Yes, I'm in Uganda

So I was quickly initiated back in the Ugandan culture on my few days back. I was immediately reminded of where I was upon exiting the airplane. I went from Switzerland and London where temperatures were warm and in the 40’s to Uganda where it was about 80 degrees upon exiting the plane at 10 pm, not to mention temperature controlled rooms to “I hope the fan blows enough cold air to cool me down”.

Secondly, I was reminded of the rules of the road…meaning that there really are none except for the police are always right. I guess those rules I made for my classroom have come back to haunt me. (#1 The teacher is always right. #2 if the teacher is wrong, refer back to rule #1) I think in one day of driving in Uganda, I’ve experienced more frustration than the 2 plus months spent in the States.

Lastly, this morning I had to get up early to wash my bedsheets. Let me rephrase that…hand wash my bedsheets and blanket because they were so dusty. Not my favorite thing to do, but much needed.

I’m sure there will be more realizations of what it means to live in Uganda, but that’s it for now. Funny thing is I’ve been here two days and still haven’t had any Ugandan food…been eating out a lot with friends and the team from Calvary. Weird though.

Back in Uganda

My time in the U.S. has come and gone and for much of the time there I felt a little lost. It was almost like a feeling of being displaced. I had "homes" to stay at, but nowhere really felt like home. Much of that might have been not really being in one place for very long, but I believe a lot of that was because though I have much in common with Americans, I'm not much of an American at heart these days.

As my plane took off from London to Entebbe and I saw lots of mzungu going to Uganda for whatever reason, my purpose in life (at least in this season) seemed to be blooming again. I felt like a foreigner when I was in London and Switzerland, but as I touched down in Uganda everything came back in no time. I was home.

I am ready to start this next journey of my life here in Uganda. I think God has huge things to show me this year and to use me in some mighty ways to help the people of Uganda draw close to him. Stay tuned for more.

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.