Somehow

It has been a few days now that I’ve been home.  At least I think that’s the case – time  has become a bit of a blur after a 32 hour trip home and the loss of 9 hours.  Jet lag doesn’t really describe the impact on my sleep cycle.  Exhausted and sitting up at 2am is not something that is anywhere near normal for me.  I would like to say that I’ve had plenty of time to think things through, but my brain still doesn’t work quite right and is just crying out for sleep. Hopefully I will get over it soon and reacclimatize to Colorado time, weather, food and elevation.

It’s been just over 6 months since I left my work at the Oregon Department of Justice and moved to Colorado (8 months for Debbie & Ryan).  Everything that has happened since that time has been geared to this trip and it has been my hope that somewhere along the way it would become clear to me what “the answer” is.  I thought that maybe God would speak clearly to me and I would know the plan.  I wanted to learn whether it is His desire that I continue this path of work and that He would show me how I am going to be able to pay the bills.  Somehow, I expected an answer but none came – at least that I’m aware of.

Instead, I learned a lot about the need for the work, spent time with some very inspiring people and discovered just how blessed I was to be able to spend this time in Uganda with them.  As I reflect on my time in Uganda and have tried to clarify in my own mind what it was about THIS trip that made it so special, it would have to be the people!  Below are some pictures of the people I was so privileged to spend time with and get to know better! 

I would like to take time in this post to try and write something about each person whose pictures are here – and the many who aren’t here – but don’t have the time or space.  These are servants of God working together in ministry and fellowship to meet the needs of the poor in Uganda.  Each one has his or her own unique role in God’s work in Uganda.

Something that was very different about this from my trip last year is that I really didn’t have that much time with the young children.  It was difficult because I love them so much, but what I found instead was perhaps more beneficial for me to understand.  Where I spent most of my time was around the upcoming leaders in Uganda and those responsible for preparing them for the work ahead to change a nation.

The work to feed and care for the children in need is very important, don’t get me wrong.  The children must be enabled to survive and thrive to become fruitful young adults.  However, by continuing to focus just on the young children, we are only treating a symptom.  We must work to enable the young adults of Uganda to become leaders in their own country where they will be addressing the problems faced daily and finding solutions to the corruption that plagues the country.  Ministries and schools are providing Christ-centered education and instilling integrity and a Christian worldview that will provide the foundation for a future of hope.

As I found particularly in Luweero and Gulu, what was missing in the lives of people devastated by so many years of war and terror was hope - hope that is only found in the gospel and salvation in Jesus Christ.  I heard people tell me that there is no thought that they can ever strive to be happy.  I saw people who had been given hand-outs by well-meaning relief organizations, but are no better off than they were before (in fact, I would argue that they are worse off because of the years of becoming dependent on outside aide and not developing a sense of contribution to their own welfare).

The amount of work that needs to be done is absolutely overwhelming. In Uganda, I found myself constantly challenged by doubt and uncertainty. One night, the feeling of discouragement was so oppressive that it felt like it was literally smothering me in the intense blackness of the African night. All I could do in the dark was call out to Jesus for help -- it was the only thing I could do.

As I prepare to celebrate Easter, what has been guiding me is that Jesus taught to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength; and love your neighbor as yourself.”  I’ve been focused on the work, Uganda, family, financial needs and so many other things, but God reminds me constantly that I need to seek Him first and to love Him above all.  Out of that love of God flows the ability to love others as they should be loved.

So, as I move ahead to find where God is leading my life, it is this relationship with God that I must focus on and and in faith trust that He will make the way – somehow.

Thank you for following along on this journey, for your support and most of all for your prayers.

It is in the name of our risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that we pray and we believe!

Dave

Gulu: Recovery in the North

For many months now, I have been working with a group of medical students studying to become doctors at Gulu University Faculty of Medicine in Gulu, which is located in Northern Uganda.  Most of  you are aware of Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), which actually is not in any way related to God, but rather is evil and has delivered terror in all of Northern Uganda, Southern Sudan and other areas nearby for the past 25 years.  Children were abducted by LRA soldiers and boys were made into “children soldiers” and girls turned into sex slaves.  Families were brutally murdered and anyone who spoke against them had their lips cut off and their faces mutilated – there is still much obvious evidence when you simply walk down the street.

I spent much of my day on Thursday hammering through a number of documents for the purpose of registering the student association as an NGO so they will have the ability to begin receiving funds, performing projects and become officially recognized as a Non-Governmental Organization in Uganda.  Already they have been performing some medical missions, community education and other work.  One local radio station has agreed to provide the students free airtime to broadcast educational programs geared at teaching the local population about disease prevention (malaria, HIV/AIDS, Typhoid, sanitation practices to reduce digestive tract and respiratory diseases, etc).  NOTE:  The way that the connection with the radio station manager was made is that the lady who runs the radio station has a car for hire which Obura rented to come pick me up from New Hope Uganda.  As they were preparing the paperwork for the car, they got discussing the work the students are doing and she had a heart to help, so offered the free airtime – God continues to surprise me in the ways He works!!!

I will spare you the grueling details of 10 hours of editing documents, suffice it to say we made a lot of headway and have the revised version ready for all of the initial board members and the lawyer to review.  Thursday evening, I hosted a dinner for the team at the hotel I was staying in – the Acholi Inn in Gulu.  It was an amazing evening of listening to the students share stories of why they were wanting to use their skills to help in Northern Uganda.  Each spoke with passion and conviction of serving God and helping the people who are in such desperate conditions here.  Hundreds of thousands of people fled to IDP (Internally Displaced Person) camps and have lived there for many years.

The government has recently ordered all IDP camps closed and people are returning to their villages to find no infrastructure, medical care, water – and little hope.  While Obura was picking me up at New Hope Uganda, we had a chance to meet with the leadership team of NHU to see if there are ways that the students can work with that ministry – either providing medical care or broadcasting educational programs on their radio station.  Obura learned the story of how NHU got its name and was touched by it.  So much so that we decided to rename the project, which was initially called “Quality Health for All” to “Health to Hope” (H2H).  The idea is that we can bring spiritual, physical and emotional healing which will lead to hope for a people who have been lacking for so long.

Friday was a busy morning with meetings.  The first was with a catholic nun named Sister Rosemary who runs a school and clinic in Gulu, as well as being well connected with many people in Northern Uganda and Southern Sudan providing medical care.  Just listening to her for a short time, you could hear the passion she has for providing care and the underlying determination to do even more.  She told me stories about the lack of medical care and how hard it is to get anything even close to quality health care here.  Sister Rosemary is working with an organization called Pros for Africa as well as having a close relationship with both the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University.  (NOTE:  I truly believe the sister is very smart in this as she kind of smiled when she said something about “using the inherent competition between the two universities” to encourage them to do even more!)  UO & OSU provide medical and law student medical teams.  In addition to the Universities, she has gotten many medical professionals from Oklahoma to partner with her (remember the Due Unto medical team we met in Kacungwa?).

We talked for nearly an hour and agreed that there are many things that the Hope to Health team can do to work with her and Obura will continue to develop this relationship.  The sister is in the US frequently (in fact will be in Oklahoma next month).  The first picture I ever saw of sister Rosemary was with the Oklahoma Thunder basketball team – she looked even shorter than the picture above with me.  She laughed hard when I told her that and she said that she has never felt so short as when she was with the basketball team. 

Next I met with an organization called BOSCO-Uganda.  BOSCO stands for “Battery Operated Systems for Community Outreach”.  I had learned of this organization through internet research in preparation for the work I’m doing here.  They continually seemed to pop up and when I saw what they did and where they were located, I decided that I should try to meet with them (they just happened to be located in Gulu, conveniently located between sister Rosemary’s school & clinic and the hotel I was staying).

This organization provides computers and training to Northern Uganda’s desperate communities.  They  have built their own microwave network to connect these communities tied to a central datacenter and also providing internet access.  They use solar power to provide power to the computers and focus on Web 2.0 technologies for teaching students (Google Apps, gmail, etc).  They have developed extensive training materials and also train local people in the community to run the lab and provide training to their community. 

 

A sign in front of the BOSCO computer lab in Gulu; the “Digital drum” hanging on the wall outside of the lab; a couple of the dedicated people at BOSCO Uganda that I met with.

 

 

They have worked with UNICEF to come up with something that they call the “digital drum”.  It is effectively a 55-gallon drum cut out and equipped with 2 computer workstations.  It is completely self-contained and also completely weatherproof.  I couldn’t get too good of a picture myself of the one they have in their office because there were so many people gathered around it.  This organization, in many ways, is touching on exactly what I had envisioned – using technology to fundamentally improve the quality of life for people in Uganda.  One innovative thing that they  have done is to create a “digital marketplace”.  It is a simple intrAnet application that allows people to advertise goods and services for sale.  They include their phone number or other contact information for people using the system to respond to.  It was reported to be very well used and loved by the people there.

While this visit was not directly related to the work with the medical students, as we talked, we learned that there is the opportunity to incorporate the medical education with the technology education programs in the communities and their web site.  This is certainly something that I will be following up on and pray that God will use this in a positive way.

Finally, it was time to leave Gulu and head to Pakwach for a day of Safari in Murchison Falls National Park. More on that later, but we did have a couple of very scary “too close for comfort” encounters with elephants!  Below are just a few of the pics from our encounter with one elephant and others from our time in the park.

God bless you and am anxious to get home!

Dave

A Stranger in a Strange Land

This is something that has been on my heart since almost the time I landed in Uganda this trip and am finally going to attempt to write out my thoughts.  It’s taken a few days, and not sure it fully captures what I’m feeling & thinking, but it’s an attempt.  Many things happen when you’re in Uganda and this is my story of one such thing, somehow.

When I came here last year, it was such an emotional and spiritual experience that I didn’t really   have a chance to try and understand how truly different the culture the land and the people are here.  It was very obvious to me right from the moment I stepped off the plane that Uganda was far different than the US.  When we got out to the village and saw the condition of the children, it became more and more obvious that I had never experienced anything like this country before in my life.

This trip, it was almost familiar when I stepped off the plane, walked into the Entebbe Airport and rode into Kampala.  I was welcomed by friendly people that we had not yet met and I have been blessed to re-connect with some friends made over the last year.  As nice, friendly, welcoming and encouraging as everybody here has been, it is obvious that I am a foreigner here.

One of the most obvious differences is that I am 6’ 2” and white-skinned (muzungu).  I tend to stand out from the crowd.  With Lloyd (same height and skin), we really stand out.  Everywhere I go, I find people staring, waving, children wanting to touch me (not that I mind that at all) and generally feel like I’m living in a fishbowl.  It is refreshing to get time at night in a room where it is quiet and I am alone with God.

 

Even those times are foreign though.  At night, I am always under a mosquito net, sleeping (or trying to) on very hard foam beds in the sweltering heat.  The constant smells that filter through the air are most often “unique”.  From pig farms to burning garbage to the smell of the flowers and other plants here – none is really familiar.

The food is different – even the names are strange to me:  Matoke, Posho, Chabatta, Cassava, g-nut sauce and so on.  Some foods are more familiar (potatoes, rice, noodles) though spices and preparation still render them “different”.  Meat is rare and often hard to distinguish exactly what it is (thank you God for Irene’s fried chicken the other day – about the first meat I recognized and it reminded me of home!). One day I had noodles & beans for lunch – I think a first for me.  Meals are eaten at different times than we’re used to (8am, 1pm & 8pm).  It’s a very starch-rich diet with little protein.  We see school children eating only a cup of porridge for lunch and kind of puts things in perspective however.  Note to self:  quit complaining about the food I have to eat!

Showers are a very unique experience.  Many places we have been  do not have hot water, some have used the entire bathroom floor as a drain.  This morning, I had a shower with barely a trickle to shower with (which may be for the best because it was cold water).  We’ve been fortunate to have western toilets for the most part – though Africans seem more comfortable with the “squatters”.   We’ve been able to avoid learning new techniques…

As I parted company with Lloyd again yesterday, I climbed in a car with two young men from Gulu to travel about 200 miles north.  As we talked about all different subjects and watched the changing landscape, I started feeling that I’ve truly stepped out “alone” into the heart of Africa.  Even the houses changed – now most I see have grass roofs instead of the corrugated metal I’ve become used to further south.  It really looks like “Africa”.

Everything from checking into a hotel, purchasing food,even just  hearing people speak leaves me feeling quite the foreigner.  I am staying in a hotel that caters to westerners, though I have not yet met another American here.  I’ve met people from Japan, the Netherlands and Great Britain.

The trees are different.  The animals are different.  The language is different.  The stores are different.  TV is VERY different (I actually turned the TV for only about 1 minute last night).  Sounds are different (sleeping next to an Islamic mosque is different).  Even when we went for an “American” meal, the hamburger was not quite hamburger, fries not quite fries and the milkshake contained a lump of something not quite ice cream.  The only coffee (with one glorious exception) I’ve been offered is Nescafe dehydrated.  There are some glimpses of Americana we’ve had since we’ve been her that have given us a respite and time of refreshing and comfort!!! 

Something I learned this afternoon that really surprised me is that at least some of the people here do not feel like happiness is something that they can ever hope for or attain.  This came up in a discussion about some planning work I’ve been doing with the medical students here.  When we were discussing goals of the organization, we talked about the desire for people to strive to be happy in life.  I could tell by the look on his face that something was wrong.  I asked if that was something that people tried to achieve here and he said simply: “no”.  Pressing for a little better understanding, he told me that life here is just hard and people have come to expect that they won’t be happy.  I don’t understand because I don’t live here.

Being a foreigner is not scary, it is just different.  Nothing feels quite right or comfortable.  I am, after all, just a visitor here and not a citizen.  This is not the place I grew up, not where my memories are from or where I will live.  My heritage and all of my experience is American.  I’m proud to be an American citizen and at the same time, am proud to be here in Uganda serving and doing Kingdom work with fellow believers.

As I have considered this throughout this trip, the following passage from the bible has repeatedly come to mind:

For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.

Philippians 3:20-21

As a Christian, I should feel as “foreign” in America as I feel in Africa.  I should know that my citizenship is in Heaven and live that way.  Have I gotten so comfortable with the American lifestyle that it surpasses my desire to live as a citizen of heaven?  If there is anything that has made me feel more at home here is the time of worship and prayer when I realize that we are all foreigners on this earth.

So maybe you should just call me Gershom!   (If you need a hint why, see Exodus 2:22)

Well, am about wrapped up with work so off to enjoy God’s creation with a short safari then fly home Monday afternoon.  Has been a most interesting and educational trip and I pray God gives me some guidance as to what is next in this foreign life.

God bless you,

Dave “Gershom” Howard