Almost home!

 

On July 2nd, we left Child Voice to return to Kampala for our final GLA/IV debrief.  It was a sad goodbye featuring songs from the women, letters exchanged between our new friends, and many hugs and well wishes.  Our students were so thankful for our time at Child Voice.  God is redeeming the community of Lukodi and Gulu and the lives of former girl soldiers.  It was amazing to see how God truly does redeem horrible situations to bring His peace and His Kingdom.

That same day we traveled to Kampala, which is a fairly long journey.  To ease the travel fatigue, we went to a game park where we saw elephants, antelopes, giraffes, warthogs, antelopes, cranes, hippos, and even more antelopes. :)  The journey was a little bit longer than we expected, but the students had good spirits for the entire day.  We sang many Acholi songs we had learned in Gulu along with some other music (trust me, you will hear the Ugandan happy birthday song on your next birthday; it's amazing!).

Yesterday, our GLA/IV teams separated after weeks of working together.  It was an incredible experience to work with and befriend our Ugandan teammates.  There were some tears, gifts exchanged, and a commissioning service that acknowledged all the things that God has done in the last month.  God has led us and blessed us throughout our time together.

Right now, the students are at Banana Village and are learning more about how to return home well.  Please pray for them to be well rested, healthy (right now, everyone is! Praise God!), and to be spiritually refreshed for the journey home.

We write today after more than a week, some 20 kilometers from the northern town of Gulu in a village area called Lukodi. Our transition was marked by a 7 hour bus ride crossing the Nile; a journey from crowded Kampala to grass fields, trees and small clusters of mud and grass roofed huts.

Living so closely in Kampala bonded the team well and those friendships and working relationships continue to deepen in this now setting.  Both Ugandan and American Students have had ample opportunity to teach, testify, sing, dance, play with children, do manual labor and are becoming speakers of the Acholi language with the girls and children at Child Voice.

At Fort Baker in Pateko, 30 minutes from the CVI site students heard teaching on history and slavery.  They also had some time to explored the area and spend some time in prayer  in this setting where Samuel Baker stopped the advance of the Muslim Slave Trade in Uganda.

Here at the CVI site our days begin with morning prayer at sun-up, a 7am breakfast of a boiled egg, a bun (made by the girls in their baking class daily) and a cup of tea.  We then lead devotions for about 20 girls and their 20+ children to begin our day praising God with testimony, song and in prayer.  The CVI girls go to their training sessions then, and we help with child care, early childhood education, some manual work (road building, slashing tall grass and putting in a fence), attend some of their sessions with them and work the morning until a 1:00 lunch of beans, rice and cabbage.  Afternoons are devoted to some talks on Global Issues, Bible Study, a game and fun hour with the girls and doing chores like laundry, fetching water and cleaning and getting our basin baths for the day. 

Our days end, again gathered as IVCF Students, GLA Ugandan students and the girls and their kids praising God and singing for an hour before we head to our huts about 9:30pm.

There will be many stories of God's hand in our midst to tell, photos to show and reflections of some of the people God is working through - and in, as we return in a week and a half.  

One theme of our stay up North is the way in which Students are astounded by the magnificence of God's creation here.  There is a strong sense that after so many years of war and cruelty and abuse, God is restoring a land and a people once again to reflect his image and his beauty.  We have been witness to this reconciliation and redemption and are humbled by the faith and the bravery of these young women and the community that lives and works together here at Child Voice.  

We return home all too soon with eyes that have seen much, hearts that have felt much and hands that have worked much.  And in the midst of all of this we have also laughed much, danced with joy and been welcomed and blessed in many many ways.  

Please pray for our remaining days, for health and recovery from some minor stomach problems, sore backs and muscles and for safety in travel.  Pray for the lessons we are learning here and the words of Scripture to go deep in our lives and for them to grow in us.  Pray for these wonderful women, their children and the workers who live and give sacrificially to bring the fuit of peace to this place and to these young lives.  We send our blessings and are eager to share our stories with you.  Afwoyo Matek.

Our Stay in Kampala (at a glance)

The IV team has been working long days and learning a TON about what God is doing here in Kampala.  The children here have stolen our hearts.  Lifelong friendships are beginning to form, and we are starting to grapple with big issues like poverty, health care, and reconciliation both within and between religious communities.  We have been serving in our assigned organizations almost every day, and have been challenged and stretched in the process.  This week, we’ll be featuring reflections from three students, each from a different work site: Miles 2 Smiles, Rhema Academic Centre, and Threads of Life.  These should give you a sense of what each site was like, and how they have made an impact on us. 

Miles 2 Smiles

"Miles 2 Smiles is a day care center filled with energetic and loving children ranging from 8 months to 5 years of age.  This place is not a regular day care center; it’s a place created for the safety of the children.  While their parents, mainly single mothers, are busy working to provide for their family, if not for this facility the children would either be locked in their homes or be running on dangerous roadways while their mothers work in the marketplace.  The founder of Miles 2 Smiles, Aunt Kathy, opened the center because she saw the need of both the struggling mothers and the kids to be safe and have the opportunity to receive an education.  Presently, the number of children in the center is rising, yet the number of teachers & nurses remains stagnant.  In order for these children to grow up physically, mentally, and spiritually appropriately, they need both increased attention & love.  That is why both the staff and children at Miles to Smiles are thankful for volunteers like us to just spend time with them and shower them with love.

Our experience with the children was amazing! They ran towards us and wanted to play and be held all the time.  We sang a lot of songs and played many games with them. Although we were tired by the end of the day, the children’s bright smiles so clearly depicted God’s love and encouraged all of us.  Please pray not just for the struggling parents and their children, but also for the day care center and its staff, because these children need this place and they truly walk miles to smiles."

          ~Katia & Miki

Rhema Academic Centre

“The children at Rhema are full of life, and faith.  They smile and play, learn math and science and history.  This week we had the privilege of working with the teachers and students of Rhema, and to see God at work within each child and teacher.  We taught vowels with Primary 1, Reduced Fractions through a translator with P3/P4, and English with P6.  At Rhema, God reminded me of the beauty of childhood.  He reminded me of the importance of education.  Most of all, though, he reminded me of the value of friendships between students & teachers.  While I was only with the children and teachers of Rhema for a week, I will not forget the smiles, the stories, or the laughter of the students and teachers—my new friends—in Uganda.”

          ~Brayden 

Threads of Life

“For 2-3 days, the ministry groups had the privilege of working with women at Threads of Life.  Threads of Life works directly with (mostly) single mothers in the Katonga slum areas to help them learn practical skills for work (sewing, tailoring) and restore a self-sustainable lifestyle with their children.  Our teams spent a few days teaching various levels of English classes. 

We learned that English is a key requirement for these women looking for jobs and surviving in their competitive environment.  The women were divided into appropriate class levels and we were so blessed to see how passionate & sincere their attitudes were to learn.;  some of us worked very closely with just a few women to not only teach, but to share our own stories and most importantly, share Jesus.  Others taught larger beginner classes with basic vocabulary and interactive bible stories.  One of the women was trained and prepared to be a devotion leader for the group once we leave!  Their enthusiasm & smiles brought us so much joy and every one of us feel our time together was too short!  Sharing those few days with the women encouraged us tremendously to continue to restore justice around in communities here and back home with the love of Christ we’re learning more about here.” 

          ~Aimee

In addition to a very fruitful time at our ministry sites, we've been experiencing many of the sights and sounds and communities of the beautiful (and very dusty) city of Kampala.  Right outside Rhema Academic Centre, Josh Williams preached at his first ever 'crusade', an open-air service full of singing, dancing, and a truly powerful place for encouragement and transformation for the poor and oppressed who were gathered there.  (We also got to do our first choreographed choir performance :)). We've been challenged to immerse ourselves in another cultural expression of church, going door-to-door to encourage people and offer support and prayer in the slums.  We've enjoyed delicious Ugandan food, especially matoke (a banana-like vegetable that is best served smothered in groundnut sauce).  We've even visited Mulago Hospital, a government-run hospital where many patients crowd in a single room and wait for weeks, even months or years, to be cared for, and we were able to encourage those who were there and wrestle with what this all means for us.  

There are only a couple of days left here in Kampala!  They'll include a 'crazy kids day' we're organizing, a visit to a mosque, and some much-needed debriefing of all that we've experienced and learned.  Then we'll be off to Gulu for phase two!

Please be praying for us!

-Pray for a safe trip to Gulu.  We will be leaving by bus Tuesday, early in the morning.  Pray for us to be rested and ready! 

-Megan Silver has an unfortunate case of conjunctivitis (pink eye).  We are hoping it goes away soon, and we've been taking all the necessary measures to help it heal, but your concerted prayers would be very much appreciated!

-Pray for continued energy and health for the whole team, as the days have been very full and we have been living in close quarters :) 

-Praise God for the unity and protection we've all experienced so far!!

So It Begins

Orientation is officially over, and our work begins. 

We’ve spent our first few days in Uganda getting to know our new Ugandan teammates.  They are absolutely wonderful, and we are quickly becoming friends.  Our orientation was full of thought-provoking conversations about what it will look like to work together and learn from one another while we are here.  (We got to try that out when we had to do our laundry for the first time!)

At the end of a thorough time of training, we got our work assignments for the two weeks we’ll be spending in Kampala.  We will be splitting up into three different teams and traveling to local organizations almost every day to learn and serve as much as we can.  One group we’ll be working with is Rhema Academic Centre, a primary school situated in a church in the Mulago slums.  Another group is Miles 2 Smiles, a preschool facility that cares for hundreds of beautiful (and extremely energetic) kids whose parents cannot afford daycare.  The third group is Threads of Life, a vocational training school that empowers women who live in the slums.  Each team will be working primarily with one of these organizations, and will switch locations for the last two days.  We will also be spending many of our lunch hours visiting local high schools in partnership with Scripture Union, a ministry that reaches out to high school students across the country, and some of us have already given our first sermons to the students there!

In addition to visiting these sites, we’ll be helping lead play days for hundreds of kids in the slums, leading an open-air worship service, visiting two hospitals (one public and one private), and wrestling with hard questions about the heart of God and the reality of injustice.  Our time together is sure to be full, and we are all looking forward to what God is going to do.

Please pray for us!  Here are some of our prayer requests below.  Your prayers mean a lot to us.

A couple of students have been feeling sick L  Nothing that any of you friends and family should be worried about, but enough to be frustrating and distracting.  Please pray for their healing, and pray for protection for the entire team as we begin working!

Please pray for our first week of work.  Many of us will be teaching, and we will continue giving testimonies in the high schools.  Please pray for unity in the teams, and for wisdom for us as we lead.

PS: Throughout the month, we’ll be including notes and journal entries from students in our blog entries.  Here’s one from Megan Silver:

“List of firsts on day 1 in Kampala, Uganda:  
-went south of equator
-experienced jet lag
-Africa: land and sky
-used a long drop
-24 people in a van
-ate matoke
-living in community 
-slept in mosquito net
-being called 'muzungu'
Much love to you in America!! -Megan"

How We Got Here

We are safe and sound in Uganda, and we finally have a bit of time to update you all!

Our travel to Uganda was long, but relatively drama free.  We left from Boston and arrived in London a few meals and a few movies later. We had a twelve hour layover in London and went into the city.  Josh fulfilled a lifelong unspoken dream by being a London tour guide and taking the team to church, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, Trafalgar Square, West End, and four national protests (Turkey, Palestine, Venezuela, and Israel).  Welcome to London!


We traveled to Heathrow airport via the Tube and arrived well in time for a flight to Nairobi, Kenya.  10 hours later (more sleep, fewer movies), we landed on African soil.  Next up was a few hours flight to Uganda.  At this point, we were growing weary but very excited to finally be in the country we'll call home for the next few weeks.  We got through customs, and we encountered our first opportunity for a God-sized miracle.  Two people's bags were lost...and they've already been returned after kind sharing from the students for those that needed to borrow a skirt, toothpaste, and the like.

After troubleshooting the bag situation at the airport, we met Uncle Sam and the Ugandan students for the first time!  It was an amazing thing to ride through the Ugandan countryside and see the rich reds, lush greens, and hear all the introductory cross cultural conversations.  What a sound! Almost as soon as we arrived in the home where we're staying, we started up part 2 of our orientation with Ugandans taking the lead with programming.  Some things we learned.

"You are so welcome" is not just something Ugandans say as a response to thank you.  They use it to greet people.  You're so welcome to this blog!

"Bambi" is a phrase people say when they're expressing sadness.  We're not sure if it has to do with the infamous scene in a certain Disney movie.

"Are we together?" is a phrase used to give people time to admit confusion, get on the same page, and to promote agreement.  As you can guess, we use this phrase a lot.

The last thing we learned.  Americans get sleepy after forty hours of travel.  Even during orientation sessions. Are we together?

Prayer Requests:

Pray that we would retain the information we learned the first few days as we interact more and more with people from Kampala
Pray that our American team and the Ugandan team would be unified as a blended team and would continue to bond with each other.  Just like the team from the US, the Ugandans are just getting to know one another!

Day 3 of the Institute, The Countdown...Continues

Hi Everyone,

The institute is going well!  This is day three and we'll be leaving for the airport around this time tomorrow.  Here are the students.

What have we been up to, you ask?  We've been engaging with scholars and practitioners such as Gary VanderPol (The Good of Mission), Vince Bantu (The Bad of Mission), and Lauren Vitrano-Wilson (Mission as a Journey of Self-Discovery).  While not in the classroom, we have been talking together as a team, engaging scripture, and worshipping God.  Last night, we did a multi-lingual dance party with French, Spanish, Hatian Creole, Swahili, Luganda, and English.  Petek even taught us some awesome Ugandan dance moves.  No pictures or videos of that though. :)

Our time of dancing came after a difficult morning where we focused on what has gone wrong with missions.  From colonialism to a celebration of empire as opposed to Jesus, missions hasn't simply been a positive or easy story to tell.  Even though it'd be great to see that season as one that is exclusively in the past, we do not own Jesus' "pure" mission and are not perfect as we try to follow His mission as we understand it.  We have to leave room to repent, to mourn, and to be honest about where we and the church have hurt instead of blessed our neighbors.

We got a chance to process all of this through some art and symbolism.  We used a paper tree to symbolize our desire to drink from the wells of Jesus (using the imagery of Psalm 1), but we also wrote sins of the church, personal or corporate, on paper leaves to acknowledge that we, as a church, are often known for our faults, rightly or wrongly.  Lastly, we looked to scripture to see how God still uses us, individually and as a body, to bring healing despite our faults.  Here's an image of the final product.

"The leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations." Revelations 22:2

Please pray for us as we prepare to leave, as we begin medication, and as we hear more specifically about ChildVoice International, the non-profit we'll be working with in Northern Uganda.  Also, please pray thanksgiving and provision for all the wonderful people who are speaking at the institute, preparing our meals, and hosting us in Boston.  

In His Care, IV in Uganda

The Institute Starts Today!

In less than two hours, our Uganda team will join a team going to Hispanolia to take part in the annual NEGII Institute.  This institute is an intense and powerful time of team bonding, training, and encouragement from speakers who have been a part of or spent time reflecting on God's global movement.

Please pray for students to bond, to be focused, to have fun, and even to rest as we learn and talk together over these next few days.

More stories soon!
IV in Uganda

Countdown!

Hi Everyone,

Thank you so much for reading this blog and supporting our NEGII Uganda Team.  On this blog, we will have periodic updates before we leave for Uganda and during our time there.  It will be a great way to find out more about Uganda, our partners in ministry there, what we're up to, and to pray for us specifically as we travel throughout the country.

We have 8 days before we leave the States for Uganda!  We have five days before the NEGII Institute starts in Dorchester, Mass.  I'll tell you a bit more about what we're up to in the Institute as it approaches.

For now, please pray for excitement, health, preparation, and the wisdom to start that practical preparation (I see you, laundry) as soon as we can!

Peace,
IV in Uganda