Leigha's Log

Yes, I'm home.  Yes, I miss Bukeka. Yes, I'm cold. Yes, I miss it. Yes, it went fast. Yes, I learned a lot. No, I won't be able to explain it all right now.  One of my friends on the other side thought it was funny how I numbered my weeks while I was in Uganda, but then he suggested I should do the same thing when I get back home too. Praising God for the most incredible past 7 months and also for the safe journey back home on Tuesday.  You know I am praising Jesus so much, my first week at home couldn't have gone better. I was nervous and anxious about coming home, and still am a little with the weeks ahead. But God has been so faithful to me. I'm 100% confidant its the prayers prayed on my behalf with this transition. Yes I'm lonely for my kids and all that Suubi was to me, but so far the transition home has been so smooth. Maybe it helps that I could jump right back into working, and that I got to come home to two of my sibling...

Time is somehow passing very quickly and certain people would rather have me probably counting down the weeks or days till I'm on the plane home, rather than the number of weeks I'm still in Uganda. Its a fact that I'm having to face that feels like its all to soon. It seems very crazy that my time is almost up. It might be the most dreaded topic these days, and everyone knows it.  Sometimes I forget all the things that happen here that might be or seem interesting, but for me here now they seem normal or less significant, and it's somehow hard to share whats been happening this side. (btw that was a very Ugandan way to write a sentence) Its funny how much you began to talk in the way that they speak english here. But today I was complimented on the way I speak to the children in a way that they can understand. So if I don't ever really learn Luganda more than I have, at least they can understand my english. I know most of the roads around and even have a ...

Week 25...January, one of the hottest months, but yet it's flu season. Doesn't quite make sense but it happened. Thankful for our natural remedies like papaya leaf tea, ginger, garlic. lemons, & honey. This week is the last full week that Haylie and I have till the end of February. Which is a very sad thought for all of us. But we are so thankful for the time we've had and memories we've made.  Earlier this week Elder Willie calls me over quick and says to grab my car keys we have a few things to do and he'll explain on the way. As we're bumping along the rocky road winding back behind the hill he tells me that one of our church members husband has fallen gravely ill and need transport to a nearby hospital. I drive into the neatly swept compound and park Buffy. Inside the small house, lit up by the door and small window that was open, I knelt down and greeted the familiar faces and told them I was happy to see them and we praised God. Over against t...

Mikwano jange (my friends), I apologize I'm getting very behind in my blogging the past few weeks, and then I almost forget the things that happened when I'm halfway through the next week. There's been some pretty amazing days and I know I'll never just fully be able to share and put to words what I feel in my heart and sometimes, like someone told me, I think I forget how abnormal my life is here and the things that seem crazy to people back home, but now seem normal to me. But it's good for me to be reminded of this because it allows me to see the beauty in all these small things that I've been privileged to be a part of.  Like on Sunday afternoon we walked back to school and spent the evening with the kids and shared the cookies we baked after church with our friends. We went down to the banana plantation with the kids to get their matooke for dinner and also brought a ffeene (jackfruit) back with us. As we're sitting the the veranda of Hammy...

What?! How is it 22 weeks/5 months since I've been in this beautiful country? Its been a pretty slow week this side, and since most everyone is gone visiting their families we've been taking it easy these days. So I don't have to much of an update, but thought I'd get back on track with my weekly blogging.  It's been about a year since I really felt like I was being called to move to Uganda for 7 months. It's crazy to think how fast God worked and how he has led me this year. 2019 will be a year that will never be forgotten and I believe it has grown me more into the person God wants me to be.   If I could some up 2019 in 1 word I think it would be ' filled '.  filled with this message from the Father that He was leading me to serve in Africa for a time filled with excitement and anticipation in coming to Uganda and to see what God had in store being here and for the first couple months feeling empty, only to find that I was being filled...

Christmas time this year...Different in so many ways. You usually think of Christmas time with a blanket of snow covering the ground, a mug of hot coffee, sledding and ice skating, dazzling lights, a table full of Christmas candies, a pile of gifts under the tree, and being wrapped up in a fuzzy blanket by the fire. Its sometimes about all the physical things you get to do and see. But this year has changed it for me. Not experiencing those things in Uganda, this Advent & Christmas has somehow meant a whole lot more to me than any other year.  Its about the feeling in my heart.   The receiving and giving of love with my people here.  The small things that really create the atmosphere of what Christmas really is. The CHRIST in Christmas. Christmas is about God doing whatever it takes to be with us & us just doing whatever it takes to be with Him.  We wrapped some small gifts of what we had in paper and ribbons or whatever pretty thing we co...