Eating Grasshoppers

The most common question I get from people is something like, "What was the highlight of your mission trip?" As I’ve answered and then reflected upon that question I come up with many different times and places. But they all have one common factor they were an encounter with one individual, an encounter to take Jesus Christ and his love to Uganda. During our question and answer session with the seminarians they were visibly upset and disa that we had not heard of this great feast of the Ugandan Martyrs before traveling to Uganda six years ago. This fee raises the centerpiexe of their Christian faith. Every year they had been given the day off from school because it was a national holiday. The people of Uganda want to be heard. They want to feel important to the rest of the world. Honesty, they should be the example of how to practice our faith for the rest of the world to follow. That is why they are so excited to see us visiting them. It makes them feel valued as a person. So I must see that the highlights of my mission trip were:

Drinking tea with priests as we talk about life and crack jokes.

Saying grace before eating with Fr Jude and then thanking the lord afterwards. Walking through health clinics, orphanages and care homes with a nun who describes all the ways God is at work through them. Holding a new born baby who is an orphan. Blessing rosaries for someone while they kneel. Blessing a newborn baby. Playing soccer with young men who used to dream of leading their country to the World Cup. Passing a sucker out to a little child. Giving a fist bump to a kindergartner. Picking and eating fruit with a gardener. Watching priests wave a bless reed because they are a little worried during a storm.

Giving rosaries to someone who knows their power.

Pushing a disabled man on a hand-pedaled tricycle up a hill. Hearing 200 children shout with joy after receiving one soccer ball. Seeing a child wear with pride a cinch- sack that I gave them. Catching white ants with a girls that live a few hours from crocodiles but don’t have the resources to go see them

Eating grasshoppers with people who think you I am weird because I don’t!