it's dancing time!!!

Anyone want to rejoice with me and dance naked in the streets … wait King David didn’t dance naked but in his undies…. So what do you say ? That’s what I felt like after the long miracle filled day in kampala…. My joy fully restored and a new sense of God’s mighty hand working in my life.

I hope I remember all the ways in which God provided…. So here is goes, my friend, Adam, from the mainland was traveling to Kampala today and offered me a ride. He was already going to kampala because he helps manage at the source café which sells coffee and one of the places they distribute coffee was the airport….anyways so we are traveling about 20 minutes outside of jinja and the road is completely blocked. Large trailers, semis, oil tankers were all backed up for miles… Adam kept driving through until we couldn’t go anymore. We got out of the vehicle and talked with the police which said this would not be cleared for hours. He suggested we follow some of the smaller public taxis (when traveling to kampala I always take the big-taxi’s because I feel safer… I don’t think I would have made it to kampala if it wasn’t for adams offer) that are taking a back road (not anything like our back roads…. J ) so off we went, and found our way back to the main road after a long detour. Than he dropped me at immigration and in I went. I ended up speaking briefly with a man on the Board of Governors for the immigration office and he told me that things may be changing concerning the price for volunteers, but said I just need to wait. Than I went in and talked with the secretaries that actually do the passport stamping. I told them my situation and they advised me to write a letter and submit it to the commissioner (the big boss). So off I went to the heart of busy kampala, I got a bodda bodda to the internet café to type a letter to the commissioner (by the way I love bodd’s in kampala… it’s a real adventure!). I finished the letter and back I came to the immigration office, I waited sometime for the office to open back up because the whole place closes for lunch until 2pm. Than when the office opened, I went back to where I was and showed the letter to one of the secretaries and she took me to the office of the commissioner… who wasn’t there and the commissioners secretary didn’t even know if she was coming back today …(think about it, Friday afternoon… I wouldn’t want to come back J ). So I sat. I didn’t know what to do. Should I try and schedule a meeting and just come back on Monday? Should I wait here until 4, when the office closes? I just sat and prayed…and prayed….. and than this fiery women walked in and I thought this must be her. She started addressing the people on the benches outside of her office and telling them they can’t wait there, and than looked at me and said what are you waiting for…. Let me tell you I was shaking in my boots…. I took a deep breath and started to explain; she cut me off and said go get the lady who told you to be here… I went back up to the secretaries that advised me earlier. The original secretary didn’t want to go with me into the commissioners office (I wonder why J ) and said ‘you wait for this other lady to come back to go with you’ … when this lady finally came, she didn’t want to go with me either (honestly, I think they feared the commissioner) so she passed me to a gentleman that was in the office that I had never spoken with. Down we went to the commissioner’s office, but he asked me to stay outside for the first while. Later he called me in and all I said was thank you madam for seeing me… (they never had name tags/plates) … she wasn’t even looking at me, she was just reading the letter I had written (the letter was just explaining my situation and asking for advice on what to do.) so finally she finished reading the letter and she started to soften… thank you jesus… although neither me or the man where saying much… but she started asking the man what to do… she had never seen a case come through like this and was asking him if this was common... he said it was starting to be…. But I could tell she wanted to help me… the two of them talked for awhile about what to do…finally they decided… she took my work permit, ripped it up and said we wont need this right now… she just changed the current expiration date on my visa to the 21^st of December and than is giving me a 2-month extension… so until feb. 21^st. and than she is hoping by that time the price for volunteers work permit should be adjusted. So I still had to take a bodda-bodda and go back into the heart of the towne and go to the bank and pay the extension fee… she was telling me to hurry because the office was sonly closing. I raced out to the bank, paid the bill and I thought I was off…. only to find myself being asked to enter a huge line at the bank to obtain a receipt. The power had been on and off at the bank and the line wasn’t moving. I asked the teller, if there is anything she could do for me I had to get back to the immigration office. She placed me back with the manager and the manager had the receipt I needed within 5-minutes and off I was back to the immigration office. On the bodda-bodda ride back to the office I felt like I had just entered into the Lord of the Rings movie… because off in the distance there was a loud blow-horn…like mordici (what’s the bad place called?... sorry to disappoint you penny I know I should know every moment of the lord of the rings) … and It was like the enemy just knew he lost and he was making a last call…. but instead of fearing I just had peace. The battle was won and the enemy lost. God made things happen. The whole taxi home I was smiling and so thankful and excited. Obviously we need to continue to hold this in prayer because come February we may have some more obstacles. But lets rejoice!!!