends! We are living the life of adventure right now. So far despite our brushes with malaria, pneumonia, typhoid, crazy bus rides, tiring physical labor, learning new languages everywhere we go and seeing many people come to a saving knowledge of Jesus, we can officially say we are now truly getting the missionary experience. We are in Sebei, Uganda near the border of Kenya, way up in the beautiful green mountains with waterfalls all around. We are living with Reverend Moses and his family and working with an Anglican Diocese out here. When we showed up we drove to the top of the mountain and stopped on the side of a severely muddy, red clay road and found 20 children around us, many of whom grabbed our bags and carried them (some on their head) to the house we were going to stay in. The home is a mudded house with dirt floors and no electricity. The restrooms are outside, one metal shack with rocks to pee on and another metal shack a little bit further off with a hole in the ground for "other" types of business. We eat in the morning in a separate dining room shack and at night by lantern light in the main house. We are sleeping on beds which are pretty comfortable but there is a family of mice that gets extremely frisky at night and it can sometimes be difficult to sleep for fear of them crawling along walls or the roof. Missionaries have endured worse and our contacts here are truly wonderful and gentle men and women of God who have tried to pack as much into our time here as possible.

We are sooooo close to being fully funded. We are only $2000 away! Please pray about giving and help us finish fund raising as soon as possible! Thanks so much for following our journey.

On a long bus ride (see Transportation in Africa) I found myself awake late at night and yearning inside for a deeper connection with God. Sometimes the World Race gets busy and it's hard to make yourself take the time away that you need. I've felt God stirring in me lately the urgent need to hear His voice. In some ways it's kind of an irritating stirring. I'll explain why in a second. As I sat on the bus I put headphones in and started listening to worship and purposefully engaged my Spirit in worshiping the Lord. It's not what I felt like doing but it's what I needed to do. I needed to turn my heart toward acknowledging Him. So I mouthed the words silently to songs of worship in the dark bus and I turned the eyes of my heart inward, toward my Creator. I began to listen for Him and started to hear His words to me. At times it's difficult to discern between the Lord's voice and my own internal thoughts and that was frustrating to me. I've been through the learning process before. In high school I spent months and months learning to differentiate and confirm the voice of the Lord to the point of having long conversations with Him where I had no doubt as to which voice was His. Having to repeat the process was a frustration and a little bit humiliating. I spoke back to God and said, "Is this what I have to do? Start all over again and test Your voice, learning how to hear it all over again?" I heard Him respond in admonishment, "You did it before, are you too good for it now?"

A few weeks ago we took a bus ride from Nairobi to Dar es Salaam. Here's a picture of what that experience can look like.

5:00am - wake up at Milimani backbackers. We've been sleeping in the back of a Safari truck for two nights

5:20am - The taxi shows up. The hostel's pet dog, Scooby, almost takes our taxi drivers arm off. We restrain Scooby with a snack and save our drivers arm, thus enabling him to keep his ability to drive.

6:20am - We arrive at the bus station. Earlier in the month we took an EZ Coach bus. It was terrible. I see the name on the side of the bus. It's not EZ Coach. I rejoice inside and raise my expectations for the trip.

6:23am - I notice a white guy out of the corner of my eye and turn my head to see him. It's Tom Cruise. Or his younger brother. I smile and nod and he flashes me a toothy Tom Cruise grin. Definitely a relative.

6:25am - Crowds are surrounding all the buses and we can't tell which one is ours. Michelle goes to ask inside. No real answers. Finally we ask the man I front of the nearest bus. He points to the bus in front of us. We rejoice and prepare to load our bags.

6:45am - We still haven't loaded our bags. We're standing around and there's a man in front of the bus door. He's not doing anything. Neither is anyone else. We decide to do nothing as well. Still waiting to load the bags.

6:53am - People are starting to load the bus. I send Catherine and Michelle to go get on. I'll load the bags. Whenever that happens.

7:00am - It's departure time for the bus, but we're definitely not departing. Finally time to load the bags. I rejoice. Finally the last bag is loaded and I head to the door of the bus, just behind a woman dressed in a green uniform.

7:01am - Catherine and Michelle are now off the bus. Green uniform woman has told them we're on the wrong bus. After our bags are already loaded. I'm not rejoicing. I decide to go ask the man in front of the first bus we saw. He points again to the bus we were just told to get off. I go back to green uniform lady and tell her what he said. I politely state that either he or she must be wrong and we need to know which so we can board our bus. She looks at my ticket again and decides it's ok. We all get back on the bus. The luggage doesn't have to be moved. I nearly rejoice.

7:05am - We're seated on the bus. So is Tom. We find out he's from North Carolina and out here to do medical work. I know it's just a cover and he's probably on some crazy impossible mission but I nod like I believe him.

7:30am - The bus finally starts to make noises and moves out of the station. We're on our way. Goodbye Nairobi, hello 18 hour bus trip to Dar es Salaam.

7:50am - We've hit dusty roads. The trip's been comfortable so far. A man in a black hat comes to the back of the bus. I think he works for the bus company. He opens my window and cold air and dust start flying into my face. I make a note mentally to thank him for his kindness.

7:51am - Black hat is back at the front of the bus again. I close my window. Air is still blowing in my face from the window by the seat in front of me. A man in a white hat sitting in front of me closes that window. I can tell we are going to be allies. All is comfortable again.

8:45am - Black hat returns and opens my window again. I ask him why he needs the window open. He grunts a few syllables that I'm fairly sure were neither English nor Swahili and puts his phone to his ear. I know that tactic. He leaves and I close my window again. A few minutes later white hat closes his window again too. The game is on.

10:15am - We hit the border of Tanzania and have to get off the bus and go through immigration. First we have to go through customs. Tom Cruise is in line across the room from us. We get a short line and move through quick. He's still there when we leave.

10:19am - We get to the other building to get our passports stamped. Catherine and I are near the front of the line. Tom Cruise comes in and gets in a different line. It's a race now. He gets to the counter and gets done within minutes. He must have figured the system out. He's Tom Cruise.

10:40am - We finally get someone to talk to us. I get my passport stamped.

10:55am - They finally call Catherine up to get her passport stamped. The bus has been driving back and forth on the road. Michelle's keeping them from leaving without us. We finally head out to get back on and they drive off. They stop about 40 feet in front of us. We run up and they apologize and let us back on.

11:37am - We stop at a security checkpoint and security men walk around the bus looking at the storage compartments. I worry for a minute about my guitar and hope they don't start rummaging through things and tossing them around. One boards the bus and walks to the back, looking stoically at everyone as he passes. Then he gets off and we move again.

12:02pm - A man in a white shirt starts walking back opening windows on the bus. He gets to my window. I stop him and ask why they need to open windows. He smiles at me and says "air condition". Then he opens my window and moves on. I already know the condition of the air. Cold and dusty. I give up on the window and leave it open. White hat seems to have given up too. If he closes it I'll close mine. We're in this together.

12:04pm - We hit nice roads.

12:15pm - Catherine and I sleep as best we can.

3:13pm - We watch Minority Report in honor of Tom Cruise. The laptop dies less than halfway through.

4:05pm - We drive.

4:47pm - There are white stripes in the center of the road. It's probably the first time we've seen actual lane separations since Asia.

6:30pm - Still driving.

7:08pm - Michelle loses her glasses, she's now looking through her bag to find her backup glasses so she can see enough to find her newer glasses.

12:14am - We arrive in Dar es Salaam, ready to be back on solid ground!

I took notes to help me remember our adventures and times, but also to show you how bumpy an African bus is. I promise, my handwriting is a least slightly better than this normally.

Many of you have heard that I've been pretty sick over the last month. I had fallen sick with Malaria twice as well as contracting typhoid and pneumonia. In total, I was unable to leave the house for about three weeks. I am much better now, though I still can't walk long distances or carry anything even a little heavy for more than a few steps without needing to stop for a rest or use an inhaler that the doctors gave me. I can honestly say that when you're sick there is no place like home. This past month was difficult for both David and I as we longed for the comforts of home in the midst of our circumstances, and yet with all the bad news and challenges we both fell in love with Kenya and its people. When it was time for us to leave our contacts in Busia and head back to Nairobi we were heartbroken that we were only able to work with them for about half the time we had planned. At that point we knew I had gotten Malaria twice and I was still regaining my strength. We left Busia a little discouraged but knew that God was still in control and had a plan. By the time we arrived in Nairobi I really wasn't doing well but we thought it was due to the long journey we had just taken and that I had not fully regained my strength from the malaria. On the last day we were scheduled to be in Nairobi we knew the sickness wasn't going away and I needed to get checked out so we went up the street to the Nairobi Hospital (which we were told is the best in all of east Africa). By the end of the day I was nearly admitted into the hospital but after assuring the doctor that I would stay in Nairobi for at least a week, they released me with a diagnosis of typhoid and pneumonia. The few days leading up to my hospital visit and the next day following, was a huge low point for me. I don't think I've ever been this sick for this long and it was really getting me down. At times I fell and bruised myself because I was too weak to walk on my own, pour my own water out of a jug or anything. Really all I could do was sit, and sit, and sit. And sometimes even that tired me out too much. I also was consistently coughing so bad I would nearly vomit. I was weak and tired and found myself asking God why he had allowed me to get to this point. He was the one who sent me here, he put the world race in our path and placed it in our hearts, and he was the one who made it all happen. Why allow all this craziness to happen now while many of our other teammates had fallen sick and I couldn't help them one single bit? Oh, I was pissed. "Heal Thyself" Thankfully God loves us enough to not leave us like we are and in this case when my "good attitude" had failed he didn't mind taking up the slack and stepping in. God is always so gentle with us and sometimes I can't explain how his conviction can hit me so hard but still be received so gently. Anyway, this time His conviction came in the form of a blog written by my spiritual dad, Mike Paschall, titled "Heal Yourself". I'll let you give it a read and then I'll continue my story.

"Heal Thyself"

After reading this I felt like I had gotten a real good reminder that God works in these hard times and though we may not see it, big fruit will come if we are willing to trust and bless the Lord through our trials. Well I did the only thing I could do (besides coughing and complaining) I started to bless the Lord. I would lay on my bed and listen to the Psalms on audio (oh yeah, I couldn't read either) or I would just lay there and thank him for the good things he had done for me and my family, my friends. Well just when you think it should start to get better, it didn't, it got worse. Later that week, I had another hospital visit, where they told me that I was having asthmatic tendencies and not really recovering at the rate that they would like me to. The next day we found out that one of our teammates (which on the world race is more like family than a team) had to go home to the states to recover her health and another of our teammates (who was already in Tanzania) had fallen sick as well. I started to bless the Lord and all hell broke loose. Seriously. But something inside of me was different. I wasn't crying anymore or depressed. The Lord had given me a new perspective and all this petty sickness attacking our team wasn't going to stop us from bringing the Kingdom. The enemy was mad that we were doing God's work and he was throwing all he could at us. I know that right now some of you reading this are facing way more than a month long sickness, and some are facing way less. I know that you might be facing insurmountable odds in the physical realm but I know that with my God I can scale a wall, and you can too (Psalm 18). My friends, whatever you are facing right now - Bless the Lord. BLESS THE LORD!

David & I with close friend Calvin - We randomly met in Nairobi at a coffee house!