Uganda...

I am so sorry for the dead air lately!!  It has been a crazy whirlwind since my last post.
Normally for trips I am uber organized with notebooks and lists etc.  This trip however, became a trip with close friends going to serve with close friends, and the organizational OCD that normally takes over me never did!  lol!  Not that I didn't have things prepared, it just seemed last minute there were all of the things that are normally done that I went... Oh!  I need to do that!! haha!!

The Lord has done so many miracles on the trip, and preparing us for this trip.  We saw Him at work as we shared our calling to go, we saw Him work as Reagan became so excited and understood the true meaning behind going.  We saw Him work in the airport!!  We have seen Him work in Uganda.

Our trip began by leaving the Starks home early Friday morning and heading to the airport.

When we arrived we got checked in with no problems!  We had 7 pieces of luggage and 3 carseats, and because each of us could take two pieces one of the carseats counted as a piece of luggage and because we had two little girls, the carseats counted as a free piece!! That was a huge praise!! We were prepared to pay at least $100 a piece to take those if need be.
**The reason for carseats is because of the lack of available careseats here in Uganda.  There are no seat belt laws like the US and accidents happen, and when they do many children are hurt.  Just recently a good friend of the Segner's had a child pass away in a car accident, and so a group of awesome friends of the Segners back home got together and raised the funds to purchase carseats for them!!

The girls got their wings and we were off to security!  Again very uneventful!
Then we got thru security and checked our gate and departure time (original time was 12pm).  At that moment the departure had been delayed to 1:30pm.  We thought no big deal, that is still plenty of time to make our 6:20pm NJ flight, maybe a little tight but not impossible.
Well then the delay got worse and worse, until it showed our landing time to be 6:08... At that point Jonathan and I both realized this could mean we miss our connecting flight to Brussels.  So Jonathan went and talked to someone about a contingency plan.  We got that in place, and then reached out to you awesome prayer warriors.
At this point we knew the only way we would make our connecting flight was if it was delayed, and we knew this was a long shot, but we also know that our God is bigger than any connecting flight!!
So we prayed!! We got on the plane with the landing time estimated at 6:15 and the connecting flight was still leaving on time at 6:20.

We landed and immediately checked and PRAISE THE LORD!!! Our connecting flight was delayed by 20 minutes!!!  We knew it was still a long shot since this flight landed at 6:18 and we still had to get off the plane with lots of others needing to catch a connecting flight as well!
So as soon as we got off the plane we RAN!!!!
Poor girls!! We dragged them thru the airport, all of us out of breath by the time we got to our gate!  The lady waiting for us said, "YOU MADE IT!! You can catch your breath!!"  She then told us that they held the flight and that that almost never happens!  First big answer to prayer of the trip!! So thank you to all of those who were praying for us!!!
Then we just prayed our luggage also made it!!

The rest of the trip was very uneventful.  The girls did great!! There was no significant emotional outbursts because of over exhaustion (you know how easy it is to sleep on a plane...).  We had to give them benedryl at one point because neither of them would sleep! lol!!

Our fun travel socks!!

Then we finally landed in Entebbe!!!!!  We were all exhausted and ecstatic!!!
We get in line for our Visa's and about 5 minutes of standing at the back of this huge line, one of the Ugandan workers, comes gets us and takes us to the front of the line!!!!  Huge answer to prayer since our girls were getting quite restless and impatient.  They couldn't wait to see Kari and Jason!

Once we got that done, again uneventful (PTL!), we were thinking praying we saw our luggage.
We got to the area to get the luggage and the most beautiful sight was the yellow tops of our crates!!!! Every single piece made it, nothing was damaged!!

As we walked out and saw Kari and Jason, a weight just lifted.  We were here, and all was well!

Once we got in the car, we headed to our guest house.  It is very dangerous to drive at night in Uganda because of the lack of respect for traffic laws, and the fact that people just walk out into the street without looking as if they have the right of way.  So we have a strict policy about not driving to Jinja at night.  We arrived at our guest house, which was on top of a hill overlooking Entebbe.  I wish I had gotten a picture of how beautiful it was overlooking the city...

Reagan and I slept fairly well, I woke up at 3 at one point and couldn't fall asleep for another hour.

Then we woke up at 7, took a shower (yes I know you are thinking, why didn't you do that the night before...I could barely stand up thats why! lol!), the shower was cold, but oh so good!!!

We had breakfast overlooking this hill, while listening to the gospel music of the church close by...I felt so peaceful.  It was awesome to watch Reagan as she took it all in.  The beauty of another country.  At this point that is all she saw since we were up far enough away to where she didn't see much of the poverty, although I cannot imagine her thoughts when we opened the door to our "Suite" lol!

Once breakfast was done, we got ready to head out.  And then began the last leg of our journey...the long drive from Entebbe to Jinja.
As we drove back, we watched the girls just soak it in.  The realization that this is really life for some.  We could see a sadness overcome them.  Their world was shattering before their eyes.  In the world they knew, there was nothing like this.  Everyone had a home that wasn't covered in dirt, people drove in their lanes, they didn't transport couches on the back of a motorcycle.  To watch it all thru the eyes of a child...

We stopped in Kampala at the big grocery store (owned by walmart and it kind of resembled a Sams in that it had EVERYTHING in it) we picked up a few things, including some delicious donuts...and a Stoneys!!!  Kari surprised me with it;)  She loves me!! :)

When we finally arrived home, we made a stop at a local market to pick up Rolex's, which are chapati and egg, basically a breakfast burrito...yum!!!
Then we headed over to the guest house to get our stuff in our rooms and hang out with the Segners for a little.  The kids ran around and played, climbing trees and laughing!  We ate dinner of Samosas (basically an egg roll, but in a triangle shape and with meat and veggies or just veggies...delicious!)
And then it began to hit us like a brick wall...we were tired!!!!

The next day was a village day.  We got up, Reagan has made breakfast everyday, my little chef!
Drank multiple cups of amazingly delicious Ugandan coffee, and got ready.
This morning we had some good time with Kari and Jason, just talking.
We had lunch of Matoke and G nut sauce (Matoke is green boiled bananas mashed, and gnut sauce is basically a peanut sauce, together it is kind of like mashed potato and gravy, I love it!).  The girls ended up with a half a peanut butter sandwich:)  But they did eat a lot of the matoke and gnut sauce.

We then loaded up and headed to Kagoma Gate.  It is so beautiful out there.  The majestic trees towering above this little village...The view cannot be captured, you have to be here to really understand it.
We started as we always do, singing and playing with the children.  The kids played Cat & Mouse, where one child stands outside the big circle and the other inside, the cat tries to catch the mouse.  I could not believe how fast Reagan ran!! She held her own!!

(To view more pictures, please visit:  
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Then we gave all the children the deworming medicine.  Some of their little bellies were so swollen and filled with these worms.  It is amazing that for less than $2 one of these children can remain free of these worms for a year!  No amount is too small to make a difference here. (To donate any amount please visit: www.healingfaithuganda.org/donate)

We then were able to put up a couple of nets in a few huts that weren't able to get it the last time we were here.  It was awesome to see Abby getting to actually participate in this part, to see the difference she made in raising funds for this and then to see her actually get to do this.

Reagan has been in her element.  She doesn't even hang out with me!  She immediately goes to the kids and finds some her age and begins to talk to them like someone she just met at school!  That day she found a sweet friend.  Her name is Juliet.  She talked with her, and Juliet braided her hair (which if you know Reagan and her tender head, this is a miracle!).  They walked together and just talked.
I asked her later what they talked about, and she told me that she asked Juliet if she liked living here. Her response was, "Yes, I am grateful I have a home"  I think that was an eye opener, because Reagan told me she felt very sad about the houses she saw.  They don't have real beds, and they are made of mud.  no AC and it was HOT out there.  Her clothes torn and dirty.  I think seeing a girl her own age be so happy with so little was a big surprise to her.

I want to write more, and I have much more to say, but I will leave you with this now.   I will write again soon!