Days in Africa

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

State of the Mission Part 3

So far we have covered the mission work we have done with AHI as well as with Pastor training; but there are many other settings where God is at work here. One particular is the Leadership School here on the Ranch. Cornerstone Leadership Academy (CLA) is a Senior Secondary or A level (Advanced) school that takes the brightest students representing different regions across Uganda. It covers what might be the American equivalent of 11th & 12th grade as well as a community college rolled into one. CLA was begun more than two decades ago with the idea that training up the future leaders of Uganda in a cross-tribal environment would help to build a more united country and help to prevent future discriminatory genocides like Uganda saw under Idi Amin (and more recently in Rwanda, Kenya and Southern Sudan). There are two schools in Uganda, one closer to Kampala for girls, and one here on the ranch for boys. From the first week we arrived, Heather and I have enjoyed being engaged at CLA - in some ways, because the common language spoken at CLA is English, it can be even easier to build relationships with their students. I have also built a strong bond of friendship with the Headmaster, Pastor Ayo, and the Deputy Headmaster Kenneth, both of whom I deeply love and have really enjoyed getting to know. Pastor Ayo in particular lived through the Idi Amin years and can recall some intense events.

In addition to just spending time with the staff and students at CLA I have been given the opportunity, as I am free, to teach discipleship classes at the school. I have thoroughly enjoyed teaching on Stewardship, Integrity, The Church, and a variety of other exciting topics. Just as with Pastor training, I use scripture as our textbook as we dive in together as a class to understand what the Bible has to say on these things (for example, we compared Job 1:8 & 2:3 and noted that Job gains integrity). In addition, I have been teaching a practical computer class using a fabulous curriculum written by John & Amanda Bull wrote for CLA while they were here in Uganda for a year (before us with a couple months overlap).

The most exciting opportunity at Cornerstone has been the genesis of a local newspaper written and designed by CLA students. This is another great example of some people in the States getting on mission with us rather than simply taking a passive role. It started when a CLA student mentioned to me that he was hoping to one day be a reporter for a local newspaper. With my own journalism background I started asking him questions about his interest and quickly came to realize he had little to no opportunity to practice and thus gain the skills needed make that dream a reality.

A few weeks wrestling with that thought, and the idea of a Student Newspaper came to my mind. I learned so much working on a student newspaper and most every high school in America has its own paper - why couldn’t one of the premiere secondary schools in Uganda have one as well? I talked to Eric Kreuter from Cornerstone about the idea and he was surprisingly supportive noting that the paper should not just cover Cornerstone, but the entire Ekitangaala Ranch community. That fit quite nicely in with our desire to build community out here, so suddenly this crazy idea was looking more realistic and also in alignment with our mission! I began communicating with several old writing friends and mentors on the East Coast, who were equally excited about the prospect of financially supporting the project. The real surprise came when I found out there was already an underground writer’s club meeting at the school that currently had their articles tucked away in a folder, forgotten forever.

It was around this time that Dan and Celeste Gracey also confirmed that they would be coming out to Uganda to visit with us. Celeste is a graduate from the Journalism department at UW and works for a local paper on the Eastside, but most importantly she has a real passion for living out a Christian life while using her talents in the field of Journalism. This really couldn’t get any better - it just had to be a God timing thing, so I wrote Celeste about the newspaper idea and she totally took it up and got on mission. Dan and Celeste worked hard to raise support to purchase two good laptops, pendrives and a digital camera for the newspaper. They also used their contacts to get donations both from Microsoft and Adobe for software to make this paper a reality.

Despite all of these material contributions, Celeste’s greatest contribution was teaching classes at Cornerstone about the importance of ethical Journalism and the impact these students could have as leaders if they became Journalists. It climaxed with a meeting of the student staff of the new newspaper (the core formed by the writer’s club) where they decided on a title for the paper (The Ranch Times), divvied up beats around the ranch, and listened carefully as Celeste taught on the basics of article writing (inverted pyramid).

Since that time we have been meeting weekly, working on the premiere issue of the Ranch Times. We originally planned to publish in 2011 but unfortunately we got started a bit late and studying for final exams needed to take precedence (this was a decision I made, I’m sure had I asked, the students would have worked hard to try and reach the deadline). Nonetheless, most of the articles have been completed for the first issue and Celeste has continued to support the paper with templates and materials to help the paper start off on the right foot. Our hope is to release the first issue in early March (the students have been gone December-January for their equivalent of a summer break). Most important is equipping the students with the basic skills they will need to publish papers every other month, before Heather and I depart.

In addition to Cornerstone, there has been other mission work outside of AHI that Heather and I have been involved in. Heather started a woman’s prayer group that meets in the primary school weekly and despite Heather’s absence for several weeks (with visitors and such)the prayer has continued strong. In the midst of that Heather has also built a strong friendship with Jovia, the Headmistress of the Primary School, and that friendship has been a real blessing helping to support Heather when things got lonely. With the backing of AHI and Maggie we have also hosted multiple Community Leadership meetings – gathering the headmasters of all the local schools and other mission leaders to study scripture, share a meal, and come together as a united community under the headship of Christ.

Finally, the internet tree where we can gain our most reliable net connection is located at the local secondary school (not CLA) which has, in a positive way, forced us to build friendships with many of the more curious secondary students. Of course not all of these conversations are fruitful (see Heather’s previous posts) but many are and sometimes I think the internet tree is God’s way of keeping us connected with that part of the Ranch community. I’m sure there are dozens of other little projects and ministries I’m not listing (local bible schools and a fun networking project come to mind) but the point is, God is working and He keeps enabling us to join in His work. The truth is it’s a lot of fun - in fact the hardest times here are when things are quiet. That’s when the solitude of being in the bush can really get to us, which may be why we continue to find projects we can get involved with.

The first bit of news we have to share you may have already heard on Facebook but I would be remiss not to mention it. Heather is pregnant and we are super excited at the prospect of this next stage of our life! We’re not the only ones excited either; it seems like the entire community is talking, and as Lillian said, “I have been praying every night that you would have a baby and God answered my prayers.” Most intriguing, with all of the death, diseases, and risks, pregnancy isn’t talked about much here by the nationals, and yet culture seems to have been thrown out the window in Heather’s case because the whole ranch is very eager to talk about “The Bean.”

"join us in our prayers as we investigate a possible second year here in Uganda"

Second, you can join us in our prayers as we investigate a possible second year here in Uganda. Obviously the obstacles for returning with a baby are greater, and we need to be called by God to be on mission, but it is quite attractive to finish what we have begun here with projects like the new school curriculum and as just mentioned, the CLA newspaper. What we learned on the first trip is that if it is God’s will he will make it happen, so we are trusting Him. In the meantime we have committed to at least renovating a former staff building into a new mission house here for AHI. Currently we stay in the Green House, which is technically owned by ACM, so our hope is to build a house specifically for long term volunteers working here with AHI. This falls right into line with our original call and mission which was to be the first of many who would come here to support Maggie in Uganda - so I am asking that you begin prayerfully considering if you want to partner with us on this new project.

Finally a smaller but no less important project that Heather and I are interested in raising some funds for is to paint the staff housing here. Currently all of the housing for the staff of AHI is painted a plain white with no differentiation between each individual home (they are like small townhomes) and we would love to add a small bit of color to both brighten up the houses and create a dividing line between each individual unit. We also feel it would be a great way to show love towards the staff with something that’s more “fun” and aesthetic, rather than functional. The total cost for such a project would be around 2,000,000 shillings ($800). Heather and I can’t fund this project alone, so we are looking for anyone who would be interested in joining us to help, as a sort of farewell gift from all of us (you included) to the staff that we have struggled alongside and grown to love. Let us know if you’re interested in adding a little color to Uganda!

"as I look back I have NO IDEA how we were able to accomplish these things, and so the only answer can be the empowering of the Holy Spirit and the work of God"

I think this basically completes the “State of the Mission” series and I hope you have enjoyed seeing how God has been working in amazing ways here. I really do want to give the glory to Him, not because that’s the church answer of what you’re supposed to say, but because as I look back I have NO IDEA how we were able to accomplish these things, and so the only answer can be the empowering of the Holy Spirit and the work of God. We are excited to be coming home soon and to share these things with you in person. We have been so blessed to have a community like you who was willing to go on mission with us and we love and appreciate you all! Don’t miss next week when we introduce you to the exciting new students… now aptly titled apprentices here at AHI!

-PHD

Friday, January 27, 2012

Death is so close here, the wall between this life and eternity more like a filmy curtain. We Westerners all know people who have died or are very sick, of course, but we don’t think about it happening to us - at least not until we’re old and wrinkled, right? Death is separated, resigned to hospitals and funeral homes. But in Uganda it’s all around, seemingly inescapable. The newspapers are filled with bus accidents, sickness, lynchings, child sacrifice.

We’ve had many burials this year: Relatives of students and staff; the daughter of our taxi driver; an uncle of the ranch carpenter; the 24 year-old son of Pastor Bosco - in a country with such limited medical facilities, small problems can quickly become deadly. The pastor’s son had malaria (probably for the several-dozenth time in his life) and just let it go too long before going for treatment. And we’ve had many close calls, especially with Jesca’s baby Benjamin, as he was repeatedly sick and near death for months. Praise Jesus he’s been healthy and growing well since autumn!

And then, of course, there’s AIDS. Our new friend Kade (who was here all summer) befriended a young teenage girl in a village up the road. She was a sponsored student of ACM and had become very sick. Since she was so young, her AIDS was probably the result of rape. Kade visited her over a couple months, took her to church, tried to get her help, but she was wasting away. The last straw came when her parents had managed to get medication sent up from a hospital in Luweero, but the boda-driver charged with delivering it decided to blackmail them, demanding 10,000/UgSH ($4) to hand it over. They couldn’t afford it. Kade caught wind of it, found out who the boda-driver was, and went after him, nearly getting in a fight, but to no avail. At least the guy’s name was spread around so he probably won’t be getting much business from anyone else… The parents managed to scrape together enough to send for more medicine, but by that time it was too late and the girl died.

Sometimes it’s easy to close your eyes to these realities around you, simply because they’re so abundant. It hit closer to home, though, when I attended the burial, a few months ago, of Sylvia’s brother. Maggie arranged for a taxi-bus to transport anyone from the staff and students who wanted to go, and we drove North about 40 minutes to her family’s compound in the woods. Once there, we sat around for about an hour as hundreds of people filtered in. The whole affair was pretty quiet and subdued, as speeches were given and the men said prayers over the body. But as they took him away to inter in a cave, Sylvia flung herself across the courtyard, keening violently, and fell on to the porch, as it seemed like she realized at that moment that she’d never be seeing her Muslim brother again. It was one of the saddest sounds I’ve ever heard.

“A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping. Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because her children are no more.” - Jeremiah 31:15

All these thoughts were brought up again last week, as Moses, a former student who is the head cook at CLA, came to visit us. As the conversation progressed, we found out that in the 2 weeks of Christmas holiday, a man in his village (Kitwe, just about the primary school) had been killed by a falling tree, and at least 9 in Ntuuti had died, including a 9 year old boy who was hit by a boda. Whew. This is in a village of at most a couple hundred people. Patrick and Heidi went into Ntuuti a few days ago, and they said you could feel the sadness in the air. David Baekwaso, our bike mechanic, said the churches are all praying hard but many in the village are turning to the witch-doctors for dealing with this huge tragedy.

“Since the children have flesh and blood, he [Jesus] too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” - Hebrews 2:14-15

Because we know in our hearts that in creation God intended man to be an eternal being free of death, I think it’s in our human nature to do everything we can to ignore the darkness around us. Especially in our 1st World lives, where we often have the technology and money to manipulate our surroundings, we look for comfort and safety. And yet the effects of sin are still there, hidden just under the surface. Here that surface is stripped away, the hidden darkness brought to light, and the truth of this verse becomes reality:

“Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned....” - Romans 5:12

At this point, you may be wondering why I’m writing such a depressing post. I wasn't sure either, except that the beginnings of these thoughts have been rolling around in my head for quite a while. As I've been praying about it, this is what has come to mind: I think it’s about jarring me, and perhaps you, out of our self-constructed bubble of attempting to control the world around us, making it comfortable, safe, etc. It’s not. Because of the Fall, “the creation was subjected to frustration” (Rom. 8:20), and if left to ourselves, eventually all we have to look forward to is death and destruction.

Oh wait! There’s good news!

But God…

“On this mountain the Lord Almighty will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever. The sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth. The Lord has spoken. In that day they will say ‘Surely this is our God; we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.” - Isaiah 25:7-9

“When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’ ‘Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" - 1 Corinthians 15:54-55

“For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” Revelation 7:17

I need to be reminded, often, of the seriousness of the war we are fighting in this world, against evil and death. And that in the end, God is victorious.

“And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and will be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” - Revelation 21:3-4