Over the River to Gulu We Go!: Trip 6

It’s Saturday, we’re short one person (our leader, Mike Evans!) and we wake up for a 7 am breakfast and a ride across the country to get to Gulu. As we are eating omelets (not quite a Key’s event, but pretty good!) and sausage when we meet two women from Finland (turns out they don’t know any of Carol’s relatives). They are etymologists, who are in country to study butterflies. This was my first international etymologist experience-so memorable.

We checked out and hit the road a bit before eight. Peter sat in front so he could get a good look at life going on, as this is his first trip to Africa. Kris Mobbs and I filled him in on what to expect as we made our way to our new home and wanted to get the blow by blow of his e-visa experience in Amsterdam. It was good to know I would share the week with him. He got a kick out of how traffic operated in such a chaotic, yet ultimately safe manner. We drove by markets of people piled on top of each other, with many of the items for sale seem the same as the table next to them. 

He was excited to see the Nile, and the bridge we went over had significant rapids that I don’t think baby Moses’ basket would have ever survived. We also saw about eight baboons; a lot less than we are used to seeing near the bridge. 

We stopped about ½ way to get some spring rolls to go and once we reached Gulu, we stopped at a grocery store to stock up on some munchies (tell Carol vegetables!), and of course, Coke Zero. We drove out of town northeast and forty minutes later we were at home at last. 

We unpacked, verified the schedule we made for Sunday and had a meat lover’s pizza that Peter and I were happy to allow into our home for the week. 

We’re finally in place to start focusing on the reason why we came: to equip pastors toward a gospel centered, Bible saturated, Africa lead movement. After church tomorrow, we will meet with the trainers we share teaching duties with and who will carry on the teaching a year from now when we stop coming. We will be handing the keys to them in May, and we are sharing the load and training them for the role for the week. Fortunately, we determined to have a Zoom meeting two weeks ago, so they are further ahead than they usually are for our first sit down

Meeting. But now, we are behind. Everyone seems ready to go for it. We’ll find out.

Larry Szyman

Pastor for Missional Life