Uganda week 5 Soroti Orphange

Above: Jessika reaping the benefits of turning 7! carmel corn and cake made African style!

Day 109– Oct 17, 2005, Monday: Ruth’s adventure

Today was a fun day! In the afternoon, the kids and I, along with a few others from our team, went to do home visits with the children from the preschool. I love going out into the villages – it is so much fun! You never know what will happen. We met first at Teacher Susan’s house (she was our guide and translator). She surprised us with fresh squeezed orange and passion fruit juice! It was awesome! The crazy thing was that she squeezed it herself – by hand. She also brought out a plate covered in deep fried fish (eyes and tails and everything).

It looked disgusting and as she left the room the kids asked me if they had to eat it. I said “yes” and made them try it. To my surprise, and theirs, they liked it and so did I. Then we left her home and headed out to the villages to see some of the children. Jonny got a ride on the teacher’s back again. She makes it look so effortless. We visited Yakubu, Mohamadi, Mercy, and Berney. At Mercy’s both kids were feeling the effects of the juice and we got to experience a village style toilet (a hole in the ground) – Jessika cracks me up – she still can’t get the hang of going that way – she gets so frazzled. Berney’s house was the first “normal” looking house (not made out of mud) that we had visited. It was quite large too. Inside there were many children from babies up to teenagers. As we were sitting and talking I asked his mom how many children she had. She said 5 biological and all the rest were orphans she was caring for. I think I counted at least 15 kids in there – it was amazing! She was such an amazing woman who loves the Lord and loves these kids. Berney prayed for Jessika the other day in class and he sounded like an adult with his language – he totally amazed me! I mentioned this to his mom and said that I think he might be a preacher some day. His eyes got big and he got excited and said “Yes!”. While we were in Berney’s house it had started to rain lightly. As we started to walk back, it started to pour down on us. It is amazing how quickly storms move in here. We debated stopping to find shelter but it was also getting dark, so we decided that rain was better then dark. The kids loved it! We got totally drenched and muddy. A few minutes before the base a man picked us up in his car and drove us the rest of the way. God bless him, we covered his seats with water and mud. We ran into the house and Dave made us some warm Milo (hot chocolate) and the kids got warm bucket baths. God bless Dave – he even got the laundry off the line in time.

At dinner we had chicken (a rare item) – “Yeah God” – and we had both Papaya and Watermelon! It was awesome! Dan Shannon, one of our DTS school leaders, had just arrived from Brazil. He is visiting all the teams and will be with us for the week. It is good to see a familiar face.
Above: the family in the back of the van getting ready for the big drive.

Day 110– Oct 18, 2005, Tuesday: Pack it up

It seems like we were just settling in to this place and it is now time for us to go. We have made some great friends here in this short time. It will be sad to leave them. Of course, this isn’t the final goodbye, as we are going to Soroti for only a week, but when we return we are here for only 2 days, and then we are off to Zimbabwe for the remainder of our outreach.

The kids have been crazy about their new friends from New Zealand. It seems that every second they are begging us to bring them over to “the boys house”. Their names are Jack and Elliot, sons of Paul and Karina. They are here for the next 10 months to help out with the health clinic as she does physical therapy and there is much need for that at the clinic. They are great people. I think the kids mostly like having other kids that they can actually talk with. Most of the local kids know some English, but by the time you mix our kids accent with their accents they really can’t communicate. Jonny and Jack are the same age and look like twins.

Most of today was spent with me chasing the kids (often literally) while Ruth was packing up. Apparently this is how our family packs because you’ve read about this before. Unfortunately in Uganda I don’t have a pool that I can play in with the kids all day (I miss it). We had fun though, and we got packed up.

Jerod stopped by tonight to talk and pray together before we leave. I found out upon reading his email address that his name is actually Gerald. But it sure sounds like Jerod, so I still call him that. He is a great friend. I’ve really enjoyed our conversations together.

Above: a typical Soroti village.

Day 111– Oct 19, 2005, Wednesday: Drive to Soroti

The first shock of the day was when we walked out to breakfast and saw one of the little taxi vans waiting to drive us on the 6 hour journey. “There is no way we are fitting in there!” we said to eachother as we walked up for our morning breadroll with jam. But, sure enough, that was the plan. We threw all of the big suitcases on the top of the van just as the rain started coming down. Then we drove across base to get a tarp and came back an crammed everyone in. 15 of us in all, Fred the base leader was escorting us, Nathan, the driver, Dan, our visiting DTS leader who is here for the week, and then the whole team. It was crowded, but doable.

As we started the drive, the first thing I realized is that as soon as we got out of Jinja the roads got noticeably smoother. They are horribly bumpy in the town of Jinja, I’m not sure why. It was actually a fun drive. I enjoyed seeing a little more of Uganda. We kept hoping to see some sort of animal, even a monkey, but all we saw was goats and cows and chickens along the way.

We stopped in the town of Mbale for lunch. We ate a rather nasty lunch at a hotel there. It seemed like it would be good food, but when we got it…uhhhhg. The fries were described as “quickly coated with cold oil” they were so soggy and nasty. The chicken was very tough and almost unedible. The soda was good. It was fun to watch a football (soccer) game on tv for a while. I also was able to find an ATM in town which is fairly rare. After lunch we drove the rest of the journey, I think it was actually less than 6 hours. It was interesting to see the climate change as we drove north. Jinja is very green and lush (although dirty). Soroti reminds me of central California, except replace the farm houses with little villages.

On arrival at the base in Soroti where we will be sleeping we were greeted with cold cokes and some awesome fried bread things that reminded me of donut holes (so tasty). We quickly loaded our stuff in our assigned rooms and headed off to the orphanage to check it out. We spent about an hour there and played with kids and held babies, just a taste of it, then we headed back for dinner and hanging mosquito nets and moving in. Dinner was amazing, I didn’t realize how much I missed vegetables. The food was very similar to what we have been eating, but just a little more meat, a little more veggies and cold water. Then we had some coffee and tea after dinner (we are getting spoiled).
Above: our glorious room, mosquito nets and laundry and all. Below: the team posing at the gate to the orphanage

Day 112– Oct 20, 2005, Thursday: Amacet

Breakfast was awesome, I know I write a lot about the food, but we actually got to eat toast! I think the nicest part about the breakfast was just having a little more. I like a big breakfast, and just having the buns was tough. Here we had porridge, toast, more donut holes, juice, coffee. Hmm.

Then we went to the orphanage and had an hour or so orientation by the lady that runs it. Her name is Ells; she is Dutch. She started it about 4 years ago. The place is amazing. It’s all painted nicely, the water tanks are painted with animals. It’s just well taken care of (something somewhat rare in Africa). It really sticks out as being different from the rest. Ells is an amazing lady. She basically started the place on her own. She has many people in The Netherlands supporting her. She showed us a video of when the building was built. It is really hard to believe that all of this was done in 4 years. They now have 3 buildings on that property, the orphanage, a small place for her, and a building for other staff. She told us the story one of her first orphans, Michel. She was barely able to move when she first took her in. Just having proper care and love and food, she changed immensely in only a month. Here is a picture. top left is when she first came. bottom is one month later!

She currently has 16 kids at the orphanage. She has had 60 or 70 over the years. Her goal is to take in kids that families reject. Usually the rejection is because mom and dad died of AIDS and they assume the baby has it. Apparently it is fairly common to just keep the baby around until it dies of malnourishment. They say “it was going to die anyway because it’s parents had AIDS”. Ells has had many of the babies be free of the virus despite what the families thought. Often after she cares for the babies for a few months she tries to bring them back to the families and show them that they are healthy when treated properly. She then keeps visiting to make sure that the families keep them healthy, which doesn’t always happen. Many of the kids also die in the orphanage. She said that this July was a very tough month because 5 kids died. The toughest was a 12 year old boy who was apparently doing very well. He got sick one Friday, and died the next. Tough stuff. She says that at least this place can be a way for them to die with a little respect and care and prayer, rather than the rejection they got in the village.

It’s just an amazing place. And it’s growing! Ells told us how they bought the lot one away from them and are building another orphanage for the kids that need to stay permanently. These are AIDS kids that are on the antiviral medication. Apparently it has to be given in a very timely manor and to quote Ells “many of these kids families would take their medicine for themselves because they would think ‘if it’s good for them, it must be good for me’”. So there will be a home for temporary kids and one for permanent kids.

We spent the rest of the day hanging out with the kids, holding babies, learning names, playing games. Jessika didn’t play games at all. She found Mr. Tom (a 6 month old cutie), and she just held on to him all day long. She said “I just feel like his mommy and he needs me”. It was awesome. She loved it. Jonny finally had some toys and new friends to play with. He found the train set, played hide and seek, played ring around the rosie, red rover. We just had a ton of fun loving these kids. Almost all of them have AIDS. They just need love. I must say, of all the different ministries that we have done, this seems to be where my family fits in best. We can’t wait to get back tomorrow.

Above: the baby crew! (left to right) Wendy, Aimee, Meagen, Ruth, Karen with Jessika at the bottom.
Day 113– Oct 21, 2005, Friday:

We are so enjoying Soroti, it is so clean compared to Jinja. Don’t get me wrong, we walk on a dirt road a quarter mile to the orphanage twice a day, but somehow it’s cleaner. The dirt doesn’t stick to you like it did in Jinja. There are also fewer cars and fewer smells. It’s just cleaner. The Jinja base was clean, just not the town/streets.

We started off the day with a little worship and Bible study, we did yesterday as well, I was just too excited to talk about the orphanage.  Dan left us today to go visit the Sudan team.

Then we went off to the orphanage. Jess quickly found Mr. Tom again and started cradling and loving him. Wendy, Karen, Laura and Rita went with Ells to go make house calls on the kids that she has sent home after loving them. They said some of the situations were just terrible. Apparently Ells weighs the babies and counts their medications to make sure the kids are growing and getting the medicine. If things get bad then she takes the kids back sometimes. She has so many tough decisions to make though, because there isn’t enough room for all of the unloved kids out there. She just does what she can. In the morning most of the older kids head off to school, so we tended to the babies until lunch.

After lunch we took a nap because all the kids at the orphanage sleep from 2-3. Then I headed back with Jess and Jonny while Ruth kept sleeping. She slept because tonite she is taking the night shift with Meagan from 6pm to 8am. Whew! You’ll hear about that tomorrow. The kids and I just played. We got out the soccer ball. Jonny played some more red rover. Jess held Mr. Tom. It was a good day. Now, I sit here typing while my Ruthy is a few blocks away tending to the many babies all night long.

Above: Dave holding Abraham and Jessika holding Mr Tom (her favorite). She wanted to bring him home and be his mommy.

Day 114– Oct 22, 2005, Saturday: Ruth’s summary of the Night Shift

As Dave mentioned, I worked the night shift at the orphanage last night. Megan and I worked together. Normally there is only one person on at night for 8 babies and 9 children. Most of the babies have feedings through the night. Megan and I counted this morning and together we did 21 feedings including diaper changes and medications. It was amazing! I can’t even imagine doing it alone. We also had one child with tube feedings. I have fallen in love with this little one. Her name is Alabina (I call her Ali). She is 8 months old and weighs only 10 pounds. She is very sick and malnourished. Her mom is HIV+ and they think she is as well. Mom has not been able to feed her properly. It is a wonder she is alive. She is skin and bones and is floppy like a rag doll and makes almost no sounds, but an occasional wimper. Please pray for her that God would bring healing and life back into this precious little one. I just love the orphanage and the kids do too. You should see Jessika holding the babies – she is in Heaven. This week has been such a blessing to us as a family. I wish we could stay here longer.

Tidbits from Dave:

- I discovered today that the rebels did actually come to Soroti in this last year. They were here in January, and it forced the orphanage to evacuate for two weeks to southern Uganda.

- We had a salad tonight with guacamole…It was so good. Also had cookies for desert.

- I bought four pairs of shoes at the neighborhood shop today for less than $10 total

- I also bought a set of colored pencils for each kid for 16 cents a set (ouch).

- The cows here are much smaller than in the Southern Uganda.

- Our kids have a really tough time having dinner at 7:30 at night (at this base they make dinner late because some people work late).

- Kids’ favorite toy in Uganda seems to be an old tire…they role them all over the place.

- These kids at the orphanage are just so happy to play with us.

- I just don’t get squatty potties. They have them all over Uganda, and they are such a pain. They always smell, are always dirty…try holding a semi-constipated kid over one for 15 minutes.

- Seeing these almost lifeless babies is tough. It’s hard to believe people can just reject them as they do.

- We hear from the grapevine that there is now even less fuel in Zimbabwe..Pray for us there, that God gets us where he wants us.

- Next time you drink a Frappuccino, I will be jealous.

Above: Jonny breaking thru while playing "red rover" It was great for our kids to play hard with all of their new friends.

Day 115– Oct 23, 2005, Sunday: Quick trip to Soroti town

Ahhh, nothing like starting the day with laundry. Even I will appreciate the beauty of the washer and dryer compared to this manual stuff. Africa is the land of manual labor. Washing, by hand. Mowing, by machete or if your lucky a push reel mower (or really lucky is using a gas trimmer). Cooking is usually over coals. The most common transport is definitely bicycles, which are also the main way of hauling goods (unless you have a head and you are a woman, then the goods are balanced on it). Good ol’ Africa.

After washing we went over to the orphanage to take care of the babies while Ells and the bigger kids went to church. We had a nice mellow morning holding/feeding/changing/loving the littluns. We ended up eating lunch there as well, which was really tasty. We even had juice. Then at nap time we went back to base and played with some of the kids there while Ruth took a nap. I think she was a bit dehydrated. Then we took a walk to town and realized that half of the stores were closed because it was Sunday (oops). We still enjoyed looking around and had a nice family walk. One of the guys from the base drove us back in one of the pickups. Just before dinner the power went out and we ran out of water aghhhh. We actually ran out of water yesterday, but I didn’t mention it. The other building has water, so we can fill buckets and still rinse off, but it’s a pain. I’m not sure if our building uses rain water, but most places seem to around here. We boiled a pot of hot water and had the kids bathe in a bucket before dinner. They just can’t handle the dinners at 7:30 at this base (neither can we). The food is great, but by 7:30 they are so hungry and cranky, it’s just too late.

Above: Jonny playing with Chrstopher, Alex and Mary. The train set was very popular this week.

Day 116– Oct 24, 2005, Monday: Saying Goodbye to Amacet

We started off the day with some devotions with the team. It was really good. We just got some issues out in the open and prayed together and it has really made a huge difference today. It’s amazing how just getting things out in the open helps so much.

Then we cruised over to Amacet (the orphanage) to have our last morning with the kids. To our surprise the bigger kids were there all morning. Usually they are at school on the weekdays, but today was a holiday because the President of Uganda (Obote) died last week. So we played. I was mostly playing football (soccer). Jessika was playing on the swings today. Ruth was changing a lot of diapers and feeding babies. Jonny was playing with the legos.

We had lunch back at the base and then had a quick meeting about Zimbabwe. Apparently the prices of fuel have skyrocketed even more there, so it might be too expensive for us to take the bus from Harare to Bulawayo (we fly into Harare). So we prayed about our destination. At this point we are sort of leaning towards staying in Harare for the duration of our trip, but we’ll see what God’s plans are.

The original plan for the afternoon was to go cruise town, but we couldn’t handle leaving the kids that soon, so we all went back to Amacet. We had a great afternoon with them. They sang us a few songs and we sang them one. Then we all prayed for each other and celebrated with cokes, popcorn and Ugandan donuts (cake donuts with no frosting). It was really good and fun. Then we played a bit more and had to say our goodbyes because we leave for Jinja in the morning. We all talked about how we wished we could have stayed longer, but I’m not sure we would have been able to say goodbye if we did. Even a week longer and we would have gotten too attached to these kids.
Above: this is Magdelene...just one of the cuties we got to spoil this week!

Day 117– Oct 25, 2005, Tuesday: Taxi back to Jinja

The day started off a little frustrating when we realized that the taxi driver (who brought us here) showed up with a taxi that didn’t have a roof rack. We barely squeezed everything in this little van on the way here. Aghhh. So we loaded up lots of the big bags in the back seat and were all prepared to jump in when the driver returned to tell us that it is illegal to have bags in the back seat. We thought he was joking. This is a taxi driver, the same that squeezes 22 people in a taxi that legally carries 14. But no, he had us repack. Sigh. The journey begins. We prayed with everyone from the Soroti base. They are really great people. We have really enjoyed our short time with them. After saying goodbyes, we took off at about 10am.

Along the way the driver pulled over at a make shift farmers market. We tried to buy some ground nuts (peanuts) but they weren’t roasted, so we passed. He loaded up a huge bag of potatoes and brought them to the van hoping to squeeze them in. We tried to politely inform him that if we had a roof rack there might have been room, but the hundred pounds of potatoes isn’t going inside the van. He was a little bummed, but we continued on. We had our chance to buy some freshly roasted (and still warm) peanuts later on in the trip. We also saw a gnarly accident along the way that really encouraged us all to pray as we drive because the driving in Uganda leaves very little room for error and they are quite speedy. The accident was a bus (huge bus) full of people that ran head on into a 30 foot truck. I am sure there were some fatalities. It looked like they were still trying to pry the trucks apart. The rest of our journey was uneventful except for when we ran out of gas. It just happened to be right as we rounded a corner of street salesmen that were very pushy. So while the driver went for gas we were bombarded with the pushiest sellers in Uganda. They actually were forcing our sliding windows open and one of them grabbed jonny’s Thomas the train lunch box. They were actually quite disturbing they were so pushy. Luckily we bought a jerry can full of gas quickly and headed off.

Now we have been welcomed back in Jinja for a few days. It was nice to show up and know everyone and get hugs and greetings. We went over to the Kiwi couples (Paul and Karina) house for coffee after dinner. They have the two boys (Jack and Elliot) that our kids have been begging to see all week long. We had fun chatting about life in Africa. The kids had fun playing and watching “Robots”. We’ll miss everyone here as well when we leave. Ruth is actually making thank you cards for them now as I type.

One more thing for this week. Wendy, our team member, has prayed often about this and she is planning to stay in Uganda for the next portion of our outreach. Our team is behind her on this and we know that it is God’s will. We will miss her terribly though. She feels that Uganda is where her ministry is, and she is planning to help the TORCH ministry in their medical clinic. Then she will meet back up with us on our flight home. So pray for her as she will be without the team. Bless you Wendy! We’ll miss you.

Uganda week 4

Before I forget to mention it, several of you have mentioned that you would like to help out financially here in Africa. The best way to do that is to go to the website

https://www.ywamconnect.com/uonlinegiving.jsp?siteid=36277&pageid=398604&urltype=networkurl
This site allows you to donate to this base here in Jinja, Uganda. You can specify if you want to donate to specific things like preschool, or VTS, or a specific person. There is much need, so pray about it and go for it.

One more thing: We are leaving to go to Soroti this wednesday. There is an orphanage there that we plan to stay at for a week. Pray for God to use us. Pray that we can help the needy kids. Pray for safe travel. Also, I'll probably not have email until next wednesday Oct 26, so don't expect too many replies.
Above: sunset at Bujagali falls over the Nile
Below: we went boating in the Nile for 2000 shillings each in these boats..it was awesome.
Below: just some cool bugs...I've seen flys here that are bigger than my thumb.

Day 102– Oct 10, 2005, Monday: Bujagali Falls

Boy, did I sleep bad last night. I’m starting some kind of head/sinus cold that kept me up. Luckily we brought every sort of medicine known to man (thanks to our two team nurses), and I was able to take some sinus stuff all day.

Ruth took the kids to the preschool this morning and taught in the class. She’s so good at it. The kids just love her. They all call her “Teacher Ruth”. She’s starting to talk like a local. While she was there I was checking on flights to get to Zimbabwe. This is turning out to be quite a pain in the neck as many of the flights only go once or twice a week. I found the perfect flight, but it was 5 hours late or 5 days early. Sigh….Africa. At 11:00 the whole team went up to the preschool and we acted out “The Good Samaritan” as Ruth read the story. It was fun. Those kids just love to see our faces and hold our hands. Then we sang a song with them and class was done. Almost all of the kids walk themselves home from school. That is just crazy to me. They are so young.

In the afternoon we went to see Bujagali Falls. This was quite cool. It’s the first significant rapid in the Nile. There are class 5 rapids there that are just plain gnarly. We could have rafted it for the bargain price of $95 each. Instead we went and watched a few kayakers brave the rapids (the call them falls, but they’re just big rapids). You can also pay a local guy 5000 shillings ($3) and he will jump in and brave the rapids with only a plastic jerry can to keep him afloat. I guess one local actually died earlier this year doing it. But it is quite impressive. We saw one guy do it…CRAZY!!! Then I saw a big wooden boat just below the falls and talked to the guy and he took all of us out and about for the bargain price of 2000 shillings each. I (being dutch) was quite proud of the difference of $1.15 from $95. We had a great time paddling around the Nile. Now we can at least say that we have boated on the Nile. We kept joking about cruising down (or up rather) to Egypt…only a few thousand miles. We had a nice relaxing time there though. The kids played like crazy and fell asleep in the taxi on the way home. We also had some French fries there because it is a tourist trap. French fries…hmmmm.

Day 103– Oct 11, 2005, Tuesday: Ruth at Health Center

Today was my chance to go help at the clinic. I have otherwise been engaged in the preschool and busy with the kids. It was nice to have the day off the base and doing something new. I mainly went “undercover” to spy out the office and nursing staff. Wendy, the other nurse on the team, has been at the clinic a lot and is actually thinking of coming back to Uganda full time to help at the clinic. She wanted to get my opinion on how things are run at the clinic. She is hoping to help implement some change. The strange thing is that the staff seems happy with how it is run, but it is so different from what we are used to in Western culture medicine. They do good work there though. They really work hard to reach each patient on an emotional and spiritual level, along with the physical. They have counselors and pastors present all the time to talk with people.

For lunch we ordered chipate for all of the staff. It cost 200 shillings each, which is about 10 cents. I walked into town with a girl from the office named Josephine. It was nice and sunny out. We talked about cultural differences and how funny Africans think we are for wanting to come here and see the animals. “Don’t you have animals in America?” she asked. She just didn’t get why we would spend money and waste a holiday to see animals. We also talked about strengths and weaknesses of our cultures, like how Americans tend to be in a hurry and take less time to get to know each other, but are very driven and productive, and Africans tend to be very talkative and less worried about time and more relationship focused, but less driven and productive. Both cultures can learn a little from each other. The highlight of the walk for me was when we passed a house and a lady talked with Josephine in luganda (the local language). It turns out the lady said “How is your sister (meaning me)” Josephine explained to me that when you walk next to someone they are considered your sister or friend. Their warmth and hospitality here constantly amazes me.

At the end of the day I had a chance to pray over a very sick baby. The mom has AIDS and isn’t doing well. Since the mom is so sick she can’t nurse the baby, so the baby is malnourished and has pneumonia as well. It’s hard to see things like this since the resources are so limited. In the states there would be so much available for this baby, but there are no resources here, so often the result is just death. I just prayed for God to bring life to this baby and mother, and healing as well.

Above: the roads go on and on...this is traveling village to village on a relatively good portion of road. during rainy season this is not possible Below: Dave speaking at the pastors seminar..

Day 104– Oct 12, 2005, Wednesday: Pastor’s Seminar

Ohhh man, my screen saver just went on and flashed up a picture of Jessika and me on a boogie board in the ocean waves….hmmmm water. Swimming sounds so nice. It’s so hot and dirty here. But actually today was a great day. Ruth stayed on base with the kids while I went to the Health clinic to help with our pastors seminar. I still just have to laugh when I think of me speaking to a bunch of pastors. J

When we arrived at the health clinic I had about ½ of the day to help out because the seminar didn’t start until 2:30. So several of us went out to help with some of their hospitality meetings. Basically what they do is go help and pray for people who are sick and dying. We drove for a long while on some of the bumpiest dirt “roads” that exist. We finally arrived at a guy’s house (he had a Ugandan name that I’ve forgotten already). He is about 30 with a wife and 3 kids and he has had AIDS for at least 6 months. His wife is in denial and has basically left him, so his sister is taking care of him. Last month his father died (I think of AIDS also). He has several brothers and sisters, there were 15 in all (yes, that’s not a typo), and now 6 are still alive. There only means of making a living is by farming which is pretty tough work, so having the disease makes him unable to make a living. The question going through my mind the whole time is “what can I possibly say to this guy?” He was a Christian so we prayed for him. I looked around in the Bible and came up with the verse “For which cause we do not give way to weariness; but though our outer man is getting feebler, our inner man is made new day by day. For our present trouble, which is only for a short time, is working out for us a much greater weight of glory; While our minds are not on the things which are seen, but on the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are for a time; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

(2 Corinthians 4:16-18)

We then went to another man who was in even worse condition. This guy could barely talk. He was not a Christian, but his sister was and she was there taking care of him. We talked with him a little bit and prayed for him. When we left I gave his brother a little Bible that we brought from Hawaii because he said he could read English. He was very happy because he hasn’t ever owned a Bible. This counseling the sick is some tough stuff. I’m glad I was able to get a taste of it and help a few, but wow.

We stopped on the way back and got some chipate (like a thick tortilla) for 200 shillings (10 cents). It was so tasty, fresh from the barbeque thing that they cook it on. I was half way through it when I saw these two little kids staring at me so I gave the rest to them. They just mowed it down. I very much regretted only buying one. Hindsight.

At 2:00 we started hanging around the lean-to shack like structure that was to house our pastor’s seminar. We were told to expect somewhere between 2 and 160 people, so we weren’t real sure what to expect. By quarter after we had about 10 people so we started to sing some songs. Some lady got up front and started leading. All the songs were in Ugandan and then a guitar and a few drums came out of nowhere and all of a sudden we were jammin’. After a few introductions and such there were just over 50 people there and it was my turn to speak. Gulp. Here goes. I decided to give my favorite message (actually the only message I’ve ever given) about having the bible as our foundation. As I was speaking I realized that this applied so much to a bunch of pastors, especially this group of largely uneducated people from various African villages. While I spoke they were really taking it in, it was really cool. I guess God can use us in our weakness because this is not my forte. After I spoke we summed things up and passed around a booklet so people could right down questions that they want answers to. They wrote down several that we are planning to answer on Friday at the end of the seminar. Some were basic like “what is the name of our God?” and some were difficult like “In revelation it talks about a beast…how will I know the beast and recognize it?” So we have some work to do. But it went really well. The purpose of the seminar is really to connect the pastors with each other and with the base here so they have a way to learn more and be unified and accountable. I think God is really making something of this. It’s exciting. I was thinking today how cool it is that we are able to teach 50 pastors that are all leaders of churches in remote villages with people who we could probably never even find. God uses us in crazy ways sometimes.

Above: taking a bath in the buckets...the only way to get hot water...

Above: a chipate stand on the street. the yellow jerry cans are thier water supply. They cook mostly over charcoal. the chipate is soo good. like a thick tortilla. below: just a nominal load of sticks to carry on your head.

Day 105– Oct 13, 2005, Thursday: Sickness and rest

Luckily today neither Ruth nor I planned to go to the Health Clinic as it is an all day affair and she and Jessika both woke up with sore throats and stuffy noses. So Ruth and Jess stayed in the house and I brought Jonny off to school. I was wondering how I would get to town (as we are not supposed to take go by ourselves as it’s not totally safe). On the way to bringing Jonny to school I ran into a good friend named Jerod. Jerod has come by many times and told us his story of being dedicated to witch craft as a child and all kinds of crazy stuff. God has worked miracles in his life. He is an awesome man of God. He presently works with the Vocational Training School here, training people how to live and be responsible and love God. He said that he had to go into town to by chicken feet, so we went together. I had to buy some cookies for Jessika’s birthday party at class tomorrow.

In town we stopped at the Source café and I bought Jerod his first Latte. He enjoyed it, but is still getting used to coffee, he’s mostly a tea drinker. We had a great time talking. We then finished running our errands and I was dying to know why he was buying chicken feet. When we got to the store it turned out to be chicken feed, 150 kilos of it. Which is 330 pounds! He had a man carry it on a bicycle (of course). I was wondering why all of the bicycles had reinforcements welded on made of rebar, apparently it’s to help carry the loads these guys put the bikes through. It was quite an adventure. It’s much nicer cruising through town without the kids because it is so dirty and there are so many people it’s just nerve racking trying to keep track of them.
Above: Rod and Wendy ministering to a man with HIV. On the right is Lavisa, she works often, helping people cope with thier situations and diseases. Below: two kids that I just had to share my chipate with...

Day 106– Oct 14, 2005, Friday: Tiring day

Today was a very full day for all of us. We woke up just barely in time for breakfast and then I had to run off to Konglimura to the health clinic. Today is the last day of the pastor’s seminar. I spent most of the day doing more home visits to AIDS infected people. This mercy ministry stuff is tough. We saw so many people that seem to have no hope. They can’t afford anything. They can’t move to get to the free clinic. They have kids with them that practically raise themselves. Most seem to have a sibling that is willing to watch out for them and their kids. One family had both the grandmother and the father infected. The mother took off. There were 5 kids. So the 13 year old was pretty much watching after everyone. This kid was a trooper. We prayed for them and so many others. It just drained me though. These people lead difficult lives in these villages as it is, let alone when they get sick.

The end of the pastors seminar went well. Rita answered a few of their questions and then talked a bit. There weren’t as many as the days before, I think because of the rain and because most have to walk about ½ an hour to an hour to get there. Also someone had died, so several were at the funeral. But it was good. Afterwards we had tea and roasted ground nuts (peanuts). They are really good when they are still warm off the fire. By the end of the day I was just drained of energy.

Ruth led preschool and had a party for Jessie’s birthday at class today. It sounds like it went really well. They had cookies and juice and gum. Jessika enjoyed it. She got to pass out the cookies.

In the afternoon Ruth and the kids went around to different homes of the preschool kids. I’ll let her tell about it….

The kids and I went with Teacher Susan from the preschool to visit some of the students in their homes. It was a blast! All the women here carry their children on their backs with such ease. They immediately grabbed Jessika and Jonathan and put them on their backs while we walked (the kids liked this). We visited 4 of the students and were able to pray for them and their families. I was shocked by the living conditions of some of these children. Actually, all the ones we visited live in homes made out of mud and sticks. It is amazing! All of the homes have animals everywhere (which the kids just love). We saw chickens, pigs, cows, and dogs. There are people and kids everywhere too. I had a hard time figuring out who was with what family. I was also amazed at how different the children look out of school. They definitely dress in their best for school – which doesn’t say much for some. This made me love the kids even more. Everyone we met was so kind in greeting us. Greetings are very important around here. You would be considered a bad person if you just walked by someone without greeting them. I have learned a few greeting phrases and found that people were pleased when I used them. One strange thing is that many will get down on their knees and almost bow when they greet you. At first I thought it was just for us since we are white, but they did it to Teacher Susan also. We westerners can learn a lot from the warm and hospitality of the Ugandan people. Jessika even commented to me that she likes how friendly everyone is here. She then said, “What is wrong with the people in California?” Visiting these children was such a blessing to me that I asked Susan if we could go to some more homes next week.

Day 107– Oct 15, 2005, Saturday: Kingfisher

We went to a resort called Kingfisher today. It is located on Lake Uganda (which is huge, probably about as big as one of the great lakes). We took a bus there after breakfast. Of course, we were supposed to be picked up at 9:00, but we left at 10:00. This land will teach you patience. They asked if we wanted to be picked up at 5:00 or 6:00pm and we all said 5, realizing it was our only hope to make it back in time for dinner at 6:30. We drove for about ½ hour and ended up on an extremely small dirt road that just didn’t seem right. Then, out of the blue is this resort. It’s quite a cool place. The main reason we went was to hang at the pool. It is probably one of the only pools in the area. We were all hoping that we’d also get a hot shower out of it as well, we were very excited when we saw showers with two faucets. We assumed that meant warm water. NOPE. Just cold. Sigh.

When we first arrived it was quite cool out, with no sign of sunshine. Then we touched the pool and just shivered. Uh oh, this might be a bummer of a day. But Jonny and I jumped in anyway. They had a kiddie pool with a sort of tile slide going into a larger pool. It was quite fun. We also had some innertubes to play around on. After about a ½ hour the sun came out just enough to make it bearable and then was off and on all day. We had a nice western lunch with hamburgers and French fries and FRUIT! Man, we got these great fruit platters for about $1. That was nice. We also had several coffees throughout the day whenever the sun decided to hide. It was just so nice to be drenched in water. It was a bit strange to be in a pool without chlorine. There were a few mossy areas and some slippery steps. But it was water! It wore the kids out. On the way home Jonny fell asleep on the bus.
Above: All of us being spoiled thanks to Jessika's birthday. We had the most western meal yet....Chinese! it was very good. Below: Jess and Jonny posing at the restaraunt.

Day 108– Oct 16, 2005, Sunday: Jessie’s Birkthday!

Jess woke up coughing and hacking enough that she felt she would throw up. Ruth gave her a bucket and said “happy birthday!” It was kind of funny. We all seem to have a little bit of sickness. I woke up with a little montezuma’s revenge (don’t ask for more description than that). Ruth and the kids are all having flu type stuff, mostly stuffy noses with sore throats. It doesn’t help that everywhere you drive here you get so coated with dust and smog that you feel asthmatic. We had breakfast, did some laundry and had a team meeting instead of church. The kids had a tough time as they were both a little cranky from not sleeping well. Then we hired a car just for our family and went to Ling Ling, the local Chinese restaurant. It was our birthday extravaganza. It was probably the most western food we’ve eaten (ironic that it’s Chinese J). But it was really nice. We ate outside on a large lawn in the shade of a large hut type structure. It was so nice and cool and the food was so tasty. The kids finished it off with ice cream. They loved it.

Tonite we are planning to have popcorn with everyone to celebrate 7 years for Jess. I can’t believe it’s been 7 years! For some reason she’s taken to calling it her Birkthday rather than birthday. She’s had a good day though. She is being properly spoiled with a few gifts that we brought from home. It turns out that we had popcorn, kettle corn and cake. Jessika is so spoiled. Here the tradition is for the birthday girl to take the cake around and serve everyone. Jess did it. She was very shy and embarrassed when the whole base sang happy birthday to her. It was very cute. Right now, her and Jonny are at some new friends from New Zealand watching the Robots movie.

Diepersloot Uganda week 3

sorry, I have more pictures to put on, but no more time. I'll try some more later on.
enjoy...dave

Below: Jonny eating chipate. He loves the bread part of it and is getting used to the beans

Above: the preschool class. Can you tell which kids belong to me?
Below: ruth telling the kids the story "Going on a bear hunt" They love to hear her stories.

Above: a typical hut in Konglimura

Below: this is what they do with bicycles here. It's amazing how much one can carry on a single bike.

Day 95– Oct 3, 2005, Monday: Prayer and Fast

Today was a day of prayer and fasting for the leadership of the base here in Jinja, Uganda. Of course the kids had regular food, but the rest of us kept from it. We met at 9:00 with the whole base to start the day with worship. We sang for quite a while, which was great. We were also introduced to the entire base as a team. There were many other introductions as well, people visiting, new classes starting…The kids had had enough by the time the meeting was ½ way through, so ruth took them out and up to the preschool area. She helped out there for a while as the kids joined in the preschool class.

Day 96– Oct 4, 2005, Tuesday: Spying on the health clinic

Today was a time to meet with the team and just get right with eachother. We had some great time of prayer and devotion and worship early on. We shared some things that we’ve been having trouble with. One of our big challenges seems to be the differences between singles and families. Families are much slower going and need a little more planning to figure things out, where the singles often want to “just go” and figure things out as they go. So as a team we are all having to understand where we come from. It was a great time of building eachother up and learning more about eachother. We also shared some testimonies which really brings us together as well.

At 3:00 Rita, Wendy and I went with Fred (the base leader) to a health clinic in a village called Konglemara. We were going to scope it out and see how we can help them out. Man, driving in Uganda is an experience. This was the first time I was sitting close enough to the front of the car to see the oncoming traffic (somehow I’m always in the back of the bus). These people pass at all costs. There were many times that there were 3 or 4 cars all driving opposite directions passing eachother in a 2 lane road. Anyhow, we went to the clinic and it was really cool. They basically invite locals to come and help them out physically and spiritually. Most don’t pay anything. Many go to the witch doctors first and then come when they are very close to death because the witch doctor messed them up more. We are being asked to come and help out a little, but mainly to pray for the area as it is spiritually very dark (witch craft etc). There was a pastor there who was hoping that we could hold a pastors seminar as well, maybe talk about politics with the local pastors since an election is coming up. (Inside we were just laughing to ourselves thinking, “what could we possibly say to a Ugandan about politics?”, not to mention running a pastors seminar). It seems that there is so much need that they just ask for everything. We decided as a team to start sending 3 people there a day for a little while, as there is a car that goes every day that has room for 3 people. Transportation is a major issue here because fuel is expensive and taxis take a long time (about 3 hours for what takes 45 minutes by car).

Day 97– Oct 5, 2005, Wednesday: team to clinic/village

Today after breakfast we sent 3 people to the clinic at Konglemara for the whole day. Wendy, Rita and Meagan all went. The rest of us stayed here at base and worked with the preschool kids and had some errands to run and most important, we prayed for the team at the clinic. The reason we felt we really needed to pray for the clinic is because the area it is in is a very witch crafty/medicine man kind of place. Also, in talking with the leaders there, they said that the team is really disunified and he thinks that the clinic is really struggling spiritually. We had a really cool time praying for them. Ruth, Rod, Karen and I prayed for a long while and got several verses and thoughts as we prayed. One of the verses was Colossians 2:8, another Colossians 3:12-14, another was Acts 3:19. It was just a great time of prayer. The cool thing was when Meagan, Rita and Wendy came back we talked about their day and they had used each of these verses in some way through out their day. Wendy used one while she spoke to some of the nurses at the clinic, Meagan and Rita used some as they were walking and praying. There were many other coincidences that were just astounding.

Today Rod and I had to run some errands in town, and on the way we stopped at the YWAM center there. We were both reading about the base/orphanage in Soroti and we both were thinking “that’s where we need to go”. We had prayed as a team before and we all felt that we were to help orphans and especially those effected by AIDS, and that is what this base does. Well, it turns out at the exact same time, Rods wife Karen was at the base talking with a lady and telling her about our desire to work with orphans. The lady started crying and saying what a blessing it would be if we were able to go to Soroti and help out, as the Dutch lady that runs the place is really burnt out and could use help. When we got back from lunch and swapped stories we were again amazed how God gives us the same thoughts at times and we really feel like he is leading us there soon. We’ll be praying about it as a team if we should go up there for a week or two. I hope so.

Day 98– Oct 6, 2005, Thursday: Interesting nights sleep

Ruth just pointed out an interesting tidbit…today is the anniversary of Jessika’s adoption. Wow, God brought her into our lives for good 6 years ago. And her 7^th birthday is in 10 days.

So between the two of us, Ruth and I had about half a nights worth of sleep. We were quite groggy today. Ruth couldn’t sleep from about 1-3, so she just sat in bed and prayed and listened to some of the speakers that we recorded in our dts lectures. She finally got sleepy and about 3:30 jonny came in telling us about a bad dream having to do with a helicopter and mommy being stuck in a bucket (no more info on it). I was so tired I could barely move, but I decided to push my luck and carry him back to bed (If he stays in bed then no one sleeps). So I carry him to his bunk bed (he’s on the top). At this point I’m kind of feeling like I stood up from bed a little quick. I stood there a second and prayed for him to sleep well and then I got real warm. I vaguely remember hearing a slight sound, and then I heard Ruth saying “What was that Huge noise!”. I came to on the concrete floor and pieced together that I had passed out and then Jonny started to cry as he had a front row seat to watch me go down. I had made a huge racket as a door slammed, a coffee table moved, crayons went everywhere, and apparently my head thunked the concrete a bit as it is kindof sore today. I think that this is the first time in my life that I have passed out. Looking back, it makes sense, because I sleep VERY sound, and my heart rate is pretty slow anyways. I must have stood up quickly from a deep sleep and not let my body catch up. In the morning, our neighbor asked us about the loud noise. Whew! I thank God that I didn’t get hurt. What a weird feeling. I think next time Jonny wakes me I might take a little more time to get him back in bed.

Luckily our plans today were changeable. Ruth spent the morning sleeping while I went with the kids to the preschool and helped out. Then I got to take a nap with Jonny in the afternoon. Ahhh it felt good to catch up. I was dragging all day.

Day 99– Oct 7, 2005, Friday: Konglimura

Last night Ruth was up a lot again. She thinks it’s because of the malaria medicine that she is taking. So, conveniently I was going to the health clinic with Doctor Tim, so we confirmed that it was a possible side effect and got another anit-malaria medicine for her today. Hopefully her mild insomnia will end. She’s been up for at least 2 hours the past several nights.

I went to Konglimura Medical Clinic today. I didn’t fully realize this when I left, but the plan is for Rod and I (with others help) to run a pastor’s seminar next week wed, thurs, fri. Yes, that’s right, last week a pastor, next week a pastor’s seminar. Do I feel qualified to do this? Nope. Do I currently have something I feel led to tell a bunch of pastors from various Ugandan villages? Nope. Do I believe that God is planning this whole thing and He’ll give us words as we need them just like he did last week when I spoke in church? Yep. If you look in the bible he often used people when they were totally unprepared. We’ll see what he has planned. So, we spent the day preparing flyers for 40 different local churches and delivering them to the pastors. Now here are some things to keep in mind… 1) these churches are all mud huts in the middle of Uganda 2) These pastors are mostly unschooled people that became Christians and just started a church. Some of these pastors just need some of the basics of Christianity so they are leading their churches as the Bible tells us. So, I guess in some regard I do feel slightly qualified to tell them something. But man is it intimidating….

While delivering the invitations we traveled all throughout the area. It was a really cool opportunity to see the villages and people. Every time we passed a bunch of kids they would wave or run to us yelling “Mazunga!”. It means white man.

Today I took off for the day while Ruth stayed at base with the kids and helped out in the preschool. She is enjoying teaching there, and the kids are loving the time playing with others.

Day 100– Oct 8, 2005, Saturday: Jinja Town

Wash day…boy do we miss washers and dryers. We have to hang the wash early in the day so it has time to dry, if it is out in the evening I guess bugs get embedded in it and then make you sick. So we have to iron everything just in case (it kills the bugs). Sigh. No wonder the people here have such a time making a living. Every thing is about 10 times more work than we are used to. I comprised a list of things we miss and take for granted: 1) jumping in the car and driving to town (here it takes about 1 hour to walk/taxi the 5 miles to town) 2) washer and dryers 3) hot running water (praise God we at least have running water, but boy does it make for a cold shower) 4) potable water from the tap (it all has to be either boiled or filtered to drink or wash dishes) 5)vegetables (potatoes and beans are it, nothing green, or red…even the beans are yellow) 6) scrambled eggs (we get eggs here, but they are boiled and the yokes are white) 7) not having to spray mosquito stuff on 8) not having to wonder every time your kids scrapes his knee or licks a table if he will get sick 9) being mobbed by needy street kids in town because they know you have money 10) the red dirt is magnetic, it gets everywhere, even after a long shower, your towel turns red.

I hope that didn’t sound like I was complaining. That wasn’t the idea. It’s just different, and I wanted to share some of it with you. We are blessed to be here in so many ways as well. The people are so enjoyable, they always want to stop and talk and really get to know you. The land is beautiful. There is just so much need here it’s hard to know where to start.

Today we went to town. It took pretty much all day. We had lunch in town at the white man’s watering hole called Ozzies. It is run by a couple from Australia. They have semi western food there, so we all had breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns….hmmm it was so good. Jonny was just eating everything he could get his hands on. (We all were, but It’s easiest to point the finger at him). We also had a nice big glass of pineapple juice. All this was about 5000 shillings (just over $3). It was really nice. We also saw lots of other mazungas there, apparently this is the place to segregate yourself on Saturdays. Then we shopped around a bit and bought some cool African 3 legged stools. Ruth had a latte at The Source, a café that is also mostly white people surfing the net and drinking coffee. The kids and I each had a cookie as well. Good stuff. Today is a day to be spoiled a little I guess.

Then we cruised through town and I bought a pair of pants for $3. Most of the pants I have are light colored and get dirty so fast with the red dirt, so I needed some darker ones. Then we all jumped in the taxi and waited for it to fill up to it’s 1.5X legal capacity of 22 people (14 is legal, but this is a business man!). We all agreed that God has put the taxi’s here to keep the people praying because the ride is just crazy. I forgot to mention that on the way into town our taxi broke down so we had to wait 15 minutes for another one to come by. Sigh…this is Africa.

Day 101– Oct 9, 2005, Sunday: Church, Rod speaks

Ruth has now had two decent nights of sleep. Praise God for that. I think it’s because of prayers from all of you reading this. Today she is officially switching from one malaria pill to another in the hopes that it helps her continue to not get jittery at night.

We went to an awesome church this morning. They didn’t have a sound system, so they weren’t able to turn it so loud that it was totally distorted and indiscernible. They sang the most awesome music and danced and jumped and clapped. Boy can these people clap. Everyone of them is like a drummer, and then there were the drums, 3 in all I think. What a great time worshipping. It was much needed for me, probably the rest of the team too.

Rod spoke about building up walls between ourselves and others, both individually and as a church. It was very good. I think we might just both use our sermons to teach to the pastors later this week…we’ll see. After church, the main pastor gave us all biscuits and juice and we chatted and prayed for a while. Then we walked home, about a half mile I’d guess. I’m trying to train Jonny to not be carried all of the time, he made it about ½ way, so he is learning…Now, everyone is napping while I update….

I wanted to leave you all this week with a few needs in mind.

First is my neighbor David. He is trying to take him and his wife to the states so that he can learn some better agriculture techniques and bring them back to Africa to help better lives. He has no money to do this.

Second: This base also has very little money. They are actually enjoying a time of prosperity in the short time that we are here because we are paying (a small amount) to stay here. Normally there is very little money to run the place (including things as simple as food). It’s just a very poor area.

Third: is the Medical clinic in Kanglimira. They are squeeking by, but the main reason they have fewer patients these days is because they have fewer medicines.

There is so much need here it is everywhere we go. For all three of the above I am not sure how funds could be even donated, but if some of you are interested then I will look into it, so email me

Uganda week 2 Dave speaks to church

Well, I just spent the last hour putting photos on here and I just realized they are backwards, so the ones at the top correspond to the end of the week and the bottom the begining. Oh well, It's Africa, that's the way things go around here. I'll just add captions and you can figure out what day they belong with. Above is the church that I spoke at on Sunday. First sermon that I have ever delivered.

Below: Ruth with lots of sunday school kids. Notice the mostly naked girlon the right with baby strapped to her back.
Below...the sunsets here are amazing as well. This is the view from the entrance to our dining hall. (which is like a huge cement gymnasium)

Above: Jess and Jonny taking part as we teach the Discovery kids some songs and sign language. The Discovery kids look well dressed because they have to buy uniforms to be able to come. That is there tuition and still many can't afford it.

Below: Our dishwasher for the base. start on the right (dirty water) and move left as it gets cleaner.
Jess and Jonny got a tour of the Vocational Training school (VTS). this is the chicken coop. they love all of the animals.

Day 91– Sep 28, 2005, Wednesday:Work with kids

We split up the team today to help teach the kids from refugee camps. Apparently what happens is about 40 kids come from a refugee camp for a week to live here on base and have school (not to mention beds and food). Rod, Rita, Wendy, Karen and I took the older kids (10-15 years). We had fun with them. We taught them a few songs and did “How Great is Our God” in singing and sign language. I think they enjoyed it. At least they clapped a lot. We had them all introduce themselves by tossing an orange back and forth, it was fun. It’s interesting, they all have very American names. I’ll have to find out if they are their ‘real’ names or not. After singing and name sharing Rod talked for 15 minutes or so with an interpreter. It was good. I suppose I’ll have to get up and start talking at some point. It’s weird, I feel led to do it, but scared at the same time….

Ruth went and served the preschool kids…. There is a preschool here on base that serves both the staff kids and local children (about 30 total kids). The teachers are apart of ywam and are volunteers. They asked us to come and teach and to do a craft with the children for 3 days. My kids were thrilled to go to school and to interact with the other children! I enjoy interacting with them and loving them and giving the teachers a break.

The first thing I noticed in the preschool was how little they had – the building is simple, they sit on the floor for everything, torn posters on walls, very simple toys made out of homemade objects (puzzles made out of cardboard that the teachers have cut out). The teachers have notebooks for each child that they hand write all their assignments (no preprinted materials). And yet with so little they are so content!

They also are so well behaved! They were sitting in a circle when we came in totally quiet. The teacher asked them to welcome us and in unison they said, “you are most welcome visitors”. They are so polite and so obedient. It made me realize how spoiled our western children are and how much it takes to entertain them and just how much we take for granted. I asked Susan, the main teacher, if they had anything we could buy for them. She was overjoyed and said she would like notebooks, pencils, erasers, markers and something to sweep the floor. I spent maybe $10 total and Rose, another teacher, just hugged me and said “Praise God for the Hawaii team”. I was shocked – because it was no big deal for me and yet such a big deal for them. There is so much need here for just basic things! Especially for clothing! The children wear the same clothes every day – so torn and dirty and most have no shoes. It breaks my heart. There is so much need when we have so much plenty.

At lunch we served the kids as a team. It was cool to be able to give to them. We sat at a table of all girls and tried to talk to them, but they weren’t talkers. Apparently Karen spoke with some kids and asked one about where he came from. When she asked, the childs face just dropped and he went quiet. She couldn’t get him to talk after that. Another child had a badly burned foot and it turns out that in these refugee camps there are often fires and all they can do is run, sometimes through the fire to get out. Another said that both his brother and father were killed by rebels…just devastating stuff.

I also found out that I’ll be preaching at church on Sunday. Yep, me…preaching at church. Luckily their church services are only about 3 hours long and the message is 45 minutes long (that’s sarcasm). Funny thing is that it didn’t come as a surprise to me, somehow I was sort of expecting it, and I feel like I have a message to tell. Pray for this one though.

Day 92– Sep 29, 2005, Thursday: Discovery kids

Woke up this morning with a sick Jonny. Bummer. He threw up a time or two, so I went and got breakfast and brought it back for the family. Breakfast is usually just a roll with plum jam or honey and some milk tea. A very light breakfast by my standards, especially because lunch isn’t served until 1:00pm. I get so hungry by lunchtime (I’m spoiled). Jonny was white as a sheet, so he stayed back with Ruth while I went to work with Discovery kids. We taught them the sign language to “How great is our God”. They are very quick learners. They really enjoyed it too. Then Wendy gave a message about our hurts and scars in life, both physically and emotionally. She asked if any of the kids had seen any one die or be killed and nearly all raised their hand slowly. She asked if any had parents die and several again raised hands, I almost started crying just watching the kids respond. She talked about how God can heal those wounds. She asked if any of the kids wanted to come up and be prayed for and nearly all of them did. We prayed for them and tried to encourage as much as possible. Wow, it was a powerful time. It was tough to see these little kids, knowing some of the things they’ve gone through. The really tough part is knowing that at the end of this week they have to go back to the refugee camp and face all of it again. They really shut up when you bring up where they come from and that they have to go back. There just isn’t enough money to keep them here. There are also just too many kids still there that need a week off to get some love and hear that God loves them and that there is hope. Sigh….tough stuff.

Then I went back with Jonny and Ruth went with the preschool kids again. I decided if I’m gonna be praying for healing for these other kids, I might as well pray for Jonny to be healed as well. He just layed in bed for a few hours, but he didn’t throw up any more. Then he got a little water down and scarfed down his biscuit. By lunch time he was done.

After lunch we met as a team for a while to figure out a game plan for tomorrow, because we are running the Discovery kids program for 4 hours. I think we have a good plan. I’ll tell you more about it after we do it.

Chipate is what we had for dinner tonite. It is like a thick tortilla that you dip in beans. It tastes awesome. Ruth wants to learn how to make it and reproduce it back at home. We have all been amazed at how good the food is here. It’s been a long, hot, tiring day…time for bed.

Day 92– Sep 30, 2005, Friday: doozy of a day...hot and tiring, but GREAT

Where do I start with today? It’s been a doozy. After breakfast we went to lead the Discovery kids. Remember, these are all kids that live in a refugee camp in Northern Uganda. Most of them have lived there for over 3 years. The camp is protected by their army, but surrounding them are the rebels who basically kill often. These kids were brought here for a week, they had to have an armed escort to get their bus out of the camp. Most of these kids have seen a family member die, most of them in horrible ways. These kids are hurting in ways that you and I can’t imagine.

We had 4 hours to lead them today. We started with worship. We sang “mercy is falling” with them and then they brought out the big drum and sang for us. These kids jumped up and down, sang “Hallelujah” with the African “thum da da dum thum da thum…” of the drums…they were awesome. It was a total blessing to watch and hear them worship. After worship I gave a short message with a translator (1/2 of the kids speak English well, ½ speak a tribal language). I spoke about Gods story of loving man. God created us…All was Very good…man sinned…God and man couldn’t be together….God loved man….God sent his son to forgive man so man could know God again…Gods son died for Man’s sin…Gods son conquered sin and rose from death…man has a choice to either accept God’s gift of forgiveness through his son... or reject it. Then we did a skit to the music “Agnus Dei” (Holy are you Lord God Almighty..worthy is the lamb…) It was really powerful. Then Wendy spoke a little about how God can heal us and asked if any of the kids wanted prayer. About ½ did, so we prayed for each individually. I prayed for 4. I remember Walter the most. All the kids said they knew Christ and were forgiven, but Walter said he didn’t know Christ. I asked if he wanted to know him and he looked down and said “yes”. He cried a little as he asked Christ into his heart to forgive him. I don’t think I’ll ever forget it.

Day 93– Nov 1, 2005, Saturday: Off to Town

There were some basic necessities lacking, so we took a taxi to town today. We had to hike for a good bit before we found a taxi; Jonny was cranky so I had to carry him. A friend (Jonathan) drove by in a truck and offered us a ride ½ way to town. We took him up on his offer and got to stand up in the back of the truck. Then we got a taxi the rest of the way, it took over an hour to go about 5 miles. In town we bought some paper, pens, markers for the preschool class. We also bought some material to make some clothes; our friend Grace is a seamstress and offered to make clothes for the family. We also bought some exciting things like toilet paper. Then we went into the bargain shops, which are pretty smelly and dirty and you could easily get lost in there. It’s like a flea market crammed tightly together (and probably with actual fleas). It was kind of tough to keep the kids happy the whole time at town. Luckily we bought a can of biscuits and they kept munching on them. On the way home we had 22 people in a van smaller than our old Eurovan. It was quite a ride.

We had planned on the trip taking only a few hours, but it ended up being about 5 hours. Ruth started laundry while I prepared a little for my speaking debut tomorrow. Laundry is a whole new way of life here. First of all the dirt just gets on everything. Then there is the hand washing…no wonder there are so many people here in filthy clothes

Jonny didn’t nap because he was so cranky (go figure). I tried to send some emails, but somehow the connection was down (again, go figure). During dinner the power went out (3^rd time this week) and of course there was no kerosene for the lamps because someone used it to start the coals for dinner, and there was no fuel for the generator because no one realized it needed refilling….this is Africa…

We discovered the reason for Jonny’s crankiness tonite as he spent more than ½ an hour on the toilet groaning. Apparently he’s not getting the fruit in his diet that he needs. He loves all the carbs in the diet, but we need to establish a better balance for his system

…he’s happy now.

Day 94– Nov 2, 2005, Sunday: Dave speaking at church

Well, I had kind of wondered if God in his infinite wisdom would protect the church from hearing me speak a sermon, but he chose to subject them to me. It was quite a church service. We went to ‘Abundant Life Church’, which is about ½ hour walk from base. We got a ride in the back of the truck because it’s too far for the kids (yeah). The first impression of this church/area…wow, how do people live like this. There are kids everywhere, half clothed, malnourished, kicking around a soccerball of sorts.

The church started out with some fairly random singing/clapping. They had a ‘sound system’ and even two wireless microphones. It was almost impossible to understand anything because the volume was so high and the building was concrete, so sound was everywhere. Every 30 seconds or so a lady would let out one of these African crys of joy that pierced your ears. But these people danced and sang with joy. Once the random singing slowed, a man started speaking, announcements I think. He spoke in English and had a girl speaking at the same time in Ugandan. I’d be surprised if anyone in the building took in more than half of what he said. Then things quieted down a bit and they stopped using the microphones. Ruth and most of our team left the service to help with the kids church. Then the choir (about 10 people) came up and sang, and this was cool. They sang very well and had that African rhythm about them. Awesome music. Then they brought our team back in to introduce us all and afterwards just handed me the microphone. My initial struggle was how to hold my notes, my bible and a microphone. Somehow I wasn’t expecting a microphone. But someone quickly wheeled up a massive pulpit for me to hide behind. The next struggle was that the interpreter girl couldn’t follow my accent, so she was quickly traded in for a man that understood me well. Then off I went. It is very nice to speak with an interpreter because you have just enough time to look at notes or think of your next line before it’s your turn to speak. You also don’t have to be very dynamic as most of the showy stuff is lost in interpreting anyways. I spoke about God’s word and how it needs to be our foundation and how most people haven’t even read it. I had a ton of bible references, probably too many, but the one I used most was James 1:22-25 Don't fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don't act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like. But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God--the free life!--even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action. (James 1:22-25)

I was told that I did pretty well. I think I spoke for about 30 or 40 minutes, but I’m not sure. After me, a guy came up (I think the pastor) and summarized what I said. He said that he had planned on giving a message, but that mine was sufficient. Then he summarized his just in case. I was amazed that his was about how our lives need to be transformed as Christians. It really tied in with my message. Then there were another ½ hour of what seemed like announcements and a little more singing. Once the kids started coming back in they wrapped everything up and we were done. I had many people wanting to shake my hand and thank me afterward.

We talked for a while and slowly made our way to our truck for a bumpy ride home. I watched the kids for a bit after church and was again amazed. There are little 3 year olds with babies on their backs (both naked) walking around. So many kids that need help and nourishment.

Ruth here: Let me say church was shocking! I am still trying to process it. My first shock was the toilet. A man from the church led me to a shack in the back with 2 doors. Inside was a hole on the floor – that’s it! (we call these “squatie potties”) And oh it smelled so bad! The first thing I learned was to always carry tissues and hand sanitizer with me for these moments. The mistake I made was looking in the hole – it was moving! I looked closer – worms and maggots everywhere – I almost threw up!

The next shocker was the children in church. We went into a small cement building with probably 100 kids – all ages! (yes, even babies) There were children my kids ages with little babies strapped on their backs. I noticed there was some sort of segregation among the children - or hierarchy. The nicer clothed children sat on benches. The ones on the floor were dirtier and were mostly younger. Then there were the ones looking in the windows – the street kids – so dirty – some missing clothes. We sang with them and taught them for over 2 hours – Yikes! I was beat! We prayed over them and I cried as I walked around and layed hands on their heads and told them “Jesus loves them”. So many of their heads so dirty, scabs and sores and ringworm.

They seemed to be totally entertained by us just because we are white. They loved to touch us and come close. Jessika gets a little frightened by this. Jonny doesn’t! Karen, on our team, commented as we were leaving that we could leave Jonny there and he would be content. He just runs and plays with all the kids no matter how dirty (he loves dirt too!). I on the other hand have my sanitizer out for my kids constantly – please pray that we will be able to get close to theses kids and love them and play with them without getting sick. They need touch and love and I don’t want to hold back just because of their filth.

It seems so unfair that these precious little ones need to grow up in such dirty conditions. Some of the kids looked so malnourished. Runny noses, scabs, sores, rotted teeth, etc. Some children have those large bellies – they are infested with worms. I wish to be able to help them all. I am still processing today’s events in my mind. I have such a hard time understanding why places like Uganda, so beautiful and so rich in culture, have to be so poor in basic necessities when we have soooooo much. What would it take to make change? I don’t know the answer.