My Life Lately

Hello one and all. This is Jed, finally bloging after some much needed rest and relaxation. Many of you know that April, May and June was a whirlwind for me with school, missions prep and figuring out what I was going to do this summer. Now that things have leveled off I am hoping that my bloging schedule will become regular once again.

Africa
I went to Uganda as a part of the New Life School of Worship which went under the umbrella of The Mill Missions (The Mill is New Life’s 20s ministry). There were 21 of us with the School of Worship (SOW) and over 200 sent with The Mill all over Africa. The Mill was sending about 25 teams of students and 20s all over Africa, from Egypt, Kenya and a lot of other places I just couldn’t keep track of. The two SOW teams were just one part of this endeavor so it felt like we were a part of a huge army invading Africa. Some of our missions were evangelistic in nature others were humanitarian, but all of us had the mission of creating more worshipers and spreading the love of Christ Jesus to a people who often feel over looked.

For us it started June 2nd, 2:00 pm Colorado time, at the World Prayer Center on the New Life Campus. Upon arriving I was bombarded by the students and there luggage crammed into the WPC courtyard, which for your information echoes like a cave. By 3:00 pm we had loaded up the buses, said good bye to friends and family (harder for some people more than others) and we were on our way to the Denver International Airport, about an hour and a half drive, give or take. Let me tell you getting two hundred people on a plane is an ordeal, and appropriate prelude to what this missions trip would be like. We waited about 2 hours to our luggage checked-in. If it wasn’t for hackisacks and the contorted positions you can make with your face while looking into a digital camera, I don’t know how we would have stayed sane.

The plane ride was smooth and comfortable with the exception of 10 minutes of turbulence right out of Denver. I always seem to break out into a cold sweat whenever I am in one of those situations, but fortunately for the people sitting next to me, there was no puking by my this time. After seeing “Jumper” on a five inch screen and a three hour nap we were at Heathrow London airport. This airport was like the sweet, hi-class mall; however, it lost its charm after a seven hour layover waiting for our flight to Kenya. There is something about the benches of airports, it’s as if they purposely make them uncomfortable so when you get on the plane you will be in the worst mood you can conjure. We flew Kenya Airways (“The Pride of Africa”) to Nairobi Airport where we had a two hour layover just enough to get checked in, brush our teeth and sit down for fifteen minutes before boarding the plane. On this plane I had a Coke and realized something, “Pop here taste amazing.” The view outside of the plane was equally astounding; we could see jungles, deserts with the signature African red dirt, and the Lake Victoria which was as beautiful as an ocean. Within an hour we began our adventures in Uganda.