my phone to my son because I don't need it. Well I wanted to I'm so glad I could be here with you. I was trying to think the last time I was here and I'm thinking it was it must have been before COVID you know the BC before COVID and I'm actually thinking it was around 2019 because that was the last trip I took to Africa before this one that I just did in 2024, so I think it was probably about 2019 around there. And I probably came and I gave a missions report back to you about my trip to Africa at that time. So does this work? Can you guys hear me okay? Okay, great. So I wanna introduce my family before we get much started. So I'm originally from Forest, Ohio, and so my connection with Grace Bible Church, that was the original name of this church, and actually even goes back even further, I knew the people at Grace Bible Church when they were still part of Arlington Bible Fellowship Church. That's how back mine goes. I don't know if you know some of these members. Maybe, maybe not, but Joan and Neil Ward are one of the founding members of what this church, when it was originally built. And Joan Ward, in particular, was the local, Neil and her husband, Neil Ward and Joan, they were the chairmen of the Chattahoochee Fellowship chapter here. So back in the 1980s. And so that was my connection with them. So in 86, 87, so I'm really dating myself a little bit, 86, 87, that's when I served as a five-day club summer missionary. And I went to Cedarville College. Not that I was in college before when I was in high school, but what I'm saying is that's where I went when I was 16 to 17. And I was training with 40 other young people from all across Ohio. And at that time, CEF, their training was about two weeks long. And that's where they trained and they equipped us to do those backyard Bible clubs at Enchada Bands and Fellowship. They were called five-day clubs. So anyway, when I went there and I did that for two summers in 86, 87, it was like the best summers of my life, it really was, it was great. And it was, I should say it this way, it was so life-changing, so impacting for me, and it put me in a trajectory for ministry. I remember I was at Forest Park and we had, and so Joan, as the committee chairman, She would line up five-day clubs here in the Hardin-Hancock County area. Then I also worked over in the Wyandotte County. So I remember some of my clubs I would teach that was through Arlington Bible Fellowship at that time that was sponsored. I remember being in Arlington Park, and we had five-day clubs in Arlington Park. I remember there was this family called the Glicks or something like that, if I'm pronouncing their name correctly. and they lived out in the farm, and it was the coolest five-day club I've ever taught my life because they were farmers and they had hay bales, if you can just imagine, and they invited the neighborhood kids to come, and they put the kids out, like I had an arena with hay bales, and so I was speaking to hay bales or stacked high, and the kids were sitting at different levels, if you can imagine. It's like I had my own amphitheater. And so it was really cool. And so some of my best five-day clubs that I had, I remember at one of those parks, we had about 40 kids. I mean, that was back in the days. I mean, try to get 40 kids to come out to a five-day club now. I mean, I hope you can, but I'm not sure you can anymore. In Illinois, if we have like maybe 10, 15 kids, I mean, that's a good five-day club. But back in the 80s, you would average 20, 30, 40 kids at a five-day club. But one of these parks, It was about 40, 50 kids, and there was a little girl that came up to me afterwards, and she said, I don't remember her name, but she said, just one of those questions, like fruit dropping off the vine, she says, Miss Katrina, how do I go to heaven? Can you tell me how do I go to heaven? I mean, like, she was ready. And so that was after the gospel presentation and so forth. So I remember sitting on a park bench with her and leading her to Christ. And I remember, I mean, the grass was green, the sky was blue, and she went back and she sat down with the rest of them after she trusted in Christ. And we counseled and went through different Bible verses and so forth. And I remember just looking up and saying, Lord, Lord, I just want to do this. And so, like I said, that really put me on that trajectory, doing those five-day clubs for those two summers. But I just want to thank you for this church and my connection. This is the first church that when I went full-time into CEF. So fast forward a little bit, so I graduated from Riverdale, 88, went on to Moody Bible Institute, and that's where I met my husband, Kermit. You supported Kermit and I when we went to Barbados, which had a Vanson Fellowship for one summer. And then I went on to get my master's in Christian education. And then I came on staff with CEF down there and I became a local director. You're talking about like 1993 through 1999. But this is the first church when I wrote my first support raising letter. that Grace Bible Church, you were the first one that started supporting me monthly. So I know you guys may not have that history of me, but that's the history that I have with this church. And through all this time, I just want to thank you. So probably for like 30 some plus years, you guys, I've had connections with you. And so I'm sorry I'm not coming back here as often as I probably should, but I'm just glad to be here with you today. So what I wanted to do, I wanted to give a two-in-one report. By the way, this is my dad. This is Dallas Parcel. He's a farmer from Forest, Ohio. My mom was not feeling well today, so she wasn't able to be here. Her name is Brenda. This is my oldest son, Caleb. He is a student at Taylor University. This is his girlfriend, Paige. Both of them are getting their major in Christian Ministries. Caleb has been doing camp ministry since he was 13 so he's possibly looking going into that full-time and then this is my youngest son Samuel and he was able to go with me in this missions trip I want to tell you about so I want to go ahead and just if it's okay with you oh sorry do you know why that's okay there's so we started out our summer ministry every summer for Chathavans and Fellowship with a training school. And we actually have our camp. So where I'm at right now, so if I lost you a little bit, so I was here, I was in South Carolina. Then in 2000, I was asked to be the state director for Chathavans and Fellowship. So that's what my current role is. So I'm full-time missionary. I'm a state director, and I oversee about 26 staff. And we have about six local chapters, plus our camp ministry. And one of my main jobs is to pioneer areas. And if you know anything about Illinois, Illinois needs a lot of pioneer groundwork. It's like we have to reintroduce the gospel over there in many parts in Illinois. But how we start our summer ministry is we come together at our camp at Camp Good News. That's where Caleb has worked for many years. And this is, I'm sorry the light bulb here is a little bit dim, but we had about 47 young people. They're high school through college age, and they come together for about eight days. And what we do is we just train them. We have chapel speakers. Our theme this year was One Way. We went through the seven I am's of Christ. I am the bread life, I am the light of the world, I am the resurrection, so forth. And then we train and we equip them whether they're going to be serving at our camp during the summertime or they're going to be teaching those five-day clubs. And so then after that eight days of training, then really our goal or my main goal is to pour into them because these students, these high school and college-age students, They're the ones that are going to go out and reach the children, okay, if that makes sense. So those of them that are staying at camp, Caleb plus the other camp staff, I forget, you had about 20 some, maybe even more than that. And so maybe 20, 30 some camp staff. And they had seven weeks of camp. They reached over 200 and some campers. And I love this number. I know you may not be able to see it. They had 102 children. This was their first time to go to camp at Camp Good News. And then these next numbers are the best. They had 13 children that trust in Christ as their Savior. And I mean, what's camp without rededication? a call to rededication to live your whole life for the Lord. We had about seven children that rededicated their life to say they want to live all for God. One of my favorite stories I heard about camp, camp we have a lot of different things there. Of course, we have the swimming pool. We have the zip line. Has anyone ever done zip lines around here? Okay. We have a really unique zip line because the zip line is over a valley. So when you're zipping from not just a tree to tree, you're actually over, I mean, it must be 100 feet going from one valley ridge to the next one. So you're actually on tree line when you're going across, but at the same time, it's like, I mean, you don't want to fall out of that thing. And of course, we got you harnessed and everything. There's a lot of fun things that we do at camp, and that's Caleb with the right-hand corner. He's launching a kid, getting ready to step off the platform there. But one of my favorite parts about camp, it's not just fun and all the activities, it is transformational. And my new camp director, this is his second year, going on his third year, his name is Mark Andrews. He shared with me a story that there was this cabin that they had six boys in the cabin and I guess these are not my words he called them rowdy boys okay that's what he called them and I guess they were they were they were kind of a little bit hard to deal with and the counselors I don't know when it was but like maybe towards the middle part of the week He said the counselors, when it was time for evening devotions, they decided, you know what, we need to pray for these boys because they really need to focus in. And so after they finished praying and then they did their evening devotions, all six of these quote unquote rowdy boys trust in Christ as their Savior. And that's what the camp ministry is all about, is life transformation. So why the camp ministry is doing that all summer long, then what are the rest of the summer missionaries that were at that training school, what are they doing? So basically half stay at camp, the other half, then they pull out and just like I did those five-day clubs, that was so life-changing for me. Then we had about another 20-some missionaries. They literally were traveling all over Illinois. I mean, we're talking about from Rockford. Have you ever heard of Rockford? Chicago area, beyond Chicago area, up going towards Wisconsin, below Chicago, Joliet area, and then down to Springfield, Decatur, and then all the way down to Southern Illinois. Southern Illinois looks almost exactly like the rolling hills of Southern Ohio. And so we also have down in Carbondale, and then we're I'm at the state office in Peoria, so we had all these, we had 73 Back Your Bible clubs, and they reached over 800 and some children, and plus we did fair ministry. I know you can't really see it, it's not really bright, but like whatever design that the children, we had like three or four fair ministries, whatever design that the child asked for, we paint with the five colors of the wordless book. Have you ever heard the wordless book before? Like the gold stands for God in heaven, the dark stands for sin, red stands for Jesus, clean stands for forgiveness, being cleansed of our sin, and green stands for growing. So I don't know if you can see there, there's like crosses on the boy's hand. So whatever design, and we have like 12, 15 different designs, we always paint in those five colors. So you put all that together, and just this summer, We reached over 1,800 children through all those different ministries, through camp, the Friday clubs, the vacation Bible schools, and the fair ministries. And we saw 99 children that trust in Christ as their Lord and Savior for CEF of Illinois. But also, I don't know if you see that number, plus... We had nine adults came to Christ and that was primarily through those fair ministry outreaches because the parents were standing right there as their child was being shared the gospel. So the parents are right next to them and they're hearing the gospel and their child received Christ and they said, you know what? I need that too. I think that's so cool that that happened. So what I wanted to share with you is that in the middle of summer, we decided to add another layer of ministry. And so we went on a mission trip. So while everyone else was doing, keep on doing what they were doing at camp and five-day clubs, then six of us Myself, my son that's standing behind me, he's a tall guy there, and then also my assistant Jill and I have worked together for like 23 years, and three of her four children, they went with us too. And we didn't just bring our own children with us just to bring them. We brought them for a specific reason because all of them there that you see in that picture have been doing five day clubs at least three, four, five years. So we went to Uganda this summer and I don't know if you guys, I kind of shared with you a little bit before when I was kind of introducing my connection with with Redeemer Covenant with you, but one of the first missions trip that your church supported me on was way back in 1988 when I went to Kenya. And I want to say, I'm pretty sure I'd have to go back, but in my memory, every missions trip, every short-term overseas missions trip that I've ever been on, and that's like nine of them, You guys have always supported me for that. And so I just want to thank you for what you've done, or supported me monthly. Well, through the years, I've been going to Africa. But I don't know if you have seen, like from 1989 to 2003, I mean, how much of a gap is that, right? And so as I was going to Africa all those different times, there was this big gap in between the first two times I went and how I've been going since 2003. So I just want to tell you the story just a little bit. As I was getting more and more connected and going into CEF full-time, I was confused. You ever had that like something in life you thought your life was going in one direction, but it turned and went another direction? That's what happened to me. So I really thought when I went to Moody Bible Institute, my whole point going there was I thought I was going to be a missionary over to Africa. And I was looking at a lot of different mission organizations, not just CEF. And as the years went by, I just saw that God was guiding me. And I don't think it was me taking U-turns or wrong turns. I just felt like God was guiding me into stateside ministry. And as I kept going deeper and deeper, like a local director in South Carolina, and then a state director in Illinois. So this will be 32 years full-time with CEF. I'm like, God, I know this is what you're doing, and you're opening up these doors in front of me. What happened to Africa? And so I remember going down to this conference that we had in North Carolina. And there was a guy. It was this guy. His name was Joseph Kabuli. And he's a regional director of all these 11 countries in East Central Africa. And I remember going to his booth, and he had a table, like I have a table back there. And I picked up one of his bookmarks. And one of his bookmarks had a bookmark of all 11 countries. And I thought to myself, this is my thought that went through my head. I was like, Lord, OK. You're in control. You're the one that's guiding. And if you don't want me to go to Africa, that's fine. But at least I can pray for Africa. So that's what I did. So this is around 2000, 2001. And I'm not saying that I prayed every day for those 11 countries. But I was actually learning geography, too, because there were some countries I'm like, oh, I didn't know that was there. And so then fast forward a little bit. Now it's like 2002, and this is even before I had my first son, Caleb. And so I was in Joliet, Illinois, and we had rented for CEF the historic Rialto Theater, and we were renting it to, we scraped together some funds so that we could show two showings of the Jesus film. Have you guys ever seen the Jesus film that's put out by Campus Crusade for Christ? It's now called Crew. And so that was one of the things I did back in 89. We showed the Jesus film overseas in Kenya. So I was familiar with it, but this is a condensed version for children. It's only an hour long. And so we paid like maybe $1,000 back then. And then we showed two showings of the Jesus film. Well, here's what happened. We're in the middle of showing the film in between the first showing and the second showing. And this is where people go out to get their popcorn and their Cokes and stuff like that. And this guy came walking up to me carrying two stools that looked like that one down at the bottom, that left-hand corner. One had a giraffe on it. I think the other one had a lion on it. And this guy came walking up to me. I didn't even know him. And he came up to me. He had two stools. You got the picture? So people are in between these two showings. They're getting their popcorn, their Cokes, their drinks. And he comes up to me. And he says, Katrina? And I was like, yes. And he goes, I want you to sit down. So in the middle of the historic Rialto Theater in the lobby, I'm sitting down this three-legged stool. I don't even know why I even sat. I don't even know why I didn't say no, no. I didn't know who this guy was. I didn't know he was connected to anything we were doing, because there was other movies that were going on. But I did. And then he just, right off the bat, he says, Katrina, you're the state director. And I said, yes. He said, I want you to put together a team to come to Uganda and East Central Africa to do teacher training for Sunday school workers. And then my mouth about dropped open. It was like a mic drop. And then I found out that this guy was totally legit. And I was thinking, well, I'm with CEF. You're not with CEF. How do you have connections with CEF in Uganda that I don't? And so do you see how God did it? So I've been praying just when I had given up on that dream, so to speak, and say, God, I don't know why you did that. I mean, why did you put that on my heart and then take me this way? But what was that all about? So I just want to encourage you, just when you think that if you have a burden, that God has put on your heart or maybe a dream that he's put on your heart, just open up your hand and just give it to the Lord and let him guide and direct, let him lead every step of the way. And if that burden that he's put on your heart, that dream is of the Lord, I promise you, God knows exactly where you're at and he will come and find you. And so that's exactly what happened. And from that point on, that was 2003. And that just opened up the doors. And I know you can't see their pictures very well, but everybody on that left-hand side of the screen are like my brothers and sisters on the other side of the world. I mean, they're like family members to me. And every single one of them have been in our home. And Caleb and Samuel have known them. So we're talking about for 20, 2021 years, all those people we have relationships with and it's just neat to see when I first went to Uganda, and I'm not taking credit for any of this, just to see how the ministry of CF Uganda specifically has grown. It's went from seven national workers now today to 33 national workers. It went from having no building to now they have a national office that's two or three stories. And it went from wherever it was then, 21 years later, now they're reaching about one million children annually with the gospel. And one of the reasons why is that you can walk right into the public schools and share the gospel. I mean, they almost have more freedoms over there than we have over here. I mean, we can be CEF here in Ohio, for example, probably in about 150 schools. But the reason why you're in, I think they were in Arlington here. I know they're in Riverdale. I know they're in Finley. And I know they're in Upper Sandusky, so that's my Northwest Territory, so I know that. And I know the local director, do you know him? His name is Mike Todd for CEF in this area. And so I'm not sure, at one point I know Grace Bible Church did support, I'm not sure where you're at with that right now. But I just want to let you know that we can be here in the United States, in Ohio, in Illinois, and across the United States. We can be in the public schools, but we can only be there after school, okay? Just like Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and so forth can be in the school, that's the reason why we can be in the school, because it's called equal access. But over there in Uganda and Kenya and Tanzania, you can actually walk right into the public school during the school day. It's really amazing. And they'll give you not just a class, they'll give you the whole school assembly. So like when we were there, and Samuel was there with me this summer, he would have like 700 kids at a shot. And you have like a half hour, 45 minutes, or you have a whole hour to share the gospel with them. So the door that God opened was amazing. So probably I showed you this picture the last time I was here, is that in 2019 was my last missions trip that I did before this year. And one thing that God really put on my heart was the next time I go, is to take a team with me, because all these times I've basically been going by myself because I was teacher training, I was a guest speaker for the national conference. So I'm doing a lot of adult ministry, a lot of training for the staff and so forth. But the last time I was there in 2019, I asked specifically, I said, Can I go into the schools just for one day? Can we carve that out of my schedule? And they said, okay. And so in one day, beginning like at 8 o'clock in the morning to like 5 o'clock in the afternoon, we went into five different schools. And in that one day, our team was able to administer to over 2,000 children. in one day. The opportunities just are unbelievable. And I remember I was going from school to school to school, and this district superintendent was going with us. It's like she was leading us, and she was introducing us to the principals and so forth. And I remember at 5 o'clock, I was a little tired, OK? After five schools, I was just a little tired. And I was drinking my tea, eating my biscuit, my scone, or whatever. And she looked at me, and she said, OK, Katrina, are you ready to go to the next school? I'm thinking, it's 5 o'clock. And then she said, no, it's OK. They said, the kids, they don't go home. They board there. And she realized I was tired. And plus, we had to get back to Kampala. And you can't just zip in the car. I mean, there's traffic. You've never seen a traffic jam until you've been over there in Kampala. And she goes, it's OK. It's OK. She goes, OK, next time you come, you bring with you a big team, and I'll get you into all the schools that I oversee, because I'm the district superintendent. And I'm thinking, well, we've already been to five. And I'm thinking, well, how many schools do you oversee? And she said, 147. 147. I mean, what district superintendent oversees 140? So I thought, you know what? I need to bring a team with us. So fast forward. We were all set to go. Even Caleb was going to come in 2020 and then the big C happened. COVID went bam and slammed the door. We weren't able to go and it took literally all this time. We probably could have gone last year in 23 and maybe in 2022 but it just wasn't quite open because like what we were like in our recovery from COVID there in Uganda was probably one of the worst countries in all the world. And it wasn't so much of the outbreak or anything like that. It was it was the government's regulations. I mean, it was I could tell you stories. I mean, basically, their livelihood is the marketplaces like they have their own farms and stuff like that. And they would have their own like, like lemonade stands, but it was like selling pineapple or whatever. And the government won't let them do that. And it was all in the name of COVID. For a year, almost two years, no children were allowed to come to the church. Adults could come, but children weren't allowed to come. That make you scratch your head? And children were the least likely to be infected with anything. And Uganda had the lowest rates of COVID. I could go on and on about that. I mean, they had some real oppression there. So we like, we just waited. It just took a long time. So finally, this year, we're able to put the team together. And also, we had some generous donations that came in. So not only did all of us were able to raise our full support, and I'm just so thankful. We had one guy that came forward and he bought two of our team members tickets just outright. And just a round-trip ticket is like $2,000. And also, we were able to bring like 11 totes with us. So when we had ministry in the schools, we were able to give out some things to the kids, plus the seminars and the teacher training we were able to do. And I just want to let you know, I didn't come back with any of those totes except for one. And the only reason why I brought that tote back is because it had our own teacher training materials in it that belonged. So that was another thing that we were able to do as well. So we loaded everything up, and then we were able to go there. And I put this up for the kids, is if you think about how many hours it would take in an airplane to get from, we left from Chicago to get all the way to Uganda. It's 20 hours in an airplane, but it's not one airplane ride, it's three different ones. So you go from Chicago to Brussels. And then for some reason, we went to Rwanda, back to Uganda. And the way back was confusing to me. Because if you think about it, you go from Uganda to Brussels. And then we went right to go left. We went to Switzerland before we went to Chicago. I thought that was really odd. I've been traveling to Africa many times. I've never went over to Switzerland. But it's kind of neat to at least say you've been there. So we finally got there, and the time change is eight hours. So whatever it is now, just think eight hours ahead. That's the time change when you get there. And we thought we had this jet lag thing licked. We thought, you know what? We're just going to sleep as long as we want, and we'll be fine. Well, that didn't work out so well, because we slept so long, like to 2 o'clock the next day. And then like six hours later, it was time to go to bed. Do you think you could sleep? No, we couldn't. And so that whole night we're just laying like, it's like we just shot ourselves in the foot. We were able to tour the office. I wanted to draw your attention to that yellow plaque. When I first went there, all they had was that yellow plaque that said that this, that they're dedicating a building to the Lord for their CEF of Uganda National Office. But did they have a building to hang that plaque on 21 years ago? Nope. Do they even have a piece of land? Nope. And so in 21 years, now they have a place to put the plaque up. And now this is the second story. And I think they're getting ready to put a third story on it as well. The reason why it looks like this is it's still under construction, this next level. And one of the things that we're doing in Illinois is we're raising money to put a metal roof on top. Because something about when the rainy season comes, if they don't cover it with at least a metal roof, then I guess it deteriorates and makes the structure unsafe. So one of the first things that we did, I think this is the second day, and like I said, we're all a little jet lagged because we messed up our time zone. And so Joe and I are doing teacher training for Sunday school workers. We had 49 teachers, pastors, Sunday school workers that were training. It was all about the gospel. And so while we're doing this all day long training from like 9 o'clock to 5 o'clock in the afternoon, And actually, we were going to stop like at 3. But the people said to us, they said, hey, do you have anything else? We're like, OK. And then we just kept adding to it. We had more to teach them, but they just wanted to stay till like 5. It may have been after 5 o'clock. And while we're doing this, what are our teens doing that came with us? What are our kids that came with us? Well, what they're doing is they're doing Bible clubs with children. And this was so neat because there was a school on top of the hill. that Samuel and the other Serm missionaries, they found out about and they said, can you have your teens come and talk to our high school students? There was about 33 of them. And they said, can you share with them what you're doing and why you're here? But most important, can you share with us how our teens can share the gospel just like you're doing? So you see what they're doing? So they're teaching them how to share the gospel. So that was neat. So this is actually equipping other high school students in Uganda to share the gospel as well. So that was really cool. Sundays for us were not just rest days. They were work days. And what I mean by that, like we went to three different churches. But the churches had several different services. So all together, we spoke in six different services. I was one of the guest speakers there. And then also while I was doing with the adults and so forth, then again, what were our teams doing? They were doing Sunday school. So I just think through our Sunday school ministry alone, we probably reached in those six different church services and they all had Sunday school. I would say about 600 kids just through those church services. I mean, that's just amazing, the opportunity that you have over there. On that first Sunday when we were there, we were invited to come to a home. And I know you can't see it, but the guy that has like gray hair that's in the middle there, he's like the grandpa. He is the original national director for CEF Uganda. So when I first came there in 2003, the whole African stool thing, when I first got there, and that's the guy that I worked with, his name is Steven Masisi. But when I first came to Uganda, the guy standing next to me, if you see where I am, and the guy sitting next to me has like tan pants on and like a blue shirt, his name is Emmanuel Makasa, and now he is the national director for CF Uganda, and he's like my brother from a different mother. I mean, he and I are very close. But what was interesting, I've known him for all the years, because when I first went there in 2003, he was just coming on staff, and now Emanuel is, is the National Director. And by the way, I just want to tell you that he might be here in the spring. And I might be coming. I haven't asked my mom and dad yet. So is this OK, dad? So I think I'm going to invite him to come to the farm. So if you guys want to, you can meet the National Director. Maybe I can arrange a time for him to come. He's going to be here for six weeks. I might even take him over to Cedar Point and put him on a roller coaster there and just see what he would do. So I just wanted to give him some fun times and visit some of the places that are special to me. One thing I know you probably can't see, but Stephen Messisi, he wanted me to meet his granddaughter. She's in the red dress. And he wanted me to meet her in particular because her name is Katrina. So his granddaughter's name is Katrina. So he wanted Katrina to meet Katrina and so forth. And also, Stephen was so happy to see Samuel because in 2011, our whole family, Kermit and I and Caleb and Samuel, we actually went as a family to Uganda. And so the last time that he saw Caleb and Samuel, over there, like Caleb would have been about six and Samuel was two. So now Samuel is almost six foot tall, or I guess you used to say you are six foot tall. And so Stephen was like telling him all kinds of stories of what he did, like, you know, he would play with his Hot Wheels cars and things like that. He also wanted to tell us that everything that we ate that day was grown from his farm, and his farm is four acres, but it's amazing. They have three different growing seasons in Uganda. I mean, you can just drop a seed and boom, there you go. And he also gave everybody a sugar cane for them to have, and everyone liked that, and so forth. So that was the first weekend, and then the next week we were there, I'm now getting ready, and Jill are getting ready for the conference. And again, what are our teens doing? Well, every day, like at six o'clock, seven o'clock in the morning, they're climbing into this pickup truck. And by the way, this pickup truck, right before we got there, just maybe a few weeks before, It caught on fire, all the electrical work, because that truck is like 20-some years of age. And it is, because when I first got there, that's the truck that they used to pick me up. And so they got, and they raised some money, and they got it fixed, and praise the Lord, they had no problems the whole time we were there, no fires or anything like that. So what they did is every morning they would get up and they would go to school to school. Not everybody could fit in a truck. So this is the local director of the Kampala area, which is the capital city of Uganda. And like I said, not everybody could fit in a truck. And so his name is Charles. So he gets on his bicycle, his motorbike. It's called a boda boda. And so they're following. And basically this is what an African national worker would do. They would get all their safety gear on. They have a backpack. They have a Bible. And they have their flash card book. And they go from school to school to school. And they share the gospel. So it's really cool. So this is part of the team that went to the school ministries. I'm not going to have time to show you this, but there's one I want to show you real quick. This one. You know that song? So sometimes we would bring our Bluetooth speaker, and sometimes we would just do that song. And so they would literally go to like five different schools every day, and that's what they did. So in that first week, they were in 10 different schools reaching children for Christ. While they were doing that, we're doing the national conference. The one before that, that's Emmanuel. He's a national director. This is now the regional director because the other guy retired. And so this is now Leonard McMurray, and he's the East Central Director of those 11 countries now. Jill, my assistant, she put together some workshops. I also did workshops as well, but I focus on training staff. And by the way, some of the things I've done is back in the table, if you're interested. One of the things I did was leadership lessons from the book of Nehemiah. And I also do a weekly radio program. So I brought like maybe six of them with me. You're fine if you wanna take them. So they're each 15 minutes, so in 15 different sessions, it goes through the whole book of Nehemiah, and it brings out biblical principles. This is when we're not doing anything. We're not teaching the schools or not doing the conference. Some of the, you know, Caleb, I'm not talking, I'm not Caleb, but Samuel and Micah, they would climb trees, or they would just hang out, play sports with the neighborhood kids. They would, like, they were very interested in our teens. They were, like, watching through the gate, and they're like, okay, and we let them in, and they would play soccer. And so that was a lot of fun. So they had a good time there. They also had for the children in the neighborhood, in addition to going to schools, because there was kids right there, right where the office is, and they had a good news club there for the children. And they also had the kids come do some songs and stuff. This is the national conference where we had about 80, 90 workers. The 33 full-time staff workers plus the volunteers are connected. So this is basically the CEF Uganda volunteers and staff that's over there. So that was a national conference. That's one of the main reasons why I went. I wanted to show you this picture. Do you see the choir robes that they had? They're so beautiful. I mean, when they do church over there, they really deck it out, you know? And also I was able to do guest speaking over there. I recently completed my doctorate since the last time I was here, and so I did my dissertation, and so my book that I wrote on on how the Bible points to Christ in all scriptures called Gospel Pictures of the Promised One. I focused just on the book of Genesis. I had a donor that made it possible to give out like 300 of these books to the pastors. So I'll just fast forward a little bit. We also wanted to have a little bit of fun. I mean, you can't go to Uganda and not have a little bit. So what we did is I decided to take all of our team plus I invited Emmanuel and Alex was the main person that was going to school to school as a driver. So I took them on a boat ride. And have you ever heard of the search for the source of the Nile? That was a big thing back in the 1800s, like David Livingston. Have you heard of David Livingston before? He's a famous African missionary. And he really wanted to find the source of the Nile. Well, guess where the source of the Nile was at? It's in Uganda, it's in Jinja. And so you can actually take this boat right out and they can point to where it is and from that place in Lake Victoria, the water flows out of and it goes out of that and that becomes a source of the Nile that goes all the way and lands in Egypt. So think about this in the Bible. You know where it talks about that Goshen during the time of Joseph was the most fertile part of Egypt? Do you know why? Because twice a year, the Nile River overflows its banks and it dumps it basically in the area of Goshen in Egypt and that's one of the most fertile areas and that's where the Hebrews settled at before they were made slaves and so forth. Well guess where that fertile soil comes from that overflows and dumps in Egypt? It comes from Uganda, because Uganda, of all the places between Uganda and Egypt, has the most fertile soil, really. That's why Uganda is called the Pearl of Africa. So that's a little bit. Hey, didn't our zip line? So we did a zip line there. And they were happy to get some American food. I'll try to wrap this up real quick. We also did the second week, we did another pastors conference. We had 121 people. And this is 11 different churches, pastors and Sunday school workers. This one we had to do everything through translation. I forgot to tell you that the official language over there in Uganda is English. And the children know it really well. The young people do. But sometimes the older people, you have to do it through translation. And this guy did a great job. And then also one of the things, my favorite part of the training is where we pair them up. and like one-on-one, they would practice the gospel with one another. So just imagine 121 people, they pair up with each other, and this one practices the gospel out loud, and then this one, I mean, it's just, so like 120 people are basically doing, it's just really cool. So again, while we're doing that, what are the teams doing that second week? Well, this is in the rural area of Luwero, which is the western part of Uganda, and they heard these Mzungus, that's what they called us, from America were coming to the Loera District and they're like, we want you to come to our school. We want you to come to our school. So that's, in like just a few days, they were able to get to, and there were so many schools, actually Jill and myself, even though we're doing that training conference, we're 121 people, we had to fill in and go early in the morning. So we're supposed to be at the conference by nine o'clock. They said, can you help us? We're like, well, we have to be over here. They said, That's OK. We can start at 7 o'clock in the morning to go to schools. And then we can get you two schools before. And they said it's fine. So we're like, as long as you have coffee, we can do it. So give us coffee. So we did all that. And so I'm just going to fast forward these slides. And so some of the schools were in town. Some of them were way out in the countryside. And sometimes Alex, the driver, he wasn't even sure if he could get there, because the roads were so washed out. So they were able to go to 20 schools just that second week. I had to put this picture up, because I was standing next to it. And I text this back to one of my donors. And they texted me back, and they said, Katrina, Are you safe? And I just looked at that text, and I looked at the picture. I'm like, oh, they think I'm standing by a real giraffe. And I said, no, that's a fake giraffe. So I just wanted to put that picture up. So I just wanted to be clear that that is a fake giraffe, OK? So this is the first day they were there. It was like the longest day, the longest dinner. Just imagine going to like 10 schools in one day. We had to divide and conquer. And it took forever to get our food. I even gave him an hour before I told him we were going to come at 6. And we didn't eat until 9 o'clock that night. And I asked him what was on the menu. He said, oh, no, we don't have any menus. I said, okay, what do you have? They said chicken and rice. I said, okay. So this is what I'm saying at 5 o'clock. Now we're sitting down at 6. Maybe we got there at 6.30 and we're waiting, waiting, waiting. I'm pretty sure They went out and found chickens, they dressed the chickens, and then I think that's what happened. But I think maybe another thing was that there was one person on our team that doesn't like chicken, he likes fish. Maybe they had to go out and catch the fish. So when you get fish over there in Uganda, you get the whole enchilada there, with the bones, the head, and everything. So again, this is all the different schools. One of the schools they asked me to go to was not just the children, but also the high schoolers. If you can imagine a room, it wasn't even, It was about this long, but it wasn't even half the size of this. And they packed 200 high school students in this room. Those are not high school students. I don't have a picture of this. And they gave me 30 minutes, and I put my CF stuff aside, and I just shared with them my testimony. And I challenged them to live their whole life for the Lord. And when I finished, the high school students just began to clap. And it wasn't because of anything that I said or anything like that. It wasn't because of me. But they were clapping, and they responded, and they broke out in a song about serving Jesus is what life is all about. I don't remember the exact words, but it was about serving, serving, serving Jesus is true happiness. I mean, what high school group can you go to today and have a guest speaker without a microphone and have 200 people there, and you can hear a pin drop, and they break out and respond like that? I mean, they're just like a sponge over there. So all together, I'm just going to fast-forward these slides, just that second week, 20 schools, over 8,400 children, and by estimation only, there was 2,000 children and teachers that made a professional faith in Christ. Isn't that amazing what God did? So it was just the open doors that God gave us. Then we did one more fun trip. We went and did a safari for one day. And by the way, if you want some dessert, you know, just pull over side of the road and just pick up some pineapples. You have not had a pineapple until you've had a Uganda pineapple. So just for a few dollars, just pick up like five pineapples. And they're just fresh, ready to go. I mean, they asked me for dessert. They said, would you like to have watermelon, mango, and pineapple for dessert? Which one would you like? I said, yes, yes, and yes. And so this is another school that we went to. There's a video of this. They're speaking English. I don't know if you can hear it, but it has a thick African accent to it. So every morning, these children are praying this prayer that they have memorized. And so it goes on for another couple minutes. So I just wanted the kids to hear the African accent. And then we did some things with the kids. Now, I wanted to show these pictures, because I know we have kids in here. I'll do this real quick. We were able to go see some rhinos. And so we were able, actually, to go see them. Without gates or fences, we were actually tracking rhinos through the forest. And you would get close to them, maybe from here to the wall. And actually, that looks closer than what it is. But that's because I have something called a zoom on my camera. So I wasn't quite that close to them. So you can see rhinos. Now this, you'll have to be in your car. There's water buffaloes. Of course, monkeys or whatever. There's also these antelopes that are there. Where's that? Elephants. Now this, I've never seen before. This is a baby giraffe. And it's only two months old. This baby giraffe is only two months old. And again, just so we're clear what a giraffe looks like, this is a real giraffe. This is not a fake giraffe, OK? And this is like a giraffe crossing. When they're going to cross the road, you got to stop the car and just wait. And actually, I found out something about giraffes. They have no natural predators over there. If they get past being a baby giraffe, and when they get to be a full-grown giraffe, not even lions mess with giraffes. Do you know why? Because they had these long legs and boom, they got the kick back. And lions don't want to get kicked from a giraffe. We also were able to do a boat ride. I know my dad probably knows this, but there is a movie with Humphrey Bogart in it and Katherine Hepburn. that was made in the 1950s. It's called African Queen. Has anyone ever heard of that one? And the whole movie, the whole film was filmed right there in Uganda at Murchison Falls. This is the most powerful waterfalls in all of, not just Uganda, but all of Africa. And there's hippos there, there's these crocodiles. And I don't know why, every time you go by the boat, the crocodile has its mouth open. I think it's just looking for lunch, you know? And so every time you go past them, they really enjoy the boat ride. And the place that we stayed at, This lady was connected to CF as a volunteer, so she took us, she arranged this whole thing for us, and we got to stay in places that not even typical tourists got to stay in. And so just right below us, there was these hippos. like a whole herd of hippos in the Nile River about 200 meters from us. And at nighttime, it's just the skies are just beautiful there. Well, one of the hippos came up about 10 o'clock at night up from out of the river, got 50 meters from us. And I said to this friend that organized the whole trip, I said, are we okay? She goes, you're fine. Just go into your hut, just shut the door, lock the door and just stay there and everything's fine. And I said, okay. So we went there and then it was the longest night of my life because it wasn't just one hippo that came up. The whole herd came up and they weren't just 50 meters away, they were like right outside our hut. And they were, what they're doing is all night long, it's like you can just hear munching, munching, and they're making these hippo noises, this bellowing noises. And I'm in my bed and just drops of sweat are coming off, because I'm like, okay, they're over here. Now they're over here. Now they're over here. Now they're behind, because our hut was circular. So they're literally all night long, Just munching, munching. I'm so glad I found out the next morning that they are mostly vegetarians. And I underlined the word mostly. It was just neat what God did. And protecting us where everything was fine. And then I found out the next morning, they said, well, you know the place that you're staying at is called Hippobandas. And the place where we catered the food was called Hippo Dreams. And I looked at our team. I said, well, maybe it was just a dream. But the problem was that all of us had the same dream. So we know that it did happen. One of the last things we did, we went to the Merchantson Falls. And this is a really cool picture, because I have the same picture with Samuel and with Caleb. I don't know if they remember that when they were young, is they were standing right there at Merchantson Falls. So the next time I got to be there, Samuel's much older now. Then one of the last pictures I have I want to show you is, oops, is I had, oh, what's wrong with this thing? Do you see that double rainbow? It's really cool. I got a picture of a double rainbow there. So all together, I'm just going to fast forward just because of time. All together, you put the whole trip together this summer. What God did is we were able, on this side, to reach with all the school ministries, the Sunday school ministries, over 10,000 children to reach for the gospel. And then through all the training ministries that we did, the national conferences, the Sunday school conventions and so forth that we did, and the churches. So you put that all together. In three weeks, we were to reach over 11,000 people, children and adults. And we had those 2,000 that made a professional face. So I'm just so thankful the door that God opened. And isn't it just good to just to trust God, let God go before you and open up the door? Like we wanted to go in 2020, God shut that door. Then when God opens it, I mean, God's plans are always best. And I just want to share this, this is the last slide, is that right before we got on the gate, I looked at there, and then right before we got on the plane in Entebbe, there was a sign at the gate that says, the mission is not over. And I don't know if you can see it, but standing behind Jill and her kids, there's a memory verse. And I'll just show you this one. It says, it's Matthew 28. It says, go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. Can you imagine that being on the gate of an airport there? I mean, and right behind it says, the mission is not over. Then it has Matthew 28, 19 and 20. And that was such an encouragement to me, because I'm always like, OK, every time I leave Uganda, I feel like I'm leaving a little piece of me behind. Because if I had two lives, one of them would be over there. And I have to trust the Lord with that even now. Like, when's the next time I get to go back? I mean, I love doing what I'm doing with CEF in Illinois, and that's my full-time responsibility, but I love the opportunity to also do short-term missions overseas whenever God opens up the door. And I felt like the Lord was like, okay, just trust me. The mission is not over because why is the mission not over? It's not just not over for me or for the team. It's not over for any of us because if you check it out, Jesus said that we are to do this until when? Until the end of the what? The end of the world. So the mission is not over for all of us, for all of us as God's people, for all of us as followers of Christ, all of us as disciples of Christ. We are to be doing, this is what the purpose of the church is to be. We are to be on point, following the Lord, doing what he wants us to. We are to be going into our Jerusalem, our Judea, our Samaria, into the uttermost part of the earth until when? until Jesus comes again. Until Jesus comes again, the mission for all of us is not over. So I just want to encourage you that all of you Together and individually, we need to lean into our calling to do what God has called us to do because the mission is not over. And I just also want to thank you again. Sorry I went a little bit long, but I thank you again for your prayers and your support and just supporting me all these years. And I really just appreciate it. It's great to be with you guys here today. It's a wonderfully amazing spectacle to behold when your light breaks through and is received by heart hearts. And we praise you for the kindness that you have given through our sister to be able to bring your gospel to these many souls, in many of them children-like. We thank you for that. We thank you that we've been able to have even just a very small part of this ministry. And Lord, we do pray for our sister as you've been faithful to her in so many ways in years past. We ask that you continue to be faithful to her, that is keeping her steadfast in you and faithful to your word, keeping her heart aligned and dutifully bound to you as she goes forward in declaring your word. I pray that you would strengthen her for the years that are ahead and bless her and her ministry. And I pray now for this church as we eagerly look forward to our time of singing together and of hearing your word preached, that you would bless these means of grace to your people, to your saints, and be kind to us, I pray, in your name. Thank you.