In the Mountains of Uganda

We recently had a fun weekend visiting our friend Milton and his wife, Lovisa, in the highlands of eastern Uganda.  It was a really beautiful and unique drive and our first time to be driving a manual vehicle up and down large hills.  Thankfully, it had not rained very recently.

There are a lot of people living up there on the slopes of Mount Elgon.  We had to squeeze our vehicle past people who had encroached on the road with the goods they were selling and then blocked a road ourselves, parking in front of Milton's house.

Here is Milton at his church on Sunday.  He was one of the students at Pentecostal Theological College while we were teaching there.  We never got a chance to visit him during our year in Mbale, but we are thankful that we came back to Uganda and could do so, four years later.

We traveled with another friend and former student, Joseph, and his wife Gaudance.  Joseph was roommates with Milton at the Bible college and their wives are also good friends.  So it was fun for us all to be together again.

We enjoyed the beautiful singing from the different church choirs. 

The Pentecostal church choirs here in Uganda are very skilled at dancing.

Both of us shared in the service.

Here is the lovely view from the church:

Something really cool about people being farmers here is that a lot of the offerings and tithes at church are given as literal first-fruits from the garden.  There are frequently vegetables, eggs, and chickens given during the offering time.  The way the church turns those into money is by auctioning them off at the end of the service.  This guy was really entertaining as an auctioneer. 

 

We took a different route home - a shortcut.  Part of it definitely took less time - it often seemed like we were driving straight down the mountain!