Week 12- Update

Week 12: (Thus Far)

Well, the rain has made a difference. The average temp in the morning & evenings has dropped to mid-low 70's. Which, is COLD.. considering our average temp before that was mid-low 90's. Nearly all this week I've been wearing jeans under my skirt, and a thick sweatshirt. This morning was the first sunny morning in like a week, which was really nice for quiet times.

Oh Outreach. I don't really want to write about this now, because nothing is for sure, but I also know that time is in a big crunch, and I don't know how much I will be able to update this. On Monday, outreach locations were posted. We also discovered, that the schedule has been wrong (for the 5th time now?) and that we aren't leaving May 19th, but May 10th. Which is just over two weeks from now! So, outreach will be six weeks instead of 5. (we come back June 19th). This whole thing has been a mess thus far... the way it was posted was really really dumb. So. I won't go into it. But, it does look like I will be going back to Fort Portal for 3 weeks and then to another place called Mitanya also for 3 weeks. (None of the outreach locations were outside of Uganda. And Pader was not on the list. However, that might change, with fervent prayer, so I am not giving up that one yet.) I will say, that so far we have an excellent team, and outreach looks like it will be a lot of fun, and that God will do amazing things. It's funny how much of a difference having a unified team makes!

Yesterday, Catherine, Penny and I went to town to pick up some stuff, like foil, for our Bible Verse Rap (so we can make some bling bling and possibly even grills.. hahaha) I also had my first boda boda ride, it was scary but fun too!

Oh, class this week... well, it has been on worldviews. Sort of. Only the last 35 minutes or so..(this is 2nd 1/2 of lecture on Wednesday!) so we've been keeping ourselves entertained in lots of ways. We've had more problems with completely crazy teaching. Yesterday our speaker went off on this tangent about Israel, and said that God will protect the country of Israel or He is not God. And basically stating that the existence of God is directly tied to the existence of the political country of Israel. Then he also said that the US will become a Muslim country if Israel is attacked by the muslims. WHAT?! I know. [oh, and speaking of the US and all sorts of political stuff... I just want the world to know... if Hillary Clinton becomes president of the United States, I am moving to Canada.]

Then we also spent a good 45 min-an hour arguing about weather or not it is sinful for women to wear trousers. This morning we had a 30 minute discussion on gender roles. And now... as usual... we are hearing the evils of homosexuality and lesbians (those are always two different things here.) (By the way, there is a HUGE preoccupation with sex here... every sin we hear about, every week, is always sexual sin. And many people here believe that all other sins are a result of / stem from sexual sin!! We're all just sick of hearing it.)

Thus far, this week has just been exhausting. With class full of not so good teaching, all the hysteria over outreach, and an emotionally taxing email from home, I am just drained.

Oh, and on Monday, while slashing, Tim, David & I got bitten by Safari Ants. (Think Lenningen & the Ants but not quite so large or scary, though if you don't pull them off, and you get enough of them, they will eat you alive.) They sting, but you just have to pull them off quickly, though they climb fast. So hope you discover them quickly.

On a lighter note, my feet are much much much much much, like a 1,000,000x better! My toe is basically healed, and the big sore has completely scabbed over and is just healing. I've finished my anti-biotics.. and things are going well.

Ok, are you ready for the most exciting news ever?

I just found out that... In July, we get to go with a team to do a 2 week outreach in Pader! YAHOOO. Talk about a dream come true, and the entire reason I wanted to come to Uganda for DTS. I just can't stop grinning! :D

Week 11- Update

Week 11:

Last week, was by far the best week of DTS thus far, and definitely one of the best weeks of my life. Our speaker was Gary Killingsworth, the leader of YWAM Scotland (he's an american) speaking on the Holy Spirit. His teaching style is so refreshing- Spirit led.. and focusing on how awesome, powerful, victorious, and just beyond our comprehension God is. it's just that here the whole christian culture is occupied with SIN,and how bad we are. To illustrate the point perfectly, this week (week 12) our memory verse is Galatians 5:19-23. It begins with a list of 16 (15 +1 etc) sins and then goes onto say that people who do this will not inherit the kingdom of God. Then finally we get the 9 fruits of the Spirit. And we have to make it into a song. So our group has turned it into a quite impressive rap. hahaha. But that week it was just so refreshing to just be able to get lost in how awesome and amazing God is. instead of just focusing on how much sinful man sucks. Friday was an awesome day, we had the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Then they treated us to a DTS fun day, and paid for us all to go to Kingfisher and swim and have an amazing meal. We had a blast.Then we got back and there was this whole big who-ha about supper, because they were supposed to save us some (it was chapati night after all) and Alex, our amazing guardian angel/fairy godmother/ amazing staffer from england had saved us some, but the person in charge of the kitchen didn't want us to have them and wouldn't give up the keys. Finally, we sent a hostage negotiation delegation, and they were able to persuade him to give up the keys. Yum. Chapat for supper!

Saturday, the boys & Catherine & I all went to town. We went shopping and hit up Fast Net, and some supermarkets. We ate at The Source (well french fries aka "chips" and soda) and had an all together amazing day. Sunday was another chill day. We spent the morning reading & doing laundry and composing our memory verse rap. Then we walked to Wairaka to buy chapatis and right after we had purchased our tasty sunday afternoon snack, it began to rain. So we started our walk back, through the MASSIVE amounts of mud. And, God rained down His grace upon us. As we walked, a man in a taxi passed us and offered us a free ride back to YWAM Hopeland. Wahoo. The rest of the day we just ate chapat & chilled in the common room.

That reminds me, Rainy Season is here. Which means that the average temperature has dropped, and it rains a lot. We get massive thunderstorms. Saturday night the thunderstorm was INSANE. It broke the windows of one house here! The thunder was SO LOUD it shook the building! Thus, it makes all of the dirt roads around here (so, all the roads but one) complete massive piles of mud. So our walk to Wairaka on Sunday was VERY VERY muddy... This week we also switched work duty again, so I'm back on grounds, pulling weeds and slashing.

Also, there was quite a tragedy that happened this weekend. I don't know if you heard or not (someone told me it made the international news) but Wednesday night there was a fire set in a school in Kampala. One of the staff of Discovery Centre, on base here, his daughter went to that school. Thursday morning we found out she was missing. They couldn't find her in the hospital, nor among the dead. (The doors of the school were locked, and so the kids were trapped inside. I don't know how many people died.) Word finally got to us (students anyway) on Sunday that they had found her, she was dead. Apparently 95% of her body was burned, but she died of suffocation. Her funeral was on Sunday. She was 10. Please keep her family (Parents & 3 younger brothers) in your prayers, her father's name is Dixon.

Updates!!

Hey!
sorry that this update is so late, but... better late than never right?! So to start where I left off..

week 9: (the weekend)
Saturday we had breakfast at Ginger in Jinja (name of restaurant) on the Nile River. Then we went to Bujugali Falls, which was amazingly gorgeous, and went swimming in the Nile! It was so much fun! We plan to go back and go rafting there later (during debrief week)! It should be lots of fun. Sunday was good also. I can't remember exactly what we did.. just stayed home and chilled, doing laundry, listening to a podcast or two.. and just relaxing.

Week 10- Update

Week 10:

this week was interesting. Our first speaker was speaking on "rejection and acceptance" but it was pretty much more on demons and strongholds than anything else. Wednesday- Friday was supposed to be on Deliverance.. but our speaker's theology was way out of whack and we all started challenging him and asking a lot of questions. He was intimidated and would not let us even finish our questions, he'd just start talking over us. (that was Wednesday) Thursday, was actually one of my favorite days of DTS. Our speaker was "sick" and couldn't come. It was raining so we all just hung out while they set up an alternate plan. I sat on my bed, listened to Simon & Garfunkel and played solitaire. Then we had Break Tea, and sat in the classroom and watched a tape of old soccer games. Then we got to watch video teaching by Floyd Mclung on the Father Heart of God. It was AMAZING. And so wonderful to have "western" teaching. The next day our speaker was still "sick" so we watched Derek Prince videos on deliverance. Which was also with a very heavy emphasis on demons. To give example, with the amount of demons he described, Mary Magdelene was really lucky to only have seven!

Saturday I was cooking.. which was not too bad... we've had major problems with people not showing up to cook when they are supposed to, especially the leaders. For breakfast we had no leader, but Jared is awesome and lead well. Cooking was long.. but not too bad. Sunday was horrible. Tim was cooking, and I felt so sorry for him. The staff person who was supposed to cook with him basically refused, and he was the only one there for quite some time. Then when they made the tea they forgot to put in the sugar, and the tea tasted like charcoal. THen no one showed up for wash up either. Needless to say, we were all up in arms over the whole situation.. because the situation had finally come to a boiling point. We are all sick of having lame leaders... people who say "do as I say, not as I do." and do not lead by example. It has been so frustrating.. but.. God will use even this to refine my (and everyone else's) character.. not by fire.. but with sandpaper.

We also spent the weekend watching Lord of the Rings. Yes, in four evenings, we watched all three extended edition movies! It was quite delightful. And we found a new place to hang out, in the dining hall, since we are no longer allowed to go down to the basketball court after supper... and there is no way to watch a movie in the class room or common room.. and since we are mixed company, we can't watch in a dorm either. Yay for the Kwap House.

Beautiful Feet!

God is so funny sometimes. The way He uses my life as an object lesson is just crazy.

let me bring you up to speed.. my feet are disgusting.. and have had a million problems since I got here. It all started with millions of mosquito bites covering my feet and my unconscious compulsion to scratch them. My scabs seldom stayed on my feet for long, because any little nudge would send them flying off. I was frustrated and so sick of bleeding all the time. But our mini outreach did at least one positive thing, as it provided my feet a refuge, because there were no mosquitos there. My feet healed and were looking so much better when I returned. However, there were many woes in Fort Portal, the least of which was not, Jiggers. They are little parasitic bugs that enter through one's toenails and are nearly impossible to spot at first. Then then grow in a circular pattern, turn black, and build a little house in one's toe. The process to remove these lovely creatures is less than fun, and I won't gross you out by describing it here. I was fortunate to receive two of these lovely guests in my toes. I found one the last day in FP and Bira graciously removed it. Then a few days after we got back, I discovered another one. A few days after that, it too came out.. in front of a large crowd who gathered to watch the excitement.

If you didn't think that those were bad enough, this week has been the kicker. I had an itch. Just a normal itch. So I scratched it. And then later.. the skin fell off... and turned into a huge scab. I put some ointment on it. And it appeared to be helping. Then I went running so I put a band-aid on it. A day later the band-aid fell off, and the scab was gone. Great. Then the sore started pussing everywhere. Even better. So I had Rachel, who is a nurse, look at it, and then clean it. She told me it was infected and that i needed to get some antibiotics for it. So, I went back to my room, cleaned my feet, and as per instructions, put on socks and crocs and proceeeded with my evening. As I returned, several hours later, I discovered a HUGE blister on the 2nd toe of my other foot. Funny? I wonder how that happened. I went to sleep. The next day my toe hurt a lot.. and the blister was just chilling. But by the end of the night my toe had swollen up to be HUGE and it hurt to bend it. I thought I might have broken it or something! Monday was even better. The blister popped.. and pussed everywhere. I couldn't walk normally. Tuesday morning I woke up and the blister had reformed, but it was a blood blister this time. Then, that afternoon, it popped. We prayed for my feet in class, a couple of times, and the last time, I really felt God say that He would heal my feet. In His timing. Let me just tell you, that my feet were disgusting. I got accused, mostly jokingly, a few times of having leprosy!! In fact, I found a verse in Isaiah that described perfectly the condition of my feet: "From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it. But wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; they have not been closed or bound up, or soothed with ointment." -Isaiah 1:5b Ok. Finally, Dr. Tim, the base leader, and yes, a MD, looked at my feet. He explained the reason for all of this... it all starts with the bites. Things here get easily infected, and my body is having an allergic reaction to the mosquito bites. He told me what i need to do is to 1) do my absolute best to not get bitten, 2) don't scratch!, & 3) get some antibiotics from a pharmacy in town.

Now, I'm sure that those are pretty obvious things to do, and if you have managed to read this far through all the nastiness you are really searching for the object lesson in all of this. Today, in class we learned about shame.. because nearly our whole class was struggling with it. And here it is. It all starts with a bite. Shame begins with the bite.. the lie planted in your mind by the enemy. Sometimes it comes from our own sin. Other times it's from the sin of others. Sometimes it's just low self-esteem caused by the media or the world around you. But that's the bite. And it has a small amount of poison, but by itself, it's not enough to cause any real damage. Nevertheless, lies like mosquito bites itch.And they are hard to leave alone. So you begin to scratch... you entertain that thought... you let it linger. Before you know it... sin is there to stay, and your mosquito bite has begun to bleed. The problem is that when you suffer an allergic reaction, your skin has a hard time holding onto the scabs.. so they bleed more.. and then more bacteria (lies) climb in. Before you know it, your wound is infected.. and what was once a small bite has now become a gaping, pussing, open sore. GROSS. The lie in your life becomes something you operate out of, a stronghold, some thing you, in a twisted perception of reality, now see as truth. That's how we end up believing that we are worthless, useless, ugly, unlovable, unforgivable. That is how shame becomes part of our life. And God is a healer, and He wants to hear us of our shame... just like He wants to heal my feet. The thing is, the wounds on my feet are crippling me, I walk with a limp. Shame makes me walk with a limp too.. I limp along in life, thinking and feeling like I am not good enough.. that I am worthless. So just as God can set you free by telling the Truth... He can heal your soul by telling you the Truth about who you are in Him. A beloved, beautiful/ handsome child of the King. YOu are redeemed, set free, victorious in Him, and He loves you and longs to bless you and to know you. So all you have to do is recieve your healing. And then: 1) try your absolute best to not get bitten, 2) don't scratch! & 3) if you do, put on the antibiotic ointment of His word!


So, here is the final update on my feet... for now. The healing has begun! The swelling in my toe is gone.. and my open sore is definitely on the mend. I can now walk without paining, and the girls brought me back anitbiotics from the pharmacy in town today! Whaoo! So.. God is giving me all sorts of tesimonies about things He is doing.

Just a quick sidenote-- life here is awesome! Our speaker is amazing, and it's Holy Spirit week. we should find out outreach locations tommorrow. I promise a long update this weekend, I had to cook last weekend, so that's why it's late! Love you all, miss you all.
JESUS IS AMAZING!

Back Into the Swing of Things...

Week 9- Hopeland!

Welcome back to the weekly routine of Hopeland life. It was so great to get to play volleyball again, though the games haven't really been hard core this week. We learned about Spiritual Warfare.. which was cool. There has been more dealing with issues and many many meetings... where it takes forever to do anything because each point must be reiterated by at least 4 other people in their own words... and with 37 students and usually at least 4 or 5 staff... it takes quite a while.

Thursday was prayer and fasting... and then I cooked supper on Thursday. It was quite tasty- pork, rice, cabbage, and pineapple. (No sweet potato & g-nut). Then last night, Ryan & I led worship. Bernie & Bulous (NIgeria) helped too. It was amazing. God moved so much. I really felt that it unified us as a body, which is SO necessary. Today all the girls are going out for breakfast and then we are all going to Bujugali Falls. Oh, and on Saturday (3/29) Guy's girlfriend, MJ, came from England. She is here for another week, and is amazing! Right now, it's 5:26 am.. but I haven't been to bed. I tried to sleep and couldn't, so I went up to the office and used the internet until my computer battery died.. then headed back to the room to plug in and type this whole massive update. Then I'll head back... upload it, and some more pictures.. and then get ready to go to breakfast.

All about Fort Portal (Part 2- Kahuna)

Week 8- Kahuna

In Kahuna we stayed at the house of the Bishop. It was much bigger, but the hospitality was less, I always felt like an intruder and in the way. The water situation there was much worse.. it too was about 1/4 of a mile away, but this was just a nasty pool of water coming out of the ground, and the water was so bad that even if we boiled it, we couldn't drink it. Water had to be fetched from a different, farther waterhole for drinking... and it wasn't often. We had two jerry cans of drinking water per day.. for 24 people. It suffices to say that it was nowhere near enough and we all got dehydrated.

For Easter, I went to Pastor Willie's church (we stayed at his house the first week) where I was not only the only white person there, but the only person who did not speak Luganda or Lutoro (the local language) and there was no translator. The two people I was with did their best to translate, but they didn't translate too much of it. [INSERT REST OF STORY FROM EMAIL HERE]

what can I say, Kahuna was difficult, we were all already worn out from the week of ministry in Kijura... and tensions were running high in our group. Finally, near the end of the week, a meeting was called, and we all sat around and talked about what our problems with each other were. Then we asked for forgiveness... and finally at 12:30 am we finished by sharing hugs with everyone and heading to bed. From that point on, we were finally unified as a team! Praise the Lord!

Our prayer and fasting day was really cool. We went for a prayer walk... which was also just so cool, God spoke so much to me! Kahuna is home to the largest tea plantation in Uganda, and quite possibly all of east africa. It's huge and GORGEOUS. there are rolling green hills everywhere covered in tea bushes! So we walked down to the tea plantation and prayed there. Both Kahuna & Kijura have a major problem with drinking. There were these little packets of alcohol everywhere in the streets (the size of those ketchup packets from fast food restaurants) but they are 40% alcohol and there are thousands of them just all over the street. So after our prayer walk, we spent about 45 minutes picking up trash. Then as we walked back to the house we kept picking up trash until we could literally hold no more in our hands... and there was still tons left.

our last night in Kahuna we were invited to the house of the Engineer of the tea company for dinner. It was very late 10:30 by the time I ate... but an amazing feast! Then the roads were muddy and the bus & two taxis got stuck in the mud.. but the Engineer lent us his pickup so we didn't have to walk & carry our things 2k in the mud. Thank you Lord! Then the boys used the truck to get the taxis out of the mud.

Finally, we were on our way back to Hopeland! We left at 7am. We were all SO excited to head back home. To me it was just about as good as going home to America.... or as close as it could come.. the whole going back to America is still 5 months away. The excitement mounted when we reached Jinja. The taxi couldn't drive fast enough. Soon we were back at Hopeland... screaming.. and shouting for joy! The team from Wairaka was back already and they greeted us all with joy. We got all reorganized and then the Iganga team came back. WE could hear them shouting too. WE ran out and waited for their taxi.. and then we all began to share our stories, after many hugs and shouting! The DTS family was finally back together again. I don't know what main outreach will be like. Hopefully some of my closest friends will be on that team.. though I did get to know the other American girls on my team more.. and they would also be great to have for main outreach.

And then, as a happy family, we all ate chapattis together!

More good news about fort portal... there were no mosquitos.. so my feet began to heal!! And we didn't have to sleep with nets either! YAHOO!

Saturday and Sunday were long days... but good. We watched Coneheads and MIB II. Both funny alien movies. The boys (Tim & Ryan) and I went to town.. and I bought some shampoo & Teddy Grams. We also had rolexs (chapatti with scrambled egg (that had onion, carrots & cabbage mixed in) rolled up inside, which one can purchase for 600 shillings.. which is the equivalent of $0.36 us. So tasty!

all about Fort Portal (Part 1- Kijura)

Hello everyone! Sorry, that as usual, it has taken a million years for an update, but once resuming to the swing of things here at Hopeland, free time with internet, and Mac in my possession was once again nonexistent!

so... Mini- Outreach!

WEEK 7 - Kijura
We left for outreach on Saturday morning, around 8am. The leaving was hard... we had just spent the last 6 weeks trying so hard to become a family, and now here we were being torn apart. They sent us off in style, though, taking pictures, putting us on the bus and even chasing it down the road a ways. It was bittersweet. The whole bus trip took 8 hours! We went to "Fort Portal" which was more like the general area. Instead we stayed in two small villages, Kijura the first week and Kahuna the second.

In our first house in Kijura, we had dirt floors, no power, and the water was about 1/4 mile away and then down a steep, muddy slope. We did get power in the evenings by running our generator and then later on, borrowing from a neighboring shop. Our room was TINY. We fit 3 twin mattresses side by side, and then had two feet at the end of them for our bags, and that was the entire room. There were 7 of us. Yes, that means at least two per twin mattress. It was more "DTS Bonding Time". The whole house was tiny, and we were very squished (24 of us, plus the family who lived there, who, by the way, were AMAZING people- Willie & Josephine and their kids) Each day we did door to door evangelism in the morning and then a crusade in the early evening. It was exhausting. But good. Door to Door was challenging, considering I had never done it before, but God came through. My favorite Door to Door story comes from a day when we went to the Police Station. We went and talked to the "prisioners" there - 5 young men. They took time to share their stories with us, each was very different, but all were great. In the end, one guy was already saved, and the other four wanted to be born again. So we got to pray with them! It was so cool. We were also able to bless them practically, by giving them food (they had mentioned to us that there wasn't enough food to go around).

The other cool day in Kijura was the day we skipped door to door. Instead we went down to the bore hole (where you pump water from) and slashed the grass and cleaned the hole. Then we got to spend an hour at one of the local primary schools ministering to the kids. Msaki came up to me and said, "In 5 minutes I want you to tell a Bible story to these kids." (there were several hundred of them!!) So, I ended up sharing about the 5 loaves & 2 fishes (and was able to mix in the Gospel too!) and then asked the kids who wanted to be friends with God? They all raised their hands, and then we prayed. I don't know how many, if any, were real decisions for Christ, but at least I got to sow some seeds

We also played with the kids a lot during the crusades, and did our best to share the love of Jesus despite the language barrier. It was the hardest children's ministry I've ever done- I had no words to use! The only way I could share the love of Christ was through my smile and my hugs. It was frustrating at times.

Crusades were also really hard. Basically, you take this huge wooden platform, get a sound system and set up. Then you throw a bunch of people on the platform and sing about 15 songs and dance all crazy. Then you invite people to come and sing "special songs". After that, someone gets up and shares the gospel by shouting as LOUDLY as possible that you need to get saved. After that, they invite people up to come pray and get saved, and many come. So we pray with them, and write down their names. And then we ask if there are other people who need prayer for healing. They come forward. We pray for them. Then we sing a few more songs, and then pack up for the day. SO far out of my comfort zone, and gifting! Not only was it spiritually exhausting, it was physically too.

this is a typical outreach day:
5-6 Morning Prayer time
6-8 sleep
8-8:30 Breakfast
8:30-9:45-sleep
9:45-10:15 get ready for door to door
10:15-12:30 Door to Door
12:30-1:00 - Sleep
1:00-1:30 Lunch
1:30-3:00 -Sleep
3:00-6:30 or 7 Crusade
6:30-7:15ish - Sleep
7-7:30- Supper
8:00-9:30 -"Short" evening meeting
9:30-10:30-attempt sleep
10:30-on - Sleep. sort of. with other people on top of you!

we were always tired... and the sleep was more like resting... lying on your sleeping bag. (Speaking of sleeping bags, Thank You SO much Mom, my sleeping bag is INCREDIBLE! So wonderful, none of that nylon and fake plaid flannel junk. It's like a big comfy blanket. The whole first night I slept in it, it was like one big cozy hug from home! I am sleeping on it now, at Hopeland, it's so wonderful!!) Not actually sleeping. The radio blared all night. We learned some great jingles from it though.. "Mirinda- Pineapple." and " I Love you, Gold Fry!" etc.

however, though many of us were completely out of our element, God blessed the work of our hands, or rather the work of our tongues, since we did not do much with our hands.

I also got sick the first week.. a cold.. not fun. But God used it in some amazing ways... I read another book that changed my life... "Darfur Diaries: Stories of Survival" by Jen Marlowe, Aisha Bain, & Adam Shapiro. God used it to confirm some things, firstly that He has given me a heart for East Africa, and secondly that He has called me to ministry of reconciliation and restoration. I know that I am not ready to go yet... I still need more knowledge and experience... but a desire for someday in the future. God has created in me such a hunger and thirst for knowledge, I can't wait to go back to the US and raid the local library and just devour so many of the things I don't know. And, incredibly, I find myself seriously considering and praying about going to a four year university after I finish my last class at Whatcom! I know, I know, we all never though that those words would come out of my mouth!