The long flight home

We left Uganda at 12:40am Uganda time on Monday morning.  An 8 hour flight to London, 4 hour layover, 9 hour flight to Dallas, 4 hour layover there and finally a 4 hour flight back to Portland.  That is a lot of time to process what has happened to us over the past 2 weeks.  By the time we get home to bed, it will have been over 48 hours since we will have been in  a bed.  God literally has taken us to the other side of the world and back.

I was looking back over some of the original blog posts marking weeks until we leave.  Then there was the thought that this trip would be somehow life changing.  We visited an orphanage and fell in love with babies whose parents had died or just abandoned them.  One young child’s mother had even tried to stab her to death.  What possible circumstances could cause a mother to do this?

We were showered with love by everybody we met.  From the overwhelming greeting at Kachungwa, to the church plant we visited, to the homes of the people we visited.  Everywhere, we loved and were loved in return.  It is said that God is love – which, of course He is – and from what we experienced, God’s love is thriving in the poorest parts of Uganda.



We saw children at the high school saved by the dozens (153) and as a result a new church was planted in Uganda.  We saw children sponsored by our church family benefitting from the financial contributions to their lives.  We waded in the sea of beautiful smiling faces of children.  We waved constantly as we drove through the country as children came running and waving and calling “Muzungu”.  They delighted in the gift of a small sweet.

We witnessed generosity like none of us have ever witnessed before, let alone been the recipient.  We were humbled that the poorest of the poor in Uganda would take food off of their family’s table to offer it as a gift in gratitude for what we have done for them.  How could we receive the gift of a couple of avocado’s, pineapples or eggs when we have plenty and they have nothing?  How do we sort that out in our minds.



We have been in the homes of people who pray only that they have a home that doesn’t flood when it rains.  We have seen single women raising many children who are not their own because others abandoned them on the street.  With barely enough to feed their own children, they find a way to feed and house the others.  It may not be what WE would call acceptable, but they are alive because these women choose to love and sacrifice.

We have seen pastors, teachers, social workers, doctors, nurses, children and many other volunteers dedicate their time, ,money and lives to serving these people who are precious to God.  Not only do they serve, but they do it with joy in their hearts, praise on their lips and a smile on their face.  We were in the home of Pastor Sylver, the pastor of Kachungwa Community Church, who is raising his own 6 children plus 5 that are not his own.  We met an associate pastor who has had  his business burn to the ground and while he tries to rebuild his life, is serving the poor in the slums of Kampala.

We were there when a child died of malaria because medical care was not available to the family.  Even though there was a one-day clinic, it wasn’t enough.  You saw of the  face of the father  whose child died, but you just saw the picture.  We saw the man and the child.  We saw the hurt it caused the medical team to see a child die.  They are strong Christians with whom we had the privilege to serve side by side to minister to the children of the village of Kachungwa.

We have seen the servant leadership of a young Christian  man named Dalton.  His desire was to serve and he tirelessly met our every need.  He assured that we had safe water and food.  He answered questions of all sorts that we asked him.  He polished Pastor Ken’s shoes because he wanted Ken to have sharp looking shoes when he preached.  Dalton prayed, worshipped and loved God like he was a friend of God.  We are all humbled by his servant’s heart.  We learned that, like most in Uganda, Dalton doesn’t own a car and while we stayed in the guest house in Ggaba, Dalton walked to and from his apartment each day – a 45 minute walk each way.  He was there when we got up in the morning and was there until he was satisfied all was attended to in the evening.


It was with incredible excitement, laughter and anticipation  that we spent our last evening in Uganda.  We are all longing desperately to be  reunited with our families who we have missed so much.  But this much time on a plane offers a lot of time to try and process what has happened over the past couple of weeks.  We will all say that this was a life-changing trip for each of us individually and for all of us as a team.  It may be different for some than others exactly HOW God changed us, but He did.  There are a lot of emotions that we will need to sort through.  We have been tested, challenged, stretched and blessed more than any of us could have dreamed.

Me, I am thinking about a young girl that we sponsor who sleeps in a horrible place with her mother, grandmother and sister.  She gets up every day and walks over 6 miles to school and then home at the end of each day.  What kind of future will she have?  Who will be the father to love that beautiful young girl when she needs the strong love of a father’s arms?  I loved the way that she would come and take my hand with a huge smile on her face and walk with me.  I loved the gift that she must have worked so hard on just to  show me her thanks.  I will forever remember her words “I have no father – you are my father.”   Who will be there for her?  I know that God will and am confident that He has plans for her life.  There are millions of children in Uganda that are in the same situation as Gorretti.

I am thinking about our two other sponsored boys – the lives they have ahead, the hardships they and their families will endure and have endured already.  Sponsorship is an investment in their lives that will give them an opportunity that they would not have otherwise had with a few dollars each month that we won’t even really miss.

There are hundreds of young faces smiling joyfully as we would walk with them, teach and play.  Each one has hopes and dreams for their future.  Already we find ourselves talking about how much we miss their faces, their hands reaching out just to be touched.  I remember standing in Luzira Community Church listening to Pastor Alex and his church worship in the midst of a poor area and a beautiful little girl in a torn red dress standing there beside me.  I put out my hand and she held onto it until both of our arms were tired. 


We all learned about God.  We experienced His presence, His power, His leading and His love in very surprising and delighting ways.  We saw the power of prayer and had come to rely on Him for everything.  One that struck me was that towards the end of the trip, when anybody was feeling sick or had some need, the first thing we did was go to prayer for that person confident that God would answer our prayer.  I think that back home, I would have called the doctor, run to the medicine cabinet and maybe remembered to pray if I had some time along the way.  The experience of prayer and seeing the awesomeness of God is something that I wanted to see down here and God has answered that.

There is way too much to process and try and even highlight all that has happened these past weeks.  If you haven’t already, please take some time to read back through some of the older blog posts to get more of a real-time description of what happened in Uganda.  The real question that I am facing now is “what next”?  God certainly didn’t take us through the things He did just for a 2 week short-term mission trip.  Yes, He accomplished some great things through us while we were there, but there is much yet to be done.  There are children who need to be sponsored, a medical clinic that could save many lives and cure/prevent disease.  There is a need for clean water and toilets.  There is a need for reliable power and computers to enable ARM to work effectively with the various projects like Kachungwa.

One thing that I do know is that we as a church have been blessed by God to be partnering with ARM and the village of Kachungwa.  God is going to do great things there, but it must start with our prayer.

Next Sunday, the team will be talking to the congregation during the morning services (Ken said that he has about 5 years worth of sermon materials out of this trip, so is happy to let the team take this first Sunday to share with you).  Please come listen to our experiences first hand.  We can only do so much with words and pictures on a blog.  You need to hear the passion in Ashley’s voice, the joy of Isaac leading worship and meeting Daniel, the heart of Bryan for children, the passion Renee has for the people there, Ralph's humbling experience with the gratitude of a poor people and the direction Ken believes God has ahead for us in Uganda.

It is our gracious God who is glorified by all that He has done in Uganda and in Canby.  We are blessed by your prayers and knowing that you are there supporting God’s team (us) in Uganda.  Our anticipation of seeing you all again grows as each mile in the air passes.  We love you and eagerly await seeing you again soon.

In the name of Jesus Christ we pray and believe,

Dave

PS  The good old American Fuddrucker’s bacon cheeseburger in the Dallas Fort-Worth airport was incredible!

God, have mercy

Sorry for the tardiness of this post, but it couldn’t be helped.  The computer battery ran out and the power was out for an extended period of time and we have not had any internet connections until we got home.  I am disappointed because this was as important as any other work that we have done and I wanted to share it with you sooner.  By the time this gets posted, we will either be travelling between Uganda and Portland or we will be home.  While we are looking forward to being home, we hate to leave the beautiful people we have come to love in Uganda and are REALLY not looking forward to the travel.  But enough of that, let’s get caught up a little bit.

 

ARM has a branch of it’s ministry called Mercy Net.  This is a ministry that provides food to the neediest of the needy.  ARM works with local churches and will work with the local church for three years to develop the program and enable the local church to actually be the ones who will sustain the program in the local area and reach their community.  They partner with Children’s Hunger Fund to receive most if not all of their funding for this program.

 

We went into the slums of Kampala which was a very different experience for any of us who had not been there before.  I had heard the team that went last year talk about the slums and have seen them on TV, but really had no concept of what a slum truly was.  It is a very bad area in many ways and it was a shock walking into the middle of one for the first time.  You can’t imagine the utter poverty until you sit in a “house” there.  I say “house” (in quotes) because it is hard to use that term by any understanding we have of what a house is. 

 

We started out the morning with an overview of the project at Word of Life Community Church.  They described their program and introduced the people who work there.  We then loaded the food to be distributed into bags for individual distribution and headed out.  Each family was to receive 2 bags of corn meal, one bag of mixed beans and one bag of rice.  They deliver this to the families supported by the church one time each month.

 

 

 

I was fortunate enough to be teamed up with Isaac and Ashley as well as Ruth, the Mercy Net program director for ARM, and two people from Word of Life church.  The first house we visited, we were able to share the gospel with the woman who lived there and she accepted Christ.  She was a single mother with 3 children under the age of 5.  Her husband had abandoned her and her children.  This, as we learned, is a very common thing in the slums.  We learned that many of the women are either prostitutes to try and earn money, or the husbands are unable to support the family, so just leave.  The rate of HIV/AIDS, malaria, cholera, typhoid and many other diseases  is very  high due to the horrible conditions that people there live in.  We praise God that this woman was able to hear the gospel, be saved and that there is a local church to follow up with her.

 

As we went to the next house, we were feeling encouraged that God had been preparing the way.  However good we were feeling, we were not prepared for the quality of life people have there.  At house after house, we found similar stories of abandonment, hunger and poverty beyond what we can imagine, living in Canby, Oregon.  A couple of days later, I can still picture the people and the way they live.  We would arrest people in Oregon for keeping their animals living in such conditions.  Here, it is just the way life is.

 

Ralph and Bryan delivered food to a woman whose home doubled as a “store”.  It was described as “about the size of a twin bed”.  There was barely any room to stand and the woman had 2 children living there with her.  The children stayed under the counter.  There was  no floor and all of their earthly possessions were contained in that area.    She had a couple of trays of vegetables – not horrible, but they said it is certainly nothing that they would buy in a store in Canby.   She was trying the best she could to eke out a living and feed herself and her children.  We thanked God for the people who deliver this food to them every month.

 

 

Many of the homes had barely room for a bed.  When they invited us in, we would sit on the edge of the bed, barely able to move our feet because there was no room.  The people were happy to welcome visitors and it was an honor to pray with the people there in their homes.  I have been so blessed by the house I live in and have thought about it with a whole new perspective.  We’ve seen a pastor raising 11 children in 500 square feet, grandmothers raising 5 or more children – how can we ever look at our homes the same way again?

 

One elderly woman that we visited  was a grandmother caring for her 3 grandchildren and also two other children whose mother had abandoned them in the street (not streets like we’re used to them).  Her back is injured and one of the children is sick.  She has no income and no ability to provide for her children outside of what other people do to help and what Mercy Net does to provide some of their food and  spiritual needs.  Also, the church helps in other ways.  The church in Uganda is a very important provider for helping the needy.  She was a Christian, but we prayed for her back to be healed, her children to be healed and that God would care for her.  We encouraged her by telling her that God had brought us to her home all the way from America (you think being anywhere we went was a coincidence?) and wanted to remind that He loves her and is with her.  She was so happy that she just kept saying thank you, thank you, thank you, ameena (Amen), ameena, ameena.  As we left, I told her that she was my hero – a woman taking care of all of these grandchildren and abandoned children in the conditions she lived in IS just plain heroic.  I apologize for the fuzziness of the picture, but it was hard to focus with so little room to move around in her house, not to mention fighting to keep my composure.

 

 

Below are just a few more pictures of some more people we visited and provided food, encouragement and prayer to:

 

 

This woman was a Christian and was thankful for the food and encouragement.  Her prayer was to be able to move into a house that didn’t fill with water when it rained and a job for her husband so he could provide and would not abandon them.  What was particularly difficult for all of us was that we all heard similar stories about the houses flooding when it rains.  After we left and were driving  back to our house, it started to rain – hard!  We watched the streets fill with water almost to the curb and running down the street like a river.  All of us could imagine the people we had just visited sitting in wet houses with the water just flowing through and soaking everything on the ground (which was most of their belongings and beds).

 

The mother of these children asked that we pray for somebody to sponsor her children so they can get an education.  Our escort from the church informed us that there are very few sponsored children here. The children were beautiful and caught our hearts.  If we can even help one…and one more…and one more…  One at a time is the way we can make a difference in Uganda.  One at a time is the way we can make a difference for the needy in Canby.  We just need to do it.

 

 

Isaac and Ashley provide a scale for you to see the size of this house.  There was a woman and 3 children living here.  It was impossible to get all of the visitors in this house.

 

Ken & Renee’s team met a woman who was raising 5 children on her own in the size of apartment to the one you see below.  It is roughly 10’x12’ in size.  Not only was she raising 5 children of her own, the single father who lived across from them had abandoned his 5 children.  Seeing the need of the children, she took the additional 5 children in to her home and cared for them.  She was than determined to do whatever she needed to provide for the children.  She would sell fish, do laundry and any other work that she could find to support her family.  Ken said that she is a “strong person living in sparse conditions, but she chose, rather than better her own life, she opted to take on the additional 5 children.  She did it because it was the right thing to do”.  As a Christian, the team was impressed with her sacrificial love for the children.

 

They also saw a woman sitting on a bench with a beautiful smile.  They were terribly poor, her husband was crippled, but they were drawn to her smile.  When they learned she was a Christian, it explained it, but was still hard for us to imagine the true joy that Jesus can bring to a person wholly committed to Him, even living in such circumstances.  Listening to Ken describe the encounter reminds me about the trivial things (relativity again) that tend to discourage me  or cause me to complain when I don’t get what I’d like to have – the nice car that I’d like, the bigger house, the property in the country.  Not in and of themselves bad, but as the song says “I’m trading it all for the joy of the Lord”.  Would I be able to make that trade? 

 

This grandmother was caring for her grandchildren because their mother had died and the father had a leg amputated due to cancer.  She also had an infant and absolutely no way to provide for them.  We had seen utter poverty in the villages, and now we were seeing it here as well.  There were different challenges that they faced, but all need God’s grace where they are.  It is hard to imagine living like this every day of  your life.  The baby had the softest hair…and she was beautiful.  God alone knows the future ahead for this sweet one.

 

Streams of water like the one shown above run through the area where the people live.  There are also spots where rancid water gathers because it has nowhere to go.  It is foul smelling and you would not want to be within 20 feet of it, let alone touch it.  We saw children filling water buckets from these ponds.  In Revelations 22, John talks about the River of life flowing from the throne of God.  Pure water, full of life.  It is going to be a great day indeed for the people who are used to this.  It made us heartsick to think of people actually drinking or cooking with this “water”.

 

This house had the doorway built up almost 3 feet high to keep the flooding out.  This family had 3 children and inside was a bed and a couch.  The floor was covered with garbage.  The children literally had to climb in and out of the house.

 

One of the other unique experiences we had was that as we were passing a particular house, one of our escorts informed us that it was the house of a witchdoctor.   One of our escorts told us that she had once been a witch doctor  - but she met Jesus through the work of people reaching out into the slums and sharing hope and truth.  THE truth.  Evil is prevalent in the slums and is very real.  There is a spiritual battle and God has won.  It is in the name of Jesus that we pray and believe – we have no other way to battle this evil.

 

 

But the news wasn’t all bad.  In the midst of this horror, God is working.  And we were blessed beyond belief to be part of His great work.  In the picture above, our team had finished delivering all of our food and were starting to head back.  A woman stopped to ask for prayer for a new house, but I felt God wanting me to direct her to Him.  So, Ashley and I shared the good news of Jesus with her and she accepted Christ right there.  She said that she had been to church a couple of times, but was open to hearing.  She prayed with us and accepted Christ in the street.  At the same time, an alcoholic man was walking by and Isaac stopped to talk with him.  Isaac shared the gospel with him and then talked with him about the need for him to take some action on his own to break the hold of alcoholism.  Isaac suggested that he just throw away the bottle in his front shirt pocket.  It was amazing, but the man accepted Christ right then and there and THEN threw away the bottle into a pile of rocks.  I couldn’t help but shout a very loud AMEN (Ameena down here) – it caught the attention of many.

 

None of us were prepared for what we did that morning, but God went ahead of us and did some great work in the lives of a few  of the people.  It made the difference between heaven and hell for them.  There is a local church there to follow up with them and the church is also assisting in setting up home churches for people in the slums to meet and encourage one another.  In what seemed to me to be a hopeless situation, God is doing some great things.  He used us to do some of His work – we were so blessed!  The hard work of ARM and reaching out to the local churches is making the day-to-day difference.  The volunteers, the pastors and others working day in and day out serving God faithfully need our support and prayer as well. 

 

Let me see if I can get this posted and convey our love and thanks to each of you for your prayers.  We, and by extension you, made a difference in Uganda.  Thank God for his grace and mercy.

 

See you all soon!

 

Dave

The Theory of Relativity

Our perspective has changed on a lot of things in the time we have been here.  Probably one of the greatest eye-openers is in the difference in quality of life between Oregon and Uganda.  Let me start by talking about hotel we stayed in t Mubende.  It was called the Pride Travellers Hotel.  To say the least, it was a shock for all of us the night we checked in.  Here are a just few of the deficiencies we found in the hotel:

• There is no hot water.  Well, there is, but they carried it up to our rooms each night in 2 gallon buckets.
• The “shower” in  my room consists of a shower head on a hose connected to the water spout.
• There are tiles missing on the floor of my bathroom with standing water.
• The lights hang from the ceiling by a bare wire – no fixtures at all.   Certainly not up to American electrical standards.  Many of our lights just didn’t work at all.
• We were on the 5th floor of the hotel and there was no elevator.  We had to climb the stairs every time we wanted to get to the room.
• There were no 2 stairs the same height.  They ranged any where from 3” to 14”.  One of the stairs near the lobby had a loose wire strung across the stairs.
• Most  nights, the power went off at 8pm and stayed off all night.
• The beds feel like sleeping on  the ground they are so hard.
• Most of our toilet seats were broken (I won’t even go into the toilets…)
• There are cockroaches roaming the hallway.  BIG cockroaches…
• The windows don’t close and Bryan’s room was missing a pane of glass altogether.  It actually rained into his room one night.
• The restaurant doesn’t have a menu.  They  set out the food for the night for us and that’s what we get.
• The mosquito nets didn’t necessarily fit the beds – many left large gaps around the edges.  Nor did the screens necessarily keep mosquito nets out.
• The showers in the bathrooms don’t have curtains and no hot water – there wasn’t even a drain..  The entire floor was the drain and water filled the bathroom until you were standing in water wondering when it would pour out into the room. There was a small drain in the floor near the outside wall that the water eventually drained through.
• The restaurant in the hotel did not have an inside kitchen – they cooked outside over a fire.

The list goes on and on, but suffice it to say that this was a totally unacceptable hotel by any of our standards.  If I was asked to take a room in a place like this in the US, I would promptly turn around and leave.  There is no way I would pay to stay in a “dump” like that.  There is absolutely no way that my family would want to stay.
Then we had the opportunity to see how people who have nothing live.  Most have one set of clothes, most of the people we saw outside of the school didn’t have shoes.  Their mud huts were so small and the conditions are like nothing I could have imagined.  Let’s list a few of the deficiencies they had:

• They have no windows
• They have no floor – other than dirt.  Actually, the the walls are made of dirt as well.
• They have no kitchen – they cook outside on  a fire
• They have no shower
• They have no  bathroom – they go outside.
• They have no food besides what they can produce in their fields.
• They have no transportation  besides walking – or sometimes a beat up old bike.
• Children have to walk to school.  Often they have to leave before sun-up to arrive on time.  Many walk as many as 10 Kilometers (6 miles) each way to/from school.
• The furniture in these homes usually consists of 1 or 2 wood benches and a straw mat to sleep on.
• They have no dining room.
• They have no silverware.  They eat with their hands.
• They have no garage to park their cars or store their camping supplies.  I suppose that’s because they don’t have cars and most do not even have motorcycles or cars.
• They have no electricity and thus no lights after dark. 

This list goes on and on and on and on and on…I can’t even begin to tell you the scope of what the people don’t have.  It would be a far shorter list to tell you what they do have.  And that is just in their homes.  In their community, they have no stores, no pharmacies, no police, no roads (well, there is the one that runs through town and into the school, but the main method of transportation is walking on a maze of trails), no fire department, no supermarkets…

Let me stop and talk about that last one a bit.  Food has been on our minds a lot since we have been here.  We have been fed like kings while we have been here. But not kings like American standards.  Our usual meal consists of 3-4 types of potatoes/yams, beans, rice, matoke (pronounced muh-toe-kee – it is mashed plantains – a staple food here in Uganda), some kind of meat in small quantity (usually chicken, but sometimes beef – though not beef as WE know it) and fruit.  There is  no bread and we have seen virtually no vegetables.  I haven’t seen a green salad anywhere.  For supper last night we had chips (actually french fries though not as we know them), grilled plantains, ramen noodles, chicken and pineapple/watermelon. 


Here are a couple of pretty typical supper plates that we have eaten.

I have yet to see anything that looks like Thriftway with it’s row after row of food, huge meat selection, produce area that is unimaginable here.  I had no idea what we had in comparison to the poor here in Uganda (even the rich for that fact). 

As I said earlier, we have eaten like kings – certainly not what the children or those in the village eat.  Below is a picture of the sponsored children lining up for their lunch.  They are the fortunate ones because they are guaranteed at least one hot meal each day.  There is a cost to feeding children and this village is poor and can’t afford to feed all of the unsponsored children.


Sponsored children lining up for their lunch.  Because of the food they receive at school they are far better nourished and healthier than the unsponsored children.  One of the most heartbreaking things we have all had to endure is to watch the “haves and have-nots” live side by side.  The sponsored and the unsponsored.  You can see it in their faces, in their clothes, in their overall appearance.

Ok…I will NOT go into the whole bathroom thing other than suffice it to say that we are blessed in America.  Ok, it will not do to let this one go by without at least one picture.  This is the restroom at the school – really just  a hole in the floor.  No toilet paper there and just pray you are one of the fortunate one who has shoes!


This is the bathroom facility at the school.  The ladies were blessed with the fact that the hotels we stayed at had western-style toilets.  Like I said, we lived like kings in comparison…

So, how is it that the people in Kachungwa are so happy?  So full of joy?  The children laughing, playing and full of love?  I would have thought that they would be so  beat down by having so little and living in such horrible conditions that they would be miserable.  But instead, it was quite the opposite – they have a joy that is unexplainable by our standards.  They rely on God for everything down here and He is very … present.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s not always singing and dancing – but they rise above their living conditions by the grace and love of God.  Their relationship with God is something that I envy and will strive for in the future.  Their worship, prayer and fellowship are something that Canby Christian Church should strive for.  God is evidenced in their love.

This relationship with God, the trust they have in His provision and the fact that they “pray in the name of Jesus and believe” fill them with love.  As John 7:35 says, and we see here in the people of Kachungwa: “If you love me as the scriptures have said, out of your heart will flow rivers of living water.”  I so want that love to be in me and flow from me as I have seen here.

So, who has it better?  It depends on what is important to you.  Many times since I have been down here I have thought of the rich young ruler.  He did all of the right things, followed the laws, but when Jesus told  him to sell all of his possessions, give them to the poor and follow Him, he turned away and was sad.  As I look around, I realize that if I sold everything I owned and gave it to the poor here, it would be like taking a teaspoon of water from the ocean and thinking it might make a difference.  But that’s  not the point that Jesus was trying to make.  Do my possessions own me?  Am I so caught up in my comforts that I am missing the true, unexplainable joy of the relationship that God wants to have with me?   People here have given us everything they have - how can they do that?  I think I'm beginning to learn.  But, like the rich young ruler, will I see the right thing and turn away or will I trust in Jesus?  It's not about things, it's about Who or what I am fully committed to.  I/we have a choice to make.

All of us have had time to contemplate this while we have been here.  We have been blessed with so much, how can we return to it knowing what we have seen here?  What can we do to make a difference?  It would have been so much easier to just send a check and not bothered with the travel to Uganda.  After all, how can a short term mission like this possibly make a difference?  Isn’t that like the teaspoon from the ocean? 

It’s all about what we do when we get home and who we are when we get there.  I pray that God will use this to change me, my family, our church and this nation.  He can do that we have learned…

In the name of Jesus we pray and we DO believe,

Dave

The Lighter Side

It has been a blessed couple of days of travel and enjoying God’s creation.  The team is refreshed, renewed and back in Ggaba (headquarters of ARM).  I want to take just a minute and share the beautiful creatures that God created that we have seen in the past days as well as a little behind-the-scenes look at our time here in Uganda.  I mentioned last night that we were all in need of a time of refreshing after all that we have been through.  God wants us to work hard for Him and the advancement of His Kingdom, but he also wants to take time to rest and also to enjoy His creation.  I have never been to Africa and seen the animals only in a zoo before.  It was amazing to see a herd of elephants crossing the road yards in front of us, or a school of hippo’s only feet from the boat.  The beauty of the land is something that God provided for us.
We were able to go on a drive through the African savannah and saw many animals in the wild.  In addition, we took a boat tour to the head of the Nile river  Below are a couple of the animals that we were fortunate enough to see.

Wart hogs were plentiful.  In fact, when we arrived at the hotel, there were several near the parking lot.


The Cape Buffalo is considered the most dangerous animal in Uganda because of it’s propensity to charge.


We saw many giraffes.  The kind here in Uganda gets darker spots as it ages.


We saw a LOT of elephants.  They were all you would imagine!  This one stopped and took a good look at us before moving on.


We saw hippos by the hundreds.  The boat took us within feet of these huge and dangerous animals.  We had an excellent guide that taught us a lot about these giants.  A few times they would disappear under the water and we thought for sure they were going under the boat…

There were many crocodiles as well.  They were BIG!


And the most incredible animal to see was the lion!  Not spotted too often, but we were fortunate to see these beautiful animals.  We do have a lot of video footage that we will show later.

Finally, we wanted to share a few pictures that show some of the lighter moments that we have shared here in Uganda.  For some reason, many of them seem to have Ashley in the middle of them – she has been an absolute blast to have around!


Trying to decide if she should really try out the Ugandan woman’s hairstyle.


Bryan trying to decide if he should try out the Ashley hairstyle – we thought it might work for him.


Ashley was trying to decide if this will fit in her carry-on.


Ashley meets her family’s sponsored son “Innocent”.  Everything was going well until Ashley said “I am 16 also – in case you were wondering”.  Well, it came out a little cuter than she  might have intended and Innocent blushed (and smiled big) and all in the room busted out laughing.


How many people can you fit into our van?  17 as it turns out…


Ralph learning to carry things on his head like the Ugandan’s do.  Great form and posture Ralph!  Oh yeah – have we mentioned that nobody in Uganda has ever heard the name Ralph before?  Whenever he introduces himself, there is dead quite for a while and what we’ve dubbed “the Ralph look”.  Finally, Dalton gave him a Ugandan name to make it easier:  JJaja Semacola –which means Grandfather Leader.


Ashley learns the Ugandan way to peel a hard-boiled egg.  It took both David (our driver) and Dalton (our guide) to teach her.  Ugandan hard-boiled eggs ARE hard to peel until you learn the trick.


Ken is showing his iPad to Pastor Sylver.  We weren’t sure if he was teaching  him to play angry birds or what, but it certainly wasn’t spiritual!  It was a joy to see how the two pastors bonded.


The last picture is proof that middle-aged white guys from Canby don’t have near the rhythm that Ugandan’s do.  However, this was a mud hut with brothers & sisters in the Lord – and I know that God was pleased by the fact that I tried, but more that His children are dancing in worship of Him.  I pray that video never  hits YouTube!!!

Well, there are at least a hundred more.  As we have been serving together, we have also been having a lot of fun getting to know each other and enjoying each others company.  Thank God for this time.

Tomorrow we will be working with the local Mercy Network program administered by ARM and heading into the slums of Kampala to distribute food and pray with the people there.  I am not anxious to see what is ahead there. We will also be having some wrap-up discussions with the leadership team from ARM to discuss with them what we have learned, listen to what they have plans for and the vision of ARM and how Canby Christian Church can partner with them in the future.  Finally, Sunday we will be attending church at Pastor Alex’s church then preparing for the long trip home.

Thank you again for all of your prayers and for those of the people in Kachungwa.  One thing that I have learned is that I was not praying for them as I should, or as God has needed me to.  The sponsored children who I was able to spend a short time with desperately need not only our sponsorship, but they need our prayer.  I was humbled (there is that word again) by the prayer and thankfulness that small church offer up for us.  They truly are a people of strong faith, joyful in the Lord and our friends. 

In the name of Jesus we pray and believe!

Dave

Sabbath

It is time for a day of rest, so will not be posting any news today.  We woke at 4am Uganda time and drove 8 hours to the largest national park in Uganda.  We went on a drive throuogh the game park this afternoon and saw lions, elephants, giraffes and more.

The team is exhausted and in need of a day of rest.  God has blessed us with a nice place to stay, warm showers, good food and the chance for rest tonight.  I understand that I was a little difficult to wake up this morning after only 2 hours sleep. 

Tomorrow morning, we will take a boat ride up to the headwaters of the Nile river and then drive back down to Kampala.  The day after, we will be working with the Mercy Network and distributing food into the slums of Kampala.  We are all anxious to get home and see you, but right now recovery and preparing for what God has next are the next up.

Thank you for your continued prayer and thank God for His plans and work here in Uganda.

Dave

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.”