Dear parents,
Thank you for entrusting your students to me here in Uganda. Thank you for the very kind words you have all posted in the comments. Thanks for all your prayer and support. It means the world to me and has changed your students and blessed the people in Uganda with whom we have interacted this week.
Your sons and daughters are in the air and on their way to London. They left via bus this morning at 3am our time and their flight is up and on it’s way. I believe it left near on time around 9:30am and 9 hours from now they should be at Heathrow. They will be met there by the guest house they are staying in in London. They are going to shower and change and head to the tube to tour the night lights of London for the first time and grab some dinner. Then after a few hours of sleep and back to the airport they go back to LAX.
I’m praying your reunion is sweet. I’m sure already it will be tear filled. They will need some sleep and some space to process their experience, but I’m sure they will open up to you after their bodies have a chance to catch up with their souls. Last night we had our final meal at a great restaurant here in town called “2 friends” and our team shared some great learnings from our trip over dinner with Mandy. This has been a truly life altering experience for all of us…. and for a few students, they know that God is clearly calling them to work in a context like the one’s we’ve seen this week in the future. That is both risky and scary and exciting for all of you and your teens I’m sure. It’s so great to see how God has spoken our students have listened.
We prayed different, listened different, spent money different, lived different and talked different this week. We know some of that is cultural, but some of that is God’s intention for us too. I’m praying that what changes God wants to do in and through us stick and I’m praying that your home experiences a change that is directly tied to what God did in your student this week. Our prayer has been for God to help us create a “new normal”- a phrase we kicked around at OGN a little this year and that our students have begun to live out this week.
Lastly, please continue to pray for the children and the needs of this place. Pray for physical healing of God sized Kingdom movement level- the kind of stuff miracles are made of. They are open to the gospel and a Holy Spirit move in this town could change the whole country. I’m confident of that. Pray for God’s work all over the globe. His people are alive and well.
Serving Jesus and students with you. See you in a few weeks,
Brian C Berry.
Thank you Brian for taking on this enormous task, the repercussions of which we may not know for a long time to come.
May God’s protection surround you and your family and bless the rest of your time there and bring you all home safe and healthy.
Thankful for you,
Kim
Brian,
Great job bro! We’re proud of you!
There has been lots of prayer & hubbub from this end about all that is being experienced over there.
See you when you get home.
Shalom,
Ed
Brian-Your moving words and pictures have reached and blessed this home. As I told Julia, “You go for all of us.” Many more of us would have joined you had we been able. Thank you for listening so openly to the possiblilities God proposes. Our hearts have been with you all throughout these days. You and yours remain in our prayers.
Blessings,
The Stines
Brian,
Thank you for sending my son home changed,Blessed and humbled.Still Praying for your family. Enjoy the rest of your journey.Kelly
Brian and Shannon . . . thank you so much for spearheading this whole mission trip. It is one that we ALL will remember . . . especially since it completely rocked Malia’s world!!! And as I KNEW, it confirmed her calling to serve as a missionary and now she knows it is to serve in Uganda. Malia will never be the same again, as her heart was broken for the Ugandan people. We have seen such spiritual growth and compassion come from her upon her return, that it could only be the work of the Holy Spirit. So thank you for being instrumental in making this trip happen (it was a ton of work that we so appreciate), to allow her dream to come to fruition and to provide an avenue for the Lord to speak to her so very clearly.
Mahalo hui loa . . . malama pono (thank you so very much, with much respect),
JR and Fran
Brian, thanks for making this missions trip possible for these students. Hope and pray your family time is restful and fun. Guess what, Marko and Jeannie put their house on the market, sold it, and bought a house in La Mesa. Escrows set to close in August!