Greeting you from Kampala!
Hello Everyone from Jana and Nancy! We are enjoying fresh milk coffee prepared by Tazo at the church building/BLRC as we wait to go out to Wabigalo. Wabigalo is a church plant where there are a lot of children. Nancy will do a modified Potter's presentation for the kids and I will do a modified health talk for the kids on handwashing, first aid, toothbrushing, etc. We'll also do some fun crafts with the kids and visit their homes in the village.
We have had an amazing last few days. I can't even remember where I left off with blogging so I will just pick up where I can remember. I am continually humbled by the incredible obstacles people have overcome and how eager they are to give God all the glory for His provision and care. We have met and shared with so many people.
On Wednesday, we went to Francis' home. He is one of the church leaders who does a lot of evangelism and really has a heart for ministry. He lives in a compound surrounded by his extended family. He also has the heart of an entrepreneur. He is in charge of the Kampala Church of Christ Chicken Project as well as going out to preaching points, doing home Bible studies, working his own garden of yams and sugar cane. He was able to share his testimony of how he came to the Lord and what an impact the church has had on him. As we visited his home area, he pointed out a plot of land he'd like to use to start a youth center for children's ministry. Apparently parents here don't spend a lot of time with their children or really have the concept of bringing up a child in the "nurture and admonition of the Lord." This is even more apparent when the parents aren't Christians. His family prepared a wonderful meal of matoke (boiled and mashed cooking bananas), rice, beans, peas, potatoes, pumpkin, greens and a fruit we never had before. We met his mother who is in her 70's and told us stories of Francis' childhood. We also had a wonderful discussion with Francis, Fred (another church leader) and Willington ( a church member who has been driving us around). They have some wonderful visions for the church and ideas for future ministry. Nancy was really able to help them conceptualize and start seeing the big picture with her gift of program management. It was a really blessed time.
Not so blessed was the long drive back of a few miles that took almost 2 hours. I have literally never seen traffic like this in my life. In West Africa, there are cars, trucks, motorcycles, bikes, pedestrians but Kampala takes the prize in gridlock. We sat at an intersection for at least 30 minutes while a traffic policewoman had traffic go the other way. I jokingly asked if there were emission laws here in Uganda. Willington's quote was "you (vehicles) can smoke as much as you want!" This was as we were following a truck belching black, foul smoke. Anyone with asthma would have a hard time here.
On Thursday, we visit Joy Llwanga's farm. Joy is a member of the church who is a widow as well as an entrepreneur. She was able to take a course in entrepreneurship for women and gives God the glory for a grant she received to buy land to farm as well as start her own chicken project. Her chickens now lay enough eggs that she has a contract with 2 large supermarket chains to supply them with eggs. She prepared an awesome Thanksgiving meal and had even killed and prepared a turkey for us. She knew it was our American holiday and honored us with the turkey! Our African Thanksgiving meal included matoke, rice, boiled pumpkin, boiled yam, greens, peas, potatoes with mayonnaise and fresh squeezed juice. We had a great visit with her and toured her smaller farm that surrounds her house.
We finished up the day by visiting Kampala Baptist Church (KBC) to speak with one of their assistant pastors, Johnson Mayaga, who was so gracious to meet with us for about 2 hours. We learned a lot from him about ministry, what is needed and his perpective on what is needed in partnership with America. The Kampala C of C works with KBC on some things. KBC is officially licensed to have weddings performed. This is where Isaac and Sheba's wedding will take place. We learned a lot that we will be sharing with the global missions team when we return.
When we returned last night to the church, we had a wonderful time visiting with 2 young guys- Tazo and Michael ( aka Blaza Blaza). These 2 guys have been through a lot to get to where they are now. If you have talked with Nancy about Kampala, you have probably heard of them. Michael came to Kampala to find work when he was about 17. He lived on the street, sold muffins around town and had a very difficult time. God graciously provided him the opportunity to go to school and he has excelled. He is in his 2nd year of a business management degree and takes his education very seriously. He is also a young leader in the church actively involved in evangelism, Bible studies and leading the worship at church. Tazo is a young guy who is an orphan and lives at the church center and is going to school. He was sharing how he was forced to survive on the streets by finding cast off onion peels on the trash dump and ended up selling them just to get food to eat for the day. He had a lot of friends that also were forced to live on the streets and are now dead or in prison because they turned to thievery instead to scrapping to work. Tazo is also an amazing young leader in the church involved in ministry. His joy of life is infectious and unbelievable considering all he has been through. God has been watching over him and helped him survive some pretty horrifying experiences. We closed the evening by sharing Psalm 139 with them, about how God is always with us even when the darkness surrounds us. Michael prayed for us before we walked next door to our hotel for the night.
I wish you all could be here to meet and get to know some of these amazing people. North Central is doing an amazing ministry by partnering with the church here. We hope you all had a blessed day full of Thanksgiving and praise to God for all the ways He has blessed us. Although we were far from our homes and families, we were so blessed to be with the family of God here!
Blessings,
Jana & Nancy
