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.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
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
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
Monday, June 29, 2009
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.
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.
Friday, June 26, 2009
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.
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.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
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.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
June 24
Once again – up at zero dark thirty. This morning Ken and I both woke up around 3 am. This is pretty normal for me, although I’m not used to having other people wake up at the same time. As usual, the dogs are barking outside. There’s one other piece of the morning cacophony that I don’t think I’ve told everyone about. About 5 am the Muslim call to prayer starts up. I’m not exactly sure which direction it is coming from, but it is there nonetheless. The reason I mention it is that it just isn’t something I’m used to hearing at home – it’s just another aspect of the atmosphere here.
As a matter of fact, I’d like to take a moment to just give you some examples of some of the small details here. If you find it boring, I apologize – skip past this! Let’s see… As you drive down the roads, you notice that there are women’s clothing shops interspersed in the mix. Most of them have mannequins out front displaying the wares. All of the mannequins are white. I never really thought about the fact that any manufacturers of mannequins would be in “Western” countries. The predominant building material over here is brick, and there is a relatively large amount of construction going on. The scaffolding, frames – everything requiring wood at these construction sites – is unfinished wood – large sticks. You’ll see an entire building frame work that looks like somebody went out into the woods, chopped down some small trees and brought them in. Which in all likelihood is exactly what has happened – I’m guessing they don’t have many sawmills. Plumbing in much of the city is non-existent. Every home has one or two yellow 5 gallon plastic jugs. They take these to wherever and fill them with water – I’m guessing on a daily basis. The other day we drove by a row – the equivalent of about a block long – of furniture stores, selling beds, upholstered chairs, and coaches. All of the wares were sitting out on the dirt.
On the roads that ARE paved (not many of them) there are numerous round-a-bouts similar to those cropping up all over the Portland area. Not nearly as controlled, of course. These traffic circles all run clockwise due to the fact that they drive on the other side of the road. The “middle class” neighborhoods contain homes that are all surrounded by walls – usually about 8-10’ high. Most of these walls have razor wire, barbed wire or some other deterrent to climbing along the top. The most common is one that I saw in Mexico several years ago – when the wall is built, empty glass bottles are put into the mortar at the top of the wall. The bottles are then broken, leaving a topping of jagged glass that would not be particularly comfortable when trying to put your hands on it.
Okay, back to the activities. Yesterday was basically the same as Monday, except we weren’t distributing food into Texas City. The teams were just venturing into the slum and talking to people, sharing the Lord. All of us Mzungus are getting much more comfortable with that – frankly we all had some difficulty with it. The people here, however, are also much more open to hearing about it. They’re much more open, much more hospitable than what we are used to in the US. We continue to see heartbreaking things. Branden encountered one family who had a boy perhaps 8 years old who had been in an accident. He had a compound fracture of his femur, and the family had no way to pay for surgery. If something isn’t done, the child will probably never walk again. The medical facilities here are limited, and most don’t have money to pay for what they do have.
But there were numerous people accepting Jesus Christ as their Savior. This is exciting, but I continue to believe that the really exciting thing is that the KIU students are committed to following up with these people. These students are on fire for the Lord!
An cool side note involves one of Lance’s sponsors. This person had given Lance some money, with the condition that he use it to help someone directly over there. Lance distributed the money to all of us and asked us to use our imaginations – and then tell him what they did with it afterwards. Sam, Katie and Alex encountered a woman who did not have the money to pay for her children’s (2 of them) school fees for the upcoming term. The three of them pooled their money and gave it to the woman who now has the money to pay for her kids’ schooling. At this point I’m planning on holding my assignment for Gulu, but we’ll see what happens.
In the afternoon we went to another high school and held an assembly. The venue was more roomy this time – basically a pole barn that serves as their “auditorium” and there were only about 50 kids in attendance. We were able to perform the Set Me Free drama (finally!) and the kids knocked it out. Erika and Cameron shared their stories and both did a wonderful job. Branden spoke with passion. And yet it was a very unresponsive group. I guess some days it works and some days it doesn’t. I am amazed at the growth I’m seeing in our kids, however.
One uncomfortable episode was at the end when one of the teachers or principal (not sure his position) from this particular school got up to speak. He apparently thinks Mzungus mean money and lots of it. He was being quite insistent that we come back to his school to build a chapel for them to enable them to provide guidance and counseling to the students. Before we leave. Pastor Kennedy explained to me that there are some over here who have this image that if a white person comes they have unlimited resources and time, that all they have to do is ask and it will happen. While his school would be condemned in the US, it was actually quite nice and spacious for the standards over here. It may sound a bit callous, but I know that I can think of many other things that need to be addressed before building a chapel for his school.
Let’s see, we’ve also discovered that these folks refer to the scourge of the earth as “squitos”. They leave off the “mo”. Apparently they think of malaria pretty much like we think of the flu or bad colds – it is just something you live with. You get it, you go to the doctor and you get through it. Sometimes you don’t. Malaria is the number 2 killer behind AIDS over here.
Speaking of AIDS, I continue to wonder why I don’t hear it discussed. It is not nearly as big of a topic of conversation over here as it is in the US, and the damage from it over here is so vast. The only times I’ve heard the topic discussed has been moments when I’ve brought it up.
This one is a little abbreviated - at least in comparison to some. I didn't manage to snag anyone else to write anything last night, and I was dealing with a little exhaustion. Since I'm posting this at 5:10 pm local time, however, I can tell you that I'll have quite a bit to say tomorrow. The first visit to a school this morning was... interesting. How's that for a trailer?
As a matter of fact, I’d like to take a moment to just give you some examples of some of the small details here. If you find it boring, I apologize – skip past this! Let’s see… As you drive down the roads, you notice that there are women’s clothing shops interspersed in the mix. Most of them have mannequins out front displaying the wares. All of the mannequins are white. I never really thought about the fact that any manufacturers of mannequins would be in “Western” countries. The predominant building material over here is brick, and there is a relatively large amount of construction going on. The scaffolding, frames – everything requiring wood at these construction sites – is unfinished wood – large sticks. You’ll see an entire building frame work that looks like somebody went out into the woods, chopped down some small trees and brought them in. Which in all likelihood is exactly what has happened – I’m guessing they don’t have many sawmills. Plumbing in much of the city is non-existent. Every home has one or two yellow 5 gallon plastic jugs. They take these to wherever and fill them with water – I’m guessing on a daily basis. The other day we drove by a row – the equivalent of about a block long – of furniture stores, selling beds, upholstered chairs, and coaches. All of the wares were sitting out on the dirt.
On the roads that ARE paved (not many of them) there are numerous round-a-bouts similar to those cropping up all over the Portland area. Not nearly as controlled, of course. These traffic circles all run clockwise due to the fact that they drive on the other side of the road. The “middle class” neighborhoods contain homes that are all surrounded by walls – usually about 8-10’ high. Most of these walls have razor wire, barbed wire or some other deterrent to climbing along the top. The most common is one that I saw in Mexico several years ago – when the wall is built, empty glass bottles are put into the mortar at the top of the wall. The bottles are then broken, leaving a topping of jagged glass that would not be particularly comfortable when trying to put your hands on it.
Okay, back to the activities. Yesterday was basically the same as Monday, except we weren’t distributing food into Texas City. The teams were just venturing into the slum and talking to people, sharing the Lord. All of us Mzungus are getting much more comfortable with that – frankly we all had some difficulty with it. The people here, however, are also much more open to hearing about it. They’re much more open, much more hospitable than what we are used to in the US. We continue to see heartbreaking things. Branden encountered one family who had a boy perhaps 8 years old who had been in an accident. He had a compound fracture of his femur, and the family had no way to pay for surgery. If something isn’t done, the child will probably never walk again. The medical facilities here are limited, and most don’t have money to pay for what they do have.
But there were numerous people accepting Jesus Christ as their Savior. This is exciting, but I continue to believe that the really exciting thing is that the KIU students are committed to following up with these people. These students are on fire for the Lord!
An cool side note involves one of Lance’s sponsors. This person had given Lance some money, with the condition that he use it to help someone directly over there. Lance distributed the money to all of us and asked us to use our imaginations – and then tell him what they did with it afterwards. Sam, Katie and Alex encountered a woman who did not have the money to pay for her children’s (2 of them) school fees for the upcoming term. The three of them pooled their money and gave it to the woman who now has the money to pay for her kids’ schooling. At this point I’m planning on holding my assignment for Gulu, but we’ll see what happens.
In the afternoon we went to another high school and held an assembly. The venue was more roomy this time – basically a pole barn that serves as their “auditorium” and there were only about 50 kids in attendance. We were able to perform the Set Me Free drama (finally!) and the kids knocked it out. Erika and Cameron shared their stories and both did a wonderful job. Branden spoke with passion. And yet it was a very unresponsive group. I guess some days it works and some days it doesn’t. I am amazed at the growth I’m seeing in our kids, however.
One uncomfortable episode was at the end when one of the teachers or principal (not sure his position) from this particular school got up to speak. He apparently thinks Mzungus mean money and lots of it. He was being quite insistent that we come back to his school to build a chapel for them to enable them to provide guidance and counseling to the students. Before we leave. Pastor Kennedy explained to me that there are some over here who have this image that if a white person comes they have unlimited resources and time, that all they have to do is ask and it will happen. While his school would be condemned in the US, it was actually quite nice and spacious for the standards over here. It may sound a bit callous, but I know that I can think of many other things that need to be addressed before building a chapel for his school.
Let’s see, we’ve also discovered that these folks refer to the scourge of the earth as “squitos”. They leave off the “mo”. Apparently they think of malaria pretty much like we think of the flu or bad colds – it is just something you live with. You get it, you go to the doctor and you get through it. Sometimes you don’t. Malaria is the number 2 killer behind AIDS over here.
Speaking of AIDS, I continue to wonder why I don’t hear it discussed. It is not nearly as big of a topic of conversation over here as it is in the US, and the damage from it over here is so vast. The only times I’ve heard the topic discussed has been moments when I’ve brought it up.
This one is a little abbreviated - at least in comparison to some. I didn't manage to snag anyone else to write anything last night, and I was dealing with a little exhaustion. Since I'm posting this at 5:10 pm local time, however, I can tell you that I'll have quite a bit to say tomorrow. The first visit to a school this morning was... interesting. How's that for a trailer?
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
June 23
Okay folks, today’s entry is going to have my usual entry as well as comments from Alex, Ken and Branden – trying to describe their experiences. I say trying because there are no words, no pictures, no videos that would adequately describe what we are experiencing here. But try we shall. The debrief sessions every evening get progressively more emotional, more intense. I am positive that this trip is going to impact every one of our lives and will take weeks, months, years, probably the rest of our lives to process. On to the events of yesterday (Monday).
We headed down to the Palace yesterday morning about 8:30. Once there, the KIU students began separating out some foodstuffs that some of our funds have supplied. There was rice, maize flour, cooking oil and laundry soap. Basic needs. We then separated into teams of 3-4 people and headed to “Texas City” – a slum. Picture a university – by American standards rather run down but by Ugandan standards quite nice. Down one end of the campus is a dirt road that leads into a slum. And this slum is like nothing that you’ll see in North America. Many of the buildings are stone or brick, but like the neighborhood around Omega Healing Center the stone walls are the entire structure – there are no amenities inside, often no floor either. Other buildings are made of sticks or pieces of tin patchworked together. The “streets” are mostly dirt paths, some so narrow that you can’t walk 2 abreast, most navigable only by motorcycles (boda-boda) and even them slowly. Down the middle of the streets are streams of sewage and they’re strewn with garbage. There are piles of garbage all over the place, which serve as feeding grounds competed over by goats, chickens, and the occasional cow. And when I say cow, please don’t picture a nice grain fed black angus. These cows are as thin and stunted as the people living here. There are piles of charcoal – no, not Kingsford briquets, just chunks of charcoal – everywhere. This is what they use to cook. All of the time – not just when they feel like grilling.
We enter a courtyard surrounded by 3 of these stone buildings – each housing 5-6 families – and a garbage pile and community outhouse on the fourth side. In the middle of the courtyard is a patch of dirt with a stick frame, probably 30 feet by 20 feet. This is Pastor Ronald’s church. He holds services there – if it’s raining or unbearably hot they’ll pull tarps over the top of the frame, otherwise it’s just the stick rectangle open to the sky. Pastor Ronald assigns each team the name of someone that they’re to deliver the food to. How we find the peoples’ homes I haven’t a clue. I was teamed with Grace and Vivian – two Kenyan KIU students. Most of the Kenyans speak Swahili as their native tongue and English which is pretty much the universal school language of both countries.
We walk down another couple of dirt paths and arrive at Margaret’s house. Margaret answers the door – or rather the sheet that hangs across the doorway – and after a few minutes of awkward signaling and gesturing she invites us in. You see, Kenyans, Tanzanians, and most of the other countries surrounding Uganda speak Swahili. The Ugandan’s native tongue is Lugandan. Margaret does not speak Swahili, and she didn’t attend school so she doesn’t speak English. Grace & Vivian do not speak Lugandan. I, of course, speak only English and what French I remember from 30+ years ago in school (can you say “useless”?). Margaret invites us in. Here is this woman who lives in absolute poverty, and there’s these 3 strangers coming to her home with food – one of whom is a very large Mzungu. She looked terrified.
Her home is about 8’ square. One half is the bedroom – a pair of bunks separated from the rest of the home by a mosquito net. The other half is the living room. It has a love seat type piece of furniture and two chairs. Grace & Vivian take the love seat, Margaret sits in one of the chairs and I fold myself into the other. There is hardly enough room between to house everyone’s feet. And we had removed our shoes before entering, so here’s this black pair of size 13 socks crammed into the tiny space with the three black women’s feet.
Grace begins to attempt to explain to her who we are and why we’ve come; that the food is from God, that the Mzungu has come from America to tell her about God. All three of us make attempts to talk with her. I think Margaret was rather terrified of me – she spent the entire time leaning out of her chair in the opposite direction of me, and never made eye contact. After about 20 minutes, her daughter – Harriet – comes in, followed shortly thereafter by her friend Marjorie. Harriet is about 12 and attends school, so she knows some English, and stumbles through some rudimentary translation with her mother. Does Margaret work? No, she can’t find a job – not even washing clothes. Is Harriet’s father around? No, he died. How does Margaret get money? There was a vague reference to “the young man”. Does Harriet know the Lord? Oh yes! Does Margaret? She thinks so, and there is a Bible sitting on the back of the love seat, so there is some hope. But this is about as far as the conversation can go.
We leave and head back out to the courtyard. Shortly thereafter the team that Sam was on emerges to join us, followed by Erika’s team. Erika’s team had similar results to ours. Sam’s team, however, was able to find someone who understood both Lugandan and English very well. Both the woman in the home and the man who was translating accepted Jesus.
Honestly, it was spirit crushing for many of us. But Pastor Kennedy, the students and Pastor Ronald are committed to continue ministering to these people, to providing them with whatever they can. As we moved back to where the bus was parked, we discussed our experiences with several others. Many of the Kenyan students were as heartbroken as us, but they’re still committed to continue the efforts. Sophia honestly tells us how much she is dreading the trip to Gulu this weekend because conditions up there are much worse than this.
And yet, there is hope. There is hope for eternal life. There is hope for survival thanks to people like Pastor Ronald and the students. There is hope in my mind that maybe I can try to convince some of the other Mzungus back home to help sustain the efforts. On the way back out, several of the students point to one of the stick structures. This is where Mother Mary’s orphanage was housed up until 6 months ago.
Deep breath. Okay, on to the afternoon. After lunch we piled into the bus – along with at least as many KIU students as us Mzungus to go a high school in Gaba – a suburb of Kampala close to Lake Victoria. On the way, I’m packed into the bus beside Patrick. You’ll read more about him in Ken’s comments, but among other things, Patrick is a genuine character. I recognized the first time I saw him that he has a grin every bit as mischievous as my own. As we talk, he informs me that the Swahili word for crazy is “chizi” (pronounced cheesey). So it quickly became known that Dale is the “Chizi Mzungu” and Patrick is the “Chizi Mafrica”. Sam can call me “Bunta Chizi” (crazy father) and I can call her my “Chizi Binti” (crazy daughter, of course!). Actually, Patrick told me that I am “chizi cabeesa” (not sure on the spelling) which means totally crazy!
The plan for the school was that the assembly would be opened by Aaron, do some introductions, then Pastor Kennedy would pray, then we’d do the Set Me Free drama. Branden would then preach, and two of the students would tell their stories of their life in Christ. The designated students – first ones out of the gate – were Alex & Sam.
We arrive at the school and are lead up to the 4th floor of the building. The high school students are already in the room – approximately 130 of them (near as I could count) in a room about 30’ long by 20’ wide. With desks. There’s no power available, which means no sound system, which means we can’t play Set Me Free, which means the drama is out the window. Go with the flow!
Lance introduced the team and I got a good laugh from the students when I told them I was the Chizi Mzungu. Branden preached, and then we had the highlight. Alex got up and knocked it out of the park – first time he’s ever been up to speak in front of any group of people, and he spoke with confidence, volume and passion. He told them of the terrible struggle he’s had recently after the death of his friend, but how God and His Word has comforted him. Absolutely awesome job. This was followed by Sam who enthralled them before she even opened her mouth – they don’t see many Mzungus, never mind girls that are that tall with hair that is that curly! She too delivered her story very well, telling them of her struggle with overcoming fear in her life. I would also add that when Branden told the students a little about his life – that his father walked out when he was an infant, that his mother was an alcoholic and drug addict and that he was pretty much raised by his grandparents – one of the students responded with “I’m sorry.” They have an image of Mzungus that our lives are perfect, that we have no pain, no problems.
While intermingling with the students afterwards, one of them told Lance that he had been a Muslim and converted to Christianity 6 months ago. Another one talking to Branden asked him how she could convert as well, so they put the two kids together to get her into Gaba Community Church.
One of my enormous concerns in this trip was discipleship – going out and “winning” the people to Christ is absolutely useless if there isn’t any infrastructure to help them learn what it means to live a Christian life. I have been very comforted in the fact that this is exactly what Pastor Kennedy’s team of KIU students is doing – and doing so well and with passion.
Since I’m writing this Tuesday morning, I’ll pass on something else we learned as a follow up to the Texas City experience. We have been warned that many of the people we’ll encounter will view us as some kind of gravy train – that the Mzungu will give them lots of money, sponsor their children, pay for their education, take care of all of their needs, etc. Branden talked with one man who said that he was an artist and wanted Branden to hook him up to sell his art work in the US – regardless of whether or not Branden knew anyone who sold art in the US. The most sobering experience belongs to Erika. She took a picture of 3 of the children that she had met in her visit. Their mother had gone to Pastor Ronald afterwards with the understanding that this meant Erika had agreed to sponsor the children. He asked Erika if she had made any promises (of course she hadn’t), and told us that we should not take individual pictures of kids like that.
Finally, I want to try to introduce you to some of the KIU students that we’ve been working with. Today I’d like you to meet Brian. If I can ever get the dance video loaded up you’ll see him. Brian is about 6’5”, skinny and lanky, but can he ever move! He has a smile that is totally infectious and a fabulous sense of humor. And he loves the Lord. When we were all trying to absorb the experience of Texas City, he was around to help bring some reality to us, to let us know that what we were doing WAS valuable, and that we can only do so much – that we can never fix everything. Brian is hoping to begin studies this Fall at Mississippi State University ( he was quite impressed that I knew it was in Hattiesburg!) if he can get the visa worked out. Branden and I have both put him on notice that if and when he makes it over, we’re flying him out to Portland for a visit!
Okay, that’s probably about enough out of me for today. There’s plenty more below from the others.
Alex’ Comments
Hey everyone this is Alex! Just stopped by to give you a quick update on what happened today. Today we went through a place called “Little Texas” - why it’s called that is a mystery to the group. Going through the small back alleys and seeing small children living in an environment like that , pretty much makes you feel like crying right then and there. There isn’t a picture, or video in the world that can describe what we saw there. When going through a back alley, a woman approached us and asked what we were doing. The group I was in, of course, pushed me up to the front to tell her. I explained the gospel to her and what Jesus had done, in about five minutes she accepted Christ as her personal savior. A little bit later we loaded the bus again to go to a high school about twenty minutes away where Sam and I would be sharing our testimonies to a crowd of high school students. Of course I was scared out of my mind and sweating more than a 15 year old Mzungu should. But as soon as Pastor Branden introduced me and pulled me up in front of everyone, I felt calmness that I will never forget. Let’s just say Sam’s and my testimonies went well Well, I’m getting pretty tired and am having a hard time typing so I think I’ll be going to bed to get ready for tomorrow.
THE KIU STUDENTS & THE DOUBLE OVEN IN THE GREGSON’S (KEN) HOME
Yesterday (Monday) KIU students Patrick , Millicent & I were one of several teams on our way to Texas City, a very poor part of Kampala. I was going to say that Patrick and Millicent were typical KIU students, but there is absolutely nothing typical about any of the KIU students, nothing!!
Like, American kids, they have dreams - an education, marriage, a family & success. What makes them so special is their love, faith & commitment to the Lord. They are part of the United Faith Chapel community led by Pastor Kennedy at Kampala International University.
We have 2 bags of food stuff (staples) to deliver to Rita. It’s 10:15 a.m. Patrick Millcient & I arrive at her home, a 10 by 10 stone shack furnished with a mattress on the left & a very small couch on the right. Rita invites us in. She is unmarried & caring for an infant. She has no food, no job, no way to feed her baby. The food we deliver will feed them for several days. Rita is also taking care of her sister who is about the age of Erika & Kayla, 17 or 18. The sister is sick with a very swollen eye, likely infected.
Patrick & Millicent speak to Rita in the Ugandan Language, & share the good news of Jesus Christ. Their compassion for their faith is on fire and very humbling to me. Millicent is praying in English. The words flow from her mouth, full of compassion and faith. My compassion is for Rita’s physical living conditions, Patrick & Millicent compassion is that she trusts Jesus Christ as her Lord and savior. You see, the KIU students truly believe in their heart of hearts that Jesus will take care of Rita, her baby & sister. Their love & faith in the Lord is impossible to describe. These students are an inspiration to all of us.
As we get ready to leave I ask Patrick if we can leave Rita some money to buy food & for medical attention for her sister. I give Patrick my wad of Ugandan money, 207,000 Ugandan shillings, about $100.00 American. He gives Rita $15,000 Ugandan, enough for food for a week or two & her sisters medical needs, & gives the rest back to me. I’ll let you figure the math (2,000 shillings = approx $1). Patrick, Millicent & I will have two more similar encounters.
My mind turns to the 4,000 square foot home in Wilsonville where Camille, Kam & I live and the new double oven & the new refrigerator & the new dishwasher. Hey they had to be replaced. They were as old as the 4,000 square foot house, built in 1990 that is the home of 3 people. The dishwasher leaked, the ice maker no longer worked on the fridge & the oven---you had to slam the door as hard as you could a couple of times for the digital system to light up. And besides, most of the neighbors replaced theirs years ago & the colors were old & outdated. An inexpensive repair, Camile’s choice was out of the question, they had to be replaced.
You see, Ken had to have the the new stuff and Camille deserved a double oven not just a replacement for the old single one. Several hundred dollars would be spent to the electrician for a conversion from 110 to 220. Not to mention the dollars to the cabinet maker. The bottom line is the new double oven, refrigerator and dishwasher would feed Rita and dozens others for weeks & weeks and help Mother Mary keep the orphanage going for a year.
Patrick & Millicent & the other KIU students. Their fire & spiritual passion to share the good news. I want it! I want to be born again, again. Then there is the daily Starbucks and the ----
Branden’s Comments
What happens when you mix a Kenyan, Rwandan, and me? Well, it is quite the experience. We went out today to the slum like I’m sure you have read, and we gave out food and preached the Good news of Jesus Christ. The problem was that my Kenyan friend Aaron speaks Swahili and English. David, my Rwandan friend speaks French, and I speak English and Spanish. Why is it a problem? Ugandans speak Lugandan.
I know that others have described the state of the slum but they are right. No words, pictures, or video can describe to you the scene. It wrenches your heart to see people living like this with, in our American minds, no hope. The three of us approached a house near the “church” in the slum. The “church” is a stick lean-to in the middle of the houses. We knocked on the door and the woman invited us in.
Ugandans are very hospitable.
We gave her the food and asked a few questions about her beliefs and we found out that she is a Muslim. Islam is growing rapidly in Uganda because of the money they are pouring into the communities down here. We began asking her questions about Islam and the commands she received from the Quran. We began explaining to good news of Jesus Christ, that God, through Jesus atoned for our sins and freed us from the slavery of sin. She looked into my eyes with desperation and said “I would very much like that” I asked her to repeat after me and pray to Jesus and receive his forgiveness. Did I mention that her daughter was there as well? Did I also mention that she received Christ on that day? I have never been able to share my faith with a Muslim let alone have her receive Christ with me in an 8x8ft room in a Ugandan slum. The amazing part isn’t just that she received Christ. It’s that the students at KIU don’t leave without getting their information so that they can get plugged into a discipleship program at any of the local churches. God is moving in the hearts of the Ugandans!
Do you remember me saying that we Americans see no hope?
The Kenyans, Rwandans, and Ugandans that we ministered with see a hope. They see that Jesus is THE only hope. They see that the money we raised at a church in Tualatin paid for the food and supplies didn’t come from us. It came from God. Truly, genuinely, and passionately they believe that Jesus is the great provider.
There is Hope. Jesus IS Hope.
I wonder what would happen if we started looking at the world through those eyes. What if instead of pulling ourselves up by our boot straps we saw that EVERYTHING is a gift from God?
Would we spend differently?
Would we think about how we used our time?
How could we serve at home?
God is at work in Uganda.
God is at work in us.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Some more pics
I'm still having difficulty uploading the video, so you'll have to settle for some more pics for now. Don't forget to check the post below them for today's update.
June 22
Hi, this is Kayla and Erika! First of all, we want to wish our Dads a happy Father’s Day! Today, we think we got to experience the “real Uganda” when we visited Ebeneezer Orphanage. It was very impactful. The orphanage is run by Mother Mary, an amazing woman who is the caretaker of all 37 children. A reformed Muslim, Mother Mary has taken all of the children from the streets and other impoverished situations and built a home to care for them. She is a living testament to faith in action, and God’s will is blazing like wildfire through her life. Her faith is perhaps the greatest faith we’ve ever seen, and to hear her story was such a blessing, and so awe-inspiring. When we got there, the children ran to greet us and were very excited that we were there. We had brought them Beanie Babies, 2 bags of rice, snacks, and foam craft stickers which they loved to stick on their faces. We all connected with at least one orphan, and played basketball, soccer/football, clapping games, took photos, and read books. Their poverty was obvious in well-used clothing, and their finances depend on timely donations. Their company was both heart-wrenching and joyful. They have such deep passion for the Lord and really shared their love with us when they sang two songs for us. The first was to thank us and then their song thanked God for providing for them. They sang about times without food or security, and how they put their faith in the Lord, for all that matters is that He knows their future. During that song, the kids poured their hearts out to the Lord and worshipped with greater intensity than we may have ever experienced. That was an amazing moment, to witness their closeness with the Lord and there weren’t many dry eyes in the house.
Dale again
As the girls said, yesterday we began to see what Uganda is really like. And from a physical, earthly perspective, it is not pretty. As a matter of fact, it is frighteningly ugly.
We started the morning by going to the Omega Healing Center for church. Before anyone makes the same mistake that I did and I think several others did as well, the OHC is not a hospital. The “healing” refers to healing of the soul. In order to get there, we went out Entebbe Road towards the airport, and suddenly Michael (our bus driver) turns off onto a narrow, severely rutted dirt track. Up until that point we had stayed on 2 or 3 major thoroughfares – paved and lined with relatively decent shops. We had noticed that almost all of the roads leading off of these thoroughfares were dirt, and had an inkling that what was down there was not pretty, but seeing the real poverty made literally took my breath away. Some of the dwellings could loosely be called buildings in that they are made of brick and mortar, but that is all they are made of. No electricity, no plumbing, no doors, no windows, dirt floors, very sparse furniture if any. For many of the others, their homes would be generously described as shacks. I saw a family of at least 4 in a shack that was a patchwork of sheets of metal and wood about 8’ square. The whole dwelling – 8’ square. Along either side of the street and coming down in between some of the dwellings are “streams”. They are streams of sewage and garbage.
There is absolutely no thought of any creature comforts, and yet… I saw a woman standing in front of her dwelling sweeping. The broom is a bundle of sticks. She is sweeping the dirt, tidying up. They have nothing – less than nothing – and yet there are people that still maintain the dignity to try to keep their home clean. I saw many women washing clothes in whatever container was available. Considering the poverty, the people always look good. Their clothes do not come off the racks at Nordstroms or Macys, in fact most of them are probably 2nd or 3rd or 4th hand, but they’re well kept, they’re clean, they’re mended. I saw women walking towards the church for service that looked great, and yet they were coming out of this terrible poverty.
The church itself is a fairly large complex – apparently about 7 acres – with several different buildings on it. The actual service is held in one that most in the US would classify as a barn. Very well kept, but I noticed that the framework holding up the corrugated tin roof was made up of poles. There are a few light bulbs hanging, but most of the lighting came from “skylights” in the roof and gaps at the tops of the walls. The service was similar to what we experienced the night before, but with a little more structure. I’m fairly certain that most of the congregation was dressed in the finest clothes they have.
Mzungus stand out everywhere here. The kids in particular get really excited. At one point while we were singing, a little girl of about 5 came in and started hugging Kayla. And would not let go. She just wanted to keep holding on. I think Kayla is the ultimate Mzungu in their eyes – being fair and blonde, she seems to be the one that they gravitate to first. I suppose the hierarchy goes Kayla, Erika & Sam, Katie, then the rest of us! About halfway through the service, Michael came in and asked if anyone wanted to go to the Sunday School. The girls all left, and the guys all stayed for the remainder of the service.
Apparently the ladies arrival in Sunday School caused a near riot. All teaching came to a very abrupt stop as the kids swarmed them. They wanted to touch their skin, to hold their hands, to touch their hair. Katie said they were absolutely fascinated by the folds of skin on her elbow, for some reason.
After church we came back to the guest house, some changed into more casual clothes went down to Mama Mumbasa’s for lunch then went over the Palace. There we loaded up some of the beanie babies, foam stickers and a couple of soccer and basketballs that we had brought, as well as some large bags of rice and corn, some cookies and other foodstuffs that our trip has funded. Then it was off to the orphanage.
Again out Entebbe road, but this was a little different. The dirt road that we turned off onto had a bunch of goats wandering around, but the buildings that it backed appeared to be relatively nice, almost what you would see in a poor neighborhood in the States. We arrived at the orphanage – it was surrounded by a wall, had a nice clean gate and the driveway was more or less paved. Once inside their little compound, everything looked very clean and well maintained.
And then the kids started coming out. At first there was a little shyness, but they quickly started to move towards the girls, and soon were going around introducing themselves to all of us. The kids range from Esther aged 2 (more on her in a moment) up through some kids that are actually more helpers for Mother Mary – high school age although they’ve grown up in her care. They were polite, perhaps a little apprehensive since they rarely encounter Mzungu’s, but they warmed quickly.
All of them had closely shorn hair except Esther. She was a little doll! Cherubic little face and her lighter colored hair was done up in ultra cute corn rows. I’m sure you’ll see some pics of her. At our departure I think every last one of us wanted to have them hand her up through the window and take her home with us.
My personal encounter was with Steven. I’m pretty sure “Steven” is one of very few English words he knows, if not the only one. I would guess he is around 8. After hanging out with the kids for a few minutes, they asked everyone to sit down, to listen to Mother Mary’s story and get ready to give them what we had brought. I sat in one of the ubiquitous plastic stacking chairs. Our girls were surrounded by the children, as were Branden and even most of the boys in our group. There were also a bunch of the folks from KIU along with us and the children were hanging on them as well. Dale? Well, they’d come up and shake my hand and introduce themselves, but I don’t think they’re used to people my size, and definitely not Mzungus my size. As we sat down, however, Steven came over and sat down on the ground between my legs. I tried to see if he wanted to sit on my lap, but he wasn’t interested in that. He seemed happy to just sit there and lean up against my leg. During a prayer, I reached down and held his hands. At the end of the prayer, he didn’t want to let go. He’d keep himself curled up and I’d pick him up and swing him – he was eating it up! The rest of our time he’d move off somewhere else, like when they were handing out cookies, but he’d always migrate back to me. Just prior to our departure, they were lining everyone up for a picture and of course Dale had to be at the back with the tall people. As everyone was trying to get lined up, Steven moved away from the other kids and came over to stand in front of me. There was no way he was going to be in the picture that way, so I picked him up. I really hope we got some good pictures from of that. The departure was heart breaking. He came up to me as we were getting on the bus, and just didn’t want to let go of my hands. Just recounting this story brings the tears back.
Yes, folks, this little boy stole my heart. I love him dearly and it was heart breaking to have to leave. As we debriefed last night, I was trying to explain to everyone that the whole visit was a combination of my heart shattering while at the same time feeling enormous joy and blessing. These children have no idea of the impact they have had on our lives. I cannot think of a more meaningful Father’s Day experience.
Okay, thanks for indulging me. Back to the group experience. When we were introducing ourselves yesterday, there was a very audible gasp from everyone when Ken told them that he was 61 years old. Afterwards we were told that the average life expectancy in Uganda is 48, so I suppose to a certain extent he is Methuselah! Shoot, even I’m passed the average here.
My description of the orphanage itself is misleading. Yes, they currently have a very nice place, but they still have very little furniture. Mother Mary operates pretty much on a month-month basis. I was told that it costs approximately $500 per month to operate – can you imagine raising 37 kids on $500 per month? If the money runs out, she’ll likely be evicted again, something that has happened several times and from places nowhere near as nice as this. Eternal Impact and UFC supply much of their resources. Schools over here are not free – if a child is to attend school it must be paid for. The cost – by American standards – is a pittance. To educate a child from primary though a Bachelors degree from the University takes approximately $7,500. For 16 years of education!
So why am I telling you this? Ken made a comment that conveyed my feelings as well last night. We have to DO something. If all we do is to come over here for a couple of weeks and look at their lives, minister to them, share the gospel with them and then go back to our homes in the US, to our lives, it becomes nothing more than the Christian version of a Disney adventure. This experience – and I suspect our trip to Gulu will be even more impactful – tells me that we have to do more. Whether it involves sponsoring children, conducting fund raising for the orphanage or some other organization, perhaps committing to future missions work (no I’m not talking about me at this point! ) or whatever, there must be follow up to this. It cannot be some kind of strange vacation experience.
Oh yeah – Nick made it through the entire day without hurling yesterday! Made it through the entire day with the team, and I think he even ate! Thanks to all for your prayers.
And now for some comments from Ken.
Good morning, it is Ken or is it Methuselah? Dale who is a young guy - not yet 50 – he and I are easily the two oldest individuals that we have encountered, but that is not the subject of this update. As some of you know, I have a passion/love for kids, in particular, young adults.
The KIU kids are such an inspiration for all of us. They do love the Lord with all their hearts minds and souls, not just on “church day” but in every day. The fact is, every day is “church day” for them. These awesome young adults are the future of Africa. In the USA Christianity seems to be under constant attack. The trend is to remove God from just about everything. Our constitution guaranteed freedom of religion! Somehow that has been distorted to freedom from religion. While we in our country seem to be running away from God, here in East Africa, these young KIU students, the future of Africa, are running as fast as they can toward God. Their passion for the Lord is “awe” inspiring. I want that passion!
Now, on to our awesome young adults, Sam, Kayla, Alex, Erica, Nick & Cameron. They are so impressive, not just to me but to the KIU students as well! Our kids, as I like to call them, are developing close relationships with these college students. We all agree that just about everyone who meets our teenage kids are awed by their the maturity and knowledge of the Lord. We hear ohs & ahs when they introduce themselves as 15, 16, 17 & 18 year olds!
Dale's back - The trailer for tomorrow's post includes our visit to a slum area close to KIU and our first school assembly this afternoon. Tune in tomorrow for more!
Dale again
As the girls said, yesterday we began to see what Uganda is really like. And from a physical, earthly perspective, it is not pretty. As a matter of fact, it is frighteningly ugly.
We started the morning by going to the Omega Healing Center for church. Before anyone makes the same mistake that I did and I think several others did as well, the OHC is not a hospital. The “healing” refers to healing of the soul. In order to get there, we went out Entebbe Road towards the airport, and suddenly Michael (our bus driver) turns off onto a narrow, severely rutted dirt track. Up until that point we had stayed on 2 or 3 major thoroughfares – paved and lined with relatively decent shops. We had noticed that almost all of the roads leading off of these thoroughfares were dirt, and had an inkling that what was down there was not pretty, but seeing the real poverty made literally took my breath away. Some of the dwellings could loosely be called buildings in that they are made of brick and mortar, but that is all they are made of. No electricity, no plumbing, no doors, no windows, dirt floors, very sparse furniture if any. For many of the others, their homes would be generously described as shacks. I saw a family of at least 4 in a shack that was a patchwork of sheets of metal and wood about 8’ square. The whole dwelling – 8’ square. Along either side of the street and coming down in between some of the dwellings are “streams”. They are streams of sewage and garbage.
There is absolutely no thought of any creature comforts, and yet… I saw a woman standing in front of her dwelling sweeping. The broom is a bundle of sticks. She is sweeping the dirt, tidying up. They have nothing – less than nothing – and yet there are people that still maintain the dignity to try to keep their home clean. I saw many women washing clothes in whatever container was available. Considering the poverty, the people always look good. Their clothes do not come off the racks at Nordstroms or Macys, in fact most of them are probably 2nd or 3rd or 4th hand, but they’re well kept, they’re clean, they’re mended. I saw women walking towards the church for service that looked great, and yet they were coming out of this terrible poverty.
The church itself is a fairly large complex – apparently about 7 acres – with several different buildings on it. The actual service is held in one that most in the US would classify as a barn. Very well kept, but I noticed that the framework holding up the corrugated tin roof was made up of poles. There are a few light bulbs hanging, but most of the lighting came from “skylights” in the roof and gaps at the tops of the walls. The service was similar to what we experienced the night before, but with a little more structure. I’m fairly certain that most of the congregation was dressed in the finest clothes they have.
Mzungus stand out everywhere here. The kids in particular get really excited. At one point while we were singing, a little girl of about 5 came in and started hugging Kayla. And would not let go. She just wanted to keep holding on. I think Kayla is the ultimate Mzungu in their eyes – being fair and blonde, she seems to be the one that they gravitate to first. I suppose the hierarchy goes Kayla, Erika & Sam, Katie, then the rest of us! About halfway through the service, Michael came in and asked if anyone wanted to go to the Sunday School. The girls all left, and the guys all stayed for the remainder of the service.
Apparently the ladies arrival in Sunday School caused a near riot. All teaching came to a very abrupt stop as the kids swarmed them. They wanted to touch their skin, to hold their hands, to touch their hair. Katie said they were absolutely fascinated by the folds of skin on her elbow, for some reason.
After church we came back to the guest house, some changed into more casual clothes went down to Mama Mumbasa’s for lunch then went over the Palace. There we loaded up some of the beanie babies, foam stickers and a couple of soccer and basketballs that we had brought, as well as some large bags of rice and corn, some cookies and other foodstuffs that our trip has funded. Then it was off to the orphanage.
Again out Entebbe road, but this was a little different. The dirt road that we turned off onto had a bunch of goats wandering around, but the buildings that it backed appeared to be relatively nice, almost what you would see in a poor neighborhood in the States. We arrived at the orphanage – it was surrounded by a wall, had a nice clean gate and the driveway was more or less paved. Once inside their little compound, everything looked very clean and well maintained.
And then the kids started coming out. At first there was a little shyness, but they quickly started to move towards the girls, and soon were going around introducing themselves to all of us. The kids range from Esther aged 2 (more on her in a moment) up through some kids that are actually more helpers for Mother Mary – high school age although they’ve grown up in her care. They were polite, perhaps a little apprehensive since they rarely encounter Mzungu’s, but they warmed quickly.
All of them had closely shorn hair except Esther. She was a little doll! Cherubic little face and her lighter colored hair was done up in ultra cute corn rows. I’m sure you’ll see some pics of her. At our departure I think every last one of us wanted to have them hand her up through the window and take her home with us.
My personal encounter was with Steven. I’m pretty sure “Steven” is one of very few English words he knows, if not the only one. I would guess he is around 8. After hanging out with the kids for a few minutes, they asked everyone to sit down, to listen to Mother Mary’s story and get ready to give them what we had brought. I sat in one of the ubiquitous plastic stacking chairs. Our girls were surrounded by the children, as were Branden and even most of the boys in our group. There were also a bunch of the folks from KIU along with us and the children were hanging on them as well. Dale? Well, they’d come up and shake my hand and introduce themselves, but I don’t think they’re used to people my size, and definitely not Mzungus my size. As we sat down, however, Steven came over and sat down on the ground between my legs. I tried to see if he wanted to sit on my lap, but he wasn’t interested in that. He seemed happy to just sit there and lean up against my leg. During a prayer, I reached down and held his hands. At the end of the prayer, he didn’t want to let go. He’d keep himself curled up and I’d pick him up and swing him – he was eating it up! The rest of our time he’d move off somewhere else, like when they were handing out cookies, but he’d always migrate back to me. Just prior to our departure, they were lining everyone up for a picture and of course Dale had to be at the back with the tall people. As everyone was trying to get lined up, Steven moved away from the other kids and came over to stand in front of me. There was no way he was going to be in the picture that way, so I picked him up. I really hope we got some good pictures from of that. The departure was heart breaking. He came up to me as we were getting on the bus, and just didn’t want to let go of my hands. Just recounting this story brings the tears back.
Yes, folks, this little boy stole my heart. I love him dearly and it was heart breaking to have to leave. As we debriefed last night, I was trying to explain to everyone that the whole visit was a combination of my heart shattering while at the same time feeling enormous joy and blessing. These children have no idea of the impact they have had on our lives. I cannot think of a more meaningful Father’s Day experience.
Okay, thanks for indulging me. Back to the group experience. When we were introducing ourselves yesterday, there was a very audible gasp from everyone when Ken told them that he was 61 years old. Afterwards we were told that the average life expectancy in Uganda is 48, so I suppose to a certain extent he is Methuselah! Shoot, even I’m passed the average here.
My description of the orphanage itself is misleading. Yes, they currently have a very nice place, but they still have very little furniture. Mother Mary operates pretty much on a month-month basis. I was told that it costs approximately $500 per month to operate – can you imagine raising 37 kids on $500 per month? If the money runs out, she’ll likely be evicted again, something that has happened several times and from places nowhere near as nice as this. Eternal Impact and UFC supply much of their resources. Schools over here are not free – if a child is to attend school it must be paid for. The cost – by American standards – is a pittance. To educate a child from primary though a Bachelors degree from the University takes approximately $7,500. For 16 years of education!
So why am I telling you this? Ken made a comment that conveyed my feelings as well last night. We have to DO something. If all we do is to come over here for a couple of weeks and look at their lives, minister to them, share the gospel with them and then go back to our homes in the US, to our lives, it becomes nothing more than the Christian version of a Disney adventure. This experience – and I suspect our trip to Gulu will be even more impactful – tells me that we have to do more. Whether it involves sponsoring children, conducting fund raising for the orphanage or some other organization, perhaps committing to future missions work (no I’m not talking about me at this point! ) or whatever, there must be follow up to this. It cannot be some kind of strange vacation experience.
Oh yeah – Nick made it through the entire day without hurling yesterday! Made it through the entire day with the team, and I think he even ate! Thanks to all for your prayers.
And now for some comments from Ken.
Good morning, it is Ken or is it Methuselah? Dale who is a young guy - not yet 50 – he and I are easily the two oldest individuals that we have encountered, but that is not the subject of this update. As some of you know, I have a passion/love for kids, in particular, young adults.
The KIU kids are such an inspiration for all of us. They do love the Lord with all their hearts minds and souls, not just on “church day” but in every day. The fact is, every day is “church day” for them. These awesome young adults are the future of Africa. In the USA Christianity seems to be under constant attack. The trend is to remove God from just about everything. Our constitution guaranteed freedom of religion! Somehow that has been distorted to freedom from religion. While we in our country seem to be running away from God, here in East Africa, these young KIU students, the future of Africa, are running as fast as they can toward God. Their passion for the Lord is “awe” inspiring. I want that passion!
Now, on to our awesome young adults, Sam, Kayla, Alex, Erica, Nick & Cameron. They are so impressive, not just to me but to the KIU students as well! Our kids, as I like to call them, are developing close relationships with these college students. We all agree that just about everyone who meets our teenage kids are awed by their the maturity and knowledge of the Lord. We hear ohs & ahs when they introduce themselves as 15, 16, 17 & 18 year olds!
Dale's back - The trailer for tomorrow's post includes our visit to a slum area close to KIU and our first school assembly this afternoon. Tune in tomorrow for more!
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