We've been following the adventures of Kim Hart, a young woman from England doing her five-month Discipleship Training School (DTS) at the Youth With A Mission training center in Harpenden, England. Kim completed the lecture phase of her missionary-in-training school, and is now beginning a two-month outreach to Kenya and northern Uganda. This is the second of Kim's outreach reports. Editor, International Communications Network.

Greetings from Soroti, Uganda.

Our last week in Arua was wonderful. The YWAM Arua training center became like a home to us and the staff like our dearest family members. We spent our time enjoying their company with meals of beans and chapatti (rather like a tortilla) and encouraging them in their work as much as we could before we left.

Our team helped with maintenance work on the grounds by "slashing" the grass with long metal sword-like tools and hoeing pathways. It was great to get our hands dirty doing something practical to assist in the overall work there. In the afternoon we were usually busiest, spending time doing door-to-door ministry, children's work or speaking at various events. While we were out doing evangelism one afternoon we met a Ugandan man who is a microbiologist. He was studying various diseases at a nearby lab and Cory was especially impacted by his encounter with this man because he's doing so much to protect fellow Ugandans from disease and as such is helping develop his nation. We left deeply encouraged by him.

We got the opportunity to go back to work in the prison alongside students from a local university. We shared with the students that God cares about all areas of their lives--from helping them overcome sin and temptation to helping guide them in their careers. He is literally the God of everything! That particular day I was involved in children's ministry which is always tiring but exciting none the less. Our white skin attracts children from all over the villages and that day we had over 60 children playing with us--and a puppet that they adored even though he only spoke English!

The weekend brought celebrations once again as our DTS school leader had his birthday celebrated with fresh toast and cake. We got up extra early in the morning and cooked over a coal fire on a clay stove in a hut. It was surreal but it tasted wonderful. Later that evening we spent time fellowshipping together and enjoying some traditional African dancing. After experiencing African worship music here, it will be hard to go back to more subdued worship in England.

After a brief stop to take a boat trip up the River Nile and watch the elephants, hippos and crocodiles (which was stunning) we began our road trip down to Soroti. Thankfully the journey only took ten hours by car and we had plenty of oranges to eat along the way. We arrived at the YWAM Soroti center to a warm welcome from the staff and DTS students here. Imagine how excited we were to discover flushing toilets and inside showers!

Our work here so far has involved lots of babies and children, most affected by HIV and AIDS. We visited a YWAM project here called the Shelter of Peace for children who are either orphaned or are too sick for their families to care for. They stay with staff at the shelter until they are well enough to go home, or a suitable home is found for them. It was a beautiful place but other team members described the place as bittersweet. It was difficult to see such vulnerable children whose lives will be tragically cut short by such a preventable disease. We will be going back to the shelter regularly taking on some shift work to care for the babies and children and give the staff a well earned break.

The rest of the week is very busy for the team. We will be doing some door-to-door evangelism, leading a special church service on Saturday (running three programs concurrently for three different groups) and then attending a triple wedding/ordination service on Sunday. Next week looks to be much the same as we enjoy our last week in Africa together.

Until next week,

Kim