Bittersweet

Today was our last day in Kachungwa.  While God has greatly multiplied our time here, it has come to an end for now.  Today was different than the other days thus far and for me, as for all of us, it was a highly emotional day.  In the few days here, we  have seen God move in some ways we could never have imagined, learned to love people we have never met before and been changed.  Of all of the posts I have written thus far, this one is going to be by far the hardest to get through so bear with me. 

Last night, we met a group from Oklahoma who were spending 6 months travelling around Uganda putting on medical clinics at various ARM projects.  It was a blessing to get to meet them and see the work they were doing.  Ken and I were talking while they were setting up this morning and thought that if we were doctors, this is what we would do.  But we’re not, so it is fortunate that God has put it on the hearts of wonderful Christians like this to do this important work.  They had taken over the church building and had set up in there.  Another area was set up to document the people coming in, give the children worm pills and perform a brief triage.


I happened to be in the clinic area and spotted the Doctor from the Ggaba ARM clinic talking to a father and  his sick daughter.  The girl had malaria and had been unable to get any medical care in the village she lived in and when the father heard that the doctors were coming to Kachungwa and offering medical treatment for very sick unsponsored children as well as sponsored children, he brought his daughter in (not as easy as it sounds).  After a quick diagnosis, the doctor sent the girl and her father to an area in the back of the church to get a shot.  The medical team asked me to snap a couple of pictures while they were giving the girl the shot so I took a couple and didn’t think anything more of it. 

It wasn’t until later today that we learned that the little girl you see above went home to be with Jesus. 



The father loved his child as much as any of us love our children.  As he leaned against the wall waiting to see if the shot the doctors had given his daughter would work, I could see the soul sadness in his eyes. This is why we believe that God wants Canby Christian Church to be part of establishing a medical clinic in this area.  There is just nothing around for medical care.  This is also why we raised money for and spent our time hiking through the banana fields delivering mosquito nets – to prevent malaria from happening in the first place.  We are thankful that the child’s suffering is over, but this was a stark reminder of the reality of life and death in Uganda.

We were scheduled to visit a church plant nearby that had been started several years ago and they were anxious to meet the guests from America.  On the way, we were passing by two of my sponsored children’s homes, so we arranged a time for me to visit.  The first stop was the house of  Shafik.  He, like so many others, lives in a small mud hut in the middle of the banana fields.  As we approached his house, his mother came out and carried a wooden bench for me to sit on.  To be sure it was clean, she removed the scarf from around her neck and wiped off the bench and then knelt and waited for me to be seated.



I know that like most others living in the fields, they have nothing.  Above is a picture of me with Shafik and his mother taking a moment to pray together.  What a horrible feeling, knowing that they lived like this, but also, their son Shafik as a sponsored child has better opportunity than most.  As we were leaving, the mother wanted to give me a gift.  She went into their house and handed me a large bag of avocados.  Their family would not have that to eat and I am sure they have precious little as it is and I could hardly breathe as I considered the sacrifice of this woman to thank me for loving and sponsoring her child.  As we were leaving, I gave her a hug (that’s what I do…) and I  we left more than a few  tear’s on each other’s shoulders.

If that wasn’t hard enough for me, the next stop was at our sponsored daughter, Gorretti’s house. I was totally unprepared for what I saw there.  Gorretti lives in a village near the highway  and her family lives in a tri-plex.  This isn’t a tri-plex like you might think though.  It is basically one of the mud huts like the others you have seen pictures of, broken up into 3 rooms, each with a door.  The size of her entire house was probably less than 300 square feet (see the second picture below for a good idea of the size).  The floor was dirt and there were no windows. 

Gorretti took me into her home to meet her mother and I received the same type of welcome that I had at Shafik’s house.  I have really become attached to this teenage girl with a beautiful smile and a hard life.  Her mother is single, never married, and has 3 children and her mother living with her.  As I sat in this tiny mud room, I could only imagine the type of life they lead.  I talked with the mother and prayed with them for a bit and then told the mother that Debbie and I are thankful that God has allowed us to be her sponsors and that I felt like I was almost like a father to her.

Quietly sitting next to me holding my hand, Gorretti softly said “I have no father, you are my father.”  I was unable to speak, as were the others with me.  There was nothing more to say.  Gorretti took my hand and lead me back to the van so we could deliver her back to school.  I can’t even begin to tell you how I feel.  This girl a world away needed a man to be a father, even for a couple of days and God blessed us both by providing a father to the fatherless.  It is hard to process…God alone knows how she will make it in the environment she lives in.  All I can do is pray for her and her family.


Praying with Gorretti’s mother – Gorretti on the left wiping her eyes.  This is extremely hard to type as the tears are blocking my vision, but it is something that I believe God wanted me to share.














OK…let’s both take a breather and get to a moment of the sweet!  We went from Gorretti’s house and visited the church plant that Pastor Sylver wanted us to encourage.  What a huge blessing that was.  I went from an emotional wreck to being on top of the world.  The greeting as we drove up to this little mud church was mind blowing.  People came running out of the church and surrounding buildings to greet us.  The picture below is of a man who came running straight to me, tears of joy running out of his eyes – joy that God had brought their church visitors from America.


The pastor took us on a tour of the facility.  The church has a school which consists of 2 classes both of which meet under a tree.  Several grade are combined in each class and the students all said poems of greeting when we arrived to their classroom.  Once in the church building (mud building with no windows), we proceeded to have some of the most incredible worship together you can imagine.  These people love the Lord and love worshipping Him in song and dance.   We were singing with them (well, actually just faking it because we had no idea what they were saying) and a couple of people came to front and started dancing the most joyful dance of praise I think I have ever seen.  After a little while, I looked at Ashley and nodded for her to join them.  That didn’t take much convincing.  It was such a joy to see this beautiful young woman dancing, smiling and worshipping with our new brothers and sisters from Uganda.  It wasn’t too long after that that I joined the dance (I will spare you the details – it wasn’t pretty I’m sure, but I can say that I loved being part of that dance to the Lord).  Soon, Isaac and Jaja Semacola (aka Ralph) joined in.  There is some video of this, but it seems to have been accidentally deleted!



The church then put on some prepared songs for us, Ken preached, it was just a blessing from God to be here.  Isaac & Ralph sang a song and were joined by the young boy playing drums.  Somehow, “Our God” didn’t need to be translated for everybody there to be touched by the power of the moment.  Following the singing, the pastor presented a gift from their church to Canby Christian Church.  I won’t ruin the surprise, but you will be amazed at what they gave us.  But, that didn’t seem to be enough for them to give, so several went out and returned with some pineapple and eggs in a basket for us.  We were humbled by the sacrificial giving of these beautiful Christians in Uganda to their visitors (us).  Well, it seems that even that wasn’t enough, so they took up an offering right there in front of us.  People walked to the front of the church bringing offerings of love to us.  I was sitting by Ken and for the first time since I’ve known Ken, he was speechless.   All we could do is to watch these people who had so little give to us and then accept it in a way that would honor their giving.


I remember sitting there with this in front of me thinking “would I give my last pineapple and eggs to visitors who I didn’t know if it was taken from my poor family’s table”.  I was ashamed by my answer…but have learned much from these amazing people.



OK…I am just about out of gas and I just have a couple of things and I will wrap it up.  We need to get up at 4am tomorrow to leave for a day of R&R.  We have learned the wisdom of God when he wants us to work hard, but also rest.  He has given us the chance to enjoy some of his unspoiled creating in a way that most of us can still hardly imagine.  But enough of that.

At the end of the day, the people of Kachungwa had a good bye ceremony for us.  They talked of the great things Canby Christian Church has done to help them and the bond in Christ that they feel with us.  They believe it was providential that God has connected us and has great things ahead.  One that was mentioned was that as a result of the students saved yesterday, Kachungwa is going to start a new church plant there and has committed to working with the bible club at the school and weekly sending someone on Sunday to get the church started.  God has used Canby Christian Church to work with Kachungwa in Uganda to start a new church – can you see what has happened as a result of you sending us?  I never in my wildest imagination would have thought – but God’s ways are not our ways and our plan is not His plan.  By being faithful to our calling, we have made a difference in the Kingdom of God – WOW (to quote Isaac)!



Oh yeah…one more thing that I MUST absolutely write about (don’t worry, this is SWEET).  Do you remember me writing the other day about Isaac giving the mosquito net to the woman who was so joyful that she was dancing under the net?  Well, she came to the sending off and I managed to get a picture of her with Isaac.  She brought him eggs to show her gratitude for the gift.



So, sometime later, I saw Isaac with tears in his eyes as we were getting ready to leave.  I talked with him a bit to see what he was feeling.  It turns out that sometime during our time here, Isaac has met a young boy named Daniel who is an unsponsored child.  He formed an immediate bond with the boy and they had been spending a lot of time together.  While Isaac was with this beautiful Ugandan woman, Daniel approached them and the woman introduced Daniel as her grandson.  God had dome something to Isaac’s heart and it just broke – only this wasn’t a bad break, this was the heart of a boy breaking away and the loving heart of a man of God set free to love like God intended him to.  It was joyous to watch Isaac try to grasp what was happening to him.

Rose (the wonderful social worker at Kachungwa Child Development Program) and told me that Gorretti’s mother had come and wanted to give me a gift.  Rose led me to a place where there were to plastic chairs sitting side by side.  Gorretti’s mother was sitting there and presented me with three gifts – two baskets and a grinding bowl.  One of the baskets was one she had made and was stunning!  She also gave me a bag of banana’s.  She was on here knees when she gave me the gifts and eventually came back up and was sitting in the chair beside me.  We talked for a few minutes and I wanted to make sure that she heard the gospel as she is not  a Christian and understood why it was so important not only to her children, but to her.  It was more than difficult getting words to come out.  I sat there looking at the tremendous gifts this woman had brought me – thinking of where she lived and how little she has.  I could only cry.  It was  my turn to get down at her feet, humbled by  this woman’s  gift.  I don’t even know how to express how I felt – and feel even as I type this.  God had shown me things I never imagined in a place I never thought I would be – and I thank Him for all that He has done.

While this post has been mostly personal in nature, I can assure you that every one of us have experienced similar feelings both of joy and sorrow, hope and seen the love of a most  gracious God in the most dire of places.  I hope I never forget.

As we loaded up in the van and drove away from this small village that isn’t even on any maps known, we knew that we had been changed and that this isn’t the last time we will be in this place.  God has much more to do with us and is not finished in Uganda.

God bless you.  Thank you for reading and praying for us.  It has been an honor for us all to represent you here in Uganda and know that Canby Christian Church is loved by the people here.



“Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”