Second Chance

The last time I blogged I spoke of when I was at Starbucks and essentially missed an opportunity to at least love on a guy whose dad recently had a stroke. I again went to Starbucks the week before Thanksgiving again to do some quiet time. This time I ran into two old high school friends. One I learned had turned to the Lord and was attending the same church that my aunt goes to. The other was still a Buddhist though a different type of Buddhism than we were raised with.

I immediately knew that the Lord was giving me a second chance to share the gospel with someone. And this time, I didn't flinch at the opportunity. I told my friend that I loved him enough to disagree with what he believed in and went on to tell him about the love of Christ for him regardless of anything in his life. Thank you Lord for second chances.

Not Bold Enough

So I really tried to focus on having a Sabbath day yesterday because of all the time I have to help out with my dad at home every day. I went to church...did some window shopping then decided that instead of going home to read the Word, I would go to Starbucks because 1) I might have an opportunity to talk to someone there and maybe share my faith and 2) so I would actually do my reading. The first option was based on a lot of what God is teaching me and how I need to be bold for my Lord.

So I grabbed my grande soy Chai latte and went outside to find a table. There weren't a lot of people there so it was easy to find a place to sit. However, I sat facing away from the Starbucks because in all honesty I didn't want to be distracted by people watching. While I was sitting there reading through the book of Hebrews, I heard a conversation happening behind me. A guy was talking to two women who were sitting outside and sharing about how his dad back in Florida had a stroke recently and he was going to visit him. However, he didn't want to really go. People were encouraging him to go so that he wouldn't have any regrets. My first thought was this guy is going through the same kind of thing that I am. I stopped reading and began praying fervently for him as he continued his conversation with the Lord.

God was opening a door to share and love on this guy who I'm guessing by some of his language that he was not a believer. I told God first let me finish reading the chapter I was on then I would approach him. When I finished the chapter, he wasn't there. So began to wrap up my things and made my way to the car. I got into the car and put everything in its place. After I started the car, I looked up to see he had returned to his table. Now my dilemma. Do I shut off the car and go to talk to him or do I just drive off? I went back and forth what seemed like a hundred times in the matter of seconds, and finally decided to drive home.

The whole way home, I knew that I should have talked to the guy. I knew that I could have possibly made a huge difference in his life. But yet I was a coward...too selfish to stop where I was in reading and go love on this child of God. Too prideful to shut down the car and get out. Since then, I've been praying for boldness. I need it desperately not only for myself but for others who don't know Christ. Paul tells us in Romans 1:16, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile." I hope that next time I will have the boldness to proclaim God's love to those who don't yet understand their need for a Savior. I pray also that if you get an opportunity to share God's love with others, you don't talk yourself out of it.

Home in the U.S.

I'm not sure how many of you know all that has been happening with my family back home. At the end of August, my dad had a pretty bad stroke. It has pretty much crippled the right side of his body and affected most of his speech. As a result I tried to time an unplanned visit home to help out my mom and brother as they care for my dad.

My dad was released out of the hospital about a month ago and my mom and brother have been caring for him pretty much 24 hours a day. He has improved a lot since he has arrived home. By the time I arrived here on Nov 5., he was in much better condition than before. I can't compare his condition now to before since I wasn't here and my mom chooses carefully what to share with me over the phone when any of my relatives is "sick". But I can say that I expected something much worse than what I found. To me, the biggest obstacle for us is the fact that he has to go to the bathroom often and often wets the bed because of lack of someone there to help him. He can't get out of bed without help so he just has to go where he is. Speech is obviously a problem as he struggles communicate his needs. I guess it's somewhat like having a baby in that he screams/cries for help, but then it's up to us to figure out what he needs. My mom and brother have figured that out for the most part and I think I'm learning quickly about his needs.

We have been working on exercises both physically and for speech to help him recover from his stroke. The other day I was doing speech therapy with him, just asking yes/no questions. He has good understanding of what we say to him; it's just difficult for us to understand his responses. So I asked him a question that was pretty obvious one way or the other and he just began laughing. The question..."Do you like the SF Giants?" It was funny to him because I love the Dodgers. Anyway, we have a long road in front of us, but by the grace of God, we will get through this.

For those supporting me, I will be home caring for my dad until Jan. I am mostly in Northern California near S.F. because it's where my family is. However, I plan to make some trips down south. Hopefully I get to see you while I'm here. Please pray for us as we help my dad and pray for the salvation of my family as the have yet come to know the love of Christ.

Increasing Faith

I have been so challenged this week in my faith that I can't begin to express all that I've felt. It seems that as I draw close to returning home to see my family and friends in the U.S. I seem to get more stressed out. I've never felt more clearly the call to Uganda as I have in the past day. I've realized now that much of this stress is a result of how I feel in leaving all the people here who love me so dearly in every way: kids who consider me a father to them, students whom I am mentoring to understand the fullness of their calling in Christ, friends that will be remaining here for the holidays away from their own families in the U.S. and much more.

I think somewhere in the process of knowing that I was going home for an unplanned visit, my faith began to struggle. I was especially challenged the other day when I announced to the students at the high school that it would be my last chapel day there. I explained to them that my dad was sick and that I was needed at home to care for him. Many came afterward and expressed their love for me and their belief that God would heal him. I laughed as many of them said that and at one point even expressed that I didn't feel that God was going to heal him. But after pondering those thoughts that night, I wondered...did I not want God to heal him?...did I not have enough faith in God that He could heal my father? There was a major problem in my head. I had come to the realization that maybe I lacked faith in the power of God. There's a big difference between knowing in your head the power of God to do the miraculous and the belief that He can and will do the miraculous in this world. It's not like I haven't seen people healed of injuries and diseases, but I guess I had been skeptical of the reality of God's power to heal.

At that moment, I had to rebuke those thoughts in my head and choose to believe that God can heal my father of his illness if it is in His will. Before I had already decided it was God's will for him not to be healed, but that was my human judgment maybe even a result of the lack of a solid relationship with my earthly father. Instead now, I choose to increase my faith in God's power and His will for my father first to save him from his sin and secondly to heal the problems with his earthly body.

Mark 9:20-24
So they brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. he fell to the ground and rolled around foaming at the mouth.
Jesus asked the boy's father, "How long has he been like this?"
"From childhood," he answered. "It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pit on us and help us."
"'If you can'?" said Jesus. "Everything is possible for him who believes."
Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!"

I feel like the father in this passage. I deeply want healing both physical and spiritual for my father, but I'm the one to use that word..."IF" "If it is possible God, heal my father" has been my prayer. Instead, I have to claim what Jesus says that "everything is possible for him who believes". So I write today believing that God can and will heal my father if it is in His will. I now believe it, but ask Jesus to help me with my unbelief!

Sudan the minstry

So you've probably already read all about our adventures in Sudan. So let's talk ministry. Sudan is a lot different than Uganda. The weather is much hotter there as we experienced every day. We were in Southern Sudan which has been sparsely populated over the past 20+ years due to the war there. People are finally returning to their villages...many after years in displacement camps in Uganda. So there's lots of land, but not a lot of development. In the place where we ministered, the soil was very fertile so the people could at least grow crops to sustain themselves.

Magwi is close to the Ugandan border. The people in that county were mostly from the Acholi tribe. Yes, if you know Uganda, there are also Acholis in Uganda. Therefore there are many similarities between northern Uganda and Sudan. Acholis are pretty much a male dominated society. It was something that we experienced on our first day of the conference. Other conferences that I've ministered at in Uganda were packed with people, both men and women just waiting to be fed. In Sudan...men. The few women around were outside cooking for us the whole day. It was a big shock to me. Secondly, I thought we would be ministering to many, but there were only 20 church leaders/pastors there. Made me a little sad.

However, the men there were very responsive to the messages we gave. Pastor Dongo spoke on being a pastor. Pastor Richard spoke on team ministry. And I spoke about what our lives should look like as believers and leaders in our communities. The men were very challenged as we spoke. Some regarding the roles of their wives and how they should minister to them. Others saw how important it was to build teams within their churches so they as leaders didn't have to do anything.

As for me, I sometimes feel inadequate in such situations of speaking/sharing with people. The set of talks that I gave I have given before, but in all reality I really didn't want to be in Sudan. It was way out of my comfort zone. I became accustomed to my life in Uganda. I was in Sudan with no electricity apart from lights from 7pm to 11pm every night. Totally dependent on the time schedule of someone else. My introverted self was screaming out because I had very little alone time. But in such situations is when the Lord really uses me. I really felt the power of the Holy Spirit through times of sharing with the people there. Before leaving for Sudan, I had two talks prepared, but knew that I had to do three. I had some ideas of what to share, but really didn't see where the Spirit was taking me until the night before the last day. Although that talk was very disorganized because of lack of preparation, there seemed to be power behind the message. I was later encouraged by one of the pastors that he was really challenged to think out of the box regarding the types of ministry they focused on there.

The most interesting thing was that as we planned the trip, we never had an intention of focusing everything on one theme. We had never really discussed the breakdown of the talks, but as the days went by, I found that the Lord had really generated a theme to share with the people there. Most of our talks overlapped in subject matter. Many of our main points were in line together. I was just blessed to watch the Holy Spirit work.

So though I can't rate this trip as my favorite ever, I know that there was purpose behind it. I believe the people were blessed and challenged in their ministry. And of course in many ways we were blessed and challenged as well.

Sudan the adventures

So this past week, I was in Sudan to help Pastor Dongo as he went there to minister to some pastors and church leaders. I wasn't too excited about the trip considering that I am soon going home and have lots of work to accomplish here in Uganda before returning home for a somewhat long visit.

We left very early Monday morning and experienced just the beginning of some transportation challenges for the week. We were flying on a fairly small airplane from Africa Inland Mission that day. As we went for take off, the pilot decided to not take off. He didn't say anything to us at first, just taxied back to the terminal. Later, he told us that there was a problem with the wind speed indicator. After about an hour and a half of phone calls and working to fix the problem, he said it was fixed. We went for takeoff and had no problems the rest of the way. At this point, I had been informed on very little about our trip to Sudan. I learned that we were landing at a place called Torit. It is in the Eastern Equatoria state of Sudan which borders Northern Uganda. We landed safely on a somewhat sketchy dirt runway with some strategically placed potholes.

The next step was to get to Magwi from Torit. The drive was supposed to be about 2 hours. Not too far right? I think the distance was something like 36 km. Do you get the picture? We were lucky to have a Land Cruiser to manage the potholes and large puddles (what else can you call those things...not potholes, but small ponds?) A little more than halfway, the driver tried to make a maneuver around one of these pools only to find the mud give way and he slipped back into the pool. However, we managed not to get stuck there. A short while after, we came upon a convoy of UN vehicles as one had gotten stuck in one of those pools. We waited and watched for about 30 minutes as they tried unsuccessfully to pull the vehicle out. Finally, they let us pass their convoy, but about 10 minutes later, our car also broke down (not in a pool though). We sat and waited as the driver attempted to fix it and call for help. The pastor who was hosting us ended up walking to the next village and catching a boda boda to Magwi where he found some mechanics who arrived about an hour later with 3 bodas to take us to town. So the rest of our trip was on boda to town without our luggage as we waited for the car to make it the rest of the way.

A few days later, we got a different car to take us to a few towns in the area to visit their health care facilities. The car was a sketchy Rav4 with the tires almost completely bald in some cases. We noticed that the driver kept watching one tire specifically. Lo and behold on the way back, we got a flat tire. As if that wasn't enough, it almost immediately began to rain like cats and dogs.

Finally, today, we returned on the smallest plane possible I think. It was not a smooth ride...let's just say I'm glad my stomach wasn't full at the beginning or else it would have been trouble. So needless to say, we had a few interesting transportation adventures in our short week in Sudan. Oh yeah...we did ministry also...I'll write separately about that later.

Cool Story

I was looking through my notes on my Blackberry the other day and realized that I had never shared this cool story with you. I met a pastor in Soroti that has been taking some classes that my friend has been teaching. I think he held the title of bishop of one of the churches. I'm not sure what that really means, but he was an older gentleman who had lived as a Christian during Idi Amin's time.

He shared several stories with us, but my favorite was the one in which he was pastoring a church and the army soldiers at the time were ordered to arrest all the Christians. So they soldiers came into the church and arrested everyone there. Fortunately for this pastor, he was not at the church at the time. He was spared this arrest, or was he?

When he found out that the whole church had been arrested by the army, he gave instructions to his wife to return to the village for her own protection. Then he went to where the congregation was being held and gave himself up to the army. He told them that he was among those group of Christians that they arrested. One of the soldiers told his leader that he too was a Christian and didn't agree with the order to arrest Christians. He refused to be the one to arrest this pastor. In the end, the army officer released the whole church. What an amazing testimony!

I just thought to myself, "Would I do that? Would I turn myself in to be arrested like he did?" I'm not sure I would, but the faith of the people here in Uganda often amazes me. I wish I had their faith...actually I'm working on that. Every day I pray for more faith so I can fulfill the promises that God has to use me wherever I am to preach the word, to heal, to cast out demons or whatever God wants to do through me.

Sunday School help

I've been frantically working for the last two weeks to keep up with our weekly chapels. One of my main duties here is to write all of the lessons for chapel. Sounds easy right? Did I mention that there are 5 sections of chapel lessons for each week? Take my word, it's not easy stuff. However, I found a pretty cool website recently that has helped me to be more innovative with our lessons.

In Uganda, it pretty much doesn't matter what age you are. You'll have a teacher who just stands in the front and talks. Imagine being a child in such a Sunday School class. Doesn't sound too exciting does it. So I've been trying to help them be more creative. Use demonstrations to help bring a lesson to life. Use activities that are interactive. Unfortunately for us, our resources are limited. We can't afford to give every child a copy of every thing we are doing so we have to be more creative. However, it's been fun to participate with these teachers and show them a different style of teaching. That they can present a simple lesson and really try to nail it down for these kids instead of trying to teach them what most adults struggle to understand.

My request is this. Many of you have worked or are working with children or youth. Do you have any good activities or demonstrations that we can use out here to enhance lessons? Don't worry about the lessons we are teaching, but anything that brings something to life will help us. Thanks and bless you all.

Rain Rain Go AWAY!!!

So based on our recent weather pattern, we're back in the rainy season. It's been a long time since we've seen this much rain. Too bad that rain didn't come earlier this year when we needed it. In Uganda, people rely on crops to survive whether it be for their own sustenance or to be used as a source of income (or both). We didn't get enough rain to sustain much of the crops that we were growing on our new land. Also because of lack of rain and thus fewer crops, prices for food are increasing at an alarming rate. It's still super inexpensive compared to food costs in the U.S., but the people here suffer because their income cannot compete with inflation.

As for me, I really enjoy the rain, especially the thunderstorms since as a Californian, I saw few of those in my lifetime. The other nice thing is that thunderstorms and rain in Uganda doesn't last for days on end like in California. We get short storms for about an hour or two then it's over. The bad side, the side I really dislike, is that when it rains a lot other problems occur. For one, our kids can't play in our field because it morphs into a pond/lake/river. (see picture - you can't see the river moving in the back, but that line of water is a rushing flood of water). Keep in mind also that only the main roads are paved and thus everything else is muddy which is no fun if you are walking or on a boda. Even on those paved roads, rain means potholes at the least and during a good pouring, floods! Most of all, I hate rain when it affects me. It seems to rain on days that I do laundry (or other people do laundry for me) or days when I want to play basketball.

Yesterday, it rained for a good 2 hours in the morning and then around lunch I saw the black clouds creeping in again. I immediately began to rebuke them in the Name of Jesus because I selfishly didn't want my Tuesday basketball game to get "rained out". Thank you Jesus for listening even with my selfish motives.

Mzugu prices

One of the things that I've always been cautious about since coming to Uganda is the cost of things here. If you're not aware of the cost of something then you most likely will be charged a higher price because of the color of your skin. I've been in taxis going from the school to the church where they attempted to charge me 500 shillings for a 300 shilling ride. They always laugh when I call them on their "mzungu" fare.

In town, it costs 400 shillings to park for an hour. However, many people don't carry around exact change so they'll end up giving the parking person a 500 shilling coin knowing that they won't get change. I one time gave a guy exactly 400 shillings and he asked me where the other 100 was. I laughed and asked him why he wanted to charge me 500 shillings when we both know it costs only 400 shillings. He, in turn, laughed and said, "Ah, you are very wise" and walked away.

However, last week I had a funny experience that made me want to share all of this with you. When you drive on the roads to Masaka, there are places to stop to buy "grilled" beef or chicken, water, etc. I was hungry after going to the village so I pulled over to buy a beef stick. I also bought ones for the other people in the car and gave the guy the money I knew it cost. Instead of charging me 500 shillings, he said it was 1500. I laughed and said he was joking with me. He said no, it's 1500. So before anyone began eating I told them to all give them back to the guy. Only then did he say "no" and took the money and walked away.

This is what you get to experience almost every day, but in many ways, you can't blame them. They make very little doing these jobs so anything extra is a big deal.

Aftermath

So I'm finally healed after a bout with some stomach/intestinal bacteria. It came on very slowly before it really put me down for a few days. The good thing about being sick this past week is that I didn't feel as much like a prisoner with all the rioting going on around the city. If you've watched the news and seen the reports of rioting in Kampala, it might have looked like every area of Kampala was out of control. However, there were definitely pockets of chaos and then many more pockets of "things somewhat as normal". Yes, I could definitely hear gunshots from the school; yes, my friend had to pick up his children from his school because they were near there; however, no one I know or even know anyone who knows anyone who was hurt in the riots.

The riots pretty much ended by Saturday night. Because our area was not that affected by the riots, nothing really seemed different than any other week. However, I had to travel to the west with Oliviah to do some social work for the ministry and we passed by a place called Nateete. This is an area in which the rioting was the worst. Unfortunately for Pastor Dongo and his family, the road to their new house in Bbira passes through Nateete. I had heard that major rioting there was so bad that they burned down a police station and all the impounded cars and let all the prisoners free. I couldn't really picture this in my mind, but I was amazed at the scene as we passed by on Wed. The structure of the police station was no more. There was a definite military presence there to maintain control. And about 20 cars or more were burned to a crisp. I wish I had a photo to help show you what I mean, but I was a little intimidated to take a picture because law enforcement don't take too kindly to having their pictures taken.

I definitely didn't feel threatened during the week, but I'm also glad that I was wise enough to stay home and not run any errands on those few out of control days.

Riots in Kampala

The recent activity in the city of Kampala reminds me of my first trip to Uganda. I was on the plane from London to Entebbe and my traveling companion and president of Buyamba told me I should watch the BBC News on the airplane on-demand tv. I asked why and he said they were rioting in Kampala and that an "Asian" was killed during the riots. I watched and it was funny to me because I didn't even see an "Asian" in the news broadcast. However, I did see quite a number of Indian people (from India not Native Americans). So I wasn't worried. The riot was over by the time we got into Uganda.

I don't know how big something has to get out here for it to make the news back home, but I posted on my Facebook account that I was okay and that the riots were not in our area. I'm not sure if it worried people more or not, but it seems that many people are praying for us out here now. Prayer is always accepted, but I can't say that I feel threatened at all.

I first learned of the riots when a friend who lives on the other side of town called me asking me if I heard any gunshots. I hadn't. He later informed me of the riots going on in the city. If I tried to explain the reason to you, you wouldn't understand so I'll just let it be and say that it should pass by Sun.

On a different note, the riots have reminded me of the foolishness of people. Most of the people who are rioting are just people who are idle and now have a reason to be active in a negative way. It's quite similar to the L.A. riots after the Rodney King verdict. Some of you might not be old enough to remember them, but I do. In fact, I was on La Cienega Blvd. in L.A. when I first heard the verdict. I knew that it was a bad sign, but not thinking of the worst that could happen, I ventured on a shortcut to my girlfriend's house in Westchester. If your geography of L.A. is not very good, it meant I had to drive through Inglewood and other dangerous areas to avoid the traffic on the freeways. I passed a shop called Fedco on the way. To make a long story short, I made it safely to my girlfriend's house in time to watch that same Fedco burning and people looting it.

As I watched the nonsense on the news, I had to wonder why would you destroy your own neighborhood. To this day, that still makes no sense to me. Jesus calls us to forgive...not once, not twice...but over and over. I think the Scripture says something like 70 times 7, but I don't think He meant to count until 490 and then you no longer need to forgive. When we act in ways similar to these hooligans starting fires, etc., we are just thinking selfishly. Instead, we need to think of others as greater than ourselves. Jesus can to serve, not to be served. We should follow His example.

Eastern Uganda

So I was pretty burnt out after working on our children's camp at the end of Aug. Lucky for me, I was able to get away from Kampala for a few days to visit some friends that are working in Soroti, which is in Eastern Uganda. Early Saturday morning, I jumped on a bus to Soroti. I arrived at around 11 am to a much quieter environment than I'm used to. Kampala is the only real city in Uganda. The rest are just small towns. It's almost like going back to the days of the ole West. The town center was just a few blocks long; definitely not as many cars or motorcycles crowding the streets; on the other hand, there were plenty of bicycle taxis.

We spent Saturday resting for half of the day and then borrowed some bodas (motorcycles) to go to a lake down the road. I didn't know how far the lake was so I thought a short trip...like maybe 15-20 minutes. My friends didn't know the distance either. On the way, the boda I was on got a flat so we had to wait for it to get it fixed. When we finally arrived it was about 2 hours later and the sun was setting. Beautiful across the lake, but bad for us as nighttime brings trouble many times in Uganda so we raced home in like an hour. BTW, we looked pretty amazing after our ride...no helmets = lots of dust on our faces and in our hair. Finally, we ended the day with dinner at a pastor's house. This pastor, James, was much like Pastor Dongo. He lived on a compound and was caring for about 20 children not his own.

Sunday we woke for church and then rode bicycles there. Again a lot farther than I had thought, but only about a 20 minute ride. The church was small, but beautiful (didn't bring my camera for any pics though). I love the people of Uganda. They are pretty much the same throughout the country. Then we rode back as I gave one of the kids a ride on the back...uphill most of the way! Let's just say I got my workout for the day.

Monday we left on a bus for Mbale. I don't think they've changed the shocks in the bus in a long time as we hit many bumps that caused us to leave our seats. One made me knock my head on the overhead above. The bus dropped us on the junction for Sipi Falls and after waiting about an hour, we finally got into a taxi...made for 8 but with 14 packed into it. Not the most comfortable ride I've taken in Uganda. We arrived at Sipi and began hiking when we encountered our first obstacle. A man claiming that we needed to pay an entrance fee. There were no signs talking of this and he didn't seem legit, but we paid him and were on our way. Hiking was beautiful, but it had rained recently so mud was a challenge as we climbed down to the bottom of the lower falls. Apparently last time my friends were there, they crossed the river to the other side, but Sarah was a little worried that she might fall in because of the increase in the amount of water and lack of places to walk across safely. So we got pummeled by the spray of the waterfall and backtracked up to go around a different way. We were constantly followed by people who wanted money from us. Probably the one thing that I dislike the most about Uganda...the idea that white people are rich and therefore they should beg us for money. At one point, we asked some kids to leave us alone and they picked up stones to throw at us.

After relaxing at a lodge by the upper falls, we finally made our way to where we were staying for the night. A campsite near a different waterfall down the road. Again we took bodas for this long journey, but arrived to a beautifully landscaped campsite with our tents ready for us with mattresses and everything we needed. We enjoyed a BBQ dinner, a campfire and the sounds of the waterfall and nature. In the morning, we had an incredible breakfast with a view of the falls.

It was a great few days to relax with friends, but now it's time to work. Kids are back and the last term of the year has begun.

For more pics go to: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=122035&id=697366716&l=a2a69ccca6

Spoiled in Uganda

With all the teams over the summer seeing where I live and what my life is like, I felt like I was a little spoiled. After all, I'm supposed to be a missionary and yet, I have a bed more comfortable here than what I had when I was in the U.S. I have a flat screen tv (though it's only 24") and a Wii game system. I have internet in my room even though it's sometimes slow and sometimes not on. I have a stove and oven; I have hot showers. In a nutshell, I'm pretty blessed if not spoiled.

Last night, I went to a friend's house. She is working for a mission agency and they have their own compound for missionaries. She's living with one roommate in a 3-4 bedroom house. They have a huge living room and kitchen (my living room and kitchen together could fit in their kitchen). They have a washer and dryer! They are eating American food every night (though I guess I could do that if I wanted to)

Suddenly, I don't feel spoiled anymore. However, I do admire those missionaries that are in a remote place without all the comforts of their native lifestyle. I'm not sure if I would survive. It's difficult enough to just be in Uganda with all the things I do have. So please pray for those that are really sacrificing for the gospel.

Children's Camp

Last week we had our annual children's camp for Buyamba. We had expected about 600 students ages 8-16. However, we never know how many will be there until we start the camp on Monday. This year, the number of pre-registered students was about 400. That number scared me a little because I knew that on the day of the camp many students would show up without us being able to prepare for them.

Registration was chaotic. The lack of overall planning by all of us (me especially...no excuses) did not help our situation. We had students crowding around every person doing registration. Luckily for me, we were blessed with 11 visitors who could help us with all of them. Thanks so much for them bearing with our disorganization. Students and parents alike did not understand what line they were supposed to be in...I could go on and on about registration. To make a long story short, I don't think we successfully got all students registered, but the final number that we registered before arriving at the came was 650. When I finally arrived at the camp, I found the number of students to be closer to 700. Then you add in all the facilitators and other leaders and we were close to 750.

Remember that we were planning for about 600. Our budget was for 600. The amount of money raised to pay for the camp was about four-fifths of our budget. All this means that God had to provide the rest of the money to pay for everything for us to be able to run a successful camp. And though there were MANY challenges, the camp was an overall success. Students were blessed; leaders were blessed. And most of all God took control of everything. In the end, many made decisions to follow Christ and more than 180 chose to take part in our previously unscheduled baptisms! I was able to get a little more of a visual than I wanted when I looked at the clear water before baptisms and the very dirty water thereafter. A reminder of how Jesus washes away our sins....literally!

Thank you for all that prayed for our camp. Hopefully next year there will be more students, more decisions to follow Christ and more of God shining through in the lives of the people of Uganda.

Dinner at Dallen's

So I just realized that I haven't ever talked about the fact that I'm having weekly dinner parties at my house. The guests? Children from our boarding section. One of the ideas I had when I was formulating a plan to work here as a missionary was to get to know all the kids. In the youth group back home, our youth pastor used to have "dinner for 10" at his house so that students would have a chance to hang out with him, and he would have a chance to get to know them. So as I calculated how much I needed to raise each month to be in Uganda, I added this line item to my budget.

At the end of March 2009, I finally organized the first "Dinner at Dallen's". I invited about 15 students to my house on a Saturday night and enlisted Teacher Deborah to be my cook for the night. Ashley and I led the students in some fun youth group games from back home. We learned the names of all of the children and had a meal that left many of us practically passed out on the floor. It was a giant success. After that first one, kids would come and tell me that they were going to be the ones at my house for dinner that week.

Since then, I've been able to host about 5 more dinners at my house for between 15 and 20 students. So I'm slowly getting to know each of the 170+ students in our boarding section by name. Right now we're on our in between holiday break so there won't be any dinners for a while, but I look forward to more fun with these students in the future.

FYI...dinner for that many costs me less than $20 and everyone leaves with a full belly of GOOD food...not posho and beans!

Out of the funk

Sorry that I haven't been online recently. I hit a rut there for a while. I guess it finally hit me that I was no longer a host for visiting teams, and I actually had other work to do. It just took me a few days to snap out of a funk that I was in. Thank God for the blessing of music that ministers to my heart. The following is the anthem that I have been running through my head the last few days. The bottom line is that I have to let go and allow God to have control of my life. You would think that I had already learned this lesson, but what I know about myself is that I'm stubborn and often have to learn things the hard way!

We will separate ourselves from everyone that we know (We say, we're so misunderstood,)
We can't allow a single doubt or weakness to show (But I know we don't do the things we should)
Just one more day without the shame and I can move on (So long to what I thought was)
I'll be happier, happier when I've given up

Pictures people...PICTURES!

So I've been in Uganda for over a year now. It's been a crazy ride here. I've been challenged in so many different ways in my life. I'm learning and growing in my faith. Things have changed dramatically not only based on where I live, but how I life as well. However, I think the end of summer marks a point where I begin to miss home. Teams have been here pretty much non-stop since middle of May, and now there is no American presence here. I think having people for that long then none is like a culture shock all over again. Anyway, that's not what this short blog is about. Really, I'm begging for some pictures of my lovely friends to put up on my boards so I can remember all the loved ones back home. As you can see...there are lots of blank spots for pictures. Please help!!! Send them to darren@ugandabuyamba.com I have a photo printer here to print them...or even better send me snail mail.

Darren Yui
c/o God Cares School
P.O. Box 26977
Kampala, Uganda
East Africa

My Back is to the World

For the past few years, I have been trying to find a recorded version of a song that the youth worship bands in middle school and high school used to play. It always touched my heart and reminded me of who I am in Christ. This song has and continues to be an encouragement to me especially in my current situation.

For those that have dedicated their lives to being a disciple of Christ, I want to encourage you to stand with your face to the wind, and your back to the world...don't turn around to follow the things of the world. For those struggling with the back and forth tug-o-war between surrendering your life to Christ and living for the pleasures of this world, I challenge you to turn you back to the things of the world and follow Christ at all cost....HIS WAY!

Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?" Matthew 16:24--27

Stand

Here I am still waiting
For how long I don't know
It's a long way back from where I've been
And there's no where else to go

So I'll stand with my face to the wind
And my back to the world
I'll follow you
I'll go where to tell me to go
No I don't be afraid
No I won't be afraid

I feel your wind is moving
I'm not sure where it's going
But I'll let it carry me away
Cause I'm not staying in this place

So I'll stand with my face to the wind
And my back to the world
I'll follow you
I'll go where to tell me to go
No I don't be afraid
No I won't be afraid

And I won't turn around

You're a missionary TOO!

I often get the comments from people about how awesome it is that I have moved overseas to an unknown country to serve as a missionary. I never really thought of it as much of a sacrifice. I was only trying to listen and obey the calling of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If you've seen where I live then you know why I think I'm not sacrificing much. I have most of the comforts of home here in my little house/apartment. But I can't deny that my life has changed drastically in the eyes of most people. In my eyes, my life is pretty much the same apart from the fact that I am far away from most of my family and friends.

While in Uganda, I enjoy listening to podcasts at home from speakers that I am familiar with. My favorite is not that of my own home church, but a church that is not far away from where I had lived in the US. That church has committed millions of dollars to support different ministries around the world. But it wasn't the fact that they were donating millions of dollars worldwide that recently caught my attention. Instead it's the words of their pastor who challenged the people of his church to be a light in the community in which they live.

You might be thinking that this is nothing new. You've heard pastors speak about the importance of being in a small group or a smaller community within the framework of the church. You've probably heard over and over how you should "love your neighbor". You've probably heard that you should preach the gospel to those who live around you. I too had heard all those things, and to be honest, most of the time I ignored those pleas. It's only as I've moved to another country that these things really hit home in a recent message. The pastor said something to the effect that if you can't be a missionary in your own community, how can you be a missionary to the rest of the world. You can see how that hit home for me. I had never cared to share with those in my community while I was in the US. However, it's easy to go door to door in Uganda to share the gospel with anyone on the street. I mean who cares what those people think about me. It's much more difficult to share with people in the US who will judge me: the guy next door to me that hates my dog, the people on the other side of my house who are constantly partying, the couple across the street that is co-habitating. I distinctly remember my grandma to hide when she saw some Christians approaching her door.

You might think that it's awesome that I'm overseas trying to disciple young people to be the next generation of leaders in Uganda. For me, I think what I am doing to serve the Lord is easy. Instead, I look up to that remnant of people in the US who believe so strongly in our Lord Jesus Christ that they will preach the gospel to their neighbors in the US no matter what those people might think of them or how they might judge them. If you are one of those people, I pray that you will continue the good work the Lord has put before you. If you're a believer and like me didn't do this very well, I pray that the Holy Spirit will give you "power" (Acts 1:8) to witness for Christ. After all, if you call Jesus your Lord and Savior, you're a missionary too.

Summerteams...not really summertime

We're halfway through what is called summer in the US. (In Uganda, we don't have four seasons, only 2: rainy season and dry season.) Summer for us means teams. We have had a barrage of teams visiting us since the middle of May. Let me give you a short description of where each team was from and what they did while they were here.

Westmont College sent 5 students our way. I was very close to this team as they shacked up in my small two bedroom guesthouse for 6 weeks. During their stay, they blessed me most with their company. It was a blessing to have Americans to joke around with and talk on the same level. While they were here, they busted their butts painting, digging, carrying bricks, preaching the gospel in the community, teaching chapels and Sunday school, and much more. Most of all, they got to see all the challenges that can occur in a 3rd world country...no water or fetching water from down at the well and carrying it up 5 flights of stairs...no electricity...eating posho and beans...and having their freedom to go anywhere at anytime taken away. Hopefully they learned valuable lessons from their time here and come back to visit soon.

Liberty Christian School from the Dallas area was the next team. They have been the team that over the past two summers I have never met, yet I always see tangible things left behind by them that impact the school. This year, their focus was on our new land for the high school. Although things didn't go quite as they planned, they were still able to make a huge impact there clearing much of the land and helping to grade the plot that will be used for the high school. At the primary school, they played with kids, taught chapels, put up our much needed basketball hoop and built a new swing set for the children. I can't wait to see what they'll accomplish next year.

Oaks Christian School from Westlake Village, CA was next to visit. They spent their first week in Uganda with us and the second at another ministry. While here, the teachers continued to work with the teachers at the high school. From what I hear, our teachers at God Cares High School were blessed by the resources they brought and the discussions that took place. The students and other leaders were at the primary school completing between 30-50 single student desks for the high school. I was especially blessed by this team as my "adopted brother", Connor, was here with that team. He received rave reviews as a hard worker while here. We were able to have one night together at my house, but I wish it could have been more like a week together!

Hillcrest Christian School from Thousand Oaks, CA came next along with some board members from Buyamba, Inc. Their focus was also making desks, but while Oaks focused on varnishing and assembling the desks, Hillcrest started from scratch. It was a lot of work, but they were blessed with some skilled men to help organize everything that needed to be done. They also were able to bless both schools with books and supplies as well as a special meal of meat for the students at both schools.

While Hillcrest was still here, we received 24 people from the high school group at Calvary Community Church (my home church). Because of their visit, I am now stocked with hopefully enough chocolate chips, peanut butter, jam, and pancake mix to last me through much of 2010. I was blessed to have many students visit whom I have known since they were in middle school. It was amazing to see the Lord working in many of them while they were here as they focused on preaching the gospel in a poor area called Bukasa (We have many students at our school from that area) They also taught Sunday school and chapel at our schools.

After a week off with no visitors, a team of 8 arrived from Houston. The team consisted of half teachers who worked with teachers from both schools. The pastor led a 3-day conference in the village on the "kingdom of God" while his wife and two other ladies taught a women's seminar at our church and another church in Kawempe. There was also a carpenter on this team and he decided that while he was here he would make some things for us. The final output was more than we could have imagined: 2 bookshelves and a storage closet. These would be used at our high school.

This last team just left tonight. We receive a family of three tomorrow, but then we're done until the end of August when we host a team from Dallas that will be integral for the children's camp we will be having.

As you can see teams blessed us in many ways. I'm sure I forgot to list many of the things that these teams did while they were here, but you get an idea of how much has been done so far this summer through the blessing of visiting teams. The best part of it all is that in May before all the teams came to visit, we needed approximately 250 sponsors for children at God Cares Schools, but the latest numbers reflect that we need only 61 sponsors as a result of teams and Pastor Dongo's visit to the US. Would you also consider sponsoring a child's education? It's only a dollar a day. Contact me if you are interested.

New Blog

If you're reading this that means that you've figured out that I changed to blogger from livejournal. The livejournal site was just too slow for me to log in and post things. I hope that I will find myself blogging more now that I'm on this site. Enjoy reading up on the coming adventures.

Back Again

Sorry that it's been a month since my last post. Been very busy with teams, but Saturday, the Calvary team leaves and I'm not sure when the next team arrives after that. Don't have time to give a good update here, but just letting you know I went to a safari with some friends on the Hillcrest team and we had some cool adventures. Stay tuned.

Graduations

I just had a very blessed trip to the US. It was super short: only 12 days. Some people asked why so short. Well, the purpose of my trip was to attend some graduations. The Class of 2009 includes students from my second year of teaching 6th grade. It was by far and away my favorite class. I'm not sure if I can remember all of their names from that year, but I will always remember that class: Madi, Favy, Brina, Kelsey, Eric/Harry, Britt, Hillbilly, Lizzy, Thomas, and many more (sorry if I forgot people here) I can't believe that they are graduating and going off to college. That's just crazy to me. But as sad as it is to say, I didn't keep in close contact with most of them or maybe vice versa. I've seen them in passing at church, football and basketball games, and around town. I was blessed to attend Hillcrest graduation and pray for Brittany. She has been a close friend for a long time and I hope that will continue. To be asked to pray for her at graduation was a blessing and an encouragement to me that an impact was made on her. Thanks for that Brittany!

However, I have to be honest and say that I didn't really come back for that graduation ceremony. Instead, I made a promise to a trio of students that attend Oaks that I would return for their graduation: Lindsay Cooper, Dani Germann, and Thomas Johnson. For me to leave at this time of year when we have visitors coming to Uganda from the US...actually, there are 5 students from Westmont College staying at my "house" the whole time I was gone...was a concern of mine. But I had to go to their graduation. I've known Dani and Thomas for years from youth group and had the privilege to coach both Dani and Coop in basketball for two years. I think as a teacher, youth leader, mentor, etc. you always look for some fruit from your work. As I began to read through the program during the Oaks graduation, someone pointed out my name in the program in Dani's section; then I turned to Coopster's section then Thomas'. I couldn't believe that they had all recognized me as someone who made an impact on their lives. Not that it wouldn't have been worth the trip anyway, but what a blessing. I love you three so much and am so proud of you. I hope we have many more great times together laughing!!

Alien

This was a note that I wrote on Facebook a few months ago when I was facing a difficult time of being away. One thing I can add to this note is that I am in route back to Uganda from the US and I definitely didn't feel at "home" while I was there. Hope you enjoy it.

No I'm not talking about aliens coming to visit us from another planet, but instead a more traditional use of the word: a resident born in or belonging to another country who has not acquired citizenship by naturalization. As you know I am an alien in Uganda. There are things that I am slowly becoming acquainted with: language, customs, traditions, lifestyle, etc. However, no matter how much I try to fit it, I will always be looked at as an outsider.

In the last month, this has hit me much harder than expected. I had gotten to the point where I felt so much on the outside of society, that I began to question why I was here in Uganda. I began to think if I was truly being used here to impact lives. I know that me being here financially helps a lot of people here in Uganda, but am I truly making an impact more than helping to pay for things here and there around the ministry. I doubted I was.

There were hurdles and obstacles with communication back to people in the US. (How can you have almost 600 friends on facebook and only hear from 2 or 3 in a week?) The economic situation began to affect my support. There were also hurdles and obstacles with communication with people here in Uganda though much different. You see many people in general here are not trustworthy. A lie here doesn't seem to mean much to most people, even Christians (or at least people who call themselves Christian). People tend to put on a show for mzungu (whites) when they are here because they think they might be able to get something from them. I was one of those who were fooled by them, but after being here for a longer period of time, I have seen the true colors of many people.

True friendship is something that has been hard to come by here. Ugandans, and Africans in general from what I hear, tend to have an unrealistic view of Americans. They believe we are all rich and that we will come and save the day by giving them handouts. Although we know that this idea is not true and especially not true for most people coming here on missions trips, it is reinforced by the fact that Americans go to foreign countries and flash their money around. (If you've seen Slumdog Millionaire, there's a part where the taxi driver begins beating a boy and the foreigners began giving the boy money.) If it's not money they want from you, it might be status. Just hanging out or being seen with you makes others view them differently. Then there are the people who know that I have gadgets and want to borrow them. The question is can I trust them?

There is the language barrier. Though most people can speak some English, their preferred language is their native language. I feel for foreigners in the US because everyone expects them to speak English, and it's not such an easy language to learn. I now know how they feel. I sympathize with them when people make fun of my accent or misuse of words. But most of all, the thing that has bothered me is when people will deliberately speak in their native tongue to leave me or another American out of the conversation.

Through all of these struggles, I wondered if I just went home would everything be better. I missed my family (biological, adopted and Christian), and friends. I missed playing basketball. I missed the people at work. I missed real youth minstry. I missed American comforts. Then I recalled all my struggles in the US. Though many may not be aware of them, they were there.

I prayed and read the: Word. I listened to a sermon and realized that the reason I felt so out of place whether it was in Uganda or the US was that I don't belong in either place. My citizenship is not in Uganda or the US, but instead it is in heaven. I don't belong in any place but there. I won't ever truly have peace until I am there. I don't know how long God will ask me to serve in Uganda and I continue to seek His guidance, but instead of moving back to answer my so-called problems here, I instead decide to change my perspective knowing that I don't belong in either place.

So this Easter as we wait for the Lord to take us to be at home with Him, let us praise the Lord for our blessings and change our perspective on our situation.

But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. Phil. 3:20

Not Online

Sorry to all of you who are always looking to see if I have updated what is going on. There were a certain set of circumstances that kept me from blogging. First my computer broke (sometime in mid-april) then a truck decided to knock over the pole that brought our internet line to the school. Blogging is not easy from cafe's so I just said no like Nancy Reagan. I'm on my way back to Uganda from a trip to the US. I know I wasn't able to see many of you, but it was a super short trip (11 days) Keep in touch.

1st traffic violation

So I don't remember if I have told any stories about police officers pulling me over, but there are a few funny stories. This one however is not one of those. I was driving my friends Ashleigh back to the hospital from getting some things in town so she could get some test results. In the past two years, Uganda has begun to use traffic lights. However, they don't use them well and often have police directing traffic no matter what the traffic light says. On this day, I had a lot of things to do so I was rushing to get Ashleigh's results and return to school to work. I was following a taxi (van) when the light turned yellow and he decided to stop, but there was enough room for me to pass him and make my left turn so I did so only to see the traffic officer waving at me to pull over. If you didn't know the traffic officer or police officer doesn't have a car and chase you down like in the US, but instead they stand at the side of the road and just raise their hand and you're supposed to know to pull over. I can't tell you how many times I almost just drove by. Anyway, the traffic officer (not police officer) told me I ran a red light. I disagreed telling him it was still yellow when I crossed it. He disagreed. So I told him to just give me the ticket and I would pay it. Maybe he was looking for me to pay him off because he told me it was 40000 shilllngs (about $20). I said okay, just write the ticket. He told me he didn't have the tickets so we had to go to the police station. Remember he was just a traffic officer. After some haggling and attempts to direct me to the police station, he jumped in the van to show me where to go. As I pulled up to the police station, I just waited. A police officer greeted me and asked me what happened and I told him my story, that the light was yellow and not red. But I also told him that I wasn't here to argue and I was in a rush so just write the ticket so I could go. He told me he didn't want to write the ticket if I didn't agree. I told him I didn't care because I had somewhere to go. He asked where and I told him I was going to the hospital, and I didn't have time to argue with him. That's when he changed and said, "Okay, you go." And he didn't write me the ticket and I was off on my merry way.

See all you girls/women out there, there are better ways to get out of a traffic violation than just crying. Just kidding. I was lucky and very surprised that they let me go. I'm sure they were just looking to get a bribe from me, but when I just kept asking for the ticket, they knew I wasn't going to give them anything. Praise the Lord.

Sports

Last month included sports day for the students at God Cares Nursery and Primary School. What did that mean for this term: track & field. Well, at least they had track. The students trained for about 2 weeks in events such as 100 m, 200 m, long jump, discus, and many more. Finally, the day came...it was Friday the 13th. Unfortunately the host school was not well prepared for the event. They did not have any of the things needed for the field events. We were really disappointed as the studnets trained very hard for those events. Not all have the ability to run. As we competed in the track events, I found some shining starts in our school. We placed in many of the events, but the most exciting for me was to watch the 100 m and 200 m. Two of our boys shined in those events. Shafiq was amazing in the prelims for the 100m. He was so far ahead of the rest of the pack in his heat that they called a rerace maybe there was a false start or something, but as he ran again, he smoked the pack again this time coming from maybe two meters behind to pass everyone. Both him and Kalega shined as well in the 200 m both coming from behind in the stretch run to pass other competitors. Word has it that the host school had secondary members competing against our primary memebers. But could that stop us...no way. Our school finished on top of all the other schools in our region. A few of our students went on to the next few levels of competition, but none to the national level. Either way, it was fun to watch and root for our kids.

On another shining note if you hadn't already heard: the University of North Carolina Tar Heels are the mens National Champions for basketball. I think they just wanted to drive me crazy this year becuase I couldn't be there to watch all those games. However, I did get to watch a few via Skype through friends (thanks Trenton and the Kirchners) and listen to games through March Madness on demand. Only later to find out that all the games were broadcast on ESPN here in Uganda. So next year I have to get satellite TV so I can watch march madness!!!

Finally, I have also had the opportunity to play basketball over the last few months as well. It's not the competition that was present in the US, but it's still playing. Hopefully I'll get to the university soon to play against some other people.

African Idol or Karaoke?

At the end of February, we had a big kickoff event at the church to show the youth the new changes to the ministry and announce events for the upcoming year. We had planned to begin at 10:00 am so we told the people we were starting at 9:00 am. Wouldn't you know it that most people didn't show until almost 12. They knew that lunch was provided for free so they didn't want to miss that so as usual the planned schedule here does not work because of lack of an audience. I think next time we will start with lunch and if they come late, sorry Charlie.

Anyway, one of the things they do here is they love to sing. It doesn't matter if they can sing or not, but many have no self-esteem issues and will get in front of the crowd and belt away. I can't find myself enjoying any of this for many reasons. First of all, you usually can't tell if the person can sing anyway because they are singing over a track. What I mean is that they have a song on CD that already has someone singing and yet they play that and get up and sing over the CD vocals. Secondly, I'm embarassed for the people that get up there. The people that won't get up there and sing still think they can sing better (though it's not true for most) will just sit and laugh at them. If you've been to Uganda and you know some of the people, then you know the person I am talking about, but most likely you think that person is awesome so i won't mention names. Third, it's just painful to hear not only because of the fact that many cannot sing, but also because in Uganda, they have no clue how to mix a sound board. They turn the highs very high and the lows very low (or up if you know what I mean) and then pierce your ears with that. I don't think they've yet discovered what midrange is for. So in a nutshell, I didn't stay for the end of the event as all they were doing was singing. So I guess it's like African Idol, but only the first few days when they show the people who can't sing. It's not even like karaoke because they could just lip sync the whole song and some people might never know. I guess it's too bad that Milli Vanilli spoiled their opportunity to be successful in the world when they were outed as lip syncers not singers.

Computer crash!!!

Ok so I looked at the date of my last post and I've definitely slacked. Not that everything was my fault. I had some mishaps along the way that derailed me as well. First, I found my computer not working. Apparently there is some sort of faulty chip that Nvidia gave to Apple where the chip will go bad and therefore...nothing on the screen. The good news is that they will fix it for free. The better news is that somehow I was still able to retrieve critical files on my computer after that. The bad news, I have to send it back to the US to get it fixed. Lucky for me, Pastor Dongo leaves at the end of this month to go to the US and a few weeks later a team from Westmont will be coming to visit. So in the meantime, I am very thankful that my friend, Mark, gave me another computer to bring to Uganda when I was back in the States. So here I am on a much slower computer, but very thankful that I can still access the internet and connect with friends. There were a lot of things to write about over the past 6 weeks so I'll be trying to catch up on all those things over the course of the next week! Thanks for all your continued support.

The Introvert

So one of the biggest things that I have been reminded as I am here in Uganda is that I am very much an introvert at heart. Take for example tonight. It's Valentine's Day (or as I like to call it...everyone's favorite Hallmark holiday or See's candies favorite holiday...anyway I digress). I am content at being here at home by myself much like every other night spent in Uganda.  Well technically, I live with about 160 students here at the school, but I can choose to be with them or just hang out in my guest house. Most of the time I choose to be in the guest house. So for my special night, I prepared matooke and g-nut sauce for my supper. Of course I had to have a Mirinda Pineapple (thanks Michael for introducing me to my new favorite drink here) with it. After supper, I played Wii (by myself) for about an hour. Then I took a shower, and now I'm writing this just before I will watch the newest episodes of Lost and The Office. Looks like the perfect night for me. I'm content with that.

On the other hand, my counterpart, Ashleigh who is here working at the school as well, went home and got ready to go to a wedding reception with one of the Ugandans from church. She was pretty excited. All I could think of was how I could be stuck there for hours with tons of people that I didn't know and many of which I could not communicate with. I mean I don't really much care for parties when I'm at home in the US unless I know a significant number of people there that will make it less awkward for me.

Don't get me wrong, I love hanging out with friends and family. And many of you would disagree that I am an introvert becuase I am so comfortable around you that I'm not really introverted at those times. However, I've seen it in me more and more during my stay here in Uganda. There are numerous opportunities to do things with other ex-patriots here, but often I choose to stay home and just hang out...me and my best friend, my computer. Some of you might be thinking how sad that is, but until God provides the right woman for me, I'd rather hang out with my computer...

Ugandan Food

This week was an eventful week as far as food was concerned. I've been yearning to learn how to make some Ugandan food since I've been here, but there were unfulfilled promises made by one of pastors' daughters for many months. Now I have a few new friends who were able to teach me to make some different foods. I was blessed by the mom of one of the boarding students with bananas for making matooke. The problem...I didn't know how to peel or prepare the matooke. My friends Brian and Thanx helped me to learn to prepare the matooke with meat. Although I'm not proficient in peeling the bananas, I was able to do it. Cooking it was super easy. The problem...after that meal, I still had over half of the bananas left (even after feeding 4 of us for lunch). Next step...g-nut sauce. I was just waiting and waiting for a few days hoping someone would come to help me prepare g-nut sauce. Finally, Teacher Deborah who stays at the school decided she would come and show me to make the g-nut sauce. So tonight another feast of g-nut sauce and matooke. Did I mention that matooke is my favorite thing to eat here in Uganda? So I'm left with learning how to make chapati and then my life as a Ugandan cook will be fulfilled.

On a different note, I may have mentioned what I normally eat when I eat with the kids: posho and beans. So I was talking with Pastor Richard and Brian and they explained to me that years ago no one ate posho. I didn't really understand how it went from no one eating it to now everyone eating it. However, they told me that posho was so cheap that it wasn't considered food for people, but instead it was what they would feed the dogs. So basically every day I eat the equivalent to Purina puppy chow! Pretty exciting stuff. The scary part, I guess, is that I actaully enjoy it many days during the week. I think what really gets me is having the same meal over and over again. So if the Westmont team is reading this...get ready for dog food lunch!

Adult Conference and Clean Feet

So I've been back living in Uganda exactly 8 days. It really seems like I have been back for a few weeks, but it's only been 8 days. This week was a pretty stressful week in that there was an adult conference being held here at the school, Monday thru Friday. Now, I'm not sure how I can paint this picture, but there were about 300 people here every day with most of them staying the night at the school. During the day, they preached almost non-stop. Well, I guess they stopped for meals though the timing of those meals was much later than traditional (eating lunch at 3 and supper sometimes at 9) In between those meals...preaching. Now if you don't know what it's like in other countries, they get a huge soundsystem and then blast it. They even had an outdoor speaker which made it sound somewhat like the Muslim prayer call at times. In the mornings, they would begin waking at 5:30. Not the screaming and yelling of children I am used to but instead a choir of babies crying as many mothers brought them to stay the night. I have a new appreciation for you new parents. All in all, we were blessed that they left Friday morning. Friday afternoon we basked in silence and praised the Lord for it!

So let's return to the fact that I've only been back 8 days. In all honesty, I had missed a part of the US that I think I never really appreciated until now: clean feet. For those that know me, they know I love my rainbow sandals and will wear them even when it's snowing outside in Tahoe. But I took a good look at my clean feet as we touched down on that airplane a week ago...and waved goodbye to that idea. You see here in Uganda, dust is everywhere. For someone suffering from a little OCD, that could do you in. For me, I am just reminded that much of the time I need to be a two shower a day kind of person at minimum. So there can be times that I take a shower, wipe off my feet and walk around my place for an hour only to find brown feet that are well on their way to the potential of being black. This picture doesn't do my feet justice. Because of the flash, it doesn't look like my feet are very dirty, but they are semi-black. Anyway, I can't help but think of the disciples when Jesus washed their feet. They had probably walked on streets such as I encounter every day, but for many consecutive days. Their feet and even legs were probably filthy. Yet Jesus got down and washed their filthy feet. I can only hope to be such a servant as i do my work here in Uganda. So clean feet, I bid you adieu until June when I will scrub and scrub and embrace you again for a week, but until I will use my dirty feet to remind me that I came here to serve as Jesus did.

Back to Uganda

So many of you know that I've been in the States for the last 6 weeks or so. I had an incredible time visiting family and friends. I traveled to SoCal, the Bay Area, Reno, Sacramento and many other towns in California. Six weeks sounds like a long time and it certainly felt like a long time. Honesty I was ready to return to Uganda after about 4 weeks.However, I regret that I didn't get to spend time with everyone that I wanted to. So to those that I was not able to spend time with and give you an update, I apologize. It was my heart's desire to see everyone. The problem: everyone is busy!!! There are just so many meals available in 6 weeks and only a select few that work for the schedules of both parties. Unfortunately, I may not get face to face time with many of you over the next 18 months. Although I will be back in June, it will be a very short visit only to see a few high schoolers graduate. So please keep in touch over email, facebook, skype, or whatever other means of communication possible. Thank you all for your love, prayers and support of the mission God has given me in Uganda.

To those who I was able to spend time with, thank you so much for taking care of me during my stay in the States. I am so blessed to have friends and family that love me so much. Many of you have become better friends during my time at home and I hope that distance will not separate the bonds that have been made. To my adoped family (the Aherns), I never realized how much I am a member of the family until I came back this time for a visit. I love you all so much and was heartbroken to have to leave that behind. Thank you for giving me a better picture of how much God loves me unconditionally. I will miss you the most. Thanks to my mom for being so generous and allowing me to use her car during my time in the States. You are a blessing from God.

I'll end with this. I have heard that so many of you enjoy reading my blogs. I had no idea. I'll try to write more so you can keep track of all the trouble I'm getting myself into. God Bless you all and I pray that 2009 will be full of His blessings.