Our last day in Uganda

Today is our last day in Uganda. But it has been an eventful fortnight. Last night, Friday, there was a big closing celebration for the Academy. Bishop Wandabula attended to congratulate and encourage the participants. Each student-pastor was presented with a certificate of completion. It was truly humbling to realize how excited these men and women were to receive a simple piece of paper. The same certificate would be almost a nuisance for us at home. However, for these people it may be the only time in their lives that their accomplishments and efforts have been or will be recognized.

Jim spent some time with Noah, a young man that is special to him. He arranged for Patrick Isabiyre, one of our student- pastors, to mentor Noah. Noah's desire, and Jim's dream, is to become a United Methodist Pastor. It looks like he is well on the way.

At the close of the celebration each teacher-pastor received a gift of appreciation from Bishop Wandabula. The men received wooden plaques with scenes and sayings from Uganda. Carol was the recipient of a woven rug or mat. We were all overwhelmed that we received anything at all.

This morning we are all finishing our packing and preparing to return home. Although we have all had a wonderful time, we are really ready to get home. Today we are in a 'killing-time' mode. We got a late check out from our hotel at 100pm. But our flight from Entebbe to Cairo is not until 435am tomorrow. We are going to see some sights and spend some time in a hotel near the airport.

We will arrive in Cairo via Egypt Air tomorrow morning around 1000am. Then we have almost 24 hours in Cairo. Thankfully Egypt Air is providing us with rooms so that we will not have to spend the whole time in the airport. We hope to see some more sights in Cairo, but mostly we are planning to take it easy.

Finally, we will get to Kennedy Airport in New York on Monday evening and will arrive (if all connections go well) in Indianapolis on Monday night at 937pm.