Youth Retreat in Karamoja

This past week, the youth from our PCU church here in Mbale went up to the OPUM Karamoja station in order to join with the youth from the church plant there (along with the teenaged children of the missionaries) for a youth retreat.  This is the first time our two mission stations have joined together to do something like this for the youth.  It was a very exciting opportunity and was a blessing to see.  Even though our two OPUM stations are only a few hours apart, the cultures of the two areas are dramatically different.  For our youth from Mbale, it really is almost like going to another country...so different than their normal life.

Some of the Ugandan pastors from our area did the teaching.

Prayer time in the evening

Our youth were so impressed by the food that the Karamoja Station provided.

During the afternoon, all of the youth broke into small groups to do service projects.  Some of the youth helped at KEO (the nursery school run by our team), some helped to build some houses for members of the church there, some helped to harvest millet and some went evangelizing in a local village.  This was probably one of the greatest blessings of the retreat.  In fact, a couple of the girls that worked at KEO loved it so much that they even expressed interest in coming back to help...kind of like a short-term missionary.  Wouldn't that be something?  The local church in Mbale, sending out short-term missionaries?  I think youth all over the world love to use their youthful energy for this sort of thing, it's simply a matter of opportunity and resources.  (Photo below is of the evangelizing team praying before they leave)

They also had some time for sports and games and to go for a hike to the waterfalls.

 And a late night movie...

And a bonfire.  Haha...Eric got started telling all the kids American fairy tales... Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, etc.  He had a captivated audience.  All these stories that most American children grow up hearing are actually quite shocking when you hear them for the first time as a young adult. 

 We are so thankful for all that our teammates in Karamoja did to help make this retreat a reality.  It was a real blessing to us and to the youth.  Praise the Lord for his goodness!