More Big Smiles

Acci, Lamwaka Patricia, Akwero Eunice, and Akello Jaclyn

I'm Still Alive!

Sorry it has been so long since I've blogged. This is where I would usually promise to be a better blogger, but things have picked up so much, I'm not quite sure I can promise that...but I'll try!

We are fully into discipleship now. We're using a basic church-planting model (house-churches) to disciple new believers and have already had a new Christian lead another person to Christ. That's what's supposed to happen,but it's super cool to see it actually work!

Prayer request: Gloria, one of the little girls in the family I talked about a couple posts back AND my sponsor child, was admitted to the hospital for malaria tonight. She's five, hilarious, and awesome. Please be praying for her!

Other than that, I've been shopping like crazy, buying stuff to send home with my Dad. I'm meeting him for almost a week for his business trip and my vacation. I'm really looking forward to it!

I do have to admit that I could easily get addicted to buying clothes here. You just pick out your fabric (they have cute options, not just African prints), tell them the style, and you get custom-made skirts and dresses. And the most I've paid for a dress is $7.50. Nice. So, if anybody wants a skirt from Africa, send me your measurements and color preference...seriously!

Off to prepare for Monday!

The Twins

Remember the twins I got to name when I first got here? I went and visited them today and they have grown SO much. I had a lot of fun making them laugh and snuggling. Here are Opiyo Michael and Ochem David:

Say Cheese!

Since I haven’t been diligent about sharing pictures lately, here’s Okot Michael, Okema David, and Odong James. This is what I get when I say, “Big smiles!”



P.S. My sister is coming next month! She'll be here for a little under one month and I am SO excited. And everyone here is thrilled to meet her - she's high on the list of conversation topics these days. :-)

What???

Three more salvations today in Tegot. A whole family made decisions ensuring their eternal salvations. That makes over 20 just this week. How cool is that? I really wish I could describe how exciting that is to watch the Gospel just take off like it has been!

I’ve been praying for God to draw out the heart of a man in the village, and today it happened! Now we have two families to pour into and equip to be Gospel-sharers.

Family #1: Parents are Richard and Evelyn, Kids are Susan, Solomon, Gloria, Oscar, and Joshua. I really do just love this family. I feel like I’ve been friends with Evelyn forever, and the kids are totally precious. They’re the first family here where I’ve seen love between the husband and wife and also love and affection for their children. Even Richard gives the kids hugs and kisses. That in particular I just haven’t seen here.

Family #2: Parents are Albino (Al-BEE-no) and Lillian, Kids are Akello Nancy, Manuel, Apiyo, Otim, and I think a couple others that weren’t there. Anyway, they’re awesome as well and I can’t wait to get to know them better.

I’ve spent a lot of time this week just thinking, “What is going on? Is this really happening?” It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Absolutely incredible.

Gulu

This is a picture of Gulu I took from a hotel restaurant that can't be seen from the street. Aren't my surveilance skills excellent?? :-)

This is a pretty good respresentation of what the shops look like, although this is one of the better roads in Gulu. Most other roads are dirt or have WAY more potholes.

Acts

God is absolutely doing incredible things in northern Uganda right now. This week alone, almost 20 people in the village have prayed to accept Jesus. Fifteen of those salvations were today. Fifteen. In one day. All we did was share the Gospel to a group of PTA moms and fifteen responded. What? Fifteen women traded a life of sin for communion with God and eternal life!

We had AWESOME training Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on how to effectively share the Gospel, disciple, and plant house-churches. I never could have anticipated how valuable that training was or how quickly I would be able to use each aspect. So exciting!

Most days I come home thinking, “Did today REALLY happen?” Read the book of Acts and you will get a pretty close picture of what I experience daily. The Lord is just moving powerfully.

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I was given an Acholi name today: Adong. It means “the one who follows twins.” Make sense to you? OK, me either. I really was called this today and people were surprised when I didn’t respond to it.

Oh, and remember little Okema? He’s the one who’s been learning to write and is wild and crazy. Met his Grandma today, who’s raising him. She can’t hear a thing. Suddenly Okema makes total sense to me…

This and That

There’s a new mzungu restaurant that opened up in Gulu. Now I have TWO options for good ice cream and pizza. And this new place even has Coke floats, milkshakes, and some of the best homemade bread I’ve ever tasted (and it’s only $1.50 a loaf). I could get spoiled here, I think… :-)

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The people at Café Larem, the first mzungu restaurant, now know what I’m going to order depending on what time of day I come. It’s probably good the new place opened up…

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I get to see my Dad in Botswana in three weeks. I’m excited!

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I know a place that has fast Internet now, so I can Skype! It has been great to talk to some family and friends the last couple of weeks! I have to schedule times since it’s not at home, but it’s totally worth it and it works really well. It’s kind of fun to do it in public too because the Ugandans are fascinated and always want to say hi to whoever I’m talking too. My mom and sister have gotten to meet all of my friends at Café Larem this way.

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Rainy season is supposed to be here, but after a couple weeks of nightly rains, it has been dry and hot once again. This is really bad for all of the people who count on crops to feed their families and/or make a living. Praying for rain to come soon!

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Caught mouse #3 tonight. He’s still in the trap while I work up the courage to empty it…most likely it will be tomorrow. It’s just so gross!! This one has evaded me for awhile. He kept stealing the food and not setting off the trap. I finally put sticky peanut butter as bait and that did the trick.

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The kids tried to teach me how to carry a water bottle on my head on Saturday. It failed miserably, but we had fun! I told them it was because munu hair is too slippery. Or maybe I’m just not coordinated…

12 Months

The mom who was caught abusing her children got a sentence of twelve months. From what I can understand, the sentence is basically like our probation. She can live at home, but has lost permanent custody of her children. If she touches a child during that period, she will serve the time physically in prison.

This is a very, very long sentence for here. I saw her today back in the community and it was such a strange feeling. Half of me wanted to hate her for what she has done to her children and the other half of me wanted to grab her and tell her to repent and accept the Gospel. I have to pity her in many ways. While she was in the wrong, she has lost so much - her children and her family, and she is majorly stigmatized within the community.

The children are doing extremely well. The girls, Acan Irene and Ajok Winnifred, are incredibly energetic and happy and just seem like a huge burden has been lifted from their shoulders. There is still a lot of healing that needs to take place in their hearts, but they are doing a lot better than I would have anticipated. Their brother, Okumu Reagan, is also doing really well. But please keep praying both for their healing and their mother's!

The End to a Long Week

It has been quite a crazy week.

The girls are doing incredibly well. Super emotional on both extremes, but still very well considering all they have been through. Yesterday included them jumping up and down with the other kids and singing for a good thirty minutes. It was so good to see!

Today is my day off and I plan on doing nothing important. I'm teaching one of Ugandan friends (Christine) how to make spaghetti and then I think we're watching the Lion King. I wish I could say the movie choice was because movie choices are limited (which is true), but really it's because I feel like I live a couple hours from the setting of the movie and have been wanting to watch it since I went to Murchison Falls. That and Christine is going to translate the songs for me because they're in Swahili. And, cool fact, Simba means "lion" in swahili...Disney is so clever!

Some Days There Just Aren't Words

Tuesday was one of those days.

We found out that one of our children had been beaten in the head with a hammer by her mother. This is the same child that I brought to the clinic a couple of weeks ago to have her arm x-rayed; we thought it was broken due to a separate incident with mom.

The child is OK. She most definitely had a concussion, but there should not be any long-term physical damage. That in itself is pretty incredible. The emotional damage is there, though. A child can’t go through that and not have emotional effects.

Words cannot express how heart-breaking it is to hold a child who has experienced this trauma or to hold her little sister who witnessed it all (and has herself been victim in previous times). They cried and I wanted to. This was the first time since being in Ugandan that I was thankful I didn’t know the language. I know enough to say, “I’m sorry” and “I love you” and that was really all they needed to hear. Other than that, they really just needed me to hug them, hold them, and be there.

The legal system isn’t the same here. You can have people arrested for things as simple as “this person splashed mud on me with their car on a rainy day,” but when it comes to crimes against children, the process is significantly more difficult. Children are property here, not precious gifts. We tried to have the mother arrested the first time this happened with no success. However, this time, the Ugandan police were wonderful. They went and arrested her yesterday afternoon.

Exactly what an arrest means here is a bit unclear. There will be some sort of hearing or court process, but the maximum punishment is three months in jail. And she will get her children back at the end of it. We have been working with the woman’s brother. He was already taking care of one child because of the severe abuse he was receiving; he has agreed to take in the others, but it will be almost impossible for him to provide for six children. We will help out for now, but I’m a little unsure about what the long-term options are.

I know I would have the same feelings of anger, sadness, and frustration with any case of child abuse, but the feeling of helplessness is greatly magnified by not knowing the legal system or the culture fully.

All I can do is pray, wait to see what happens, and love on these kids in the meantime. This isn’t necessarily bad, but it’s not easy either…

Easter

It seemed appropriate that on Easter, I went to see Jane and her family – such evidence of God’s promise of new life to those who accept the gift of Jesus!

I missed being home today, but at the same time was so thankful to be here. There’s no doubt that without the Easter message and how it changed my heart, I would most definitely not be living in Uganda right now.

I’m here in response to the salvation given to me through Jesus’ death on the cross. A death that took the sins of man and placed them on the sinless Son of God, who willingly died on a cross in my place. In your place too, if you have turned from your sin and responded to Jesus for salvation.

Coming to Uganda doesn’t give me brownie points with God. It doesn’t get me to heaven, nor does it save me from hell. In fact, my good works are “as filthy rags” to God if they aren’t entirely in response to His grace and the salvation I have been given through Jesus. They must come purely from a heart that has been renewed by Jesus.

Jesus died on the cross 2000 years ago for the sins of the world. He was the perfect sacrifice and is the only way for salvation. All you have to do to accept the gift of salvation is ask Christ to forgive your sins and create in you a new heart that wants to serve and love Him.

I pray that if you’re reading this, you have turned from your sin and turned to Jesus, the only way for eternal salvation. If you haven’t and have questions, I would love to talk to you. And I mean that in all sincerity.

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” – Romans 3:23-24

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” – Ephesians 2:8-9

Playing Mom

I am currently babysitting four girls (the family I met in the airport) until Saturday. They are 10, 8, 5, and 3. I’m having a blast! I have to admit, I had been a little bit nervous about it just because things are SO different here than at home. Thankfully though, things have been really great and I have yet to feel nervous!

Today we played outside, climbed some trees, went out to dinner, and watched a movie. Oh, and in honor of April Fool’s Day we short-sheeted Chrissy’s bed – because every kid needs to know how to do that, right?! The girls thought this was way cool and could not stop giggling as I was putting them to bed. Somehow Chrissy didn’t catch on…

It’s definitely a lot of work, but so worth it! Tomorrow we’re having a “girls only party” to include dyeing Easter eggs, painting nails, watching a movie, and having a dance party – these are my kind of girls for sure!

This is Jane