It's a"Wrap", Uganda Fall 2009

As I comb through pictures of our trip, there were many more experiences I could share. There were several that I will never forget. One is washing the feet of the children at Mercy Orphanage. Our team was given the humble experience of washing their earth stained, callused feet and fitting them with a new pair of shoes. During this process we inspected their feet for jiggers, a micro-organism found in the dirt that plants itself in the flesh of unsuspecting soles. Once there, the parasites begin hosting upon their prey causing anything from painful feet to infections and even paralysis. There were several feet who were hosting such organisms which had to be removed much like removing splinters. Another unforgettable experience for me was witnessing a young boy collapse in the arms of one of our team members, who is a pediatric nurse, and then watching her with tears in her eyes, drudge up a slippery, muddy embankment, carrying a lifeless child in her arms to our van in order to transport this child to a medical clinic. Unbeknownst to us, this child was in the third stages of malaria and most likely in his final 12 hours of life. A very “upfront and personal” experience for me was having a young girl at one of the orphanages, whom I had met on my last visit, approach me for help as she revealed the unthinkable things done to her in the darkness of night. My heart broke for the things this young girl had experienced even before her teens, yet anger grew inside of me as my eyes darted around at the older boys and men who were all suspects of these violent acts against her. God’s word says He is a “father to the fatherless” and that He has not forgotten His children. Honestly, sometimes it’s hard for those truths to be reconciled between my head and heart. I pray God begins to heal the emotional wounds of this young girl sooner, rather than later. I know she’s living in “survival mode” but I imagine acts of violence leave deep wounds. Lord, pour your mercies upon her wounded heart. A positive experience was on our last evening in Uganda at the close of one of our team devotions and a debriefing session. One of our team members made a decision to release some strongholds earlier that day and requested to be re-baptized. As the team member stood in a dishpan, bottled water was poured over her. It was an amazing experience to share as this was symbolic of “dying to the old self” and moving forth in “new life”. The past 4 postings have given you a glimpse into our trip to Uganda. It was a trip filled with wonder, beauty, questions, joy, amazement of God’s mercies and grace as well as man’s strength to endure. There were times of much disappointment in man’s choices, as well as a tremendous recognition of the mighty spirit of our Lord. There is nothing more hair-raising than standing with arms lifted in an evangelical church in the middle of the continent of Africa, worshipping Christ with fellow brother’s and sisters in another language; singing familiar tunes in English while hearing the song sung in the native tongue. The same God who loves and cares for the His Children in North America is so ever-present in Uganda. Experiencing unabandoned worship and seeing first hand what it means to live in faith and as Paul talks about , “…being content in whatever state I am in…” makes me shake my head at we Americans. We have so much, yet sitting in this spiritual sphere, I feel we have totally missed the essence of “a relationship with Christ”. How sad it is to see how much we have sold ourselves a “bill of goods”. No wonder most Americans feel so empty and unfulfilled. My trip was wrapped up with a brief interview with an 8 year old, Mark. I asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up. He responded, “A pastor!”. I then followed up with the question, “If you could tell American’s anything, what would it be?” Much to my amazement, Mark responded with, “I would want them to know that God is good!”. …Yes Mark! God IS good… So friend, are you interested in experiencing what Christ is doing in and through the beautiful people of Uganda? Are you interested in serving the downcast and vulnerable? “ And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.” Hebrews 10:21 Stay tuned for more information and opportunities in Uganda. Blessings!

Uganda, Day 4

From Stephanie
Bottom Line is…
We spent the entire day in a state of worship.

What a beautiful day! Starting with our boat ride across Lake Victoria and the short fun ride on “boda bodas” which is similar to (dirt bikes/motorcycles) on village paths. We led VBS with songs of worship with the kids and teachers. Chuck and I led the story of Esther and God’s plans for her and her people—God directing her path for a great plan. David led the children in learning the Creation Story. The bottom line was “God made everything, including you. It is good!” By the end of the lesson the kids were eagerly calling out “The bottom line”. You should have seen the kids worshipping in song. It was worship for us!Our timeframe was to leave Bethany by 1:30—we had plans back at the guest house, but God had other plans! As we were preparing to leave and get in the boat, dark clouds began to roll in.
We gathered under a meeting shelter by Lake Victoria to wait out the storm. We know God’s plans are certainly better than ours! What started out as a delay, turned into our own personal worship service. Did you know that rocks in an empty water bottle and a bottle of Motrin make great impromptu shakers? This along with an African drum, the rain beating around us with occasional thunder, and our voices and hearts lifted to God, make for quite a worship service-Ugandan style. It was simply our team and a few people from Bethany Village and Africa Renewal Ministries, singing, worshiping, and basking in our Jesus. As much as I try, it was an indescribable time.
After our worship service, we returned by boat to the guest house to eat pizza.  Shortly after eating, Sarah and David left to accompany a local Pastor on a prayer walk for a community. During that same time, the rest of us gathered and held a 2 hour prayer vigil. We have been greatly affected by the things we have seen and felt the last few days, sadness, frustration, joy, love. We specifically started praying for spiritual and physical protection for our two team members using verses God had revealed to us about His vindication for those that carry out evil plans on the innocent. But God also kept bringing to our hearts about his unsurpassed love for us, including the orphans, whether at children’s homes that care for them individually or at an orphanage that doesn’t even meet the basic needs of nourishment. God knows each child by name, they are His children and he weeps with us at the choices of man has made. We felt His presence speaking to our hearts and we know we walked alongside Sarah and David at the same time. But all those words still can’t describe what those 2 hours were like- an intimate powerful moment.
Do you think we were done? No way! God had more in store to feed our souls. Next door, Ggaba Community Church’s worship team was practicing. That was practice--- it was worship! Lisa and I sat outside to just bask in God’s presence. Wow! What a day!
Our bottom line for the day ”We spent a whole day immersed in worship with our God who adores us.” Thank you my dear Father God, thank you.

Thanks Stephanie.
Blessings!

Uganda, Day 3

September 30, 2009
David Smith

Greetings to our dear friends and family in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ! I can only say that God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit is alive and well here in Uganda. The nine of us have had the opportunity to experience and grow in ways that only God can afford. We are being stretched and pulled and tested and torn in ways that only by the Grace of God will we survive.

-We have been confronted with a boldness of God in ways that we have only read about in scripture: the same God that showed up for Elijah when battling the prophets of Baal. -We have seen starvation where children were being forced to a fast (it just so happened that the fast was in its eighth day with little/no food.
-We had one child who was in the third stage of malaria.
-We saw Satan in the form of old men, young men (who were living at Mercy orphanage), “pastors” supposedly proclaiming the gospel (we direct you to read Jeremiah 23), yet to be turning a blind eye and helping to perpetuate greed, lust, abuse and even rape.
And through all of this we have seen God working HIS wonderful tapestry in response to prayer, holy discernment and honest dialogue.

Do we understand all of these experiences? No! What we have come to understand is that God’s hand is at work. We are all aware that much of what we are experiencing will never be understood. We have come to realize that it is the act of obedience of being here that we are afforded the opportunity to see, hear, taste, smell and touch Jesus in a new way. Oh, how we are striving to be the “feet and hands of Jesus.”

In Galatians 6: 9 we read about how we should “not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good.” Acts of giving aren’t like pebbles dropped in a pool that make a few temporary ripples and then sink to the bottom, inert. They’re seeds planted in the soil of life, and they will come up one day. The harvest is inevitable. Verse 7 states, “Don’t be misled: no one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest.” Decisions are seed. Attitudes are seed. Acts are seed. Prayers are seed. And all of it will come to harvest.

Growing deeper comes when we are willing to go through the rough stuff for the purpose of being transformed. When we not only do the right thing, but do it in a way that observes, includes, and heals the hurting who stand along side us. For too long modern Christianity has looked like fast food: the quickest, Bible-based shortcut to solutions and success-but in the process we are missing the parts of the journey that make us people of depth.

We are dodging the lengthier routes that welcome others into our healing. But it is precisely this route that should become our new path, our new normal. (Read 2 Cor. 3:1-3) Like it or not, you and I / We are a letter of recommendation from Jesus. How will our letters read to the rest of the world.

We covet your prayers. We covet your continued love and understanding. Please know that we hope you will prayerfully understand that as Christ has called us to change, that we have and are growing deeper in our faith walk and our understanding of why we were called to this strange and wonderful place. We know that there is harvest ahead.

Thanks David Smith.
Blessings!

Uganda, Day 2

Day 2 at Mercy Orphanage
September 29, 2009
Lisa Loos

We awoke early for devotions, an awesome breakfast prepared by our hosts and a spirit filled visioning and learning opportunity with Pastor Peter from Gaba Community Church. It seems the Lord is continuing to impress upon each of our team members the burden of how we can empower the believers here to continue the ministry at Mercy Orphanage long after the “westerners” are gone. There are so many immediate needs of the children such as basic medical care, food on a daily basis and safety that need to be addressed – not to mention the long term needs. While our hearts were broken yesterday (Day 1) we were also immensely blessed to be led in worship by the children. YES, by the starving, malnourished, sick, orphaned children who, with the voices of angels, the joy of a thousand saints and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, were praising the name of the living God as if they had every amenity and luxury one could afford and not a care in the world. As I sat there and held a boy (burning with fever, who had fallen asleep in my arms), I wept with a broken heart for these who have no earthly parents to comfort them and I wept with humbled joy in the presence of our Heavenly Father who has not forsaken them.
Enter Day 2…We arrived back at Mercy eager to play with, love on and feed the children. We were immediately greeted with smiles and laughter from the children we met on Monday as well as many more that had traveled from the neighborhood to see the “Myzunga’s” (White people)
These greetings brought smiles to our faces and joy to our hearts. These were washed away quickly, not from the heavy rain that had begun to fall but from the revelation of the evil these children encounter on a daily basis. Ministry did happen at Mercy today. Not as we had planned with each member of the team performing a function in VBS, then moving on to the next activity of play, then food…but with the Lord spreading this team…His church, throughout the Home according to His plan to minister to the broken children who fear the dark and the horrors that come in the night…the sick children needing immediate medical attention…the house “Aunties” who have also been forsaken by the world and the innocent there who have no earthly hope in their despair…but continued to Hope in our Mighty God who Delivers and Saves!
The day at Mercy ended with heavy hearts broken for the suffering of the Orphans and Widows at Mercy…yet with Praise to the Living God who, as Sarah’s daughter so beautifully said, “connected all the dots” long before calling us here and continues to work His Good and Perfect Purpose for these…His children, through the obedience of a motley crew of 9 Americans from all walks of life who are striving to be the Hands and Feet of Jesus. Praise, Glory and Honor to you Oh God!

Thank you Lisa.
Blessings!

Uganda, Day 1

Day One in Uganda, written by Malinda Hayes

Finally after all the preparation and hard work, our team made it to our destination: Uganda. Despite travel fatigue and jet lag, I am so thankful that God not only protected our team, but also all our baggage. God is good.

Our hosts’, Patrick and Sarah, kindly greeted us with warm hearts at the airport and brought us to what I would a call a top-notch guest house. After a long night of packing all the shoes, VBS supplies, and medical supplies we needed for Mercy Orphanage, we all crawled into our mosquito net sheltered beds and got as much rest as possible for our first day of VBS.

I remember that next morning when we were driving toward Mercy, praying to God to prepare me for whatever I was about to see. I realized very quickly when I arrived at the orphanage, that God didn’t want me to be “prepared”, but He wanted my heart to be broken by seeing the rawness
of His suffering children. Arriving at this orphanage my heart immediately broke. Yes, for the tiny children with torn clothes and sad eyes, but more so in a different way. My teammate Katherine and I immediately encountered a 16 year old boy. He said that most of the kids his age that lived at Mercy were in school, but that he wasn’t able to attend his last year in school because his sponsorship had been pulled, and he didn’t know when he would be able to go back. This broke my heart that he was left abandoned at the orphanage day after day, just waiting for someone to care enough to pay his school fees.

Our time of Worship and our creation story poster seemed to liven the kids up. They ended up later dancing for us and leading US in worship. They thanked us for coming and told us that God had answered their prayers through us being there. They then asked us all to share our testimonies. It was beautiful watching the body of Christ work through two different cultures.

We were able to wash their feet, place new shoes on their feet, and serve them a meal of rice, beans, and mango juice. The nurse on our team, Lisa, was able to give medical attention to many of the children, by removing jiggers from their feet, treating scraped legs and knees, as well as some other superficial injuries. It was so humbling and yet so fulfilling to give "our all" today in carrying out God’s Word in helping the needy and orphaned. Aren’t we all really needy and orphaned until our Lord provided for us? We are all one in Christ and remembering that really levels the playing field.

After a great day of serving, we were blessed to have a wonderful feast cooked by some women helping us where we are staying. They had also cleaned our rooms for us, to our surprise.

When we follow in God’s will, He promises to bless back. And across the world in Uganda He has, beyond my wildest dreams.

Thank you Malinda for sharing your heart with us!
Blessings!

Glimpses into Uganda...

Well, I can't believe I've gone to Uganda and returned not having written one posting! That's certainly not to say that our time in Uganda wasn't worth writing about; quite the opposite. So much happened that the time simply got away. God showed up in amazing ways and I was richly blessed to share those 8 days on the ground with 8 amazing creatures from the USA.

Our computer and telephone connectivity was very sporadic and unreliable but the team managed to get some blog postings written. I chose not to do all the blogging as I love hearing the perspectives of others. Our team was extremely open with their sharing. However, there's nothing like getting into the mind of someone else and hearing the essence of their heart.

The next few postings I will upload are postings from various team members from the Uganda team. I hope their writings bless your heart as they did mine. I thought the writings were worthy of sharing. There is no way to recount the Ugandan experience as words will never do justice to all that was seen, heard, tasted, felt and done "in the flesh", but these postings will give you a brief glimpse into the mysterious continent of Africa...specifically, Uganda...place my heart longs to be, much more than I physically am.

Blessings my friends!