Finally, A Phone Call from Mary Beth!

Although we'd heard from Mary Beth when she arrived (remember the sleepy 30 second call in the middle of the night?), and we'd heard from Emily when Mary Beth was a little sick, we finally received a phone call from Mary Beth yesterday. She called around 3:30, 10:30 in Gulu, Uganda, and was tired from a long morning in an orphanage and afternoon in a village. It's hard for her to talk on the phone; she gets quite emotional, and that did make our hearts go right out to her.

She definitely is missing home and feeling a little alone, so we'll continue to pray for her courage and strength! The biggest challenge, she says, has been the one-shot opportunities with people. They have been in a different environment for ministry every morning and afternoon, delivering programs in schools and ministering to people through play and evangelism. She says it's been hard because there's been very little opportunity to share a relationship or get to know people (her experience base has been the ability to stay in one park all day, all week, in Philadelphia). So, she's working through this challenge. I know and trust that she is learning so much about herself every day.

She has met and gotten to know her teammates, one in C with her, who will be staying, and 2 in A, who leave next Wednesday. She's already pretty sad about their leaving, but we tried to assure her that she'll meet some B members who will join their team and become their partners for the last half of this journey.

And, she loves us, misses us and knows how very proud we are of her for this difficult undertaking!  Keep Mary Beth close in your heart. She will be in Gulu (tents) until Tuesday, then they'll have their first excursion, a safari, before the A group leaves Wednesday. I suspect she'll be able to hop back into an Internet cafe then, so send her a message if you're on Facebook.

God Bless and Happy Independence Day!