Coming Home

We're headed home! It was with mixed emotions we boarded the plane yesterday in Entebbe. We're both excited about seeing our families, but sad as we leave a large part of our hearts behind. We decided to share some various pictures of our trip. In several of the blogs we may have referenced these people or places. 

It's been an amazing trip and we're returning very excited to share our experience.  God "showed up" in many ways this week. We've both realized that even when we're unable to see God working, He's always working to accomplish His will. God doesn't need us to accomplish His plan, but it's awesome He includes us in His accomplishments. Thanks to everyone who prayed for us while we were in Uganda.

...Actually, by the time we were able to post this, we've now been home about 24 hours.  Sorry for the delay and we hope you enjoy the pics!

Blessings,

Debbie and Sarah

This picture doesn't need an explanation- Life can be difficult in Uganda

This would be considered a very nice house in remote villages. The people living here are at least covered from the elements. 

This is the roof of the above home. Ugandans are very wise in utilizing their resources.

Closets are not an option and the bed is a luxury.

We think our classrooms are overcrowded?

This is the only water source for a village of 4590 people. The water is stagnant and is fed by a marsh. Many children in this village have died trying to get water off the end of the rock. It is very deep in the middle. 

We had the opportunity to visit a working "sugar cane" field. I don't think Sarah  would qualify for this work. Somebody needs to get this machete out of Sarah's hand!!

This is Eddie (left) and Usher (right). They are Edith and Derrick's brothers. We had a great day together. 

This lady was 88 years old and was so excited when a "mazungu" shook her hand. She told us she could die now knowing that she had met a white person.

Sarah shared a Clif bar with this young girl. She kneeled down to show her appreciation.

No explanation needed...child sitting....alone...

This is a VERY nice kitchen on Ugandan standards!

Children waving goodbye as we left the village.

Typical vegetable stand.

This is a water source... stagnant, dirty!  Never take for granted a glass of clean H2O!  

These 2 cows are being transported to an "Introduction" of 2 people getting married.  In Uganda, it's custom for a formal "Introduction" be made and the future groom must pay the dowry to his future in-laws.   

AIDS...it's a cruel disease for the undeserving...

Pics Edith and Derrick made for their biological mom were hand delivered!

Eddie (and his son, Trevor) was our driver, photographer, translator, and anything else we  needed!  He's the best!

Edith and Derrick's youngest sister, Linda . She's in need of surgery due to an extremely large umbilical hernia. However, there are no funds for such a thing. 

Children, children, everywhere!

During the church service at Bweya Community Church

A child on the street begging.

I will NEVER complain about doing laundry!

How far do your kids have to walk for a drink of water?  And is it clean???

The ceiling of a building at Bweya Children's Home. Would you want you kids living in this unsafe environment?  We need several mission teams of construction workers!  Sooo much repair needed...interested???

...same ceiling...

The "nursery"/ preschool classroom at Bweya Children's Home.

Chalk board made from wood and black paint.

Bedroom of Bweya Children's Home

Another bedroom at Bweya Children's Home

Do your kids work this hard for a cool drink of clean water?

A Grateful Heart

I am sitting on the porch early in the morning getting ready to write this blog. To the left of me is a young guy probably around 18 years walking about 15-20 steer, not cows, down the road to the grassy area around the corner. The area is a small square surrounded by a busy street, people walking, kids going to school and small rows of shops beginning to open. It isn't anything that we would experience in the US. Actually most everything we see and do in Uganda isn't anything we would experience in the US.


     I had the opportunity to visit with Edith and Derrick's brothers and mother yesterday. I want to share some insights with you but there will be times I am vague out of respect for them and the possibility they might read this one day. ( For those reading this for the first time Edith and Derrick were adopted from Uganda this same time last year.) They have two brothers here Eddie, age 9, and Usher, age 12.
They live with a gentleman named Abbey. Steve and I sponsor them so that they may continue to go to school. Hadija, their mother lives in a village about 45 minutes away from them. We all traveled there to visit with her and to get some additional information about Edith and Derrick's past.


    Her accommodations are a one room dwelling with a curtain for a door, no running water and no electricity. Abbey mentioned how fortunate she was in this place because she actually had a mattress to sleep on. I showed her some pictures of the kids and how much they had grown. She seemed so excited to see them and laughed at what she saw. I see so much of Edith in her. She laughs and smiles the same as her mom. I was able to gleen some invaluable information from her about the kids ancestors and their dad, Joseph, who died when Edith was 2 and three days after Derrick was born. I also was able to get a picture of him. This was a miracle as far as I was concerned considering she has been somewhat transient and at times was homeless with the kids. It was the only one she had. I hope this information will help the kids understand more of their heritage and background as they get older and have questions about where they come from. There were two things that I will share about some of the things she told me. One is that she is now a "born again" as they call it here in Uganda. She had grown up Muslim and her dad had many wives. Edith has asked several times about this and said if her mom wasn't a Christian how would she see her in heaven. I can't wait to get back and share with her that isn't a worry any longer. She will be with her biological mother in eternity.


     She also told me that a pastor has prophesied to her many years ago that Edith would not live in Uganda but go to America. I was shocked because if some of you recall the blog from Dec. 2010 tells you that when I first met Edith in the orphanage that the kids sang a traditional African song and they have to say where they are from. Edith was the youngest in this place and when they got to her after hearing all the other kids say their prospective villages she said she was from "America." This same pastor told her when Eddie was missing for some time from the home he had been sent to that he had not been sacrificed (lots of witchcraft here that involves child sacrifice) but that he would be found.


  There were any mixed emotions for me as I sat with her. She kindly refers to me as "their mom now" and I wondered how I would feel seeing her again or how she would respond to me. I feel such love and gratitude for her gift to me, but great sadness for her as I understand I've been entrusted with two children in which she gave birth. I know she's thrilled Edith and Derrick have been given an opportunity for a "better life" than what she could have provided for them.  I am thankful for her willingness in allowing me be "their mom now" and share in their lives. They're amazing children and Steve and I are blessed by them and all they teach us on a daily basis.


What a blessing it could be if contact could be maintained with Hadija for regular updates regarding the status of the children.  It's important for Edith and Derrick to continue to grow in their knowledge and appreciation for their native land such that they recognize the blessings they've been given, in order to one day "pay it forward". They are American citizens, however, their ethnicity will always be African..."Ugandans"....and this should never be forgotten.

"One Blood..."

      When I tell people that I can't wait to be in Uganda or that I miss Uganda when I am not here they seem puzzled.  The Ugandan culture is all about relationships. We were created for relationships and I believe that those of us in the Western world have forgotten. We text instead of calling, we call instead of visiting we email instead of writing a personal letter. We neglect the relationships with family and friends and chalk it up to being too busy to slow down. 

     That's the beauty of being in Uganda. Everything in this culture revolves around relationships. If a child is without a mother or father, a neighbor cares for him.  Neighbors feed neighbors when they are without food. People share what is leftover. There is little waste as food and necessities are so hard to come by. One would not dare think of throwing something out. People show up to "visit" without calling ahead of time. There are conversations going on around you everywhere. I have to admit, when I first arrive here, I am still in the western mindset. However, it doesn't take long to settle in and operate on Ugandan time. There remains a constant pace but there is no concept of time. Unlike the US, the emphasis isn't on time but on relationships.    


   When a visitor arrives word spreads quickly with no phone calls, emails or texts. Sarah and I visited the family of O'Brien, a college student that I sponsor as well as a co-laborer in Bweya village. Within moments, all of his family gathered to visit with us in a modest two room dwelling. There is no inside bathroom, kitchen or running water but none of that mattered. There was conversation, laughter, hugs, singing and dancing. They offered us, as their guest, the best of what they had....Fanta, bananas and sim sim ( baked seeds with nuts mixed in them). We may be oceans apart and may only see each other once or twice a year, but the love and sincere concern we share for one another, makes us as O'briens mom said, "one blood."

     

      

Sim Sim

     

Misc Pictures

This lady is in her late 90's. She was unable to stand from crouching so long. She only eats when someone passes by and happens to feed her. Her clothes were also soiled from her own urine. The flashes from the camera surprised and scared her.

This man was laying on the side of a very busy street. Similar to our Silas Creek Pkwy except it is also sharing traffic with many pedestrians, small children, large steer, horns blowing, yet his sleep goes uninterrupted.

These shoes are what "typical"shoes look like on most children. They are given to them or they pick up on a road or perhaps passed down from siblings. He is fortunate to not be walking barefoot. Most schools require some sort of shoes on the kids.

Sweet face of little girl in school. She is in what is called the "baby class." She has traveled by foot from a long distance (without adults) to come to class. That is very common for young children. 

This young lady was so proud of her work in Primary 6-That would be equivalent to our 5th grade.

Sweet Babies

Phase Three of God's vision for ekissa

“Also see the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile.  Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers you too will prosper.”  Jeremiah 29:7

One of the things I love about being in Uganda is, for a brief time, all the the distractions that plague us in the western world, are temporarily suspended...and when that happens, it’s as if my eyes are unveiled to the very real presence of God.  Don’t get me wrong, I experience His presence while in the US.  However, while here in Uganda, it’s as if I no longer have to search for Him...He’s everywhere; whatever my eyes fall upon, the sounds that fall upon my ears, the dark skin I touch...He’s in it all. 

This trip’s been a little different as we’ve not been engaged in direct ministry in Bweya, at least up to this point.  We’ve had meetings every day with several ministries; the staff at Bweya Children’s Home, executive staff at World Vision, and the Ugandan representative of Ugandan Orphanage Relief Fund.  Part of our time together has included moving about, to look at various projects, seeing the impact these ministries have had/ continue having, on the local people.  Everyone has been incredibly warm and free to share their successes and struggles.  What I continue to hear is, their successes have come “by the grace of God” and their struggles are addressed with “...but we’re trusting the Lord...”.   

“The one who calls you is faithful and He will do it.”  1 Thessalonians 5:24

God has shown Himself and is guiding ekissa towards it’s next project.  We’re thankful for the ways He has blessed our efforts through the purchase of land, the building of a church for the community as well as all the relationships which have been formed along the way. With the presence of the local church in Bweya, many people are being reached for the gospel and given a hope.  Instead of merely “existing”, they’re beginning to truly live.  Given the level of poverty and the economic outlook, life for the people of Uganda (Bweya Village) is grim and hopeless without God. As we all can admit, often we define our happiness, peace and joy, on our circumstances.  It is only through Christ we can have genuine, lasting peace and joy, despite circumstances.

While the focus of ekissa has always been the children/ orphans, we’re beginning to see that without going to the root of issues, we’re merely being a bandaid to the tremendous wounds in their lives.  Child sponsorship is awesome and much needed...but it’s not enough.  Many families/ single mom’s, grandparent’s, feel that in order to provide for their children, they must abandon them to strangers and orphanages. With this being their only perceived recourse, families are fragment and lives altered forever.  

“God sets the lonely in families...”---a recognition of the importance of “family”.

This being said, ekissa has been challenged over the last 3 days with addressing community needs in order to prevent the further fragmentation of the basic institution of “family”; addressing needs where everyone benefits.  We’re needing to create not just a sponsorship venue for children residing in orphanages, we need to prevent the need of children arriving to the doorsteps of orphanages to begin with.

Please continue to pray for us as we proceed in meetings and dialogues about this approach.  This would be an extremely long-term and demanding task upon which we will completely have to “trust the Lord in”.

And then God answered: "Write this. 

   Write what you see.

Write it out in big block letters 

   so that it can be read on the run.

This vision-message is a witness 

   pointing to what's coming.

It aches for the coming—it can hardly wait! 

   And it doesn't lie.

If it seems slow in coming, wait. 

   It's on its way. It will come right on time.

Habakkuk 2:2-4

Meeting with Friends...Old and New

It’s Tuesday night in Uganda and we arrived around midnight Sunday/ early Monday morning. Our 32 hour adventure from the US to Brussels to Bujumbura, Burundi was like the reality show the “Amazing Race” except there wasn’t a large cash prize at the end of our journey. There was sheer elation as we started with 6 pieces of luggage and arrived in Uganda with 6 pieces of luggage. Our first day and night was filled with no power (reason the blog is so delayed) and cold showers. Welcome to Uganda! Despite some of those small inconveniences we were both thrilled to be back on the ground in Uganda. In an odd sense I felt as if I was coming home. 

On Monday we spent the day with Moses, director of Bweya Children’s Home (BCH). He took us to a small village called Makukuba. This is a remote village way off the beaten path. Just a few statistics about Makukuba.....they have an 85% illiteracy rate especially among children, the nearest school is very far and it is quite dangerous for kids to travel by foot to school. The teachers that they do have are not trained and in a lot of cases are school drop outs themselves. The 4500 people in this community have no clean water source and no electricity. They share their watering hole with the animals. And if all that is not bad enough it is a headquarters for witchcraft so child sacrifice is rampant. We visited Makukuba because Moses has a great passion for these people and he wanted us to see a cross section of the many levels of poverty that exist. It made Bweya seem much further along in development despite the lack of infrastructure that one might assume at first glance. It was a great day of walking a new land and realizing there is so much work to be done here in Africa. The people and community of Bweya are our priority now but we are in great hopes of being able to replicate our work in Bweya to other locations in the future. 

We were invited to have lunch at the home of Moses and his family. It is quite an honor for an “outsider” to be invited into an Ugandan’s home to share a meal. Moses and his wife Naomi were so hospitable and our lunch was delicious. It was quite possibly the only meal that this family will get for the day. The lunches that are served here remind me of our long ago Sunday lunches that families shared. Every meal that is served in Uganda is a time of joy and celebration as you get the sense that they realize how fortunate they are for the meal presented. It is fun to watch them eat and enjoy! After lunch we were able to begin a dialogue with Moses regarding the potentials of partnership to facilitate community development.

This morning we had the privilege of meeting with World Vision and to learn more about their ministry and how they identify a village in “need.” Our hopes were to initiate conversation surrounding a future potential partnership. At the very least to get a glimpse of how such a large international organization functions at the local level.

Following that meeting we visited BCH (Bweya Childrens Home) and engaged in a meeting with Moses, his staff, MaryLee Bolitho and Abbey Ssentongo. It was great to be in a room with people who were in harmony about the future of Bweya. There was a lot of conversation about the needs of community development and how serving the entire community provides a more effective way of stopping the growth of homeless children. Our goal is to serve the family as a whole unit. Families in Uganda may look like a traditional US family or it may be children living with grandparents or aunt/uncles. The end result is ekissa wants the family to stay intact within their own homes. While there are thousands of orphans in Uganda, many children are simply cast out of their homes due to an inability to care for them. This seems cruel but they feel they are giving their children something greater than they can provide if they are dropped off at an orphanage. At least then they receive some type of education and at least one meal a day. During the remainder of our time we will be discussing some strategic ways to do this.

Tomorrow we will be meeting with UORF (Ugandan Orphan Relief Fund) as we have just entered into partnership with them. We will keep you updated on our progress.

Please continue to pray for wisdom, health and safety. Sarah drank milk today in tea that we were served and apparently the unpasteurized milk didn’t suit her stomach. Ugh! Little did I know that the cow I was staring out the window at was the one providing this milk for our tea. No wonder she (Elsie the cow) was glaring at us!! Days in Uganda are filled with adventure and excitement, but we love it! Will post again soon!

Love to all-Sarah and Debbie