Christmas 2009 - Seeing Is Believing

Well it's been a while since I posted anything. Towards the end of our trip, I warned everyone reading this blog that I would be coming to them - looking for support. Well, here I am.

It's been a somewhat slow process, but we have launched the Seeing Is Believing campaign. While still in Uganda, I knew that I would have to appeal to my friends and family to support some specific need over there. I also knew pretty quickly that the specific need would be Mama Mary and her orphanage.

The campaign has been set up under Eternal Impact. My first inclination was to "go it alone" and start up a separate organization, but when I though of the necessary legal and financial accountability hoops to jump through, I knew that I simply wouldn't have the time. So John Garrick and Eternal Impact Ministries have graciously agreed to "host" the campaign. This step also makes good sense in that Eternal Impact already has the strong relationship with UFC and Pastor Kennedy.

Along the way, I sat down with one of the pastors from Rolling Hills to discuss the project. He gave me some great advice - be patient. It likely won't happen overnight, it might take a year, maybe longer. So here we are about 6 months after leaving and I'm just getting our little bird out of the nest, but I'm so thrilled to see it going!

In discussions with John and Kennedy, we developed a budget target for the project. Our target is to achieve commitments of $3,200 per month. This number includes 15% administrative costs to cover such items as financial auditing, web site development, printing and mailing costs, and a part time administrator in Uganda who will be responsible for procuring the needed supplies and coordinating the volunteer help for the orphanage. The monthly total will pay for rent, utilities, food, clothing, medical care and education.

If by some chance God blesses our efforts and we find more people willing to share their resources, we will seek another orphanage to support. In discussing this with my UFC friends over the internet, I was told that there are two of the students whose dream has always been to open an orphanage, so that is one possibility.

But for now we are concentrating on Mary and her children. May God richly bless you as you consider helping out.

Look for updates around Seeing Is Believing at "eternalimpact.org"

Video

Stephen

For anyone who read the story about our visit to the orphanage, I told you about Stephen - my special little buddy there. Well, Kayla managed to catch a photo of him, so I needed to share it!

Pictures

We're HOME!!!

Hey Everyone, we made it home! It was more of an adventure than we would have preferred, but we made it.

British Airways - in all of their competence - somehow managed to come up with a discrepancy in the baggage that took them 2 hours to fix in London. The result of this was a missed connection in Seattle for our flight to Portland. Alaska/Horizon has flights between the 2 cities every half hour, but it was 4th of July weekend, which meant their were no available seats.

So who wants to spend the night in Seattle? No hands go up. I then started hitting the rental car counters to find out who would rent us a couple of large vehicles to go one way to Portland. Ended up with Avis - and picked up a Ford F-150 double cab pickup and a Cadillac DTS. Ken drove the pickup, I took the Cadillac. Unfortunately, the Caddy didn't have a bench seat in front, so that left us with only 10 seats for 11 people. Lance valiantly chose to wait and standby for a flight at 11 pm.

So we headed out on the last leg of our trip. I woke up at 5 am London time Sunday morning. By the time we headed out of the Seattle airport, it was 4 am Monday London time. By the time we got to the Ridgefield rest area on I-5, it was 6:30 am Monday London time, an I was one tired puppy! Got out of the car and the cool air revived me enough to make it on home.

There is much more to say, much more to process. I'm not going to promise daily updates to this blog, but I know that we're planning on getting everyone together again in a couple of weeks, at which time I'll add more comments.

I would like everyone to know, however, that this trip had a profound impact on everyone. As for me, I have a mission and objective. It includes a specific passage from James, 2:14-18:

What use is it, my bretheren, if a man says he has faith, but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them "Go in peace, be warmed and be filled" and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. But someone may well say "You have faith, and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works".

I have much to do.

I pray that God will bless all who have been reading this blog, and especially my brothers and sisters in Africa.

4th of July in London!

Hey Folks! Well, we just got back to the hotel from spending the day in London. We attacked this one from the standpoint of looking around, seeing what we might want to explore more thoroughly on a return trip. And yup, there's a TON of stuff to explore more thoroughly!

We took a bus tour through much of Westminster & Old London. This afforded us an opportunity to see pretty Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Cathedral, St Paul's Cathedral, The Tower Castle, Piccadilly Circus, Buckingham Palace, and so much more, but we didn't do anything in depth. Call it an appetizer.

Mostly I think all of us are just excited to get home. As in REALLY excited to get home! I know I sure am.

So our love goes out to all, and our thanks for all of the prayers. Tomorrow evening Portland time and we'll get to see all of you again!

Still more pics

We're in London now with a relatively quick internet connection so here's some pics. There's also a post below this and more pics & a video below that. Enjoy!

July 3

There's more pictures and a video below this.

Today is the first leg of our journey home. I got to drag everyone out of bed early this morning – as in 4:30 am – so didn’t really have time to write anything prior to our departure for the airport. Right now the plane is over the Mediterranean and according to the moving map it appears we’ll be flying directly over Palermo, Sicily. Someday I’d love to see the area – and the rest of Italy, and the rest of Europe – on the ground.

Yesterday was nice end to our stay. After a leisurely morning, we went to a local hotel that had apparently agreed to let us use their pool briefly. Ken had decided that he wanted to be baptized in Uganda, so along with the KIU students we all attended the event. Branden, Cameron and Kennedy participated in the baptism. Once they were dried off, we shared Communion with the students.

Then it was off to do some shopping. Since I’m posting this prior to our arrival home I’m not going to tell anyone what they’re getting for gifts. I did purchase a traditional African shirt for myself. And no Alex, Nick and Cameron – T-shirts that say “Mzungu” on them are NOT traditional African shirts!

We spent the afternoon with the students and it was a very bittersweet time. Many stories and perceptions were shared. Every one of us have developed very strong friendships with these folks. They have truly touched our hearts. When your travelers get home, ask to see pictures of Kennedy, Antony, Aaron, Patrick, Vivian, Sophie, Manu, Grace, Evelyn, Jackson, Brian – all of them. Let us tell you about them, about what wonderful people we have discovered, about their remarkable love for the Lord.

From the celebration with them, we have found that we are not the only ones who have been touched. Patrick, Brian and Sophie told us how they had not been particularly active in the campus church, but joining in with us has shown them a new meaning, a new fervor for their faith. Aaron and Antony told us how Ken and I have given them a new role model for parenting. Kennedy told us that he has never worked with a team that they’ve grown as close to, that they’ve been able to develop the relationships with like they did with us.

And on my heart this morning (or afternoon or whatever time it is now!), I am still praying for their ministry. I’ve mentioned a few times over the past few weeks that the KIU students are primarily Kenyan, with some Tanzanians and Rwandans mixed in. There are very few Ugandans in their group. If one thinks of the logical conclusion to this, you’ll realize that the majority of them will return to their home countries. Yes, there will likely be others to take up the mantle behind them, but I’m praying that they would gather more Ugandans into their group – people who not only love God but who are truly devoted to their country. I would like to ask those reading the blog to pray for this as well.

Michael – our wonderful driver – showed up at the guest house at 5:30 am to pick us up. Accompanying him were Kennedy, Antony, Aaron, Manu, Patrick, Jackson & Vivian. As we’ve become used to, we were not allowed to carry our own baggage out to the bus, nor were we allowed to unload it at the airport. Once the unloading process was complete, there were numerous hugs and a virtual flood of tears as we said our goodbyes. As Sam said yesterday, it was like saying goodbye to your best friends.

And now we’re off to London to play for a day. I’ll likely give everyone a report of that as well before we return home, but in the meantime I’d like to tell you a little about what I told the group yesterday afternoon. I told them that I had originally accepted Christ as my savior at age 7, but that since there was no support for that around me, the faith was allowed to dwindle to almost nothing. The Lord pursued me, however, throughout my childhood and early adulthood until I came back at age 23. I told them that my enormous, overriding concern before leaving on this trip was that we would come over to Uganda, lots of people would be saved, and then they’d be left on their own. I worried incessantly that there would not be a support system to teach them, to disciple them.

I then told them how overjoyed I am that these KIU students ARE that support system, that the people who have sought a relationship with God through Jesus do have a support system. I also told them that we will be coming back, making a return trip to Africa. The fact that I said “we” was quickly grasped by Branden – he interrupted me to make sure he was hearing correctly. “Excuse me Dale, but by saying ‘we’, you’re including yourself, you know.” I told him that I was very aware of that.

So we’re “Out of Africa”, ladies & gentlemen. I know that each and every one of us left a piece of our heart there.

Kayla’s Comments

Hey everyone it’s Kayla and I am writing to you from the airplane in low spirits. Coming on this trip to Africa has been the single most exciting moment of my life. I had no idea that God was going to work as much in my heart as he did these past few weeks and I am so grateful for this experience. From the moment of stepping off of the plane in Entebbe and talking with Matthew I knew that this was going to be incredible and sure enough it was.

To me and I know for almost everyone else, this trip required me to step out of my comfort zone. I was shocked at some of the things that I did such as sharing my testimony at three different schools and going around in the slums sharing the word of God to others. Let me be the first one to tell you that this wasn’t easy but I am so glad that I had this opportunity to evangelize and grow in my relationship with the Lord. Another thing that I didn’t expect was to create the kinds of relationships that I did with the KIU students. They are absolutely amazing people that just give off this genuine love for each other and for Christ that it truly inspires me. I have bonded with them so much in particular with Sophie, Patrick, Brian and Emmanuel that I know I have created lifelong friendships with them and can say that I am going to miss them so much and they will always have a place in my heart.

I have been having a hard time ever since saying good-bye to all of the KIU students at the airport and I truly just didn’t want to leave Uganda. If I could, I would have wanted to stay for the whole summer. This is just the beginning of my journey with God and I have so much more to learn and grow from. Uganda does hold a special piece in my heart as Dale mentioned earlier and I would absolutely love to return with this team and ministry and I’m praying that it is Gods will for this to be a reality soon.

Katie’s comments

Hello America, this Katie writing from the plane.  Dale just caught me as I was reading scripture and really processing this mission trip so it was great timing to write you. To be honest I don’t even know where to begin and how to sum up this mission to you. Words will never do justice to the work of the Holy Spirit. Pictures (2200 I’ve taken) will never show the true work of God, the extreme poverty, or even the beautiful people of Uganda.

Going into this mission I knew I would leave changed and challenged. But never did I believe I would have my life flipped upside down. God has really stirred my heart these past few weeks in ways that have frightened me. To be honest I don’t know what this looks like but I know it includes Africa in some way. My prayer is that each one of you who has been reading this blog gets the opportunity to hear the amazing work of God from the team. God took a small team from Portland and a team from Africa and together made miracles happen. God took the obedience and willingness of us all and used us to His glory!! From the demon-possessed girl, to the Muslim converts, to feeding the people in the slums God was at work. I sit here in awe of a Mighty God we serve. This mission was an opportunity that I pray each one of you has the chance to do. The harvest in Uganda is RIPE!

The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.- Matthew 9:37,38

The people are in need of a Savior. The people are thirsty for hope, life, Jesus! I am challenging you as I have been challenged. These people are desperate. These people have faces, these people have names, these people are children of God! They deserve clean water, food, and to hear the good news of Jesus! I apologize if I seem overzealous but I am writing from a deep passion, real experiences, and the call of Christ in my life.

I thank you all for following us on this journey! Next time I pray you join us in loving Africa! It will change your life! :)

PIcs & Vids

July 2

We’re back in Kampala. Things are back to normal – the Kampala Philharmonic Canine Choir is in full throttle this morning. Yesterday was a long, miserable trip from the lodge back here interspersed with a couple of moments of levity. I remember distinctly hearing Lance telling Cameron that it would take about 4 hours, Kennedy saying 5. It took 8.

We left the lodge at 10:45 am to catch the 11:00 ferry. Of course, this being Uganda, the ferry didn’t actually leave until 11:30, so we were hanging out around the ferry slip for a while. The Lodge, however, had provided us all with box lunches to take along. There was a bunch of other people, a troop of baboons and a few warthogs hanging out as well. Most of our gang got out to hang out rather than being cooped up in the bus some more.

Pretty soon I hear a couple of the kids talking about “where’s that one going”, then
“Somebody should close the windows.” Too late. One of the baboons leaped up into the window beside where Erika & Nick had been sitting , reached right over Erika’s and grabbed Nick’s. Turned around and jumped back out. I’m quite sure now that baboons can read – Erika had a vegetarian lunch while Nick had a steak sandwich.

A couple of the baboons then went through the various items in the box. At one point a warthog wandered over to begin rooting around at something they had left and the baboons moved off. One of the baboons took the box of mango juice over to a little concrete pad. We were rather surprised that he couldn’t figure out how to insert the straw into it and just bit into it instead. He was rather smart, however, to take it to the concrete since he was then able to lick up whatever spilled.

Once across the Nile for the last time, we headed up to Murchison Falls. We had seen it from a distance on the boat trip, but you can drive up to the top and get a much closer view. Once again, mere words cannot describe it. Think of a river as huge as the Nile being forced through a little crevasse of rock about 20 feet wide and you’ll get some idea. Absolutely awesome!

That little detour led to The Great Tse-Tse Fly Hunt. For some reason I always thought they were tiny bugs, but they’re about the size of a normal house fly. And they have a nasty little mouth, with which they bite mammals and suck blood. Those mammals would include humans. And they swarm the bus – even follow it down the road. A bunch of them followed us down to the Falls parking lot, and by the time we left several of them had moved into the air conditioned comfort, I suppose looking for a leisurely lunch. Ken nailed one on his window with the Uganda guide book. Aaron was chasing others around with an old rag. Lance took off one of his flip flops and splattered one who had already had lunch on his window, which brought a chorus of “EEEEEWWWWW!!!” from all – there was a rather large blood spot on the window in its wake. Cameron grabbed Branden’s pillow and tried to nail one, at which point Branden grabbed Cameron by the neck tightly – I’m assuming to pray for his success. Lance detached Branden before Cameron lost consciousness. (just kidding about the neck grabbing, of course). Hunting them all down took quite a while, but it did help to break up the tedium a little.

Going from the Lodge back to Kampala is in the neighborhood of 250 miles. 150 of that is on dirt road. And the dirt road was badly washboarded and rutted out in numerous places. Made for a very long trip, and we were bouncing around enough that it was next to impossible to sleep. It was a little interesting to watch the landscape transition from savannah at the park back into more jungle like as we got closer to Kampala and there were a few troops of baboons. Otherwise, it was a very long trip. If you’re interested in looking it up on a map, we went from the Paraa Lodge in Murchison Falls National park, via dirt road to Masidi, and then paved road on into Kampala.

Then we got to Kampala. We arrived at the outskirts about 6 pm. We finally pulled into Momma Mumbasa’s for dinner a couple of minutes before 8. The traffic here in the evening is a thing to behold. Actually, if you can avoid beholding it, that would be preferable. I told Michael that it was a good thing he was driving because if it had been me I’d be in jail after having run over about 500 boda-boda’s (motorcycles) . There are no rules in traffic here except for “the bravest one wins”. And let me tell you – some of them are pretty danged brave! To quote Branden “I think I’m ready to get back to a little order.”

But I also noticed how alive the city was at that time. In addition to the motorcycle and vehicle traffic, the streets were packed with throngs of people. I think of the US and doubt highly that you would see that many people walking down streets that were pavement-dirt-storefront. It has a vibrancy that is pretty cool. It also has air that had all of our eyes burning and our throats raw by the time we got to dinner.

So today is another play day – hanging out with our brothers and sisters from KIU and going shopping. It’s our last full day in Africa. Where has the time gone? As we prepare to leave, I find myself dealing with some very mixed emotions. I miss my wife and son terribly – I don’t believe I’ve been separated from Linda for this length of time since we started dating around 25 years ago. I miss the food, my home, my routine. But I’m also going to miss this place, the people. I’ve made what I consider to be some very good friends here, people who I will cherish. And there is so much more that needs to be accomplished. So leaving also brings a sadness.

Once again, I’ll try to wrangle someone else to add some thoughts, but to be honest it’s very much like herding cats. Let’s see, the priorities are taking pictures, talking and laughing, listening to ipods, reading, sleeping, swimming, showering, putting on makeup, and pretty much any other activity other than writing something for me to post in the blog.

By the way, in case I haven’t mentioned it, Alex has now officially been dubbed “Pastor Alex”. When he’d get up to share, it floored all of us and the young man has blossomed (just as many of us had predicted).

Kam & Ken’s comments:
A quick story from our Sunday trip to the IDP camp. We have delivered food and shared the Good News of Jesus to several households (tiny shacks). Virtually all are single mothers, at least there are no men around. Up until we meet Becky none have spoken English. They all graciously accept the small amount of food we leave and accept Jesus. Sometimes, at least for us when we have to rely on an interpreter we just don’t know for sure that the message truly was accepted or understood. It was very difficult to deduce whether the individual had wanted Jesus or said they did in order to ensure that they received food. We have to remember that we are the hands and feet of Jesus delivering the message of salvation and the Holy Spirit takes over from there.
Then we meet Becky. She is a lovely young African mother with a small baby. She speaks very fluent English. She is very hospitable. She brings out several chairs and takes us to the hut next door where there is a large mat. Dad & I share the Gospel and pray a blessing over her family. She eagerly accepts Jesus as her personal savior. As we prepare to leave we notice another young mother at the adjacent hut. One of the most amazing experience’s of our trip to Africa is that Becky, who just received Christ 2 minutes earlier helps us share Jesus with her neighbor. In fact Becky does most of the talking. Her neighbor receives Christ and we see the Holy Spirit already at work in Becky. What a blessing it was for us!
We have truly seen God at work in Africa, over and over and over again. We have learned not to let the little things get to us, and we pray when we return to the USA that we don’t get reprogrammed to the American way. For example, the traffic in Kampala is totally indescribable. It truly is the law of the jungle. Mothers nurse their children everywhere including when we are sharing the Good News of Jesus. Forget about refrigeration, a butcher shop is a small shack with the meat just hanging out in the not so fresh air of Kampala. The list of things that would bother many Americans goes on and on. We Americans get so caught up in being politically correct or we want everyone else in the USA to do things our way. Africans just live their lives, trying to raise their children and survive.

July 1

Well, I was just trying to load some pictures but the internet just isn't cooperating this morning. Since we're returning to Kampala today, I'm hoping I can get some up probably tomorrow night (which would be Thursday morning at home - I think!)

Last night we had a team gathering around a campfire to share our experiences and some stories about those experiences. Lance had told us earlier in the day that holding on to our stories would help to solidfy the experience, to help us hold on to what we've learned.

It was a very meaningful time for all of us. Kayla and Nick spoke about how the Spirit helped them to overcome their fear of speaking in front of people. Cameron and I spoke about our experiences at the IDP camp and what we learned from that. I'm not going to go in depth into anyone's stories because I want them to share them with you when they return.

Africa has affected all of us deeply. My Irish friend from a few days ago was right on target - Africa gets in your blood. As for me, I have gone from being "The Reluctant Missionary" - a man whose mind fought coming all the way - to being a man who now has a passion to do more for these people. I can easily see myself coming back here, but before I can spend money for another trip, I am compelled to do whatever I can to help the people here. For those of you who know me personally - begin preparing yourselves. I'm coming!

I continue to marvel at God's incredible creation. The land, the flora and fauna, all of it completely surpasses my ability to describe. And the people. Having spent pretty much my entire life in racist society (and to my Canadian friends, make no mistake - yours is too), I have now come to see people of color in a whole new light. Their beauty is astounding. From the most beautiful specimens imaginable down to the withered old woman I saw at the IDP camp, they have a beauty here that is truly astounding.

I'm going to continue to grab the other members of our team and have them add thoughts. In the meantime, I continue to ask for your prayers. For our safety, but more importantly - please pray for the people of this land. They have taken up a place in every one of our hearts that we may have difficulty explaining, but that will remain with us forever.

June 30

Nick’s Comments.
This last two weeks and a have been amazing. Aside from being sick the first four days and visiting the hospital in Kampala due to the wonderful Malaria pills which I stopped taking shortly thereafter. On a more positive note the culture is amazing and I have really enjoyed it so far and the food is amazing. I have been impacted in many ways that I never thought I would. Everything from distributing food in the IDP camps, to sharing the gospel with kids in the schools has been a real eye opener. The first few days we went to a bunch of schools in and around Kampala. It was a great experience, for the most part the kids seemed genuinely excited and thrilled to hear what we had for them. At first giving my testimony and talking in front of many people was a little frightening , but after the first couple schools it seemed like no big deal and almost felt natural. One of the most impactful things for me has been seeing the living conditions of the people in the slums and IDP camps. Its one thing to see something like that on tv or in a movie, but when you see it in person it suddenly becomes much more real and shocking. Overall everyone in our group is having an incredible experience and cannot wait to share it with everybody back in the States.
--Nick

I’m trying to round up the others to get their thoughts on here, but I did want to catch everyone up on our activities over the past couple of days.

Yesterday (Monday) we left the Transa Rock Hotel and drove out to the Dream Center Gulu. Like the IDP camp, it was quite a ways out of town on a dirt road, and when we first drove in, it looked completely and totally unremarkable. Basically a squared off area next to a village, around 15,000 sq ft, surrounded by barbed wire and had a couple of huts on it. In the far corner was a group of young men working on something.

Pastor Robert, the man in charge of the place, explained what exactly it was. During the civil war, the rebels made a horrid habit of abducting young boys – as young as 7-8 years old – and training them to become soldiers. They are young men now, but since they did not get to complete their schooling they are not trained to do anything. It is difficult enough to have their villages accept them back in, and being unemployed and untrained on top of it makes it an enormous challenge to get them assimilated.

The Dream Center takes the young men in, trains them in such skills as sewing, carpentry and brick making, and then places them into communities upon graduating. It is helping to build the future, one small step at a time. I find the concept very encouraging.

We all got the chance to get our hands dirty since there was a large pile of bricks that hadn’t been baked properly that they needed to move to a pit. We formed a couple of chains and passed most of the pile into the pit for them.

As we were filtering back to the bus, the children from the village had formed up as an audience for us. Erika noticed a girl that had an open wound on her leg, so she got out the First Aid kit and started bandaging her up. Soon Lance and Aaron had joined in, and by the time we left several children had nice white bandages on their bodies. It was rather poetic since this was all going on about 15 feet away from the foundation that has been laid for a clinic on the property.

From there we went back to Gulu and dropped off everyone from KIU except Kennedy & Aaron. We then made the trip to Murcheson Falls National Park for the safari.

The lodge here is fantastic, and the safaris – by Land Cruiser in the morning and a boat trip down up the Nile in the afternoon – was simply incredible. We were able to see all sorts of wildlife, including elephants, 2 different prides of lions, many different species of antelope, warthogs, water buffalo, baboons, and several others that slip my mind right now. Oh, and on the boat trip we saw at least 100 hippos and several crocodiles. God’s creation is incredible!

The plan is that tomorrow morning we’ll take a bus ride up to the top of Murcheson Falls, then wander back towards Kampala. Thursday morning will be shopping, followed by a going away party with the KIU students at The Palace in the afternoon. The next day is off to London!

And now for some more comments from the other folks.

Erika’s Comments
Praise God! I’m here to write a general recap of my experience in Uganda, and Pastor Kennedy is here laughing at my blank face and screen, cause I really can’t find the words. Not because the trip wasn’t overwhelmed with Jesus’ teaching, the building of valuable relationships, and confusingly simultaneous joy and heartache, but I guess because, it was. My highlights include community work in Nabutiti (Texas City) on Monday and Tuesday and in another community near Omega on Thursday, where we distributed food and shared God’s story in words. At first for me, it was daunting to think of just sharing the Gospel with a Muslim woman on her knees before me in the dirt of a Kampala slum, or praying for another burdened by HIV, but if I’ve learned anything on this trip it’s been the actual power of the Holy Spirit if we are just willing. As we first starting walking around on Tuesday, giving nothing but truth, I felt torn by a desire to come back with more physically recognizable help: more food, shoes, health care. But as the day went on, and we prayed for healing or whatever else, I believed more each time that God would provide, and the gift of hope is the ultimate assistance. Jesus has moved in amazing ways in every person on our team and I think we’ve all learned so much. I’m so grateful for having been a part of the trip

Some Pics

June 27-29 - Long one!

Well, we finally made it back to the land of internet access. We're currently at the Paraa Lodge in Murcheson Falls National Park. Going on safari int he morning!

This one's long, but it's about 3 days worth.

It’s Ken----This morning before our scheduled Friday activities, KIU students Patrick, Millicent and I, along with Kayla & Pastor Kennedy headed down to Texas City to deliver Bibles to several of the people we had met earlier in the week.

Our first stop was to call on Rita, the unemployed unwed mother with a 3 or 4 month infant & the teenage sister with the badly infected eye. This very shy, beautiful (both physically & in spirit) young mother immediately welcomed us in to her tiny home. On our first visit her baby had no clothes & was just wrapped in a blanket. Right away we noticed she had purchased clothes for her baby with some of the small amount of money we had left her. Her sister came out immediately upon our arrival (she had been very reluctant to come out on our initial visit). She had obviously received medical attention as her eye was very red, but the swelling in was completely gone, as was the pain. On our first visit, Rita received Jesus as her personal savior. We gave her a Bible & Pastor Kennedy prayed & asked the Lord to bless Rita and her family. As we walked up the hill toward our next destination I happened to look back & noticed Rita peeking out of the house through the blanked that substituted for a door. For the first time she had a smile on her face.

Next, it is off to follow up with Jackie, a 22 year old (who looks 14), caring for a 1 year old. Her sister is now with her & there are 2 babies in the very small household. Both Jackie & her sister are “Born Again” and have no short term needs. On our earlier visit Millicent had stayed with Jackie’s baby while Patrick & I had accompanied Jackie to the closest ultra, ultra mini mart (shack) grocery (bulk food) outlet. We pray for the family & head to our next destination.

It is Olivia, another single mom, we next visit. She accepted Christ at our last visit. Kayla presents her with a Bible. Millicent prays for Olivia & her baby. I take a picture of Kayla & Olivia then with Kayla, Patrick, Millicent, Pastor Kennedy & Olivia. On a humorous note---- I try to take a picture of Olivia’s baby, she shuts her eyes, I try again & she shuts her eyes again & begins to cry. I feel very bad, I can’t believe I make the baby cry. Kayla and the others get a good laugh out of it.

Every prayer request from these precious children of God include the desire for a godly man to marry & care for them.

Our last stop is to follow up with Nadia the 20 something daughter of a Kenyan Muslim Lady who the mother truly believed was possessed by an evil spirit. That the Muslim mother would invite KIU “Born Again On Fire For The LORD students Patrick, Leena, Maria, Manu & I into her home to pray for her daughter is difficult enough to explain. On Monday, as we waited for the Nadia to return to the home before we met with her, the five of us prayed outside the home for God to use us as HIS vehicle to cast out the evil spirit if one did exist. One of the KIU students was fearful we could be vulnerable to the spirit. I must say that there is so much I do not fully understand about this issue, but I do know as believers we are fully protected by the Blood of Jesus. Additionally, we agreed we serve an awesome God & must have faith, that if it is His will His miraculous power (when you pray in the name of Jesus Christ) can accomplish anything. Inside the house, the daughter was very meek, distraught & frightened & told of a recurring dream of delivering a baby & immediately throwing it to its death to the ground. We all prayed in the name of Jesus Christ for the spirit to be cast our & for healing.

Now, today, we were returning to follow up. Nadia met us at the door. She was a totally changed person. The meekness & fear were gone, as were the dreams. She was smiling & very happy. We entered the home & Pastor Kennedy prayed for both the mom and Nadia. As we left, the Muslim mother asked for Millicent to befriend Nadia. Pastor Kennedy assured the mom that Millicent and/or other KIU students would return.
Look, I know virtually nothing about the spiritual world or spiritual warfare, yet I believe the Word of God makes it clear evil spirits exist and they know and tremble at even the name of Jesus Christ. Did Naudia have an evil spirit within her? We’ll never know and it is not really important. What I do know is that the name of Jesus is most powerful. We saw a totally changed young woman who appeared to be filled with a new spirit---the Spirit of our Holy Father, healed by the name of Jesus.

I want to say hi to my nine grandchildren (Max, Andrew, Lucy, Maya Rose, D J, Lily, Sophie, Violet & Jack) who I miss very much & love dearly. To say that the little children of Uganda have captivated the hearts of Kayla, Erica, Sam & Katie & all the guys would be a gross understatement! Everywhere we go all four girls, plus Nick, Kam & Alex are literally swarmed by the kids, some as young as the age of two. Yesterday, as we left one of the schools, two little girls clutched both index fingers of Kam & were prepared to go right into the bus with us. I can’t but help think of my precious grandkids & how the Lord has blessed my family.

When I first met KIU student Rose, I told her how excited my granddaughter Maya Rose (age 11) would be to know one of the African College kids shared her name. So too will be Sophie (age 7). Jack (age 2) is likely too young to get it, but someday will see a picture of KIU student Jack and then I will tell my little Jack what an awesome young man KIU student Jack with the infectious smile is.

KIU student Rose has claimed me as her grandpa as have several of the other KIU girls. I now have grandkids on two continents!

The next time I come to Africa I very much so, want to bring my soon to be 14 year old grandson Andrew. It is now 11:15, we leave for Gulu at 7:30, so I’m off to” hit the sack”.
Thank you Ken. I want to take a moment, by the way, to acknowledge how much I’ve come to admire Ken on this trip. I’ve seen a childlike yearning and desire in him to learn, to grow in God. It is truly remarkable.

We did the last two school assemblies yesterday in partnership with Omega. Sam and I missed the first one to allow her a little more time to recover, so I’ll check around and get someone else’s perspective on that one. The second one was at a school quite close to Omega. It went well, but the attendance was pretty severely hampered by a simultaneous soccer game between the students and teachers. Those that did attend were probably the least responsive I’ve seen. Branden asked them a yes/no question and no amount of cajoling on his part could get anyone to answer either yes or no.

We were then to wrap up our time with Omega, spending some time with their people back at their church. Our original understanding was that they wanted to discuss how youth ministry is done in the US, see if there was anything that we could give them in the way of tips, scripts, etc. The understanding morphed along the way to be that we would be discussing ministry “strategies”. Then it was to be a discussion around issues confronting the church in Uganda, and how we would deal with it in America.

Once we finally got there, we found out that it was to be a discussion around one issue – homosexuality. There have apparently been a couple of high level scandals in Uganda involving pastors being forced out of the closet, pastors accusing each other of being homosexuals (I got the impression that perhaps some of these accusations were groundless). The session started off with one of the Omega pastors (Frank) going into a pretty impassioned statement about how homosexuality is evil, against the laws of God and nature, and how they feel it is threatening the church. It is evil and they have to fight it with all their might. They also sent out a bunch of photocopied news articles for everyone to pass around. He made it quite clear that Omega feels that this is the biggest issue facing the church in Uganda.

Discomfort. Lance, Branden, Ken and I all made comments to them about how it is vital that they differentiate between consensual homosexuality and homosexual rape. How they also need to separate the act from the person – that you must continue to love the person. You must not ostracize anyone completely but rather need to help them heal and love them. I pointed out to them that homosexuality is only a tiny piece of the sin in the world and the danger is with focusing on it is that all other sin is ignored. I pointed out to them that the church in the US has made this mistake – devoting almost all of its societal efforts on homosexuality – and it has resulted in so many other sins becoming acceptable behavior, even encouraged behavior. Aaron and Branden both pointed out that their focus should be on fostering solid families with faithful partners.

Frank was dutifully taking notes and at the end of the session read back the pertinent points that he had heard. I’m sad to say that it seems to me he only heard the things we said that affirmed their stand.

On a final note for this morning, my portion of the funds from Lance’s supporter did not make it to Gulu. My heart continues to be burdened for Mother Mary’s orphanage. I told everyone about Baby Esther the other day, and there is a picture here on the blog of her sitting in Sam’s lap. While we were there, I heard someone make a comment in passing that she has had a lot of medical problems. Well, yesterday I asked Kennedy about it. He said that she is HIV positive. So my portion of the funds – along with an additional contribution – went to Kennedy to help with her medical costs.

June 27 – 3:40 pm

Well, we made it to Gulu. The horror stories that we’d heard about how nasty the road up here would be turned out to be unfounded – there were a few spots with some potholes, but for the most part we moved along well. The trip seemed to go much faster than I had anticipated.

Final tally of the KIU Students/UFC staff along with us – Kennedy, Antony, Aaron, Brian, Evelyn, Lillian, Patrick, Emmanuel (Manu), & Sophie – and we love them all! We love their spirit, we love their sense of humor, we love their dancing, and especially we love how much they love God. We keep telling all of them that we want them to come to America to see us. If Brian can get his visa to study at Mississippi St, we’ll make it happen. Kennedy will make it over at some point, but we so badly want to introduce everyone to our friends. Several of us mzungus have been finding ourselves speaking with their accents. We love how they pronounce “God”. I can’t type it, we’ll have to imitate it when we get home.

As we reached the outskirts of Kampala, we noticed a grocery type store with a big crowd of agitated people gathered out front. It was explained that this is basic Ugandan justice. The police in Uganda are so corrupt that you can pretty much get away with anything as long as you can bribe the cop. Because of this, if someone is caught shoplifting, the neighborhood takes over dispensing justice. They’ll gather around and beat the bejeebers out of the perp. Antony & Kennedy informed us that these beatings even result in death on occasion. So shoplifting in Uganda is not a good idea.

The trip itself was pretty cool once we got out of Kampala. We were stuck in a traffic jam for about 15 minutes there, but otherwise things moved along well. The highlights:
• We stopped at a “rest area”. The Ugandan version of a rest area is a place where the guys could go off one side of the road a little ways into the trees, and the girls could do the same on the other. While we were all stretching, the younger dudes were showing off – Aaron picked Lance up and carried him across the road. I asked him why he didn’t carry me! There were a few foot races and Branden actually beat Manu. Of course, this was after Manu had already raced Nick, Alex and Kennedy.
• Shortly after getting back on the bus, Michael slowed way down. There was some type of black faced monkey standing at the side of the road looking at us. Branden had been talking about wanting to see a monkey, so he got his wish.
• Soon after that, we started seeing baboons all over the place. I’m pretty sure there were a bunch of pictures taken.
• Then we crossed over the Nile. It was breathtaking! Whenever I think of the Nile, I think of it as the Egyptian version of the Columbia – flowing steadily but unremarkably through the desert. This far south it is nothing of the sort. Already a huge river, it was beautiful as we saw a waterfall and many rapids all over the place. Again, I’m hoping we can get some pictures posted of it. Lots of “oohs” and “ahhs” on the bus.
• We passed many different villages along the way and saw plenty of the traditional grass roofed African dwellings. As we were entering Gulu, we started seeing large groupings of these. Kennedy pointed out that these were some of the IDP camps.
• As we drove through one fairly secluded area, Kennedy also pointed out that this was not a particularly good place to have you vehicle break down. There is apparently a tribe that still practices cannibalism.

So we arrived in Gulu and parked in front of the bank downtown. Kampala actually has a downtown area with a bunch of impressive large buildings, shopping centers, etc. Downtown Gulu is paved, but is quite dusty with old store fronts, lots of the usual shack-shops, drainage ditches with lots of trash, etc. Branden pointed out that the store front across the street had a sign on the top that said “C&P 1962”. I thought that was rather cool since that was the year that someone very special to me was born! We waited around for about half an hour while Kennedy & Aaron tracked down our “host”, then re-boarded the bus, turned around and went back up the road about ¼ mile where we turned onto a dirt road and headed into a rather shady looking area.

The hotel we’re staying in – the Transa Rock Hotel, however, is pretty nice – nicer than I would have expected from looking at the town. All of the mzungus have their own rooms (with the exception of Branden & Katie). B&K are on the top floor (4th) along with Antony & Aaron who are sharing a room and Sam. Originally Sam was down on the 3rd floor with Kayla & Erika, but they were side by side at one end of the hall and Sam was at the other. Dad didn’t feel too comfortable with that arrangement so I asked Ken – who was in the room right across the hall from me – to switch with her. I therefore now have her right across the hall and Ken is down on the 3rd floor with the girls to help keep an eye on things. The boys & Lance are all down on the 2nd floor. The rooms have beds, nets, fans and small desks and chairs. The bathrooms have a toilet and a shower head. There is also a large plastic bucket that you put under the shower head and stand in

Most of the KIU students are staying in a set of rooms surrounding a small courtyard out back. My room also has a private balcony overlooking the neighborhood out front. The balcony is a nice touch, but the view isn’t all that attractive. The house directly across the street has a dirt yard, a couple of clothes lines full of clothes, and about half a dozen turkets wandering around. As I look further I can see a neighborhood that is definitely a step up from the slums of Kampala, but would also definitely be considered slums in Portland. Lots of kids running around, some with clothes on, some without.

We’re heading to one of the IDP camps to distribute some food here in a little bit.

June 28

I believe we just experienced the worst, shortest night’s sleep since arriving in Uganda. We were all victims of a confluence of “Uganda Time” time last night.

I’m sitting here in my room with the only light available being my laptop. The noise here is different than it was in Kampala, but much more intimate. By that I mean I could tune out most of it in Kampala and sleep most of the time. Here there was a nightclub down the street that was blasting music all night long – and is still blaring at 5:30 am - the roosters have been crowing, there’s a dog that periodically emits nice loud, long, mournful howls, and it is all happening right outside the hotel, which features windows that don’t close. There is also a child that was crying and screaming much of the night. The thing that has me totally baffled is how the night club manages to power the music. When we arrived yesterday the power had been off in the entire town for a day and a half, and just barely managed to flicker back on around 4 pm. There has been enough power in my room to turn the fan a tiny bit. There isn’t enough power for the lights to work, so I’m thinking that it doesn’t make sense to wake anyone up until there is enough natural light to see.

Figured out later that the night club may be the cause of much of the power shortage issue around here. Once they finally shut down at around 6 am, the lights all came back on.

Sorry – rabbit trail. Back to the effects of Uganda Time. It was decided that we weren’t eating any dinner until after the camp visit – everyone was instructed to eat some of their snacks to tide them over. This was great since that was what we had for lunch on the bus ride up. Yeah, and here I am complaining when we’ve got a veritable feast compared to the people we’re visiting.

The main point I’m trying to make about the later dinner, however, is that it turned out to be VERY late. By the time we got back to the hotel from the restaurant (they were quite slow), it was close to midnight. The English service at the church is at 8:30, so I’m expecting a lot of tired folks this morning.

The trip to the IDP camp started out with by going over to Gulu Community Church (which is where we’re attending church this morning) to meet Pastor Chris. The plan was that we were to go to the camp, distribute food and then they were going to show the Jesus film. I was looking forward to this since I had heard quite a bit about the “Jesus Film Project” a couple of years ago but had never had the opportunity to see it.

Getting out to the camp was about a ½ hour experience since we traveled probably 3 miles on one of the famous Ugandan “roads” where the pedestrians often make better time than the vehicles.

I’m going to back up a little and try to explain what little I’ve been able to learn about these camps. I say try because although I’ve been asking pretty much everyone involved with the trip to give me a historical rundown, but so far the best I’ve been able to pull is a few little bits and pieces and I don’t have access to any more detailed information. These camps were set up during the civil war that was fought here for a long time between the government forces and the rebel forces of the LRA as a place for the people who were displaced from their villages during the fighting. This war was very ugly, with the rebels frequently going into villages and committing massive brutality – women & children were a favorite target. Since the rebels were using guerilla tactics – including hiding among the population of the villages – in many cases the government told the villagers that anyone NOT in the camps would be considered a rebel. As recently as 2005, rebel forces penetrated into Gulu.

Many of these people have lived in these camps for 25 years. A child born shortly after a family arrived is now well into the period where they would have their own children, so an entire generation has known nothing but the camps. The government has now instituted a plan for them to be resettled back in their villages, however, so the numbers in the camps has dropped significantly. You can see the “ruins” of many huts within the camp left behind by those who have left.

The food distribution bags consisted of some beans, maize flower, sugar and some laundry soap – I don’t know how far these staples go, but each bag for each family weighed about 5 lbs. We broke up into groups of about 5 people each, picked up 2-3 bags each and headed into the camp.

Each group consisted of a couple of members of the US team, 1 or 2 of the KIU folks, and an interpreter. In our particular group, the interpreter was a young man of 15 named Stevenson. We were also accompanied by one of the guys from the church named Samuel. Sophie, Sam and I rounded out the team.

We visited approximately 15 huts. Every single one of them housed either Christians or people who accepted the offer of receiving Christ as their Savior. When talking to Ken later, he said the same thing happened with their group. I still find my heart burning, however, to do more, to help provide more food. A couple of those who were already Christians expressed a need for Bibles. The burden I feel in my heart continues to be that the people who are coming to know Christ have an opportunity to be discipled. Samuel indicated that they come out on a regular basis, but I still worry since nobody in the camp seemed to recognize any of the people from the church. I find myself worrying about a lot of things for these people. And all I can do from this point is to leave it in God’s hands. Maybe that’s the point.

We have not been going inside the huts as we did the homes in the Kampala slums. The distribution and discussions took place outside as it seems that is where much of the time is spent. Before we even headed out, Sam was down on the ground talking with a little boy, somewhere in the 5-8 range. He had a large open sore on his leg, which the flies were exploring at their leisure.

The people that are in this camp are from the Luo camp and the dialect they speak is Luo. This tribe spans Northern Uganda and well into Kenya. Sophie is from that tribe, but the dialect from the Kenyan territories of the tribe are different from these, so she had a difficult time understanding much of what they said. Stevenson had some difficulties since he’s still somewhat tentative with his English. It still kind of blows my mind that English is the language that they are attempting to make “universal”, but if Uganda is ever to emerge from 3rd World status, it is critical that they be able to communicate with the rest of the world, so it makes a lot of sense.

Stevenson is a very nice young man, but his knowledge of the world outside of Africa – even to a certain extent outside of Gulu – is pretty limited. He dreams of being a professional soccer player (as do 99.9% of all Ugandan boys).

Sorry if today’s issue is rambling a little. I’m very tired and am having difficulty putting the narrative together. As the movie started (the actual movie shown was called Paul the Emissary) started, we found out quickly that while the film was being broadcast in English, one of the folks from the church was translating it into Luo over a microphone. It drew a large crowd, and the people in attendance were very enthusiastic. Branden preached afterwards – again through an interpreter – and there was a large crowd gathered round afterwards.

It is now 11:05 am and we just got back from the church service. It was rather jarring to walk in and find a large group of mzungus already in attendance. Turns out that Teen Mania has a large group here that has been working on building something here in Gulu all week. The service was fun and outrageously energetic. The closest I’ve seen to it at Rolling Hills is the occasional moments when Aaron Doerr starts hopping around in the Spirit. We discussed it afterwards and all agreed that of all of the worship services we’ve attended, it was the most out of tune we’d experienced, and yet was probably the most joyful. Branden preached – and delivered probably the most inspired message I’ve ever heard him preach. And on his birthday, no less! I was watching a bunch of the Teen Mania kids and at the beginning it kind of looked like they were tired and prepared to be bored. By the end of it I had seen them laughing, most of them were leaning forward, totally into what Branden had to say. Pretty cool! We were kind of looking forward to chatting with the Teen Mania kids afterwards, but they took immediately headed out and boarded their bus.

This afternoon/evening we did one more school – John Paul II College here in Gulu. A Catholic school, it was by a large margin the most impressive school that we’ve visited to date. While being given a tour, it was pointed out that one of the buildings (named after Mother Teresa) houses the kids who are amputees – victims of the war. We were not given a tour to visit these kids, but the thought of it saddened us nonetheless.

The assembly that we did, however, was fantastic! As we entered the room, the kids in there were already in the middle of singing – and very enthusiastically. We joined in, then went through introductions and Branden led some worship. The kids were joining in and there were even a couple of girls in their midst who would do some type of high pitched chant in the middle of it. I have to admit that it isn’t something that I expected from a Catholic school, but they brought it!

We are all grieved by the news tonight of the passing of John Garrick’s mother. We are praying for John and his family, and I would like to post one here:

Our glorious and magnificent Lord. We bow at Your name this evening and lift our Praises to You. You are the Creator of all, and Your will, Your plans are what we truly desire. Tonight I lift my brother John to You, along with his family. You know Lord that his Mom has left us to join You, and we rejoice in that. At the same time Lord, we know that the family and particularly John will feel her absence, feel the separation that is always felt in death. We ask you that You would comfort them Lord. Let them feel Your loving arms surrounding them. We know that they will be undergoing a state of grieving, where life at times may feel like they’re going through the motions. We pray that You protect them during this period. We ask this in the matchless name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Sam’s comments:

This week has been a learning experience to say the least. Life over here in Uganda is vastly different from the life of a typical American citizen. Letting go of my organization tendencies has been a huge part of growing throughout this trip, you see, as you might already know Ugandan time means show up and end whenever you feel lead to. Visiting the schools of Uganda was an eye opener. The kids of these schools (well a lot of the schools) weren’t super engaged to what we were talking about but more interested in scheming up ways to have their new Mzungu friends “help them out”. This week however has also been a wakeup call for me as well. I have had a huge problem with worrying ever since I was a little girl. I have wanted to overcome that fear but have never let go of it. The morning that I was horribly sick those same worries came creeping back into my brain. “What if I have to go to the hospital like Nick”? “What if it doesn’t go away”? …..what if, what if, what if. After about the 5th time shoving my face into the white plastic bucket (that I had named my new best friend) I sat there and in tears choked out the words “I don’t want to be afraid anymore!” At this very moment my dad prayed for me and I felt a massive burden lift off my shoulders. Since that day God has provided me with tremendous peace that I have not felt before. I still get afraid of things sometimes but I know that God is always there right beside me. He loves and adores me and knew me before anyone else. I do not need to be afraid for God knows my future and already knows what will happen, so I trust in Him.
Isaiah 41:10
Do not be afraid, for I am with you. Do not be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.
This verse has always been one of my favorites but I never really put it to heart. The words spoken here are clear and direct but I only listen to the ones I wanted to hear. God used this verse to bring peace into my life during this trip.
Well you have already heard some of my thoughts of this week from my Dad’s conversation with me earlier in the week, so with that I say God bless you all and I miss everyone at home.

June 26

It is Friday - The last day before we head off to Gulu. In a somewhat strange thought process this morning, I started wondering whether it feels like time has been flying or dragging. I came to the conclusion that it has been neither. It’s almost like for the first time ever in any of my experiences time is moving at the pace that it is supposed to move.

As you know from yesterday’s post, I missed all of the activities so this post is going to be communicating what the team related last night during an extensive debrief session.

The usual morning routine – load everyone up, head to The Palace to pick up the other half of the team. The next destination was back to the Omega Healing Center. At Omega, they were again split up into teams for food distribution in the slum adjacent to the property.

The difficulty, however, is that there was a very limited number of Omega people, and those were the people who pretty much held the key – they were the only ones who knew which homes were the ones intended to receive the food. They were also basically the only ones who spoke Lugandan. After delivery of the food, the teams out of necessity coalesced back into a couple of large groups. Most felt that once this happened it became a pretty significant obstacle to talking with people. While the Lord can and will bless and use any of our efforts, it didn’t seem to be as impactful as the trips into Texas.

From the team’s description, I heard the story of a woman with AIDS. 2 of her 5 children had AIDS. Her husband had already died of the disease. Katie asked Kennedy about the whole topic. He said that it is obviously a huge problem, but for whatever reason people don’t like to talk about it. Maybe this is the theme for my whole trip – “I’m still processing” – but I wonder if there doesn’t need to be a much stronger push to bring it out from under the rocks, to try to push the discussions on it. How that would be accomplished, I don’t know.

After the gourmet peanut butter & jelly sandwich lunch at The Palace, they headed out to the first school assembly. This one was apparently in the most cramped room we’ve seen to date, which I have a hard time wrapping my brain around when I think about how cramped the room was on our very first school in Gaba.

The highlight of this school was the soccer and basketballs. The Headmistress here explained to the team that they had been praying for a long time to acquire a playing field, and those prayers had been answered. As in Wednesday – they had just made the purchase of a piece of land for sports on Wednesday. Up to this point they did not have any athletic equipment whatsoever. So now they have a field on Wednesday, and our team comes waltzing in on Thursday and gives them some soccer & basketballs. No, take that back. GOD comes waltzing in on Thursday and provides these! He’s the only one who knew the timing.

The atmosphere was cramped, but everyone feels like the students at this school were some of the most engaging that we have encountered to date. They were talking to our people, asking for prayer, genuinely appreciative of everything.

Then the second school. This one had probably the most expansive venue we’ve had to date since it was held in outside in a courtyard. The courtyard apparently had 3 story buildings beside it and there were students watching from outdoor walkways all the way up. Branden & Lance were guessing that there was somewhere around 500 kids in attendance.

And most agree that they were among the least responsive. The Headmaster came up to Lance beforehand to introduce himself and immediately starts dropping some pretty strong hints that they want money. He asked where in the US we are from, and Lance told him that Oregon is just north of California. “Is there much wealth there?” While our kids felt like the assembly was the smoothest one to date, they also felt like few were paying attention. Nick got up to tell his story, and was talking over a bunch of crowd noise. In the interactions afterwards, there was little interest in asking for prayer or acceptance of Christ, but much interest in acquiring contact information from the mzungus. The team seemed pretty disappointed by the experience – like it was something they would expect at a high school in the US.

We’re not always going to hit home runs.

To give everyone a heads up, we’ll be heading out fairly early tomorrow morning for Gulu. It is apparently about a 6 hour drive, and I’m not sure what kind of access I’ll have to the internet, so the posts for the next couple of days may be a little sporadic. I’ll keep it as current as I can, but if we miss a day, don’t panic!

Kam’s Comments:
Yesterday was an impactful day on not only the people our team ministered to, but also me. The day started out as we headed down to Omega Healing Center, which is a very large church here in the Kampala area. We were put into teams to evangelize and give food and other goods to the needy people of the area. I was moved when we came across a woman who had AIDS along with two of her five children. I could see the gratitude in her eyes when we presented her with our bag of goods. She was “born again” and we could see the love of Christ in her. That was the highlight of the day. In the afternoon we traveled to two different schools. The first school we arrived at loved the drama we performed and had a great response to our testimonies. I personally gave my testimony to that school. We really felt like we connected with the kids. The next school, however, was not as fired up for Jesus. On top of that, we were having all kinds of sounds system failures during worship. This was one of the wealthier schools, or so it seemed, that we had come to. When we shared our testimonies, Branden’s message, and drama with them, it felt like they had heard these kinds of stories a thousand times. It felt like they were American high school teenagers. They were easily distracted and after the message all they would ask for is contact information or money. It was a little discouraging and disappointing, but we knew that the team was going to run into at least one school like this. All in all, I believe yesterday was a great day.

June 25

Good morning Friends! Well, it is certainly morning here in Uganda and I suspect that by the time you open this blog post it will be morning over there as well ! I’m met once again by the usual cornucopia of sound – right now it’s a long distance barking duel between about 4 or 5 dogs.

So, when I put up the post last evening, I tried to tantalize everyone with today’s. Primarily it revolves around one very disquieting episode which I’ll get to in a little bit. The schedule for the day was that we were working with Omega Healing Center but it turned out that by partnering they had arranged 3 different school assemblies for us to do – one of which a couple of their people joined us at, the other two it was just us & our faithful band of KIU students.

My first impression of the day was the drive back over to Omega. If you remember my post from Sunday’s trip over there, I came down pretty heavily on the squalor. Well, you know what? Compared to Texas City, this area now looks almost middle class. I guess we’re all getting extreme lessons in relative poverty. We keep hearing that the IDP camps up around Gulu are the worst, and we’ve still got a couple of days to go before we get there.

We arrived at Omega and found out - I don’t remember if it was before or after we arrived – that rather than doing community outreach in the morning and then school assemblies in the afternoon (which had kind of become our routine) we were doing an extra assembly in the morning. This one would be at a primary school roughly 15 miles towards Entebbe. In addition to our merry band of mzungus and KIU students, we packed in a couple of extra bodies in the form of people from Omega. It was quite cozy in the bus!

As we leave the highway, to drive back into the school, the area appears similar to the area around Omega – outrageously poor by our standards but nowhere near the worst. About 100 yards in we notice that we’ve picked up an escort. A rather strange looking little man started out running in front of the bus but soon faded to running beside us and is now following us, diligently trotting along (you don’t make much speed with a bus on severely rutted dirt roads). As we stop the bus, the little man is waiting to greet us as we come off the bus.

He stands well under 5 feet tall with a somewhat crooked body. His face is dark and has normal African features – a broad nose, wide mouth and high cheekbones - and yet it somehow has an almost Polynesian expression on it. It’d kind of hard to describe. His clothes are absolutely filthy with an old buttoned shirt and trousers that have rips running in varying lengths up and down the legs. There are no shoes, and his feet have numerous cakes of mud. On his head he seems to have some kind of black scarf or something. Later when he took it off and put it back on again, it actually looked like a small black lace tablecloth or something. I don’t think he can speak – at least I never heard him do so the entire time we were there. He moved in a manner that reminds one of the Hunchback of Notre Dame.

The girls – both our girls and the KIU girls – were understandably a little frightened. Okay, let’s be honest – I think all of us were a little bit frightened. As we unloaded the bus, he was trying very hard to grab boxes and stuff. He wanted to shake everyone’s hand. Most would pat his shoulder or just kind of twist around him as they got off the bus. Being Mr. Compassionate, I bent over and quickly shook his hand. I was rewarded with a transference of some of the dirt. I then moved over to join a few others in an impromptu barrier between him and the girls. We get all of the gear off and loaded onto shoulders and start walking down a dirt path towards the school. Our strange little escort is out front – showing us the way. We would later learn that his name is Katto.

This primary school is situated on the side of the hill, with several dilapidated buildings on a relatively large piece of property, surrounded by a large fence. I thought it probable that once we entered the property one of the teachers or somebody would shoo our escort away, but he continued on into the compound, followed by the majority of us. The first building you came to was a long hall – stone walls with stone windows and some rudimentary desks, probably about 60-70 feet long, about 15-20 feet wide. There were no doors in the doorways – everything just open to the air. As we passed that there was a large open area that I would guess serves as the playground.

My first impression was that this is rather strange – the children are very shy of us and are not flocking to the mzungus. Katto is trying to intermingle with all of us and everyone keeps trying to move away from him. Everyone. Katto then moves off kind of out of our group. We soon notice that the children are kind of gathering around him and getting louder – they’re taunting him. Soon groups of them start running at him, only to turn away quickly, shouting and screaming as they run away from the strange creature. We end up standing around out in this playground area for quite a while so this continues on and off. Katto also keeps trying to re-join our group and intermingle with us. The kids also slowly start warming up to us and little knots of them will bravely come up to shake our hands. At one point, I’m squatting down shaking hands with some of them and notice Katto standing off to my left front about 5 feet away. A group of 3 boys comes running up behind him and slug him in the back and then take off running. He happens to be holding some type of bowl in his hand and swings it at the children. I look up and notice a man who we would later find out was the Headmaster watching from about 20 feet away. I’m thinking that he’s likely going to reprimand the children, but he just continues to watch.

I stand back up and Sam and Kayla are standing beside me with mortified looks on their faces. A couple of young men from our combined group are laughing. I’m with Sam & Kayla - I am feeling pretty low. Katto is indeed not a “normal” man, but he is a human nonetheless. He’s done nothing to deserve this kind of treatment. But what do I do? So I just continue to stand and watch.

A couple of minutes later I’m chatting with Patrick and Sam, and we hear Ken call to us from behind that he wants to take a picture of the three of us so we turn around and pose. Katto immediately comes over and stands in front of us. Somebody from the side starts trying to shoo him away, but Ken tells them no, it’s all right. He snaps the picture, and as the three of us start to turn away, I notice Ken walking over to Katto. He squats down and puts his arm around Katto’s shoulders and shows him the picture on the back of his camera. He stays down at Katto’s level for a couple of minutes trying to communicate with him.

A couple of minutes later we finally get the signal to move up to the hall and start setting up. I estimated about 500 kids there. Katto follows and is trying desperately to help in any way he can. He tries to help set up one of the speaker stands. He tries to help Branden open his guitar case. The assembly ends up being pretty tough – primary students have just started to learn English and there isn’t much that we say that they understand. But Katto remains up front with us every step of the way. He claps on rhythm when we’re singing. He doesn’t understand the “tossing the imaginary basketball” game we play, but he’s trying to interact with it nonetheless. Antony, for his part, allows Katto to stand beside him as he introduces us and closes the assembly, and makes a couple of different comments about our friend Katto, trying to communicate that he is a human, that he deserves to be treated with dignity. I don’t think the kids understood the words, but I do believe that Antony standing there with his hand on Katto’s shoulder, showing him kindness, communicated something to them.

So we pack up to leave, haul the stuff back up the hill and Katto is with us every step of the way, trying to help carry stuff, to do anything he can to help. As we drive away, he takes off out front of us this time, trotting along, escorting us back out to the highway. As we drive through the slum area, numerous people shove and push Katto, but he continues on his singular mission to be our escort.

As we’re driving back to Omega, I sit and stare out the window. Frankly I’m glad I had my nice dark sunglasses on to help hide my tears. Oh God! Why was I afraid of him? Why did I give in to my fears? My sense of shame was quite deep. Why is it considered normal for children to harass and abuse those who are different? For that matter, why is it so normal for adults to do the same thing? Katto is another of your creatures, Lord. I realize that he is so much more worthy of Your love than I am. You told us that if we fail to minister to the lowest, the weakest, the poorest, we have failed to minister to You.

Ever since that moment I’ve been trying to figure out how I was going to communicate how deeply this particular episode has cut me. This morning I find myself unable to adequately do so. Update at 11:46 am. Samantha is sick today so I’ve stayed behind at the guest house with her. We were just talking about it, and she told me how she was feeling at the point the children were taunting and hitting Katto. She said that she felt she was watching Jesus as he was whipped, as he was taunted walking through the streets carrying his cross. Exactly.

I also realize now that the entire visit to this school was about Katto. I don’t think the children understood much of anything we said, but somebody showed him some compassion. The children didn’t warm up to him afterwards, but they were no longer taunting him.

Okay, on to the rest of the day. We went back to The Palace for lunch. Quite frankly, the spoiled mzungus are getting a little burned on the food. It’s rather sobering to think that in America we start whining if we eat the same food two days in a row, while over here they eat chapata and rice or any of their other staple foods at every single meal on every single day. Ken commented yesterday that he is definitely riced out. I know that I would be able to go a long, long time without eating chapata again. So for the past two days we’ve been doing lunch at The Palace – peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, bananas, cookies (they’ve got some orange cream sandwich cookies that are to die for!), and various snacks that the mzungus have brought with them. It has actually been quite fun. Pastor Ronald couldn’t get over the fact that we eat breakfast (peanut butter & jelly) for lunch. We brought some packs of trail mix and nuts from Costco. Many of the students don’t even understand what grapes are, never mind the concept of raisins. One of them was trying to figure out how they were supposed to eat almonds. Sam brought along some packets of beef jerky yesterday. That didn’t go over so good with some of them! Antony made an interesting observation – everything is either too sweet or too salty.

We then went to another high school for an assembly. This was by far the “richest” school we’ve been to – by Kampala standards it was in a very nice neighborhood and the school itself had such amenities as windows, doors, a clean paved driveway and recently painted buildings. The group that we did the assembly for, however, was about the smallest we’ve done so far – I counted roughly 30 students. At least from the perspective of Lance, Ken & I, it was probably about the least responsive group we’ve encountered so far. The students didn’t seem too interested in interacting with any of us afterwards. The fun part of it, however, was that both Kayla and Nick got up in front of them and told their stories for the first time. And both of them did a fabulous job. I know that Kayla was terrified beforehand, and Nick said that it was a first speaking engagement for him as well, but you never would have known.

We did a third assembly in the early evening at another school that Kennedy told me is owned by a Muslim. I missed that one – was off updating the blog – but the impressions that I got from the team are interesting. Lance felt like it was one of the best interactive groups that we’ve encountered – he had a cool prayer session with a small group of them and a couple of good discussions as well. On the flip side, the girls were commenting that many of the students were pretty aggressive in asking for their email addresses (we have told the kids pretty emphatically to not give those out). Ken encountered another art student who was looking for someone who would sell his wares in the US.

Finally, to end the day we got a special treat. Lance took us all to dinner at Fang Fang – a Chinese restaurant in Kampala. And they had actual Asian people working there! Lance had relayed John’s impression that it was supposedly the best Chinese restaurant he’s ever eaten in. It was definitely good, but… John – if you’re reading this, we need to talk. Your Chinese restaurant repertoire needs to be expanded!

And on a not too happy note, it looks like I’m hanging at the guest house with Sam today. She has become the second victim of stomach issues. If it isn’t better by the time I get to post this tonight, I’ll definitely ask for prayers. As a matter of fact, I’ll go ahead and ask for prayers for the health of all of us anyway.

And since I’m hanging with my daughter all day, we’ve been sharing our experiences with each other. Some of her observations.
• “When we were at the orphanage, the children sang a couple of songs to us. While they were singing the second one, thanking us and God for what we had brought, you could see these children – probably 4, 5, 6 years old, crying and worshipping God in a way I’ve never seen anyone – ANYONE! – worship before.”
• I asked her how she thinks this trip will affect her long term. “I hope that I’ll be able to continue seeing the beauty in God’s creation. Yes, Kampala is dirty, dusty, smoggy. There’s lots of garbage and run down dwellings, but the people are so beautiful, the trees and hills and flowers are incredible. You can see the hand of God in everything around. I hope to be able to hold on to that.”
• “I don’t think Alex realizes how much he is impacting the rest of us on this trip. His story about his friend’s death and the belief that good can come from bad things has really struck home with me. Earlier today I was feeling sorry for myself because I got sick. It has given me a chance, however, to reflect on what has happened, what I’ve seen, what I’ve felt. It has been a blessing in disguise. “
• “I was really disappointed from not making the cut in the Soul’d Out (a capella singing group) auditions the last week of school. Discouraged. I come over here, however, and I’ve been told that I have a beautiful voice. I get up and goof around with the KIU students in the dance” lessons”, and all of them start telling me that I’m a really good dancer. These are people whose opinion I REALLY value. It has given me a remarkable boost in confidence.”
• “At home, ‘beauty’ is defined by your looks, your dress, what you eat, how popular you are. Over here they judge your beauty by your love of the Lord, your heart.” We talked further about the incredible beauty we’ve found in these people – particularly the ones that we’ve been growing close to – Patrick, Brian, Sophie, Kennedy, Antony, Aaron, Vivian, Lillian, Grace – all of them. And their beauty matches both American and African standards.

Today’s KIU student profile is Sophie and written by Sam. Sophie is a very tall (just not quite as tall as me) lady. When I first met her I thought she was my twin. Well, maybe not in skin color. And maybe not in hair since I’ve got lots and she keeps her head almost shaved, but still my twin. She has a passion for dance that you can see just by how she moves. She also has a great sense of humor and a smile that can light up a room. She is always open to trying new things. I think she, Brian & Patrick were the only ones that did like the beef jerky that I brought! She is from Kenya and absolutely loves her home. She’s already tried to convince me (and several others) to come visit Kenya. Her gift may not be in evangelism, but when she dances, EVERYONE stops to watch. Sophie is very fun, very social, and has a difficult time NOT talking. I will miss her dearly when we go back to the US. She is DEFINITELY going to be one of my new friends on Facebook! She is studying law – she wants to become a lawyer. I really hope she can come to the US some day so I can introduce her to all of my friends!

One final note, as of 5 pm Sam is feeling much better. My daughter and I have had a remarkable bonding session today – getting to share our thoughts, feelings, impressions. I also realize that counting travel days – which are pretty grueling – this is somewhere around the 8th or 9th day in a row of pretty high level activity for this team. Once again – John, if you’re reading this, the Lord had a very good reason for creating a day of rest on the seventh day. Everyone looked totally exhausted when we got back from Fang Fang last night. We skipped our normal debrief session and everyone just went to bed and collapsed. And then it was up and at ‘em again this morning. Sam and I feel quite blessed to have had a day to rest and reflect, even if she was getting sick.