wow

so i spent the last two days basically on a team vacation. we went to queen Elizabeth game park (http://www.game-reserve.com/uganda_queen_elizabeth.html) and went on a safari. it was ballin. this was our 'touristy' event without which no short term trip is complete. honestly, i was needed. i got sick this week due to exhaustion and wasted a whole just sitting in bed trying to recover. so the time off was nice. adapting to new cultures actually takes a huge amount of energy. it was nice to be able to be an american again and wear shorts and listen to my ipod and speak only english. at the same time, it kinda felt like an 8th grade trip. we were carefree, loud, joking, and only with friends of the same age. some of it was wicked fun (like riding on the roof of safari landrovers that have giant wholes in the roof while driving up and down mountains) and it was incredible beautiful. there was some of the most breath taking land scape i have ever seen. God has created some incredible things. i am finding that the tourist mentality is occurring more often now. i think it is fueled by the fact that i am only here for 2 more weeks. also, it can take a lot of energy just surviving in a new culture (finding food and knowing how to get around. it is like learning to live in a whole new way). it is a lot easier to just remain foreign and let the ugandans conform to your customs because they willingly do. it is much easier to play the role of the mzungu (white person) than to try to adapt to the culture. please be praying for energy. as an almost 20 year old boy, i do not easily recognize my limits and i fear that i will miss a lot of what is here, and what i can be learning, if i run myself out. my mental faculty has seemed rather dulled of late and i am wondering if it is because of this tiredness. it also might be spiritual oppression. i am really inexperienced in this area, but both me and my roommate josh have noticed that we have been 'out of touch with God', for lack of a better term. please pray that the holy spirit would protect us and change our hard hearts. we need to be thirsting after God. we cannot worship what we do not treasure (yup, that's a piper). also, pray that our team would draw together in terms of our purpose. we are jelling socially, but sometimes i feel we need to focus more on what we are here for when we are together. thank God that he has protected us all from sickness and outright spiritual attacks. also praise him for the beauty he has made available to all his creates. pray that all people would have their eyes unveiled and see it. and that their response would be to turn to him. thanks so much for all the prayer and the support.