Making supper for Willington.

Chopping a small head of lettuce, purchased at supermarket for $2.

One of the most special occasions has been for Carmen and me to make a homemade supper for our Ugandan friends in the home of Willington.  Willington is a highly talented man that can be called on for most anything.  He is a very dear friend and brother in Christ.  Over the course of a few trips to Uganda I have gotten to know him well as he has been our driver of the Chariot.  While he could be working, he has chosen to serve the church and drive us to our various activities.  

Here is the spaghetti sauce….It actually was very tasty and the Ugandans loved it…on the Chapoti…  They rolled it up like a burrito.  BTW, the green spots are olives…I like olives in the sauce.

Rebecca and Sheba displaying Chapoti ready to fry in oil.

For beverages, we made Crystal Light that we had brought from home. We added the powder to a bottle of water which turned it pink.  As Willington says, it looks like the color of Petro used in the cars.  As such, we now refer to it as Petro.

As a sign of respect and to honor her guests, Willington’s mother ate her meal while sitting on the floor.  She would not allow us to sit on the floor with her.  This has been very typical in each home we have visited.

Willington and his Mother expressing their gratefulness to God for guests in their home.

Driving in Uganda traffic is a great talent of his.  Anyway, we had the great pleasure of cooking Spaghetti with meat sauce, a fresh salad with homemade dressing, and garlic bread grilled on the stove.  There were about fifteen people in Willington’s apartment including a couple neighbors.  Jimmy, Sheba and Rebecca also taught us how to make a Ugandan daily favorite, Chapoti.  It is like a flour tortilla, but a little thicker and made with oil and butter.  We are looking forward to making them when we get home for our friends and family.

Visiting Christian schools in Uganda.

This week we have been visiting Elishama Primary School, the little school that the church started in Ndejje, a Muslim community.  The little school is on the property of Francis Nsubuga, a very godly man and  leader in the church in Kampala.  The school now has four teachers and about eleven children.  The building where they learn has two nice sized rooms with ahomemade chalk board and all the needed supplies. The teachers are developing the curriculum and adding Bible content.  It is widely known in the community that this is a Christian school and that the Bible is being taught.  There are at least two students who are from Muslim families.  The other children are from families that claim to be Christians usually in name only.  Being a Christian here usually means that you are a good person and maybe come from a family who at least once practiced some form of Christian beliefs from the Bible. Either way, the community is spiritually diverse, yet, living very peacefully together.  As Carmen and I taught classes with content about Jesus on Monday to the children of Elishama, across the street students were learning and practicing the Muslim faith.  As the Chariot (church van) arrived at Elishama, we exchanged waves and greetings  with the Muslim students across the street.

The school has a day care for about 2-3 children, preschool and first grade.  The day care children sat in on the preschool class and got a little sleepy….

The little boy in this picture is a student at Elishama.  Somehow, he is not able to speak.  He can hear and actually do what he is asked. He can make sounds with his voice, but he does not speak at all.  He was in class as we taught English to the preschool students.

Carmen brought jump ropes which provided a fun break from class …

Laundry time in Uganda.

Laundry done by hand and hung to dry. Then every item ironed.

Here is a picture of how we are having our laundry done.  It is always done by hand and then dried on the line.  Once dried, every piece must be ironed to kill any bugs that may have made a home in the fabric.  Terzol, Abel and Peter, the church guards, needed a new iron, so we provided them with one.  The bottom of one they were using had dropped out and another was leaking water.  Both of them sounded dangerous to use.  They typically would iron their clothes on their beds, so we also provided them with a new ironing board.  We’ll be teaching them how to iron with the board this evening.  It is amazing how we as Americans have adjusted to so many little things that make our days a little more simple ... like a good iron and board.

June 17, 2013

It is Monday morning and I got up early to have coffee with Terzol before he left for school at 7:30am and to pray with him.  It is quiet here in the mornings.  Able made fresh coffee for us and now we are sitting here reading the paper and chatting.  Joseph came in early and we also had a chance to talk and pray.  I am also reflecting on the weekend.

Carmen and I had a chance to meet again on Saturday with the Women of Grace.  One idea that was shared last week was to think of ways to incorporate the handmade beads into other kinds of products, like purses.  Perusi, who is very creative, took the idea and gave it a try.  She made about four sample and showed them to a shop in town.  She immediately sold the first two that she had made. 

Beads added to purses.

We also discussed a list of ideas that the ladies had about how to meet the mission of Women of Grace, develop a source of income, and have an impact on the community.  Several ideas were brought forward, but the one they landed on was learning to sew.  They decided that if they had a sewing machine and a knitting machine, as a team, they could sew and make sweaters for the school children.  All schools wear uniforms, so making the uniforms and mending old ones could be a source of income.  Many men and women wear African outfits and are made locally…another way to market their services.  Many other marketing ideas were discussed and therefore convinced the ladies that this would be a good new opportunity.  Because, I had brought with me money that came from the recent sales of their beads, they decided to use it to buy new manual sewing machines that do not required electricity.  They are getting quotes and we hope to buy them shortly and put them in the container on the church property where they were making beads.  Our first project will be making tie/die and batik fabric and then sewing new curtains and seat cushions for thechurch to spruce it up.  Seth will teach them how to tie/die and batik the fabric.  Annette and Perusi will teach them to sew.  We are all very excited.

For the rest of our day today, we’ll be headed to Ganda where one of the church plants is.  We’ll also stop by some of the properties that were donated to the church to consider them for future school locations.  God is good and is helping us to discern His direction!

Blessings and Love, Nancy

Thanking God for Fathers.

Today is Father’s Day in the USA.  Carmen and I are thanking God for our Fathers and an opportunity to talk with them this evening.  There are so many children without Fathers here in Uganda, that we are deeply reminded of the great blessing of having a Father who is living, well and loves the Lord.

Many were at church today including some that I was not able to see last week.  Vital and his family are a family that I hadn’t seen for a while. When I was here with the Wilkins and the Whittington’s, Vital and his wife Safi  were just in the process of being married.  We attended some of the “wedding meetings”  where funds were raised in a fun and creative way.  Anyway, since then, Vital who had been a Congolese refuge, now goes back to the Congo every three months to work in a gold mine.  He is very interested in starting a church within the camp where he stays while working.  We have exchange email addresses and I hope to encourage him.  He has been a great encouragement to the church in Kampala and considers this his home.

Yesterday, we took a walk to the store and passed a young man sleeping in the dirt alongside the street.  His feet had been removed.  He was sleeping under a piece of cardboard with flies all over him.  I am very troubled by seeing this.  I don’t even know how to help someone like this.  All I could think of was to put a bag of peanuts in his hand.  He didn’t even move when I opened his hand.  I am so thankful that this life is short compared to eternity.  I am very grateful that while this life does not always present hope, we can have hope in our future and our eternal life. 

As Isaac always says, “God is Good.”

Nancy

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.