Home Stretch

It is Thursday, March 21 in Uganda.  Dave and I are at different locations once again.  He is in Northern Uganda in Gulu, doing organizational work for a brand-new medical ministry.  I returned late Wednesday night to Gaba, to Pastor Peter’s home where we have stayed while here.  Dave’s blog gave an excellent overview of the last three days at New Hope Uganda.  I’ll just add some personal thoughts of my experience.

Going back to Saturday, we had a much needed “down” day.  After 10 days of basically non-stop activity, we both really needed a day off.  We sat on the second floor of our little “apartment” and watched birds and reflected on what we had seen and heard.  Saturday night was fun as we spent an evening with Michael Kirungi and his young Ugandan family and ate more local food.  Michael is a young entrepreneur who is starting his own safari business.  Sunday we went to worship at Pastor Peter’s church.  It probably seats 400 or more and by 11 it was packed.  The worship combined familiar choruses with African songs.  The focus of the service was “God is our Healer”.  Pastor Peter gave a balanced sermon that taught the value of prayer, medicine and a healthy lifestyle.  The congregation laughed when he said he was once again preaching against too much pork!  At the end of service, Pastor invited those seeking healing to come forward.  I think at least 100 persons went forward.  Peter and his staff prayed for and anointed each one.

With Pastor Peter on our porch

 

We enjoyed another Ugandan meal on Sunday afternoon with Apollo (Michael’s brother) and his family.  We had such a good time with Apollo’s children!  Apollo and I traded jokes as well – he does some stand up comedy! 

 

 

Monday was another busy day.  We started with a long trip up to Luweero, where New Hope Uganda is located.  We were picked up at ARM HQ by Devin Hiller, who was our main contact and coordinator for our visit.   We stopped at the American embassy to pickup Tal Anderson, operations manager for NHU.  We began our briefing on the way to New Hope. As I mentioned, Dave does a great job in his post giving your the details of the ministry. 

We stopped before leaving Kampala at one of the “outpost” ministries of New Hope, called Investment Year (IY) House.  This is a transitional house for high school graduates, to prepare Uganda students for life outside the ministry compound.  We were greeted by Steve (he has a last name but I can’t recall it).  He is from England and has a real heart to help young Ugandans gain true self-sufficiency.  They are also producing Ugandan coffee as an enterprise – we enjoyed a taste and he offered us a bag to bring home.  I was also tickled to find out he was a fan of Downton Abbey!

After a drive through many small towns and lots of road work, we arrived a NHU.  We were very pleased with the beautiful home that would be ours for a couple of days.  Then we were off to our first official meeting with NHU’s management team.  We listened to them describe their ministry and their goals, while thinking of how technology might help them help their kids. 

We had dinner the first night with the founders, Jay Danger and Jones Bikimi.  This ministry is co-led by them both.  Jay is a westerner but born in the Congo as a missionary kid and called to Uganda.  Jones is a proud Ugandan and a natural story teller.  I was struck by the deep walk with God each of these men has, as well as the contrast in the personalities.  Jay is cordial but reserved while Jones has a huge personality and laughs constantly.

We had breakfast the next day with Tal, his wife Anne and his four kids.  They have been in Uganda about four years.   He is originally from Arizona and she is from Seattle.  Tal had asked me what we would like for breakfast – I said “BACON!” and guess what, we had BACON!  We also had something I had not seen since arriving in Uganda – ICE!! (see picture below).

 

After  breakfast we walked over to the office, where we met up again with Devin, who provided us with a walking tour of the grounds of NHU.  What impressed us both is how well planned the community is, along with the devotion of each staff member to spreading the gospel and  providing positive Christian parenting to the students. 

  

We had lunch with Jones and his wife Gertrude.  They gave us more background on the start of the ministry and how difficult it was in the 80’s after the war in Uganda.  Jones also kept us laughing with his stories of a trip to North Dakota in the winter.  Having never seen snow before, his best description of a blizzard was “flying milk”!  (Jones is also a dairy farmer…)

We had another meeting with staff that afternoon and got into more details about how we might assist them with technology.  Their primary focus is adding a 30-station computer lab for secondary students.  We also saw a need for centralization and improvement in internet connection (which is everywhere in Uganda).

We ended Tuesday evening with another traditional Ugandan meal and a warm time of fellowship with the management team of NHU.  I was struck by the family feel of the ministry team.  This is part of their culture, that each staff is a father or mother to every student here.  And they treat each other as relatives, even referring to one another as Aunt or Uncle in conversation, even away from the children.

On Wednesday, Dave traveled to Gulu while I stayed at New Hope one more day.  This was the day they scheduled me to teach not one, not two, but three Bible lessons to their high school students.  The first session was with grades S1 and S2 (sort of like our 8th and 9th grades).  The story was of the miraculous catch in Luke 5.  My focus was the transformation of Peter – Jesus was an interruption to his day – yet he obeyed the Master’s requests and eventually left all to follow Him.  The second session with S3 and S4 (grades 10-11) was on watching out for false teaching.  Our men’s study (back in Salem) provided a great source for this lesson.  Finally, both groups came together for the final lesson.  I had prepared an extensive talk on having a Biblical world view.  About 10 minutes into my 30 minute talk, something happened to my iPad and my notes were GONE!  I just had to trust the Lord and my failing memory for the remainder.  He is faithful even if my brain is not! 

During lunch, I sat with several of the students and was grateful that they had “gotten” much of the messages.  That warms a teacher’s heart and I hope the heart of God.

I finished my day with a three hour Q&A with Tal.  We devised a plan for him to lead his team through a strategic planning effort.  We also talked about staff evalutation and monitoring.  I really enjoyed this, although by the end, I was exhausted.  We said our good byes at 6 Wednesday evening. 

My trip back to Gaba took about three hours.  My driver Jack is an interesting fellow.  He has driven for Ugandan celebrities but now works for ARM.  He pointed out some “interesting” sites in Kampala as we traveled through at night.  Such bustling activity!  The markets never seem to close and people are everywhere!  I was amazed that no pedestrians were hit, because they dart in and out of traffic, just like during the daylight hours.

I was so happy to arrive again at Pastor Peter’s house.  As I got out of the van, Eva, a young girl who helps at the house came up with my key and gave me a hug.  Little 5-year old Isaac (Peter’s son) came running up excitedly! (Dave, he wanted to know where you were!)   It felt somewhat like coming home – to my Ugandan family.  Such love can only be experienced in the Christian family, I think.  And how much I am looking forward to coming home to my family in Oregon as well!!

That’s all for now.  Off to breakfast a a full-day back at ARM HQ.  Then on Friday, off to our safari adventure!