Winterstein Family Blog

Our final destination, Kasana Children's Center, where we conducted women's ministry events. When our team began to meet to prepare for the trip, we were brainstorming ways we might want to serve.  Out of my mouth came, "What about women's ministry?"  Then Steve says, "Sounds great, Could you lead that?" This was intimidating to me for a couple reasons.  First, I was one of the youngest women on the team.  Also, I don't like speaking in front of people!  I'll do it, but it is not my favorite thing to do.  I'd much rather grab a cup of coffee and talk with a few people.  I don't like being in the spotlight. I began to communicate with the women's ministry coordinator in Uganda.  The theme for the year and one which we were asked to stay within is "Turning Our Hearts Towards Home".  She explained this as things like, housekeeping, hospitality, etc.  I was thinking, "I can barely keep up with my own home.  How am I...

We began our morning at Musana by walking down to the fishing village of Nalumuli.  First, we sat on the beach and listened to Angela share her story of how God called her to minister to the women.  As she shared, tears welled up in her eyes.  She spoke directly from the heart.  There was no denying God has given her a supernatural love for the people of Nalumuli. Angela and her husband came to Uganda on utter obedience.  They sold their house, bought plane tickets, and initially had no plan.  All they knew was that God was calling them to Uganda.  They found out about New Hope Uganda, were accepted as missionaries, and moved into their home at Musana.  Angela looked down at Nalumuli and her heart was moved.  She felt God was calling her to walk down there - alone. This was a scary calling.  Nalumuli is a place of suffering and rampant sin.  The men aren't faithful; they fish at night, and drink during the day....

"But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong." 1 Corinthians 12:9-10 The next lesson for me on this trip to Uganda comes on a day of travel.  We left Kobwin at 5am to travel to Kapchorwa and to our final destination of Musana. To be honest, I was dreading the day with the way our travel went a couple days prior.  I was also still trying to process the suffering I witnessed at the school the day before and the weight of being away from my family was hitting me.  I rolled out of bed, pulled myself together, and hopped into the van before dawn. As we began driving down the dirt road I had the opportunity to call home for the first time.  Robert answered and he was s...

Each trip to Uganda has been so different for me.  I do have to say though that this one may have topped all the others.  We had a large team, yet there was such unity and servant-hearts across the whole group.  The "God-moments" were numerous and the blessings beyond count. As I am processing all that God did and taught me among this beloved group of brothers and sisters in Christ., I am going to write several blog posts.  This first one will focus on our first stop, Kobwin Children's Center. Our first day in Uganda was hard.  We traveled for 2 days just on airplanes so we were tired and waking up early to head to our first destination, Kobwin Children's Center.  The drive would be a minimum of 8 hours. At one of our last team meetings, our team leader, Steve, shared a saying his pastor once shared with him, "Blessed are the flexible for they will not break".  We remembered this on our first day as we were stuck in Kampala traffic for 3 hours on...