First World Suffering (Monday): Trip #7

I am a trailblazer. Turns out that I am the first Training Leaders International (TLI) sponsored pastor left in a country due to COVID. This is not the fame I have been seeking! My last post recounted how I found out I was infected with COVID. There is plenty of good news that accompanies this disappointment. The training and the future of an abiding network of African lead churches continues to be unfolding. There are three days left of training as these pastors are being equipped in other areas regarding life in the church as I sit in Entebbe. The goal of handing this ministry to indigenous leaders in May for them to run with seems likely. This is a great source of hope, satisfaction, and joy. Thank you for making this all possible.

At this point I feel about 85% as far as my health and energy go. There are no guarantees as to how this will go. I’ve been vaccinated and boosted but we all know stories that seem to conflict with conventional wisdom. As I processed my test results with my friends from Four Corners, we decided that I should stay at a hotel in Entebbe, rather than go the relational (and possible transmittal) route back in Gulu: as in seven-hour trip back (only to return later) and near 100 degree heat in Gulu. The hotel that Allen (Four Corners key leader) took me to sits on Lake Victoria (second only to Lake Superior in volume for a freshwater lake!) and is nice. 

This is how first world suffering goes. TLI takes out traveler’s insurance for each of the trips. It makes them a bit more expensive, but as I am finding out now, it is worth it. Because we can afford insurance (unlike almost all the African church), I am now in a very comfortable hotel in isolation. I feel healthy enough to go outside in the 70-degree weather and pursue my daily goal of 11,500 steps a day. I eat breakfast and lunch outside and dinner is delivered to my room. I have a small deck off my room that gives me a view of Lake Victoria, the pool, and grounds as I wait out the governmental requirements in Uganda as they seek to honor US protocols. I will submit receipts and get reimbursed for living larger than I am used to. I have computer and iPhone which will allow me to keep up with some of my scheduled appointments and accomplish other work remotely. Juggling the nine-hour time difference is a bit tricky and my body is in between time zones at the moment.  

I hope to have a plan for departing here later today as I talk with the TLI travel guy. The track record has been sketchy with some of the people who have been here lately. Two people had a positive test only to be tested negative the next day and go on their way. I have decided to wait for the counsel of TLI’s travel guy before moving forward. All this to say, this is not what I had in mind, I sought to operate wisely, and I am probably one of the most fortunate COVID people on the planet today. I don’t want to take that for granted.

Larry Szyman

Pastor for Missional Life