Finding a church

It will be a week on Wednesday since we have been in Dallas so I can't say we have had a full week here since our trip to Memphis.
Today is Sunday, well in effect Monday but... anyway the one thing we were praying about was finding a church.
When we were in Dallas earlier this year Sam noted a church that wasn't too far from the rail line and suggested that we try it out. I honestly don't know how he knew it was a church because just looking out at it from the train window one would never figure that out. It's hidden, in the same area with shopping malls and it has no visible sign but it is a church.
When we got to the parking lot, wow! plenty of cars parked, service was already in session (we thought they would start at 10am, they start at 9:30am). We were ushered in by a very nice old man, he told us service schedule, luckily we were just in time for the sermon so he took us to 2nd floor and showed us into the sanctuary.
Ho! I was just wowed, the place was very posh, (by my standards), it was kind of like what visitors from the village or our of town would experience when they walked into KPC and there was "heavens gates and hells flames" or "a Christmas cantata", very spectacular!. Ok, maybe I have exaggerated but how else would you imagine what I'm describing?.









We got in just in time for the special song, it sounded really good the message of the song was very loaded. I didn't get it the first time but thankfully I had a second chance to listen to it and lets just say the message was deep, I think the title was 'I dare you to move' something about leaving comfort zones.
Mich came with us and I was impressed by how he sat through the sermon with out a fuss, maybe he too was marvelling at the two screens that showed whomever was at the pulpit, the wonderful music and the illustrations during the sermon.
Just in case you are beginning to think I'm too carnal the sermon was on preaching the Gospel, getting out of our comfort zones and sharing Gods Word with the people around us. The sermon was from Luke 5 where Jesus calls Peter and the disciples to become fishers of men.
Service was just an hour long so we decided to stay for worship in the next service and had Mich try out Sunday school.
We had a wonderful time, stayed through to the end and had to drug Mich out of Sunday school because he didn't want to leave, even after all the other kids were gone.

First time visitors had a chance to meet up with the Pastor and when we told him we were originally from Uganda he said he had a Ugandan on staff, small world I tell you.
In conclusion, I think I can safely say that we have found a bible believing church to attend while we are in Dallas, its called Fellowship Bible Church Dallas and if you are interested you can have a look at their website on http://www.fellowshipdallas.org/

Dallas, Memphis, here we come.

I'm sure some of you have been holding your breath to hear all the interesting stories that life has had to offer us with a shift to Dallas and all.
Well, I'll start from the beginning, brace yourselves because this is going to be a really long posting.

Anyway so May 30th we pack all our belongings, (it's amazing how much stuff we picked up in just over 10 months of being in Philly), we put everything in storage because we figured it wouldn't make sense holding down two apartments, especially with the expense. God was so good that my navigator friends Brent and Diane came over to help us with the shift, Diane took care of Mich, Sam and Brent were carrying the stuff and I was getting rid of the small things that were lying around.
We had thought we would spend the night in an empty house on the floor or something ( I don't exactly know how that was going to work) but anyway that was the plan because our flight the next day was at 9:45 am so we needed to have left home by about 7:00am. Brent and Diane decided to host us for the night that was fantastic, they offered to take us to the airport too.

We got to Dallas about 1pm, rented a car and headed to a motel where we spent the night and the next day headed to our apartment at The Village Complex because that is where the guys we are renting furniture from where going to deliver stuff.
By about 3pm we were settled in and started packing the few things we would need for our trip to Memphis. Mich by this point was already loving the Dallas, large spaces of grass to run in and generally free space and fresh air, he was really excited.

Saturday morning we started our journey to Memphis, which I will officially call Sam's village/home, you will know why in a short while. It took us about 7 hours to get there with a few stops on the way to stretch our legs and stuff, very smooth ride on these fantastic roads. As soon as we crossed from Arkansas (which by the way is pronounced Arkinso, for those of you who didn't know) in to Memphis, they was a huge grin on Sam's face as if to say "home sweet home", he couldn't stop talking, telling me the routes he would take to work, where he lived, which part of the city looked more beautiful, all these memories came flooding back to him and that was nice. I was glad it was also a good way to celebrate his birthday and our anniversary, he really has a special bond with the city.










We were hosted by Jim and Barbara Pendleton, the family that he was attached to while he was a student at U of Memphis. They are a wonderful couple, have three children who have pretty much left home except for Melody who still lives with them but has a life of her own, (she is 23 by the way). Lovely home, with a dog and a cat and no prizes for guessing who was most thrilled and scared at the same time. Mich was so happy to spend time at the Pendletons because apart from the dog and the cat that kept running after him and him following them, they had a large garden where he spent time inspecting the flower and the insects.









We decided that we would visit the church Sam used to pray at, Covenant Community Church, we didn't think we would get any of the oldies seeing as the Steve the Pastor we knew has moved on. From the moment we arrived in the parking lot to the time we left the church, Sam kept bumping into people he knew, almost giving them heart attacks (anti some of them are not very young), anyway it was a wonderful experience. Even the new Pastor, whom we had never met recalled being told about this young man who was a member of the church but had returned to Uganda. I guess he remembered because Steve Noblett the pastor back then had made two trips to Uganda purposely to follow up on Sam, (I'm sure some of you either met him while he was in UG or heard about him).












We certainly contacted Steve and his wife Victoria and had dinner with them on Sunday, that was really exciting! I met Steve when he came to Uganda so we were already friends, I was meeting Victoria for the first time and Steve and Victoria were seeing Mich for the first time, there was a lot to celebrate. Both the Pendletons and the Nobletts treated Sam like a son who had traveled away from home and was coming back with a new family, that was interesting.
Mich was really having the time of his life, the least he did was help Steve water his entire garden, which wasn't small by any means and of course by the end of it there was more water on Mich than there was on some plants but it was all fun.












Monday, the 5th of June, we took a tour, went by the University walked through the campus, drove through town to the apartments that Sam had lived in, the places he had worked, had lunch and had some time to relax in the gardens before heading to the Zoo. Jim took time off work and he and his family gave us a tour of the Zoo, that was nice especially for Mich who was learning about all these animals and insects. After about two hours we were quite exhausted and decided to call it a day at around 5pm. We however had to meet one of Sam's good friends for dinner at 6:30pm, driving time and all would only give us enough time to get there so we decided not to go home before.
















So we met up with Greg and his wife Valerie and their son Joshua who is almost three years old, well at least everyone had someone to talk to. By about 8:00pm we were through and I thought it would be a great time to head straight to bed because I was feeling really spent.











We got back to Dallas this evening and have about a week before Sam begins his internship.

A trip to Washington

About two weeks ago, Sam Mich and I travelled to Washington, Reverend and Michelle had come in from Uganda and we wanted to see them before they headed back.

Meeting friends and family here is so exciting, you get to hear lots of stories, I feel like they have brought a piece of home with them when they come. We were able to talk about things that are familiar to natives and ... well, it's a bit hard to explain, it's just great.

One of the other things I was really excited that we were able to do was visit the head quarters of my former place of work. I guess it was not at the best of times especially since the President Paul Wolfowitz was being asked to resign.

Security was tight as usual, we had to go through all these machines, Steven had to explain we were his visitors. We had our pictures taken for identification and so on and so forth. I was truly a stranger, meanwhile back home I was the one who made sure every one who came to the Bank country office was checked, they would have to identify themselves and who they had come to see via speaker phone and this was before they came in the door. So it was definitely interesting that this time I was the one being checked.

The World Bank offices are huge, several floors and several blocks too, we were told that people do get lost in the buildings, especially the staff who are visiting from other country offices.

It was a Friday so there not that many people in the building at the time, which was good because then we were able to get a nice tour of some places.

I took some pictures, just in case I don't get to work with them again at least I will be able to say I went to the headquarters, and I have proof hehehe.

Mich and the Bead

Remember the story of Gipir and Labongo in p3 history?
I don't remember the details too well but I think I can create something close to the original story.

Gipir and Labongo were neighbours and they spent a lot of time together, I believe they were both hunters. One day while Gipir was away Labongo decided to borrow his favourite spear (without asking) and go hunting. While he was out there he saw a juicy elephant and decided to make a kill of it, the spear hit the target alright but unfortunately the elephant made a way with the spear in his side and Labongo was not able to find the animal.
Aha!, he had some explaining to do, when Gipir got back home his favourite spear was missing and Labongo had something to do with it. He of course explained himself but Gipir would have nothing of it. He insisted that Labongo go back into the forest and find his spear.
Tough!! but well he had to do it otherwise things would get really bad for him. Well he braved it and went looking for the elephant and found the spear.
Life went on after that but obviously their friendship was strained. Then as things always happen, this time Gipir's kid was playing with Labongo's child and it swallowed one of Labongo's beautiful beads.
Labongo gets to know about it and tables turned, he assured Gipir and insisted that he gets his bead back. Now I'm getting to the gist of my story.
I don't know what Gipir was thinking but because he was under so much pressure and Labongo would have nothing less, he got his kid, diced the stomach open and got out the bead. Gave it to Labongo and said, 'there, you want your bead?, you can have it!".
Now I'm just wondering why he couldn't wait, that bead could have come out another way you know?! but anyway that was the end of their friendship.
Legend has is that they packed their bags and went separate ways and that is how we get the tribes of the Acholi and Langi. Ok, ok, it's something like that, this is just my modified version.

And now to why I had to tell this story, I'm sure every parent dreads the moment their kid puts one of those small things; beads, stones, g.nuts e.t.c, into their ears, nose and the like.
We had our share of it recently when some time last week...

It was bed time and Sam was putting Mich to bed. Mich showed Sam a bead, and said "see I have got the thing that people put on and they look nice" and Sam replied something to the effect that it was for girls and they put it in their hair. After reading him a story, praying and saying goodnight, he walked out of the room. Before long we heard Mich calling "daddy", when Sam went in he said, "the thing that girls put on their heads is in my nose".
I was in the sitting room when Sam tells me, "I think we have a problem here, Mich stuck a bead up his nose". Obviously there is a bit of panic and people are holding their breath.
I check it out and it was at a weird angle, there was no way we were going to get it out easy. Meanwhile when Sam would tell Mich to sneeze, he would sniff instead and that wasn't helping. So I get on the Internet to see if there are any solutions, meanwhile Sam is calling the emergency line. The Internet basically said, these things happen, if you can't get it out, see a doctor, the doctor we spoke to said, he should be fine for the night the bead won't go further back, if he can breath let him go to bed and we'll remove it tomorrow when you come in.
We didn't want to complicate things by trying so we sent Mich to bed, for some reason I knew Mich wouldn't sleep because now he knew he had done something crazy and the bead was in his nose.
After a while I got an idea of trying to remove the bead, I got one of the plastic toothpicks, asked Mich to lie still and tried to remove it. Amazingly it came out after two moves, no struggles, no crying or discomfort and we were done. Now that was absolutely God, because all through this time I was praying for wisdom and I know he guided me. Phew!

May be someday I will tell you of the time my brother woke up and had a live cockroach in his ear. I will not disclose which brother though but I will tell you how a wise old man removed it.

Wharton International Cultural Show

Hey, just wanted to give you a sneak peak into some of the interesting school events that "Whartonites" enjoyed this semester. They are not all about books you know and as the saying goes work without play makes Jack a dull boy.


I attended the Wharton International Cultural Show, aka WICS, it had dances from all around the world, it was amazing. After the show I kind of felt like I had been to each of the different countries just for the brief moment.

I'm a little biased here but I honestly think the African dance was the best, it got the most cheers (or may be I was cheering too loud to hear anything else). The guys as usual danced with rythm and such ease like all the moves came naturally to them and the ladies were colourful and African, I mean what can I say?!.

Check these out.