Sunday in Kachungwa

Greetings from all of us in Uganda.  Today was a day of worship and celebrating God in Kachungwa.   As we expected, we need to be prepared for the unexpected.  We drove to the village this morning expecting to go to church, but instead learned that they have all of the children attend Sunday school before the adult service (which, by the way, the children also attend).  We were ushered to the school building and watched the children sing a couple of songs and as they were breaking up into small groups, we were told that we were going to be teaching the children this morning.  We had not even thought that this might happen and were all caught completely off guard.  They broke the children into groups by age and assigned a pair of us to each group.  Eventually, there were so many in some classes, they even broke those up into smaller groups – which meant some on the team had to teach alone. 

 

I was blessed with teaching with Bryan!  When we got over to the classroom, we talked with the teacher and asked him what he had been teaching.  He told us that they were currently studying David & Goliath. Bryan and I stepped aside to pray for God’s guidance.  He put on both of our hearts to teach about how God helps those afraid and facing big challenges to overcome them with faith.  So, we added discussion about Daniel and the Lion’s den, talked about Jesus’ love and shared how He will help them to not be afraid.  Finally, we opened the class up for questions and had a lot of interesting questions like “what does Abraham’s name mean?” and “what was God’s promise to Sarah”, “How did God make Jesus in Mary’s [womb]?” and soon.  Bryan and I both felt like we were  being quizzed rather than teaching!  These children are very well schooled in the bible!  Below is a picture of Ashley teaching a class.

 

 

After Sunday school, we walked down to the church building.  All of us had children holding our hands as we walked.  The service was unlike anything I have ever experienced before.  It went about 3 hours or so, with worship, Ken preaching a very powerful message (God was definitely speaking through him to our  brothers and sisters in Kachungwa.  There were some challenges with the translation, but it all worked out.    Below is a picture looking back over the congregation of the Kachungwa church.  They reserved the seats in front for their guests (us).

 

 

At one point during the sermon, a dove landed in the rafters directly above Ken’s head, then turned with it’s tail pointing out towards the audience.  Another first in church for me – I prayed for a bird not too poop on Ken (though, I admit that under different circumstances it would have given me some degree of pleasure and made up for some of the jokes he has been telling on the trip).  Ralph and Isaac had the chance to lead the congregation in a worship song – see the picture below.

 

You will notice Ralph holding the mic for Isaac.  The church now has sound powered off of batteries and a generator (not running during the service), but did not have things like mic stands.  They have a electric piano and are able to play CD’s off of a laptop.  This village has come a long way thanks in large part to Canby Christian Church.  All of the children sat in the front of the church on the floor, just packed in.  They sat that way for almost 3 hours and were incredibly well behaved.

 

At the end of the service the children filed by.  Each of them stopped by to give us a hug, shake our  hand and many knelt before us as a sign of honor and respect to us for being there.  These beautiful children living in mud huts honoring me!  I should have been honoring them for their faith, strength and the joy that they obviously have in Jesus.  When the children were done, all I could do was to sit and weep.  An elderly woman of the church took my hand and I cried on her arm as she stroked my head.  I looked up through my tears to see a smile and she told me, without saying a word, that she was honored by my tears for their children.

 

After lunch, we had some joyous time with the children out in the church yard.  They LOVE having their pictures taken, then getting to see them on the camera.  I was constantly mobbed by children wanting their pictures taken.  In the few days we have been here, we have combined taken over a thousand picture (though the number is probably higher than that).  As I stood up from a mob of children, I looked over to see Ashley, in her usual sea of smiling faces.  She absolutely loves the children and they adore her.  They are fascinated with her hair and she the picture below was just too good to not post.  This captures the essence of how we are connecting with the people here.

 

 

The last part of the day was another joyous and difficult time.  I do want to say that we are all finding that there is a lot of this – there are parts of what we do that brings great joy and at the same time great pain.  We gave our gifts to our sponsored children!  Not all of them yet, just the ones the people on the team sponsor.  The children getting the gifts were overjoyed at the gifts they received, like  the young girl obviously delighted at the first doll she has ever even seen (see picture below), but there was row after row of children outside the door and window wondering if there was something for them.  The sad fact is that of almost 600 children here, only 250 are sponsored.

 

 

THIS IS IMPORTANT – PLEASE READ:  There is an obvious difference between the sponsored children and those not sponsored.  Pastor Sylver told us that it is terribly sad to see the unsponsored children, many of whom have never owned a pair of shoes and their clothes are rags.  They attend school beside the sponsored children, but are not equal.  Often, one child in a family  is sponsored while their brothers/sisters are  not.  You can also see the difference on their faces.  The sponsored children have bigger smiles, they look healthy, they are cleaner and life is better for them.  The unsponsored children are hoping and praying for someone to help them.  The first day we were there, a man came up to me with his son begging for me to sponsor him.  He looked to be about 12 years old and both he and his father tried to dress well, but their clothes were just old, dirty and tattered.  Both were desperate for help.  I could only refer them back to the pastor and the church.  I also found that as I was taking pictures, mothers would shove their unsponsored children to the front so I would take their picture in the desperate hope of getting them some attention.  Please, prayerfully consider sponsoring a child.  We all talked about this tonight and agree that we could never have imagined the dramatic difference it makes in a child’s life and certainly would have had non way of knowing if we had never come to Uganda..

 

 

Tomorrow is where God begins to stretch us in ways that we can’t imagine yet.  We are starting the day going into the village in pairs with an interpreter/guide, distributing mosquito nets that Canby Christian (you) have previously purchased and also sharing Jesus Christ with them.  In the afternoon, we are going over to a high school to meet with the youth there.  We have no idea how many to expect, but could be upwards of 400-500 students..  Several team members are going to share their personal testimony, Isaac and Ralph are going to minister to them in song and I am going to share a message of hope and salvation in Jesus Christ – followed by an invitation to be accept Jesus as their personal savior.  PLEASE PRAY FOR US TOMORROW!  One thing that we are all discovering is that when we absolutely rely on God, He is faithful and powerful in answering.  We have all experienced Him in new ways and tomorrow will be even more.  I could really get used to being this close to God and experiencing Him working through us to reach even one more child.

 

The power is out again here tonight, but thankfully, no more rioting or tear gas…just a little too much excitement for us folks from Canby, Oregon.  I’m sitting hunkered down in the dark under my mosquito net as I write this note.  Please check back for more tomorrow night.  Thank you again from all of us for your support, your prayer and mostly for taking your time to share this experience with us.  We miss you all! 

 

In the name of Jesus we pray and believe!

 

Dave

Welcome to Kachungwa

Before arriving in Kachungwa, those of us who hadn’t been to Kachungwa yet had been asking Ken & Renee what to expect.  All we could get out of them was “you’ll just have to experience it for yourselves”.  Not really what we wanted to hear, but it was all we were going to get from them.

 

As it turns out, nothing that they could have told us would have, or could have prepared us.  As we drove progressively further away from Mubende (the town we are staying in), the poorer the conditions got.  As we got close to Kachungwa, there were mud shacks, children with no clothes on playing in the mud and the roads were hardly passable by car.  Seeing the buildings people are living in are hard to describe.  I will try to get some pictures up in the next couple of days.  My stomach was really beginning to hurt as we passed by progressively smaller and more run down “houses”.

 

Finally, we saw the sign that said “Welcome to Kachungwa Child Development Program”.  We have probably all seen the video that was posted and shared that walks us through the school and heart of the villiage.  Well, that’s about what it looks like.  But more on that in just a minute.

 

As our van drove up to the church building, children and adults came streaming from the building and from other buildings around the facility.  They came to the bus to greet us.  It was at this point that I understood what Ken & Renee were telling us.  There IS nothing that they could have told us that could have come close to possibly describing what we experienced.  In my mind, I imagined that this is what it must be like when we are finally welcomed into heaven.  We could not hardly get out of the van the mob was so big.  They were cheering, hugging us, waving, singing…I am honestly not sure what all happened, but what I do know is that God’s love for Canby Christian Church was unleashed through the smiling faces of children, men, grandmothers, mothers, pastors – I am convinced that Jesus was standing in the midst of us smiling!

 

I couldn’t see for the hugs and mob around me.  I remember one grandmother grabbing my face in her hands, crying and saying “God has blessed us” then giving me a huge hug leaving her tears of love on my shoulder.  It is just impossible to describe - there is no way you could understand because you weren’t here.  I looked around and saw Ralph’s head once in a while, but other than that, the others on the team were likewise being swarmed by a generous, loving people showing their love in a powerful way.   Below is a picture of Pastor Sylvar and some of the children.

 

Here is a picture of some of the women who came to greet us.

 

After feeling the love of a loving people of God, we spent some time with them in worship, praise, prayer and a message from Rose (the social worker at Kachungwa) and Pastor Sylvar.  We then had the very great honor of participating in the graduation ceremony of 4 students from the school.  This was a very important milestone in these young people’s lives.  For graduation gifts, each of the young women was given a brand new Singer sewing machine and table and the young man was given tools enough to become a carpenter.  See their picture below (though we will have some better ones) – they are the four on the left.  We were honored to stand up front with the pastor and congratulate each of the  graduates, followed by Ken giving them a blessing to start their new lives.  It was humbling to be here in Uganda honoring the efforts of these young people starting out as Uganda’s next generation of leaders.

 

 

We spent the next hour (only seemed like about 5 minutes though) mingling with the people of the village.  The children loved  having their pictures taken and then getting to see them on the camera.  I was swarmed by smiling children.  I could ramble on for a long time about this, but it’s late here and we have a long day ahead.

 

Today it rained in Kachungwa – in fact right  now it is pouring rain with a lightning and thunder storm outside.  For over two months, they have had hot weather and no rain.  You may recall that the last time a team from Canby Christian Church visited Kachungwa, it rained.  The people view this as a blessing from God – and the timing isn’t coincidental.  When Pastor Sylvar was welcoming us with the church, we noticed that the church now has a cement floor.  We saw a new, very nice playground as well, and were told that financial donations by Canby Christian Church had paid for both of these amazing things for Kachungwa.  The people couldn’t thank us enough – though we all recognize that we are just being stewards of what God  has given us, helping where he has lead us and give all of the glory and honor to Him!

 

 

Let me just close by saying that there is much good here, but there is also much evil.  When we arrived back at the hotel, we found that the “opposition party'” rally held just a few blocks from the hotel had developed into a full blown riot.  As we got out of the van, the air was thick with tear gas and sounds of cannisters being launched into the air.  The wind was blowing the gas right over our hotel as the rioters ran past.  The power was out and the situation was uncertain.  As we sat in the dark hotel restaurant, we did the only thing we could do – pray!  And did we pray.  Before praying, Renee was having a horrible time with the tear gas affecting here eyes and nose – as were the rest of us.  Within just a few minutes, though, the tear gas was gone and the riot had basically ended.  We can only thank God for His comfort (none of us were afraid) and His protection.  Above is a picture of the opposition rally that ultimately resulted in the riot. 

 

Thanks to God for our safety and thank you for all of your prayers.  I will say that none of us could have seen this coming and I am confident that your faithful prayers provided protection for us.  Please keep praying for us and the work God has us doing as we spend the next 5 days worshipping with and witnessing to the people of Kachungwa. 

 

We have learned a new way to close in prayer while we have been here: 

“In the name of Jesus, we pray and we believe, amen.”

 

Dave

Good morning from Africa

God’s grace shows in so many ways here.  The Ggaba church has an all night prayer meeting every Friday night.  I woke up to drums at 4:30am and was then treated to another sunrise that I could only watch in awe and reflect on the glory of God.  Judges 5:31 says “Let your enemies perish oh Lord, but let those who love You be like the sun as it comes into the full light of day.”



In a short time, we will be boarding the bus and will be off to Kachungwa.  We learned some tragic news yesterday – one of the sponsored children in Kachungwa drowned in a tragic accident.  Please pray for the village of Kachungwa and the family of the boy.  Sherry Linger  was the young man’s sponsor and would appreciate your prayer as well.  We are comforted that he is no longer troubled by the pain of this world, but is dancing on golden streets with the Lord Jesus right now!

Pray for our travels and our meeting the children of Kachungwa this afternoon.

Praise Jesus!

Dave

A few pictures from the day

It is getting late here and we are all exhausted, but before we turn in for the night, we wanted  to post a couple more pictures so you can get a little better idea of what we experienced here.

             
Sunrise in Uganda over Lake Victoria


Worship with Isaac


Ashley sees a spider (BIG spider)


The Operating room in the clinic


Our favorite – the team holding precious abandoned babies at the orphanage! 
What a blessing to us all!!!


This is a kitchen – this is it.  In fact, this one is unusual as it is indoors.


Children leaving primary school at 4pm – Bethany Village.

Good night from Uganda.  Tomorrow we get up and drive to Kachungwa.  More then...

Dave

Greetings from Uganda

Praise God!  We made it safely to Uganda.  We arrived at 10:30pm last night (local time). It was an incredibly long travel day (well, a little more than a day).  All of your gifts arrived in the luggage and we had no problems getting visas, through customs, etc.  We were greeted SO warmly by Michael and others from ARM at the airport. 

Our introduction to Uganda was getting on a bus in 80 degree temperature and driving in crazy traffic on the wrong side of the road (they drive on the left here). 

Let me be brief as we have a lot going on.  Today was our first full day in Uganda and it was a very busy day.  We started with a tour of the ARM office and the amazing program that they have going here.  We then went to a local medical clinic and spent time with the people there and had a wonderful conversation with the doctor there.  After lunch, we went to Loving Hearts Orphan Home.  I will need some time to describe that experience, but one thing I will say is that Ashley said that one of the babies who was there because her mother tried to kill her by stabbing her, “looked into my soul”.  I personally, held several of the children who were so beautiful and soaked up the love we brought there. 

After the orphanage, we visited Bethany Village which is a self-contained community that consists of a medical clinic, school, orphanage, farm (pigs, chickens, vegetables and other crops) and the church.  More on that later as well, but they have a God-given vision and people dedicating their lives to raising Uganda’s future leaders.  To get to the village, we had a 40 minute boat ride to get to the village across Lake Victoria.  Lake Victoria is the second largest lake in the world (do you know the biggest?) and is the source of the Nile River.

I really apologize for the brevity of this post, but we have many things going and I wanted you all to know we are here, safe and blessed by God.  Please pray for us to travel to Kachungwa safely tomorrow and that God will bless the people here in Uganda.

Thank you for your prayers and we will be getting you more soon.  In Christ – Dave

Life Changing

“This is going to be a life changing trip for you!”  That is a message that I have heard many times over the past couple of months – most recently was on my flight back from Florida yesterday.  It is interesting how many times I find myself speaking passionately about wanting to help people that I have never met in a country (let alone continent) I have never visited.  Without exception, the response from people is the same – this is going to be a life changing trip.

When I was saved, THAT was life changing.  “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold all things have become new.”  I remember clearly that experience of becoming a new creation and how my life was changed forever when I met Jesus Christ as my savior and was forgiven of my sin.  In a moment, the message of the gospel and the truth of Jesus Christ transformed me and I was different – it was truly a life changing event.

For myself, the trip to Uganda is about the people of Uganda and how I can, even in a small way, be a part of God performing life changing work for the people there.  My prayer has been and continues to be that God use our team to share the same gospel that changed me to change people’s lives in Uganda.  How?  I don’t know for sure – each member of our team are stepping out in faith here.  I don’t expect that I can set foot on the continent of Africa, with all of the issues they have been struggling with for generations, and expect to turn things around in 2 weeks.  If we can help one person, if we can encourage one church, if we can enable one pastor, if we can make one life better, if one person is saved as a result of our sharing the same gospel that saved me – we will be part of God’s life changing work.

But, all of that really isn’t up to us, it is up to God.  We need to go faithfully to where He has sent us and be the evidence of changed lives. Being part of God’s work is life changing, and that is what I want for this trip, what we all want.

We are looking forward to the commissioning by the church on Sunday, knowing that we are going with the full blessing, support and prayers of Canby Christian Church to Uganda and the village of Kachungwa.  Only a couple of days now…

Dave

Less than 2 weeks

The mission team had a breakfast meeting this morning.  Ken and Renee have been to Uganda before, so they were sharing their experience with us "rookies".  I think that there is a general consensus that as much as we may prepare, we will be unprepared.

Ken shared about the last trip when he and Neal were given about 2 minutes to prepare for teaching Ugandan youth about HIV/AIDS.  Renee talked about some of the questions she fielded when talking with the women there.  The thing I took away from this morning is that I will not be prepared.  It will be God who gets us all through what He has in store for us.

We are all so excited at what God has ahead!!!   Stay tuned and please keep praying for us all.