Uganda Survey Part I

During my missionary internship in 2007, I was with one other girl—Sam Strange. To make a long story short, Sam decided to visit me in Uganda so that we could do a survey of sorts for future mission work. Uganda is so very different from Mozambique and someone who is considering mission work in Africa needs to experience at least a taste of those differences. So Sam and her brother Nathan met me in Uganda to set out on a three week trip exploring Uganda. I would love to give more detailed accounts of each place and our experiences, but for now I’m going to focus on what we did. We had planned to go to Gulu after their arrival in Entebbe, but the weather was not too good so we stayed in Kampala instead. I took them to the mall and we slept at a guest house, nothing very exciting. The next morning we got on a bus headed to Gulu. At first Gulu seemed like a waste of time, but we had to get some focus and really rely on God to guide us and lead us to what we needed to see. We stumbled on the office of Favour of God Ministries where we went in to see what they did. We talked with the director for a while and then the District Speaker came in. Both men were very nice and helpful in providing information about Gulu, the Acholi people, and the needs in the area. After that we went to Grace Academy (I talked about this place in my post about my trip to Gulu) for Sam to see the clinic there. Then we went to the Invisible Children office where I talked with the director of the teacher exchange program for a while; it was a much better experience this time. Since we had stayed in Kampala the first night, we only had one night in Gulu, which isn’t very long considering how long it takes to get there. The next morning we called the District Speaker and set up a meeting with him. We went to his office and learned much about governments and politics. Then he arranged for us to go to an Internally Displaced Peoples camp. What was supposed to be a 2 hr max trip took more like 4 hrs (this is Africa!), but we met with people in 3 different camps asking them about their lives and needs, both physical and spiritual. These camps that we went to were not the original IDP camps, but more like temporary villages between the camps and their home villages. After rushing back into town, we caught the bus just in time to make the 5 hr trip back to Kampala. In Kampala we stayed with Darla, an NTCC missionary. The next morning we met with a driver we’d hired to take us around western Uganda. After getting all the paper work settled, we headed to Fort Portal to stay with the NTCC missionaries there, Jeff and Cheryl Cash, and visit other teammates, Andrew and Aimee Jo Martin. We learned about the mission work in Fort Portal and enjoyed spending time hanging out with Cheryl, Aimme Jo, and their kids (the men were in Kampala). We also were blessed to worship with the congregation in Fort Portal on Sunday morning. I started to get sick and was worried that I had malaria again…

Rwanda Part II: The Harvest

On Saturday we did some of the site-seeing stuff. We started out by going to a basket weaving place, but this wasn’t an ordinary shop. This is the shop where Bono and Oprah special order things and the shop that ships baskets for retail at Macy’s Department Stores. We met the owner of the shop- a very inspiring, strong woman- and then browsed through stacks and stacks of baskets. It will be neat to see them for sale in Macy’s. While there, we unintentionally met with the Gardeners from the Jinja team and a group of Pepperdine students. After chatting and browsing, we headed to the Sonatube roundabout to meet up with a driver that Murphy had arranged for us. Our driver had only been in Rwanda for about 2 weeks; he was a grad student from Harding who had come to Kigali to conduct workshops on improving reading strategies in the classrooms. Instead of leaving after the couple of weeks like planned, he signed a contract to teach at the new international school in Kigali. The only reason I am sharing this is to show one example of just how much people can fall in love with this land, how it infiltrates your life never allowing you to be the same or return to the same course for your life. But, that is a different blog altogether… Anyway, despite still suffering from jet lag, he was a good tour guide. (And, it was really nice to not have to take public all over town). Instead of a “play by play” of what we did, I’ll focus on the highlights. At the top of each of our lists was visiting the Genocide Memorial Center. Many of you know that Rwanda suffered through atrocious crimes against humanity during the 1994 genocide. This memorial center is in honor of the victims and a warning to the future. Walking through the exhibits looking at picture after picture of man at his worst was heart-wrenching, but walking through those exhibits while the victims and their family members led groups through the museum was heart-breaking. You don’t have to look at the pictures on the wall or listen to the stories from the videos, because you can see the effects for yourself by looking at the scars on the guy behind you and listening to the stories being told by the woman in front of you. It was fascinating and disgusting at the same time. Disgusting that mankind is even capable of such violence. Fascinating to see just how much mankind can endure and still move forward. Inspiring would be another very appropriate word for that, but it is better used to describe the state of spirituality in Rwanda. Rwanda is very ripe for the Harvest. Victims and perpetrators alike are working together, loving and forgiving, to move forward as a country. Their drive to move forward and work to ensure that the past does not repeat itself is inspiring. God is working in and among the Rwandan people, and it is exciting and awesome! Sunday at church we worshiped with genocide orphans; from time to time they come together as family because they have no other family. Watching them praise God and praising Him alongside them was uplifting. Sunday night we worshiped with many of the missionaries in Kigali at the Shewmaker’s home. Although our trip to Kigali was short, it was well worth the 24+ hours of being on public on African roads to get there and back. Please pray for the missionaries working in Rwanda and pray for the people of Rwanda. You can find out more info on the Kingdom work there at the following website: http://harvestfields.net/rwanda.php.

Rwanda Part I: Missionary Life Learning

Oh, June…
The month of June was crazy busy for me… actually the months of April, May, and June. The short amount of time I had to rest between taking Jennifer and Mary Beth to the airport to fly home for furloughs and my trip to Rwanda was spent trying to recover from utter exhaustion. I’ll begin with Rwanda. Rather than writing a blog of epic length about Rwanda, I decided to break them up. For the first I will focus briefly on the missionaries we met. I’ll write about what we did while there in the next.

After a full day on a bus from Kampala, Julie, Kimberly, and I arrived in Kigali, Rwanda on 12 June sometime after 7pm. We had contacted Murphy Crowson before leaving Mbale. The Crowsons graciously opened their home to us when we arrived and cooked dinner for us, even sharing some precious American goodies. Another family also graciously opened their home to us allowing us to stay there even though they themselves were out of town. (Actually we had met them along the way when we spent a night in Kampala. They were on their way to Jinja for a visit.) Although we didn’t sleep in the Crowson’s home, they were wonderful hosts to us and helped us arrange anything we wanted or needed to do while in Kigali. We met several kind missionaries while there. The Koonce family is on a team with the Crowsons. Both families served many years in Togo before moving to Rwanda earlier this year; they are currently working on language study in Kigali before moving to another city in the northwest. We spent an evening worshiping at Sam and Nancy Shewmakers home along with several other missionaries and a visiting group of Pepperdine students who were being led by some of our teammates from Jinja. I very much enjoyed meeting the missionaries there, some of whom will remain in Kigali to serve and others of whom will move out of the city eventually. I wish we could have spent more time talking with the Koonces and Crowsons, but we had to return to Uganda. Despite being such a short time, I learned much from these missionaries.

A Pool of Blessings

The end of school was very much like it is anywhere: final projects, final exams, classroom clean up, grade calculations, and some play time. After my students completed all of their final projects and exams (which they all did very well on), we had some time to just have fun together. Initially I had thought that I would write something about their projects, but most of you wouldn’t be too interested in that. So, if you are curious about any assignments or projects I’ve given at any point this year, I’ll be more than happy to share. I gathered all the writing assignments that my older students did this spring and bound most of them together into a book the girls titled “MMS: Rhyme and Reason 2009.” This collection of writings is very dear to me. My students grew a lot in several facets; their growth as writers is one such area, and I am very proud of them.

On the last day of school we had a pool party at the Mbale Resort Hotel. School ended early and we all headed for a fun time at the pool all the while hoping that the rain would cooperate. We ate snacks and played games in the pool. It was the first time that I’ve been able to be just “Crystal” and not “Miss Crystal” with the boys. I don’t know how much fun the boys had playing keep away in the pool with some old girls, but it is a very precious memory to me. I did grow very close to those kids, and I miss them a whole lot. I have been deeply blessed by my students and my work in Uganda, and I am deeply thankful that God sent me to work with the Mbale Mission Team.