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Sunday- Day Four

Sunday Day Four

 

Yep.  Good day.  A-Mazing Day.  Ggaba church was great.  We only stayed for worship but I enjoyed it thoroughly.  And for those of you who have heard the Mangaza Children’s choir… they sang 2 songs before we left.  Full out singing from their hearts and doing the dancing and hand motions all at the same time.

 

Then we headed out to Buloba for some country type church.  They were having issues with the generator so the sound system was spotty.  (we are looking into purchasing a new generator for them this week.)  Josh did a great job preaching/bringing the word from Isaiah 61: 1-3.  Good stuff.  And 4 people came forward saying they wanted to be Christians.  Several had made professions at the film last night that they did as a precursor to tonight’s movie.  One was a man who had helped work on the original church foundation who is/was a muslim.  One was George from last June- who is really John.  He said that he wanted to be a Christian and come to church.  It was good.

 

Then after service we had the children who had gifts from sponsors stay in the church.  Then we sat down and gave out the gifts and cards.  The children were so happy.  And several muslim families came to church with their children so they could meet us.  I know my little boy Rahman brought his mother up to me to meet me.  It was so humbling to have this woman bow down and sit on her knees saying “Thank you, Weebale nnyo” over and over again.  I just could not explain to her how much it meant to give her son such a gift- that it is such a blessing to ME.  And the KidzTown child- Aisha was very happy about her gifts.  I explained to her again that the children bring their offering for her sponsorship each week.  She saw me tonight and smiled and waved and came over and sat by me.  And of course cute little Resty loved her gifts.  Rahman took his little hand crank flashlight and put it safely away in his pocket.  Plus gifts from all the other team’s kids and some random folks from back home…. I will post pictures in the morning.  It is late and I just can’t stay up tonight.  Biggest apologies.

 

This afternoon was a great time of spending some leisure time talking with people and hanging out with adults and kids alike.  It was great to sit and laugh, and walk around the neighborhood. I got to sit in the ‘kitchen’ and learn the whole process of making Matooke and how to scrub dishes- they use a leaf that has the scrubbing power of steel wool.

 

Then tonight we gathered and danced a little to the pre film music videos… Then they showed “Paul, The Emmisary” movie.  It was great to see the people react to the miracles in the movie.  They would cheer and holler in celebration of a child being healed and a demon possessed woman being set free.  It was great.  And a bunch of folks came forward to confess Christ.  The numbers were a little skewed because so many children came up when we (the muzungus) came forward to pray for those coming forward.  But every name was written down to be followed up with. 

 

And a side note to the movie- can I finally say that there was NOT a full moon tonight.  The FIRST time EVER I have been in Uganda.  So after it got really dark and I could see stars I walked over a little to sit and stare up at the stars (and a couple of satellites).  I am continually amazed at what God has made.  And a new opportunity to sit in the middle of a new part of seeing his creation.  It was A-Mazing. 

 

Our amazing Redeemer, Savior, Father, Glorious, Magnificent, Wonderful Lord is at work!  Here, There, Everywhere.  I have once again loved seeing HIM.  Oh and the ride home tonight was long, exhaust filled, but fun and full of laughter and random songs from the back seat of the van…thanks Morgan and Jordan.  They will NOT be on A.I. anytime soon.  But it’s all good.  And God is good. Great. A-Mazing. 

Day Three- kids and amazingness

Day Three-

 

Here’s a bullet point list of things not previously covered-

Amanda is trying new foods daily.  And finding new things she likes.  And finding things she definitely doesn’t like.  But props to her for trying.

 

Some members of the team are learning how to say “no” when necessary.  It is hard but needed at times.

 

We are all learning how to hold hands with at least 5 kids at a time when we walk anywhere when we have had a group together.

 

We love the kids.

 

We love the adults.

 

Mariam- the older lady who lives in the church house (it is owned by the church but Mariam lives there, and Pastor Eva stays there in the storage room when she has to stay in Buloba) is now up and walking again.  Friday when I went over she greeted me at the doorway then stood up!  She actually got a lawn chair wheelchair from Pastor Peter in Ggaba but doesn’t need it right now! 

 

Pray for Josh that he doesn’t break his leg.  Thursday his foot slipped through the dock at Bethany- all good but a bruise and some scrapes.  Friday he took a dive while playing duck, duck, goose. 

 

 

So this morning was “amazing.”  Wow.  Incredible.  When we got to Buloba the children were in the church doing their devotion during the Saturday program.  There were probably 200 or more of the 300 sponsor children there.  It was so quiet because all the children were sitting still and listening. 

 

When we came in they sang songs and welcomed us.  Then they broke up into 3 age groups for their morning bible lesson.  They were discussing Luke 2:52 and memorizing it.  Ironically it is the verse that KidzTown curriculum is based off of.  After lesson time they washed their hands and had a roll and porridge for everyone.  Then they headed back into the church for roll call and the birthday celebration.  All the children who had birthdays from January through May were called up on stage and cheered for one by one.  Then we all sang “Happy Birthday”  to the children and clapped and hooted and hollered.  Then cut birthday cake for everyone.  I must say it was some good cake and a fun time.  Godfrey- the head Social Worker said that the children don’t know their own birthdays so they are doing this to help them know their birthdays and to celebrate those days.  That they are special.   The team headed off to eat lunch in the house while the children played in the church. 

 

After we ate they asked if we wanted to serve the children lunch.  Of course we said yes.  And the children had a BIG plate full of food!  Each child had over a cup of rice, matooke (which is steamed plantains), cabbage (cole slaw) and either beef or fish followed by some watermelon.  The team loved that they got to serve the kids and we loved that the children got to eat a big meal.  Some of them could not even finish it. 

 

After lunch Lauren and Morgan taught a bunch of the kids the War Eagle kick off cry as well as Bodda Getta.  It was quite entertaining and I am sure that most of the kids did not have a clue what they were saying.

 

One of the highlights of the morning has been the opportunity to get to know our sponsor children better.  And getting to know some of our friends kids.  Today after lunch I went into the office and two of the sponsor children were receiving one of the packages they got from their sponsors.  James Campbell your package has been received and your kids are thankful and have written you! J  We will be giving out gifts that we brought tomorrow after church. 

 

Then this afternoon we had VBS.  That is third world Vacation Bible School for those of you unfamiliar.  Lots of kids, outside, with about 250-275 of your closest Ugandan friends.  We did games, singing, David and Goliath and Fishers of Men.  It was crazy.  It was 2 ½ hours and it was great.  The kids love playing and singing and the parachute and everything else.  Jordan on story time, Josh and Catherine on games, Morgan rocking the song time with Lydia and Lauren, Amanda and me on crafts.  Good stuff. 

 

I think today has just been an amazing (yep, substitute your own word here) day.  It has been tremendous and overwhelming to spend time with the kids.  And to have them continually pulling on you, calling your name, holding your hand, telling you “hello” or thank you.  One of Zaria’s grandkids they call Junior was yelling “Hey, Hey, Hey” to me continually this morning while I was walking outside during class time.  This is the little boy who a year ago would cry everytime we looked his way. 

 

Such change is happening in these kids lives.  In the church family.  To see the adults serving their kids every day is wow.  That 2 Saturdays out of the month the kids get to come to the church and get food and love and truth.  I cannot express to you how much child sponsorship means.  The children ask all the time if and when their sponsor is coming.  They want to know you.  They want to say thank you.  They want to smile and giggle and hold your hand.  Eternal investments.  Thank you.  There are still more to be sponsored… but that is a blog post for later.

 

Tomorrow we are off to Ggaba church in Kampala then to Buloba for church, hanging out with the kids, passing out our gifts to the sponsored kids we brought gifts for and then the Jesus Film tomorrow.  Please join us as we pray for those who do not know the Lord to come to Saving Knowledge of Him!

 

Thank you for reading.  Sorry for not enough pics.  We ran out of internet prepaid time last night before I could upload.  I am going to upload pics as much as possible tonight.  TIA (This is Africa.)  I am just thankful for internet in our house and not 2 miles down the street! : ) 

Day Two- Uganda

Day Two- Friday

 

Today was an amazing day! Yes, you will hear amazing a lot.  I run out of adjectives that are fitting.  And are big enough to catch the amazingness of what God is doing.

 

We slept good- through a thunderstorm and torrential downpour.  We woke up and it was still raining.  It stopped as we headed out to Buloba and when we arrived in Buloba it was cloudy but not raining. 

 

Josh’s sponsor child, Mariam, had her 5^th birthday today so he took her into the office to give her the gifts his family sent.  So we got to watch her open her gifts and sing happy birthday to her with the team and her mother.  And Mariam shared her report card with Josh.  She got good in all subjects except “Playing” in which she got excellent.  : )

 

We split up into 2 teams and headed out into the community to prayer walk.  My team headed back down away from the town and up into the hill.  Altogether we probably walked 4 miles or more in a large circle that brought us back up to the road.  As we walked we encountered George from last summer.  Turns out George is really “John” and his wife is still having issues.  As we talked with Rose and John we came to find out that part of their problems are that they really don’t get along.  They said they love each other but they fight.  So we prayed for both of them and John said that he is going to try to come to church again.

 

As we prayer walked Pastor Eva and Sister Esther would stop at homes and bring out children who are sponsored.  Or waiting to be sponsored.  I got to meet my child- Rahman!  He was not to excited about meeting some Muzungus (white people) but he said “thank you” and we told him to come on Saturday and Sunday afternoon to spend time with us.  We also found out that one of the children was sick so they told her family to come to the office to get a form so she could go to the clinic and it would be paid for through her sponsor fees.  Pastor Eva shared that one of the children have left the community because the family was doing witchcraft and the neighbors told them to leave, so they are not sure where the little girl is and they are trying to find her.  Our team definitely saw a wide variety of ways that the children have need and how the sponsor program is seeking to reach the children through the church. 

 

We also encountered a home that had quite a bit of cattle land.  We were told that it was a Ugandan man who had married an American woman who later died and is buried up on the hill above his house.  His family is one of the first Christian families in Uganda and he is one of the president’s advisers.  He has not been coming to church, despite his family heritage but Pastor Eva said that he has been reading his bible more.  So we pray that he would get connected to not only the church but the life giving power of Christ.  They said that he spends most of the week in Kampala with his job. 

 

As we headed through town we passed the police station and we were requested to “make our presence known.”  Turns out the church didn’t notify them that we were coming like they should and they wanted to officially know why were in town.  I explained to them our schedule and we were officially told that we could “continue on with your plan.”  What was funny was that some of the team thought at first that we  were going to get a tour of the police “station.” Yeah, that didn’t happen.  But we did visit the main office/hut/shack.  Interesting times.

 

After some drum playing in the church we ate lunch and rested up for the afternoon.  Then we headed down to the school with about 200 of our closest Buloban friends and played.  Played hard.  Played a lot.  Laughed a lot.  Soccer (football), jump rope, Frisbee, duck, duck, goose, Rat and Cat, bubbles, races, and pretty much whatever else you can think of.  We ended with some singing and Basket in the House and Chidoso.  While we were there Amanda got to meet her sponsor child- Edward.  He was not very happy about getting his picture taken.  And I got to meet Aisha- the child that KidzTown sponsors.  I got to explain to her that the children at church bring their offering each Sunday and part of it goes to her sponsorship.  And I told her that Sunday we had some things for her from the children. 

 

We said goodbye and piled in the van for a good ride home.  I think every one was worn out but satisfied.  The team played hard, prayed and walked a lot.  But we have seen God at work in Buloba.  I am again struck by the change in that community.  Pastor Eva said that the church has almost doubled and it has so much to do with the children’s sponsorship. 

 

Tomorrow we will be spending time with the sponsor children at the mandatory project meeting they have every Saturday morning.  Tomorrow they will be celebrating all the January- May birthdays.  There will be cake and I am sure some singing and a lot of fun.  Tomorrow afternoon is Vacation Bible School- singing, bible story (fishers of men and David and Goliath), games, and crafts (bracelets and coloring pages).  Join us as we pray that we will have enough coloring pages and bracelets.  There is a great possibility that we may have close to 350 children or more!  So think Fishes and Loaves and pray! : )

 

Thank you for reading along.  And I am going to update the photo album.  Apologies for the sideways pics.  Still figuring out some things.  I promise I will turn them when I get home!

 

Peace, love and mosquito spray.  God is good! 

Day One Uganda

After a super refreshing sleep through the night we all got up and got ready for the day. We headed down the street to the Ggaba port/market area to get on a boat to head to Bethany Village. We took a boat ride on almost perfectly calm Lake Victoria for 30 minutes to the orphanage/village that Ggaba/ Africa Renewal Ministries operates. Bethany Village has over 450 kids in their sponsorship project. 177 of those live in the orphanage. Brother Francis showed us around- to the clinic, school, the homes, and told us about how they operate everything there. The children were on holiday but many were at work in their house gardens, cutting grass, washing clothes, or sweeping. They definitely are learning the importance of hard work. 

After Bethany Village we headed to Ggaba church to visit the ARM office to register our gifts we brought our sponsor children. While we were working on that the team got the tour of the school and church. After lunch and a little downtown traffic we headed out to Buloba. I can thankfully say that the road has been repaved and is MUCH improved over the last trip. Our trip to Buloba took much less time than when the road half gone last time. Such simple things! 

When we drove up to the Church I was amazed to see that there were a TON of kids! The sponsorship children all came to greet us. It is amazing to see the change that is happening in Buloba. The smaller church building has been turned into a school- 2 rooms and the sponsorship office. There is the ‘baby class’ and the ‘top class’- or kindergarten. We all gathered in the big church building- which has had significant work done on it since last trip as well. The choir and children sang some with us and Geoffrey the head Social Worker and Isaac the Pastor welcomed us. Then they asked me and Josh to come speak. I got to share that approx 70 more children have been sponsored in the last 2 weeks! And we brought a portable sound system for them to use on Sundays. (They have been having problems hearing since they moved into the building and requested if it would be possible to bring one for them.) They were overjoyed and Pastor Isaac had to put it all together even though they didn’t have the generator to run it yet. 

We all then saw the school in the church and walked down to the well. All the children and adults walked with us. It was like a parade down the road. What is amazing is that the children were fighting over holding our hands. I think at one point I had 6 kids holding my hands or arm. And I thought back to the first visit when Lisa Pierce and I were in Buloba and the children would not really get near to us and were so shy. And they seemed so sad and without hope. Today they all crowded around the van and shouted “See you tomorrow” as we left, smiling and laughing. And one little child was crying. Not sure if that was over us or not…but it makes you feel strange to be regarded in such a way. I keep telling them “you are welcome, it is the Lord through our church doing this with you. You are welcome.” 

So we are back home, settling in for our evening and getting ready to prayer walk tomorrow morning and play with the kids in the afternoon at the school down the street. It is going to be a great day.

 Thank you for the prayers. Be sure to check out the photo album for some pictures.

Travel Day to Uganda

After an interesting couple of hours checking in at the Atlanta Airport…(Thank you Delta, we are not really friends, and I hope I don’t see you anytime soon. But that’s a blog for another day.) We got on our way. My computer says it is 2:43AM but my watch says it is 9:43AM. We are in the Netherlands and I have officially been in Amsterdam. Some of us walked out to the overlook upstairs and to do that you have to go out through passport control and back in. So our passports have 2 more stamps in them. :) I think the whole team is pretty excited about arriving in Uganda tonight. Some slept on the plane. Some not so much. We got to watch the sun set above the clouds and then see the sun rise. All within our 8hr 55 min flight. And I thought I would mention our stowaway- Flat Stanley courtesy of Faith Elizabeth in Texas. Flat (as I call him for short) has traveled with me the last couple of weeks doing the uneventful then traveled to Orange Beach and is now on his way to Uganda. If I had a friendlier passport control guy I would have asked him to have his picture taken with Flat. Maybe on the way home. And I have to give a shout out to David Jacobs for the homemade team cookies. And Queenie for sorting out the devotion books last minute. She can operate under pressure. Thank you! And to Lauren’s parents for the yummy lunch at Hoolihan’s at the airport. And thank you for all the prayer warriors who came to tell us goodbye and bring goodies and notes. I know at least one of the team members is so excited about her daily encouraging notes/scripture I might have to take them away so she doesn’t read them all in one day! You guys are amazing and you help make our trip successful! Thank you for praying. I will post again tomorrow night about our first day in Uganda. It’s gonna be good… and if you need to reach us you can call or text 334-707-7405 or our Ugandan number which is 011256777581875

Glory to God Forever

I went to the beach this weekend with my friend Jen and my house parent/friend type Karen.  Saturday I got a little lesson on some marine biology.  While trying in vain to dig up little crabs I realized that there are little creatures in the sand I had no idea were even there.

There it is.  What I didn't know is that when the wave exposes this little shell and recedes the little creature gets to action.  Out of the pointy end a little paddle shaped mollusky thing comes out.  It digs in the sand and the shell is buried again. 

This may not seem like much, but as I stood in the waves for a really long time, looking for shells, watching these things burying themselves, and trying to find crabs I kept hearing a song in my heart. 

Steve Fee- "Before the World was Made, Before you spoke it to be, You were the King of Kings, Glory to God, Glory to God, Glory to God Forever."

I was simply amazed to see God's creation.  To sit and talk with a friend.  To hear another's heart.  To discuss our struggles, the things that God has brought us through and He is still working on us in.  

I loved to see all this working together to simply point to HIM.  And to stare at wonder at something so simple as a little creature in a shell making my heart sing "Glory to God Forever"

The team leaves in about 9 hours for the airport and off to Uganda.  We covet your prayers.  I cannot wait to share with you what God is going to be up to on the other side of the world! 

To Him be the glory!  

I am having a boy!

Okay so not really HAVING him...but I am going to get to hug on him.  And give him some lovin. 

So I got to meet with a great friend last week for lunch.  Great as in 'I am going to ask you simple questions that as you begin to answer them won't seem so simple."  

During our discussion we began talking about the role of the body of Christ (the church) and how many orphans there are out there in the world.  And the need.  And what is our/my role in that?  

I am not in a place to adopt a child of my own there is something I can do.  Investing in lives.

I already sponsor Resty through Africa Renewal Ministries.  I have known her from one of my first trips to Uganda.  Well, I decided this weekend that as the Lord has blessed me with more, I feel that I need to return more to those in need.  

So I introduce you to my new child.   His name is Rahman Semakula.  He's 5 and will be in Kindergarten as soon as my paperwork is processed.  I have been shopping for a few shirts and shorts and will be picking up some other things to him next week.  I think I am going to have to pack half a suitcase just for my 2 ARM kids and the KidzTown kid's stuff!  

Rahman sounds like a muslim name- since he doesn't have another name. So I am hoping that this child is someone whose family needs to know the truth of the gospel and we can eternally impact his world!  Man, I am amazed at the ways God can work.  I am excited to see "my" kids next week! I love them- and one of them I haven't even met! 

If you are interested in sponsoring an ARM child we have only 80 kids left!  But there are more if we need to get more signed up! Wow at what God can do through people who are available!  Thanks to all of you who are currently sponsoring a child.  Or have adopted an orphan.  Or... I see the Lord in you. 

Leaving on a jet plane

So... I am going to Uganda next week.  Again. 5th time.  Can't believe that stat. If only I had flight miles for all those trips...hmm.  I cannot wait to see what God is going to do.  It's gonna be (insert the most fabulous adjective you can think of here). 

I am going with some Amazing folks.  I wanted to give you a group shot and open up the Uganda photo album for the May 2009 trip.  So here we are. We covet your prayers.