So...How Was Your Trip?

I've been having a really tough time morphing back into life here at home.  I don't know exactly what it is.  The only way I can think to explain it is that I have so many different thoughts and feelings that I can't seem to cram them all into my head in order to process it all.

So, when people ask, "So...how was your trip?", I don't exactly know where to begin.

First of all, I stare into space and try to figure out if the person asking the question is truly curious about the details of the trip, just being friendly, or really curious about the DETAILS of the trip.

I mean, what part do you want to hear about?

The way I watched 4 movies on the airplane rides trying to stay awake the whole way there...
The part about the change of plans from getting a full night's rest at the "hotel" before heading the rest of the way in the bus, to just going ahead and making the full trek in the middle of the night...
The fact that I kept forgetting to brush my teeth with bottled water instead of tap water...
The way the kids in the first village totally rushed us every time we came into sight...
The beautiful huts made out of clay and straw that they keep so clean...
The smells...
The way the Ugandan's drive as if the painted lines on the roads (the ones that actually have lines, that is) are merely suggestions...
The animals...
The hurting people...
The hope of the story of Christ that we brought...
The demon(s) that were cast out of the woman...
The evil spirits that were cast of the home of a woman and her two children who were being strangled at night by them...
The evil spirits that were cast out of the home of another family who had lost 5 children to witchcraft...
The way I smuggled a little girl, who had become attached to my right hand for two days, a baby doll and watching her eyes light up, knowing that this was probably the only toy she had...
Having just the right size shoe in my pack for the preteen girl who had no shoes at all...
The tears I shed as I tried to encourage a young, single mother with 2 sick children...
The friendships I made among out team...
The way the Lord scripted out the perfect messages among us, his servants...
The heaviness I felt in our room that one night.  So heavy, in fact, that I was crying out of fear and couldn't even close my eyes because of the evil images and Josh literally read the Bible out loud until we could sleep...
The fact that almost everyone else on the team experienced the same evil presence in their rooms at around the same time, that very same night...

Sharing my testimony to inmates, wondering how in the world I could ever possibly relate to them, when in the end they ALL chose to follow Christ...

The people...

The fact that 3 of us came to each other one morning with the same message with a different twist to share with the ladies in the village that morning...

The way the keyboard player spends half the song tinkering around, note-by-note, trying to find the key the singers are singing in:) (this one is a personal favorite of mine)...

The night where we were invited over to the director of Arise Africa's home to visit with his family.  We all watched him turn from director to daddy as he joked with his kids and made-up songs about staying away from hookers (I guess you had to be there for that one, ha!)...
The fact that we have the power to make people feel valued and unforgotten...
Seeing those kids in the orphanage...
Tickling and playing with those kids in the orphanage...
Loving on those kids in the orphanage...
Kissing on those kids in the orphanage...
The food...
Walking along a dusty road and handing out suckers to little kids...
The conviction I'm feeling in my heart...
The way I got SOOOO sick the last night there...
The fact that I watched a total of 6 movies on the way home because I had butterflies in my stomach in anticipation of seeing my kids again and simply couldn't sleep...
Saying "yes" to God, but wondering what exactly the next step is...

Really, I could go on and on.

So, if you are really wondering about my trip, could you please be a bit more specific.  I'm having a bit of a hard time processing it in my own head, much less trying to explain it to other people.