I have returned from Uganda - the trip/travel was nothing to envy - yet I am caught between "loves". I am blessed to be home with Susan and the family but truly miss the new family that adopted me and the brotherhood of seminarians that attended my lectures, endured my exams and invited me to their churches.
It hardly seems real; passing from the West and its luxurious consumerism into the third world of drought and a lack of essentials; and then to return to an office filled with great books and air free of mosquitoes that could infect me with malaria.
How could I love both and write with such an ambivalent mind? The answer is people; it will always be about people. The environment is thin and in the end meaningless. I prefer cool over steamy; partly cloudy over blinding sun; pavement over rutted clay; white boards over concrete covered in black paint and church buildings with windows and sound systems. Yet the people are what it will always be about.
Elwatu Joseph told me on my last Saturday that Uganda is the friendliest country in Africa. I don't know if he is right but I can't bet against him. Loving the Ugandan people was easy; not to mention the wonderful family I stayed with. I wanted to transport them all to Kodiak; and now that I am home to take my Kodiak family to Uganda.
In the end we, Ugandan "born agains" and Kodiak believers, will have the eternal pleasure of sharing "heaven" together. For that I will always be grateful and for that I will live in anticipation. I am invited back and I would enjoy the opportunity to do it better the second time; to not only see my brothers but to meet their children who will be the new generation of "born agains" carrying the good news of Jesus Christ to the streets and villages of Uganda.
While we are apart you do your part and we, here in the states, will do ours.
You are loved and missed,
Brother Mark in Kodiak
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