Children, Children Everywhere!

 

We are now back at the BLRC after spending most of the day at Wabigalo. Wabigalo is one of the slums in Kampala where there is a church plant. Being a slum, there is incredible poverty, single parents, unemployment, disease, poor water availability and poor access to education. Kampala Church of Christ (KCC) has established a mission point in Wabigalo at a small elementary school. Most of the people who come on Sunday are children and a few of their mothers. The children love to come and sing, have Sunday school and then the regular service.

Today we had about 60 children who attended our health education and God the Potter classes. Before Nancy and I taught the kids who actually come to the church had prepared some songs of welcome for us. They did a wonderful job of singing, dancing and praising the Lord. I went next and talked about some basic health issues- brushing teeth, not smoking, clean water, and handwashing. I had some pictures of black lungs which was really shocking to them. They had a lot of questions about lung cancer and second hand smoke. They listened so well and seemed really engaged. In addition to Nancy and I, Vivienne, Abel, Peter, Francis, Isaac, Tazo and Fred went with us to the meeting.

Nancy did an awesome presentation with clay, talking about how God created us, and breathed life into us. Each child had a lump of clay and made a person they tried to breathe life into. It was a great object lesson but also challenging as their attention span was rapidly shortening. We then worked on a memory verse from Isaiah 64:8, "Yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, and You are the Potter." To each one who recited it, we gave a piece of candy and a foam flower sticker (everyone actually got something!). 

After that we played with a pop up tunnel, did face painting, jump rope, as well as karate and rapper picture poses. The kids love seeing themselves on the camera. There were too many kids there to pass out the pillow case dresses and boys' shorts, so we are going back on Sunday to them out to the kids who regularly are a part of the children's ministry there.

One minor comic relief item... Apparently this is the season for grasshoppers. Grasshoppers are big business. In western Uganda, there are thousands of collection sites for grasshoppers. They put up big floodlights over top of sloped sheets of tin. The tin ends in rain barrels which have sacks in them. The grasshoppers are attracted by the light, land on the tin and slide down into the barrels. They are then cooked- like stir fried with or without spices and eaten in great quantity. The sellers on the street even have take out containers if you don't want to stand there and eat them. Everyone I've asked about them always says, "Oh, you can make a lot of money from grasshoppers." Then they say, "but it's seasonal. " : ) Today in the class, one little girl had a small container with about 8-10 grasshoppers in it. We had to pause a few times as she found some more. We wanted to make sure she put it in her container. Another little boy found another 1 or 2 and Nancy tried to get him to put them in the other girl's container, not knowing you don't mess with someone's grasshoppers! They are serious business. I have promised I will try them while I'm here so I will let you know how they taste!

All in all, it was a fantastic time with the kids. God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good, that is His nature- as they say here!

More news from Kampala!

 

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 2^nd 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

Thanksgiving in Kampala

We spent Thanksgiving on Joy Lwanga's farm. Below are some  photos from our day.
We had a wonderful dinner which included pumpkin, sweet potatoes, greens, gravy, fresh turkey, rice, roasted banana and matoke.
Happy Thanksgiving blessings,
Jana & Nancy

 Cousins of our thanksgiving dinner in Kampala!

 Our turkey dinner!

A video from Isaac and the KCOC chicken project!

Isaac shows us KCOC fruits of labor ...  we love you Isaac!

Photos from Kampala, Uganda

 Francis Nsubaga, one of the leaders at the Kampala Church of Christ, heads the chicken project. Over fifty layer chicks were purchased to begin this project. The project was designed to not only help generate income for the church but also to be used as a demonstration project for those who might want to learn how to raise chickens.

A photo of the layer chicks from 2010 ... the chicks have turned into chickens and many eggs for the Kampala chicken project.

 Many eggs from busy chickens!

 Nancy gathering eggs!

     Nancy peeling boiled eggs.

 

Chairman Rebeccah and Secretary Annette of the Women of Grace Project. They are displaying the official letter requesting final certificate from the government for establishing their new business. Under the certificate are many projects including making and selling beads, the mushroom project, and sewing.

We're in Kampala!

Follow Nancy Harbron & Jana Treadway on a NCCOC Global Missions trip to Africa!

11/22/11 DAY 12: Kampala, Uganda

Hey Everyone,

I finally have access to the internet! It's been a while since I've written so there's no way I can catch you up on everything. But, I will try to share some key things with you.

We had a wonderful trip to Uganda last Wed. The smoothest small plane flight in Africa I've ever had! We unexpectedly flew through Bujumbura, Burundi so we got to fly over Lake Taganyika in Burundi and over Lake Victoria on the approach to Kampala.

The Queen Elizabeth Game Park was an amazing testimony to God's creation! I was overwhelmed by all the awesome animals we were able to see. James Okello, the preacher for the Kampala Church of Christ, and Rebecah, who operates the cafe at the church, accompanied us along with Andrew Lwere, who most of you met when he visited North Central a few years ago. His fiance, Kimberly, an American missionary from the Mbale team also was on the trip. The six of us plus our driver, Jovida, had a wonderful time going around the game park. We were in a van whose top opened so we could stand up and look out. We also took a boat ride on the channel between Lake Edward and Lake George in the game park. The highlight was definitely seeing a group of lions- 4 females and 3 cubs. We were able to follow them for about an hour and saw three chases of warthogs and cob, a type of antelope. We also saw a lot of elephants, hippos, tons of birds (including the Uganda national bird- the Crested Crane), a leopard (which is very rare to see), lots of different types of deer/antelope, Cape buffaloes, Colobus monkeys, baboons, and I can't even remember what else. If any of you have been to one of those drive through animal places like the Wilds, near Cincinnati, then you have a small taste of what it was like. It was so amazing to see all of these animals up close. The last night we were there, we came upon a lone female lion hunting and 2 young male lions. They got a little too close for comfort as we all dived back down into the van and tried to close the roof quickly!

Sunday morning worship at the Kampala Church of Christ was wonderful. We were able to attend both the Luganda and English services. We were warmly greeted by everyone here and all of the Christians send their warmest greetings to North Central. Everyone here knows Nancy AND loves Nancy! She did her God, the Master Potter Presentation as a part of the English service. People were paying very close attention. She did a great job! We visited and visited with people after the service. I was very happy to meet Joseph Irwaat and find him doing well. If you remember, he was attacked and sustained a skull fracture a little over a year ago. He still  has headaches and neck pain as well as some numbness in his right hand, but he praises God that his life was spared and he has so few limitations. He thanks everyone for their prayers and assistance that was given to him at the time of his attack.

That evening, Nancy and I attended the Living Streams ministry, the singles ministry, that is held at 5 pm. They decided to have a time of sharing- a lot like our Connect Services. Different people shared their testimony, some people sang songs (some of them original compositions) and we even had an acapella Christian rap "act." I don't know if his was original or not, but I really enjoyed it. We went out to dinner and visited with Isaac and Andrew that evening after the meeting. Isaac had been in Mbale for a graduation at Messiah Theological Institute and didn't get aback until around 6 pm. We had an awesome time catching up with him. He and Andrew are two of the most humorous guys I've ever met- both in Ugandan and American humor, kind of a rare thing!

Yesterday was a totally full day that I will save for another blog entry so as not to make this one too long. I have thoroughly enjoyed meeting these people I have prayed about and seen in pictures for so long. Some of their testimonies are unbelievable. I will share one with you in closing. I spent time with Violet today. She is a member here and part of the Women of Grace bead ministry. Before she became involved with the bead ministry, she used to suffer stress related heart pain due to worrying about how she would support herself and her 3 children. Her husband doesn't really support her and her children and spends time with other women. He lives several hours away. She wants all 3 of her children to go to school so they can have a better life. She came to church every Sunday, but when she became a part of the women's ministry she felt like she had found a second family. She is now able to partially support herself, send her 3 kids to school and no longer suffers chest pains from stress. She told me that the bead making is important, but more important is how her life has been transformed. She has grown closer to God through closer relationships with the other women. They pray for one another and support one another as they also study God's word together. She is so thankful that God is working in her life and through the church here. I will try to upload a picture tomorrow.

I have been very humbled at how little people have and how they are surviving by God's grace. We, as Americans, don't know how blessed we are. After seeing where some people live here and what they have been through and overcome, with God's grace, I have nothing to complain about. I have been trying to focus on gratitude in my life, and this trip has been a humbling reminder at how far I need to go on that.

Thank you all so much for your prayers for me and Nancy. God is blessing us so much by allowing us to come on this trip. I look forward to sharing more about it in future posts. Please continue to pray for our health, safety and our eyes to be opened to what God is trying to show us while we are here.

In Him,
Jana