What a day today was!

Sundays are particularly interesting because the teams scatters in all directions. We head out to villages to teach in churches and put on programs for the kids.

We had teams of 4 people today, 2 to teach and 2 to work with the kids. I was sent to teach with Holly and Alex and Allie ran the kids service.

You never know what to expect when you head out to a church here. Sometimes they are beautifully built buildings on nicely maintained roads and other times they are canopies in the middle of the bush. Our team went a couple hours away from the guest house and down tiny dirt roads for a couple hours. We arrived at a church who’s foundation and lower was were stone with the upper made of sticks. When we arrived service was already in progress. Church services here typically last from early morning till mid afternoon. They invited us in and placed us in seats of honor at the front of the room.

Holly and I tag teamed the speaking. I spoke on the potential for greatness that lays inside of us waiting to burst forth. I pulled tools from my recent John Maxwell training to craft a talk with all the right flow elements. I had them laughing and sober, intensely interested and relaxed. It was the first speaking engagement I have had since my training and I think it went very well. Holly came up after me and gave her life story related to identity. Our talks had a great natural flow to them. It almost seemed as if it was one person teaching. We videos the talks and I hope to post them here when I get back to real high speed internet.

Back at the mission house I had a chance to engage a couple of our Ugandan hosts in great conversation. Martin is the point guy here and he also is the owner/operator of a safari company. He is currently in the midst of expanding operations in to several neighboring countries. He has partnered with a man I greatly admire from Seattle, Dr Eric Scroggins. He and Eric are building a network of entrepreneurs. Equipping them with solid financial and leadership skills to fund and grow their businesses. They are in a fast paced growth cycle right now. The way it works is each member has to agree to play by a set of rules. In turn that person is eligible to pull short term, low interest loans from the group. Each member is required to bring money to each meeting to buy “shares”. Members can then draw up to three times the amount as the shares they provided. Companies the members have started are seeing tremendous growth and success. I believe this program is going to change the face of Uganda.

I also had a great conversation with Moses. Moses is passionate about adding value to people and has chosen building men and leadership as his focus. He gave me a list of books to read. I am excited to read them and chat with him about the new leadership principles I can use to help men be men in a society that tends to shun the very ideas of manhood.

Anywho, I have been attempting to write this post for a few hours now. Team members keep passing by and stopping to chat. Now it is time to hit the sack. We are starting the medical clinic tomorrow and have to get up at 0630.