Fred in the Village: Day 16

Day 16: Locked In

Today was another adventure…I didn’t sleep well last night. I slept in a new bed, but it was so cold last night. Also Jabeth was snoring. Anyway, I woke up this morning and it was a very quiet compound because the American team wasn’t here. Jabeth came up to me and told me the plan for the day. It went like this…
1. Personal devotion
2. Saturday program
3. Head to Soroti for church on Sunday
Everything was going as planned up until personal devotion. I was sitting there reading my Bible when Jabeth asked me if I had a circle thing that you could pull. I was so confused, but then he told me the keys were locked in the car! I tried to use my fingers to pull down the window but it wouldn’t move. I started to watch different videos with David and Jabeth about how to get your door open when we came across one that was telling us to use duct tape. Then Jabeth was like Fred that’s what I was trying to explain to you. We searched everywhere and couldn’t find any left by the team, so we called Dad in the US and he said there was no tape. After that, I informed Dad on what happened and he instructed us to call a professional. Jabeth made a couple of calls, but they weren’t going to make it in time for the Saturday program. So as the thespians say “the show must go on.”

Jabeth called us a boda and Praise and I went on our way. Praise is an Ugandan intern serving with AEM until she begins university in the fall. Because the main bridge was broken we had to go the long way (30min). Once we got there we saw about 10 kids and Praise explained to me how the kids thought that there was no Saturday program this week (due to the team just leaving). But that didn’t stop us from speaking.

Praise wanted me to share with the kids so I did…I told them about the importance of obeying your parents and read from Ephesians 6:1-3, Exodus 20:12, and Colossians 3:20 which explained the importance of obeying your parents and the promise that God makes when we do so. As I spoke more and more kids started showing up, by the end there was 35 kids there. It was a great group!

Once I was done Praise wanted a student to read, so Julius came up and I handed him my Bible and he began reading from it. It was amazing! (side note – Julius played David in David vs. Goliath last week at Saturday program). Once he read everyone started to sing and play games while we waited for their food to be ready.

On the way back Praise wanted to take the shortcut through the broken bridge so we did and I almost fell in (we had to step off the boda and walk in the water) Praise and I placed rocks in the water so we could walk across. After making it across we made it back to the AEM compound where Jabeth, David, and…John were working of getting the keys out the car. After thirty-five minutes they retrieved the keys!

We ate lunch and headed to town where I stopped at the AEM office while Jabeth got the car washed at the “Wash Bay.”

Our friend John who was a driver for our mission team, also works for a local radio station. I was shocked when he said I would be speaking on the radio. At first I thought he was joking, but then Jabeth and Daniel shared what a blessing this would be for us. So we met up with the owner of the radio station, who asked me a couple of questions and informed me that I will be speaking next Sunday on the radio! Tune into ”Voice of Teso” 88.4fm ~ The people’s Choice. They explained to me that there will be post on the stations Facebook and how big of a deal this was for me, AEM, and just youth in general so I will be working on my words this week.

All in all today was a great day. My verse for today is Romans 14:15 and my prayer is that I would have more great days like this.

P.S. I ate a Rolex for dinner!