Home Stay

Kelsea and I found out this afternoon that we will be doing a home stay starting tomorrow!

We are going to village about 2 and a half hours north of here called Kamwenge, and we will be there for 3 nights. We’ll be staying with and learning from a Ugandan woman, who is a school teacher, and her husband. It should be an amazing and challenging learning experience! We’re expecting no electricity and no running water and hoping that we don’t experience anything too traumatizing…like rats in our room or eating something that we’d never consider to be food : )

I can’t wait to share about it with you when we get back!

Please pray for great conversation many learning opportunities open minds and hearts  authentic opportunities to learn and practice Runyankole and endless opportunities to share the grace and love of Jesus with this couple who is graciously allowing us to enter their home and lives for a few days.

This is Africa

• Geckos on the walls… inside your house
• Bars on all the windows and doors for security
• Front doors are left wide open all the time during the day… hence the geckos?
• Electricity being cut every other night…and sometimes during the day
• 12 hours light and 12 hours of dark year round (about 7am to 7pm)… and when it’s dark it’s very, very dark
• Shillings to dollars conversion (50k is the largest bill)…1,000 shillings is currently less than 50 cents
• Sounds in nature that I don’t recognize whatsoever
• Dogs barking at all hours of the night…and day
• Sometimes your neighbors will just walk into your house... unannounced
• Common children’s literature revolves around HIV/AIDS
• You’re never late, but you can’t leave early
• Zebras graze alongside cows in the countryside
• When a Ugandan asks you what food you like they’re asking what starch you want with your sauce: yams, potatoes, cassava, matooke, rice, millet, posho…
• No such thing as a 5 min conversation or a 3 second handshake
• Washing your feet before getting into bed is must
• Rather than saying “the tip of the iceberg” it’s more understood to say “it’s just the nose of the hippo.”
• When the lights go out (in stores, in church, anywhere), life just keeps going on as normal

Poverty.
Brokenness.
Racism.
Classism.
Orphans.
Abuse.

We are living in a broken world and experiencing the effects of the many broken systems based on the devil's lies.

Over the past few weeks, I've been learning about and reflecting on the realities of current issues we are facing in not only Uganda, but America and the world as a whole. It usually begin with talking about something "small" or specific, such as child sacrifice or disparity of wealth. The topic starts small, then I realize that this specific problem stems from something bigger. And that issue, in turn, stems from something even bigger and bigger until we realize that this entire world is broken and hurting and hopeless.

And suddenly it's far too much to bear. It hurts too much.

I begin to shut down because there is nothing that I could ever do to fix such a huge problem.

Suddenly, my heart goes numb, and I can't feel anything. Perhaps as protection?

Christ literally died when he had the weight of the world's sins on him, so if my heart could feel the full extent of the pain and suffering contained in the bit of brokenness that I've come to understand (though it's just a teeny-tiny, little bit of all the pain in the entire world), I'm sure that I would die of a broken heart, as well. Could God be guarding and protecting me from that by numbing my heart?

My heart is already broken with things that break God's heart. Now I need to see and feel the hope.

I must shift my thinking and try not to focus on the big picture. Though I would like to spend this entire lifetime and many, many more sharing the hope of salvation with the lost and broken and doing my best to aliviate the hurt felt by the entire world, I am only one person. I can't save the world.

But thankfully there is someone who can save the whole world. In fact, the Savior of the world already came. His name is Jesus, and all the answers are found in his precious and holy name. Powerful, life-altering, and world-changing hope that is found in Christ alone.

There is no hope apart from Jesus.

We do live in a broken world, but I have to believe that it will not be unredeemed. God sent his Son to die because he loved the world. Every child I pass begging in the streets, every young boy fighting to be seen as a man, each young woman who has never heard of her deep value in God's eyes...I have to trust that God holds their lives and souls in His hands. And He won't let go.

"I am he, I am he who will sustain you.

I have made you and I will carry you;

I will sustain you and I will rescue you."

Isaiah 46:4

I cannot save the world, but I know the One who can. I know the One who can un-do deeply rooted systems and cycles of sin, brokeness, and lies. I will cling tight to the promises of the Lord and be willing to move when he tells me to. I can seek His face and continue to believe.
That's what I can do.

The Privilege of Giving

On Sunday, I had the privilege of attending church service at University Community Fellowship (UCF) in Kampala. Although Uganda is a very “Christian country,” I am learning that the state of the Church and the teaching presented in local churches is often not very biblical. Unfortunately, the prosperity gospel is thriving here and it’s not uncommon to hear pastors encouraging their congregation to give generously so that they can receive wealth, health, blessings, and material things from God. They have changed the hope-filled and God-centered message of the true Gospel into a self-centered scheme to get rich quick.

At UCF, we heard a wonderful sermon about Biblical giving that openly rebuked the prosperity gospel. How refreshing! The pastor was preaching on 2 Corinthians 8:1-15. His main points of the sermon were that Biblical giving is

• A privilege
•  Passionate
• Planned
• Has a promise of blessing
  

He had wonderful things to say about all these points, but he described the privilege of giving with an illustration that I won’t soon forget. He asked the congregation, “Before you go to the village, what do you get from the market?” Everyone started listing off things: sugar, salt, flour, black tea, blue band (a common margarine here which has also been referred to as “butter flavored Crisco”).  “And why do you do this?” he asked. “Because when you go into the village you bring things to give to the people you’re visiting. You bring sugar for your family and probably enough for all the people around them who also know you’re coming! You give your family the sugar and flour and tea, and they invite you in for a meal. Soon they are serving you black tea. Then they bring you some bread that was just baked. With what? The things that you brought, of course! So why do you always go to the market before you go to the village? Because you will be eating the things that you bring!”

He continued the illustration by explaining that your family is giving you the very best they have. Even though it was made from the gifts you just bought and gave to them that day, they are generously offering you the best that they can. They consider it a joy to have you there, and they see serving you the very best as a privilege. They took what you gave them and give it right back in order to bless you and show love.

This is how it should be in our relationship with God, as well. God has so graciously given to us.  The problem is that we think those blessings and resources belong to us.

He pours out blessing after blessing into our lives, but as soon we have them, we claim them as our own and hoard them away for ourselves. We are deceived into thinking that these blessings have been ours all along. We forget about the Giver and focus only on the gifts.

Rather, we should remember that everything we have is not ours at all. It all belongs to God, and we should rejoice at the privilege of giving and sharing with others as a demonstration of our love for the Lord. 

Whether it's sugar and black tea or love and forgiveness... It all belongs to the Lord, and it's our privilege to give freely.

Boda Boda

Today after lunch, as part of our orientation, we ventured out to take our first boda rides. What an adventure! We walked down the hill from Matoke Inn to a spot where the boda drivers hang out waiting for customers, called a boda stage. Karen Lewis, our orientation leader, was a great help as she went with us, negotiated prices with the drivers, and told them where we needed to go.

Kelsea and I hoped on a boda outside Matoke, and took it down to the bottom of the hill where we were going to catch a taxi to a different part of town. We arrived at the bottom before the other two girls and Karen did, so we got off to wait. Instantly, a new driver was there asking where we wanted to go. We explained that we were waiting for some others, and he was adamant that he would wait with us and be our driver. Before we knew it, we were literally surrounded by other drivers all trying to get us to ride with them. The first driver literally grabbed the handlebars of another driver's bike and pushed him away. Another driver came up saying, "Hello! These are my friends! I will take you where ever you want to go!" The first driver took one look at him, reached over, took the key out of his ignition, and threw it across a ditch into the grass!

Finally the others showed up, and we actually wound up taking a public taxi (van) to another boda stage a little ways down the road before we found some new boda drivers to take us to visit Dwelling Places, a ministry where AIM missionaries are serving by saving, caring for, and rehabilitating orphan street children. Phenominal work.

After that we visited Reformed Theological Seminary, where an AIM missionary, Rachel, works as a librarian. She has taken on the enormous, yet incredibly important, task of cataloguing the school's library! When she came, the books were only kind of sorted by topic on the shelves, and now she has a large section of the books catalogued! She has been a real answer to prayer for this school, and is a great example of how anyone can use their skills and knowledge to serve on the mission field!

Kelsea and I wound up sharing a boda every time we rode which allowed for lots of laughter and gripping on tight to each other as we flew over speed bumps and dodged giant pot holes.

Tomorrow we will go into Kampala again with a couple girls from Kenya to explore the craft markets and see some other things with the purpose of gaining more experience using public transportation.

We've been given lots of advice already about how to pick a good boda driver: get close enough to see if he smells like alcohol, one who wears a helmet might suggest that he takes safety more seriously, some of the older bikes have lower, wider seats that are more comfortable, and once you find a local driver that seems safe and good you should get his number and call him when you need a ride somewhere. We didn't have to put much of this into practice today as we just kind of did whatever we were told to do, but we will have plenty of opportunities when we get to Mbarara.

And don't worry! When we're in Mbarara we will have helmets to wear whenever we ride bodas :)
Thanks Joel and Jill!

In Theory

I've been reading through this national curriculum book trying to learn and understand as much as I can. I wanted to see the scope and sequence of education in early childhood and the primary grades and compare it to what we tend to use in the U.S.

This book covers English Language, Integrated Science, Social Studies, and Mathematics for primary 1 (kindergarten) through primary 6. Because I probably won't be teaching higher than primary 1 at the school, I've been focusing on studying objectives and themes for that level the most. I've really enjoyed and appreciated what I've read so far.

They use a thematic approach to teaching most subjects and integrate related English vocabulary words into each lesson.
I feel that the objectives are reasonable and I appreciate that they focus on making the curriculum relevant to student's lives here.
They integrate learning applicable life skills and want to develop life-long learners who have problem solving skills.
It appears that many hands-on techniques and authentic learning experiences are encouraged, such as growing plants in order to observe life cycles and how things change and playing active games to learn (English) names of body parts and to practice appropriate greetings.
They say that cummulative as well as a variety of summative assessments are to be used to evaluate student work and progress.
They acknowlwdge all aspects of literacy: reading, writing, speaking, and listening.
And I nod my head in agreement and smile when I read that "the specific aim (for reading) is to enhance learning with pleasure, pronunciation, and comprehension," emphasis mine (Uganda Primary School Curriculum).

Same.

I've found many pieces of this curriculum syllabus to be enlightening and helpful in learning small bits and pieces of the culture.
For example, some of the English vocabulary words the children are to learn when learning about the home are jerrycan, pestle, mortar, candle, and grinding stone.
When learning about common foods they learn maize, groundnuts, yams, sorghum, soya-beans, and sim-sim.
There have also been some parts that make me laugh out loud. In English Language, unit 7, the topic is transport... learning about different means of transportation. In unit 8, the topic is accidents. Go figure. (Pray for me as I learn how to ride bodas and use public transportation this week!!)

Different.

This is all great in theory, but from what I hear and understand schools don't necessarily follow these national guidelines. Each individual school can choose what they want to to teach and how and when they'll teach it. So while everything looks great on paper, I have yet to see how it will play out...

"Teaching to the test" is a common and unfortunate problem within the U.S. education system since No Child Left Behind was put in place, and apparently there are similar issues here, as well. Because of how the education system is set up, all children must take a standardized test in order to qualify and advance on to secondary school (a privilege that many most do not acquire). From what I've heard, much of the instruction is geared toward helping student's achieve well on this test. Which sounds fine in passing, but when you realize that essential skills are not being taught simply because they're not on the test, we begin to see the problems more clearly.

Same.

According to Uganda Primary School Curriculum, because of a plethora of outside influences, "...the majority of Ugandan children do not have the opportunity to proceed beyond the primary school, let alone completing the primary school level." This fact has a huge impact on students' attendance and achievment in school.

Children face so much here on a daily basis. Even a simple thing like getting to school can be a danger or large time commitment. They have many other duties to do at home, and by the time they get home and help with chores, it;s dark and they lack sufficient lighting to do their homework.

Things that we tend to take for granted, such as a high school or college degree or even a coherent and consistent educational experience, are extreme privileges here. I have so much to learn about the education system and specifically about how Ruharo School runs. I'm eager to come alongside the Ugandan teachers so that I can learn from them and gain a deeper understanding of the culture and what it means to be a child and what it means to be a teacher in Uganda.

Please pray that I might be an effective teacher dedicated to learning all that I can about how to support the children and teachers.

Matoke Inn, AIM's Regional HQs





Don't Run

Everything is great so far! We have lots of time to rest, relax, and get to know the Skinners and others around Matoke Inn, AIM's central region HQ.

This afternoon a group of us went to a nearby pool for a couple hours. The water was cold and the sun was hidden behinds clouds, so most of us didn't swim. As Dara and Dade (The Skinners kids) fearlessly braved the water, Jill, Kelsea, Ruth and I sat around talking and enjoying the day. Ruth is the Skinner's worker, and I'm really looking forward to spending more time with her!

Eventually, the conversation turned to what to do in the case of wild animal attacks. Ruth gave us some interesting and funny advice! Like if a lion is going to attack, you should put a stick on your head to make you look taller, and if a dog is going to attack, you should bend down and pretend to pick something up....which makes the dog think you're going to throw something at it.

I think my favorite advice came from Dara, a very knowledgeable animal lover. She said that if a lion is going to attack, you have three options:

1. Run

2. Get closer to take a picture

3. Stand there and wait for it to eat you

Overall, we all agreed that running is never a good option when faced with the possibilty of an animal attack.  But how many of you would actually just stand there and stare a wild animal down or play dead hoping that they leave you alone? I'm pretty sure our natural instinct is to flee.

When faced with scary and life-endangering situations we want to run. It's not our natural instinct to willingly put ourselves in danger. To force ourselves into an uncomfortable situation. To give up our momentary comforts at the hope of something better.

This is the life that Jesus calls us to. When Jesus was calling his disciples, he tells them to "Go, sell everything you have and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me," Mark 10:21. Jesus is calling them to abandon their comforts and all that is familiar and natural to them. He was telling them to abandon their careers and family and restructure their entire lives around the work Jesus called them to. "Their plans and dreams were now being swallowed up  in his," said David Platt in Radical. "Ultimately, Jesus was calling them to abandon themselves. They were leaving certainty for uncertainty, safety for danger, self-preservation for self-denunciation."

When the going gets tough, the world tells us to run and hide. Jesus tells us to "Follow me" and he will be our refuge and strength.

Lake Victoria

Although we don't live anywhere near the lions, I still don't quite know what I would do if I did happen to come face to face with one. Maybe I'd run. Maybe I'd freeze and start hyperventilating. I'm not sure.

I do know, though, that throughout the many hard times to come this year I will be turning to Jesus as my source of strength and hope for something better. Did you catch the second part of Mark 10:21? "Go, sell everything you have and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." When we give up our plans in order to follow God's plan for our lives, we gain treasure that cannot be stolen or destoyed. That's something worth smiling about! Because you know that in the end you're not really giving up anything at all. Instead, you're gaining everything.
 

I'm Here!

Finally, I'm back in the home of my heart! And it just feels right.

Everything went well with our flights! No complications or delays, and amazingly enough ALL of our luggage made it! Praise God :)

I'm now 8 hours ahead of most of you back home, but I'm hoping that adjusting to the time difference won't be too hard. Today we're just going to relax around Matoke Inn (AIM's guesthouse), maybe walk to a nearby shopping center to get out a little, and rest! We will start orientation on Monday.

Just a quick update to let you know I'm here safe and sound! I will try to post a few pictures soon.

Release of Rights

We live in a world that is full of rights. Our particular culture is one where we take pride in our rights. As a matter of fact, the rights of individuals are constitutional, but as we see the deamanding of individual rights increase, we see much of the moral fiber of our society decrease. Jesus Christ laid down His rights to the heavens and all his glory to become a man and to serve, not to be served.

I must lay down my rights over the next year in both professional and personal relationships. Not to lay them down for better or for worse, but to entrust them to the Lord and transfer the responsibilityy of them to a place of safe keeping.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.

Romans 12:1

I Give Up My Right To:               I Entrust To God:

A comfortable bed                       My strength and endurance

Having 3 meals a day                  My health and strength

Having familiar foods                   My likes and dislikes of food

Dressing fashionably                   My security in Him

Seeing results                              His purposes and fruit in His timing

Control of myself                         My need for His Spirit's control

Control of others                         His workmanship in others

Control of circumstances            My circumstances to His purposes in making me Christ-like 

Having pleasant circumstances    The privilege of suffering for His sake

Making decisions                         His sovereign hand on my life

Taking offense                             My deepest needs

Being successful                          My security in His love

Being understood                         My reputation

Being heard                                  My need for recognition

Being right                                    My need for His righteousness