Third G is for Go. So I Went.

Grow, Give & Go. Going means you go somewhere. Sometimes that is no further than your living room, other times it is to your neighborhood or city. For me, last October it meant going to visit an orphanage in South Sudan. 

I went with They Are One, a non-profit in Monterey County, California. The trip started from SFO, and 28 hours later we arrived in Entebbe, Uganda. From there we took a small plane that landed on a narrow dirt road that they call a runway, in Nimule, South Sudan.

As we were descending into Nimule, you couldn't help but notice all the tukals(small round homes) that dotted the landscape.

The kids at Cornerstone Children's Home were great. I tried to spend as much time with the boys as possible. They tend to take a while to warm up to strangers, and given that we were only onsite for 10 days, it wasn't easy. I made many friends and had many great experiences.

We made several trips down to the Nile, but I only dangled my feet into the water. After seeing a 20-ft-long snake swimming down the middle of the river, I decided that getting my feet wet was enough for me.

 Daniel Atwali is a special boy. You can read his story at theyareone.org. Before we left, we helped the kids write letters to their sponsors back in the USA. I helped Daniel with a letter to my wife. I barely held back the tears when he asked me to write that he wished I were his dad.

I had an opportunity to visit the local hospital and pray with the patients. I went with several gentlemen who visit the hospital weekly. I was talking with the nurse in the HIV & TB wing when we decided it was a good time to take a picture.


 On our way home, we spent the night in Entebbe and visited a local zoo. There were several animals I'd never seen before, like this bird with a massive beak. My favorite was the warthog. Talk about ugly!








It has been over six months since my trip, and in some ways it seems like yesterday. On the other hand, I'm already starting to forget some of the details. I hope to go back to keep the friendships I've started going.


One of the main things I learned in South Sudan was that life there is hard, but not complicated. Here, life is easy but complicated. One of the ways I'm trying to uncomplicate my life is by giving my extra stuff away. It's working, because every time I go to my home office desk and see space instead of stuff, I feel good.