Life Stories

The presidential elections went fairly well. The incumbent won, which was to be expected and things remained fairly peaceful, with just a few small problems in some areas. However last Wednesday the Mayoral elections were held and then postponed due to rioting in the city. There were rumors of ballot boxes being stuffed and lots of corruption. The police stepped in and the riots were fairly small and contained. There was some tear gas and shots fired, but things calmed pretty quickly and it was not near my home. I only heard of the rioting through some locals who work at the Center of Hope with me. All of that to say that school did not resume last Thursday, so my schedule did not go back to normal until today. I am very blessed by the time I had to to spend with youth kids and also with my teacher friends from Heritage who were on break. I love relationship building and a whole lot of that happened in the last couple of weeks or so.

The Mayoral elections have been rescheduled, but I don't know for when. News does not travel fast here and rumors move as quickly as the truth. Whenever they are though, there is sure to be more rioting so I invite you to continue praying for peace in Uganda.

I've mentioned the Ackers and the Sudanese guys before and I got to spend plenty of time with them over break. I asked each of the guys if I could interview them and get their life stories first hand. The truth is, I know the general stuff on all of them, but nothing very specific except for with Lino because of the amount of time I spent with him last time. I would like to point out that it is a huge deal that these guys trust me enough to sit down and share their lives with me. It's a gift from the Lord really because it does not happen often that Africans open up and make themselves completely vulnerable... and these guys have lots of darkness in their past that they don't love to talk about let alone have to think through. I'm blessed by the gift of relationships with each of these extraordinary guys. So far I've only been able to sit down and get three of their stories because the other ones are back in boarding school, but they've agreed to sit down with me next time they are home. I'm not sad that I didn't have time to get stories from all of them within a week because it is emotionally draining to sit and hear these stories.

Obviously I've promised them that I wouldn't share their stories with others, so I can't go into any details. However sitting through tails of being a child soldier, being an orphan, and the way life is/was in Sudan is one of the hardest things I've done in my life. It's heart breaking, gut wrenching, and more horrific than most people can imagine. After the first story I wasn't sure that I wanted to hear anymore, but the Lord has prompted me to do this and He's given me the ability to befriend these guys so I'll keep going. I'm not even sure what I will do with the stories once I have them all written out, but I guess that's for God to decide. Luckily my new iPod has a recorder on it so I won't miss out on any of the details while I take a break from hearing and writing. I feel like this is a huge ministry and doors are continuing to open with these guys. Many are Muslim, some don't really believe in anything. They are such a burden on my heart right now and I would love for you to join me in praying for their souls. Pray for more opportunities to arise to just sit and talk with them, to show them the love of Christ. Some hearts are so hard right now it seems impossible, but God is sovereign and so much bigger than that.

Other than that, I'm still loving my class at the Center of Hope. I love teaching these beautiful people and I love the new relationships that are forming. The Wednesday night worship service grew from 10 to 20 within a week, praise the Lord. The people that are coming are from all different religious backgrounds. What a huge ministry and a huge opportunity to show Christ. Would you join me in praying for this worship service?

This past Saturday was a new friend's birthday, so a bunch of us piled into a van and drove down to Entebbe to spend the day at the lake. Of course we couldn't go in the water, but just being out of the city and sitting on the sand was really refreshing. It was nice to catch up with old friends and hang out with new ones. Mostly it was a nice opportunity to relax. I love being at the beach... I love it even more when you can actually swim though. :) We found a nice beach front place that served food, had music, and had plenty of people swimming and enjoying the water. It's always fun to watch an extreme game of soccer being played while little kids are splashing each other like crazy. The sunset on Lake Victoria is beautiful. Unfortunately I didn't even think about taking pictures, but rest assured that this is not the last weekend I'll be there! :)

I think that it's from me today. I've got to go substitute for some one's English class at the Center now. I hope you're all well these days!