Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Our 2nd Christmas in Uganda!

Many of you have been asking how our Christmas was here this year, being so far from home... or what we did to celebrate the birth of Jesus... So we thought we'd post some pictures from the day!

First, on Christmas Eve, we went to Michael & Angela Kelly's house (they are WGM missionaries that live in Kampala~ the capital). There were a total of six families, 13 kids, & a partridge in a pear tree! And we had a delicious dinner, just like home... ham & all! The Kellys were so gracious to open up their home to all of us. And it really was so helpful to be with so many other families and friends during the time when we are missing our family & friends back home extra!

On Christmas Day, first we went to our field director's house, Jon & Lisa Mayo, for brunch. It was good to just be with a family & see all the presents their two boys (Jordan & Ethan) had received & eat some more yummy food! There's just something about being in a home with children, piles of wrapping paper & good food on Christmas Day!

After spending a couple hours with the Mayos, we went to our good friends, the Ironsides (pictured left)... you may remember seeing them in our videos & pictures from last Christmas. And you may have seen Pamela Ironside in our blog before~ she, her husband Kevin & their 4 kids, Christian, Blake, Addison, & Collin have become very close friends of ours over the past year here. This is the same family that took us to the orphanage last year to be a part of fifty precious children's lives. And this year was just as special!

Pamela invited about 12 of the neighborhood children and a couple of the parents over to their house, and she allowed us to be a part of celebrating Christmas with them. We made cookies for them & had snacks, read the Christmas Story to them, watched a Christmas movie, played outside in their yard, & even made snow! My sister, Ashley, sent us "snow in a box" last year for Christmas, and we finally got to use it! It was the first time for these children to ever see snow, and they each took a turn making it~ it was so fun! After all the Ugandan children left, the Ironside boys & I played with the snow & it was hilarious! Here we are, in Africa, in 90 degree weather, in shorts & t-shirts... playing with snow!!! We had a blast! Thank you, Ashley! :-)

Here are some pictures of the Ironside boys with their friend, Andrew, "playing in the snow!" Andrew, the Ugandan pictured here, was so precious! It was so unforgettable to see this grown man, jumping up and down, almost singing... "This is my first time to see snow!"... over & over and just genuinely having fun! We'll have to post a video of it later! What a memorable Christmas this has been for us!







Pamela also prepared a little gift bag for each of the children
with candy, a small toy, & a t-shirt... The t-shirts we actually donated to John & I by Christ United Methodist Church, the church we attended when we lived in Mississippi. They were extra shirts from a VBS there, that my friend Rachel sent us to share with the children here. We are so thankful for her & so many others of you who have reached out to the children & people of Uganda to share what you have with those less fortunate, who don't have much. Pamela went over to visit some of the neighbors today (the day after Christmas), and she told me that all of the children were washing their new shirts! So cute! They need new clothes so much, and they appreciated these simple t-shirts more than many of us Americans would appreciate a whole new wardrobe. Thank you, Rachel & everyone at CUMC!

It was really nice this year, again, to be able to focus on the true meaning of Christmas... the gift of Jesus Christ, born for every single person on this earth. And all we have to do is be willing to accept Him, trust Him, and love Him in return for the gift of salvation and TRUE joy, happiness & peace in this life and the next!

Sunday, December 09, 2007

Intense Week, Continued....


Pastors & Parties!

As soon as we got home from Gulu, we "hit the ground running." First, on Friday, John Onek (pictured left), the pastor we are training from Sudan, came to our house to do the final training session of the AGC Membership Manual! Yeah! Then John went to the Congo border to pick up one of our friend's children from boarding school. Then that night, we had a going away party for Kim & Sam Trenwith, our friends from New Zealand~ they leave on Tuesday to go back home. :-( It will be so hard to say goodbye to them!

The next day, we went to Nebbi to give the pastors we have been training there, along with John Onek, the exam over the AGC Membership Manual... they were so serious about the test and had really studied and given 100%! It was awesome to see how much they care about this training and how eager they were to pass so that they can begin the official pastor training program in January with us! After the exam, we taught the guys some old fashion Christmas carols! It was so fun! They did not really know the songs, but they tried so hard to learn them & were so passionate singing them in their Ugandan accents~ it really was a precious thing to witness! Plus, we laughed a lot! And as soon as we started singing, the kids crowded at the doors and windows to listen and dance along! It was a precious time for sure!

Sunday, we had the chance to go to the ORA (Orphans & Refugee Aid) Christmas party for all of the orphans they sponsor here in Uganda! (ORA is the organization Kim & Sam are here with). It was a sweet time... the kids performed songs & dances for us, which were actually pretty funny... not as impressive as the kids with HEALS that we wrote about in the Gulu blog entry, I must say! But they were sweet! John & Sam also had yet another opportunity to "lead worship" together for these kids... They had some songs planned, but the kids didn't really know them, so they just improvised and learned very quickly how to play along to their Lugbara songs! It was great! My favorite orphan I met is Norman~ his love language is definitely physical touch, which is mine too, so we got along well! He played with my hair & held my hand every chance he got!

And just for a taste of Ugandan cooking... these pictures are of how they cooked lunch for the day! Pretty awesome how they make a stove out of a few branches and a hole in the ground, isn't it? And how about that meat? They really know how to improvise... palm branches as a counter top! We didn't actually get to eat the lunch... instead, Jesus had it planned for us to have possibly the most intense day of our lives...

Our Most Intense Experience Yet...

Sam & Kim were on the way back into town to take their 2 little boys, Zak & Leejay, home for naps. They weren't on the road but for a few minutes when they came upon a horrible accident. A huge truck had blown a tire and turned over... people were stuck under the truck, screaming & crying for help, blood everywhere, chickens and goats were dead all over the place. Kim immediately called John & I to come and help carry the people out of their car and also stay with the boys. Kim (pictured right) is a nurse in the ER in New Zealand, so it was such a "God-incidence," as my mom would call it, that she was there to help these people. I don't know what would have happened to them without her. She almost didn't come with Sam to take them home. Jesus definitely ordered her day.

When we arrived at the hospital, there was absolutely NO DOCTOR to be found ANYWHERE. And there was only 1 nurse, who you could hardly even call a nurse. So Kim stepped right in and started IV's in everyone, cleaned up their wounds, relocated one woman's ankle, and even made a splint out of a cardboard box! She was amazing! And the facilities were unimaginable.... these people were laying on a concrete floor with no pillows or blankets, and they were shivering from being in shock. So we found an old, dirty towel hanging up & used it as a pillow for one woman, and John found a vinyl covering to use as a blanket for another woman. Because it was a Sunday, everyone was off work. The operating room was closed, the x-ray room was closed, there was only 1 nurse to be found in this huge hospital, we couldn't even find a decent IV pole. I felt so helpless... all I could do was PRAY, call all of the doctors we knew in Arua to try to get some help, PRAY MORE, hold an IV up for a woman and tell her she's going to be okay, and PRAY. The only other hospital here ALSO had NO DOCTOR, because the doctor on call was sick. Our friend, Dr. Mbarak, couldn't help us because he only has a clinic, and these cases were too severe for him to handle with his limited facilities, and he's not allowed to come operate in the public hospital, since he isn't affiliated with it. We did not know what to do.

Meanwhile, John was running all over this huge hospital trying to find even one doctor... He finally found one, and he told John that he "wasn't feeling good and couldn't help us." John gave him a good talking to and reminded him of the oath he has taken as a physician, and the doctor FINALLY came into help us after we had already been there for 1 whole hour!!!!! Once he came to see the patients, we questioned how much he really even knew. Kim was suggesting things, like... shouldn't we give this person a muscle relaxer or pain reliever before we relocate her ankle? Or shouldn't we have a splint ready to put on it as soon as we do this? And the doctor was like, "Oh yeah, that's a good idea..." We couldn't believe it! It was unreal.

Kim and I went back to the hospital today to check on these people and make sure they got medical attention, since we knew they wouldn't get into surgery until today with everything being closed yesterday. One woman was just going into surgery and another STILL had NOT EVEN BEEN SEEN BY A DOCTOR, and this was 21 HOURS LATER!!!! We kept saying, "I know this is Africa... but this is ridiculous... it is inhumane." Why is it like this here? Maybe it's because the doctors don't get paid hardly anything, or maybe it's because there's no sense of urgency in this culture... I have no idea. But please pray that we never get sick here! Please pray that God would put a hedge of protection over the people of Arua, especially on Sundays when every one is off work, EVEN IN THE ER!!! Please pray that God would bring good physicians here.

Update on Gulu Trip- An Intense Week...

“Once one has been to these challenging, terrible places, they’re always strangely drawn back… because there’s nothing that can compare to seeing the raw reality of the basic need for survival. It disgusts and inspires.” ~ Dan Eldon

Where do I even begin??? This week has been extremely intense for us… as we started this week with a 3 day trip to Gulu, Uganda, the home of the Acholi Tribe, the “Invisible Children,” the “Lord’s Resistance Army” (LRA), Joseph Kony, war, hundreds of thousands of child abductions, child soldiers, child mothers, internally displaced people camps (IDP camps) with up to 50,000 people living in huts practically on top of each other, and all just a 3 hour drive from our doorstep. It is almost impossible to describe what we have witnessed this past week in a blog entry. For the past 21 years, the people of northern Uganda have suffered from this war of the rebels, the LRA, who have tried to overtake the government of Uganda by taking children captive as their soldiers, since no adult in their right mind would fight for them.

It is just recently, since we have been in Uganda, within the last year, that Joseph Kony has left this country, that the LRA has stopped abducting the children here, that peace, hope, and a future are finally a part of the people of northern Uganda’s life. But the affects of this war are still so extremely visible still today.

Perhaps the most shocking thing you would see if you were to come here are the IDP camps (the internally displaced people camps)~ (pictured right). It was about 10 years ago that HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of Acholi people were given 48 hours to pack up all of their belongings and forced to move from their villages to these camps to be protected from the LRA. It was not a choice; they were forced to move to these camps, or as some Acholi would call them, “prisons” or “zoos,” where they are “living like animals.” Can you imagine… being “displaced” in your own country, your own home?... And not for just months, but for over a decade now. We were able to visit one of these camps during our time there, and it was one of the saddest things we have ever seen. The camp we visited had 10,000 PEOPLE living in it, and that is considered a SMALL camp in Gulu!!!!!!! Larger camps have up to 50,000 PEOPLE living in closer quarters than most of our bathrooms are from our bedrooms.

Now that the LRA is gone, it would be safe for the people to move back “home” to their villages… EXCEPT for the fact that the LRA planted over 3,000 landmines all over northern Uganda, of which ONLY 300 have been found and removed. Needless to say, people are still very fearful of going back into the “bush,” or the villages that they once called home. Also, their villages are now overgrown with grass and no longer have homes or gardens. One man told us that it will take about 10 years from now for things to go back to “normal”… for everyone to move out of these IDP camps and back into their villages. In addition to losing their homes, these people have lost their jobs, their sense of purpose in life, their identity, and hope for their future. They don’t even have land to farm, so they have no way of getting food. All of their food comes from the UN World Food Program. We passed their warehouses which were at least 10 tents about the size of 3 tractor trailers each, filled with food.

Although this is extremely sad to us of course, we also saw it as a huge opportunity to fill a need. WGM has a vision and a dream of working in Gulu one day. There is a university there, and a HUGE need for work with these children, and training, of any kind, but mainly of pastors. This is a huge reason we went on this trip~ to network and survey the town for possible ministry there in the future (for WGM, not necessarily for us). We met with Pastor Chris, who has a church in Gulu and is friends with Kennedy, an AGC pastor in Kampala. When we asked Pastor Chris what the greatest need in Gulu was, he said that it was churches. These people have lost all hope and have no reason to live really. This is where the opportunity comes in… We thought, while the people are living in these IDP camps, with no work, and absolutely nothing to do all day, it would be the perfect opportunity to invest in these people and train them. They need training in community health, agriculture, literacy, children’s ministry, and WGM’s main passion, pastoral training. Pastor Chris said that the Acholi people need the message of hope, the message of Jesus, more than anything, in order to keep on living and actually do something with their lives. And if WGM were able to train up a number of pastors in each camp while they are living there, then that means there could be hundreds of churches out of that training, once they move out of the camps and back into their villages! What an amazing thing to dream about!

We were also able to visit 2 up and coming organizations while we were there… “Invisible Children” and “HEALS.” Many of you may have heard about “Invisible Children” or seen the “Rough Cut” video made about the children who used to walk at night to the nearest hospitals, bus parks, or verandas and sleep literally piled on top of each other, to stay protected from the LRA rebels. Well, we were able to witness this AMAZING ministry first hand, and we were so incredibly impressed. In just 2 years, they have started an education program, where they are sponsoring about 550 children to go to school. They also give each child a mentor, all of which have experienced the war themselves and all of which are Christian, so the children have someone to open up to, to be held accountable to, to be challenged by, to be influenced by, and to be loved by. They also have the “Bracelet Campaign,” where they provide about 140 Acholi with jobs making these bracelets, so that they can have income for their families. And then the bracelets are sold in the US with stories of a few of these children. (You may recognize Emmy from one of the videos~ pictured above in the "IC" shirt) We also met a girl named Vanessa, who has just started a new program with child mothers. These are young girls (ages 5-18) who are abducted at night from their village homes or boarding school dorm rooms and taken to the rebel camps to be raped by the soldiers. This new program allows them to get back on their feet, making bags, which will be sold in the States soon! If you are interested in learning more about “Invisible Children,” you could check out their website: www.invisiblechildren.com And if you are wondering why they are called “invisible,” here is a quote from their DVD~

Invisible because they roam distant battlefields, away from public scrutiny. Invisible because no records are kept of their numbers or age. Invisible because their own armies deny they exist.” ~ “Invisible Children Rough Cut Video”

Finally, we were able to visit an organization called “HEALS,” which stands for “Health, Education, Arts, Literacy, & Sports. This center has been created to give the children of Gulu a chance to start over, to begin to heal the scars of war, and to be educated and learn life skills. A woman named Jolly, who is also the country director of the “Invisible Children,” began the project by renting a four bedroom house in Gulu with a large front yard and started a series of evening classes for children ages 6-18. Taught by local volunteers, these classes include Math, English, Art, Photography, Music and Dance.. We were able to see some of the dancing, and it is just AMAZING how different these children are from the children in the IDP camps. They are filled with joy, laughter, and HOPE. In the music, they sing about the war; in the dancing, they incorporate the war; in their art, they draw pictures of visions in their heads from the war; and they even act out being abducted or other terrible things they have seen from this war. At first, I though it seemed so horrible for these children to have to relive those awful things all of the time. But I was reminded how recently this all occurred, and how well this therapy is working to help them process all they’ve seen and help them heal.

Just like I didn’t know how to begin this entry, I also don’t know how to end it. We are still processing all that we have witnessed, and we are carrying these children in our hearts, minds, thoughts, and prayers, as we hope you will as well. Please pray for the WGM Uganda field, as we seek our role in all of this and also that these children come to know the HOPE and the JOY and the PEACE that can ONLY come from Jesus.

Update on Jeannie's Ministries

Many of you were praying for Jeannie and her ministries last week, so we wanted to thank you and give you an update of how it all went! First of all, her seminar on sex education was amazing! She was able to present her talk to about 20 teachers, which represented 12 out of the 15 high schools in Arua! It was very interactive, and Jeannie did amazing! She was so confident and had a wealth of knowledge to share with these teachers! She said that her confidence definitely came from your prayers, so thank you for praying! There were even representatives from the Muslim schools, and in her talk on sex ed. she was able to incorporate abstinence, God's plan for sex within marriage, that He gives us this boundary to protect us (physically & emotionally), and she was even able to walk through the plan of salvation!

And our trip to Uleppi (a village just outside of Arua) was another huge success! (I am copying & pasting most of Jeannie's blog entry for this one, since she can explain it much better!) Jeannie & Dr. Stella (the agriculture director for Arua) met with 10 cattle owners and the sub-county chief to discuss the details of breeding some of their cattle in the near future. The way they have arranged their herd is that everyone contributes and buys a few cows. Then as needs arise in the community they can sell cows to provide money for sicknesses, funerals, school fees, etc. It really is a brilliant system that they have come up with and it not only works, but benefits the entire community. In our meeting they discussed how to keep accurate records, how to determine when to breed the cows, and how to invest in these cows for their future. They then assessed the cows together to determine which sperm to select for insemination. They have done a very good job choosing the cows to breed, and we were impressed at the care they had taken of these animals!

After working with the cows we moved to the church to meet with some of the congregation. And there, Jeannie had the opportunity to preach her first sermon in the village! She preached on the "Power of a Praying Village." She did amazing again! Jesus really showed up and helped her! Thank you so much for all of you who were praying! Please continue to pray for the village of Uleppi, that it would become a beakon of light for the surrounding villages and for all of Uganda!

Monday, December 03, 2007

Survey Trip to Gulu

Today we are writing to let you all know that we are going on a survey trip tomorrow (Tuesday) to Gulu, Uganda and to ask for your prayers. As you can see on the map, Gulu is located just east of Arua, and it is about a 3-4 hour drive from us. Gulu is the home of the “Invisible Children,” which you may have heard about or seen videos about before. They are called the “Invisible Children,” because they have been suffering the horrible, traumatic effects of war, mainly from a rebel group called “The Lord’s Resistance Army” (LRA), led by Joseph Kony, for over 20 years now. And people, or at least Americans, have just recently in the past few years, noticed what is going on and finally taken action.

WGM is hoping to start ministries with the university students in Gulu some time in the future (at Gulu University). And as most of you know, John’s heart and passion is for university students. WGM has not reached Gulu yet, but it is in our hearts and our dreams. We are so excited to see this place and dream about what God may do there one day with WGM.

There is a huge presence of NGO’s (non-government organizations) there already, but we aren’t sure of the number of missionaries, churches, or spiritual support that the children of Gulu are receiving. We will go and meet with staff from the “Invisible Children,” see some of the camps where these refugee children are living, and we even get to hopefully be involved in “play therapy” with some of these kids. We can’t wait to share pictures with you and tell you all about it in a few days!

And for those of you who may have a tendency to worry, please don’t! We will be completely safe! The LRA no longer has a presence in Uganda at all, at the moment. We will be home on Thursday evening. But although it is a safe place for the most part, we can still definitely use your prayers for safety traveling and that God would go with us on this trip and give us His heart and His vision. Thank you for praying & caring! We appreciate you SO much!