All good things come to an end

Well I've been home two days now and the stories and feelings are beginning to arrange themselves. To begin I will say that just as the dust from the Kampala streets will probably be present in my lungs for the rest of my life, the love for Africa will exist in my heart. I don't know entirely when or how I will return but if God calls me back I will surely not resist.

The final week was more of the same type of ministry only better. I put my all into each visit we made, knowing it would be my last chance. Things started out at Remand home, the juvenile detention hall. One of the Americans in the house found the courage to share a really personal message with the children. She talked on sexual immorality and gave her own testimony as compelling support. It was the first time that I've seen the children pay more attention to the sermon than the singing. Afterwards, a few of them came up to share similar testimonies by opening up to levels we had neither expected nor experienced before.

On the third to last day we did some door-to-door evangelism. Unlike in the US, where people partaking in this are often met with rudeness and annoyance, families in Uganda always invite us in and are at least willing to let us pray for them. During the trip, it had been my intention to pick a child who really touched my heart, and to sponsor them when I return to America. The first house we visited was about 10 square meters and home to parents and 7 children! The father who we talked to was a very God-fearing man who worked an honest job but just couldn't afford to support all of his family. He was the cook at the local university but during the summer he lived off the little he earnt during the semester. Of the 7 children, he could only afford to send 5 to school. The other 2 were at home when we visited and though they spoke little english, they followed us around for the rest of the morning to all of the other houses. Many young kids will follow white people asking for money but these girls just held our hands and were content with our presence. Later on that evening, I got a few people together to visit the house again to officially announce that I wanted to sponsor one of the children, Sharon, 6. All of her siblings were home from school and they were all so excited and grateful at the news. We also took information about the youngest child, Valencia, 4. She should be due to start kindergarten next year if the money is provided. It is my intention to find a sponsor for her so if you think you'd like to help, let me know. The money goes towards school fees, school uniform, books, and lunch at school as well as for a mentor from the organization to go and check-up on the child each month.

Another highlight from the final week was the church service on Sunday. A staff member of Empower-A-Child was the pastor of this church which is located in a village about an hour from Kampala. It has only been open for 8 months and already has a congregation of around 100. The village is infamous for its witchcraft and struggles with violence. The service actually meets in the community hall, the same building that the witchdoctors get together in to pray to their spirits. The pastor has been attacked twice since beginning the post. Amazingly, the introduction of the church has brought a new life to the village, a claim that almost everyone seemed to mention. The churchgoers were so intense, the service lasted for 3 1/2 hours and was followed by a community lunch at someone's house. At one point in the service, members of the congregation are welcomed to come forward and testify. One lady from our group ventured up and broke down in tears of joy because she was so taken with the love that filled the air. We all thought that it was our favorite church and to think that it didn't even have its own building says a lot!

My flight was late on Monday evening so I was able to conclude things nicely on my last day. During the course of the month I visited the same babies home around 5 times. Right from the first time I had been fond of one of the boys named Joseph. Each time I would go back and look out for him. He quite literally was the cutest baby I have ever set my eyes on and as a payment for his peeing on me, I madly photographed him. I hope to post those pictures sometime. Monday morning was our final trip to the home and getting to see Joseph one more time before I left was a great way to start the day. I arrived back to the house to my final lunch of rice and beans coupled with a quality conversation with one of the Ugandan volunteers. In the afternoon I packed and washed obsessively while everyone planned for the following week. As was tradition when someone leaves the house to go back home, I was placed at the certain of a circle of people and prayed over before I left. Before praying, people often offer to give encouraging words to the one leaving. I was so blessed by some of the things that were said to me and couldn't thank everyone enough for the time that I spent there. The feeling of unity that we had as a team, the way everyone built eachother up as we are instructed to do so, and the complete inclusion of everyone in the house were all such an inspiration for returning home. I choked out a few words before I got in the van and gave about a bazillion hugs.

I returned home two days ago and the shock that I felt at the culture difference was huge: I went to a restaurant and couldn't bear to leave food on my plate; I saw a building project my dad was about to start and couldn't wait to get stuck in; A random conversation with a group of teenagers reminded me of the things many of us throw our lives away for. I hope the shock slowly disintegrates but I also hope that I don't slip back into the 'good life' that I had before. Uganda has changed my life and I am so grateful for the chance that I was afforded. I thank you all for your prayers and urge you to continue. Each seed that was planted needs to be followed up on and worked on. I have faith that our God will deliver on that front. In the words of the primary kid's favorite song, "God's not dead...NO...He's alive!"

A paining body but TIA

Just a short post here to let out some stress. I don't think I've had this many ailments since I was a baby:

My back aches from sleeping on hard ground,
I pulled a muscle in my shoulder from chopping wood,
My hands are blistered from building the goat shed and digging holes,
My leg is scraped from a sliding tackle in soccer,
My neck is sunburned from forgetting to apply sunscreen,
My face itches from not shaving for the entire trip,
My tongue is sore and sensitive from eating too many acidic fruits,
Finally a new and far worse addition from this morning... We were driving a friend to the airport in a van and the driver didn't see a speed hump going at a pretty fast speed. My friend sitting opposite me wasn't properly on the seat and came flying towards me. Our heads collided and I ended up far worse, with a deep cut right above my right eye. I am heading to the clinic later on tonight but just hoping that it isn't bad enough to need stitches.

Despite all of that, my spirit is far healthier and happier. Amen to that, goodbye for now.

The mission to Luwero

Hi everyone from a computer that is actually working quite nicely for once. It has just occurred to me that I only have a week left in Uganda on a trip that I thought would be very long. I remember the day I first walked on the streets of Kampala and was scared to cross the road. Now just like any Ugandan, I try to push the cars out of the way and run through the traffic to the other side. I remember that first disgusting taste of dry rice and beans. Now my mouth begins to water at the expectation of them. I remember feeling embarrassed to dance when a single person may be watching. Now I have danced solo to samba drums in front of countless campfires. I remember my first trip to a babies home and realizing I didn't know how to hold one. Now I have balanced three little kids on my lap at one time. Finally, I remember doubting whether I was really meant to come to Africa at all. Now I have complete assurance that it was in His will.

The huge batch of stories from the previous 3 weeks continues to grow but I'll pick and choose a few from this last week to share: We left on Wednesday at 3pm for Luwero, a region in Central Uganda. It was 5:30pm by the time we got there and we arrived to find our accommodation to be a primary school. The kids that had finished school at 2pm had all decided to stay late to greet their visitors so we were bombarded as we got out of the vans and continued to be until dark that evening. The girls laid out about 5 mattresses on a classroom floor to create a mega bed and the guys were either in tents or in a house which would better be described as a cubicle. Needless to say the quality of sleep didn't prepare us very well for the upcoming work the next day.

The main project of the mission was to build 4 goat sheds for 4 families in the region. The organization I am here with also sponsor children for their school fees, clothes, food etc. so these families each contained a sponsored child. We had no help from professional builders, only the knowledge of a few Ugandan helpers in each group. I found myself in charge of weaving the sticks on the walls of the hut. We used an extremely strong banana fiber to tie the sticks together to create a lattice in the walls. Each person in our 10 person group was made to work extremely hard and we also enlisted the children from the family to help us with certain chores. When I ran out of banana fibers to tie the walls my friend and I would yell out to the kids in our very butchered Ugandan "ekyayi kyibisi" which meant "wet fibers" and which we pronounced as "chi ichybisi." The kids began to laugh at our bad accents and kept saying the phrase over and over. The next day when we came back to work on the house we were greeted by the youngest child with that exact phrase. After yet one more day of yelling and screaming various phrases we ending up naming their new male goat after the shennigans while his female counterpart was called "benange" meaning "oh my goodness." The mother, grandmother, and 5 children were all so grateful for the shed we had built them and when we officially left and prayed for the family the grandmother began to cry with joy as she continually gave her thanks to God. Apparently this was the norm at the other 3 sites our team had built sheds so I think we really touched the village and hopefully for the right reasons.

On the first night of the trip, a very curious schoolteacher had stayed to watch us arrive. He had a habit of grabbing one of us at a time and taking us aside to have a 'word.' I got my turn just before bed on the first night and was quite humored by the end of the conversation. Isaac, as was his name, had been praying for a white woman to be his wife for the past few years. He has a friend who is the product of racially diverse parents and he thinks that his friend is a beautiful person. The night before we arrived he had a dream about white people and he said that when we did eventually arrive his prayers had been answered. While he greeted us all he noticed that one girl was kind enough to introduce herself to him before he got to her. Immediately Isaac found his heart locked onto hers and for the majority of my conversation with him he was trying to get background on this girl and proclaim his love for her. Needless to say that Isaac's prayers weren't answered quite as he had hoped as we left with a full group including one very freaked out girl who apparently is too nice for her own good!

On the final night of the trip, the boys sleeping outside in tents were awoken at the sound of screaming. This screaming continued through to morning and turned to weeping at around 6am. The others of us woke up to the news that a girl from the village had died in the night from a mysterious cause. News was uncovered later during the day that the girl had been seeing a witchdoctor(one who deals in evil spirits and curses) for a few days previous to her death and had been in perfect health beforehand. I have no right or knowledge to comment on the legitimacy of these rumors or practices but it definitely scared us all. As a sign of respect in the culture we all visited and prayed for the family before we left the region. It was a very solemn occasion, most of the village were there yet there wasn't a noise to be heard.

Overall, the trip was very successful. Each day at the primary school kids stuck around as we played with them, the goat sheds were all received well, and the team morale was good despite the difficulties.

We arrived back to Kampala again on Saturday evening on quite a special day, July 4th. We had planned to go to a party at the US embassy but as normal with things in Uganda, no-one knew what time it was and we ended up missing it. To make amends we bought bags full of marshmallows and roasted them over a fire. The Ugandans are all in love with the US so their voices made the national anthem loud enough to wake our side of town.

Since then things have been quite relaxed although we are about to begin our final week of ministry which is jam-packed once again. I hope I can reconnect with some of the kids I have already met and maybe create a few relationships that would continue as I return home. Thanks for all of your prayers, Tommy

Blessed are the poor

Well I'm already halfway through my trip and finding it quite hard to believe. I've been eating enough rice and beans that a common theme every meal time is to talk about the feast we will have when we arrive back to the US. One friend leaves for home on Monday and made a point of asking his parents to bring a big chocolate milkshake to the airport. I hope you are taking notes, mum and dad! Despite missing family, friends, and the familiarities of home, I will surely miss this place when I leave as well.

The greatest thing I have noticed in the ministry so far is how grateful and God-seeking the Ugandan people are. I think it can best be summed up by a few bible verses. Proverbs 27:7 reads "honey seems tasteless to a person who is full, but even bitter food tastes sweet to the hungry." I can certainly picture myself ordering a steak in the US and then sticking up my nose at the fact that it isn't quite cooked right inside. A child here will take any piece of food you give them with a smile without the slightest complaint. The most important thing is that this principle extends far beyond hunger. Everytime I greet someone in the town, pat a kid on the head, or shake hands with a schoolteacher, I get a very warm response. People in the western world are so full up on other things that the simplicities of life are taken for granted. When it comes to spirituality, Jesus got it spot on: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."(Matthew 5:3) Compared to us, these African people are certainly destitute when it comes to riches, food and health. With this destitution, they realize their need for something greater. An alternative translation of Matthew 5:3 is "Blessed are those who realize their need for Him..." With the comfortable lifestyle and many things to fill voids such as romances, sports, and consumables, it is hard for a westerner to realize a need for God. Many convert at difficult times in their lives when they have nowhere else to turn. Many who claim to be Christian and thank God for their blessings would far sooner give up their 'god' than the blessings He has bestowed upon them. It has been here that this point has become most plain to me.

We made a trip to a hospital for children with disabilities earlier this week. Each child has a parent stay with them while they are being treated. While half of our group gave a presentation to encourage the kids, the rest of us went amongst the parents and spoke to then about their troubles and toils. One question we asked often was how their relationship with God had fared during the suffering of their children. Every single parent said that it had been strengthened and that they were placing the youngsters conditions in His hands. This pure faith stunned me. To continue trusting in God at a time of great suffering is the mark of someone whose soul is desperately seeking.

That was a little hard to put into words and if anyone has a different interpretation of the above verses than feel free to tell me about it. One thing for sure is that the people I have met treasure their small blessings and the God that gives them far closer than many I know in the US.

Next week we make a trip to a village again. This time we are building a goat-shed for a family amongst other community service ventures. It will be another 5 day stretch with no electricity, showers, or city civilization so again I expect the least and will be pleasantly surprised with anything else.

Until next time, be safe and joyful, Tommy

Update one, just a wee bit late

Well here I am in a hole in the wall internet cafe in downtown Kampala. I have already used up 19 of my 40 minutes getting to this page so I hope I can type swiftly and get finished in time. I attempted to post the day after I arrived but after typing for half an hour the computer lost connection and my composition when I clicked submit. Since then we have been on a 5 day village trip where we had no Internet or reception. Actually I just managed to post the previous one, a draft saved on my profile thankfully.

The journey was long yet eventful. My flights got changed at the last minute due to overbooking, I enjoyed my first full English breakfast for such a long time in Amsterdam, my bags didn't arrive, and I had an interesting experience with some immigration officers. I arrived exhausted but was quickly awoken when my van driver entered the mayhem of Uganda traffic on the way to our accommodation. The look left that I am used to making in the US is useful even here because many drive on the wrong side of the road anyway!

I am staying in a small american style house in the city suburbs with around 25 american/british college students and another 15 ugandans of slightly older ages. We sleep 4 to a room, have cold water showers, a spot to pee in the yard(for guys), and a huge pot of rice and beans most days for meals. Within walking distance are stores that sell candy, marmite, french fries, and coke in glass bottles. At least 2 trips to these has been a norm so far. On the night I arrived I was told that soon we would be leaving for a group trip to the Northern part of Uganda which has been affected by the recent war. This was news to me and a little concerning since I had made of point of making sure I was staying far from that region. I was assured that it was all safe by the Ugandans and when no-one else seemed to be too worried I was satisfied. We took a 6 hour ride along dirt roads in a taxi van, fitting 18 people when only 14 should be seated, with no air conditioning. What should have been a nightmare was in fact one of my favorite car rides ever, everyone enjoyed eachothers company and was excited about the upcoming ministry. We arrived in Gulu and found our accommodation to be a step lower than Kampala - no electricity or running water, and the guys slept out in tents. The joke at the end of the 4 days was that we missed Kampala, our home!

While we were in Gulu we visited schools and gave assemblies and preached to the kids. It astounded me that if I wanted to I could have volunteered to preach to a high school of 300 kids. Instead I said an opening prayer and told them that I supported Liverpool, to much applause. Our ongoing project was to build a house for a family in the village whose parents had both died in the war. 9 children were living with their grandmother and had too little space. We spent at least 30 hours carrying bricks, sticks, bags of cement, tin sheets etc. many miles of fields and beaten down paths. The inefficiency was quite scary. One morning we spent a few hours moving bricks in one direction only to have to carry them back the same way when we changed the site for the house. I was involved in digging a hole for the toilet connected to the house. What started as shovelling away at some nice dirt became pick-axing at rocks after a couple feet. When the job became too much for us Westerners, the Ugandans stepped in a dug down to 10 feet deep with our cheerleading. The hard working ethos of these guys is quite astounding.

So far the ministry to children hasn't been very organized but basically wherever we go a following of village youngsters builds behind us. Most of them know some English, love to hold hands and give high fives, and love to stare! We play games with them, give them piggy back rides and judging by the smiles on their faces they thoroughly enjoy it.

One boy in our group has long brown hair and a beard and gets greeted almost anywhere as YESU, ugandan for our Saviour. The kids giggle at him and point and he loves to play along with the joke.

Well there are so many other things that we have been up to here that I'm overwhelmed by how much more I could type. We visited a refugee camp, had a accident with a sharp tool and someones face, had one of our group members bitten by a rat, and have been singing some of the coolest african praise songs.

Uganda is a beautiful country. The stars are the best I've seen, the weather is fantastic, the people are vibrant and smiling often, the culture is exciting, and it is full of God. Obviously there is still a lot to be done but I'm definitely glad to be here and continue His work.

I must go now. Tomorrow we get back into ministry in Kampala as we visit a juvenile detention home. I hope we can reach out there. Love to you all reading. I hope I can write again within a week. Thanks, Tommy

First impressions and an interesting day of travel

So here i am finally in uganda the place i had been planning for for so long. to apologize in advance, these posts may be short and not very gramatically corret, however i am using an on-screen keyboard to fill in letters that do not work on the standard keyboard which is a lengthy proess. well the excitment of the trip began in houston airport. as i was waiting to board the first flight, i heard the dreaded thing: my name being called over the loudspeaker. i approached the desk and was told that due to overbooking i was being moved onto a different flight that would take me directly to amsterdam and cut the travel time down. i grabbed my 8 dollar meal ticket for the now delayed departure and all was thankfully well. the first flight went well but then as i boarded for the seond flight i had another scare - my boarding pass was denied at the gate. apparently someone had removed me from the flight accidentally, kindof a strange thing i thought but didn't question anything when the hostess booked me back on it in no time. the flight, despite its length, was fine. arriving at uganda was an experiecne! we were greeted by a young boy wearing a gas mask as we all had to pass a swine flu check before we could go through immigration. a flu epidemic is something africa could do without so i wasnt at all irritated at this point. after paying 50 dollars for a stamp in my passport i walked over to the baggage claim only to see a whiteboard with my name on a missing bags list. it turned out that as they booked me back on the flight from Amsterdam they didnt put my bags back on. i waited over an hour to speak with a representative to help me with a claim for my luggage which came to a halt when i realized i didnt have a copy of the address i was staying at. the one copy i did have had already been turned in to the immigration officer. i was sent back to the immigration room only to find the officers sitting around and packing up the documents for the day. due to their lack of time to help search for mine, they gave me a stack and told me to search through all of the douents for my own. i cant quite imagine a us officer letting someone sift through other peoples private documents but oh well, TIA, this is africa, as i have been continuosly told. thankfully the man who came to pick john and i up from the airport was loyally waiting there as we came out. i opted to ride shotgun on the way to our accomodation, the first real eye opener of the trip. Cars sharing a lane, pedestrians crossing a road where cars travelled at speeds far too high to be legal, and strange roundabout systems which the local drivers apparently didn't understand or maybe that was me. i arrived at the house exhausted but couldnt sleep without being introduced to all of the people i was staying with. i sprayed myself with bug spray and sprawled out on my bed with the same clothes i had been wearing for the past 24 hours and would be for the indefinite future.

The time is nigh...

Well it's June 12 and this Sunday, June 14, I leave for Kampala, Uganda on my first mission trip. My friend John is also journeying with me. The preparation so far has been smooth but it is still a very abstract concept that in a few days we will both be in a far-off continent with very little familiarity except eachother.

When I got a minute of time alone yesterday, I got to thinking about the lives mine is about to intersect with: Young children living on the opposite side of the world, scraping by on their daily lives - and here am I, a young adult living with all the resources in the world, constantly surrounded by love and fellowship. In a few weeks I am going to be a part of their lives, and they a part of mine. How thankful I am that I have been blessed with this honor and responsibility. I struggle to understand why I was considered worthy of this task but it is my prayer that I will live up to the challenge and love these kids as the image of God they were created in.

I aim to update this blog at least bi-weekly with stories, thoughts, monologues, or anything else that comes to mind of value. I hope that if you continue to read over the weeks that you can gain some encouragement or humility from the work being done in Africa. I welcome any thoughts or comments you have in return. Speak soon,