Team in the Park … Team in the Dark
Our first short term missions team arrived in Uganda last Thursday, May 10th! It is a team from IWU (Indiana Wesleyan University) of 10 college students. Billy and I met them in Murchison National Park up near Arua. This is one of the largest safari game parks in Uganda and was the perfect location to have the team’s orientation, spiritual retreat, go on safari and just have some time for male bonding.Our time in the park was amazing. Jesus really blessed the time of prayers and devotionals that Billy and I shared, and we really got to know the guys and see their passion for the Lord. We also got to see a ton of animals: elephants, giraffes, hippo, crocodile, antelope, water buffalo and
warthogs. 
We got so close to some of these animals we could hear them breathe. We even got the rare opportunity to see a leopard after a chance friendship with a guide we met who led us to a “path less traveled.” As if that wasn’t enough, he also spotted a lioness: after praying to find a lion, we didn’t expect such a direct answer! There was even a twist of irony when I mentioned we’d yet to find a male lion in that park and only moments later, we saw one a car’s length away. It was AWESOME! The guys loved it and so did I!
While in the game park, I had received a phone call from Erica that Arua was going to be without power for the entire next week! As I broke the news to the team I anticipated all the negative feedback I was going to receive, but to my great surprise, they just said that was fine and that they weren’t expecting to have electricity anyway! They have been so flexible and laid back, and just an incredible blessing to us.
So needless to say, this past week was a little challenging, with laundry to do for so many and having no refrigerator to keep food fresh when cooking for so many! The week was filled with cold showers, warm water to drink, candles, the smell of gas from our generator (which ran our deep freeze to keep all of the meat we had bought cold- thank God!) and lots of games in the near darkness. The one great thing about having no electricity is that it provides the opportunity for great stargazing!!! The week did not start the way we thought it would, but everything turned out better than fine! The team is flexible with maturity beyond their years. And on Wednesday, after no power for a week, Jesus provided a bigger generator that could run our fridge! We had no electicity for a total of 9 days, and finally, at 3:00 am on Thursday, we got our power back! Praise God!!!
This team has been such an encouragement to our hearts and to the children of Arua. It has been a ton of fun so far, and we are looking forward to one more week of working with these guys and serving Jesus with them!
Vacation Bible School in Arua!
God is so amazing! I wish everyone reading this blog entry could have been at Uganda Christian University to witness how wonderfully and perfectly He worked out our Vacation Bible School with the children there this past week! We had a great turn out~ about 200 children showed up each day! We have so much to thank Him for today, as we look back and reflect on all of the ways He answered our prayers and worked throughout last week!
First of all, as we were planning this VBS, one of our biggest projected obstacles to the week was the language barrier. As most of you know, we have learned some Swahili, but these specific children speak the local language of Arua, which is Lugbara. We were told in the planning stages, that we would definitely need translators, because these children do not know any English. Well, did God answer our prayers or what! Not only did he provide an abundance of translators each day, but He paved the way for clear communication between us and the children, more than we ever could have dreamed of! Turns out, they know a lot more English than the faculty thought they did! 
And not only did they understand us, along with some help from the translators, but we really feel that they understood the messages that we were giving them each day… that God loves them, God provides for them, God cares for them, He protects us, and He died for us! Every day was filled with about an hour of singing, a skit performed by the IWU boys, games, a Bible character’s story and memory verse for each day, and then a series of quizzes throughout the day to make sure they were really learning what we were teaching and also to help them remember it! By the end of the week, they could recite all five memory verses, tell us who they learned about, and what the lesson was! It was amazing!
Yet another answer to prayer, is that we intentionally did not plan this week with exact details of how it would look. We left it general and open, so that the IWU guys could take ownership of the week and what it would look like. And did they ever! We are so thankful for this team who took total responsibility of this VBS, and dedicated this week of their lives to serving Jesus and these children.
And the best part about the week was the children’s response. Our last day’s lesson was about Jesus, and the children were given the opportunity to accept Jesus in their heart! The response was overwhelming! I would say about 90% of the kids there asked Jesus into their hearts! We have to admit, there is a sense of skepticism in our hearts, when every child raises their hand, comes forward, and prays “the sinner’s prayer.” We asked ourselves, “are they just doing this because the Americans are here?” But God has convicted our hearts to not be skeptical and to just REJOICE with Him over these children and their open hearts! And we are rejoicing, because we know that all things are possible with God!
God is so amazing! I wish everyone reading this blog entry could have been at Uganda Christian University to witness how wonderfully and perfectly He worked out our Vacation Bible School with the children there this past week! We had a great turn out~ about 200 children showed up each day! We have so much to thank Him for today, as we look back and reflect on all of the ways He answered our prayers and worked throughout last week!
First of all, as we were planning this VBS, one of our biggest projected obstacles to the week was the language barrier. As most of you know, we have learned some Swahili, but these specific children speak the local language of Arua, which is Lugbara. We were told in the planning stages, that we would definitely need translators, because these children do not know any English. Well, did God answer our prayers or what! Not only did he provide an abundance of translators each day, but He paved the way for clear communication between us and the children, more than we ever could have dreamed of! Turns out, they know a lot more English than the faculty thought they did! 
And not only did they understand us, along with some help from the translators, but we really feel that they understood the messages that we were giving them each day… that God loves them, God provides for them, God cares for them, He protects us, and He died for us! Every day was filled with about an hour of singing, a skit performed by the IWU boys, games, a Bible character’s story and memory verse for each day, and then a series of quizzes throughout the day to make sure they were really learning what we were teaching and also to help them remember it! By the end of the week, they could recite all five memory verses, tell us who they learned about, and what the lesson was! It was amazing!
Yet another answer to prayer, is that we intentionally did not plan this week with exact details of how it would look. We left it general and open, so that the IWU guys could take ownership of the week and what it would look like. And did they ever! We are so thankful for this team who took total responsibility of this VBS, and dedicated this week of their lives to serving Jesus and these children.
And the best part about the week was the children’s response. Our last day’s lesson was about Jesus, and the children were given the opportunity to accept Jesus in their heart! The response was overwhelming! I would say about 90% of the kids there asked Jesus into their hearts! We have to admit, there is a sense of skepticism in our hearts, when every child raises their hand, comes forward, and prays “the sinner’s prayer.” We asked ourselves, “are they just doing this because the Americans are here?” But God has convicted our hearts to not be skeptical and to just REJOICE with Him over these children and their open hearts! And we are rejoicing, because we know that all things are possible with God!
The Privilege of Love
The highlight of my week was in the arms of one little girl in particular. Her name is Alice. She is about three years old, and she is possibly the saddest child I have ever come in contact with. She breaks my heart. But God pointed her out to me this week, and He gave me the privilege and opportunity to love on this little girl. I talked to many of the staff and faculty and parents about Alice and why she was so emotionless and sad, and every one of them told me that it was because of lack of attention and affection from her family. Her mother is very young, her father is very old, and she has a baby sister who requires and receives the whole family’s attention.
The first day I held her, I could not get her to even look me in the eyes. I couldn’t get her to hug me back. I just held her. I learned to say, “Jesus loves you,” “God loves you,” and “I love you” in her language, and I just said them over and over again in her precious little ear. By the end of the week, God gave me the gift of response. She made eye contact with me, from across the field, while she was in my lap, and as I was holding her! She even hugged me back! About the third day, I felt her little hands clinch my arms, and it was the best feeling! 
I was telling one of my best friends, Katie, about this whole experience. She is a social worker, and she told me that lack of physical touch, affection, and love is one of the main problems she sees in her foster children. She told me that just holding her and giving her attention is the best thing I could do for Alice. And I just thought to myself, what a blessing that God has given me the privilege to give this little girl the love that she needs! And the best part about it is that I will be able to continue to love this little girl, since we live here and I will be going back to where she lives many more times! Please pray for Alice, and that she would feel the love of Jesus.
The highlight of my week was in the arms of one little girl in particular. Her name is Alice. She is about three years old, and she is possibly the saddest child I have ever come in contact with. She breaks my heart. But God pointed her out to me this week, and He gave me the privilege and opportunity to love on this little girl. I talked to many of the staff and faculty and parents about Alice and why she was so emotionless and sad, and every one of them told me that it was because of lack of attention and affection from her family. Her mother is very young, her father is very old, and she has a baby sister who requires and receives the whole family’s attention.
The first day I held her, I could not get her to even look me in the eyes. I couldn’t get her to hug me back. I just held her. I learned to say, “Jesus loves you,” “God loves you,” and “I love you” in her language, and I just said them over and over again in her precious little ear. By the end of the week, God gave me the gift of response. She made eye contact with me, from across the field, while she was in my lap, and as I was holding her! She even hugged me back! About the third day, I felt her little hands clinch my arms, and it was the best feeling! 
I was telling one of my best friends, Katie, about this whole experience. She is a social worker, and she told me that lack of physical touch, affection, and love is one of the main problems she sees in her foster children. She told me that just holding her and giving her attention is the best thing I could do for Alice. And I just thought to myself, what a blessing that God has given me the privilege to give this little girl the love that she needs! And the best part about it is that I will be able to continue to love this little girl, since we live here and I will be going back to where she lives many more times! Please pray for Alice, and that she would feel the love of Jesus.
