Carmen hugging the orphaned children at Bungoma.

June 14

We love Jesus!

Yesterday  we drove to see Kimalili and today we saw Bungoma.  We are finding that all of the schools are located in Christian friendly communities, were started by a single individual with a heart for children, and are now owned by boards of directors with the same goals.  It seems that someone in the community usually wants to help the orphans who are running around trying to survive.  Once the school starts, the school social workers help to find the families of the orphans or will help to attach the children with a family.  At the Bungoma school, there are 200 children of which 150 are orphans.  About 50 of the orphans have no family ties at all and stay at the school even through holiday breaks.  The common benefit to the communities is that the children are being taken care of and they are learning about Jesus.

Beans corn and onions being prepared over a wood fired stove for the children.

Dining out in Africa!

On another topic, let me tell you a little about what it is like to have a dinner in a poor country.  Last night we were told that the hotel restaurant would be open by 7:00 pm for dinner.  We arrived promptly at 7:00 pm feeling very hungry from a long day and noticed a few other folks already having dinner.  As in the USA, our drink orders were first taken.  For the party of eight, this took about 45 minutes as it took a while to understand the options and what was really available off the menu.  Once we were served basically soda and chai tea, our dinner orders were taken … over the next hour.  

The menu was very long with many choices and everything sounded good.  However, the restaurant did not have everything on the menu and the waitress could not tell us what the kitchen really had available.  Because the culture is to please, she would rather hope that we would ask for something that they had than to just tell us they were only serving chicken, fish and fries.  Soup sounded good to me and there were about six choices.  Every time I asked for a certain soup, she would go away and come back several minutes later to tell me they did not have it.  On my last try, she finally revealed that the store across the street did not carry the soup.  Apparently, they buy many of their ingredients from the store across the street as the customer orders from the menu. 

After about an hour and a half, Isaac decided it would be good to check on the progress. With a firm declaration he said he was going to find out what was happening and why the preparations were taking so long.  As he got up from his chair with great confidence, he slowly walked toward the kitchen door.  As he approached, he became more timid.  Then a tall Kenyan lady appeared at the door with a great big smile and you could see Isaac crumble.  Without a word spoken, he scrambled back to the table with no report.  Greeted with a lot of laughter from our table, he sat back down and decided to be patient. So, after two hours in total we were finally served.  We also learned that the main chef did not come in that evening, so the hotel staff was cooking our meal.  When the meal was served you could see how proud they were to have accomplished it.  We gave the staff a nice tip for their perseverance and teamwork!!

On the way back to Kampala, we made it through the border very easily.  We are praising God every moment for His protection and Goodness to us! 

Visiting schools, Kenya, and the Women of Grace!

June 12

After making homemade oatmeal for the team, we headed off to the first CRF school visit named after Milton Jones the founder of CRF.  The school trained about 200 children of which about 65% were orphans or half orphans.  It was started by a Kenyan man named Francis who had been supporting the children.  CRF offered to help support the children to see the schools grow.  In the Eldoret area, over eight years, about 1000 children are now supported.  Communities are being impacted for the better by training children and with Christian values.  The school staff come from the communities and are now provided with jobs.  People are turning from witchcraft and increasing their faith in God.

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The next school that we visited was called Suzy Peacock.  It was a high school for about 150 children and only a few months old.  People in the USA had purchased some property for a school and Francis helped to have it built.  This school also has dorms for the children who live on site.  There is only one women who lives on site to care for all the children and she loves her job.

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Our goals for learning how to start a Christian School are well under way.  We are getting all kinds of advice and even good material to use with the school.  We are safe, enjoying the team fellowship and thrilled to be here!!

Visiting schools to learn how to start a Christian school.

June 11

With a good night’s rest, we headed for Eldoret.  The border between Uganda and Kenya took at least 2 hours to get through.  It was in a very poor and crowded town.  The crossing was mostly held up by what seemed to be at least a mile of freight trucks on either side.  It was a little frightening thinking about how in the world we were going to get through the very complicated process.  As God would have it, a man that had helped the Ugandan’s get through the border in the past walked right up to us.  It is his profession to help people through the border.  He spotted the Chariot and came right up to us to help us through.  If it were not for him, it could have taken 3 days to figure it out…  It was a great relief to cross over.

Four more hours to Eldoret.  Kenya looks a lot like Uganda with banana trees, rice fields, peanut farms, cattle farms, etc….however, it seems to be more rolling country and very lush.  The roads are about the same.  Some are great and some are not…

All of us spent the night with Jake Reeves who is a 20 year old missionary for CRF, and a great host.  We have really enjoyed spending time with him and I think he appreciated the company as he is here by himself.

June 10

Today we left Kampala for Eldoret, Kenya. We are taking two days to get there stopping in Mbale near the border.  On the way to Mbale we stopped to see the source of the Nile and dip our feet in it.  We also had lunch at the Source Café which was started by the Jinga Church of Christ.  We were surprised to run into Katie who wrote the book, Kisses from Katie.  In the following picture, there are three people.  The one in the foreground is Carmen.  The one in the far background is Katie.  She actually has an office behind the Source Café.

Girl in background is Katie Davis, author of Kisses from Katie. 

Once we made it to Mbale, we stopped by Messiah Theological Institute (MTI) where the guys were to spend the night.  Carmen and I spent the night in a guest house of Joy and Vince Vigil who arevery hospitable long term missionaries.  The last time I was in Mbale was when I was working on the Livingston International University project three years ago.  Since then, the school has been opened but is renting space at MTI.  LIU has made tremendous progress in the last three years. 

Next to MTI is a bakery.  They have several ovens that are wood fired.  They were making cookies, donuts and bread….Ugandan style.

Bakery next to Messiah Theological Institute

June 8

Saturday is the day that the Women of Grace get together for a Bible Study and then work on crafts.  They were studying Micah 2 which is what all of the KCC Life Care Groups are studying.  It was a very inspirational discussion where everyone participated.  I learned that I should not take pride in all of the blessings from the Lord, but rather bless others with all that God us blessed us with.  They were several prayer requests from the ladies concerning several health issues including those with HIV.  Due to lack of access to health care, there is an abundance of various health issues.  Please pray for the ladies to heal and b strong for the Lord’s work.  After the lesson, we had the very pleasurable experience of learning to make the Ugandan Bead products.  The ladies are going to finish working with beads for a while and then learn a new craft.  They are praying for a sewing machine to learn sewing.  I am hoping to teach them tie-dying and making curtains….curtains are straight lines and easy to learn….

Women of Grace craft time.

Women of Grace bible study.

Visiting Viviane in Uganda.

After church services, we visited with many of the members to introduce Carmen and for me to get caught up with dear friends.  We went to Viviane’s home for lunch, a local Ugandan meal.  She had prepared stewed beef, fresh peas, greens, Matoke (steamed plantains), rice, Sweet potatoes, Irish Potatoes and Coke!  After lunch we looked at her photo album and learned more about her escape from Rwandan threats after the genocide.  She had survived the torture through the genocide but was pushed out of the country due to remaining tension between the tribes.

Nancy Harbron reports from Uganda.

June 9, 2013 – Sunday

Today we attended the church services for both the Lugandan and English services.  The Kampala Church of Christ (KCC) sends their greetings to each of you.  They are very grateful for your prayers and for thinking of them.  They are always very encouraged when they have visitors. 

John Sekwa preached at the English Service and spoke specifically about not coming to church to expect a miracle, but rather to increase you relationship with God.  Many people here have learned one way or another about the message of prosperity, so, some have a view that if they come to church, God will cause them to materially prosper.  Jobey Terzol, led the contribution comments.  I was especially proud of him for his comments concerning not giving up in the cause of Christ and daily living.  He is one of the young adults who was a “street kid” at the age of 8 years old and has become a Christian through friendships at KCC.  He is now 21 years old and lives at the church as one of the guards.  He also attends school and is in the 10^th grade.  Living on the streets put him behind until a visiting American sponsored him.  He wants to be a doctor one day.

After church services, we visited with many of the members to introduce Carmen and for me to get caught up with dear friends.  We went to Viviane’s home for lunch, a local Ugandan meal.  She had prepared stewed beef, fresh peas, greens, Matoke (steamed plantains), rice, Sweet potatoes, Irish Potatoes and Coke!  After lunch we looked at her photo album and learned more about her escape from Rwandan threats after the genocide.  She had survived the torture through the genocide but was pushed out of the country due to remaining tension between the tribes.

In the evening, we attended a Ugandan Performance learning more about the culture and tribes. 

More to come!! Many blessings to all of you!!

Nancy

Nancy Harbron, Terzol, and Carmen Myer

Carmen Myer is a twenty-something college student and Montessori teacher from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She has been a member of the South Baton Rouge Church of Christ for her entire life and just recently joined a new church plant in the Baton Rouge area. Although this is not her first time to leave the States this will be Carmen’s first mission trip. She has been blessed to see God’s hand at work in every tiny detail of the trip and cannot wait to see his grace and love carried on throughout the rest of the trip. To follow Carmen’s journey head on over to her blog at carmendanielle.com.