Two days, two villages – a call to love

How can I even begin?  Just a year ago, my heart was changed forever.  The beautiful smiles of the children in a village too small to even be on a map altered the course of my life and set in to motion things I still don’t fully understand.  Yesterday and today Lloyd and I were blessed to visit the villages of Muleete and Kacungwa.  Let me start with yesterday’s visit to Muleete.

Some may have heard or read about Pastor Wilson from Muleete village.  Pastor Wilson began preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ in Uganda nearly 47 years ago.  This man of God has started over 100 churches, currently oversees 2 ARM Child Development Projects responsible for over 600 children and personally cares for nearly 76 orphans.  Pastor Wilson is a very quiet man that has fought evil, preached, loved and cared for children who have now moved on to become some of the leaders in Ugandan government and industry.  At one point, Pastor Wilson was imprisoned under Idi Amin and was sentenced to be killed for his faith in Christ.  He prayed in prison that if God would save his life, he would care for children.  And care he has…  His wife Juliette oversees the Jabez school, church and child development located at his home in Mubende, Uganda, while he oversees the Muleete school, church and medical clinic (all located East of Mubende about 10 miles).

Joseph (the Nurse at the Muleete medical clinic), Pastor Wilson, and Simon Peter (Project director)

Here are some pictures of some of the children at Muleete Village.  Lloyd is always a great hit with the children when he draws pictures for them and they are always fascinated by the hair on our arms.  They are always laughing and so interested just to see the Muzungu (white person). 

There are many children at this project who are unsponsored and they do not have as nice of uniforms because they cannot afford new ones regularly and generally get a cup of porridge for lunch every day.  For those of you who did not follow our trip last year, many of these children only get hot meals at school, so this is the best meal they may  have in a day.

Pastor Wilson has also started a community water oversight project.  A donor provided a well, solar powered pump, large water tank and subsequently they have run water “taps” to 4 locations throughout the village providing clean water.  The villagers pay a small fee for access and use of the clean water and in turn have an elected board of commissioners who oversee the maintenance and repair of the water facilities.  Prior to having this water source, internal sickness was very common and caused the deaths of many young children in the village.   In the pictures below, Pastor Wilson is showing Lloyd a water tap that is broken and waiting for repair and the other is the solar panel powering the pump that delivers water up the hill to the holding tank.

While we were very tired at the end of the day, Pastor Wilson and his wife invited us to town for supper at the Pride Travelers Hotel (yes, the same one we stayed at last year – this year we had no riots though!).  The next morning we stopped by the Pastor’s house and were shown the Jabez school and received wonderful welcomes by the students there.  The sound of their singing was just beautiful – even more so when accompanied by the many song birds in the area.  There is a vision to acquire 50 acres of land to plant more crops than they are already growing to be a self-sustaining project.

That was Monday . . . and it was a short day as we spent well over half the day traveling from Ggaba to Mubende district.  It was a relief for us to get away from the madness of the city traffic.  The other thing we saw was the beauty of the country of Uganda!  The landscapes, trees, everything is incredibly beautiful.  It is very hard to understand how, in such a beautiful, fertile land so many can be so poor and hungry.  There are still so many questions that I have about why God allows this to happen and when Jesus said that there would be poor with us always – is this what He meant?  For both Lloyd and I, it has been an emotional couple of days.  Joy at the beauty of the land and the children and great sorrow at the suffering and poverty.

I just wish there was a way I could put it into words.  I try, but my effort seems to be so lacking.  Pictures without the sounds, smells and feel do not capture the feelings adequately.  To see a child with open sores on her head bow on the ground in respect and smile with dirty teeth both makes you cry and thank Jesus for providing the moment to love this child – even just a little.

Today we traveled to the village of Kacungwa.  I was personally looking forward to today because of my sponsored children, my many friends there and the way this small village has changed my heart.  Driving up the road to the village was like a home-coming for me.  As we drove up, the children were all receiving their new uniforms (bright green shirts and dark green pants/ skirts).The uniforms make the children stand out as Kacungwa students dressed so smartly in their new clothes.

When we arrived, I was about knocked over as Pastor Sylver’s wife came running out to give me a hug.  Followed by all of our great friends, Pastor Sylver, Yoram, Rose, Jackson – all were there!  What a blessing.  We walked inside the office and promptly my 3 children, Gorret, Shafiki & Joel were brought in.  It is not common for men (or anybody) in Uganda to cry, but I surely did as I hugged “my” children.

I had tried to prepare for that moment for several months now, but was still caught unprepared for the emotion of the minute.  I write, send money and enjoy keeping up with my sponsored children from a distance, but to actually be here holding them again was – sweet!

After recovering enough to be seen in public again, we walked over to the church building again to receive a proper welcome from the children.  We listened as they sang and danced for us – you would have had to hear an African children’s choir to truly understand what it sounded like.  It went well beyond the typical “welcome visitor” songs and broke into full-out worship.  At one point I looked over at Lloyd and he was jumping up and down with the children as they all sang.  We sang, prayed and worshiped – all the same God and savior Jesus Christ, these children from a small village in Uganda and the two visitors from America.

It is getting very late here and I’m beyond tired, but wanted to try and get this written while it was still fresh in  my mind.  We have a lot of work that we are doing beyond our own spiritual journeys here and we spent the remainder of the time at Kacungwa assisting with computer planning, needs assessment and repair.  Lloyd seemed perfectly content to play iPad checkers with Pastor Sylver – some of the best “Mary” time that either of us has spent this trip!

It would be unfair of me to my body to continue too much longer (not that I have a choice), but there were a couple of special requests that I received before going to Kacungwa, so here they are:

Isaac Williams asked me to look up  his sponsored child Daniel – give him a hug, tell him that he loves him and is anxious to see him when he travels to Uganda this summer.  Isaac, mission accomplished – hug, love and message delivered!  By the way, be sure to look at the CCC blog from last year to read the full story behind Daniel and Isaac!!!

 

 

Next, my parents, Frank & Diane Howard, asked me to deliver a BEAVERS t-shirt to their sponsored son, Emmanuel, tell him that they love him, are proud of him and pray for him all the time.  This had the added pleasure for me of introducing some Beaver-nation colors into Uganda!

 

 

As an added bonus for Ashley Davis (would somebody please make sure she reads this?)  I found this beautiful little girl named Pleasure.  She captured all of our hearts last year with her beautiful smile!

 

 

 

And last, but certainly not least, there are a couple of requests from Canby Christian Church.

1.  Tell the people of Kacungwa that they are loved, prayed for and that the team from Canby is SO excited to see them in July.  That message was delivered and I can assure you that everybody from the two trips is remembered by the children – and I mean everybody!!! 

2.  Check on the status of the land for the clinic in Kacungwa.  The sale is about to complete and here are some pictures of the land.  It is in a market trading center about a mile from the Kacungwa school and church – very busy and well situated.  There are currently some banana trees being grown there, but soon will be the host of a much-needed medical clinic.  Here are a couple of pictures:

As you may have read earlier, there was a medical mission team from Gulu University who conducted a 2-day screening at Kacungwa (praise God for this!).  I learned today that because of this screening they discovered a large number of students with Malaria and also respiratory illness caused by poor sanitation practices.  The children were able to be treated and education was provided to address sanitation practices.  Unfortunately, this was for sponsored children and the sister of my sponsored daughter died of malaria because there was no treatment available.  It is through the grace of God and the contribution of God’s people that this clinic will soon be a reality.

3.  Again, if you followed the CCC blog from last year, you will recall that when we visited a local high school and shared the gospel with the students and prayed with them, 153 of them accepted Christ as their savior.  Following that, we were told that a church was going to be planted there in the area that does not have a Christian church and there is much withcraft (as many of us who prayed with the children discovered).  When I asked about the status of the church, it is a thriving church, Yoram (the project director at Kacungwa) pastors there Sundays and one evening a week.  It continues to draw new students and is a light for Christ in the community.

Today was a blessing beyond words for me.  Now were are in a dormitory at Africa Renewal University where I will be for the next 3 days and Lloyd for tomorrow.  We are both 6’ 3” sleeping in Ugandan student beds about 5’ 9” and covered by mosquito nets.  Lloyd jokingly reminds me that I should keep my day job (if I ever get one again) and not be a travel agent!  However, given all of the conditions, the theory of relativity says we are truly blessed men.

God bless you, thank you for your prayers and it is in the name of Jesus we pray and we believe!

Dave