On our trip to Uganda, so many things don’t “fit” easily into one’s mind. The modern era mixes with the 1600’s like two colors of paint poured out onto a canvas. Highways and ox carts mix. Modern apartments are built with bamboo scaffolding. Thatched roofs on huts with TV satellite dishes are common. Worship in a mud-wall church with no power is interrupted by the musical tones of cell phones. A home has an open fire kitchen and solar panels. The people, too, are both modern and ancient. Full of old customs and ways, yet discussing micro-finance loans. One sees classical garments, bright prints with puffed sleeves, or worn-through “Just do it” T-shirts.

My favorite: our host, an Anglican priest from the Church of Uganda, is wearing a formal ecclesiastical collar, shirt and coat with a rhinestone MTV belt. Who could have imagined? It makes me smile. Our God is full of surprises.