Real Challenges

As I said before, I had tried no less than four times to apply for a Visa for Uganda, to no avail.  Consequently, the airline could not allow me to fly to Uganda today and so I canceled my flights.  Since our flight from Harrisburg to Newark had been canceled, we had a driver from the church (Ken) who graciously agreed to drive the church van back from Newark after dropping us off.  Also, the Covid test result that John had was not allowed for the flight, so he ended up getting a Covid test in the airport and just making it to the gate in time for the flight.  

We transferred equipment that I had in my baggage that was to go to the project into other bags and I even left my backpack to Matt to use for the next week.  The team of four now is on their way to Brussels and should arrive there in about four hours.  

I am so sorry I was not able to resolve my Visa issue, but the Lord is in full control of all that has happened and of all that will happen over the next eight days.  It seemed that every one of us had some issue with the Visas, in that dates were messed up or didn't match itineraries, but the assistants at the airport were very helpful.  They tried to help me resolve my problem, but it was not possible.  Today was Veterans Day in the US and the US Uganda Embassy was closed.  The cost of my ticket should be able to apply to another trip in the near future.

For now, and for the rest of the trip, Matt will be the Blogger, as he and John and Tom and Trey work through the issues with connecting power to the PowerPac.  The staff at RG informed us that the transformer had a shorted phase but is scheduled to be back on site at RG on Monday.  Does that mean that we will be able to complete the mission at hand?  Possibly, but this is Africa.  We will see.  Likely someone will need to go back at some point to tweak things if the guys are unable to be satisfied with the settings this time or if the transformer doesn't actually come back in perfect condition.  Lots of things to pray about.  Don't worry about me, I am able to roll with the flow.  Am I happy about how this worked out?  Not at all but I can rest in the fact that the Lord is in control and He certainly had this happen for a reason that He fully understands, even though we may not.

Stay with us on this.  By sometime tomorrow evening we should know how things went with the travels and getting through Customs and Immigration in Uganda.

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