WHITE WATER RAFTING THE NILE!

HELLO!
finally! I hope my mom has been keeping you updated while i fell of the face of the planet for a week! i so missed updating and getting your encouraging comments. I felt so far away!

So here i am, in Jinja, Uganda at a cafe at the source of the Nile River! AWESOME! There is a cafe here called The Source Cafe, started by a bunch of Church of Christ people that are really cool. I love this little place.

Anyway, I have been writing down everything from the past week so i will do a mega post hopefully soon when our internet in Kampala is up again, but as for right now, i will just tell you about the past two days. Yesterday we got up reallyyy early and headed out to Jinja to raft the Nile. I have been having a hard time, with lonliness, especially lately without any contact with the outside world for the past week. I just miss having someone to talk to mainly. Hannah has Jarron and doesn't really need me as much as I feel like I need her, so it is easy to feel this way. I have just been struggling with it a lot and it has been increasingly hard on me. Yesterday, on our hour and 1/2 hour drive here, God took some serious divine control over the shuffle tool on my iPod. laugh all you want, but music and lyrics sometimes speak to me more clearly than anything else. I believe God knows this and uses it to romance my heart constantly :) Song after song after song reminded me of his love for me, his faitfulness and that he is right here with me. The song that really really meant so much to me is called "By Your Side" by 10th Avenue North. I LOVED this song already but it took on a whole new meaning yesterday. It goes like this:

Why are you striving these days
Why are you trying to earn grace
Why are you crying
Let me lift up your face
Just don't turn away

Why are you looking for love
Why are you still searching as if I'm not enough
To where will you go child
Tell me where will you run
To where will you run

And I'll be by your side
Wherever you fall
In the dead of night
Whenever you call
And please don't fight
These hands that are holding you
My hands are holding you

Look at these hands and my side
They swallowed the grave on that night
When I drank the world's sin
So I could carry you in
And give you life
I want to give you life

Cause I, I love you
I want you to know
That I, I love you
I'll never let you go

I cried right there on the bus as I listened to what he had to say to me. I just cried and thanked God for his sacrifice that even gives me oppurtunity for that kind of relationship with Him. I was humbled, thankful, and full of joy. I felt a God-sized hug wrapping around me as he reminded me that He is by my side, here, and always. I amnot alone. I never have been. He just needed to nudge me and remind me that I don't need to look for something else or someone else. He is enough. And from here on out, I will run to no other. I got off that bus thanking God for my lonliness. It has been an incredible blessing to me.

After we got there, we suited up and headed out to the rafts. These were some CRAZY rapids! I have only done 3's and 4's in the states and these are almost all ranked 5. That is Olympic level. It was some seriosuly intense stuff. On one rapid we literally went over a waterfall, and our raft nose dived and we literally crunched together like an accordian. I gashed my knee, but we managed to stay afloat. We only flipped one time, but i feel like that may have been enough. We got flipped, and i was underwater just flipping and turning and i didn't know which way to swim up. i felt like i was underwater for WAY too long and in my head i really thought i was going to drown, but i remembered them telling me i would feel like that so i calmed myself and eventually came up. it was awesomely terrifying. we bought the DVD so you can check it out. I almost got a Ugandan boyfriend out on the river. One they call "Womanizer" in Swahili. Seemed like a real catch but i had to pass that one up. He told our guide "Prince Charles" that he wanted "that one." ummm. no thank you. There was a single know-it-all Canadian guy who went with us who we ALL wanted to hit with our WOODEN paddles. He was just completely ridiuclous, and such a goob. we have been quoting him all day today.

We got to the camp to spend the night and went to check in and found that we would all be sleeping in the same tiny bunk room. We decided it would be best for all the girls to be on the top bunks and boys below to make things a little more private. We all had our own MOS-QUEE-TO (thats how they say it!) nets and we laughed longggg into the night and had some pretty awesome pillow talk. although, living with people of the opposite sex is very strange, and i can understand why God intended it within the bonds of marriage. This morning we woke up and had an AMAZING breakfast on a porch overlooking the Nile. Overall these 2 days have been just the relaxing break we needed. We were supposed to catch an early train into town today but we all accidently overslept so we got a taxi instead. We have just been walking around town here today, and we will head back to Kampala tonight! Hope internet is up! Thank you for following me. I love you all so much!

For His Glory,
Heidi