For all of you followers of the Uganda team 2010's adventures. I just wanted to briefly say that I'm not sure if this story will have smart and shiny ending.
There are a number of reasons why we can't just wrap this up;
-We are unfinished. We are constantly being changed and shaped by our circumstances. And for those who have gone on this trip, we will always refer back to it as a marking place in our lives, as something that God used to work in us in deeper ways.
-We don't always know what story to tell. There are so many. There were so many people, faces and places. How could we pick just one?
-Many of us have unfinished business with Uganda... There is potential for our futures to be more closely intertwined with the Ugandans than we ever thought possible.
And that is why this is the end, but also only the beginning. So, please continue to ask us about Uganda, because we still need to talk about it.
Much thanks and love to all!
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Amen
Halelujah! (Amen)
God is Good (All the time)
All the time (God is good)
And that is? (His nature)
If you would like to pretend that you are here with us in Jinja, you can yell this at anyone in earshot. The parenthesis represent what should be echoed back. Most gatherings here feature one or both of these sayings. We will be glad to teach you when we get back. Can you say “Amen”?
As you may have guessed, internet connection is a little bit more limited here in Jinja. We are still alive and well. We have had a few people get sick (Ally was running a fever for about 24 hours and a few people have respiratory symptoms), but we are all starting to feel better now. The living conditions here are a lot more rural and primitive. But, we don’t mind. We are loving the kids at the orphanage here and the beautiful surroundings of the city of Jinja.
Jinja is a small city that sits right next to Lake Victoria. There is a ton of wildlife here, lots of birds, a few monkeys, and hordes of bats and mosquitoes. Our guest house is a hop, a skip and a jump from Welcome Home Ministries (the orphanage that we are serving during this second half of the trip). At Welcome Home you can find 73 precious babies between the ages of 0-7 years old. They are an assortment of orphans, sick babies, and abandoned ones that have somehow found their way to Momma Mandy’s home. We love holding the babies, feeding them and talking with the room mammas and the adoptive parents that hang out around the premises.
Momma Mandy likes to keep us busy. She really wants us to see Africa while we are here. So, the day after our arrival we went to the Bujagali waterfalls, hung out around Welcome Home, and then went to the children’s hospital in the afternoon. At the hospital, we saw children suffering from malnourishment, malaria, asthma, sickle cell anemia crises, multiple organ failure, tetanus and meningitis, many things that are preventable or easily treatable in the US. It was a sobering experience to meet children who were so seriously ill. We walked through the halls, passed out beanie babies, and offered to pray for the kids and their families. Not one of the families refused prayer. It was a glimpse of desperation.
Today, we went out to visit the villages on the lake. We took a whole day trip and visited 3 separate places. In each place we met the village elders, played games with the kids, and gave away soccer balls. At the last stop we got to meet with a gathering of pastors and their families, pray for them, receive their prayers, and have a real Ugandan meal complete with Posho. We have seen enough mud huts, goats, banana trees and corn fields to last a lifetime. A few of us also had the experience of using a real life, hole in the ground, outhouse. That was exciting. We also saw the source of the Nile river. It bubbles up from underneath an island. It is awesome!!!!
There are so many things that I could say to all of you. But, I would like to use the remaining time I have on this highjacked computer to describe to you what it looks like when Ugandans pray and worship. I have rarely seen anything so sincere, joyful, and deeply touching. We have had the privilege of witnessing lots of gatherings of singing Ugandans under the trees or inside of mud huts, cement skeleton buildings, or under tin roofs. Their voices echo off of the hills. They are loud and enthusiastic with their proclamation of the lordship of our God. They dance and shout with real and unabashed joy. I have decided that when we are all gathered in Heaven, I am going to ask God to let me worship with the Ugandans. I’m sure I will have fun there.
A few quick prayer requests;
-Please pray for the health and well being of all of our team members.
-Pray for all those who we laid hands on today and yesterday (especially one little girl who is deaf and mute) for God’s provision and healing. He is Lord and the only one who can truly change our circumstances.
-Finally, pray for our remaining days here that we will learn what we should.
I am not sure if I will be able to log on again before the trip is over, but never fear. We are well. We are happy. We love Africa.
Love,
Amanda
God is Good (All the time)
All the time (God is good)
And that is? (His nature)
If you would like to pretend that you are here with us in Jinja, you can yell this at anyone in earshot. The parenthesis represent what should be echoed back. Most gatherings here feature one or both of these sayings. We will be glad to teach you when we get back. Can you say “Amen”?
As you may have guessed, internet connection is a little bit more limited here in Jinja. We are still alive and well. We have had a few people get sick (Ally was running a fever for about 24 hours and a few people have respiratory symptoms), but we are all starting to feel better now. The living conditions here are a lot more rural and primitive. But, we don’t mind. We are loving the kids at the orphanage here and the beautiful surroundings of the city of Jinja.
Jinja is a small city that sits right next to Lake Victoria. There is a ton of wildlife here, lots of birds, a few monkeys, and hordes of bats and mosquitoes. Our guest house is a hop, a skip and a jump from Welcome Home Ministries (the orphanage that we are serving during this second half of the trip). At Welcome Home you can find 73 precious babies between the ages of 0-7 years old. They are an assortment of orphans, sick babies, and abandoned ones that have somehow found their way to Momma Mandy’s home. We love holding the babies, feeding them and talking with the room mammas and the adoptive parents that hang out around the premises.
Momma Mandy likes to keep us busy. She really wants us to see Africa while we are here. So, the day after our arrival we went to the Bujagali waterfalls, hung out around Welcome Home, and then went to the children’s hospital in the afternoon. At the hospital, we saw children suffering from malnourishment, malaria, asthma, sickle cell anemia crises, multiple organ failure, tetanus and meningitis, many things that are preventable or easily treatable in the US. It was a sobering experience to meet children who were so seriously ill. We walked through the halls, passed out beanie babies, and offered to pray for the kids and their families. Not one of the families refused prayer. It was a glimpse of desperation.
Today, we went out to visit the villages on the lake. We took a whole day trip and visited 3 separate places. In each place we met the village elders, played games with the kids, and gave away soccer balls. At the last stop we got to meet with a gathering of pastors and their families, pray for them, receive their prayers, and have a real Ugandan meal complete with Posho. We have seen enough mud huts, goats, banana trees and corn fields to last a lifetime. A few of us also had the experience of using a real life, hole in the ground, outhouse. That was exciting. We also saw the source of the Nile river. It bubbles up from underneath an island. It is awesome!!!!
There are so many things that I could say to all of you. But, I would like to use the remaining time I have on this highjacked computer to describe to you what it looks like when Ugandans pray and worship. I have rarely seen anything so sincere, joyful, and deeply touching. We have had the privilege of witnessing lots of gatherings of singing Ugandans under the trees or inside of mud huts, cement skeleton buildings, or under tin roofs. Their voices echo off of the hills. They are loud and enthusiastic with their proclamation of the lordship of our God. They dance and shout with real and unabashed joy. I have decided that when we are all gathered in Heaven, I am going to ask God to let me worship with the Ugandans. I’m sure I will have fun there.
A few quick prayer requests;
-Please pray for the health and well being of all of our team members.
-Pray for all those who we laid hands on today and yesterday (especially one little girl who is deaf and mute) for God’s provision and healing. He is Lord and the only one who can truly change our circumstances.
-Finally, pray for our remaining days here that we will learn what we should.
I am not sure if I will be able to log on again before the trip is over, but never fear. We are well. We are happy. We love Africa.
Love,
Amanda
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Nakupena Yesu, Mwanee Mwangoo ( I love you Jesus, deep down in my heart)
Today we are going to 4 different church services to work with lots of the pastors who have been our guests this week learning about Vineyard Values.
Immediately after the church services we will meet up at our hotel for lunch, and then take off for a two-three hour bus ride to Jinja. I am not sure what our internet access will be like at our guest house in Jinja. So, I thought I would take a few moments to update you all about the state of our team.
Many of our hearts have been deeply impacted by the people and things that we have seen and experienced here in Kampala. I absolutely love watching how all members of our team jump right in with whatever is happening around them. They are all flexible and no one is complaining. It is awesome to see each person pour love out over the pastors and children. As we grow closer together as a team we are enjoying each others company and praying and worshiping together. It is really wonderful.
We do have a few people who have been feeling sick and wiped out. Others are just exhausted emotionally from all the heavy things we have seen and experienced. Also, a few of us have been having nightmares. Please pray in that regard for our team.
Yesterday we had our first rain storm here in Kampala. It was fantastic with lots and lots of red mud.
Happy Heart!
Love,
Amanda
Immediately after the church services we will meet up at our hotel for lunch, and then take off for a two-three hour bus ride to Jinja. I am not sure what our internet access will be like at our guest house in Jinja. So, I thought I would take a few moments to update you all about the state of our team.
Many of our hearts have been deeply impacted by the people and things that we have seen and experienced here in Kampala. I absolutely love watching how all members of our team jump right in with whatever is happening around them. They are all flexible and no one is complaining. It is awesome to see each person pour love out over the pastors and children. As we grow closer together as a team we are enjoying each others company and praying and worshiping together. It is really wonderful.
We do have a few people who have been feeling sick and wiped out. Others are just exhausted emotionally from all the heavy things we have seen and experienced. Also, a few of us have been having nightmares. Please pray in that regard for our team.
Yesterday we had our first rain storm here in Kampala. It was fantastic with lots and lots of red mud.
Happy Heart!
Love,
Amanda
Friday, July 23, 2010
Doing exactly what we do at home, only WAY differently
Good morning from Kampala!
Here it is 7 in the morning on Saturday, your current time is 9 pm on Friday. Can you say time difference? Yeah, I think that may be one of the reasons that the jet lag has been so difficult over here, that and the fact that for the last two nights the night club across the street has been playing LOUD music from 11 pm- 5 am. That has kept quite a few of us awake.
Ok, so here’s a short recap of the last couple of days, complete with gory details.
The last two days our team has been split in the morning, with half of the team going to the school to hang out with the teachers and children and the other half meeting with a group of 18 pastors at our hotel. Jamie and Aaron are really excited about the time they have had with the pastors. They have been dialoging with them about where the churches are at, and what it means to be “Vineyard.” Different members from our team have been able to get involved in that process. The first day Scott Dunn stayed and helped with the discussion, and the second day Brian and Tori stayed to speak about prayer for ministry and worship leading. It is fun to see all of the team members thriving and being used.
Speaking of thriving… Have I mentioned that we spend a lot of time with kids? Well, we do. It is wonderful because so many of our team members have a heart for children and there are plenty of kids here to go around. If you were watching our team interact with the kids you would probably think a couple of things 1) those mozungos are crazy 2) wow, that looks like fun. Yesterday we did a chapel service for the school, which included a couple of worship songs, a drama and a prayer time. Then, we went outside and played with the kids for an hour. Then, we met with the teachers from the school and had a question/answer/encouragement time. It was fantastic to watch ALL of our team members as they hung out with the kids. Each person brings something to the mix weather it is crazy faces and animal noises (Roxy), holding babies (Tawny), holding 5 hands at once (Gemma), learning Lugandan phrases (Sarah), or just enjoying being a kid with all of them (our youngest team members are Ally and Katie Dunn, ages 9 and 11). When we had the teacher sharing time it was awesome to hear from so many of the Ugandan teachers about their heart for education and very cool to see that so many of our team members are involved in education (both Jill and Eileen are homeschool moms, Joy teaches at a preschool, Delretta teaches math at a public school, and I work with kids at the church). We all had a lot to share and say.
Yesterday and the day before yesterday we walked through the slums in the afternoon. The first day was pure chaos. We were all a bit overwhelmed and scared. Bandu, is the slum that sits right behind the school. It is probably about one square mile, and contains over 50,000 people. Yes, I double checked that number. 50,000. The biggest problems are unclean water and unsafe living conditions. Disease spreads rapidly through the enclosed space. Yesterday, during our walk through we actually got to talk with the people there. We invited all the children to come to a party that we are having today at the church and offered to pray for anyone who was sick or in need. Many people asked us to pray that they would get jobs, or asked us to pray for those who were sick. The group that I was with prayed for a man who was experiencing phantom pains in his amputated leg. He was sitting in the home of a witch doctor, perhaps waiting for the witch doctor to return and help him.
In all things we are learning just to enjoy being ourselves, being a part of our team, and offering people Jesus. When people ask us for money, we simply don’t have enough to really help them with their lives. It all comes back to Jesus. He is the only one who can change Uganda.
Yesterday, one of the things we prayed for in our morning meeting was that everyone on the team would feel free to be who they are, even in such a different environment. Throughout the day, I kept looking around and marveling at how what we are doing here in Uganda is so similar to what all of us do at home, only WAY different. I hope that makes sense. Who we are has not changed. What God has worked in each of our lives has not changed. The only thing that has changed is everything around us; our environment, the language, the culture, the food, ect... We are happy to be here and enjoying the goodness of our God.
Quick prayer requests;
-Please continue prayers for safety.
-Please pray for our outreach into the community today- we are expecting over 200 hungry and hurting children from the slum. We will be giving away a lot of love.
-Please pray for wisdom and a growing awareness of the culture.
Thanks!
Lots of Love,
Amanda
Here it is 7 in the morning on Saturday, your current time is 9 pm on Friday. Can you say time difference? Yeah, I think that may be one of the reasons that the jet lag has been so difficult over here, that and the fact that for the last two nights the night club across the street has been playing LOUD music from 11 pm- 5 am. That has kept quite a few of us awake.
Ok, so here’s a short recap of the last couple of days, complete with gory details.
The last two days our team has been split in the morning, with half of the team going to the school to hang out with the teachers and children and the other half meeting with a group of 18 pastors at our hotel. Jamie and Aaron are really excited about the time they have had with the pastors. They have been dialoging with them about where the churches are at, and what it means to be “Vineyard.” Different members from our team have been able to get involved in that process. The first day Scott Dunn stayed and helped with the discussion, and the second day Brian and Tori stayed to speak about prayer for ministry and worship leading. It is fun to see all of the team members thriving and being used.
Speaking of thriving… Have I mentioned that we spend a lot of time with kids? Well, we do. It is wonderful because so many of our team members have a heart for children and there are plenty of kids here to go around. If you were watching our team interact with the kids you would probably think a couple of things 1) those mozungos are crazy 2) wow, that looks like fun. Yesterday we did a chapel service for the school, which included a couple of worship songs, a drama and a prayer time. Then, we went outside and played with the kids for an hour. Then, we met with the teachers from the school and had a question/answer/encouragement time. It was fantastic to watch ALL of our team members as they hung out with the kids. Each person brings something to the mix weather it is crazy faces and animal noises (Roxy), holding babies (Tawny), holding 5 hands at once (Gemma), learning Lugandan phrases (Sarah), or just enjoying being a kid with all of them (our youngest team members are Ally and Katie Dunn, ages 9 and 11). When we had the teacher sharing time it was awesome to hear from so many of the Ugandan teachers about their heart for education and very cool to see that so many of our team members are involved in education (both Jill and Eileen are homeschool moms, Joy teaches at a preschool, Delretta teaches math at a public school, and I work with kids at the church). We all had a lot to share and say.
Yesterday and the day before yesterday we walked through the slums in the afternoon. The first day was pure chaos. We were all a bit overwhelmed and scared. Bandu, is the slum that sits right behind the school. It is probably about one square mile, and contains over 50,000 people. Yes, I double checked that number. 50,000. The biggest problems are unclean water and unsafe living conditions. Disease spreads rapidly through the enclosed space. Yesterday, during our walk through we actually got to talk with the people there. We invited all the children to come to a party that we are having today at the church and offered to pray for anyone who was sick or in need. Many people asked us to pray that they would get jobs, or asked us to pray for those who were sick. The group that I was with prayed for a man who was experiencing phantom pains in his amputated leg. He was sitting in the home of a witch doctor, perhaps waiting for the witch doctor to return and help him.
In all things we are learning just to enjoy being ourselves, being a part of our team, and offering people Jesus. When people ask us for money, we simply don’t have enough to really help them with their lives. It all comes back to Jesus. He is the only one who can change Uganda.
Yesterday, one of the things we prayed for in our morning meeting was that everyone on the team would feel free to be who they are, even in such a different environment. Throughout the day, I kept looking around and marveling at how what we are doing here in Uganda is so similar to what all of us do at home, only WAY different. I hope that makes sense. Who we are has not changed. What God has worked in each of our lives has not changed. The only thing that has changed is everything around us; our environment, the language, the culture, the food, ect... We are happy to be here and enjoying the goodness of our God.
Quick prayer requests;
-Please continue prayers for safety.
-Please pray for our outreach into the community today- we are expecting over 200 hungry and hurting children from the slum. We will be giving away a lot of love.
-Please pray for wisdom and a growing awareness of the culture.
Thanks!
Lots of Love,
Amanda
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Left is the New Normal... That's Right
Hello everyone, we are all safe and well here in Kampala. Our travels here were accomplished safely and we are settling into life here at the hotel. In Uganda, settling in looks like changing money, sleeping under mosquitoes netting, and purchasing bottled water to use to brush our teeth. Because of the internet situation I am writing this in word document form and I hope to be able to transfer it over to our group blog. Wish me luck!
Today we started our daily routine which entails; 7 am breakfast, 8 team worship and meeting, 9 am splitting into two teams (one that is meeting with the pastors and another that is working with the kids), 1 pm lunch, 3 pm visit to the slums, and 5:30 pm church service. We are very busy. Here is a brief summary of what went down this morning.
The group of us working with the children this morning included; Ally, Katie, Jill, Eileen, Gemma, Tori, Delretta, Tawny, Sarah, Roxi, Joy, myself, and our new friends Betty and Teddy. We went to visit the Vineyard Christian School and met all the children and teachers. They sang for us, did a drama and a dance and then invited us into their classrooms where we acted as the guest teachers (yeash! I was not prepared to guest teach the preschool class ;). We are affectionately called “muzungos” (white people) by all of the children. After “teaching” we had a massive game of ring around the rosy, and cat and mouse. It was very exciting. Meanwhile, Jamie, Aaron and Scott were back at the hotel meeting with a group of 13 pastors from around east Africa. They had a dialog and question and answer time about what exactly Vineyard Values are. The idea that everyone can “do the stuff” was a main part of the discussion.
Today and tomorrow should be pretty similar. On Saturday we will spend the morning with the kids from the community, do a short drama and teaching for them, play some games and hopefully feed them a meal. So, for the next couple of days we will go invite the children from the slum to join us.
Here’s a quick description of what it is like to actually BE here. The dirt is red, the air is heavy, and the people are very quiet and kind. When talking to a Ugandan the flow of the conversation is sometimes hard to follow because their responses are so soft spoken. Last night I was asked, “And, how is America?” I said that America is doing very well, thank you. And received a slow, bright smile as my response. Of course there are too many new things here to describe for you all. The food, atmosphere, and culture are all different from what we are used to. Ally and Katie love the fact that we drive on the Left side of the road. To which, Gemma informed us that Left is the right side of the road, a phrase which managed to confuse the rest of us in the van.
Some quick prayer requests and then I will try to post this;
-Injurys and pain. Gemma managed to injure her shoulder in the airport and has been in pain ever since. Tori has shoulder pain and nerve damage. Joy has a fractured tail bone (from a long time ago) and the long flight aggravated it quite a bit. Please join us as we pray that our team members will be healed and free from pain.
-Safety. Driving is dangerous here. So that is always an issue. Our friends and family will be pleased to know that our hotel is very vigilant about safety (after the bombings in Kampala a week and a half ago). We are searched every time we enter the hotel.
-Continued strength and encouragement. We are all a bit worn out from the long trip over here (one 15 hour flight, an 8 hour layover, and another 7 ½ hour flight was what it took for us to get here). We need rest and many are missing their families.
Thanks friends!
Peace to you~
Amanda
Today we started our daily routine which entails; 7 am breakfast, 8 team worship and meeting, 9 am splitting into two teams (one that is meeting with the pastors and another that is working with the kids), 1 pm lunch, 3 pm visit to the slums, and 5:30 pm church service. We are very busy. Here is a brief summary of what went down this morning.
The group of us working with the children this morning included; Ally, Katie, Jill, Eileen, Gemma, Tori, Delretta, Tawny, Sarah, Roxi, Joy, myself, and our new friends Betty and Teddy. We went to visit the Vineyard Christian School and met all the children and teachers. They sang for us, did a drama and a dance and then invited us into their classrooms where we acted as the guest teachers (yeash! I was not prepared to guest teach the preschool class ;). We are affectionately called “muzungos” (white people) by all of the children. After “teaching” we had a massive game of ring around the rosy, and cat and mouse. It was very exciting. Meanwhile, Jamie, Aaron and Scott were back at the hotel meeting with a group of 13 pastors from around east Africa. They had a dialog and question and answer time about what exactly Vineyard Values are. The idea that everyone can “do the stuff” was a main part of the discussion.
Today and tomorrow should be pretty similar. On Saturday we will spend the morning with the kids from the community, do a short drama and teaching for them, play some games and hopefully feed them a meal. So, for the next couple of days we will go invite the children from the slum to join us.
Here’s a quick description of what it is like to actually BE here. The dirt is red, the air is heavy, and the people are very quiet and kind. When talking to a Ugandan the flow of the conversation is sometimes hard to follow because their responses are so soft spoken. Last night I was asked, “And, how is America?” I said that America is doing very well, thank you. And received a slow, bright smile as my response. Of course there are too many new things here to describe for you all. The food, atmosphere, and culture are all different from what we are used to. Ally and Katie love the fact that we drive on the Left side of the road. To which, Gemma informed us that Left is the right side of the road, a phrase which managed to confuse the rest of us in the van.
Some quick prayer requests and then I will try to post this;
-Injurys and pain. Gemma managed to injure her shoulder in the airport and has been in pain ever since. Tori has shoulder pain and nerve damage. Joy has a fractured tail bone (from a long time ago) and the long flight aggravated it quite a bit. Please join us as we pray that our team members will be healed and free from pain.
-Safety. Driving is dangerous here. So that is always an issue. Our friends and family will be pleased to know that our hotel is very vigilant about safety (after the bombings in Kampala a week and a half ago). We are searched every time we enter the hotel.
-Continued strength and encouragement. We are all a bit worn out from the long trip over here (one 15 hour flight, an 8 hour layover, and another 7 ½ hour flight was what it took for us to get here). We need rest and many are missing their families.
Thanks friends!
Peace to you~
Amanda
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Tell your friends...
Hello everyone!
This is going to be the Uganda blog for the team going to Kampala and Jinja in July 2010. Tell your friends and family to follow along as the Anaheim and Hub Vineyards embark on their adventures.
From here we can post pictures, updates, and prayer requests. Don't miss a second. :)
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