Uganda 2010 was the catch phrase of the Gerard St baptist church team visit in August. Led by our pastor, Mathew Henderson and Sara and Tom Anderson 13 folk fund raised, planned and arrived full of enthusiasm and energy! Many were on their first visit to Africa and all 
were so keen to get involved and to share with people here. The aim of the visit was to see more of my work here but also to offer a blessing to me and my team, to patients and 
families, to children at a church holiday week. After a seminar to introduce the topic of 'spiritual care for the sick' along with my Mulago team and friends from church, they visited patients and families in Mulago Hospital and at home. It was not easy to see people who had so few resources and facing such difficulty but as ever there was tears and laughter, encouragement and sorrow and a sense of sharing together. They were warmly welcomed into my local church; Lugogo Baptist and learned to dance African style . They ate local food, sang on the minibuses, shopped in the markets, got sick, got better and all with the same enthusiasm and 
fun. A real highlight was a day offering support to a local slum community Naguru. The church has a number of links and members from here and we joined in a work party to clean out ditches, sweep with traditional brooms and watch an amazing bridge built. The latter replaced a rickety old bridge that had led to the death of a child 
who fell off in a rainy spell. What a privilege! The church prayed that the bridge would also be a bridge between the communities and to God.The Scots also took part in the children's holiday club with the Compassion kids, had radical haircuts,
hurtled down the Nile in rafts, discovered they liked matoke, spotted a lioness and spent a
memorable couple of days in the beauty of Murchison national park. Most of all I want to thanks them for the way they listened and shared and even cried and prayed with our patients and families. They showed the common humanity we share and the value we give when we take time to listen and to offer care - but most of all to offer ourselves. Thanks you to each one of you; I know you have spoken of the life changing difference this trip has made in your own lives. I look forward to hearing more from you at the Cairdeas Gathering on October 30th in Aberdeen (more details on the website www.cairdeas.org.uk)
