Attack of the Giant Cockroach!

Technically I’m within a month… my promise has been kept! ☺ I’m a bit pathetic, I know. I have a lot to update you on these days. First and foremost, my birthday is in 3 weeks! Chamuka!! Yes, that’s twenty-one days, which means that you better get mailing!
Yes, I said mailing, which means no, I’m not going to be able to come home for Christmas like I had hoped. It just didn’t work out financially, but please believe me when I say I’m heart broken that I won’t get to see all of you. It would have been a nice refresher for me, but alas life goes on. I’ll be spending Christmas with people I love and that’s all that matters right? It’s amazing how God brings the right people into our lives at the right times. It is going to be very difficult for me to be away, but I’m lucky to have great friends here.
Another Lino update is in order. He came back to school a couple days two weeks ago, much sooner than we expected. Then last Monday (Dec 1) Lino was in class and things got bad again. Luckily we got him home before he got too bad. He spent that day not remembering much of anything or anyone. It was so sad because the day before I took him and his brother to a pool and he seemed just fine. So anyways, Tuesday he woke up remembering again, but they took him to the doctor where he got new medicine. It is medicine for seizures, but no he’s been sick to his stomach and fainting a few times a day. It’s a very serious and scary situation. I’ve been lucky to be able to make the time to spend with him, but it’s heart breaking some days. He’s just so very depressed. Please be remembering Lino in your prayers. He is currently in Mbale, which is where there are some specialists. He’ll be getting a new CAT scan, an EEG, and a bunch of other tests. Pray that they find something and are able to treat him. Pray that he is cooperative with the doctors. I just want my buddy, Lino back.
Needless to say, I’ve still been really busy. The Christmas program at school was last week, so we spent much of the week preparing for that. I mainly helped with the choir, teaching them harmony with Francis, and doing some technical stuff during the program. Our WGM weekend-o-meetings was a long weekend! There was some fun mixed in with the meetings, but it was a bit tedious nonetheless. We were able to celebrate thanksgiving as a field and that was really nice. Our Arua team was down here and I’ve really grown to love them.
Speaking of Arua, Nick is heading up to finish his time in Uganda there, so I’ll say bye to him in a couple of weeks. Also, Billy and Joanna have invited me to come up to Arua for Christmas so that’s something I’m still considering at this point. Billy travels into Sudan a lot and much of his ministry is there. One of the missionaries here has offered to fund a trip for me to travel to Juba in Sudan with Billy and probably Nick to check out some ministry possibilities up there. I don’t know many of the details, but I know I’ve been called to youth ministry and Juba is the place where I’ll be able to work with youth. There’s a university that Billy works with and he loves the students there, so that’s a possibility. WGM has just, within the past month opened a new field in Sudan, so it is very possible for me to return to Africa after this trip and work with the youth there. It’s an exciting prospect and one that will require lots of prayer because of the situations going on in Southern Sudan, but at this point I would love to minister up there. I’m also praying about the Congo, but at this point no mission organization will send a single white woman in there. WGM doesn’t have a field set up there yet either, but there’s a good chance of it in the very near future. The Congo is even more unsettled than Sudan, so I’m thinking I need to consider that a bit more.
Teaching continues to be a challenge and it’s definitely not something I’d want to do for the rest of my life, but it seems to be becoming more comfortable. By that I mean, I can come to school on a Monday morning and plan lessons in about 5 minutes for the whole day. It’s a very nice thing… maybe not the best way to do it, but it works. I’m really starting to look forward to teaching the high school class three times a week next semester. It’s called “School of Rock.” Yeah like the movie and yeah, I’m just that cool. Last time I updated I wrote about what it will entail so you can check it out there.
I’ve said this before, but my time here is just flying. I have days when time drags on and it seems like I’ll never get to see you guys again, but most days when I get home it’s usually after 8pm and I wonder where the day has gone. I am almost halfway done with my time here… yikes!
I must say that I’m a bit jealous of the cold weather ya’ll are experiencing right now. It’s so darn HOT here right now. I mean HOT. Yesterday was a Muslim holiday so we had no school (a total blessing) so we went to the pool and hit the craft markets to get Christmas gifts for ya’ll. The pool was nice because at least we could cool off, but the craft markets were insanely hot. Even the locals were saying how hot it was. My skin is going to be as dark as Lino’s by the time I come home, I swear! I don’t think I’ve ever been this dark in December. ☺
Something I’m sure you’ve all been wondering is how I’m surviving with all the giant bugs. Well to be honest I’ve not been too bothered by them because they tend to run/fly/creep the other way. BUT last night I was relaxing and watching the latest episode of the Office (which only took 7 hours to download by the way!!) when right under my front door crept a cockroach the size of a bird! I’m not exaggerating. I immediately jumped up and ran out of the room screaming like I was being shot at or something. My roommate was able to sweep it out of the house, but of course after something like that I was jumpy and a bit freaked out!! So a few minutes later when the episode was over I went to the bathroom only to be greeted by a giant spider! So of course it was over the doorway and I couldn’t leave because it may have drop on me. When I screamed it did drop! And then it proceeded to charge me. Luckily I had put shoes and socks on because I was scared the roach was going to come back, so I jumped on the toilet and ran screaming from the bathroom. Once again my roommate went in to do control… well she couldn’t find it. So naturally I thought it was on me. She had to do a complete check of me before I could even move. When she didn’t find it on me she searched the bathroom again and found it hanging out behind the garbage can. She was able to dispose of it for me, but I was already so creeped out that I couldn’t relax. Yeah, it was Tylenol PM night last night.
I can just see some of your faces and hear your laughter as you read these words, but truly it was awful! I’m told that the roaches are coming out because of the rainy season. I might add that the “rainy season” is just as dry as the other seasons, so I’m not sure I’d call this the rainy season. When it rains some days around noon, it down pours for maybe a half hour to an hour and then the sun comes back out creating a sauna on earth, and crazy, frizzy hair for me. It’s just a lovely sight. Maybe I should get my hair braided, what do you think?
My hope is to get prayer letters out to you all by the end of this month. You should be receiving them in January… I hope. It should include some pictures and give you a good idea of my life here.
I realize that I haven’t done a good job of letting you know what my daily life is like here so I’m going to try to do that right now. Before I do though I would encourage worriers not to read on (Mom and Dad) because it may seem like I’m unsafe, but I have never felt like I was in danger. Let’s start with the driving. I share a car with my roommate and with Nick. We drive on the left side of the road, or whichever side has fewer cars at that particular time. It’s kind of a free for all, meaning as long as you’re not holding up traffic you can go anywhere. Now, technically there are laws, but they are generally not enforced unless you’re a Mzungu (white). If you’re white you tend to get pulled over a bit more than the Africans because the assumption is that we can afford to pay high penalties. The system of law is quite corrupt. Cops ask for bribes when you’re pulled over and sadly, most of the time it is easier to bribe the police than handle all the hoops you’d have to jump through if you go to the “station.” Now, the roads are another story. Much of the time you’re being thrown about your car because the “roads” are crazy. In fact the road I live on is one of the worst around. Don’t drive here if you have back problems! Driving stick shift here can be a bit of challenge thanks to the steep hills and crazy bumps. It is a bad idea to stop on a steep hill to let others coming the other direction pass (because the road isn’t wide enough for 2 vehicles) because chances are you’re going to roll back down the hill. Some of the hills really do force you to use the emergency brake in order to make it up them. The cops have a tendency to make traffic ten times worse than it should be because when they “direct” traffic it just doesn’t make sense.
As far as language goes, there is not a huge barrier here in Kampala, but when we go out to the villages it’s much more of challenge. Something I learned a few weeks ago is that the word poop is VERY offensive. One of the Ugandan teachers at the school had a baby and brought him in during our last staff meeting I was holding him when all of a sudden it was very evident that he needed a diaper change. So I said, “I think he pooped.” Immediately all of the Ugandan teachers were cracking up. Apparently poop is the equivalent of the “s” word in America. Oops. In fact saying the “s” word is very acceptable and encouraged here. Other than that I’m a little sad that I’ve not made more of an effort to learn more Luganda or Swahili. I know a few things here and there, but I really need to be better about learning.
I know I’ve written about the roads and the amber dirt that makes up the roads, but the roads are really pretty when they’re wet. They’re slippery and dangerous, yes, but pretty. It is actually against the law to splash people when you’re driving… so even if it’s an accident you could be chased and fined. The problem is there is a pothole every few feet, so it is impossible not to make a little bit of a splash. Flat tires are a common thing here thanks to the roads. We have had one flat tire in our car, which is amazing considering how crazy the roads are.
I live in what we call a compound. There are four apartments total in our compound. We are fenced in by a huge brick/cement wall that goes all the way around the compound and there’s a gate with an entrance big enough for a vehicle. There is also a “doggy door” in which you can go in and out of without the guard opening it. There is supposed to be a guard on all compounds for WGMers because realistically mzungus are singled out and are a target for robberies. Most mzungus in Uganda have a guard. There is a guard shack on our compound and our guard is here 24/7. Well he’s supposed to be here 24/7… recently he has been in and out and now his 3 year old son is living with him, so he’s a bit preoccupied. I spoke up to WGM because people on the street have seen us having to let ourselves in and out of the gate at night numerous times without a guard… in other words we’re white, we have money, and we’re open game. Now we have a guard that WGM pays who comes from 7pm to 7am, which has been a bit of a relief.
Something that took me a very long time to get used to is having “house help.” Susan is a very trusted Ugandan woman who comes to our apartment on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She comes to clean, do our laundry, and wash our dishes. She washes our clothes by hand and then hangs them on a line to dry. She makes our beds, cleans the bathroom, mops the floors, and even washes our fruit for us. When I first got here I was VERY uncomfortable with this because I did not come to be served by a Ugandan, I came to serve. However I’m learning more and more everyday how much these Ugandans need the jobs we provide. I still don’t like it because I feel like a total snob, but even Ugandans who are a bit better off have house helpers. It is considered rude and arrogant if you don’t have someone helping out. The Ugandans see it as a way to make money. It’s very interesting to me. Susan is sweet and we haven’t had many issues with her at all. She even “Doomed” (it’s the brand of bug spray here) my mattress for me because I was getting all kinds of crazy bug bites on my back and stomach for no reason. They would just appear when I woke up and they were itchy! They’re gone now though, no worries. ☺
Right now that’s about all I can think of and I think you guys have enough to read for now. I love you all and think of you often. Please be in touch friends.

Lino Update

Once again I thought I would update much sooner than this, but alas time has flown and I’ve been super busy. I guess I’m always going to be real busy, so I really should stop saying I’m going to update often when I know I’m not. ☺
Well, I’m about through my 4th month here and it’s pretty unreal to think that after one more month, my time here will be half over. Wow, makes me wonder what I’ve been doing for the last 4 months. Anyways, I want to send a big hello to everyone at Plano UMC. Thank you all so very much for you love, support, and prayers.
Most of you who read this got an email a couple weeks ago regarding my buddy, Lino. For those of you who didn’t, I’ll give you a brief overview. Lino is one of the high school students at the school. I’ve written about him on here before. He’s an awesome kid and has become a good friend. He’s a rescued child soldier from Sudan. He’s probably about 15, but we’re not entirely sure. Anyways about two weeks ago Lino was playing soccer with his younger brother, Taban and his guardian, Jade when Taban and Lino collided. Lino was knocked so hard that he wasn’t breathing for a while and then when he was breathing again he didn’t know who he was or where he was. He was in the hospital for 3 days and in that time he was hallucinating and he was a threat to himself. The blow to his head caused all of these memories about war and his life on the streets working and begging for a scrap of food to surface. He thought he was 8 or 9 years old, he couldn’t remember anything. The first night I saw him in the hospital, Nick and I made dinner for Jade and brought it up there, it was all I could do to keep from breaking down right there. He was NOT the Lino I know. He told me, “Lino is dead.” I didn’t handle hearing stuff like that very well. The doctors at one hospital said he was faking it all and medically he was fine. Well clearly they didn’t know what they were talking about because Lino is not a self-seeking person. His concern is always for those around him before himself. He is the sweetest spirit I’ve ever met.
After 3 days in the hospital they brought him home, but he was still very off. He was still seeing people and hearing voices that were telling him to do things that I can’t even write about. It was awful. I have never seen anything like that and I hope to never see someone I love go through what Lino is going through. He didn’t even look like my Lino… he would look at you, but not focus on you. He knew you were there, but he’d look right through you. He looked so sad and scared; it’s hard to even think about now.
Needless to say the past few weeks have been rough. Nick and I have been the only ones “allowed” to see Lino. We have built good relationships with him and Jade and Sheila know how much we love him. Lino went to a new doctor and he was taken off some of the medicine that the hospitals put him on, which were actually causing some of the hallucinations. Well the new doctor is saying that the blow to the head has cause Post Traumatic Stress Disorder to surface. This means that the road ahead of Lino is long and rough, but he will be fine. He is now remembering who he is, who we are, where he is, that he goes to school and has friends, and that he is so loved. He’s a million times better than he was the first day I saw him (the day after the accident), but he still has so much to deal with and go through. Please be praying for him. Pray for his guardians, Jade and Sheila, and his brother Taban.
Taban is not dealing well with life at all these days. Prayer for this young man is essential. He is recalling things from his past that he had suppressed too, but not to the extent that Lino is because Taban was only about 5 or 6 when Jade and Sheila rescued him.
Thanks for all of your prayers for these guys already. They mean a lot to me and I love them so much. Lino may be able to come back to school in a few weeks, and we’re really hoping that it’s even sooner than that.
So the past two weeks of my life have been teaching and visiting with Lino. At this point I am exhausted in every sense of the word; physically because I never have time to sleep more than like 6 hours every night; mentally because I’ve been watching some of my favorite kids go through some really rough stuff; emotionally for the same reason. One thing that has come out of all of this is a much closer relationship with the people I’ve been with every day. Jade and Sheila are great and I’m excited to be getting to know them better.
Moving on… The principal at school asked me if I would be willing to teach an elective for the high school next semester. She knows I’m called to work with youth and this would be a great way to get to know some of the students even better. I’m excited to say that the relationships I’ve built with these youth are growing and I’m loving it. I haven’t officially decided what the class will be, but I’m thinking about doing a ‘music worldview class’ where we’ll discuss different genres of music and the biblical view of the lyrics and the world view. It’ll very much be a discussion class. We’d do like 2 weeks on Christian metal, then 2 weeks on gangsta rap, and 2 weeks on classical… I think the students would get excited about something like that and I want to do something with music other than lead worship all the time, though it’s not a bad thing. I love leading worship. ☺
My sister recently brought up the idea of me going home for Christmas and I was immediately excited of course, but I’m not sure if it will happen. I would love to come home and I’ve already gotten permission from the mission to take time off, but I think what it really comes down to is the money. If I were to come home I would really need to be working to get speaking opportunities at churches and share about the ministry I’m doing here. I think it’d be cool to come home and be able to share with people the experiences I’ve had so far, but I’m also trying to be smart about it. I’m told that when missionaries go home within the first year that they’re on the field, they have a real hard time coming back and plugging back into their ministries. I would like to think that I could mentally prepare myself for that and be ready to come back. I think being home would be refreshing, but by coming home would I be taking away from something that God has for me here? There’s a lot of tough questions that I’ve got to think through rationally… because of course my first thought is I wanna go home!! So ya’ll can be praying for that, for decisions, for the funding, and for my ministries here.
We had another youth group event last night. We had a speaker in from Scotland, so he did the lesson which was a nice break for me. I decided against doing music too because the kids don’t always respond well and I’m not going to force them to worship. We played games, had good fellowship, our host grilled out so we had a bunch of food, and we had great conversations. I’m excited about this group of kids. There are a few that are really rough around the edges, but I believe that they are being worked on and that the plans of the Lord are greater than their plans for themselves. Pray for Heritage International School… I wrote last time about Mischa, and he’s still healing. He’s not back at school yet because he doesn’t have the strength, but he was at youth group last night. And the whole thing with Lino… and there has been many discipline issues with all grades. We’ve had a teacher die in the last month and it really just seems like we’re under attack, so really be lifting HIS up.
This coming week is not going to be any slower than the last few weeks. We have school on Thanksgiving, of course, but then we have Friday off of school. BUT on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday we have meetings all day every day with the entire WGM Uganda field, including those from the north in Arua. I’m leading worship during a very big church service on Sunday morning for the field, so I’d appreciate prayer for that. I need to learn a few new songs this week, and decide on which others ones to do. I was also asked by Francis to write a script for the Christmas program, but I haven’t even started it. I have papers from the beginning of the month that I haven’t even thought about grading since they were turned in and I have some huge projects to write for my class to work on. All of that, plus being busy with meetings after school and visiting with Lino. Yikes!
I’m really glad that I’m doing so much because it’s making the time just fly by, but I get very easily overwhelmed and can shut down. Even this past week I took a half day off as a personal day and came home to sleep, went on a walk and explored, and just got away from everything.
Only 4 more weeks of school until Christmas break. AND only 38 more days until my birthday!! Chamuka!! (means “get excited” in Swahili)
There’s more I’d like to write, but it’s Saturday and I really want to not be staring at a computer screen anymore, so expect something soon, my friends. (and by soon I mean within a month.)
Psalm 139 has been a blessing to me this week. I hope you have some time to check it out. Much love!

You know you're a missionary when...

1. You have to throw your TP in the trash can - not the toilet.
2. You have NO IDEA what the latest movies are.
3. When your life revolves around the efficiency of your ceiling fans.
4. When blogging becomes second nature.
5. When English is no longer the primary language.
6. When an iPhone seems as foreign as the language you speak everyday.
7. When your mail life revolves around when your next care package arrives.
8. When local schools are canceled for a "rain day" (not a snow day).
9. When honking is a sign of "hello" rather than the middle finger.
10. When you "see" your friends on Skype, not in person.
11. Your clothing fashion is WAY out of date.
12. When your milk comes in a box and your mayo in a bag.
13. When your daily news includes what the current exchange rate is.
14. Where your shopping includes daily trips to the farmers market.
15. When household pets include scorpions, millipedes, tarantulas,
geckos, ants and mosquitos.
16. When the question, "where is your home" becomes confusing to answer.
17. When you stop feeling uncomfortable when you have a conversation
with a mom who is breastfeeding.
18. When you are excited that the grocery store is carrying SPAM.
19. 011 is a familiar code.
20. When you are okay with the bugs in your house because "that one
doesn't bite"
21. When you watch a National Geographic special and you recognize
where they are at.
22. When you are outraged that the dinner you just ate cost more than $4.00
23. You don't think it strange to cut your grass with a machete.
24. When you forget the date of the Super Bowl, but you know when the
local soccer team plays.
25. When stopping for pigs or cows to cross the street doesn't seem strange.
26. When you go to the U.S. and you "can't drink the water"
27. You are grateful for the speed and efficiency of the U.S. Postal Service.
28. When you realize that traffic signs and lights are only recommendations.
29. You can order a beer at the movie theater.
30. When you sweat on Christmas day.
31. When you have to order additional pages for your passport.
32. When you stop wondering what kind of meat is in the stew (nor do
you really want to know).
33. When you have carried the same dollar bill in your wallet for 2 years.
34. When you think you should own stock in hand sanitizer.
35. When you measure distances in how long it takes to walk there.
36. Size "large" is no size large you have ever seen (even my girl
can't wear them).
37. You have friends on every continent.
38. Most of your friends view dental hygiene as a luxury.
39. You have a propane gas stove around the house just in case.
40. Where your seasons are hot, or hot and wet.
41. Horse grazing is the normal mode for cutting grass.
42. There's no local park, only the jungle.
43. The nearest ancient ruin is closer than the closest McDonalds.
44. Your fish is served with the head still attached - and you are
expected to eat it.
45. Where no one has a bathtub, a dishwasher, or a coffee bean grinder.
46. Local tourist attractions include jungle hikes, zip lining, and
waterfall slides.
47. When a nice short church service is only 2 1/2 hours long.
48. When you have to go to 5 different stores to get school supplies.
49. When you pay your electric bill at the supermarket, and pick up
your health form at the bank.
50. When none of the above seems strange anymore.

Almost three months

Today at church I listened to one of our missionaries from Arua (Northern Uganda) preach on Ecclesiastes 2. He was a guest speaker at the church I attended this morning. He and his wife are leaving the field to have a baby and pursue other things for the time being. So this was the last time he was going to preach. It really got me thinking about my time here and how I’m spending it. The sermon was about living with no regrets… as in serving the Lord with all you have and not wasting time on things that are meaningless. At first I had a very dismal feeling from the sermon… as though I haven’t done enough in my life and I’m not bold enough in my day-to-day life. I was feeling like I have a ton of regrets in my life because I either didn’t say enough, or I said too much at certain points. Does this make sense? BUT John did a really good job of bringing it back around and putting it in the perspective of the Lord. So the point wasn’t to make you realize that you haven’t done all the things you could have done or said, but instead it was to encourage you to live everyday in a way that you won’t regret not serving the Lord to the best of your ability. As he and his wife are leaving the field I can’t help but wonder if they’re regretting some things about their time here.
I don’t want to regret my time here. I don’t want to say, “I coulda done more while I was there,” or “I should have taken that ministry opportunity.” Today it was easy to think about what brought me here and some of the reasons I might be here. Do I have some regrets? Actually I do. I don’t for one second regret coming here, but I do regret the things I left unsaid before I left the States. I regret not taking the time to raise the funds and really prepare to come here. I regret not spending more time with my family in my last weeks… I miss everyone so much right now. I regret not planning in my mind what this would be like… as in how long I would be staying. I’m still not mentally prepared to be here for the amount of time that I will be here, but I’m trusting God to keep me afloat.
Moving on… the week after we got back from Rwanda flew by. The grading period ended on the 15th which means that last week was spent getting my grades done and filling out report cards. Oh my, it’s quite the tedious process. It took so long figuring everything out because one of my students came 4 weeks into the quarter and one didn’t speak a word of English at the beginning, so I couldn’t grade her the same as the others. In the midst of all that I had prayer meetings, my discipleship group, and then of course other stuff came up. It seems like I have been going nonstop for weeks. We share a car with Nick, so it’s not always easy getting stuff done in a timely fashion. There was a football (soccer) match this past Thursday, so I helped with some stuff with that while Nick refereed. After that I was supposed to go home, but then we ended up giving someone a ride home because their car broke down, then we hung out for a while, then I went and got my roommate from school. We came home, ate dinner, then I went out again for a while, then Nick and I came back here and we all hung out for a while… instead of doing school work of course.
Friday was parent-teacher conferences. At HIS the parents only get the report cards when they come in for their conference. So I was pretty nervous about having to explain to some of the parents why their kids we failing some subjects in my class. It actually went way better than I thought it would. The parents are really very supportive of me and the way I do things in the classroom.
Conferences ended at 3pm. So we left school and went shopping real quick because Nick and I were hosting youth group for all of the secondary that night. We planned some games and worship and then I went home to think about my lesson. Nick and I decided to teach a lesson together… we taught on kissing (is a kiss just a kiss?) and relationships (when is it ok to start dating?). We picked the topic based on what the kids asked us to speak on last time we all met. The kids started showing up at about 7. Lisa is sick right now, so it was just Nick and I in charge of things, but it was awesome. We played games for about an hour, ate some yummy food, and then went into our talk. Now neither of us like to sit down and write out what we’re going to talk about, so we didn’t. We talked about what we would each bring to the lesson, with our own personal examples and such. We prayed that God would speak through us and that the kids would really participate… and boy did God ever work! It turned out so much better than I thought it would and we ended talking for a little more than an hour. The kids were really responsive. I chose to focus more on the roles of guys and girls in a relationship. I talked about the needs of girls and what we expect and what I personally expect and then Nick talked about the needs of guys and what he knows and expects. We talked about a biblical view of relationships. I told them the question isn’t “when can I start dating and kissing?” It’s about God’s timing. It’s about being in a relationship that challenges you to love the Lord deeper than you can imagine. It’s about drawing nearer to the heart of God as you draw nearer to one another and if you’re in a place where you can do that, then by all means at 14 years old, date someone. We talked about so much more than what I can write here, just because of time, but it was awesome and the kids responded. They were so funny when it came to a kiss just being a kiss and having no meaning. Oh man were they heated when Nick was talking about his stupidity in college. So funny!
After the lesson we prayed and hung out for a while until the parents came at 10. We have a senior named Mischa who is extremely sick right now. So I took his sisters, Manouk and Mirthe to the hospital to see him and then I got to come back and Nick let me straighten his hair… and then style it. There will be pics on facebook, no worries!
Anyway, back to Mischa. He was at school on Wednesday and seemed fine. His eye was bothering him. Well by Thursday morning his eye was swollen shut and he was having convulsions. They took him to the hospital and stabilized him, but he was no longer conscious because there was so much swelling on his brain. Friday morning I spoke with his father when he was dropping the girls off at school and he said that Mischa was conscious and asking for him that morning. So the girls got to see him and spend time with him. It seemed like the infection was improving and they were even going to move him out of ICU, but at some point during the day his brain began to swell again and by the time youth group was over they had to do surgery to release pressure on his brain. They are calling it a severe brain infection. I haven’t heard much since then, other than he seems to be improving a little bit. He is still in ICU, but I’m guessing the surgery has help up and there’s no more swelling. Please, please be praying for the Van Den Boom family. This is a terrifying situation, especially in Africa because health care is not quite what we know it as in the States. They are from Holland and I just love them… I’ve had so much fun getting to know each of their kids. They have 5 at the school. Pray for a healing for Mischa. Pray that the doctors are able to treat him and that he continues to improve.
We have started the Beth Moore study with the discipleship girls and they really like it so far. I’m really excited that they’ve responded well. We saw some of our girls at church this morning… what a blessing they are. They are just so sweet and appreciative of our ministry. I’m very blessed by them.
Well, there are very busy weeks ahead. Time is flying right now. I can’t believe it’s almost November already! Wow. I’m busy every night this week with some kind of meeting or dinner meeting. Friday is the Rain Festival (kind of like Halloween, they just don’t call it Halloween). There are more missionaries coming down from the north as we say goodbye to John and Erica. It’s just going to be craziness.
I’ve been thinking about the holidays and what my options are. I’ve been invited to celebrate with two different families that I have come to love very dearly. It’s going to be a tough decision. I think my roommate is going to Europe to spend time with her brother who is living in Germany for a year. Nick is either going up north or to Kenya. So it’s just going to be me here (as far as singles go). I would love to be able to go home, but tickets are just too expensive these days, sadly. If you happen to have like $2,000 laying around feel free to send it my way. ☺
That’s it from Kampala for tonight. I hope you are well. I love you all and miss seeing your faces and hearing your voices. Be blessed this week.

Mbarara, Rwanda, and a Monkey

Our field here in Uganda has what we call a field pastor. Rick and Janie Burkhalter are our field pastors. They currently live in Kansas City, but are from different places in Texas. They’re a real sweet couple. They just left yesterday, but we had them here for about 3 weeks. Over the 3 weeks we had a tons of prayer meetings and other meetings, plus we hosted them at our apartment for a couple of dinners, so we got to know them fairly well. They are a total blessing to our field and it was real nice to have some who isn’t on our field to talk to.
A few weeks ago (right after they arrived) we had a team dinner on a Saturday evening, so we all ate together and had a sweet time of fellowship. The next morning we were all supposed to have church together and hear a message from Rick and Janie after Nick and I did worship. Well the house where we had dinner on that Saturday has a satellite dish and we discovered that we could watch playoff baseball starting at 1:30am, and Nick and I are big fans of baseball. So we stayed up and watched baseball til about 5:30, went home and slept for 3 hours and then got up and went to lead worship and do church. It was totally worth it to watch baseball for the first time in 2 months, but man was I exhausted?!
Teaching has been a bit of a challenge lately, but I’m very much in a routine when it comes to planning lessons and such. They just turned in a “sandwich book report” and that was actually really fun to look through and grade. I’m trying to get them to a place where they can learn on their own. Discovery learning is the best way to learn, I’ve decided. So I’ve been working on teaching them how to teach themselves and how to find the info they need to help themselves.
I think it’s going pretty well… there are some things we still need to work on. Just this week we went back to basics when it comes to writing a simple sentence. I’m finding more and more that I expect more out of these kids than they seem to be capable of. I guess I’m just trying to think back to 6th grade and compare how I was taught. I’m so sad to say that I don’t hardly remember 6th grade… man I’m getting old! (hey my b-day is only two and a half months away, fyi!) I also had a different teacher for each subject so I’m sure I learned things differently in each class.
Grades are due this week and I haven’t even started. We have parent-teacher conferences next week, and the principal is observing me. It’s going to be crazy!
All that said I truly don’t believe that I’m called to be a teacher forever. ☺ I still know that I am called to be here, right now, in this moment, so I’m glad to be doing the work of the Father.
Something VERY exciting… the Beth Moore books got here on Tuesday, which means yesterday I started the bible study with my discipleship group at KIU. It was the best meeting yet! I talked for about a half hour and then I said, “I’m done! I hear myself talk all the time. I want to hear from you. Tell me what the Lord is teaching you, or not teaching you. Go!” And FINALLY they talked. Every one of them had something to say and it was a great time if laughter and prayer. Those girls are so much fun. I think that they’re really excited about starting the study, but honestly I’m a little nervous that they aren’t going to take the time to do it. There are 5 lessons a week and each lesson is about 30-45 minutes to get through. BUT they are co in depth that if you just skim over stuff and don’t do it full heartedly, you won’t get much out of it. Be praying for them and for me and for our time management.
So last Thursday was the beginning of a 5 days fall break from school. We had been talking about what we wanted to do, whether stay in Kampala and have a restful time, or go exploring and be adventurous. Well obviously I’m all about being adventurous, so we discussed Kenya as a possibility and then we discussed Rwanda. Now if we decided to go to Kenya we would have a free place to stay thanks to some friend and we’d feel very safe. If we went to Rwanda we had nowhere to stay and it’s not as safe for female Mzungus. So we talked to Nick about his plan and he didn’t have one of course, so we told him our ideas. Well he was in Kenya when I arrived so it hadn’t been long since he had been there, so we told him we’d go to Rwanda, but only if he was for sure gonna be with us and not just leave us and wander alone. He decided being our bodyguard worked for him and we decided to make it a ministry trip too by stopping in southwestern Uganda in a village called Mbarara. WGM is thinking of it as being a possible place to plant a team and start working on church plants. So we went down to scope it out, get a feel for what it would be like down there, and see what the possibilities were. We drove our car down there and I have a connection through one of my student’s parents, so we found a safe place to park it before we went to Rwanda.
We got to cross the Equator and stop and take some pictures there. It was a cool experience and I’m excited to say I’ve been in the southern hemisphere now!
On our way to Mbarara we pulled off because we thought we saw a big soccer tournament in this little village. It turns out it was an Independence Day celebration. We had forgotten that the 9th was Independence Day. So we were standing with the rest of the crowd when the MC of the event invited us to come sit under the tent and listen to the speeches and stuff. Being white, usually wherever we go we are instant celebrities, especially amongst the children. So with everyone watching they had people move and we were given VIP seating. Nick and I actually sat right behind the main speaker, a member of parliament. They brought us drinks and were VERY welcoming. It was really cool to experience and see the dedication to this country. There were songs and poems read and then some people got up and spoke... about what we have no idea really. It was all in Lugandan. Some was translated for us, but not a ton.
Anyways, Mbarara was great. I really enjoyed the town. There were some really cute little markets and the people were really nice. We checked out a soccer game on the campus of the university there and we caught part of an outdoor concert too. It was nice. We stayed in a really nice hotel, but got eaten up by the mosquitoes... usually nice places have mosquito nets. Aw well.
So on Friday we got up and got ready to catch a bus into Rwanda. From Mbarara it’s supposedly a 6-hour bus ride to Kigali the capital, but of course it took longer. We had to stop at the border and do all that stuff… yay for a new stamp in my passport, so obviously it took longer. The drive to into and through Rwanda was breathtaking! Man, what a beautiful countryside! We saw some really gorgeous waterfalls on the drive in too. Rwanda is so different than Uganda. The roads are winding and beautiful, and the hills/mountains roll ever so gently into one another. It’s actually very peaceful.
Well we arrived at about 8pm, so we got a special hire and drove to the place we were staying. We met these people from Cornerstone ministries and they have a branch in Kigali, so we got to stay at the house for free. Deuce is the leader at the house and it’s a house of all college age boys who love the Lord with all of their being. We were greeted with the love of Christ and the Spirit moving in that place was super evident. The guys were all so genuine. We didn’t spend a ton of time Friday getting to know them because we were all pretty beat. We went to bed so we could have a full day exploring Kigali. We got ready and headed into the city. The first place we went to was the Memorial Center. It’s the genocide museum. Wow, it was amazing. It was incredibly difficult to stomach, but well worth experiencing. I learned so much stuff… I didn’t remember much of how or why things happened in 1994 other than a million lives were lost because of tribal wars. (huh, much like what is happening in Darfur right now.) It took a long time to walk through and read about all of the events leading up to April of ’94. There were lots of pictures and even videos of survivors who have lost their families. There was an entire room dedicated to pictures of victims that were donated by their families. There was a room full of clothing worn by victims. One room was just full of skulls and bones that were unable to be identified or matched up, so they were put there instead of in one of the hundreds of mass graves throughout the countryside. There were videos of survivors describing in detail watching their families get hacked because of the identity. Upstairs there was a room I had a lot of trouble being in. It was full of these huge pictures of individual children and under each picture was a plague that had their name, their age, their hero, their favorite food, their favorite thing to do, their demeanor and other stuff like that, and then under that it said how they were brutally murdered. Some macheted, some shot, many raped and then macheted. One little girl was stabbed in the eye and then the head. I saw the pictures, saw their innocence and couldn’t think about anything but my nieces. Some of the children shown were the exact ages that my girls are now. Some were much older and had last words written, and some were infants, unable to defend in anyway. I can’t even think about all of the children lost. Children were one of the main targets because they wanted to wipe out the next generation. Yuck.
Moving on… next we took bodas (motorcycles, the cheapest way to get around) to a place to have lunch and buy our bus tickets home. It was so nice riding the boda in Rwanda because helmets are the law and each driver has an extra helmet for their passenger. So we had a nice lunch and then headed off to find “Hotel Rwanda” aka Des Milles Collins Hotel. If you’ve never seen the movie, you should btw. It’s very factual. It of course wasn’t filmed at the actual hotel, but the events and the way things happened are very true to real life. Anyways, normally you can walk through, tour the hotel, and have supposedly good crepes (crepes jiggle, so I don’t care about that), but it was closed to renovations. We were so bummed, but it was cool to be able to talk to the guard and hear his story. He wasn’t working there during the genocide, but he lived through it.
We walked back and found what we thought seemed like the center of town. We found an amazing coffee place and just relaxed and talked for a few hours. Then we explored a really nice craft market before settling down around a beautiful fountain for a few more hours of chatting. The scenery was awesome.
I do have to say that the people in Rwanda aren’t nearly as friendly as they are here to whites, but I honestly don’t blame them since the whites deserted them in ’94. I’d have a hard time looking past that too. Also the main language other than African languages spoken in Kigali was French, so it was much harder to communicate with people. Nick is fluent in Spanish, I took a couple years of Spanish, and Jean had French but didn’t remember much of it at all. Compared to Kampala, Kigali is cleaner and less hectic. There are about a third of the people living in Kigali that there are in Kampala though, so it makes sense. I believe Kigali and the rest of Rwanda has done a great job at proving to the world that it is going to be okay. Too bad it took about a millions lives to get there.
After hanging out for a couple of hours we went back to the house and had the most amazing time with the guys! They taught us some Rwandan dances (which I did not love doing because dancing is NOT my forte) and we taught them some American dances. Then we had an all out jam/worship session. There were two guitars, an amazing hand drum that Nick is in love with now, and a keyboard, along with some beautiful African voices. We sang and praised the Lord late into the night and then headed to bed because we had to catch an early bus the next day.
So after some craziness we boarded our bus and headed back to Mbarara to pick our car. I slept some of the way home, but it was a LONG ride on a real crowded bus. Very uncomfortable, but hey, it’s Africa! We finally got to Mbarara around 3, got the car, ate some breakfast/lunch/dinner and headed out. The drive back is about 4 hours in daylight. We got on the road at about 5, so we only had 2 hours of daylight at best left because of the bad roads. You can’t go very fast at night or you’ll blow a tire in one of the thousands of potholes.
BUT what was excited is that while the sun was just falling below the horizon we looked out as we’re flying through the countryside and see zebras! Yeah that’s right, real, wild zebras! Not in a zoo. It’s the first animal besides monkeys that I’ve seen. Except for the normal ones like cows, goats, dogs, cats, and chickens. We pulled over and got out to get some good pics. We were very stealthy so we got pretty close before we started to scare them away. It was awesome! We had a lot of fun being sneaky. Mission impossible was running through my head as I hid behind bushes. ☺
We got home at about 9:30 or 10 and then realized that NICK had left my keys (to my house, classroom, and desk) and his keys to his house in the hotel in Mbarara, in a drawer, where they were safe. So it wasn’t the best way to end an amazing trip, but life goes on. We’re still in the process of getting our keys back. Be praying that people are doing what they tell they are doing and that the keys make it to us eventually. There’s some stuff in my desk that I really need.
So today after school one of the first grade parents that we’re friend with came up to us and said, “hey, I just bought a monkey on the street, want to see him?” Of course we jumped at the opportunity to hold a real monkey! So we get to her car and he’s just lounging around. I got to hold him and he even feel asleep in my arms! So darn cute! We think he’s just a baby. Anyways… she asked us if we could watch him for two hours while she did some stuff, so we got to babysit a monkey this afternoon!! How awesome is that?! He was so funny. I decided that I would call him Jameson because he seemed very proper. So we hung out with Jameson for a couple of hours, took pictures of him, fed him random things, and watched him climb the bars on our door a lot. He was swinging from the curtain at one point, but he didn’t like it too much so it didn’t last long. He relieve himself on our floor a number of times and made a huge mess with what we were feeding him, but he was so darn cute it wasn’t a huge deal. I was holding him and rubbing his head and neck and he passed out within about 10 seconds. He slet on my lap for a long while until Nick and some others came over to see him. Finally they came to pick him up and take him home, but it was pretty the most exciting afternoon ever! Let’s hope he didn’t have lice or something, right?
So, life here is moving along quickly. I’m coming up on 3 months here real soon, which is insane to think about. I’m missing my family a ton right now. We haven’t been able to connect much in the last few weeks, which has been a bummer. The internet has been real tricky at school lately, so if I owe you an email please be patient. I’m working on emailing everyone back real soon. Maybe this weekend even.
Thanks to all who continue to pray and support me while I’m here. Your prayers are felt and the Lord is responding. I’m praying for all of you as well. Be blessed this week. Much love.
To see pictures of the Rwanda trip check out... http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2043813&l=8357d&id=161500306

another email

FYI I have an email address for those of you who can't remember my aol or gmail account. It's christina@wgmuganda.org! Happy writing!

2 months and going strong?

Yes I know it’s been way longer than I said it would be before I updated. Time flies when you’re as busy as I seem to be… oh and when you don’t have consistent internet. Well it’s been 3 or 4 weeks and yes a lot has happened. Let’s start with the meeting with the field directors. It went really well and I’m really excited to be able to express my thoughts and concerns with them (John and Beth Muehleisen, our temporary field directors). They really listened and actually agreed with most of what was said. They even advised me to say what I told them to their boss, who was here for a couple of weeks. Terry and Karen Duncan are John and Beth’s boss. I believe they’re in charge of all of East Africa. We had a chance to have them over for lunch one day and discuss what’s been going on. They too were very receptive and gave some good solutions to some of my concerns. They’re really great people and it was a joy to get to meet them. Fall break is coming up next week and they have given us an open invitation to come stay with them in Kenya for a visit. How sweet would that be?! I’m not sure if we’ll get to Kenya… tonight Nick, Jean and I talked about the possibility of going to Rwanda and kind of scouting out an area for a possible WGM site. I really would like to get to Kenya before I leave here though. I have a free place to stay and Nairobi is only a 14 hour and 25 dollar bus ride from here.
Anyways, the HIS high school retreat was 17th through the 19th. We left at 8:30am on that Wednesday and drove the two hours to Jinja to the King Fisher Resort for the retreat. It is an absolutely beautiful place with beautiful landscape and scenery. I think that the retreat was a huge success. We had very few issues with behavior problems and some hearts were changed and touched. God moved, as we expected He would. It was a great time to just relax and be away from the city and be away from the school. I got to know many of the youth really well and am enjoying the relationships that were built. I’m definitely getting to know the kids more everyday and I’m really excited about that. Teaching in the elementary is some times a hindrance to what I really am called to do. I loved being able to spend time with the high school. I spent a lot of time just sitting and talking with Lino. He’s on of the Sudanese boys that Nick had been taking care of for a while. Lino is probably about 16. I asked him to tell me his story of how his life was before being rescued from Sudan. He told me he and his younger brother, Angelo’s (aka Taban) story and how they got to where they are now and it was amazing. We spent a lot of time on the retreat just sitting and talking and listening to each other. Lino is one of the sweetest spirits I’ve ever met. He’s so grateful and so humble. His main concern is always for the welfare of other’s before himself. This is a kid who has done hard manual labor just to bring a few schillings home to feed his family for a couple of days. He would go and sleep on the street and look for work and be gone for months at a time… all at about the age of 10 or 11. His story is both amazing and gut wrenching to hear.
So other than talk to Lino, we had games and lots of free time. We had a good speaker for the kids too, Paul Crowe. Francis is the music teacher at HIS and he mostly led worship. I sang while he played guitar and Nick drummed. Worship was awesome. Games and free time were fabulous. We had a blast swimming and playing keep away with the kids. It was so hilarious to have these high school boys trying to dunk me and then watch them realize that my bodyguard, Nick was now going to take them down. Ha! We had a giant tarp that we made into a slip and slide and we had a relay race. We divided the grades into teams and had them compete in a bunch of random tasks. It was a blast. The winning team gets a home cooked meal from me, Lisa, and Nick today at lunch instead of school food.
So, all in all the retreat was good. I’m happy with the way things turned out and even though there were some small glitches that are still being worked out, I wish we could go again. It was a rejuvenating time for me because I’ve been struggling with teaching. So to get away and be with the youth was nice. It is so obvious to me that I am called to work with high school age youth!! I relate so much better with them and I know how to deal with them. Man, what a joy!
So what else has been going on? Teaching, teaching, and more teaching. I’ve been trying to change the way I do things a bit… trying to change up my teaching style and just do a better job. Even though it’s not what I love to do I figure that God has only called ME to teach 6th grade at Heritage right now. And not anyone else, so I probably should do what I’ve been called to do well. There is no one else that God has brought to teach right now, in this moment. It’s me and I’ve got to do a better job at it. It glorifying to God, don’t ya think? My students are doing better grade-wise. We’ve discussed my goals for them and what I expect out of them. We’ve been working on note taking and focusing on the task at hand. I think things are getting better. Please keep praying for that.
The discipleship group at KIU is going really well. We’re waiting on our books to come in from the States. I ordered them 3 weeks ago now, so hopefully they’ll be here any time. The first week we did intros of ourselves, the second week Jean gave her testimony, the third week I gave my testimony, the fourth week I was on retreat so Jean talked about true joy, and this past week was the fifth week and I talked about worship. I didn’t have anything planned because of all of my busyness and meets and such. BUT I’m all about doing things last minute and not having a set plan… I work well under pressure. So at about 6pm I decided I would talk about worship. True worship, in spirit and in truth. I brought my guitar and we did some songs, then I talked for about a half hour about ways to worship, what true worship is to God, and about worship in every day tasks and things we always do. It turned out really well and I thought the girls responded well. I’m excited for the Beth Moore books to get here especially since they were so darn expensive, but I think it’s going well either way. I love the relationships I’m building with the girls.
I’m really focusing on working on my relationships that I’ve started here. Relationships with the other missionaries are going really well right now. I absolutely love the fun times we’ve all been having together and the fellowship. Things can sometimes get rough spending so much time with the same people, but the Lord is softening some hearts within our mission and it’s been helpful. We’ve been spending a lot of time with the Hopsons and it’s been a real joy. Delight Hopson has become my Africa mom. She is a nurturer and loves to take care of us. I have her son, Austin in my class. Kaleb is in grade 8, and Emilee is grade 4. They are a fun family. I’m also enjoying getting to know Lisa better. She is awesome and she was great on retreat. The Kelley’s have two younger girls and they’re cute. They’ve also been really nurturing to Jean and I. And of course I love the Bournes. This past weekend we took Rachel (13) and Haley (17) to Speke resort to swim for the day. They have a really nice pool… AND I got to have a Coke in the pool. All of my dreams… came true. (well maybe not all of them). It was so fun to spend time with them and get to know them better. Those two were fabulous on retreat. I’ve also been able to get to know Nick better which is fun.
Speaking of Nick… he was given the book “The Shack” as a gift from some of our missionaries who just got back here from South Africa. It’s a fictional book, which I’m not generally fond of Christian fiction. But one Sunday he came over here so he and I could listen to a sermon on my computer together instead of going to church (we were both very much worn out from retreat) and he brought the Shack to finish after we listened to the sermon. He was super excited about it and told me I had to read it. So I just finished it this weekend because I’ve been too busy to read it until now and oh my, it’s good! It was really thought provoking and I’m definitely recommending it to everyone! It puts a new spin on understanding God and having a relationship with Him. The Trinity is introduced in ways I’ve never even imagined possible. It has definitely made me think more about my own relationship with Jesus and how I actual relate to Him and maybe some ways He sees me and the things that I do. I don’t want to write more than that, but please, please go out and get it. It’s a short 250 pages… a very quick read. I read it in about 2 days. It’s SO good. Nick is actually using it as his material for his KIU discipleship group. It has stirred some interesting conversations with his group of guys. If nothing else it really makes you think.
I’m also trying to read Captivating (the girls version of Wild At Heart). So far it’s awesome. It’s very revealing in my own life and I really think that any man who wants to truly understand a woman, and what she is thinking and how she handles things, should read it. Men, this book has already changed a lot in my heart already. Man-up and read it!
Well, I think that’s about it. I’m missing my family quite a bit. My daddy left for Arizona yesterday, for the winter so my family won’t see him until Christmas. It’ll make communicating a bit more challenging for me too. My sister and my mom are getting ready to fly to Florida for a couple of weeks of training. My family has decided to open a franchise, so the training is for that. Their new store is going to be in Yorkville. As I understand it, the outside is done and the sign is up. They are working on the inside and getting everything set up and ready. I think it’s going to open the end of October or beginning of November. I would love to be a part of it, but that’s ok. Maybe I’ll do the PR and marketing when I get home. Kayla and Alexandria are doing well. Kayla will be 4 next month! Can you even believe it? Alexandria is 17 months as of yesterday. She is talking up a storm I guess and I miss them both dearly. I get to talk to them about once a week. Last week I was able to use a webcam so they could see me, but I couldn’t see them. Kayla kept trying to show me things because she doesn’t understand that I can’t see her. It’s so funny!
I was able to talk to my bff, Stacy for a long time yesterday. Poor girl was home sick because she’s prego! I forgot to write that last time and I’m sure you all knew this already, but I’m excited and I’m praying for a boy because a nephew would be so fun! I’ve been able to talk with a many of my bffs lately, so it’s been nice. I’m trying to be better at calling. Thankfully when you buy minutes on Skype it’s real cheap to call people’s phones in the States.
So, I’ve been here for 2 months as of yesterday. I still don’t know when I’m coming home, but I’m trusting the Lord with that. I don’t need to know right now, right? It’s kinda crazy to think that I’ve been out of the States for over two months now. I feel like I’ve missed a lot, but I know I’ve gained more than I’ve missed if that makes sense.
Over thanksgiving weekend WGM Uganda, including the Arua team (Arua is to the north and it borders Sudan) is having a retreat (well kind of). We are going to be staying here and just doing stuff during the days, but I’ve been asked to lead worship for the retreat. Man am I glad I brought my guitar?! Heck yes! Beth Muehleisen (field director) is in charge of the retreat and she’s going to be doing most of the speaking I think. She has asked me to rewrite some Wesleyan song to make it more modernized… at least that’s how I understood her. We’ll see, but I’m really excited!
Well yesterday was a random holiday that was announced Monday. It’s called IDD and it’s an Islamic holiday determined by the moon. It could have fallen anywhere from last Friday until today. So no school yesterday was a nice treat. We walked to a grocery store because our car battery died on Saturday and it still hasn’t been fixed. Ah, Africa. It took us about an hour to get to the store and once we got down there we had to go to a couple of different stores because you can never find everything you need in one place. No Wal-Mart’s here that’s for sure. Then we walked the hour back home with our groceries. We could have taken a boda, but walking seemed like a better idea at the time. The Equatorial sun is ridiculously intense. It was real hot. Living in Kampala means living on a hill, so anyway you go you’re eventually walking up hill… both ways. I didn’t mind the walk though. I could have done without the heat, but hey, I live on the equator, so I need to get used to it. I also practiced driving stick shift with the Kelley’s car. Oh, I’m getting good!
I’m going to try my best to (sometime soon) write an entry about everyday life and the different things I deal with day to day like walking to work in a skirt through a mud hole, or like living near a rooster that doesn’t know when to stop crowing, or like driving on the left side of the road… or the right side, or whichever side has less traffic. Yikes!
But for now I’m going to go and get some rest. Much love to all of you!

Teaching

Here I am teaching one day

Give it to God

Oh man! So a lot has happened since the night of the Open House/BBQ. That went well, btw… it was a very long 13 hour work day though. I had a sore throat that day and then the next day woke up with a sinus infection, so I was pretty miserable but we had already made plans with some of the MKs. So on Saturday we went bowling and to the arcade with Austin and Emilee. They have quickly become some of my favorite little people ever! I was feelin pretty yucky though… I even lost in bowling… to everyone. Including 9-year-old Emmy. Yikes. After that we did some grocery shopping and took the kids home. We were able to use the internet at the duplex when we dropped them off so I got to buy some Skype minutes and call some people. After that we had made plans with Nick, so we went and had homemade cake that N-dog made for us and we brought the ice cream. When we sat down to watch a movie though… it all hit me and I was feeling awful. I basically laid on his couch, sneezed, sniffled, and slept for two hours.
The next day we had plans to drive down to Jinja, which is a two-hour drive to check out the retreat center for the youth at HIS. Jinja is where the Nile begins at Lake Victoria. Anyways, so we get to the retreat place and they tell us they cannot accommodate us. Keeping in mind that the retreat was about 17 days away at that point and they were going to handle everything… including the speaking. So we called another place in Jinja, drove over and within an hour had a new place to have the retreat. BUT this meant that we were now in charge of all the lessons, so I would have to take a day, Nick would take a day, and Lisa would take a day. Not a huge deal, just not in the plan. Well, now we’ve found someone, so all Nick and I have to do is come up with games and lead worship. Nice.
Last week I got a new student! Majesty Mukulu did indeed test high enough to get into my class, though he reads at about the 4th grade level. It is nice to have another student, but it has been a challenge to integrate him in since we were already 4 weeks in. We shall see how he did this past weekend with homework and reading. He had a lot to do!

Last week was Spiritual Emphasis week at HIS, so there was a chapel service everyday. There were 3 actually, one for the little, little kids, one for the first through sixth grade, and then one for the high school. I’ve been really feeling burdened for the high schoolers, so I got special permission to sit in and be a part of high school chapel. I had to scramble and find a sub at the last minute to get my morning lessons started, but it worked out just fine. Monday I was still feeling pretty stuffy and sneezy, but someone forgot that Francis wouldn’t be there which meant I was asked to lead worship with about 10 minutes to pick songs and be in there to go. I didn’t have my guitar or a pick, but Nick got me Francis’ guitar. So I lead worship with some old songs I had printed off for our Sunday evening fellowship, no pick, and no voice because of my cold. Can I just say that it was NOT the best way to start my week. I know it was just a bunch of high school kids and some teachers, but it was embarrassing to be so unprepared and sick sounding.
Oh well, moving on. Last week was busy in general, but then on top of that we had our discipleship group and WGM Kampala team meeting. The meetings generally last for 3-4 hours and are draining after a day of teaching. After the meeting we came home and called Lisa to come and talk to us about some stuff having to do with the meeting. It was a tough night. Friday night was relaxing… Lisa, Jean, and I went into the city to the mall area and had dinner and then went back to Lisa’s to watch a movie. Saturday we helped one of the missionary family’s with a kids b-day party and then had Nick over for some dessert and a movie.
Church was good on Sunday. The one we chose to go to was having a youth Sunday, so it was cool to watch and be a part of. We’ve had a work team from Ireland here for a week and a half now and last night we were in charge of hosting them for dinner. So after Sunday evening fellowship we ran home and finished what we had been cooking all day and got our place set up for 13 people to eat. We only have enough places for about 9 to sit, so Jean, Nick, and I sat of the floor. But it was an awesome experience. After dinner and desert we had some worship. Nick just happened to have his drum with him and I played and we all sang to and praised the Lord. It was very good. Then a girl called Natalie lead their evening devotions and then we prayed together. They’re a cool group. They’re only here until Friday, but I’m hoping to spend more time with them.
Today (Monday) we had an unexpected holiday from school because the king of the Busoga Tribe died last week and it is now a national holiday. Nick is kinda keeping an eye on the Sudanese boys while their guardians are in the States, so we went to the beach to play volleyball and football aka soccer. Suti is the oldest, he’s around 17 or 18, they don’t know. He is a rescued child soldier from Sudan. Lino is probably about 16 or 17, he was in the barracks being trained to become a soldier when he was rescued. Angelo aka Taban is around 14 and he was also in the barracks. Lino and Angelo are brothers, but have different fathers. These boys are phenomenal and I can’t wait to get to know them more. Nick is going to bring them here for dinner either this week or next. Plus Angelo and Lino will be on the retreat with HIS, so I’ll get to hang with them more. But anyways volleyball was real fun. A bunch of Ugandans and Kenyans joined in and eventually I was forced out of the game. The boys that joined wouldn’t let me play and Nick was the only one allowing me to hit the ball anymore because women apparently shouldn’t be playing sports. Since I was the only girl playing to begin with, I just submitted and went and sat out. It was ok though because I got to meet 3 Kenyan girls who go to KIU, so I invited them to my discipleship group on Wednesday nights.
So anyways, there are some things that I’ve really got to think about and be in prayer about and I would love for you to join me. I’ve got to be honest and say that lifting my hands in prayer hasn’t been the easiest thing for me to do this week. I’m struggling to be here right now. I feel very much like I am missing out on a ton at home. I don’t know what’s going on in people’s lives and I’m stressed about it. Everyone keeps telling me that things are the same and that they are just working and that’s about it, but it just seems like there’s got to be more. I’ve gone from talking to people everyday and having lots to talk about each day, to talking to them once every 2-3 weeks for about 10 minutes. And now when I talk on the phone I just like to hear what’s going on there because I’ve already talked about what’s going on here with my family or someone, or I’ve written it here. I just like to hear about everyone’s lives and I either don’t get a hold of people or I can’t find a good time to call. I’m 7 hours ahead of my east coast time buddies and 8 hours ahead of my central time homies, so it’s just difficult. Please be praying for me. Pray that I would constantly seek God. Pray that I would shut up sometimes and let others speak. Pray that God would use me with the youth. Pray for my attitude. Pray for my new relationships. Pray for my health. Pray for this nation. Pray for the youth. Pray for my students. Pray for my family at home. Guys, please be praying.
I have some decisions I’ve got to make as to the amount of time I’m going to stay here and when I’m coming home. I don’t want to base this decision off of what I’ll be missing in the States if I stay here. I need to make sure that I leave things in God’s hands and not try to take control. I want to do the work I have been called here to do without distractions.
I have a meeting this week with our WGM field director. Pray for that meeting. I need the right words and an understanding heart. There are some things happening that I don’t care for and I don’t know how much of a voice I have to change them, but I’d like to make myself heard.
So that’s what’s been going on with me. Not too much, but this is the easiest way to let you all know how I’m doing without having to send out a mass email. I love getting your emails and hearing from you, so keep ‘em comin! Be blessed this week, friends. Much love.
ps here is a link to quite a few pictures that are on facebook. Hopefully you're able to view both albums.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2041862&l=5f484&id=161500306

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040615&l=d3e41&id=161500306

Some of my Students

1 Month Update

As the third week of school began, so did lots of other stuff. I am started a discipleship group for some of the young college girls from KIU (Kampala International University) last night. These are girls who want to know how to share the good news, how to grow their relationships with Jesus, how to live as a light. I’m excited for this part of my ministry to get started and take off. I wasn’t just brought here to be a teacher… although that’s what I’m doing now, so I’m working at it. I believe I am here to work with the youth, both at HIS and at in the local churches. I’m excited that that part of my ministry has begun and I’m looking forward to the jr. high and then the senior high retreats coming up in a few weeks.
Would you be in prayer for those retreats? There have been MAJOR behavior problems in the past and many of those kids will be joining us this year. Pray for hearts to be softened and that souls are won. The retreat place takes care of everything as far as lessons and activities go, so it’s going to be a great chance for those of us on leadership to grow our relationships with the kids. The kids know the other leaders pretty well because they’ve been here for a while. Francis (he teaches music at HIS and all the kids love him) and Lisa have been with these kids for a while. Nick came this past April or so and of course I’ve been here a month. The other leaders have the opportunity to work with the kids on a daily basis because they all teach in the secondary. Since I’m on the elementary side I don’t get to see the kids as often. I’ve really got to work on learning some names! I’m horrible at it. I have a meeting with Lisa and Nick today to talk about the retreats… please be praying.
So anyways… I’ve been out of the States for a month now, but it’s flown by for me. I am going to try to be better at posting more pictures on here, but the internet just doesn’t play nice some days. So it seems like in the past month I have done everything, but nothing. I’ve definitely been real busy, but I think it’s been a lot of settling into a routine. I’m going to try my best not to settle too far into a routine because then it becomes a rut. I think I could easily find myself in a rut… and maybe I’m already carving one right now.
Much of the time my attitude reflects the attitudes of those around me. If people are being negative it is easy for me to be that way too instead of countering that, you know? I need to not fall into that. I am a light, and not that I can’t have a rough day, but my attitude should be more reflective of that of Christ. I keep being brought back to Philippians 2. Even last night during my discipleship group I felt very led to share that with the group and let them know that I am working towards reflecting the attitude described there.
Regarding the discipleship group, the book I want to use is about $19 each. I need to order at least 15 of them and have them shipped here which not only means a lot of money, but a lot of waiting. The girls are all really excited about the book choice which is why we’re sticking with that particular one. Please pray that funds continue to come in, I can pay for the books out of my ministry account, but that will also take away funds from other things. I think there are about 11 girls so far and only one of them did not share that they were saved. Be praying for Franklyn. She is our only Ugandan in the group. The rest of the ladies are Kenyan. I’m really hoping to learn some Swahili and Lugandan. There is a really cool dictionary that I have my eye on… maybe this weekend I’ll splurge and buy it.
In the school we all have prayer/accountability partners. I was “assigned” Donna Bourne. She is a missionary with WGM, so I know her and her husband and family pretty well. They are the ones from Chillicothe, OH, so we have fun and get along well. Yesterday Donna and I had our first meeting and it went really well. I’m comfortable with her and I think we will be able to connect really well. She’s so sweet.
For dinner tonight my roomie and I have invited Donna and Keith’s daughter, Haley over for dinner. Haley is one of 2 or 3 seniors and she could really use some friends. She’s very quiet girl, so I’m hoping to find a way to really get to know her and invest in her. She may be going back to the States for college soon, so the time is now! We also invited the niece of a family who has kids in the school over tonight. Her name is Dani and she just graduated high school last year, so I’m hoping that she is able to connect with Haley well. I just met Dani today, but she’s sweet and I’m hoping she catches onto what my goal is with her and Haley. ☺
I’m not sure what’s in store for this weekend yet, but I’ve got to make it through the week first. Tomorrow night is Open House for the parents and families to come and see what the kids have been doing. Also, there is a BBQ right before Open House that we have to be at. After tomorrow I’m not even going to think about school for 2 straight days! This weekend we might drive up to the pool that I wrote about, or maybe we’ll go down to the Lake again. Who knows? I’m hoping paintball happens very soon! Some of the MKs have been asking to go for a while now.
Oh man, I guess that’s it for now. Thank you so much for being faithful in praying for me. Your prayers are being felt, especially on the days when I can’t seem to lift my hands in prayer myself. Much love and many blessings to you all.

OH!! Ps my classroom might be growing by one! We are in the process of testing a Ugandan boy to see what level he can be placed in. His name is Majesty. So pray for him.

Lake Victoria

Down by the lake

Lake Victoria

This is from when Jean, Nick, and I drove down to near Entebbe to sit, read, relax, and take some pictures by beautiful Lake Victoria.

Youth Group

This is our first youth group meeting. We're sitting on each other all at the same time. The girls did not do a great job of this. :)

It's a Small World...

I don’t have anything substantial to say… but I do have a funny experience I’d like to share. Yesterday our WGM Kampala had a prayer meeting at one of the missionary’s houses. This particular family lives too far from my apartment to walk to. So after school I had to walk up to the Duplex (2 house that are connected, that are shared by 2 WGM missionary families.) to drop a bill off in the finance office and see if I could get a ride to the meeting. So we’re walking up the first big hill and it’s like hiking up any normal semi-steep hillside. As we round the corner at the top we can faintly hear “It’s a Small World” playing from somewhere.
Well this isn’t the first time I’ve heard that song playing randomly around here. I was working in my classroom at the school last Sunday before evening fellowship and I heard it playing. It’s always pretty faint though.
So anyways as we round the corner and are on flat ground for a while before we begin the next hill, “It’s a Small World” grows louder and louder. I say to my roomie, “sounds like it could be an ice cream man. How awesome would that be?!” Then we talk about how we’ve heard it before. All the while the song is growing louder. Well about 45 seconds later a bike rolls by with an orange Gatorade-type cooler, with a sign on it that says ‘ice cream’.
I’m guessing you don’t find this as funny as I did, but it was just perfect. There is so much need and a lack of so many things here, even in the city; yet there is an ice cream man... with a boom box... and a cooler full of ice cream.
Anypoo, I’m a day away from the end of my second week of teaching and I’m pretty pumped about that. I like my job/ministry, but I love Saturdays. I’m not sure what’s going down this weekend, but maybe some paintball at the place we found last weekend. Maybe catching a movie. I’d like to check out this orphanage that a couple girls I know volunteer at.
Oh, something else that’s kind of exciting… last night we were invited for dinner at a house that has decent internet. So we brought out computers to email and Skype. My roommate has a newer Mac than I do and her’s has a web cam built in. Well I use skype on my computer a lot, but I used her computer so that when I called my sister, the baby could see me. I was sad I couldn’t see her, but knowing that she was so excited to see me was awesome. I’m hoping my family gets a web cam soon so that I can see the girlies.
Be praying for the teachers and students at HIS, for our health. Quite a few teachers have already missed a day of work and on of the MKs has missed two days. There are a ton of germs when there are that many kids in small spaces and they love to touch EVERYTHING and everyone around them. Gross. So, please be praying for that. Also, if you would still be in prayer about my finances, that would be much appreciated. Thank you for being supportive. Thanks for being faithful servants with me! ☺
Love,
Chris

10 Hours

Hello friends! I’m in my second week of school right now and all is well. Honestly, it’s a big challenge, but I see progress in the students already. We have our first big test tomorrow in Social Studies. I guess we’ll see how things are going after I’ve graded their tests. What’s nice is that my grade has most of their specials like art, music, and French in the afternoons, so I have the opportunity to grade, make copies, and get prepared for the next day. I don’t have too much home with me at all. I like being able to leave and leave my work at work. You know? Plus this way I have the opportunity to focus on the youth and stuff with that.
Speaking of the youth, we had our beginning of the year youth bash on Friday night. We met at my VIA coordinator, Lisa’s house. We weren’t expecting more than maybe 12 or 15 kids to come, but 23 showed up! It was awesome. They’re a good group of kids, rough around the edges, but a good group. Nick, Lisa, and I are running things right now. So when we first got there we started off with some games and the kids absolutely loved them. ( some parents told us on Monday how much their kids were talking about the games.) ☺ After the games we ate tons of food… everyone brought something to share. After food we had a few more games to tie into the lesson. Then Lisa did the lesson, and then we had the kids write down things they wanted to learn about or talk about at youth group. I thought it would be a good idea because it seemed to work well with my youth back in the states. Then we did a few songs and the kids were on their way.
My only reservation with all this is the age difference between some of the kids. We have 7th through 12th graders all in one group. I’d like to split them up and do some more age appropriate stuff.
So anyways, this past weekend was nice and relaxing. Jean and I took the car and went exploring on Saturday. When we got up and around we went and used the internet for a while and then we went out. We looked into geocaching and found that there are some caches fairly close to where we live. Yay for bringing my gps! After we got all or info we went exploring. We wanted to go down to Lake Victoria and just chill, but instead we went to check out a resort on the lake. They have an amazing pool that we can pay to use whenever, so we wanted to get info on prices and stuff.
Sidebar: So those of you that know me freakishly well know that it is one of my dreams to swim in a place with a bar in the pool. Why? Because I just think it’s awesome! How fun would that be? I don’t even drink alcohol, but who wouldn’t want a nice glass of pop while they’re swimming around. Well, the pool has a bar in it!! I can now go where ever on my honeymoon… I’m no longer restricted to somewhere with a bar in the pool because my dream will come true at some point this semester.
Moving on, Nick had us over for dinner and then we hung out and played some games. Sunday Jean and I went to church at an Anglican church, not an Africa Gospel Church this week. It was a neat service. We were two of three mzungus there. We went for lunch at a cute café after church, came home, got our stuff, went down to the school to do some planning for Monday, and then met in the library with some WGMers and a few others for Sunday night fellowship. We led worship, which was great because they generally sing old songs not many people know and they do them a’cappella. A’cappella is ok sometimes, but I don’t like it all the time. We’re watching a DVD series for fellowship by Louie Giglio. The lesson Sunday was great… it totally tied into what I did for devos every morning with my class last week.
So now I’m in week two and even though things are going well it seems like the year is going to drag on. I think time will start moving faster once the subject matter starts advancing a bit. Right now we’re still reviewing a bit. Also things will pick up as I get to know the youth better and we’re all hanging out more. I already have a few of them picked out as some I would love to work on. One’s that I can’t wait to see what God has in store for them, you know?
So anyways, I’m starting to miss home a bit. The worst part is not being able to see my nieces growing and learning new things everyday. Alexandria still recognizes my voice and gets smiley when I talk to her, but I wish I could see her face. She has learned so many new things in just the past 3 weeks since I’ve been gone. There’s this song I’ve been introduced to this week called 10 Hours by Warren Barfield. He’s a Christian artist out of Nashville right now. Check out his myspace page if you have the chance.
Well folks, there are some new pics up on facebook… pics of my classroom and some other stuff. I hope all is well with you. The Lord is so good and so faithful. I hope you’re finding that to be true everyday for you. This morning I read Matthew 16:24-28 to my class during out morning devotional time. I encourage you to read it today and make it true for your lives everyday. Much love, homies!

Dirt Roads and Mighty Words

Well my goal is to post once or twice a week and so far I haven't followed through, but now that I have more of a schedule it is my plan to do so. Well, last week I had orientation for the school monday, tuesday, and wednesday morning until lunch. After lunch we were given the opportunity to work in our classrooms and get stuff set up. I was done and set up by tuesday, so I spent my time writing lesson plans and helping others set their rooms up. Thursday and Friday were registration days and we were asked to be in the classroom as much as possible to meet the students and their parents. Thursday we had a team meeting within WGM to get caught up on things and find out what the plan is for the next few weeks. It's mainly for the career missionaries, but as VIA we (Nick, Jean, and I) are allowed and encouraged to sit in because we're long term VIA (volunteers in action).
The meeting was informative and I learned a ton about the field here in Kampala and a little bit about what our team in the northern part of the country is doing. I've also had the opportunity to spend more time with each of the missionary families and their kids and I just love them all. There is one family here from Chillicothe, OH where a good friend of mine is from, so it's fun to hang out with them. They are a little reminder of home everyday. They're just so comfortable and loving. They have two girls who are high school age and I'm enjoying getting to know them. Nick, Jean, and I, all being VIA try and hang out with the kids and get to spend some time with them. I believe that MKs are just another ministry to be involved in. One of the MKs is in my 6th grade class and I love him!
Speaking of class, I only have 4 student because a few were not able to return for one reason or another. Easy right? Well one of my students just arrived here from South Korea and doesn't speak english much beyond casual greetings. BUT we've only had 3 days of class and our communication has already improved greatly. She is really getting involved in class now. I'm excited to see how she grows over the next year. 6th grade is a fun age for me because they still actually want to learn. They still ask questions and they still (for the most part) pay attention. Something that I am so excited about is teaching my bible class as a part of the curriculum. Teaching in a Christian school has it's advantages.
There are many other first year teachers here who never went to college for Education either, so it's been an encouragement and I really feel like I can do it. I have support in all directions. Our principal is wonderful and she is also very supportive of me.
So other than that I've been slowly learning my way around. Me, Nick, and Jean share on vehicle and since Nick doesn't live within walking distance of the school he usually has the car. But this weekend I got to drive around Kampala and do some last minute school shopping. Driving on the left isn't the tricky part here... the tricky part is not dying. But in all seriousness there are laws, but none of them are in place. It is normal to see cars passing uphill, stopping where ever they want, driving on the wrong side, you name it, they do it. The 'boda bodas' or motorcycles for hire are the craziest drivers so far though. I've yet to have to take a boda and my plan is to never have to, but you never know. I like motorcycles, but I also like not weaving in and out of traffic and obeying common courtesy laws.
I've now been to two of the churches that WGM has planted here in Kampala and the surrounding areas. The goal is so train Ugandans to be pastors, help them get their church started, and then for them to run everything on their own. It seems pretty successful so far. The Ugandan pastors that I've met are really nice and VERY welcoming. Of course I'm normally the only Muzungo in the service, along with whoever I came with, but I like it that way. We do a worship service here at the school on sunday evenings. It's open to everyone, but it seems like a very WGM populated group. This week Nick and I are leading worship, so I'm excited about that. I am so glad I decided to bring my guitar!
I've already been to the movie theatre here, but the only thing I wanted to see was the Dark Knight, which I'd seen before, but it was good. I've been to the mall and lots of little stores along the road called dukas. This past friday we went to "friday market" which is just an out door market where crafts, clothing, gifts, jewelry, and stuff like that is sold. It was a very cool experience. Of course I've had experience bartering from when I was in Mexico, but this was much more interactive and competitive.
I've not really had any feelings of homesickness yet, but I do sometimes feel like I'm missing a lot of stuff in the states. I don't like not being able to pick up my phone and talk to someone for an hour or two without it costing 60,000UGX, you know? But I'll survive. So what if I wake up at 5:30 am to talk to people, at least I get to hear your voices!
I wish I could box you all up and have you shipped to me because there's so much I want to show you and tell you about and I don't do any of it justice with my words.
Would you all be continually be praying for the field here in Uganda, specifically for our Kampala team. Pray for Heritage International School (HIS) as some roles are still not filled and the year is underway. Pray for teachers and students as we've already had a number of absences due to illness. Pray for the students to open their hearts and be willing to receive Christ for those that don't know Him, and for those that do that they would draw nearer to Him daily. Pray for Uganda. Pray for the people. I've never met people more kind and welcoming in my life. This is a beautiful place with it's orange/red dirt roads, random animals wandering the streets, and the sounds of children's laughter as they play games with an empty bottle in the street. For some this would be their worst nightmare... when the power goes out we have no hot water and our toilet doesn't flush, we will never have air conditioning in our apartment or the internet. We have to wash out clothes by hand, boil water just to brush our teeth. There are giant bugs creeping around everywhere. When we buy "fresh" fruit from the market we have to soak it in bleach water to kill the parasites and then let it air dry completely before consuming. Normal things like cheap shampoo are about 5 dollars for a small bottle. There is a mosquito net over my bed, and I can't go out after dark because of safety issues. But it's not a nightmare to me... it's actually beautiful. Of course there are comforts I miss, but there are also experiences to be had and I wouldn't want to stifle myself or my God by giving up or checking out.
I pray that you're blessed and encouraged by the things you've read. I pray that you would gain a little understanding of what I get to experience here and the ways that God is moving. He is here, He is big, and His plans are perfect. I take rest and comfort in that. Joshua 1:9 says, "Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you where ever you go." Thank God that He keeps His word. Thank God that He is with me here and also with you there. I love you all very much! Please keep me updated on your lives and let me know how I can be praying for you, k?
Love,
Chris

ps it's less than a dollar to send snail mail letters. (again, hint hint!)

H.I.S.

Heritage International School. This is where I'm teaching 6th grade. This is a pic of the Admin building and part of the secondary classrooms.