The New Me

Well this blog entry is going to be different, it will not be a normal posting. This blog is going to be about my thoughts and feelings about our trip. Well as we started this trip I was anxious and very excited. I had heard alot of stories of what to expect on my trip from Rebecca and other people that had been to Africa. But in all honesty all of the stories and what I expected to see and feel helped only to keep me being flexible, because everything I expected left the moment we arrived. I quickly learned that no matter how many questions you ask or how prepared you are for everything, in all reality you are and I was completely unprepared. I may have a TON of supplies and things I will never use or didnt really need but I was still so unprepared. I came to Africa expecting a trip like what I had heard from other people and in fact I am having my own experiences. No amount of stories or hints can prepare you for Africa, because no matter what anyone had experinced before you or with you, your experience will be one of a kind. I am so in love with it here in Jinja. I love being with the kids and doing sports because its completely my thing. On sat we had a small group of street kids that were not part of our kids that I was in charge of keeping them busy and that kept me completely in my element. I was doing what I love and I was so happy to be doing it, yet no one else in our group is going to experience it like I did because each one of us is different and we take things in different ways.
     I am loving the people here and just seeing all of the kids around Jinja. All of what I expected to see, I havent really seen; but what I didnt expect to see I did. I love how the kids we are working with are so helpful with teaching us sing language. I never even thought i was gonna learn sign language while I was here, yet thats all I seem to be going and its such a grand experience. I planned on this trip challenging me in ways and things Im used to doing while working with kids just on a whole new level, yet that itself was not true. I was challenged in things and ideas and thoughts i never even imagined would happen.
   God really has been such an important part of me staying all of myself on this trip. I wanted to come to Africa to see another part of the world, experience a new part of life, and to be humbled and to really evaluate my own life and see where I stand with God. God has truly tested me while on this trip and I have found myself thinking and seeing life through a whole new pair of eyes. These eyes are not mine, but actually in starting to see life though what God has planned for me and I am seeing what a child with disabilities in Uganda is going through. I think everynight about these kids and I pray for them because I truly am afraid that in some way I will fail them. I know sports are important but sometimes I feel as if sports can be more to these kids, I just am unsure of how to do that with only one day left. I worry that when I leave I will have left these kids with something they cannot use and all I gave them was something to pass the time.
    If only I really could see how God can use these sports because He has really changed me and my beliefs, because as I came to Africa sports has always been a way of life and im used to just messing around with friends or playing sports on some sort of competitive level, but now I am in charge of giving kids not only a way to pass the time and to be active, but a way to show that no matter that they are blind or deaf they truly are a God breathed creation that is capable of anything. I am seeing these kids start something that may be unclear, yet the moment I turn around these amazing kids have mastered our games or relays and have added something new to the game.
  I am so blessed to be here in Africa, I have been given an oppurtunity that before this I could only dream of. I see my life changing everyday and I can feel God shaping my heart and mind and I love how its changing. I know that when I get back Im going to miss these kids SO SO SO MUCH, and I am happy that I was able to be with them for a week. I came here to teach sports to the kids and to be a leader, but as I may have expected this to stay the same I will have left here being a student and a follower. I am learning so many more things and I love everything that has been going on. Tomorrow is our last day with the kids and I am going to make the most of it because it only takes a second to change a life.

- Jeremy Byrnes