Living Faith

What I Do

2010-02-25T20:57:00.001-06:00

In the last entry, I wrote about how I ended up in Los Angeles. In this one, I’ll explain what I’m doing here. To begin with, my job title is Los Angeles City Host, which means that I lead youth groups/college groups/ school groups on mission trips in inner city LA. CSM sets up a schedule for them and I guide them through their time in the city. Groups are usually here either Sunday evening through Saturday morning or Friday evening through Sunday afternoon. We usually start the morning working at one of the homeless or food ministry sites. After eating lunch there we go to an after school program to tutor and/or hang out with the kids. At night we eat at an ethnic restaurant of some sort and then we head to a park to debrief (process the day). That is our basic schedule in a nutshell; although there are some variances. I’ll likely highlight some of our partner ministry sites in future blogs.
That is the job description, but I want to explain some purpose behind it as well. One of the main goals of CSM is to expose and educate people to the struggles of the city. We also put emphasis on encouraging groups to find ways to serve their own communities when they return home. What it all comes down to is love. God’s love for His children runs deep, and as the body of Christ we must share His love with all of His children, especially those who may feel as though God has forgotten about them. This feeling is connected with the ways our society pushes away the “undesirables” as though they are not people who love and hurt, just like everyone else. Their hearts beat and their stomachs growl in hunger, just like everyone else. There are two parts to my job: as a city host I strive to teach my groups about the realities of the city— its hopes and struggles—and help them hear God through it all; as part of the body of Christ I try to be love to everyone I encounter, to remind them that God has not forgotten about them and that He loves each one of His children. I am by no means saying that I have mastered either one of these; what I am saying is that is the way I am striving to serve God in Los Angeles.

I’ll leave you with a couple of quotes from Kevin Blue’s book Practical Justice:
“We are called to be God’s reminder to those who suffer in poverty and injustice that he has not forgotten about them.”

“Direct relief of another’s suffering is a high form of love. Sometimes it requires our money; frequently it requires our time. But most of all, it requires that we see the value and dignity of each person we interact with. It requires that we see who they were created to be more than who they are. It requires that people be more important to us than the list of things we have to do that day or our possessions. It is, after all, the people around us who are eternal, not the stuff we use or the money we make.”

Los Angeles? Really??

2010-02-23T13:23:00.001-06:00

Some of you may know the story of how I ended up in Los Angeles; but I’m going to share it anyway for those who don’t know it, and because it’s a logical place to begin.
When I returned from Uganda, I moved in with my best friend and her family who so lovingly welcomed me into their home. For a while I helped take care of her twins (who just turned 2). I had expected to find a job teaching for the spring semester. I know it doesn’t happen often, but it does happen. I started substituting in Tuscaloosa County late in the fall semester. It was a job and a good foot in the door, but it was really frustrating to me because I really wanted to have my own classroom. I pursued several different doors that in turn shut in my face. I was worn out emotionally and incredibly frustrated with the job hunt. I had been missing working in ministry, so I thought about working in that for a season. Also, I felt this pull toward urban ministry. I decided to search for paying internships in ministry to fill the spring before returning to the education job hunt for fall 2010. While searching, I decided that I if I was willing to do something that I would apply and leave it in God’s hands. I knew that if I weighed out all the pros and cons beforehand I would end up really wanting a job that may again not work out. I found the Center for Student Missions online and emailed the home office. The deadline for spring interns was not too far away, so I did my research, prayed, and completed my application to be a city host in Washington D.C. I quickly heard back from the home office that D.C. wasn’t hiring, but inquired whether or not I’d be interested in serving in another city. She told me 4 cities that were still looking for spring interns; I had not been to any of them and none stood out more than another. I told her I would go wherever she thought I’d best work out. She said, “How about Los Angeles?” I said, “Um, ok.” All the while, though, asking God, “Los Angeles?? Really?? Hm…” I interviewed with Rachel, the city director here. Then I went to Nashville to do a site visit and learn more about CSM. Rachel and I both prayed a lot. She called me the first Wednesday of January and asked if I wanted to come work in LA at the end of January. I was so excited. The timing was great. The job really interested me, and I was really excited about working with CSM. I bought a ticket a week later, and now here I am.

From Part I to the Next Season

2010-02-23T13:01:00.002-06:00

First, I realize that my last blog is entitled “Part I,” which indicates that there should be a part II. However, I’m pretty sure it’s not going to happen in the near future since it didn’t even happen when I had some time to do it. There are a few blogs that need to be written to wrap up my time in Uganda; for one reason or another, though, I didn’t invest the mental/emotional energy into processing things like I should have. I wanted to quickly write them before beginning a blog for Los Angeles, but I won’t ever get around to writing blogs for here if I do that. All that to say, for now I’m going to have to skip ahead and leave out some stuff. However, feel free to ask any questions you may have. So, now my blog is shifting from life in Uganda to thoughts on life in LA.

Uganda Survey Part I

2009-09-05T19:04:00.001-05:00

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

2009-09-05T18:36:00.000-05:00

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

2009-09-05T17:34:00.001-05:00

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

2009-09-05T17:32:00.000-05:00

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.

Hot pink tinsel and the top reader

2009-07-31T12:53:00.000-05:00

With one week of school remaining, the faculty of Mbale Mission School proudly presented our first graduate ever with her high school diploma. Leila Shelburne gladly received her diploma on Monday, 11 May at 3 pm on the front porch of the Shelburne home. Thanks to the coordination of our unofficial team event planner, Julie, we held a ceremonious graduation followed by a congratulatory party. Several of the staff—Phillip, Julie, Jennifer, and I—adorned the classic black caps and gowns along with our graduate. We tried to make the graduation very similar to something Leila would have experienced had she been graduating in the States. Our ceremony consisted of the following: the procession of the faculty and the graduating student accompanied by music, opening remarks given by Phillip, an awards ceremony, presentation of the diploma, prayer, and an exiting procession. (I must note that I am writing this over a month after the event and am very likely forgetting some things). While we tried to present an American feel, we do like in Uganda and therefore it had to have some Uganda flavouring as well. When Leila marched in the women ululated and friends ran forward to cover her with glimmering decorations such as tinsel, and when she received her diploma the children shot off noise poppers. All of this set in front of the beautiful backdrop of Mount Wanale. It was a very special day of celebrating Leila and all of her accomplishments. She will be attending Harding University in the fall.

I want to add that the ceremony caused me to realize just how short a time had passed since I had graduated. I was having flashbacks to my own recent graduation; it was a weird feeling. Also, this was my first graduation to participate in as a member of the faculty; it was fun.  Oh, you may have been wondering why we held the graduation before school was even out. Well, that was the only time we could get it scheduled into the chaos of our team’s schedule, and even then it wasn’t ideal. Thus is life on the mission field, especially just before furlough.

University Summit

2009-06-08T12:21:00.001-05:00

In April our team hosted a University Summit for LivingStone International University. They had one in 2006 where they established goals and set steps to be taken before the next summit. Since LIU has now received the “go-ahead” from the Ugandan Counsel for Higher Education, there is much to be done. Some people flew in from the States to help out. Delegates from numerous countries in Africa showed up to offer their support and advice. The highlight for me was when Dr. Ntero spoke at our closing session. Dr. Ntero was the first East African woman to go to University. She has an incredible story! I could listen to her talk about her life for hours and not get bored. I wish that I could share her story with you, but I’d struggle to get it all right. Another really awesome thing that happened was when a surprise guest showed up during one of the sessions. A former Minister of Education happened to be in town and happened to be at the hotel where the conference was taking place. This man was quoted just the day before in a presentation by Shawn, and the next day he “happens” to be there to speak for himself. God is so good!
While there are many things I would like to tell you about the summit, I can’t because I was either in school teaching or helping run errands for it. The best way to get a better picture of the summit is to check out LIU’s website and read the blogs on the summit (you can also read more about LIU while on the site). A prayer point—please pray for LivingStone International University and the men and women working to establish it providing Christian education to this region of Uganda and East Africa.
http://livingstone.ac.ug/

Gulu

2009-06-08T12:19:00.000-05:00

Leila and I took a really long detour on the way home from the ladies retreat. We tagged along with the Kampala women who were so kind in giving us a lift. From Kampala we took a bus to Gulu. The bus ride was not near as long as we had anticipated and the road was actually quite good. After arriving in Gulu, we were finally able to talk with Christine, Nathan and Lydia’s aunt, who we had been trying to contact for at least a week. We also stumbled across one of the 2 guest houses we were searching for just in time to reach our room before the rain down-poured. Saturday we walked around town exploring a bit. Sunday we went to church at the Watoto church in Gulu. That was a very weird experience for me. That church was so nice and had so much technological equipment that my mind had a really difficult time accepting that I was in a church in Gulu, Uganda. After church we talked with Christine a bit about what we wanted to do there. I told her I was very interested in education especially secondary. She told me that Invisible Children is the organization that I need to meet with because they are the only ones currently working on the secondary aspect. She told me that she would call Jolly and set up a meeting with us. We also came up with a few other things to do while there. First, I need to explain that my personality type is INFP, which is the “Idealist.” The idealist in me was uncontainable at lunch that day, as Leila can attest. I had so many ideas and so many possibilities that I couldn’t even express any of them. Monday morning Leila and I prepared for a trip to the Invisible Children office, but unfortunately Christine had several other things to do and couldn’t join us. She called Jolly and talked to her; then Christine called me to tell me who to ask for. I went in and really didn’t make such a good impression on the girl I was told to speak with so she passed me off on an intern who proceeded to tell me about the mission and history of Invisible Children. I could have done her job for her, with the exception of what’s been happening since I’ve been in Uganda. She did take me to meet with the Schools for Schools project director who very graciously took time to meet with us. Again, my idealist was still uncontainable and thus unexplainable. I couldn’t explain any of my ideas or intentions to him well at all. I wanted to talk with the director of the teacher exchange program, but she wasn’t in the country. It was really cool to see the office and learn some small bit more. But I was very frustrated with my experience; I was treated like some 18 year old who had hopped a plane to show up at the IC office expecting to work with them and who didn’t know anything about IC, Uganda, or East African culture. Needless to say, my ideas were quickly squelched. I understand why they treated me like they did, and don’t get me wrong, they weren’t rude at all. They have had many people like I described come into the office with such or similar expectations. They didn’t know anything more than I live in Mbale and had been there for 9 months (at the time). Despite my frustrations, Sam and I are going to go back when we go next week.
On a side note for anyone that has seen the bracelet videos, Innocent (he’s the one on the white bracelet DVD) came into the office while I was there. That was pretty cool. And, it seriously would have been way cool to meet with Jolly. But I still find it cool that a friend of mine called up her friend Jolly to talk about me.
After all of that, Leila and I went to Grace Christian Academy. Lydia and Nathan’s grandparents started this school and Christine now runs it. I talked with her a lot about the school and she asked me to walk through the classes and observe the teachers, look through their lesson plans, etc. Grace is a nursery and primary school with a clinic. Most of the children are orphans. I walked quickly through the lower primary classes saying hello to the teachers and students and absorbing the scenes of the classrooms. I was at first nervous about offering feedback about the teachers to Christine; but, things came naturally to me as I remembered my training. Leila must have been bored, but I was fascinated. After all of this, we had lunch with Christine and I offered my opinions and observations of the teachers. She is working with another woman in Gulu (an American missionary) to develop a much needed new curriculum to present to the government for use nationwide. They are very convicted about the need and they have had doors opening to them offering a window of opportunity. However, they need assistance from trained educators, particularly from those who have experience in curriculum writing and in cross-cultural work. I really want to work with them on this, but I don’t know that I am at a point where I can. I need more training and their window is limited. I left Gulu more convinced of my need to go for my master’s in international education. But what to do until then? I don’t know; I’m meeting with Christine again when I go back with Sam. It is definitely a prayer point, not just for my involvement, but for the whole thing.
I really liked Gulu. I liked the town size, the nearness of the villages, the Acholi people (who are very different from the tribes around Mbale), the land, the food… There is much restoration and much healing going on in Gulu—praise God! I wonder what my involvement in that will look like—another prayer point.

East Africa Ladies Retreat

2009-05-29T09:03:00.000-05:00

On 14-17 of April the ladies on our team headed to Rondo in Kenya for the East Africa women’s retreat. Rondo is a retreat center in the rain forest, an absolutely beautiful place! The ladies of the Jinja team planned the retreat. We talked about misconceptions of God and of ourselves; the theme was “we are created in the image of God.” It was a really restful time, which was much needed. The discussions we had were very stirring as well. On the last night we had a masquerade and ended with a poster silent testimony when we removed our masks. To me that was very powerful. I really enjoyed getting to meet ladies from other areas of East Africa. There were women from the Mwanza, Tanzania team, 3 ladies from various parts of Kenya, and all of the Uganda teams. Also, two ladies who recently arrived in Tanzania were there. They’d been staying with the Mwanza team and were going to visit teams in Uganda and Rwanda after the trip. They were really nice, but what was really cool about meeting them was the connections we have from home. I had seen Christie Harrison and her husband at Gulf Coast Get Away in 2008 and met them very briefly. At the time they were planning and preparing to move to Tanzania. Among other things, hearing them talk about Tanzania stirred my mind and pulled my heart towards coming back sooner than I had planned at that time (which would have been a few years later). Also, Holly McNeal and her husband worked with the new University Christian Ministry campus minister Duane Dixon before he went to University Church. Holly told me that Duane had mentioned me to them, but the likelihood of us actually meeting seemed really slim. Guess Duane was right. I’m glad I got to meet them and all the other ladies there. There were a few other connections I had with them and others; it is amazing just how small the world can be (especially in the Church of Christ and within missions and then within missions in Africa)! I’m interested to visit the teams and see their ministries first-hand. I'd love to be able to travel around and do that in the future.

Jenny, Teachie-Weechie, and Ms. Crystal

2009-04-23T08:50:00.003-05:00

This semester I have been super busy with school! I have, however, gotten into some sort of flow of things. I love teaching when I feel like I am actually teaching something. Using time to prepare ahead well, finding resources (which may be dependent upon power, internet, and printing options), figuring out the topics most in need of covering, learning how to use class time well… has been a challenge. It is a challenge to new teachers anyway, but here it is compacted by various conditions (inadequate curriculum, no text books, not enough copies of class novels, unreliable power, no set standards to follow, and in general life in a different culture…. I could go on). I must say that I am not complaining about these things; they have been challenges that I have faced and learned to deal with or found another way. I have and continue to learn from these and numerous other challenges of life here. Anyway, back to school. This semester I have also been teaching Life of Christ 2 to Leila and Lydia. The class has been a valuable sundry of discussions; I am enjoying studying the Gospels with them. I have seen much growth in the boys this semester, both academically and mentally. I am blessed to be a part of that growth. This semester we’ve mostly studied writing and recently moved into creative writing. I have been proud of them in the work they’ve done as they become better writers and explore avenues of written expression. Jennifer has been co-teaching grammar for Josiah with me and it has been really helpful and really great for him. Malachi is now my only student at that level. Sadly, Angela had to move and left the school. Malachi, however, has done really well in my class. He catches on to things very quickly and is rapidly progressing through his book. In British literature we recently finished reading John Milton’s Paradise Lost. We had some fascinating discussions on the text, Creation, and redemption. The girls each did an art project to culminate the unit. Both projects were very impressive! The rest of the semester they will be working on two different power point presentations. The first one they’ve been doing together on the history of Britain as it connects to the specific texts that we’ve read. The second they will do independently after the first is completed, and it is a thematic study power point. This semester we’ve been discussing the nature of man and eternal life as they connect to the pieces we’ve read. I didn’t set it up that way on purpose at first, but when I saw the themes threading through each work we began to focus on it more. Basically, each of my students is doing really well and I am very proud of each one!
This may be quite boring to many of you, but I thought that I ought to write a bit about what it is that I am teaching since that is my primary job here. We only have 4 weeks left of school (I can’t believe it!). There is still so much that I want to teach, and I feel overwhelmed. The middle school class has been doing a unit on poetry and I am about to focus more on poetry in my other 2 language arts classes as well. I’ve been busy and out of town often; hopefully, though, I will be able to sketch out my lesson plans for the rest of the year over the weekend. (Please pray that I do and that God guides me as I work out the plans). One big focus (of many) for me has been trying to prepare the Shelburne boys for a school year in the States next year. They will be on furlough for 1 year and will be going to public schools in Texas. The classroom environment here is a stark contrast to the classroom environment in the States. I am trying to help them prepare for that hoping that it will ease their move by providing a bit of a transitional classroom here. That is a very brief summary of my life as a teacher at MMS. Feel free to ask any questions about it. It is, after all, my job! :)
The title—the 3 teachers for the oldest students each have quite different names that we are called by the students: Jennifer is Jenny, I am Ms. Crystal, and Julie is Teachie-Weechie (or a variety of other names that come up while teaching history). Yes, we are each very different in our teaching methods and styles.

Short continuation of Spring Break

2009-04-23T08:48:00.002-05:00

Wow I need to update…
Nairobi and Kitale--
We went to Nairobi from Masai Mara. Since we arrived in the late afternoon, we spent the night there. Julie and I really wished we could have stayed longer to really see the city, but we had plans to go to Kitale. After some confusion and a booked bus, we found a bus to take us to Kitale. That was a long bus ride. We arrived in Kitale late Sat. afternoon and went to the guest house to crash for the day. Sunday we went to the Children’s Home for church and spent the afternoon visiting with some of the house parents and playing with the children. I enjoy going there and having the chance to play with them. By Monday we were ready to get home! We got a private hire (taxi) to take us back to Mbale. We spent the day lying around and trying to get things together for the next week of school.

Eh! A leopard!

2009-03-22T10:54:00.002-05:00

The 1st week of March we started our spring break with a team retreat at a missionary retreat place in Kenya. Mary Beth and I roomed together in the small cabin. It was a good, relaxing break. From there, Jennifer, Julie, and I went on to Nakuru to begin a safari. After some frustrations, confusion, and miscommunication we eventually arrived in Nakuru with an unspoken agreement to never hire that taxi driver again. He was and hour and a half late (even for Africans this is bad) and tried to rip us off once we arrived… in a somewhat distressed state we started out at Lake Nakuru National Park. Right away we saw monkeys, zebra, cape buffalo, all kinds of deer like animals (DLA), and TONS of birds that were mostly flamingoes and pelicans. The park and lake were beautiful! The van we traveled in had a pop top so that we could stand up inside and see better and take pictures. Later in the park we saw a giraffe, rhinos, and warthogs. On our second game drive there, the evening one, we passed a large herd of buffalo outside of our camp. Our driver said that you can only drive through there because they would attack you if you were walking. Nice to know. Then we saw a few baby baboons which we then realized were part of a really big troop of baboons. We watched them eat, groom, and play for a few minutes making up dialog to go along with it, especially while watching a small one and an even smaller one fight. Later we drove up by the lake and got out to take some pictures. That was really neat. There were birds all over the place near the water and in it and then there were DLAs, zebra, and buffalo all around the trees. George, our driver/guide, later saw the rhinos; which was way cool and way lucky. We saw one male lying beneath a tree far away from all other animals; he really looked sad. George later spotted a whole group of them, but they were far off the road, where we were not supposed to go. Being the great guide that he was, though, he took us over there anyway, but we had to be fast because he would’ve gotten a pretty hefty fine if he’d been caught. Later on we went back to our really nice tented cabin at a really nice lodge. Being there was a nice break. They’re used to people who travel to Africa to holiday. It’s hard to explain fully why it was such a nice change for us without sounding really negative towards the people here, so I won’t explain. It was just a nice change of atmosphere.
The next morning we set out for Masai Mara National Park, which borders Tanzania’s Serengheti National Park. A lot of the road there was really bad. It’s also the dry season there so it was also really, really dusty. Julie and I were often sliding our windows closed since we had to quickly shut them whenever another car would drive by slinging up lots of dust and it was way too hot to leave them shut. After a long drive and a questionable “road” to our lodge, we arrived at our lodge in Masai Mara for lunch. After lunch we set out on an evening game drive. There were many other vehicles then that really made it feel less like I was actually watching wild lions that really could’ve creamed one of the cars if they’d gotten annoyed enough, but they’re too lazy. We saw lots of animals there: elephants, zebra, wildebeest (which was neat because they are somewhat rare to see depending on the season since they migrate), giraffes, DLAs (it’s really difficult to say all of them that I saw since I don’t know many of the names), cheetah, lions (males and females two times for each), vultures, ostriches, a hyena, and a leopard. Because of the time of year, there were also a lot of young animals that were really cute. God is creative and his creation here is indescribably, breathtakingly, mesmerizingly beautiful! The sunset that evening in Masai Mara is one of the most awesome ones that I have ever seen. The green is greener and the blue is bluer and the sky is larger here. Sounds weird, but anyone who has been here will agree. It was such a wonderful experience to see the wild animals of the beautiful land of Africa. I had a lot of fun with my roommates as well; we bonded a lot over the trip and really enjoyed everything about safari. We were really excited about being lucky enough to see all the “big” animals. Usually people talk about “the big 5” but since we saw a leopard as well our guide said we saw “the big 6.” We saw all the big things we were looking for on our evening game drive except for a leopard. So that is what we searched for on our morning drive. After a while I spotted a small one. We were the only vehicle around, making it all the more special. In that regard, the number of other vehicles, the morning drive was more pleasant. Our wonderful driver got us really close to the lions, cheetahs, and leopard. One funny story—while watching the cheetahs on one side and the elephants on the other, one of the elephants got agitated and sounded his trunk in warning, startling my roommates. I wasn’t startled because my first thought (seriously, no exaggeration) was, “Roll Tide!!”… yeah… seems the sound effects UA uses are pretty good to evoke the same response while in the wild. Does that make me brainwashed?
All in all, our safari was an unforgettable, wonderful experience. We made many stories together, but we also spent a lot of time just soaking in God’s creation and silently worshipping Him.
To come: Nairobi, Kitale, school, and further observations on life in Uganda/ East Africa. Also, hopefully, I am going to Gulu with my students' family to visit family there. I am really excited about going up to Gulu to see some of the work going on there.

And the sicknesses began...

2009-02-23T07:24:00.001-06:00

Nearly immediately after returning to Mbale from my visit with Jane I hit that really tough stage of culture shock. That stage includes a strong homesick feeling. So my first week back I was tired, adjusting to school again (with a new teaching schedule that has me teaching from 8:30-2 since my prep is not until the last period but I have study hall 2nd to last, so I use that as prep usually and end my day a bit earlier), and battling the tough stage of culture shock. The next week I got malaria. I was sick with that for about a week and took about a week to recover and gain my energy back. January and the first part of February was a really tough time physically, emotionally, spiritually. I thank you all for your prayers. God has and is answering them. I am feeling fine physically now and pulling through the other side of this stage of culture shock. I’m not as homesick and my excitement for being here is beginning to return. My focus was not where it should have been and I’m trying to place it back on God. The last week has been much better, though very busy.
This past weekend was quarterly meeting here in Mbale. The men are in Kenya on the men’s retreat. On Friday we’ll leave for Kenya for our team retreat and then finish that week with spring break. My roommates and I are planning a safari in Masai Mara that I am very excited about. Then we are going to visit the Children’s Home in Kitale on our way back to Mbale. It will be a busy week, but a very good one, I think. By the time we get back to Mbale, our newest teammates will have arrived. Vince and Joy Vigil are returning to work with Good News Productions as semi-long-term teammates (I’m not exactly sure how many years they are planning for now). We would all appreciate your prayers for safe travel, good fellowship time with one another, and a restful time during our travels.

Visit in Kenya

2009-02-23T07:22:00.000-06:00

Just after New Year’s I went to Nyeri, Kenya to visit a friend from the University of Alabama. We met there when I was starting up things with Apwonjo, and we were connected since she is from Kenya. She was home visiting and invited me to come stay with her family. So I spent nearly a week at her home with her family. It was a very unique experience. Jane has been in America for 10 years now, so she understands my culture pretty well. Since we are friends from the context of my home culture, I felt very comfortable in her home. Also having been in East Africa for nearly 5 months plus the 2 months the year before and various cultural lessons really helped me with the culture of her family. I knew more of what to do or not to do from my own experiences, whereas previous visitors had not had the cultural experiences that I have. I don’t know if this has made any sense so far; so I’ll give a specific: greetings in East Africa are VERY important! Knowing that, I made sure to greet her family every time I saw them, when I woke up, and before I went to bed. Her mom especially really appreciated this. So, mine and Jane’s experiences and our friendship provided for a unique situation for me. Before then my visits with African families had always been visits and never reached beyond the expected formalities. Staying longer, feeling welcome and comfortable gave me interesting insight into a middle class African family’s home. Shawn had gone over some culture orientation things with us before I left. I observed how true those things were while staying with Jane’s family. Culturally, it was a really interesting, unique, valuable experience for me. Personally, it was wonderful to spend time with someone from home. I really enjoyed talking with her, hearing about home and learning about her home. I had many firsts on that trip, too: first motorcycle ride, first taste of many traditional Kenyan meals (that were really good), first solo ride on public transport, first crossing the border solo (at 5 am), first trip away from my team since I got here… It was a really good trip and I really enjoyed spending time with Jane and her family. Oh, I also met a displaced family from the clashes in Kenya last year. Mama Koi and her family were living on Jane’s family’s compound. Jane’s mom had a stroke last fall and Mama Koi has been really helpful to her. Mama Koi and her 3 children had to leave in the night in a covered truck with helicopter protection to get to a safe place. They were left in Nyeri and eventually connected with Jane’s family. They’ve become a part of her family now. Her children were precious. The youngest was just a year old, which means he was only an infant when they fled. The children were very sweet. Jane and I took them and her nephew and nieces to the park on day to play. It was really special to see those children who are so quiet and shy laughing and playing. Mama Koi was very open and told many stories about her experiences in the clashes. Usually, Jane passed them on to me since I don’t speak Kikuyu or Swahili. The trip was quite a learning experience overall.

The rest of December

2009-02-01T07:13:00.002-06:00

Children’s Home
I went to Kitale, Kenya just after we got out for Christmas break. The Tylers lived and worked in Kitale for years before moving to Uganda. They helped start a Children’s Home there. Jennifer, Kimberly, and I joined Shawn and Linda for the trip. On Friday we went to the home and played with the kids. Some of the girls taught me some of the games they play and then they showed me around the compound teaching me various Swahili words. On Saturday we took the kids out shopping for new clothes and shoes, which they pretty much never get to do. Unfortunately I felt pretty ill most of Saturday and Shawn wasn’t feeling too great either; so we left before the kids choir could perform for us. I should’ve written this entry a long time ago. I really enjoyed being there and playing with the girls. Two girls, relatively new to the home, really captured my heart. They speak some Swahili and barely any English. Their parents both died of AIDS. They are precious, beautiful girls. The trip was a really good trip, and I loved being at the home playing with those girls.

Jinja
After we got back from Kitale, Heidi, Julie, Jennifer, Nicole, Kimberly, and I went to Kingfisher in Jinja to relax for a few days before Christmas and Nicole’s departure. It was really nice and very relaxing.

Christmas
On Christmas Eve, my roommates and I cooked pizza for dinner. We made stockings for each other and opened those before dinner. On Christmas morning, most all of the singles met at Heidi’s and Mary Beth’s house for breakfast. After breakfast we went to a service at the church. Then we all went over to the Tylers’ for Christmas festivities. The men cooked out, so we ate hot dogs and hamburgers. Then all the kids opened their stockings put together by the other members of the team. It was a lot of fun to watch them open everything. They left a huge mess all over the floor! The adults on the team had exchanged names for presents. So we exchanged our gifts with each other, taking turns watching one another open each present. Overall, it was a really good day, and not too bad for a first Christmas away from home.

New Year’s Eve
On New Year’s Eve we returned to the Tyler household for celebration. We watched a movie, ate some snacks, and later watched the firework displays of local hotels.

I’m sure I’d have more details and specific stories about each event had I written about them sooner. I do, however, have pictures posted from most of the events on my picasa web album.

More and more like family

2008-12-14T05:58:00.003-06:00

The last several weeks have been… stressful. Many of us have been sick at some point for several days. Ian and Josiah had to make an unexpected trip to the States for medical needs. Stephan left last week to return to the States after working here for 4 years. We’ve had some visitors come in and some teammates leave for vacation. So much craziness can kind of put some emotions on edge, too. But through it all, I have seen a new side of my teammates, a side that looks more and more like a family. Any time someone has needed anything, someone else usually meets or exceeds it for them before it can even be asked. I am very thankful for the team here, and I know my life is richly blessed because of them. I feel like I have so much more that I need to and want to say about this, but I don’t have the words right now. I’m sure it is something that will continue to grow, which means that I will probably have more to write about again later. Here is a picture of our entire team taken in September:

I feel like I have grown closer to some of my students, too. They aren’t just students and teammates; they’re family. Yesterday Jonathan had his birthday party; tomorrow Emily will have hers. Next week we are having spirit week at school. It’s pretty much just an excuse to dress up; the idea resembles homecoming week, just without the homecoming part. That should be fun; I’ll post pictures of our week and goofy outfits. Here is a school picture we took a few weeks ago:

Speaking of family, I really appreciate the prayers of everyone back home. Our team appreciates your prayers as well. I’ve begun to struggle with homesickness some, but I have no doubt that your prayers are helping me. After I talked with a few people at home and asking for prayers specifically about beginning this stage of culture shock, I have been able to tell a difference in my outlook on things. I miss home, but things are good here overall. I get frustrated with various things here, but I have no doubt God called me to be here this year. I begin to stress about what is next, but I know God will show me when I need to know. Your prayers build and renew that confidence within me. I could not be here without your support. Your prayers and encouragement mean more to me than I can begin to express. Thank you.

Thanksgiving

2008-12-14T05:08:00.003-06:00

Clearly I’m a bit behind as indicated by the title of this blog. The last few weeks of November were crazy busy and there was a lot going on. We had Thanksgiving at the Shero’s house. Laura had the place decorated very nicely. We all brought a couple of dishes and a dessert, so we had quite a big feast. We ate most of the typical Thanksgiving foods—sweet potato casserole, stuffing, cranberry sauce, rolls, green bean casserole, carrots… and had many pies and cookies. We did have chicken instead of turkey, though, but it was good. Before we ate the Thanksgiving Day Parade from last year was playing on the T.V. After we ate, some people put together a huge puzzle while others watched an old football game. Later we watched a movie. The whole time kids were running all over the place playing all kinds of games. I think I saw 3 or 4 Spidermen at one point. We had a few visitors, including Julie’s parents, the Longs from Kampala, and two girls from the States who have been finishing up a study abroad program in Mbale. Mostly we spent the day eating, relaxing, and just hanging out with each other; it was a very enjoyable day.

My birthday!

2008-11-23T06:26:00.000-06:00

Wednesday was my birthday, and I had a really great day! We went to my favorite restaurant in town, Dawat an Indian restaurant. Everyone on the team was invited to come. Even though I really didn’t expect them to all come, pretty much everyone on the team came, which was really cool. After that we went to the Tylers’ house for devotional. We sang a few songs and then Shawn asked the team to speak blessings over me. It was really thoughtful and very humbling. I was very moved especially since I’ve only been here for 3 months. That was a really special time that I will not forget. After that they brought out brownies with candles in them for me to blow out and they sang to me. Later that night I came home to several voice mails and emails wishing me happy birthday. It was a really good day. Thanks! :)

The Hairy Lemon

2008-11-22T09:57:00.002-06:00

This past weekend I went back to Jinja for more time on the Nile. Our team went on retreat to an island campsite called the Hairy Lemon. Unlike the name of the place, the island was indescribably beautiful. Most of our time was spent relaxing, playing in the water, and getting to know each other better. I saw a side of the kids that I hadn’t seen before, and it felt more like a family time. The place itself was very basic, but I liked it. The beauty of it far outweighed not having a normal shower. Most of us ended up washing our hair in the Nile anyway. Sunday morning we had worship on the porch of one of the cabins. We sang of God’s majesty and splendor as we looked out on the ancient Nile River. Ian got up and read a couple of Psalms and red-tailed monkeys joined us. They played in the trees above our heads, and it was so neat. Definitely an African experience. Mary Beth said it was like they came to listen to Ian read the Word of God. As I looked out at various secluded creeks of the river, I thought about Moses floating by in the basket as the princess bathed. Being in Africa I have seen more things that can help me imagine what things may have looked like in some of the Old Testament stories. Last year as I cut rice in the rice field, I thought about Ruth and Naomi. Looking at the river outside my cabin, I thought of baby Moses. On Friday there was a rainbow over part of the river. It was the most beautiful rainbow I have ever seen. It was so vivid that I could clearly see each color. I wanted to take a picture, but there was no way a picture could do that sight any justice. Behind the rainbow there was a huge, fluffy, white cloud. In front of it little black birds flew freely all over the sky. Beneath it was the greenery of healthy, growing life of the earth. Beneath that, the River Nile flowed steadily along. The sky was that perfect shade of sky blue. It was such a perfect sight, and it left me in awe of the awesome God we serve. Again, I thought back to the Old Testament and thought of Noah and the flood. I wondered if what Noah saw looked anything like what I was looking at, and I remembered and felt God’s promise all represented in that rainbow. The retreat was wonderful… I couldn’t ask for more.

One of the coolest things I've ever done

2008-11-18T02:09:00.003-06:00

Last week Julie and I were able to tag along on a trip with some Harding students passing through town. These students have been studying in Zambia this semester. They’ve been and are travelling around Uganda and to Rwanda before they return to the States. On Monday they were scheduled to raft the River Nile. Julie and I thought this was a great time for us to go rafting, so we tagged along. We found out about it on Saturday and scrambled to get everything worked out to leave with them on Sunday. We had to get a private hire (taxi) to take us to Jinja because plans changed with the transport situation and we had to find our own way there. We tried to call the guest house where these students were staying to find out if there was room for us, but MTN (cell network) wasn’t working in Jinja. So we arrived at the guest house to find they were full. Since it was dark by this time, Phillip generously drove us around the neighborhood to find a place to stay. We went to a couple of different places only to find out they were also full. Why there were so many people in Jinja on a Sunday night, I have no idea. As Phillip drove by the Daniel Guest House the first time he said, “Thousand shillings says I’ll be bringing you back here.” Of course, he was right. This hotel was a bit…sketchy, but it was a place to sleep. We had one mosquito net to somehow fit over our two twin beds, so we slept with our heads close together trying not to get tangled in the net. We got up the next day and joined the Harding students for the rafting trip. Julie and I ended up in a raft with 3 guys and our guide, Peter. I think we went through 12 rapids and only flipped twice. I had never been rafting before, and my first trip we went through class 5 rapids. Rapids are classed 1-6. Class 6 can only be done by well-trained kayakers. The class 5 rapids here are “probably the best class 5 rapids in the world,” according to the Jinja rafting people. For the last rapid we had to get out and walk around while the guides carried the boats further up the river. That part of the river was a class 6 rapid. I was pretty much terrified looking at the water we were about to get back into and raft through, and really thought about not doing the last rapid. Of course, I hopped back in the boat anyway. We made it through the final rapid, “The Bad Place,” without flipping, though Julie almost fell out but pulled through by hanging on for dear life. So my first rafting trip ever was on class 1-5 rapids in the River Nile… I don’t think I can ever raft in the States now; nothing will be quite as thrilling. I felt very accomplished at the end of the trip and very proud of myself for making it through flipping only twice. Floating down the Nile between rapids was awesome. I wish I could accurately describe the feeling of being on the Nile mesmerized by the beauty of God’s creation and the excitement of playing in it. Rafting 30 kilometers of the Nile is one of the coolest things I’ve ever done.

Trips to Kampala

2008-11-17T08:30:00.002-06:00

We weren’t able to work out a trip to Gulu over fall break, but we spent a few days in Kampala. We went to the mall (that has a bookstore!!... guess where I was most of that time), a craft market, and to a couple different grocery stores that have more selection than we have in Mbale. We also went to see a movie. The theatre had comfortable seats and air conditioning… it doesn’t matter what movie we may see, it’s comfy in there. Julie, Jennifer, and I took a bus down to Kampala… thus my public transport insights from the last blog. We had a nice time overall and it was good to get out of town for a few days. We also went to see a traditional African dance troop (Ndere) perform; that was a lot of fun. There weren’t many people at all there, and they pulled us down to the stage area to dance with them—so much fun! All in all, fall break was a nice, mostly relaxing break.
We went back to Kampala a week and a half later for our team’s (New Testament Churches of Christ) quarterly meeting. We have teams in Mbarara, Jinja, Kampala, Fort Portal, and Mbale. It was nice to meet teammates from around the country and learn about the work they are doing around Uganda. I know that if I had written this blog sooner after the trips that I would have more to say, or at least a more interesting way to tell about what we did.
The power went off about 2 hours after we got back to Mbale, and stayed off for 48 hours or so. It went off and on a lot that week; then things got busy. I think some of my teammates (Julie and Mary Beth, I think) wrote more about Kampala and the power outage. Feel free to explore their blogs for more stories about my team here. :)

How I am Finding Life in Uganda

2008-10-24T14:08:00.005-05:00

There are some things I’ve noticed that just work differently here in Uganda…
When traveling there are no fast food restaurants to eat at; instead, you pull over on the side of the road and buy chicken on a stick and/or whatever else they are trying to shove in your window.
When taking a bus from one place to another, it doesn’t stop at gas stations for toilet breaks; instead it pulls over at the side of the road and folks just get off and take care of things there.
Traffic laws are more like guidelines.
…except that the bigger object gets the right of way (i.e. a bicycle over a pedestrian or a truck over an SUV)
Remember to get toilet paper from the dispenser on the wall outside of the stall before going inside the stall.
Expect to hear “Mzungu! Mzungu!...” many times when leaving the compound.
Locking the door is a 3 minute process. Deadbolts? No. We use 3 hefty masterlocks. Slam the mini hand door shut and shove 2 iron latches into place using all our might then lock each. Unlocking it can be longer, depending on how long it takes to find the keys and then match them to the correct lock. This is a loud, long, strenuous process.
Greetings are important. A greeting can last 30 minutes. How is you? How is the day? What do you go by? How is your family? Where are you coming from? What are you doing in Uganda? How are you finding Uganda? You are most welcome here. How long have you been? You shall extend your stay? Where are you going just now? I shall escort you. To Africans, this is friendly... not at all sketchy.
Even government buildings can be dark and sketchy. There may only be a sign above the door at the end of a dark hallway that merely says, "Immigration Services"
African English uses more present tense verbs where they don’t really seem to fit. Example: “Are you having any room?” instead of “Are there any rooms available?” or “Are you knowing?” instead of “Do you know?”
In Mbale eating out is a 2 hour process, at least. Yes, even for beans and rice.
Don’t have high expectations. For example, don’t expect to have power so that when you do it is a pleasant surprise. Or, don’t expect the store to have something so that when you get there and they say “It is finished” (“We’re out of that”) there is no let down.
Everything takes longer here. Everything.
Instead of security systems, there will be a person sitting outside the door with a big machine gun. If it’s a really nice place, there may be more guards stationed throughout the store with batons.
Machetes are used to cut the grass.
Thus, seeing huge guns and machetes everywhere daily is no longer surprising.
Imported American cereal costs around $7, if not more.
To do laundry you must factor in weather, power, and time. Is the power on so that I can wash? When does it seem like it’s going to rain today so I can be sure to take my clothes off the line? Even just filling the water in the machine takes a while. It’s kinda like a whole day process.
Make sure the water filter is always full and that the filtered water container stays full.
Going to the mall, movies, and grocery store in Kampala is really exciting.
Make sure to have a flashlight nearby at night. Also, use one when walking from the light switch to the bed at night so that I can get my mosquito net tucked and placed just right.
Planning to go out to dinner involves many plans to make sure we’re not out when it’s dark without a ride.
When going into the bathroom, watch out for frogs. When opening doors, watch out for falling geckos. Also look out for jumping spiders, spiders, roaches, and bugs of all sorts. There is always something crawling on the wall or flying around the room. If it’s big, assume it’s a gecko (or at least hope so).
If you have a fear of bugs, get over it and smash them, esp. mosquitoes.
My roommates and I are so used to not having T.V. that even when we do, we sit and talk or sit in silence staring at a blank screen.
Exchanging money through a barred window in a shop run by Indians that sells… ? (tin or eighteen other things) is no longer shady. It’s normal. And, when the exchange rate goes up, the whole team gets an SMS (text message).
Our team communicates more through text messaging than any other form when not physically together.
Movies purchased in Uganda are bootleg. Despite selling bootleg copies everywhere, the guard at the door of the movie theatre has to take any cameras and store them in another room while you watch a movie. And, even the bootleg copies have a little blip about piracy sometimes…?
Bicycles can be used to transport anything. Need to get a stack of 10 mattresses somewhere? Need to transport a tank (or 3) or petrol? Need to transport a coffin? A family of 4? Yep… anything.
Life works at a different pace in Africa. Slower.
The phrases “That’s so African” or “This is Africa” make complete sense to me and I say them daily, at times multiple times within one day.
“You (Westerners) have watches, but you have no time.”
Uganda is indescribably beautiful. God often reminds me when I look out my window just how awesome He is. I look at the mountains or the greenery or the bright blue sky and think, “I can’t believe I live here.” More often than not, the beauty of the land and the beauty of the people make the above differences feel more like an adventure than an annoyance or inconvenience. It’s not better one way or another; it’s just different. As you can see, I’m adjusting more to the culture here… or at least, learning better how to function in it.

Actually caught up

2008-10-13T10:51:00.000-05:00

I didn’t have any excursions this past week, but there has been a lot going on within the team. Several of our team members joined a group from the States for a survey trip to Sudan where they also taught a course (not sure the topic). The group that flew in is considering mission work in Sudan; since some of our team is familiar with that particular area, they guided the trip, so to speak. They are all supposed to get to Mbale Tuesday evening. I haven’t heard much about the trip other than the class went well and they’ve been safe. There is always something going on here, either emotionally with various team members or trips or visitors. It’s never boring, and I don’t think there is ever a “settling down” of things for the team. This week in school is midterm (already?) and the week after that is fall break. All of my students are going to have tests this week (that I need to be writing) and I have things to grade so that I can calculate grades. After fall break I’ll be starting new topics with each class… though I’m not sure what exactly yet for most of them. I am looking forward to break. Two of the teachers and I are hoping to go to Gulu for most of the week. We’re gonna spend some time in Kampala where we can go see a movie and go to the mall (that has a bookstore!). The aunt of two of my students lives in Gulu and works with a few different non-profits there. I called her a couple of weeks ago and she was very excited about us coming. That night, however, her father passed away. My students’ mother hasn’t returned from Gulu yet, so I don’t know what our plans will be yet. When I talked to her we talked about us helping out at a school for orphans (over 1,000 students) and visiting an IDP camp. She said there is an endless list of things we can do there. Whatever we’re interested in there is something there that we can do relating to that. If we don’t go over fall break, I plan to go the next chance I get. I am really excited about going. I know the trip will be extremely difficult emotionally, but worth it. My students’ mother said that everyone should go there to experience first-hand the heart-break and devastation in the area; she said it is very heart-wrenching. The other two I am going with don’t know much at all about the area or the history, so I am doing what I can to prepare and educate them. I’d like to go by the Invisible Children office there, too… but we’ll see. Of course I can’t say for sure, but I doubt this will be my only trip to Gulu. I can’t begin to describe how cool it is that I’ll be able to serve for a short amount of time in the area that re-ignited and reminded me of my passion for Africa 3 years ago. God’s plans are so cool. If we don’t end up going this time, though, I have faith that God will use the week for great purpose, even if it is just rest and a short trip to Kampala.
Please pray for me as a teacher to serve my students with joy the best that I can; pray for my students’ family in Gulu that I mentioned (the Mutonos); pray for our trip to Gulu; pray for us to empty ourselves so that God can fill us with his Spirit so that we may humbly do the work of His plan. Also, I’m beginning to feel a bit homesick. I’m not near the point of wanting to give up and go home, but I am frustrated with various things and I miss home. Please pray for me and the situation. It may sound odd, but I truly do feel the prayers of those who go to God on my behalf and I cannot begin to express what that means to me.

Sunflowers

2008-10-13T09:15:00.004-05:00

On Saturday the 4th, I went out to a village with Heidi. Heidi works with the woman’s ministry here and goes out to different villages nearly every day to teach them. I tagged along to see what she does, visit another village, and be around Africans. That particular day she was teaching them about greed, which is a difficult thing to teach here for multiple reasons. There were about 15 women there and that was a pretty decent number. Heidi taught her lesson and Beatrice translated for her. She has different translators for the various regions since there are so many languages spoken around here. I didn’t have much interaction with the ladies she taught because just after she finished they brought us our food for us to eat by ourselves. In some areas around here the custom is to leave the visitors to eat privately so that they do not feel embarrassed to eat as much as they want. In other areas, the hosts will join the visitors… just varies. Although I wasn’t there long, I really enjoyed the morning. The drive out to the village was beautiful… completely indescribable. There were fields of huge sunflowers. Heidi and I decided to trudge through a muddy field with lots of underbrush to get to the field that was just across from the church. I fell, walked out of mu shoe because it stuck in mud, and we were both covered in needles from one of the plants in the underbrush we trudged through. Pretty much it was all for a picture, but it was fun. We definitely provided entertainment for the Ugandans that watched us wondering what the mzungus were doing. It was also a great morning getting to spend time with another teammate and get to know her better. Relationships with team members are beginning to deepen and I am very thankful to be part of a really great team.
More falling geckos… last week at our community ladies’ Bible study two geckos suddenly fell from the wall and landed on Melissa’s head. She immediately jumped up because she didn’t know what it was. One of the geckos clung onto her long hair as she swung it around trying to get it out. Eventually they both scattered away and we refocused on our study. You never know what’s gonna come falling down on you or flying at you or crawling on you or what you’re gonna step in here… kind of a metaphor for life here, too.

Like cold water to a weary soul

2008-10-13T08:40:00.002-05:00

Sunday the 28th I went to church with Ian in one of the villages outside of Mbale. It was the first time I’d been to a village here. Much like AIDS orphans day I felt very at peace sitting in church with the Africans. Our church in Mbale is great, but it has a lot of Western influence. An African couple and a Kenyan man that is a student at MTI went with us. The Ugandan woman sat next to me and translated songs and various other things for me. That was nice to know what they were singing, even though I couldn’t sing with them. It is so beautiful to listen to people praise God in a foreign tongue (or several as is the case around here) and look out beyond a church building that is nothing more than a thatch roof and supporting logs to focus on God’s beautiful creation. One thing I must say about Uganda is that is a very beautiful land. I try to keep these things in mind and remain aware of God’s awesome presence when I get fidgety sitting on a wooden bench a couple of inches off the ground because the service is so long and half in a language I don’t know. This particular Sunday was a special day. We had a few boxes of bibles from the World Bible Translation Center to give out and a few churches had gathered at this church to receive new Bibles. It was such a humbling experience to be a part of. The people were so grateful for new Bibles. The preacher at that church really needed a new Bible; sections of his blew away as we were sitting in church. Many of the people either had no Bible or had one much like the preacher’s. They were so grateful. I have 3 Bibles that I brought with me… we all have many Bibles at home and they are so easy for us to get. Here, people in general don’t have that kind of access. It was humbling. One lady even did the excited yell thing that Africans do (I don’t know how to describe it for those of you who have no idea what I am talking about). I love to hear them do this. I said I was going to learn how to do it before I left Mozambique, but I didn’t. Though it won’t be the same at all as hearing an African, I still plan to learn how to do it. The day was not a typical service at all (I was told), but it was still so great to go out to a village and worship there. After church, they feed all the visitors (including the visiting preachers) a really nice meal that was actually quite good. It was a good morning. “Like cold water to a weary soul / is good news from a distant land.” Pr 25:25

de Nile

2008-10-02T13:32:00.003-05:00

On the 15^th of September some others and I went to Jinja for the day. We took a private hire taxi to get there (took about 2 hours or so). We went mainly to get out of Mbale for the day and go to the craft market there. There is a much better craft market in Jinja than in Mbale. We ate at the Source Café, which is run by the CofC team in Jinja. There is so much more craft stuff here than what I saw in Mozambique. I didn’t buy lots of things, but I did see a ton that I want to get before I go home. For the most part, the afternoon was rather uneventful and it was nice to get out of Mbale for the day. On our way back we decided to go to the source of the Nile River. It was overcast and started to rain while we were there, but it was still beautiful. Julie and I are planning on rafting the Nile at some point… kinda scary, but should be fun. As of now, we don’t know when we’re going to do it. We want to find more people to do it with us and most people on our team or that we know in town have already done it or just don’t want to. I don’t have much to say about the day, but I wanted to at least mention it. It was way cool to go to the source of the Nile. And, it will be way cool to say I’ve rafted the Nile. On our way back, it was raining very hard. The a/c unit in our taxi didn’t work, which meant that the defrost was useless. The windshield stayed fogged up most of the way home. I tried to wipe it off with a conga pretty frequently, but it didn’t seem to help much. I was very thankful when we the sun came out a bit and we could see through the windshield. The driver didn’t slow down much at all for the rain (and lack of vision of the road). I’m pretty sure we were all praying very hard silently that God would get us safely back to Mbale. Our driver decided to stop and buy dinner for his family on the way back. He got some fish. This isn’t too odd, except that he hung it from the front of the car on the way back… at least we didn’t have the fishy smell in the car.

Pictures from AIDS oprhans day

2008-09-30T09:38:00.012-05:00

One of the children sponsored by our program waiting in line for school supplies.

Giving out school supplies.

The well outside of Messiah Theological Institute (MTI)

Stephan giving instructions.

A breeze in Uganda

2008-09-29T14:55:00.000-05:00

I’m a bit behind…
On the 13 of September I went to Mbale Church of Christ for an AIDS orphans day. One of the ministries our team does is sponsorship of AIDS orphans. When I got there Kimberly was teaching a Bible lesson using tea bags… I think it was something about how God has cleansed us from our sins, the dark stuff inside of us. After her lesson, the kids went out to the field to play soccer. There were 2 soccer balls, so the boys played with one and the girls with the other. I walked over to the field with them and sat on a wall watching them from a distance. I felt so at peace and so happy to be in Africa. Even though I live in Africa, I spend more time around ex-patriots from all over than I do with Africans. As I sat there, a light breeze passed by. A few years ago I went out to a quiet place overlooking a lake in Tuscaloosa. I had gone there to pray and spend time with God. As I was talking with Him, a gently breeze would pass occasionally. Since then, I am always reminded of God’s presence through something as small and often unnoticed as a breeze. So, feeling this breeze brush over me as I sat and watched African children playing so joyfully brought a deep peace to me. I finally felt like I was in Africa. Then a lady from the church walked by and said “Why don’t you go play with them?” So I did. I kicked off my flip flops and ran over to the girls. Who would’ve thought that playing soccer as a kid would actually come in handy? I think it’s way cool how God uses even the most random experiences of our lives to glorify Him. I had a lot of fun kicking the ball around with those girls. Btw, trying to play soccer in a skirt can be tricky, especially if it’s not a flowy type skirt. After soccer, we gave out notebooks and pencils for school and Bibles to older kids. Then we gave out coats. After that, we ate and then everyone went home. It was a good afternoon.
Here’s another “welcome to Africa” story:
Nicole and I rode bodas to the church (it’s quite a long walk). This was only my 2nd time to ride one. We started on a big hill… which should’ve been a sign in the first place. I couldn’t even get on because the bikes are so tall and my legs are so short. Once I finally hopped on, my bodaman had to get another bodaman to give him a push to help him start. Once he gets going on his own, my flip flop falls off. So the guy that was pushing us ran and got it and stuck it back on my foot for me. In the meantime, we ended up stopping, which also meant that he had to push us off again. We get to the top of the last hill and turn onto the main road in town and my flip flop fell off again. I had to tell him a few times what happened, then he finally saw my barefoot and stopped, again. He ran to get my shoe for me. This time we had stopped at a sidewalk so I could hop back on much easier since I had some added height standing on the sidewalk. When he came back I took my other flip flop off and put them into my bag. This road was flat, so he didn’t need help getting going… he went quite fast actually. Meanwhile, I’m still trying to figure out just where to hold on. I don’t understand how these Ugandan women can just sit there no problem and often hold a sleeping child. As we approach the big traffic circle in town, I’m praying that I won’t die… it’s a really busy part of town and bodas often almost run into cars (general traffic rule here: the bigger object always has the right of way) or pichis (motorcycles) zoom by and there are people everywhere. Thankfully, we made it fine. He made it to the road I told him to go to but he didn’t know where to turn, and I had to remember where that was. I saw the road and pointed ahead saying, “You see that road there? That is where I need to go.” He turned in to the gas station just before the road instead (all of this being on the other side of the road from the direction we were coming in). I couldn’t remember how far it was down the road to the church, so I didn’t want to tell him to just stop there. We then headed against traffic on the wrong side of the busy road. After waiting a while and trying to pedal up to the road he finally asked if we could just walk there. So, we walked up to the corner where I again hopped back onto the bike as many Ugandans were saying, “Mzungu, where are your shoes?” It’s weird for a white person to be barefoot… even though many of them don’t wear shoes all the time. We again set out for the church. I saw Nicole ahead and told him to stop where my friend was… he said he didn’t see her… the only white girl standing anywhere around. But, he eventually saw her and peddled over. I finally made it to (well close enough to) our destination. I paid him well saying it was for all the trouble. Since I caused pretty much all of it, and I did arrive where I wanted to unharmed, I thought he deserved it. One lesson learned: next time I’m not wearing flip flops on a boda or I’ll at least take them off first.

My house

2008-09-06T07:41:00.003-05:00

My room
Living room and dining area
Kitchen

Falling geckos

2008-09-06T06:19:00.001-05:00

The last week has been so busy. The power was off most of the day Saturday and Sunday. School started on Wednesday, so I spent Tuesday afternoon (after team meeting) trying to get my lessons all prepared. The first day of school was good overall. I spent my off periods scrambling to get ready for my next classes. I’ve been told that the boys in my middle school class are afraid of me. They haven’t had a teacher like me in quite a while… but they are doing ok, no big issues yet. The 3^rd grade class is a bit difficult for me since it is elementary level and I am figuring out what to do with elem. kids and what to teach them, etc. British lit. is good; I’m excited about that class. I’m taking more of a college prep approach to it since it is Lelia’s senior year. Overall school is good. It has just been difficult for me personally to adjust to the structure of school here and figure out what to leave and what to change. But, I know I will work through it all as I get settled in here. Again, it’s just more adjusting…

The team here has many things going on all the time. Tuesdays we have team meetings, Wednesday we have team devo, Thursdays we have community ladies’ Bible study with other ex-pats in Mbale, Fridays we have a prayer breakfast for the women on the team and a pancake dinner with other ex-pats at night, Saturday nights a group gets together to play volleyball, Sundays we have church and a community Bible study at night, and Mondays are our days off (which are often used for swimming, sleeping, and running errands. This is all in addition to school. Sound hectic and overwhelming? It is. Being the introvert that I am, being around such large groups of people exhausts me, especially after teaching all day. So far, I have gone to most things. Soon though, I’m going to have to decide what night I am going to reserve for phone calls and resting. It is good that there is such a sense of community here and much to do together; I am thankful for that. I just get exhausted from it. I would appreciate prayers for wisdom about how to manage my time best.

Since my last blog I have thought of many stories to add, but now I can’t remember them very well. Nancy and Sam Shewmaker were in town for a couple of nights. They have served much of their lives as missionaries in Africa. They work with Missions Resource Network and are preparing to begin work in Rwanda. They have mentored many of my missionary mentors and it was nice to spend a little bit of time talking with them. Julie arrived in town on Monday. Her birthday was the day before, so we cooked dinner and a cake and had the single folks over for dinner that night. At the moment, the whole team is in Mbale. Shon leaves tomorrow afternoon to begin a trip to Sudan with some others he’ll meet up with in Kampala. I know he’d appreciate prayers for his trip. If I remember correctly, this trip is for the SEE ministry. There is always so much going on here it can be difficult to remember who is doing what when and with whom.

On a final, random note… I opened the door from the laundry room to outside to hang up my laundry earlier this week. Something fell on my head when I opened the door. It was a gecko. I kinda like them since they eat mosquitoes. Anything that eats mosquitoes is fine with me, as long as it’s not suddenly falling from somewhere (like my head or thudding into my dresser drawer). Until next time… I miss you all and pray that you are all doing well. I added a list of prayer requests to the side. I will try to keep that updated with specific requests. :)

First Trip to Market

2008-08-23T10:10:00.001-05:00

Today I had my first trip to the market. It’s quite different here than in Mozambique simply because they speak English so I can bargain with them instead of relying on Coulter’s Span-uguese (his attempt at speaking Portuguese by speaking Spanish with a Portuguese accent). I don’t like having to bargain; I’d rather just pay, but it’s just part of life here. It doesn’t help that they always overcharge the Mzungu (white person). It wasn’t too bad, though. Jennifer is my only roommate that’s here and she’s been trying to show me around and help me get things. But she said she only went to market a handful of times last year and that she’s not the best person to show me around. It’s alright though; at least I’ve got someone to try. We took a Boda Boda (bicycle taxi) back to our house from town. It was nice that we didn’t have to walk quite so much. I felt like I was going to fall off the whole time and I couldn’t quite figure out where exactly I was supposed to hold on. Our house is on a hill with a road full of potholes and I felt certain that the guy was going to hit a pothole just wrong as we were zooming down the hill and that we’d both go flying over the rails. That didn’t happen though. He pulled over at my house and tried to charge me almost double from what Jennifer paid her Boda man. He said “But this one is very heavy” trying to explain why it was so much more. That’s a great boost of confidence right there. I, of course, did not pay the first price he quoted me. I paid the same that Jennifer did.

Yesterday I rearranged my room and unpacked most everything. It feels much better than the nasty cement room I came into when I first arrived. I had a lot of cleaning to do. I don’t think anyone has cleaned the room over the past 2 years. I have some more organizing that I need to do. When I got here 2 out of 3 trunks came with me. The 3^rd arrived yesterday and my teammates will get it from the airport when they pick up some of our returning teammates tomorrow. So when that gets here I’ll have some more unpacking to do.

I went over to the school today. The rooms are tiny, but I guess they don’t need to be very big when I don’t have very many students. I brought over the binders with my curriculum in them, but I haven’t looked through them yet. I have a lot of planning I need to do. I’ve got to figure out my classroom rules and things like that along with scheduling things. September 3 is our first day of school, so I have a bit more time to prepare. I’m teaching 3-12 reading, grammar, and literature and then one study hall. It’s going to be so different from anything else I’ve done. I hadn’t even thought about needing classroom rules until I met some of the boys a couple of nights ago. It’ll be an interesting learning experience full of trial and error.

Tomorrow we’ll go to church at Mbale Church of Christ, then out to lunch somewhere, and later that night have a community bible study with other expatriates around here (and there are a lot!).

I’ll try to post some pictures and videos after I get settled in some more. :)

Set the World on Fire

2008-06-12T00:02:00.002-05:00

This is a note I wrote when I began to hear God's calling for me to return to Africa. I wrote this in February before I had any idea of where or when or how I would be going.

I wanna set the world on fire
until it’s burning bright for You
it’s everything that I desire
can I be the one You use?
I am small but
You are big enough
I am weak but
You are strong enough
to take my dreams
come and give them wings.
Lord with You
there’s nothing I cannot do.

I wanna feed the hungry children.
and reach across the Father’s land
and tell the broken there is healing
and mercy in the Father’s hands.

My hands, my feet
my everything
my life, my love
Lord use me.
I wanna set the world on fire

Take my dreams
come and give them wings.
Lord with you
there’s nothing I cannot do

I’m gonna set the world on fire.
set the world on fire....

Abridged version of BRITT NICOLE's "Set The World On Fire"

So what's the deal with the lyrics? They say exactly what I want to do. It's my prayer for my life. I'm writing this note for two reasons:
1. To let you know that I am seriously considering going back to Africa after I graduate. The idea is to go teach for a year and then come back here for a while before I commit to the long term thing.
2. To ask you to pray for me in all of this. I want to go where He is calling me to be. I need to hear Him clearly and for all the doors to start opening for this to happen if I am going to teach in Africa after graduation, which will likely be as early as August. That means a lot of things need to work out for me to go this year.

oh and 3. Let me know what you think, advice, etc. Also, let me know if you have any connections for me to teach in Africa. I need to start networking a lot more.

I know your prayers will help guide me and they mean a lot to me. I love you all!!

I thought the first note should reflect the beginning of my present adventure. I still need your prayers. I am confident that God has heard them and that prayer has gotten me to where I am. Advice/ comments are always welcomed. And the lyrics are still the prayer of my heart... I don't think that will ever change.