Adventures begin in simple ways. This adventure began months ago with a simple invitation to join in the work of SWOH, but just a few days ago it got wings. We met at George Bush Intercontinental Airport, weighed luggage, checked-in, walked through security and – with the maximum carry-ons allowed - boarded a plane. Just imagine the journey of one of those carry-on items. Let’s be more specific – a backpack. This heavy, overburdened backpack slowly traveled down the hallway to the gate. Why slowly? Shouldn’t we have booked it through the airport to get to our gate? No, because this mission team is a little different than the usual SWOH mission team. There are two very short, very immature team members. Fiona (5) and Rowen (3) are the first (and hopefully not the last!) children sent by SWOH to serve the Lord in Uganda. Don’t worry. SWOH sent their parents too.

Arriving at the airport in Houston

Ready to fly!

L to R: Ian, Rowen, Fiona, and Sara

Back to our backpack friend. Backpack waited in the boarding line, rode up the ramp and onto the plane only to be unceremoniously shoved into a cramped space under a seat. Then Backpack flew for 8 hours to Amsterdam without the refreshment of a meal or snack provided by the flight crew. (The mission team didn’t have this problem. They had plenty of food and refreshments.) Next Backpack, freed from the confinement of the plane, rode back into an airport, but this time in Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport. The expected 4-hour layover was closer to a 2-hour layover. Most of the layover was spent having a snack together as a team at McDonald’s and slowly, slowly, very slowly walking to the gate. The team had a few minutes to burn, so Jeremiah and Ian hung out at the gate, while Backpack and the girls, Emerald, Sara, Fiona and Rowen, found a place to play. Then it was back to the gate, into the boarding line and onto the plane where Backpack received the same treatment - shoved in the cramped space under a seat for 8 hours.

Backpack (and the mission team) arrived at the Kigali airport (Kigali, Rwanda) and waited while passengers got off the plane and other passengers boarded. After this long interlude, the plane flew 30 minutes to Entebbe, Uganda (the international airport in Uganda is in Entebbe, about 40 minutes from Uganda’s capital, Kampala), where it rode down the ramp and into UGANDA – at least the airport. After arrival, there was a quick meeting before the team went through immigration. Immigration was quick, and the luggage was waiting on the luggage carousel. The team was almost there! Outside the airport, Joy Situka waited to take the team to her home. What a relief to be greeted by her smiling face and warm hugs! Next, Backpack was loaded into a car and rode the 40-minute drive to the house near Kampala. The weary travelers fell into bed and Backpack was left on a bedroom floor to await the next leg of the adventure.

by Sara Call

For more of backpack and the team’s adventures, head over to Instagram and give @SWOHministries a follow!

As we go on this trip, you will be receiving blog updates and photos of everyone to keep you all up to date on this new experience that we are having. Just to reintroduce the team real quick, it is Jeremiah, Ty, Andrew, Philip, and Katlynn (me) that are on this plane right now headed to be with God’s people in Uganda.

So as we arrived at the airport this afternoon, everything seemed to be going well. We all:

• Arrived at a decent time
• Had our tickets
• Had our passports

Great! We did our job. Next stop: Uganda.

But…

It didn’t quite happen as smoothly as we anticipated. Our first issue was that we had a bit too much luggage. After weighing our bags, switching around items into other bags to meet the weight requirement, then switching them around some more because of an extra pound or two, then back to the scales, we finally met all the weight requirements! Next, we went to check our perfectly weighed luggage to find out that we had one bag too many. After paying a few extra bucks to add a bag, we got that issue resolved. Yay! After our luggage was checked in, we realized that one of our laptop’s charger was in the checked luggage, and the other laptop decided it wanted to update for two hours. Though we needed to send out this blog with airport wifi, do some budgeting for the trip, and send some final emails, we kind of just pushed this issue aside. We knew it wasn’t the biggest deal so we decided that we would figure it out on the plane once the laptop was finished updating. No biggie.

But then, to top it all off, the ladies checking our tickets gave us some lovely news: Philip’s seat on the plane had been suspended. We didn’t know why or how it happened or what to do to change it back to normal. All we knew was that Philip did not have a seat anymore. As a team, we all prayed that God would fix this situation and make sure that Philip could get on that plane with us. Within no time, our prayers were answered and his seat was available again. I was amazed at how quickly God worked to solve this issue. What Jesus says about our Father is true! We asked and the door, or rather the seat, was opened (Matthew 7:7).

Though our adventure at the airport was nowhere near smooth, I wouldn’t change a thing about it. Because as a team we learned a lot. Now we know issues will occur, but as a team we can recognize the issues and know prayer is the key. We saw Him fix all these issues because God wants us to be in Uganda. He will do everything to make sure we get there.

So please follow along with us and keep reading to see what God does next. We all are  going to Uganda to see God work through us so we can help others see Him too, and within our group, we already witnessed Him and His powerful hands working for us before we even stepped foot on the plane. We thank God for His help and for the opportunity for us to even be here. We’re so grateful, ready, and willing to experience Ugandans and to be there with them, loving them as God does.

by Katlynn Menees

We made it to Uganda!

After a several leg journey, including a 15 hour overnight layover in Dubai, we arrived in Jinja, Uganda. The Jinja district is where Sovereign Wings of Hope has its largest presence and will be our home base for most of the trip. We are exhausted! When we opened the door to our room in the Guest House, I first noticed mosquito nets over the two beds. I’ve heard of mosquito nets and know they are lifesavers (literally!), but I’ve never slept beneath one. We three girls – Esther, Katie, and myself – are staying in one room, and Jeremiah is down the hall. This is a fairly new Guest House. Our rooms each have a bathroom, windows, and a patio overlooking a small field of maize across the road.

It’s about 7:30PM now and we are off to meet Rinty Kintu, Coordinator of Hospice Jinja and Wings of Hope Christian Academy, at a restaurant called All Friends. I hear they have pizza and hamburgers on the menu!